Cyber Dreams 4.22 - When it Rains

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-Plum

Despite the decisive nature of her action, when the Texan thundered, echoing off the big metal bay doors and plasteel walls, it almost surprised her. Frida was certainly surprised. The hot, deadly slug smashed into her chest, and she flopped onto her back, hitting the concrete with a thud and wheezing, “Oof!”

“Juliet!” Angel sounded just as caught off guard, though she must have known something was up to increase the speed of Juliet’s synapses. Was it a conscious thing, or did she have some subroutine monitoring Juliet’s movements and adrenaline, ready to send her thoughts into overdrive at the drop of a hat?

“I . . .” Juliet started forward, deciding that any sort of action was better than standing there dumbstruck at her own behavior. “I heard his name, and I just reacted. How could it be him? He was dead, Angel!” She’d gotten to within ten meters of Frida’s corpse, or what Juliet thought was Frida’s corpse, when the woman groaned loudly and rolled to her side. “Don’t move!” Juliet shouted, lifting the pistol again.

“God. Jesus, lady. Don’t shoot me again. What the hell did you hit me with?”

“Angel,” Juliet subvocalized, “was she wearing armor?”

“Nothing externally . . .” Again, Angel couched her response with a qualifier that made Juliet uncomfortable.

“Just hold still, or the next one is going in your ear!” Juliet paused a second, then asked, “Are you dying?”

“Not imminently.” Frida coughed and wheezed, then coughed again. “I’m not here to kill you or anything. Dammit, why’d you blast me?”

“Uh, have you met your boss?” Juliet switched to subvocalizations, “Anything on the cameras, Angel?”

“Nothing.”

“My boss is scary, sure, but he’s not here. He sent me ‘cause I’m decidedly not scary.” She coughed again and groaned.

“Turn over. Let me see your wound.” Juliet slowly circled the woman, still keeping some distance, still pointing her gun at her head.

Frida flopped to her back, one hand pressed to the center of her chest, the other splayed out, flat on the hard cement floor. “Oof, holy crap, lady, you dented me.” She slowly lifted her hand, and Juliet saw what she meant—beneath a layer of bloody flesh, a shiny, red-streaked, metallic indentation sat in the middle of her chest. It was wide and deep enough that Juliet could picture a golf ball sitting in it.

“What the . . . are you a synth?”

“No, dammit. I have endoskeletal reinforcements, like, bloody damn expensive ones. A pistol isn’t supposed to do this to me. Oof! This can’t be good for my heart or whatever. I feel like I have an elephant sitting on my chest!” She wheezed and coughed again, and Juliet began to feel sorry for her despite, or maybe because of, trying to kill her moments ago.

She still held her gun aimed at Frida’s head, and when the woman looked up from her chest and her green eyes locked onto Juliet’s, she slowly shook her head and held up both hands. “Relax, please. I know what you’re thinking. You’re wondering if it might just be easier to finish me off than deal with the fallout. I don’t hold a grudge, okay? I shouldn’t have ambushed you with my boss’s name. Working for a guy like that, you know, doing the kind of jobs we do, I was feeling a little too cocky. This is my bad. Don’t kill me, all right?”

The truth was that Juliet had been trying to decide if she should attempt to get Frida some medical care. She was about to answer, about to reassure Frida that she’d acted on reflex, that she didn’t want her dead, but, as she stared into those green eyes, some thoughts drifted through to her, unbidden:

Just hang on. Just hang on. Keep the psycho bitch thinking. Calm her down. Applebaum and Hawkins are almost here.

Juliet straightened her arm and pulled the hammer back on the Texan with a satisfying click. “Tell your team to back off. Tell Applebaum that he and Hawkins better get the fuck out of here.”

“What? There’s no team . . .”

“Last chance.” Juliet put on her “serious business” face, the one she’d learned from observing Ghoul. “You’ve got until one. Three,” she paused briefly, “two . . .”

“Okay, okay! Stop! I’m calling them off right now!”

Juliet was still a few meters from Frida, and she squatted down to better look into her eyes as she leveled the Texan at her face.

Okay, just breathe. So, she knows about your team. How? Impossible!

Frida’s inner monologue changed suddenly, and Juliet got the impression she was hearing one side of a conversation:

No! . . . She knows who you are . . . I don’t know . . . just pull back to rendezvous two . . . she’s not blocking me yet, obviously . . . No . . . No . . . Okay, I’ll keep them open . . .

“Frida,” Juliet said.

“Yes?” The woman’s startled look told Juliet that she’d interrupted her conversation.

“I want you to start singing a song. Any song, but make sure it’s one you know really well because if you hesitate or pause in the verse, I’m going to shoot you.” She smiled and then took another step closer. “There’s a chance you get out of this alive and well, but you need to cooperate.”

“You want me to stop subvocalizing . . .”

“Start singing, Frida.”

In a thin, rather pretty soprano, Frida began to sing,

By a lonely prison wall

I heard a young girl calling,

"Michael, they have taken you away

Juliet stepped over to Frida and pushed against her shoulder until she got the idea and rolled over to face the floor. When she was face down, Juliet knelt with one knee on the smaller woman’s spine, but not putting much weight on it, just enough to let her know she was in control. Then she switched the Texan to her left hand and pulled out her data cable.

