Tag - A Technothriller (43 page)

Cochran stared intently at the image of Jonah standing on the platform waiting for the Bangkok Lev. The platform was virtually deserted. She panned the camera down its length and zoomed on each of the people, picking up the PUIs broadcast from their Devsticks. She switched back to Jonah. He looked relaxed and tanned. But there was something different about him. She couldn’t put her finger on what and so she stared intently at his image on the screen.

“Contact Sir Thomas,” she said in a curt tone to the Dev she was sitting in front of. The Devscreen in front of her popped up a box showing Sir Thomas’s image. 'Available' was on and the image changed to Sir Thomas sitting at his desk in a room in his penthouse. He was dressed in what looked like a civilian version of an UNPOL uniform, except that instead of light blue, it was all black. She thought it looked good and her mind immediately flashed to herself in a black UNPOL uniform with that distinctive ‘Oche’ edge.

“I’m sorry to disturb you, Sir Thomas, but I wanted you to know that Jonah has surfaced.”

“You did well, Sharon. Thank you. And where is Jonah now?”

“He’s still in Melbourne. I’ll patch you in, Sir Thomas.”

He smiled at her in his tight-lipped manner and then resumed a blank expression while he waited. Secs later he was watching Jonah on the Lev platform in Melbourne.

“Where is he headed?”

“He’s on the Bangkok line but that might mean he is headed to his Env in Sisik.”

“What did the Hilton say?”

“Same as before. That Jonah was in the room with Annika Bardsdale for three days.”

“Did we get trace from the room?”

“Unfortunately we didn’t. The room was sanitized before we got a chance to get in. In itself that would be suspicious but it is standard policy at all Hiltons – I checked.”

“I see.” Sir Thomas’s expression made Cochran feel uneasy. It hadn’t changed but with the abrupt comment she felt she had done wrong.

Sir Thomas caught the doubt that had crept into her face. The pink scar that she had as a result of the bombing turning a slightly darker shade as he waited for her to say more.

“The feeds are full of the affair between Jonah and Bardsdale.”

“Yes. I know. Quite out of character for Jonah, wouldn’t you say?”

“Not if my meeting with him was anything to judge by, Sir Thomas. He is an attractive man and in my meeting with him I got the distinct impression that he wanted to have sex with me.”

“Yes, well be that is it may. I feel something is not quite right. Have you made any progress on tracing the source of the letter?”

“No, sir. We can trace it to the Sydney stock exchange but we cannot home in on its origin.”

“I see. Well, keep an eye on our boy and let me know if he does anything out of the ordinary.”

“Yes, sir.”

She cut the connection. It burned her that even now as the youngest Director and with more power than any of her predecessors, she still felt like a little insecure girl in front of him. She returned to the image of Jonah standing on the platform. There was something wrong but she couldn’t place it. She stared harder at him. It was something to do with how he looked but she saw nothing out of the ordinary.

Shrugging it off with a frown, she said, “Turn all lights off between here and the Lev.” The room went black.

***

Marty checked the time on the Devstick laying on the table next to the Devscreen. 5:15am. Gabriel was in another room. They had quickly decided that they worked best when they worked alone. They had also decided that they played best when together. Marty was working. She sat in one of Gabriel’s Devcockpits and was hacking the account files of ‘Utopia’. Utopia was regarded as what the world might become, a virtual reality where Stanislav spent large amounts of his self-time. She needed the Gang of Four and Stanislav was the best way to get in touch.

She took another glance at Mark on the platform just getting into the Lev. Some space in the bottom of her stomach felt heavy at seeing him alone, going into the Lev. She thought of Mariah, his mother. She refocused – no time to think about that now – and Gabriel was watching over him. Maloo had left to take up station in Bangkok in advance of Jonah’s trip to ‘get eyes’ on Mr Wigley.

It was 2:15am in new Singapore and the odds on Stanislav being in Utopia were high. She chose an account. ID Pagan Moon. 23, single, here for relationships, dating, sex, chat buddy, and exotic vacations. Perfect, she thought. She took a look at Pagan Moon’s digital image and cringed. Ouch. Resolving to send Moon a message about her dress sense, she hacked the image into something less catastrophic and entered the environment.

