Neural Wraith, page 22
Meta made a cute noise, and he turned back to her. “The Host has reached a consensus. My name is accepted following your explanation.”
“Great.” Now Nick felt better for calling her Twelve earlier. “Are we heading straight to the factory or…”
“We’ll discuss this on the way,” Rie said, eying the vehicles. “It may be easier to take the SUVs.”
Without a word, the interceptors closed their doors and rocketed off. The Mark 1s, save Meta, piled into their SUV. Everybody else slipped into the remaining one. Meta sat opposite Nick, while Chloe and Rie sandwiched him. He considered it good design that the vehicle still felt quite roomy.
The vehicle took off silently. The streets flew past. The trip to Alcatraz was fairly short from his home, but he suspected they’d take a roundabout route. Rie had said it would take an hour to confirm their target, after all.
Nick’s gun felt heavy against his waist. He sincerely doubted he’d need to fire it. In fact, he doubted anyone in this vehicle would let him get close to firing it. They’d probably stage another intervention if that happened.
For a dark moment, he wondered if this SUV could stand up to that anti-materiel rifle he’d heard at the docks. Then he remembered that it could. The specs of the police vehicles got leaked a few years ago.
These things were basically tanks and had all the toys to prove it. The windows were made of a transparent ceramic, and the rest of the body was built from materials that would be top of the line save for the dolls sitting inside it. The Archangels were military dolls built for police duty, and Sigma had spared no expense.
Not to mention that these things even had reactive armor and built-in electronic countermeasures. Rumor had it that some newer models even had automated projectile countermeasures as well, in case somebody fired a missile or hurled a grenade at one.
“Have the SUVs ever used any of their heavier duty countermeasures?” he asked aloud.
That was probably the wrong question to ask out of the blue. The vacant eyes of the Archangels returned to reality and quickly shrouded with concern.
“Many times, but not often,” Rie said. “The concern is less our safety, but that of anyone we are escorting inside them. The interceptors can’t be built for that level of protection, and the personnel vans are too large to easily secure without becoming too large for many of the roads.”
“So you tricked out the SUVs.”
“We did. They are rated for safety against everything except energy weapons typically used by militaries. Given we heavily restrict civilian trade of those, they remain a low danger.”
He nodded. The number of times an energy weapon had been used was low enough that he struggled to remember. Somebody had gone nuts with a kitted-out civilian cutter in his teen years, but most of the casualties had been caused by his jury-rigged reactor exploding.
“Is the department importing any energy weapons now that the Mark 3s can use them?” he asked.
“Unlikely. Any threat that requires their use is something for the military to handle. Unless we expect the NLF, or future revolutionaries, to deploy warbots capable of deflecting railgun rounds in the future.” Rie smirked.
Another minute passed. “So, are we circling?” he finally asked. Another pair of SUVs had joined them. All their sirens were off.
“We have narrowed our targets down to just two. NLF members are present at both, but we suspect that only one is the factory,” Chloe explained.
“Why not raid both?”
“If they have two, they may have more. We are cross-referencing with all data we have on traffic patterns, neural activity data, shipments, financial information—”
“I get it. You’re virtually upending the city in order to find any other major bases they have, because if we hit them now, they’ll scatter,” Nick said.
Rie smiled. “You do make for a good detective.”
“This is just filling in the dots.” He narrowed his eyes. “By the time we arrive, it’ll all be over bar the screaming.”
“Maybe.”
“What if that’s too late? Couldn’t the military override you and seize the sites, and the evidence with them?” he asked. “What if you’re not able to find everything you need?”
Rie’s eyes narrowed, but she didn’t say anything. Nick took this as an opportunity to push further.
“There’s more to getting into a mainframe than just brute force or security bands. If they have Helena, I can override anything they’ve done. As for any other mainframes, I still might be able to help.” Might was the keyword.
Nick was stretching the truth a little here. Getting into mainframes was usually a matter of known backdoors or hardware workarounds. He had access to a catalog of the former, but none of the latter. And the Archangels theoretically had the former, if they paid enough attention to the right Cipher circles.
“Perhaps,” Rie said slowly.
“The Host disagrees with this,” Meta said. “Placing Nicholas in danger—”
“A compromise, then,” Rie said, looking between Meta and Nick. “If the initial strike force finds Helena or a mainframe they can’t secure, we’ll deploy early. And in force. Otherwise, you’re happy to wait until the screaming is done, Nicholas?”
He nodded. If Helena wasn’t there, he didn’t really care to hear a bunch of people be gunned down in the background fighting for a hopeless cause.
Their SUVs entered Alcatraz soon enough. Despite the name, it was a fairly neat looking place. It was a mixed industrial and commercial district, with a smattering of hotels on the fringes. As it was still morning, half the businesses remained closed. A lot of suits walked the streets, popping in and out of tiny shops run by dolls.
If they noticed the police vehicles, they ignored them. Police raids and patrols were a fact of life here. They blended into the background, just like the bullet holes in the wall of your favorite coffee shop. Far too many people openly carried weapons. Security dolls kept watch on street corners and from loading docks, and they were often painted in garish colors.
