RETALI8ION: The Cobalt Code (4 page)

“I'm here,” Regina said softly, waiting for a response.

“Natali8! How have you been, girly?” asked a voice on her headset.

“Not bad, how about you, Ur2L8?” Regina replied in kind.

“Way better than you, but we can catch up later.  Right now I've got some info to cram into your ear holes,” Amina replied.

“Go ahead,” Regina said.

“That suit was talking to someone.  I got in touch with a few friends in the area to see if they knew anything about a communications disturbance in the area.  Followed a few leads, decrypted a few channels worth of info, and then I hit the jackpot.  And you'd never be able to guess who it was.”

“Surprise me,” Regina replied.

“Koeul Hak-kun,” Amina said proudly.

“You were right.  I'd never be able to guess that,” Regina stated dully.  “Don't get me wrong.  I understand that it probably took a fancy bit of work to figure out who it was.  But who the hell is Koeul Hak-kun?”

“Does the name Koto Daniels ring any bells?  Hak-kun is his personal assistant,” Amina replied.

“The PM?  The fracking prime minister of this region?  You're blowing me?  You have to be.” retorted Regina.

“Well no, I'm not.  Not for lack of trying though, if you remember.  But yes, the
teme
himself.  Mr. Koto Daniels.”

“Holy shit,” Regina replied, dropping her tablet to the table.  “Oh, fuck me.  How the hell did this happen?  What the hell does the prime minister need with something like that?”

“That, my dear, is the fifteen million dollar question now, isn't it?” Artemis asked.

“Please don't.  There is probably an Enforcer squad storming this building as we speak.  You could at least tell me why I'm going to be gunned down here in the Red Room.  It's so the blood won't show, isn't it?”

“No sign of Enforcers yet, kiddo,” came another voice from Regina's headset.

“Grendal!  How's my favorite fracking gunhead doing today?” Regina asked as though she'd just talked with him yesterday.  At this point, nothing was going to surprise her.

“Not bad.  Not bad.  I was actually hoping to run into a few of your Enforcer friends tonight.  They tend to be harder to kill than most, and I figure they'll show up sooner or later,” Grendal said happily.

“Hope you brought that armored suit you're always talking up,” Regina said, matching Grendal's tone.

Grendal reached down and knocked loud enough so everyone on the comm channel could hear the metallic thuds.  “You know I did.”

“Of course.  Why wouldn't you?” Regina replied.

“I know, right!” Grendal yelled back.

“Right,” Thomas chimed in.

Regina took in a deep breath, and let it out slowly.  “Alright, the gang’s all here.  Might I ask a few more questions since we have a little time here?”

“Goferit,” Yosha replied.

“First off, I have to assume that they were tracking my movements from the moment their face man made contact with me about the job.  It was probably easy to assume that I'd say yes, simply based on the amount of money they were offering.  So, since I arrived at the hotel two days prior to the job, I'm also assuming that the moment I checked in to my dummy room, they started checking the Enforcers in slowly.  They came in wearing their civvies, and had their riot gear stashed away in their luggage.  Does that sound like I'm on the right track?”

“You're on it like an Adderall popper in the old Silicon V,” replied Yosha.

“Sounds about right so far,” Artemis said.

“I'd wager while my equipment was being delivered on day one, that they had plenty of time to get this done without me being able to set up surveillance yet.  Afterwards, they just had to play it safe, go out every so often to grab a meal, and just sit around waiting for the call tonight.”  Regina reached over and started giving Thomas a loving pet, making sure to scratch behind the ears.  “And all that makes sense.  At least as far as how I got caught so off guard by the Enforcers.  But, that took a lot of planning.  A lot of planning by people with the power and influence, and most importantly, the motivation, to do so.”

“See, Art.  I told you the old CCT didn't need us to figure this out,” said Grendal over the comm.

