Neural Wraith, page 21
At the same time, he’d potentially lost a major aid due to dumb corporate fuckery.
“This is a longshot, but do you think this is related to our investigation?” he asked.
“No.” Rie shook her head. “I believe this relates to your earlier questions. We believe it is unlikely that the NLF raided Tartarus, both due to their actions at the docks and their relative lack of resources. They are likely a patsy. It doesn’t matter at this point who Travis works with, but he may lead us to Helena directly.”
That was a neat enough segue, Nick supposed.
He’d been concerned that whoever had organized everything had enough pull with Aesir to do this. But that sounded like too much.
Threads remained in Nick’s mind that didn’t quite connect in the story, particularly with all the new elements.
“I think I’m narrowing in on this,” he said. “Who signed off on shutting down Tartarus?”
“The commissioner, of course,” Rie said.
Chloe frowned. “The original proposal was submitted by Chief Andrews, although the captains involved are unknown.”
“Unknown?” Nick asked.
“Given it was politically controversial, Chief Andrews chose to take full responsibility for the submission to the commissioner,” Rie clarified. “That would prevent him from taking any failure out on a captain should larger political affairs unravel.”
That was almost too reasonable, but also made a lot of sense for the sort of police chief that Andrews was portrayed as.
Nick left his next question unsaid, mostly because it couldn’t be answered.
Who had the influence and connections to fund both the NLF and a third-party to raid Tartarus? In his mind, that restricted the suspect pool to the Spires. Nobody with that sort of wealth would be working the pits in the department, when they could be lounging around in pools of inherited gold. The commissioner seemed the most likely suspect.
But those threads tugged at Nick’s mind. Why would a political appointment like Commissioner Kim actively piss off the military if he was so worried about them? Especially as he was in the middle of major procurement negotiations? Was it just because he wanted Helena for RTM?
But surely RTM had better mainframes than Helena, even if she could jumpstart their emotion engine research.
Nick realized he needed to ask the question aloud, so he did.
The Archangels tilted their heads in response. Rie was the first to answer.
“Perhaps it is not a matter of wealth?” she suggested.
Nick blinked, then scowled at himself. “A partner, then? Doesn’t that make it even harder to track? Our police suspect is working with somebody who is doing the dirty work themselves. They might not even be the primary suspect.”
“Perhaps. That is why corruption is so difficult to tackle.”
Lucas had mentioned that a smuggling company brought in foreign goods before getting shutdown.
“What about Lu Import Export?” Nick asked.
Rie shifted uncomfortably. “That investigation was closed.”
“Really?” That sounded too simple to be true.
“Mr. Lu purchased return tickets on the Pax Americana equatorial space elevator, including a false identity. The tickets were confirmed to be used to leave Earth, but attempts to pursue the false identity failed. The courts disbursed his remaining assets to creditors.” But Rie didn’t look satisfied.
“Who brought in the hot goods that Lucas spoke of?”
“… they are not accounted for in any police records.”
Well, shit.
“But can you find out—”
“It would be inadvisable for us to directly probe this matter, given how concretely it was covered up,” Rie said firmly. “Perhaps ask Lucas?”
So that was the problem. Nick frowned.
“If Lucas had a name, he’d have told us. Or at least investigated them first in the sweep,” he said. “That means the idea is either too wild, or buried beneath too many possibilities. It might be better to investigate a different source.”
“We have already trawled the Altnet for all information regarding this case. Few serious propositions were put forward, and investigating them produced no evidence,” Chloe said.
“Do you really think anyone with a brain will finger an elite in public? Good way to disappear like Lu.” Nick shook his head. “I’ll need to actually ask Ciphers. My guess is that discussions are taking place in less monitored spaces.”
The dolls collectively frowned. The idea of a “less monitored space” seemed offensive to them.
Nick sighed. “Corporate networks. Direct chat. Crazy people might even hold face-to-face conversations. But the real holy grail is in streamer chat.”