Marty’s avatar, Pagan Moon, landed in Utopia through its main doorway. The usual touts hung around there offering software upgrades to the avatars and accessories. Pagan Moon ignored them all, and walked rather stiffly, Marty thought, as she sent out a stream of code looking for a sexier motion for her avatar. She strode over to Utopia’s map. It was large: over one and a half billion inhabitants, an alternative world with people contributing full-time within it. Her code had picked up a smoother motion than the one the default supplied.

She turned and saw that three of the touts had taken an interest in her. She ignored them and hit New Singapore on the map. It took her twenty secs to find him. Sitting on a Ferarri V9 SuperAirBike, a SAB, as they were known, in front of Newton’s Circus, he was tanned and muscled.

Pagan Moon didn’t waste any time. She walked over to him, spreading her legs apart as she stood in of him. She said, “Can we have a chat in private? I mean, really private?”

He looked at her and leered. She leered back and said, “I don’t think I can wait much longer. I mean, you know. Let’s go. OK?”

He swung his leg over the handlebars of the SAB. Marty laughed aloud, her avatar Pagan Moon swooned and put her hand on his stomach as she swung up onto the seat behind him. She pulled her body tight against his back and mashed her breasts against it. Dropping her hands into his crotch, she whispered in his ear, “How’s Fatima?” The bulge being fed by his plugged-in biosensors shrank as quickly as it had arisen and he twisted awkwardly on the seat to look at her. He had a guilty look on his face.

“Is that you, Fatima?”

“No. It’s the other female on the team. Don’t name talk OK. You know who this is. All right. Get it together and quick. I haven’t got all day.”

The avatar that was Stanislav’s grinned at her. She saw that his programming was flawless. The Avatar looked and moved as a real person would. It was hard to tell the difference. He gunned the SAB and took off heading south.

One of the Devscreens in her cockpit changed. Sitting up in his sleeper in his Env in New Singapore, wearing a plain white T-shirt and white boxer shorts, was Stanislav. He looked more imaginary than his avatar but it was Stanislav. In Utopia, Stanislav didn’t have a stammer.

“Wh- wh- wh- where have you been? I’ve been looking everywhere for you. Fatima has been going nuts and Dom thinks that he is the cause that you’ve not got in touch with us. Where are you and did you blow up the Ga- Ga- Ga- Governors like they said?”

“Are you sure this is secure?”

“Ye- ye- ye- yes. We’re still back in Utopia riding around on the bike. Well?”

“Can’t tell you where I am. That’s too risky right now and no, of course I didn’t blow up the Governors. That was Cochran getting even with me and the Governors. Just goes to show how looks can deceive right? Stanislav, I need your help. I need you to take care of Dom and Fatima OK? That’s the first thing but there are some other tasks that I need your help on. Can you help me? It’s going to be very dangerous, life-threatening perhaps, but if we succeed we’ll save the planet from destruction. Now before we go on remember what I said about stuttering. Slow down.”

“OK, Marty. Is this real or are you in the character of some cartoon? I knew you hadn’t blown up the Governors – I told Dom and Fatima that you’d been framed.”

“Stanislav, there’s a plot to kill billions of people. Will you help me stop it?”

“Are you kidding? Save the planet from destruction. That’d like make me a superhero type of stuff. Of course I’m in. What do you want?”

“First I need you to tell Dom and Fatima about this chat. We’ll need their help. Second, we–"

“Who’s we?”

“I can’t tell you right now. Honestly, the reason is that with what I am going to ask you to do, you stand a high chance of being captured and tortured. So everything I will tell you is strictly on a need-to-know basis. Getting out of this alive will depend entirely on your skill.”

Speaking very slowly with his hands on his hips and his head to one side, Stanislav said, “Oh please Marty, I may be a virgin but I’m not dumb. I already said that I would do this. No need to make it more exciting for me. OK?”

Marty laughed. “It’s great to see you. How are you guys holding it together?”

Stanislav sat down and his face loomed large in the screen as he leaned forward nearer the camera. “Not good, but OK.”

His comment made Marty feel guilty. It was irrational she knew but they were her team and they were struggling without her. She couldn’t do anything about that now but made a mental reminder to try to stay in touch with them as much as the chaos to come would allow.