Regina took in another deep breath.  “So, not to sound overly cliché.  But there really isn't any other way to ask this, so I'll just splack it out,” Regina said in a calm voice.  “The question is 'why'?  Why would the prime minister need to go to those lengths to make sure I was gone after getting the file he wanted off of MPHarm's servers?  I mean, I would literally have just given it to them.  That's exactly what I was being hired to do for them, right?” Regina asked.

No response came.  They all seemed to be waiting for Regina to continue.

“Right.  So please, oh wonderful comrades, tell me what could have initiated one of the most well-planned cover ups I've ever seen?” Regina said, throwing her hands up in a futile display.

“Money.  Well, money and the upcoming elections this November,” Artemis stated bluntly.

Regina sat for a few moments, hoping for more information, but none immediately was offered.  She then made a motion with her hands to indicate she wanted additional details.

Yosha spoke up.  “Remember those contributions files you pulled from the MPHarm servers?  Yeah, it looks like Daniels' biggest, and really only opponent Miriam O'Connell, is on their list, and she's scheduled to receive quite a large sum for her campaign next month.”

“That's it?  This asshole just wanted to ruin a company's finances by making these drug components and instructions public, or maybe just to have the info and threaten them in order to drop their funding of Miriam?  Either way that would have went, he just wanted to make sure that the 'vicious' hacker responsible was killed in the act thanks to 'our protectors' the Enforcers.  Which would obviously give the local Chief a boost in popularity just in time to endorse a particular PM who is running for re-election in a few months,” Regina said, as she raised her hands in a surrendering motion.  “All of this was one neat little package, and I was supposed to be the pretty little satin bow on top of it all, huh?”

“That's pretty close to what we've come up with,” said Amina.

Regina folded her arms on top of the table, then let her head fall onto them.  “At least I know why they didn't hit my dummy terminal now.”

“No time for that.  We need a plan,” Artemis stated.

“That we do,” Yosha echoed.

Regina sat up, and started massaging her temples, and thought for a few moment.  “Let's take him down.”

“Hoooo!” came a shout from Grendal.

“It's one thing to play the political game of lies and slander.  But it's another game entirely when you start killing people and put other innocent lives in jeopardy for those gains.”

“Do you want me to get an info package for the press started?” Amina asked.

“No.  Wait, I take that back.  Yes, but don't send it out until after we've sent out our own special pirate package first,” Regina replied.

“What do you have in mind?” asked Artemis.

Regina smiled cockily.  “I say we go pull everything he has.  Not just about this.  About everything.  Find every little lie.  Pull out every little mistruth.  Go through the phone calls.  Locate every missing or misappropriated dollar, yen, or euro.  Maybe even find the sex vids he keeps hidden from his wife.  Then we make it public.  All of it.”

“Sounds good.  I'm in,” Yosha said enthusiastically.

“Me too,” Amina replied.

“I'm with ya, kid,” came Grendal's reply.

“I was already on board,” Artemis said with a smile.

“We'll need a place to work from.  Somewhere with strong net access, and an escape route in case things turn bitter.  A somewhat defensible location would be nice, too.  Oh, and some equipment.  I had to fry mine a few hours ago,” Regina said, as the rush she had felt earlier that evening re-ignited.

“Hey guys,” Grendal said, interrupting the comm line.  “I'm glad the Avengers are assembling and all that happy horse
fakku
.  But I'm seeing two, possibly three squads’ worth of SecFor lamebrains headed towards the building.  Now might be a good time to bug out.”

“Don't worry, I know a way out the back and through the tunnels.  It will take them a while to figure out where we are, or better yet, were, in this building, and even longer to work out how we escaped,” Artemis said as both he and Yosha stood up.

“More run?” Thomas asked, licking his lips over the now clean plate.

“More run,” Regina echoed as she got up from the table.

-4-

The sound of something heavy being dropped to the ground woke Regina from the nap she was taking.  She raised her head from her rolled-up trench coat, and looked over to see what had caused the commotion.  There she saw Grendal drop out of an armored suit that was leaning over a large broken crate.