“Those are monitored. All video and audio events are processed in real time, given their use in destabilizing actions,” Chloe said. “Text chat is a matter of course, as rarely as it is used.”
He would probably be the only person using actual text chat. Everybody “spoke” using their neural implants, after all. He’d be the relic tapping away at his keyboard.
“That’s not what I’m talking about. Most Altnet streamers multi-stream. The Altnet hasn’t really penetrated outside Neo Westphalia, slices of East Asia, and the Americas. So if the streamer wants a worldwide audience, they aren’t just on the Altnet.” He shrugged. “I guarantee there are some people using that to elude you.”
“We do monitor extranet sources,” Rie said slowly. “But yes, stream chats would be too burdensome, as we don’t have power over the servers like we do with the Altnet controlled by Neo Westphalia. Do you have a way to trawl them?”
“No, but I know somebody who runs a bunch.”
It was time to tap into another of his Cipher contacts, and hope that this one didn’t cut him out.
Before he did so, he did a quick search of his usual circles on anything regarding Lu’s disappearance.
As expected, there wasn’t much chatter. A shady businessman vanishing wasn’t really Cipher stuff, even if a lot of Ciphers worked with or for shady businessmen. That, and talking about this on the Altnet could only invite trouble.
So Nick fired up a chat program and messaged a relatively new friend of his. He only knew this guy because he bought the multi-streaming equipment through Tartarus. Tech that dodged the Altnet and its monitoring net didn’t come with same-day delivery from your friendly neighborhood sales conglomerate.
Hey Sung. What’s your take on Old Man Lu’s disappearance? Nick asked, trying to be direct but vague.
Sung Jang ran security for a lot of Altnet streamers. That meant he probably got regular visits from the Archangels. The tilted heads from the dolls behind him suggested they didn’t understand why Nick was questioning Sung about this.
Which was odd, because they had to know that Sung had a neural mod that let him put memories to sleep, so that they couldn’t be easily accessed by others or even himself. If he knew anything suspicious, it was probably locked away.
First words from you after you vanish for a week, and it’s text chat. A series of groaning emoji and animated pictures flooded the window, as the app tried to process Sung’s emotions.
There were a few kinks in the connection between flat apps and neural implants.
If I put my headset on now, my defaults will kill me due to the screaming mod feeds. So?
Ah, shit. Yeah, Aesir lit the city on fire. Half my clients blew up my inbox within minutes, demanding that I stop this. I’ll go right down there and tell Aesir to stop doing dumb shit, Sung wrote. Anyway, why Lu? This have something to do with that sweep the olds are doing of Alcatraz?
The olds. Lucas is only 40.
Don’t lecture me, old man.
Nick winced. He wasn’t even 30 yet!
The giggles behind him made him question if the Archangels would call him “old man” in the near future.
Yeah, it’s connected. Whoever killed Lu is probably behind the bomb threats.
A long pause.
Huh. That raises a hell of a lot of questions. I’ll park mine about you, because they don’t really affect me in my line of work. The Archangels practically live with me, Sung wrote.
Nick turned around and stared at the Archangels sitting on his bed. For some reason, he felt the same way, but for a different reason.
You have a theory? Nick asked.
Only one really stuck. The foreign cargo that went missing supposedly matched a paper cargo manifest from the States.
People still use paper? Nick couldn’t resist interjecting.
Redundancy. Given the digital logs all vanished. Probably a good idea, Sung wrote.
Nick’s eyebrows shot up. That made a hell of a lot of sense in shipping, given the propensity of goods to “vanish.” Without a paper trail, the money might also go missing. Nick doubted many shipping companies cared about privacy more than they cared about getting paid.
And? he asked.
The company that sent the goods is owned by Jun Kim. We reckon it was full of prototype parts for their new emotion engine dolls, and Lu was the unlucky bastard who got buried to cover them up, Sung wrote.
