Shell Game, page 11
part #15 of The Last Hunter Series
McDonald laughed. “You win. Now, go get Mom or Dad so that we can talk before I come aboard. I’ve got a lot to tell you.”
14
Lisa spent the rest of the day getting a good look around the station, figuring out exactly where the government offices were located and how to access their computer networks without being obvious about it. Admittedly, it wasn’t easy, and someone who hadn’t done this for a living would’ve found it troublesome, but she knew how this worked, and with some judicious risk-taking, it wasn’t difficult to get an idea of which maintenance areas would give her the access she required.
Patrick was more patient than she’d expected and simply followed her around while providing a second pair of eyes to make sure no one was paying any attention to them. He didn’t offer any suggestions, seeming content to observe her process. She hoped that if she was about to make some terrible error, he’d actually speak up, but this was Patrick.
The man was infuriating in many ways, and trying to figure out how he went about living his life and doing his work was difficult because he didn’t talk about it. Observing him in action would help her, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to follow him on an assassination.
She’d killed people and had sometimes done so in a way that could be arguably interpreted as premeditated. That didn’t mean she wanted to plan out and then execute an operation that resulted in the death of someone. Patrick might be a professional killer, but she wasn’t him. No matter what he wanted her to become, it was her decision, and she wasn’t going to be rushed into something she would hate.
Of course, trying to convince him to give up that lifestyle might be difficult. People changed when they had a reason to do so. Anyone who believed that they could alter how someone else felt or acted was deluding themselves. Change came from within, and unless Patrick decided to set aside being an assassin, nothing anyone else did would matter.
There would be a time to talk with him about that, and she’d been thinking about it since they’d met on Faust. That conversation would happen over the next couple of days, but while they were working wasn’t the appropriate time.
His idea of gaining access to the maintenance passageways by wearing coveralls similar to those worn by maintenance workers and holding a clipboard seemed to be daring, yet it worked like a charm. Getting official maintenance coveralls wasn’t difficult at all. Working inside these passages out of sight was dirty work, and people liked to change into something less grungy before they headed away, so there were laundry sites where people could get rid of soiled work clothes and pick up something fresh. All she had to do was go into one of those and get her and Patrick some brand-new coveralls in the appropriate sizes.
Fully outfitted and ready to look like inspectors of some kind, they made their way into the maintenance areas around the government offices, where she was able to locate a series of computer cables and trunks that she could plug into. She bypassed the first four that she ran into because they were too public and finally found one in a side corridor that didn’t look like it had been traveled much.
Away from any prying eyes, she plugged one of her tablets into the network and began searching for security programs that she needed to avoid or disable. There was the usual run-of-the-mill government security, but it wasn’t difficult to work her way around it. If she had to guess, no upgrades have been made since the oligarchs were in control.
There were plenty of holes in the software because the necessary patches hadn’t been applied, and she was able to get through all the security and into the firewalls that normally protected the computers from outside access. Once she’d done so, worming her way through that and getting into the network proper only took her another ten minutes.
“I’m in,” she said quietly. “It doesn’t look like they’ve updated the security protocols since they took control. The bureaucrats working for the oligarchs didn’t have anything special here either. Is there anything specific that you’d like to see other than the location of where these prisoners are? Since I’m in, I can help gather whatever you need, or we can plug a tablet in for you, and you can search for yourself. Your call.”
He considered that for a moment and then made a gesture for her to give him a tablet. “I believe it would be more efficient for us to work on our separate tasks in parallel. If we can get the data we need and get out of here in a shorter period of time, there is less chance of us being interrupted. I hate interruptions when I’m working.”
“I’ll bet.” She pulled another tablet out of her satchel, plugged it into the network, worked it through the security overlay that she’d already penetrated, and then handed it to him. “I’ve already got you through everything, so all you need to do at this point is search for whatever you’re looking for. If you run into something that looks like it might have more security, interrupt me and let me get through it.”
“This has the program from the kingdom loaded on it? If so, there’s no need. I assure you that I’m quite conversant in getting through standard security with this kind of setup. While I acknowledge that you are a far better hacker than I am, I’m not going to be getting into anything that’s worthy of too much security. You work on your task, and I’ll work on mine.”
“Okay. If we have to run out of here because you’ve tripped some security alarm, I’ll never let you hear the end of it.”