“What’s Cochran got you guys tracing?”

“We’re still on the runner. We got given other stuff after you left but then when his letter came out she put us back on him.”

“OK, here’s what I need.” Stanislav had leaned back from the camera and it looked like he was watching something else as he wasn’t looking at her. “Stanislav?”

“Yeah, sorry, just checking to see that nothing is on to our chat here, but we’re cool. OK go ahead.”

“Has Cochran got you guys looking for me?”

“No, but she did order us to report any contact from you on pain of instant containment of aiding and abetting a fugitive if we didn’t.” He grinned at her, “Looks like I’m back in the crime business.”

“No, you’re not. Very much the opposite. OK then, what I need you to do is build an ironclad story around finding my location and then report that location to Cochran. Build up some trace around it and be aware that with the embarrassments the runner and I have given her lately, she will want to be absolutely sure that you are right. So be sure. Can you do that?”

“Yeah.” Stanislav put on his bored expression – his ‘this is too easy’ look.

“When she is ready to come and get me, let me know. Now, we need to set up a link between us. Can I leave that with you. It must be secure and easy to check.”

“Utopia’s best. I’ll set up a dead drop and message you from there.”

“That sounds fine. I’ll leave my hooks in their member base then and wait for your message. There’s one more thing and this is the skillful part. You have to wait for my signal before you get Cochran to make her move on me. You’ll only have a very small window, perhaps no more than fifteen or twenty mins to convince her to move.” Stanislav straightened from his slouch and flashed her a quick, cocky grin.

“Na- na- na- no problem.”

“All right then. I have to go. Give my love to Fatima and Dom and take care of each other and be very careful. OK? Cochran is a very dangerous person.”

Stanislav grinned at her again, and a twinge of conscience hit the pit of her stomach. He’s so young. Is it right for me to do this? Put him in this danger? The stakes are so high that the end justifies the means. Oh boy, what a slippery slope this is, she thought. His image disappeared from her Devscreen and she placed her palm where his face had been, just for a sec. She coughed and cleared her throat.

Sitting in the room next door, Gabriel heard the murmur of Marty talking as background noise. It was there but he didn’t pay it any attention. He was focused on his code. A Dev runs on code. The code he was writing had to be small, very small, and therefore it had to be elegant. The idea for hiding the code was simple. Make it very small. The problem with that is that the code has to do a lot. It has to find and destroy the list. Failing that it has to destroy the databases holding the PUI records of all humans. He also needed to figure out a way to get it into Sir Thomas’s Dev without any alarms going off.

A borrower, he thought. That’s what it can be. I can string together a sequence that when activated borrows the code from other code in the Dev. Then it’s just a wait for start sequence code and a sequence code. That would keep it small.

He reclined in the Siteazy and using both hands brushed his hair back and sucked in a long breath. And held it. He closed his eyes and cast thoughts aside as they came. Clearing his mind. He pictured himself with an old fashioned broom sweeping dry leaves off a bare cement floor. Slowly, he exhaled through his nose. More thoughts snuck in. The broom went back and forth, back and forth. Let it go. He opened his eyes and stretched his fingers onto the input tablet in front of him. He began to type.

***

Mariko lay on the molded plastic sleeper. The room that she was in was two meters long and three wide. It was colored white. It reminded her of the White Room in UNPOL. She’d had a tour when that room was first built. This room had none of the special effects of the White Room but it was still a long time. All she knew was that she had been stupid. How could she not have been more aware? Dumb. She suspected that it must have been Sir Thomas who had grabbed her but she didn’t know. She hadn’t seen anyone. She idly wondered how long it would take for her to go insane if she was stuck in here for a long time. Don’t think like that. Basic crisis training, stay positive and look for a solution. She assumed she was being watched. The meals gave some clue - she knew from her biological clock when she was hungry but as they had drugged the food she had no real idea of time.

She had expected to be questioned. But it never happened. A positive sign, she thought, and fought against the despair that the reason they didn’t need to question her was because she had been eliminated. Pushed into a hole and forgotten. No, they still feed you. Stay positive and in control of yourself. She hadn’t said anything. Hadn’t asked why she was being kept captive. She was following training. Do not provide any unnecessary information unless you really have to. Asking why she was here was irrelevant.