For you stole Trevelyan's corn

So the young might see the morn

Now a prison ship lies waiting in the bay."

“Good, Frida, good. I’m not going to hurt you. Keep singing.” Juliet knew the team was listening; she also knew Frida couldn’t subvocalize as long as she was singing. She’d considered turning on her jammer, but then she wouldn’t be able to do what she had planned. She reached down and peeled back Frida’s synth-skin, exposing her data port, and then she plugged her cable in. Frida paused briefly and wriggled a little, but Juliet tapped the pistol’s barrel against her head, and she started up again, her voice warbling a little with obvious stress.

Low lie the fields of Athenry
Where once we watched the small free birds fly
Our love was on the wing we had dreams and songs to sing
It's so lonely 'round the fields of Athenry

“Angel,” Juliet subvocalized, “can you get control of her PAI and use her open comms to get into her team’s too?”

“Yes. I’m working on it. It’ll take me a minute to subdue and get around her PAI’s ICE.”

“Don’t shut it down or anything, but put some daemons in place so we can listen to them and, if we need to, shut their PAIs down in a pinch.”

“I understand. Obviously, she’ll know we’ve done something to her PAI, but she may not know I can reach her team through the comms.”

By a lonely prison wall
I heard a young man calling
"Nothing matters, Mary, when you're free.

“You’re doing great, Frida. Keep singing; don’t pause. Restart if you need to.”

Against the famine and the crown
I rebelled, they cut me down.
Now you must raise our child with dignity."

“Her PAI is very high-end, but I’m making progress. At this point, I can tell if she subvocalizes if you’d like to give her a chance to answer questions while I work.”

“Okay, Frida, listen up. I can tell if you subvocalize, so please don’t do anything dumb. Don’t talk to your PAI or team, all right? I want you to hold very still while I ask you a few questions.”

“Okay, but did you have to . . .”

Juliet pressed the Texan against her scalp again. “No, no, Frida. Don’t say anything that might alarm someone. I’d hate for some trigger-happy individual to make a mistake.”

“Okay.”

“Now, can you tell me how you came by a photo of me on the Sunset Star Runner? How did you connect that photo to your boss?”

“If I explain it, will you take that cannon off my head?” Frida’s cheek was against the cement, and she’d gone completely limp; if she was putting on a defeated act, she was doing a great job at it.

“I’ll think about it.”

Frida inhaled deeply through her nose and began speaking, “After Rutger woke up from the coma, he was keen to find you. He knows information brokers, and he put the word out. He didn’t have any images of you, but he knew what you looked like, so he asked them to let him know if anything came up involving a woman who matched your description. He goes through about fifty or a hundred photos a day, sent his way by various brokers while he eats his breakfast. Anyway, he got your photo from a broker who was looking for you, trying to find you for a small-time syndicate enforcer named Zapho.”

“And is Zapho still looking for me?”

“No. Rutger didn’t want him to get to you before we could, so I paid him off. He was happy to let the matter drop for the right price.”

“Juliet, I’m in. I have control of her PAI, but I’ve been careful not to give it away. I’ve sent my daemons through her comms, and they’re working on her team’s PAIs. I have their locations, though, from Frida’s team channel, and I can confirm that there are two: Applebaum and Hawkins.”

“Can I pull the data jack?”

“Yes. She has a wireless jack, and I have control.”

“Okay, hold still.” Juliet stood up and pulled her cable out, letting it retract into her wrist. She stepped back and squatted again, looking into Frida’s eyes, staring.

God, is she going to kill me? Did I say too much? Should I have held back some information? She doesn’t know everything yet! I should beg. I should tell her I have more . . .

“Where’s Rutger?”

“On his way to Luna. He wasn’t sure you were getting off the cruise ship in the Jovian System. We have a team on Mars, too, and Rutger is hoping you’ll return to Luna. He’s hoping to figure out where your base of operations is . . .”

“What does he want? To kill me? You know I was just there to rescue a little girl and her caretaker, right? He attacked me.” Juliet gestured with the Texan and added, “Don’t answer right away. Think about it. I’m good at spotting a lie, Frida, and you don’t want to find out what I’ll do if you lie at this point.”

Frida licked her lips and nodded, blinking her pale green eyes rapidly.

She’s crazy. She’s as crazy as Rutger. I can’t believe she shot me like that. So damn fast . . . is that how she got the better of him? He won’t talk about it—is he embarrassed? Shit, shit, shit, get ahold of yourself, Frida. What do I say? The truth, dummy!

“I don’t know. He’s canceled a dozen jobs, and he’s paying the teams and the travel budgets out of his own pocket. Don’t get me wrong, he’s got deep pockets, but something’s off about him. He hasn’t been the same since he woke up.”

“He won’t tell you why he wants me?”