“Sorry, kid.  Didn't mean to wake you,” Grendal said noticing Regina was looking his way.

Regina waved at him to dismiss the thought.  She thought she had slept long enough.  “You finally swap out that old Mitsu unit for something a bit bigger?”  Regina asked, motioning to the nearly four-meter tall moss colored armored suit.

Grendal looked up from the broken crate he was inspecting, towards the armored suit.  “What? That piece of
kuso
!  Hell naw!  That's just a mover that Amina modified with some armor and two small guns.  It ain't worth half as much as my Mitsu, and can't deal even a quarter of the damage.”

Regina took a moment to study Grendal.  It didn't look like he'd changed a bit.  He was still wearing green colored camouflage pants, the same ones he'd probably been wearing the last time she'd seem him, she thought.  He still kept his hair in a short buzz cut, and he still spoke English with that rough German accent of his.  She always thought that would taper off over time, especially with all the interactions and conversations they had had over the years, but it never had.

“You talking shit about my suit again, M80?” came Amina's voice from a doorway on the other side of the room.

“Yeah, it's a bunch of crap plastic pieces assembled from three different countries, that barely manages to perform its primary function acceptably,” Grendal retorted.  “Now if you’re through trying to defend that pile of plastic crap, why don't you come over here and help me.”

Regina heard the sound of some tool or another being thrown down somewhere inside the room the doorway led to.  A few seconds later, Amina appeared in the doorway.  Regina immediately noticed that unlike Grendal, Amina had changed.  It looked as though something had tried to take her head off and failed.  Her smooth ebony skin now had what looked to be a deep gash, or cut, running from just below her right eye, to just above her collarbone on the same side.  Just below her short skirt, she also had a shiny new cybernetic leg from the thigh down on the right.  She didn't seem to be hiding any of it.  Instead, she seemed to own it quite well.

“If you needed help, big boy, you should have just asked,” Amina said as she crossed her arms and leaned to one side on her hips.

“Well, I'm askin' now aren't I?” Grendal replied, throwing his hands in the air.  “This suit of yours is just not responding right.”

“Alright, alright.  Keep your nasty pants on,” Amina said as she started walking towards the crate and Grendal.  She noticed that Regina was looking her way.  “Hey, girly.  You feeling better now?”

“Yeah.  I'm feeling a lot better now,” Regina replied, as she moved to a sitting position.

“Good.  We're just about done here,” Amina said, pointing towards a hallway.

Regina looked off towards the hallway, but in her current position she couldn't see much.  Just rows and rows of the rusty seaweed-colored support beams that ran the length of the warehouse they'd arrived at a few hours ago.

“So what did you drop?” Amina asked, as she neared Grendal.

“Don't tell Art, but I dropped Galatea.” Grendal replied.

Amina let out a slightly diabolical laugh.  “Oh... Yeah, he might lose a processor over that.”

“Galatea?” Regina asked, as she quickly stood.

“Yep.  Art said we'd need her to do a lot of the back end when we get started here in a few ticks,” Grendal replied.

“Well, even though the case looks cracked a bit, I doubt anything inside is broken.  It looks like a pretty heavy duty case,” Amina said, inspecting the inside of the crate.

“Let's get her hooked up then.  That's the only way we'll know for sure,” Regina said as she started towards the other two.

“You sure you don't wanna rest up a bit more, kiddo?” Grendal asked.

“No.  I regret napping as long as I did.  If I get off my ass, this gets done faster.  And the faster this is done, the faster we can tear that asshole down from his perch,” Regina said with renewed determination as she wiped some sleep from her eyes.

“That's the essence!” Grendal exclaimed as he started walking towards the armored suit.

Amina reached out and caught his arm.  She then looked him square in the eyes when he looked at her curiously.  “I'll pilot it this time.”