“I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Leaving him to his work, she began going through the system, looking for references to the secret police or other interior security networks that she could access. They would have a completely separate setup for their use, but they would need access to the main government networks to do their work, and if she could locate some of those patches, she could work her way back to get the data she needed and perhaps even some information that Patrick would approve of.
He’s an assassin. He’s undoubtedly compiling a list of people that he could take care of that would disrupt their operations.
A little. Even so, I doubt very seriously that he’s going to kill anyone here that doesn’t deserve it. That’s part of the conversation I intend to have with him. If I’m going to work with him going forward, we have to have some ground rules. I’m not comfortable killing people for money, but even though these people are enemies of the Confederation, some of them don’t deserve to be murdered in their sleep.
Where did you hear that phrase? The idea that he would know what friends with benefits were was very amusing.
You’re not wrong, but I have to confess that I’m nervous about how that will be received. Part of me wants to have more, and if I lay down those kinds of rules, he might walk away.
He wasn’t wrong, and it wasn’t something that she’d given too much thought to. Their situation was pretty much written in stone, and her options were to accept that compromises would have to be made or go crazy. She wasn’t going to be able to get rid of him, though if that regeneration continued, that might not be true at some point in the future. Even so, she’d grown used to having him with her and was willing to make the compromises necessary for it to work. He was a good companion.
Patrick was a different story. He was willful and significantly older than her, so he was set in his ways. He wasn’t going to want to change. He would instead try to change her, and that’s where they would run into trouble.
I’ll think about it. He and I will have to discuss this before much longer and I’ll run that up the flagpole and see if he salutes. My fear is that he’ll give lip service to wanting to compromise and then prove obstinate when the rubber meets the road. I’ll have to be a hard case if that happens.
Unwilling to compromise. Obstinate in my own right. If I draw a line of what’s acceptable behavior and he crosses it, he’s going to get the metaphorical punch to the nose. Maybe even an actual punch, but that’s something for the future. Right now, I think I found what we’re looking for.
The extra security she’d found was centered around an external communications line. The fact that it was preventing access from the government side and not the other way around told her that it was probably the kind of thing she was interested in. Whether it was the secret police or someone else, whatever they were doing would be interesting, and she wanted to see what was on the other side of the firewall.
Taking her time, she probed the security and found many of the expected tripwires and security programs that she’d found with the secret police back on Faust. Not all of them, though. And there were additional programs and security that the other secret police had not had. On the whole, she’d have to say that the protective nature here was probably one level greater than what the secret police had utilized.
Even so, that didn’t stop her from getting in. Once she was on the other side and traced the line back to its source, she found she hadn’t found the secret police at all. Rather, she’d found a back door installed into the system by someone senior in the Poseidon Group. As she didn’t know all the players here, she wasn’t certain if this was the governor. If it wasn’t, it was someone in her clique.
“I found something,” she said. “Not the secret police. I think this is actually something you would be more interested in than I am. I broke into a set of computers that were tapped into the government network, but it looks like someone high up in the Poseidon Group. Want to trade tablets?”
He immediately proffered the tablet he was holding to her. She exchanged with him, and the two of them got back to work without saying anything. It took her another fifteen minutes to locate the taps she’d known would be there for the secret police and work her way through into their computers.
Once she’d done so, it was easy enough to find out who they’d taken prisoner and what they’d done with them. Unfortunately, a number of them had been executed, but there was also a significant group that had been imprisoned. Not on board the station, though. The secret police had taken over a nearby satellite station and were using it as their headquarters and prison.
That would be problematic. While it was certainly possible to get into that kind of facility, it wouldn’t be easy to do so without being discovered. Even so, she could already tell that this was not all of the information the secret police had. It couldn’t be. Everything she could access was relatively general, and she knew that they had a habit of keeping substantially more sensitive information based on what she’d been able to pull out of the computer systems on Faust.
That meant that there were computers on that station that were not connected to this network, and if she wanted what was in them, she’d have to access them directly. For the kind of work that she intended to do, that might not be necessary, but Patrick would need it. If there were holes in their security and the identities of the kind of people he wanted to question and/or eliminate were compiled anywhere, that’s where the secret police would keep it.
She pulled out the data she thought was useful and made sure to nail down the physical location of where the satellite station was before she withdrew from the computer network entirely, erasing all traces of her access as she went. Only once she was fully out and had disconnected her tablet from the system did she turn and see what Patrick was up to.