“No.” Frida’s eyes darted to the barrel of Juliet’s gun and then back to her face, and she licked her lips again. “We all have our guesses. Lee thinks he’s mad with the need for vengeance, says Rutger’s gonna skin you alive and make you into a suitcase. Applebaum thinks he’s in love. They don’t know him like I do, though, and I think it’s something else. I think when he nearly died, when he thought he had died, something changed or woke up in him. I think he needs to see you, to understand you, and, I don’t know, maybe find closure.”

“Angel,” Juliet subvocalized, “is she wired for speed?”

“No. She has some expensive augmentation but nothing that will allow her to catch you unawares.”

“Okay.” Juliet stood up from her crouch and stepped back another meter or so. Then she holstered the Texan. “Sit up.” With grunts and groans, Frida pushed herself to a sitting position. She sat hunched, clearly in significant discomfort from the damage done to her armor-enhanced sternum. “I’m glad I didn’t kill you, Frida. I know you think I’m a psychopath, but I’m not. My body reacted to your boss’s name. I think he traumatized me pretty good, and I kind of buried the memory rather than deal with it. You brought it up, and I reacted.”

“Sounds like PTSD.” Frida winced and gingerly touched the raw, bloody flesh at the edge of her injury.

“I want to get this matter settled, all right? I’m not excited by the prospect of a crazy, rich mercenary sending teams around the solar system looking for me. I could get real dark and kill you and your team—I have eyes on them, by the way—pull your PAIs and hope Rutger and the other people he hires won’t find me, but I think that’s some seriously bad karma down that road, and I’m just not that kind of person. I could try to leverage you or your team as hostages and lure him into a trap, but again, I’m not that kind of operator. Can we make a deal, Frida?”

“Yes!” Frida leaned forward, and her eyes widened with the sincerity of her agreement.

“Listen. I’ve got things to get done here around Jupiter, but I’ll be heading back to Luna. Can we just set up a meeting between me and your boss? Tell him to call off his teams, and when I get back, we can settle things.”

“Seriously?”

Juliet locked eyes with Frida and let her mind relax, willing her thoughts to come through.

Seriously? She’s fast, but so is Rutger. He’s killed more people than this girl could comprehend. Is she going to try to duel him or something? Jesus, old man, why do you want to find her? Do you even want her dead? God, my chest! Oof, every breath hurts. Finally gonna get some use out of that premium med plan. How’d she find the team? She knew their names . . . What’s she thinking about? Second thoughts?

“Yeah, I’m serious. I don’t wanna die, Frida, and I don’t want to kill anyone I don’t have to, but I’m not going to have your crazy boss holding a sword over my neck for the rest of my life.” Juliet was serious, but she had a few aces Frida didn’t know about. Even if Frida pulled her PAI and replaced it with a new model, Angel was deep into her team’s network by now. She might even be able to hitch a ride with one of them all the way back to Rutger. Juliet stood up and stepped toward Frida, holding out a hand.

The woman, probably only a few years older than Juliet, took her hand in a firm but clammy grip, and Juliet hoisted her to her feet. Juliet stood there, looking into her eyes again, as she held her hand and contemplated really diving in, trying to do to Frida what she’d done to Tono. She wanted to think she didn’t do so because she’d covered her bases with Angel and her daemons, that she’d already heard enough of Frida’s thoughts, but she knew it was bullshit. She chickened out and let go of her hand, nodding slowly. “I don’t know what kind of intel you have on me, but I’m not working alone. Like I said, I have eyes on your team. Please, just go back to Luna and give him my message.”

“All I know is your operator name, Lucky, and that you’ve been flying around this system and that you’ve hit a couple of clubs. We tracked you down with a photo and lots and lots of legwork. Shit, we didn’t track you down—you contacted me.”

“Okay.” Juliet gestured with her thumb toward the door, and Frida nodded. “Hope your chest is all right.” Frida winced and held a hand to her bloody shirt as though Juliet had reminded her of the injury, then turned and started walking. After a few steps, she slowed and turned.

“Lucky, I’ll tell him you could’ve killed me, that you didn’t.” Juliet didn’t smile, but she met her eyes and nodded again. She wondered if Frida would tell Tanaka that she’d tried, though, that she’d shot her dead in the center of her chest with a modded polymer slug meant to be as lethal as possible. She hoped not because it sounded like Rutger Tanaka had enough of a grudge already. When she got to the door, Frida pulled the latch, then turned and asked, raising her voice to be heard over the distance, “Can you tell me what you did to my PAI? I’m just gonna pull it and put a new one in any way.”

“What would you do?”

“Dig for contacts and messages if I could get through the ICE.” Juliet offered her a half smile and shrugged. “Right. Well, thanks.” With that, she stepped through, and the door clicked shut behind her.

“You did get her messages and contacts, right?”

“Oh, yes, and quite a lot more. I have the locations of Tanaka’s offices on Titan, of his new apartment in Luna City, and the names, contact information, and locations of all of his current employees. It seems Frida is his second-in-command, so to speak.

“Well, that’s good at least . . .” Juliet trailed off as an incoming vid call from Nick flashed on her AUI. “As they say, Angel, when it rains, it pours.”