“Well alright then,” Grendal replied with a cocky smirk.

Amina stepped up into the belly of the suit and grabbed the control sticks with her hands, and slid her feet into the control boots.  A few seconds later, the armored suit whirred to life, and she maneuvered its hands carefully around the crate, giving extra care on the side that had been broken open, and lifted it up.  “Alright boys and girls, let's go.”

Regina and Grendal waited a few moments as Amina took her first few steps in the moss-colored suit, and then started walking along behind her as she entered the hallway.

“Hey, Gren, where is Thomas at?”  Regina asked as they entered the hallway behind Amina.

“TC said he was hungry, or something of that kind, and he headed off right after he watched you fell asleep in there,” Grendal replied with a shrug.  “I'd figure he'll be back soon.”

“Oh, okay.  That's fine.  He must be feeling better then,” Regina replied.

“That's good to hear.  He did look a bit on the peckish side when I first saw him.  I didn't want to say that he looked tired or weak.  I thought maybe he was just getting old, and I didn't want to speak out of my turn if that was the case,” Grendal said, sounding somewhat relieved.

“Well, he did pull me up the side of a building last night, so I'm actually relieved to know he's feeling well enough to go out and hunt something up,” Regina replied.

“Thomas pulled you up the side of a building?!” Amina said alarmingly.  “Well, that at least explains the dried blood on his paw.  Girl, I used to think you were a little crazy, but now I know you're just flying rodent crap crazy.”

Grendal laughed aloud.  “And you have a crazy cat to match.”

“Yeah, he's pretty fracking awesome,” Regina said with a smile.

“Hey, Yosha, I've got Galatea here for you,” Amina said as she entered into a large room of the warehouse.

“Great, now we can finally get everything connected and started talking,” Yosha replied from under a raised grated steel platform.

“Where do you want it?” Amina asked.

“Sit it down on the other side of the platform, please.  I taped off a spot for it,” Yosha said.

Amina looked to the opposite side of the steel platform.  “I see it,” she said as she started maneuvering the armored suit towards it.

Regina looked over the setup that the Tribul8 crew had managed to put together in just a few hours.  It looked to be a roughly ten meter square platform, built out of some thick steel grate, raised about a meter off the ground.  Presumably for optimal airflow.  On top of the platform sat three brand new dive rigs that looked as though they'd never been turned on before.  Each of the rigs had 4 large monitors attached, and a slew of fancy keyboards and interface devices dangling down from the top.  The power, data, and cooling lines looked to be tightly bundled, and coming from all across the warehouse.

“Damn, guys.  That's pretty impressive for a few hours' worth of effort,” Regina said, admiring the quickly assembled technical feat laid out before her.

“Hey, princess, you wanna give me a hand?” Yosha asked, shaking a few cords in their hand at Regina.

Regina smiled.  “Absolutely.”

“Good, start dropping connection lines to me, and I'll start pushing cooling and power lines up to you,” Yosha replied.

As Regina started up the ramp, Amina slowly lowered the crate onto the platform at the location that had been marked.  She then watched as Yosha slid under the grate towards Galatea.

“Need anything else?” Amina asked, backing the armored suit away from the platform.

“Has anything else from Art arrived?” Yosha asked.

“No, he said that was the last of it.  But he did say he had to make one more stop on his way back.  Said he needed to pick up something for you, kiddo,” Grendal finished as he motioned towards Regina.

“And what might that be?” Regina asked, as she pulled up a pair of cables from Yosha.

“He didn't say,” Grendal said with a shrug.

“Hey, Amina, can you open the crate for me?” Yosha asked.

“I got it,” Amina chimed in, as she used the armored suit to start prying off the crate lid.

“Thanks, Amina.  Gren, can you help run cables with us?” Yosha asked.

“Can do, GQ” Grendal replied.  He then ducked and slid under the platform and started studying the cables lying beneath.