Behind him, Rie made a noise to get his attention.
“You’ve already found something?” Nick asked.
The other Archangels were already moving. Juliet and Rosa vanished from the doorway, while Chloe took their position.
“Jun Kim,” Rie said, her expression tight. “We cannot confirm if he purchased anything from Lu Import Export, but there are multiple large factories leased by his companies—most of them are publicly used by RTM. Any of these could be an explosive factory.”
Nick stared at her, then turned back to his monitor. Another line of text had appeared in the chat.
If he’s involved in the bomb threats, that would definitely spice things up, Sung wrote.
Jun Kim was the CEO of RTM Strategic, a resident of the Spires, and the brother of Commissioner Dennis Kim.
CHAPTER 16
“I assume there’s a reason we’re responding so quickly,” Nick said as Chloe ushered him out of his bedroom.
He at least made sure to say “thanks” to Sung, before locking his computer. Then he let the dolls push him into the main room.
There, he saw Juliet and Rosa carrying his coat and gun over to him. He quickly prepared himself, although he received more assistance from them than necessary.
“I have provided the Host with the information Sung sent us,” Rie explained. “They are investigating the factories from afar and confirming with Lucas which he has already checked. Local patrols are deviating to monitor factories we deem notable.”
“Okay, that’s the sort of efficiency that Sigma sells in their marketing materials, but why do we need to get in the car right now?” Nick asked. “Because if we burst in guns blazing, that seems more likely to cause a problem than not. You held off for ages on Tartarus over operational concerns.”
“And we brought the operation forward within hours when ordered,” she said.
They left his apartment. He made sure to lock his own door, even if it was apparently unnecessary.
He’d get a physical door lock, like the chains they used in hotels, but he was pretty sure the Archangels could reach through the gap and crush one like nothing.
“The reason is that the Host knows, and that means Kushiel knows,” Rie finally said while waiting for the elevator. “If we delay, they may strike first.”
“Just like that?” Nick asked.
“The NLF are a terrorist operation. They won’t need approval to act.” She frowned. “This may seem rash to you, but this is almost slow for us. We have scenarios that require us to shut down major companies, or even a whole Spire, with less than an hour of operations planning. Minutes, in the case of major financial institutions going rogue.”
“Wait, you’d bust into a bank if it went rogue?”
“Neo Westphalia’s independence is deeply reliant on the stability of its financial, currency, and credit systems. If they were ever compromised, the military may not be able to act fast enough. As such, we would be expected to disconnect any institution from all networks and neutralize the entire company.”
That sounded a lot like “sacrifice a bank for the good of the city,” which was a surprising thing to hear from a place like Babylon. Then again, if someone’s wealth was at stake, they’d happily throw somebody else overboard to save it.
The elevator doors opened and a young woman with two young children stared out at them. Four Archangels stared back, SMGs dangling from all but one of their bodies.
“Wow, angels!” the young girl shouted. She couldn’t be older than seven.
“Archangels,” Juliet and Rosa automatically corrected.
“Can we get—” the girl started to say.
Her mother grabbed her children by the arm and dragged them away as fast as she could. Nick didn’t say anything. There wasn’t really anything he could say.
People might jeer as the Archangels stepped on somebody else from afar, but they didn’t want to be face-to-face with one themselves. They weren’t the friendly face of the department like the Liberators.
Rie and the others stepped inside the elevator as if nothing had happened. Nick followed after a moment.
“So we’re rushing in because the military might steal our prize,” Nick said. “Fair. How do we ensure we don’t mess it up?”
“Because we know how to do this, Nicholas,” Rie chided, giving him an upturned look.
Or at least, she tried to. The height difference made it look like she was trying to hide her face behind her braided bangs.
“We will narrow down the likely factories, then confirm which contain NLF members. There will be paper trails that will be perfectly obvious once we only have one or two targets, and possibly individuals we recognize entering the factory. Within an hour, we can deploy in force, establish a cordon, shut down the neural network, and hit the factory from all sides.”