Alcatraz was the chaotic underbelly of Neo Babylon. Some would call it seedy, but Nick considered the whole city seedy. Alcatraz represented a slice of the city where the veneer of civility had been peeled back, and the utter chaos that tied everything together seeped through.
Before the Archangels, it had also seeped into neighboring districts a lot more often. These days, Alcatraz mostly kept to itself. Firing a gun on the wrong side of a street could get one’s nervous system shutdown and life ruined in a single, deafening moment.
Nick didn’t see any sign of a factory. But he supposed they were keeping their distance for now.
Minutes passed in silence. He tried to pass the time on his phone, but found that his nerves made it impossible. Instead, he simply stared out the window.
“We’re starting,” Chloe suddenly said. “We will be temporarily suppressing this on the Altnet.”
Just like that, police SUVs, vans, and interceptors roared to life near them. The previously quiet streets filled with the rush of dozens of vehicles flying through them faster than humans could safely navigate. Blue and red lights flashed off the towering skyscrapers and glossy paintwork.
The sirens were eerily silent, as Nick lacked the neural implant to hear them.
But he knew everyone on the streets heard them. Office workers dropped coffees in shock, security dolls froze on the spot, and the general populace stared in shock as a second massive police raid barreled into Alcatraz in under a week.
A message popped up on Nick’s phone, and he didn’t need to look to know it was from Lucas.
“I think your suppression isn’t working as well this time,” he said.
The dolls frowned.
“There are no videos or discussions about the raid taking place,” Chloe said.
“Lucas knows about it. That means Cipher circles know.”
Chloe paused, then rolled her eyes. “Suppressed. It is annoying that trivial wordplay like you used in your text chat earlier can avoid our suppression systems.”
Nick snorted. “So some of the Ciphers working with Lucas were waiting for something to happen. Do you think the NLF know?”
“Almost certainly,” Rie said. “If they have neural mods as complicated as theirs, they must surely have a dead man’s switch that alerts other cells when the neural network goes down. It is unfortunate we were unable to locate any other major operations.”
Within a minute, the police sirens faded away. The locals returned to their business as if nothing had happened, although they looked far more animated. Suspicious looks were thrown at the convoy Nick was in.
“So, what’s resistance like?” Nick asked a little while later.
“Light. Your suspicion is certainly correct that they did not raid Tartarus,” Rie said, drumming her fingers on his thigh as if it were the door. “Fanatics are dangerous, but beliefs tend to wilt against the power of a bullet. What I expected were customized G2s, improvised anti-armor munitions, anti-doll weaponry. Not, not…” She gestured at the air angrily.
The frustration in Rie’s expression and tone was practically palpable.
“I can’t see what you’re seeing, Rie. You need to use your words,” Nick said.
“A pathetic collection of explosives, fewer security bots than most black companies use in the average war, and nothing capable of even scratching our paint, much less penetrating our armor,” Chloe summarized. “They’re not even using a mainframe. Which might explain why it was so hard to find them.”
“In either factory?”
“One wasn’t a factory.” Rie ground her knuckles into her temples. “The other building had been converted into offices. They were playing with terminals there, but the Cipher work there was… primitive. I don’t know how to describe it.”
“It might be better if I see it for myself,” he said.
“Oh, you will,” Rie said darkly. “Because we found Travis there. We can soundly answer that question of yours, and not the way I hoped. He’s NLF, and likely dumber than I thought.”
CHAPTER 17
The NLF factory looked like a large beige box, nestled between numerous other beige boxes of extremely similar shape. This little area was like a miniature industrial zone within Alcatraz.
Babylon didn’t have restrictive zoning laws, so this was the work of the market. While commercial and industrial projects were kept out of specific districts, anything went within the district. That’s how the red light doll district had snuck into the city itself, while Alcatraz was firmly in the outer metro. Money shaped the city.
Dozens of police vehicles surrounded the factory. SUVs, interceptors, and bulky armored vans formed a physical blockade, which was only reinforced by the gun-toting Archangels in front of the vehicles. There wasn’t a Liberator or Custodian in sight.
A lot of railguns and heavy shotguns were, however.
Police drones maintained an aerial cordon, but the air was surprisingly free of press drones or amateur photographers.
Nick’s convoy drove up to the blockade. A crowd of gawkers watched on in eerie silence, no doubt chatting up a storm on the Altnet.
After a moment, the Archangels cleared the way and the convoy slipped through. The gap closed just as fast as it opened.
“Judging from the lack of wreckage, I’m guessing they didn’t put up much of a fight,” Nick said, peering out the window.
“The G2s appeared to be restricted to the building interior,” Chloe replied.
That would limit damaging footage of RTM dolls blown apart on the streets of Alcatraz. The convoy pulled up outside a series of open roller doors, which opened up to reveal empty concrete loading docks.
“Were they unloading everything by hand?” he asked.
“Perhaps. This building was used as an office and has significantly less inside it than the other one. They had simple cargo bots there.”
That made a lot more sense than what he’d been thinking.