Regina looked down through the grate at Yosha, and whispered a response.  “G. Q. ?”

“It's his odd way of saying genderqueer,” Yosha said aloud, taking a few cable from Regina.

“Oh... okay?” Regina replied curiously.

“Yeah,” Yosha replied.  “I guess he couldn't come up with anything for androgyny, and he didn't seem keen on using Zir.  I suppose the doofus just loves his stupid acronyms.  It's alright, he's managed to avoid saying she, or he, for almost a whole six months,” Yosha said with a shrug, while pushing a few more cables up to Regina.

“Uh huh,” Regina said as she connected the cables to the rig.

“I guess he got the hint when I wouldn't stop referring to him as 'Buttercup',” Yosha said with a smile.

Regina giggled as she moved down to the next rig to start hooking up connections.

“It's not funny,” Grendal said as he laid a bundle of cords beside Galatea.

“Is funny,” came a reply from Thomas.

Regina looked over and saw Thomas standing in a doorway.  She looked back down at Yosha.  “Hey, you mind if I...”

Yosha didn't wait for Regina to finish.  They simply made a waving motion with their free hand as they took the cords that Regina had just dropped down.  “Go on.”

“Thanks,” Regina said as she stood up and headed towards the platform's ramp.

Grendal turned his head to look at Thomas.  “Now now, kitty cat, that wasn't funny.”

Thomas tilted his head at Grendal.  “Grendal not buttercup.”

“That's right.  Grendal is not a buttercup,” Grendal replied with a nod.

“Then funny,” Thomas remarked.

Amina laughed as she stepped down from the armored suit.  “Thomas seems to understand humor just fine.”

Grendal grunted a response at Amina.  He then turned his attention back to Regina.  “Yeah, well it looks like he has brought a funny little present for you, kid.”

“Yeah... “  Regina had already spotted what Thomas was referring to.  A large, somewhat blood-soaked, dead rat was sitting at Thomas's feet.

“For you,” Thomas said as Regina got close to him.

“Awww, you didn't have to get me anything, Thomas.  Thank you though,” Regina said, trying her best to hide her disgust.  This was only the third time Thomas had brought her something like this, and would probably be her third failure to acceptably use the gift as intended.

“You hurt.  This protein,” Thomas stated bluntly.

“It sure is, Tomcat,” Grendal blurted out, interrupting any response Regina could have made as he jogged over to Regina and Thomas.  “And hey, don't you worry.  I know a great recipe for this.  My unit used to cook these up real nice during Korea.  The tail makes a good soup, actually,” Grendal said with an accompanying slurping noise as he picked up the rat by the tail.  “So if it's alright with you, I'll go ahead and put this in the fridge, and tonight I'll cook it up nice on an open flame.  Whaddaya say?” he asked, clapping Regina on the shoulder with his free hand.

“Yes,” Thomas replied with a grin.

“You hear that, kid?  You'll be having Unit 722's famous barbeque tonight,” Grendal said with a small shake of Regina's shoulder.

“Sounds good,” Regina replied, putting on a fake smile.

“Well, look what the cat dragged in.  Literally,” came Artemis's voice from behind the two.

“I not drag.  I carried,” Thomas replied.

“My fault, Thomas,” Artemis replied as he walked towards Regina and Grendal.

“No fault.  Bad guess,” Thomas stated.

Artemis clicked his tongue, pointed, and winked at Thomas with a smile.  He then turned his attention to Regina.  “Here you go.  I thought you might need it,” he said, holding out a bag towards her.

“What's this?” Regina asked as she took the bag from him.

“A little something to help ensure we take down the bastard that tried to have you whacked,” Artemis replied with a smile.

Regina reached in the bag and pulled out a semi-sheer black garment.  She immediately recognized it as a dive suit.  One of the good ones.  She unfolded it and her eyes started tracing the gold inlays and connectors that ran the length of the suit.  It was quite svelte-looking, to say the least.