It looked like he was working more slowly than she, but he was taking the time to peruse some files on the computer she’d discovered. She didn’t really want to interrupt him, but it was time to let him know what she’d found.
“I know where the secret police are operating out of,” she said. “It’s a satellite station, and that’s where they keep their prisoners. I could access some of the information, but not all of it. If we want everything they’ve got, we’ll have to go there in person.”
“I’m not sure that we need to,” he said. “The computer you found belongs to the chief assistant to the governor. The governor isn’t on the space station, but she’s put one of her followers here to run things in her place while she takes care of operations on the other side of the system. I suppose that’s necessary with such a dispersed area of operations. I say that we deal with this one first, and then, if we still need information, we can talk about hitting the secret police. The kind of operation you’re considering would be significantly more dangerous than what I have in mind.”
She pursed her lips and held out her hand. “Give me the tablet, and let’s get the hell out of here. I want to talk about this, but not here. I’m not saying that I disagree, but I want to hear you make your pitch.”
He nodded and handed her the tablet. “Fine by me. I could use lunch and these coveralls are itchy.”
Lisa withdrew his tablet from the network, put it away, and followed him as they began extracting themselves from the maintenance area. He was undoubtedly right, but that didn’t mean she wanted to be part of an assassination or even torture. Nevertheless, it looked like that was what was going to happen. One way or the other, she supposed she’d find out whether this relationship would work out in the next twenty-four hours.
15
Derek hid his grin behind his hand when they docked the cutter to the prospecting ship, and the family swarmed Chief Petty Officer McDonald. He didn’t have any brothers and sisters of his own, but he’d seen plenty of rambunctious family groups where the love was strong, and this definitely qualified.
Admiral Romanoff had decided to keep the greeting party small, so they’d only brought McDonald and Mac Turner with them. That way, there wouldn’t be any fear that they would be there to take everything over in some kind of ambush. It was always better to make sure not to put potential allies off their game when you were trying to make friends.
All of them were still dressed in civilian clothes, though he suspected it wouldn’t take very much for them to realize they were military. They wouldn’t have an opportunity to try and figure it out for themselves because Admiral Romanoff would lay that out for them almost immediately.
Once the initial greetings for the family member were done, an older man who was part of the greeting party turned his attention to the admiral. He made the assumption—correctly—that Romanoff was the one that needed to be talked to.
He extended his hand. “Welcome aboard. I’m Edward McDonald, owner-operator of the Bangkok Hauler. Will is my son. Who might you be?”
“Jack Romanoff,” the admiral said, shaking the other man’s hand. “I’m your son’s commanding officer, in an indirect sort of way. I’m the senior officer in command of the battleship division of the Confederation Navy. I appreciate you taking the time to meet with us even though we popped up out of nowhere.”
McDonald shook his head slightly as they finished shaking hands. “That’s the damnedest thing I’ve ever seen. I could look out the port and see your cutter approaching, but according to the instruments, it wasn’t there. That’s got to be some high-tech equipment you’ve got there. I feel like I should know what your rank is, and I’m assuming it’s fairly high.”
“Admiral,” Romanoff said. “There’s no need to stand on ceremony, especially since you’re not in the Navy, though. Allow me to introduce my associates. This young man here is Derek Calvo. He’s the commanding officer of one of our battleships because of his exceptional skills and the fact that we didn’t have a lot of choice in promoting people to fill the roles we needed filled. That’s one of the reasons your son is a chief petty officer rather than an able spacer. My other companion is Mac Turner. He’s the general in command of the Marines aboard one of our ships. Like I said, there’s no need to stand on ceremony, so let’s just stick with first names since I’d like us to be friends.”
“You’ll get no argument from me, Jack. Call me Ed. This is my wife Patricia, and you’ve already met at least one of my sons remotely. Believe me, he’s going to be hearing about breaking our communications protocols, so I hope he’s ready for some grungy chores to make him remember what I tell him to do next time.”
The young man who had been on the prospector’s bridge hung his head, but he didn’t look too overly upset. Undoubtedly, this family knew how one another worked, and Derek wasn’t about to get himself involved in that particular mess. They could figure out what needed to be done on their own without his opinion.
Edward gestured for them to join him deeper in the ship, and they wended their way through the clean corridors to a galley. The ship wasn’t as well maintained as the battleships were now, but it was obvious the necessary maintenance and cleaning was done without unnecessary frills for a civilian. These were people who cared about their vessel, and it showed.