Up until now, the Archangels had been patrolling and lurking around the exterior of the building in pairs. None of them clustered up. But the moment the convoy stopped, more than a dozen of them rushed over.
The door opened, but Nick didn’t even have a chance to put his foot on the ground before several Mark 1s formed a protective bubble in front of him. He stepped out, followed by the others.
The Mark 1s swiveled their heads rapidly, watching every angle. All of his new escorts carried anti-doll weaponry, and he spotted a ballistic shield strapped to the backs of a couple. The other convoy members left their vehicles with similar armaments.
When he looked back, he saw that Rie was still in the vehicle. The seats slipped back into a reclining position as she clicked the safety off an SMG and hopped outside.
“Things are finally serious enough that you’ll carry a firearm,” he noted.
“This is an active situation still. I would prefer not to be the reason that you get shot,” she said primly.
Nick nodded, then drew his Lawman. As before, it felt damn heavy. He sincerely hoped he wasn’t going to be shooting anyone with this. And especially not Travis.
Even if he had screwed over Tartarus, putting a bullet in a former co-worker wasn’t the sort of thing Nick felt he had in him. He liked being able to sleep at night.
They approached the roller doors inside this protective bubble of destruction. Nick looked further afield, aware of what had gone wrong last time.
Past the flying cordon of police drones were more Archangels. They walked on the rooftops of nearby buildings, carrying large rifles. All avenues seemed to be covered, save somebody flying a jet.
Nick wondered if the railguns and neural implants of the police dolls could handle even that.
Right before they entered the factory, he stopped and frowned at the logo emblazoned along the side of the building.
“It’s public knowledge who owns this building,” he said.
“It can be looked up in public databases,” Chloe said. “We are suppressing information about the connection between RTM Strategic’s CEO and the NLF for now. The financial transactions are being investigated. Once fraud is confirmed, then we will inform the commissioner and allow him to break the story to the press as he chooses.”
“You mean if it’s confirmed,” Nick said.
Chloe stared at him.
Rie smiled wanly. “If Jun Kim is directly involved with the NLF, it is safe to say that this will be a very… interesting investigation. While the Host is conducting simulations on this”—she shot a meaningful gaze at Chloe and Meta—“I believe we should cross that bridge if it comes.”
“It probably won’t,” he admitted, then tried to step forward.
Rie held him back by his arm. “While that is the more serious scenario, this is still quite grave. Whoever is responsible is directly targeting the Spires, a major company that owns and controls much of Neo Westphalia, and a highly respected individual. You will be asked to directly report on what happened today.”
Shit.
“Report about everything?”
“Our reports are comprehensive,” Chloe said.
“I’d prefer if you left Sung out.” Nick didn’t like the idea that this might paint a target on his back.
“Very well. He is a newer informant and could do with protection. I would still prefer for you to worry more about yourself,” Rie said, furrowing her brow. “I am serious. We haven’t found the evidence we need, but the stakes are higher than ever. We must—”
Nick held up a hand. “I get it. If I didn’t know this was your first ever real assignment, I’d know now. You remind me a little of when I was first doing real work for Welk, and I’d flip out over all the crazy deadlines he’d give me. Important people always want everything yesterday. But sometimes they just want to be told that it can wait until tomorrow.”
Rie stared at him for several long seconds. Her gaze genuinely unnerved him.
“Is that how you normally approached executives in Tartarus?” she asked.
“It’s how Welk approached Sigma,” Nick said drily. “Every time the military breathed down their neck, they’d breathe down his. He firmly believed that deadlines exist to motivate people. That you probably weren’t behind if you didn’t meet one, but that you just needed to recalibrate.”
She sighed, then ran a hand through her hair. “I believe that might count as lying.”
“You live in a city that relies on a bunch of pseudo-legal companies. I think you can stretch the truth a little in the interest of your job, Rie.” He raised an eyebrow. “I thought you said lying wasn’t against your parameters.”
“To you? No. To our employer? Our directives make it significantly harder.”
“I’m a detective and I don’t count?”
Rie smiled sweetly at him. “Oh, Nicholas. You’re my partner. And don’t partners lie to protect each other all the time?”
Nick felt as though he’d put off maintenance on the Archangels a little too long, from how Rie described their directives. Would she even let him look at hers?
Part of him worried that he’d create several thousand Lumens and be stuck doing maintenance 8 hours a day, seven days a week.
Finally, they stepped inside the factory itself.
Wreckage was strewn across the expansive space. The factory was small compared to those near the docks, but large enough that the absence of heavy machinery was notable. An empty building felt terrifyingly large.
The remains of dozens of G2s had been clumped together in two large piles. Smaller pieces crunched beneath Nick’s boots as he slowly trudged toward the only signs of life here: a dozen handcuffed NLF members.
“We avoided neural warfare,” Chloe said. “Even if we did find an opening, all it would do is trigger the self-destruct function.”
Archangels stood watch, fingers on triggers. Two Mark 3s stood guard outside a door at the far end of the building.
Nick noticed there were more doors down that end. The offices Rie spoke of must be there, although there weren’t more than seven or eight small rooms.