Nick didn’t need to imagine it. There had been videos all over his feed from the raid on the Tartarus party, after they had been unsuppressed.
Dozens of black SUVs and vans had pulled up at once as though coordinating a music video. Then hundreds of Archangels had poured out into the building before anyone could react, and the street had filled with blinding red and blue lights.
The factory raid would involve far fewer arrests and far more railgun shots blowing holes through security bots, though. The commissioner probably wouldn’t be happy once the Altnet filled with the wreckage of G2s in the NLF plant.
Nick frowned. “Why the hell would the CEO of RTM Strategic house terrorists in his own factory? I don’t think much of the rich bastards in the Spires, but the man is CEO of the largest military robotics company in the world. There’s only so much stupidity I’ll accept.”
“He is likely a victim of fraud. The transactions involved have already been flagged for investigation, along with the associated accounts,” Chloe said. “Once the raid begins, they will be frozen and pursued.”
“This is like Tartarus. Shutting them down early will give us away, right?”
“Yes.”
But that also meant that somebody might be trying to frame RTM, or at least the commissioner’s brother.
That didn’t put Commissioner Kim in the clear, but Nick couldn’t use this as solid evidence. They could be using the factory for the NLF and relying on plausible deniability—after all, Nick had instantly dismissed the idea as incredibly stupid.
As they left the tenement, a pair of SUVs and interceptors waited outside the apartment. Six Mark 1s stood beside them. Nick spotted Twelve with them, then remembered he wanted to give her a new name.
“Wait,” he said before anyone could force him into an SUV or interceptor. “Uh…” he stumbled over his words, unsure how to call Twelve over without revealing he had named her “Twelve” or just calling her by her serial number.
Thankfully, she cottoned on and trotted over anyway. “Is something wrong, Nicholas?”
Rie and the Mark 3s looked at him. Their gazes were quite different to one another.
“Yes, actually. Yesterday, the Mark 1s said that I should assume that you represent them when there isn’t a Consensus. That makes you the voice of the Mark 1s, right?” he asked, drawing on what little biblical knowledge he actually had.
What he was about to do would probably be sacrilegious, but so was a lot of this city. They had a Spire called Axis Mundi, for fuck’s sake. Nick knew that was the name for the connection between Heaven and Earth.
Twelve nodded. “That is correct. Just as…” she hesitated, then continued, “Chloe, Juliet, and Rosa are permanently assigned to you, I hold the same position with the Mark 1s. Even if it doesn’t hold the same status outside the task force.”
“Then you get a name as well,” he said, eliciting gasps from the nearby Archangels. “If you’re the voice of the Mark 1s Archangels then that makes you Metatron. I, uh, don’t really have a shorter, cuter name like Rie’s. I’ll probably just call you Meta.”
For a moment, Nick thought Meta was going to faint. Then her eyes flashed, and the other Mark 1s flashed in response.
“The Host has… reservations,” she said.
Nick looked back at the Mark 3s behind him. Rie’s expression looked strained, but even the Mark 3s were openly annoyed.
“Why does she get a name like the prototypes?” Chloe asked snippily.
“Err, because I’m naming her in place of thousands of others. The entire task force works with me, and I strongly suspect Juliet and Rosa won’t be the last to get names,” Nick said. “Am I not allowed to call her that?”
Rie sighed. “If Sigma Robotics has a prototype planned with that name, they have yet to reveal it. They did shift to prophets with Ezekiel, in any case. If you’re borrowing from myth or religion, avoid kabbalah, however. I believe RTM use it for their prototypes, and Sigma would be disappointed if you named any of us after the sefirot.”
“Half the companies in the city use the sefirot for their mainframe names,” Nick said drily. “Ironically, giving you normal names probably makes you stand out more.”
