Cyber Dreams 2.33 - Plots Within Plots

Let me know what you think of this little twist.

Cheers,

Plum

At Garza’s words, Juliet felt a deep, nearly unbearable dread, but it wasn’t at the mentioned aneurysm. Something told her that if she let these people put her under, she’d never wake up again, or if she did, she wouldn’t be herself. Scrambling for words or avenues of escape, she said, “Can’t they just laser it? Why do they need to ‘prep me’ for surgery?”

“Juliet,” Angel interjected, “I don’t see any trace of an aneurysm, and my synth-nerve fibers are deeply interwoven with your central nervous system. I believe I’d see some sign of the strain such a thing would be causing.”

“I asked the same thing,” Garza nodded, a look of sympathy in her eyes. “They say it’s too large and too deep. I’m not a brain surgeon, so I’m not sure how all of that works, but if they think they need to see to you immediately . . .”

“Commander, something’s wrong here.” Juliet had switched to subvocalizations, trusting Angel to convey her voice to Garza.

“What do you mean?” Cherise raised an eyebrow, but her tone wasn’t exactly skeptical; in fact, it sounded almost like she might share some of Juliet’s assessment.

“I don’t have an aneurysm, Commander. I’m sure of it. If you let me go into that surgery, I won’t be coming out. I know this sounds crazy . . .” She trailed off, shaking her head, searching for the right way to describe her suspicions. Juliet had been emboldened by Garza’s tone, but the risk of uttering those words wasn’t lost on her. Garza could have her locked up just for the insinuation that Grave meant her harm. Juliet didn’t know why she was trusting her, but part of it was desperation; whether Garza believed her or not, she had to get out of this surgery.

“Explain, very carefully, what you mean, Lydia.”

“My PAI is highly modified, with a lot of synaptic connections. It would have noticed if I had a ballooning aneurysm that was too large to laser. More than that, something is fishy with GARD, Dr. Vance, and Commander Gordon. I know these words are enough to get me in trouble, fired, or imprisoned, even, but I’m hoping you can look at the situation objectively. Did you schedule this CT scan?” Juliet knew the answer and hoped Garza would see Gordon’s involvement as, at least, a little suspicious.

Garza stared at her through the vid call for a long, pregnant pause, and Juliet began to wonder if the software rendering her visage had glitched, but then she nodded, her head dipping ever-so-slightly with the movement, and said, “Sit tight. I’ll be right there.” The connection was cut, and Juliet exhaled heavily, scooting to the edge of the reclining seat and pulling off her paperweave robe.

A male voice crackled through the speaker in the wall, “Excuse me, Ms. Roman, please remain seated; we’ll need you to keep the gown on as well. Dr. Vance will be . . .”

“Sorry, my commander just messaged me. I need to reschedule.” Juliet kept her back to the mirrored window as she began to dress, probably setting a personal best for how fast she got her shirt on. Then, as she was pulling on her annoyingly tight leggings, the inner door opened, and the same tech from earlier came in.

“I’m sorry to intrude, but this is an emergent situation! We can’t have you walking around in your condition.”

“Take it up with Commander Garza. Sorry.” Juliet stuffed her lanyard and deck down her shirt collar, then began to shrug into her jacket. She glanced at the tech, glad to see he wasn’t trying to restrain her or anything, and saw his eyes were a bit glassy. She figured he was sending panicked messages to Vance, Gordon, and anyone who would listen. Maybe he was messaging Garza.

“Seriously,” Juliet said as she sat down and pulled her shoes on. “You don’t have to worry about me. I’m sure Commander Garza will reschedule my surgery as soon as she’s done with me.” The outer door banged open, and Juliet looked up, hoping to see Cherise, but it was a corpo-sec officer, his SMG hanging from a sling and a stun baton in his hand. “Woah!” Juliet said, holding up her hands.

“Lydia Roman, you are instructed to comply with the medical staff in this facility. Any resistance will be met with the appropriate use of force.”

“On whose orders?” Juliet asked.

“Commander Gordon of Zeta Protocol.” The man’s mouth was set in a grim line beneath his dark visor, and he took a step toward her, the baton still outstretched. Juliet stomped her left foot, sinking it into her shoe, and then sat back in the chair, folding her arms over her chest.

“You’re going to force me to get surgery when my unit’s commander has ordered me to report?” She glared at the corpo-sec drone, lifting her eyebrows and shaking her head skeptically. “You’re going to hit me with a stun baton? You think that’ll help my aneurysm? Your funeral.”

“Commander Gordon . . .” he started to say, but then the door opened, and Cherise Garza stepped through.

“Put your baton away and return to your post, Langston.” Her words didn’t brook argument, and when the corpo-sec grunt, Langston, turned to see who had spoken his name, he took one look at the insignias on Garza’s shoulder and snapped his baton down, slipping it into its belt holster.

“Yes, ma’am!” he said, then hurried out the door. Garza nodded to Juliet and then regarded the tech.

“I need this employee for critical debriefing. I’ll get her medical situation seen to ASAP. You can go.”

“But Doctor Vance . . .”

“No buts. Come along, Roman.” Garza turned, walked out, and Juliet followed her quick but unhurried steps all the way out to the elevator where the corpo-sec guard stood at attention and carefully avoided making eye contact with either of them. When they were in the elevator, and the doors had closed, Juliet cleared her throat to speak, but Garza held a finger to her lips. “I’ll debrief you in my office.”

Juliet nodded and watched the elevator display nervously, waiting for an alarm to go off and a troop of soldiers to storm through the doors, but it never happened, and soon they were striding through the corridors to Garza’s office. Juliet recognized the hallway, recognized the door coming up as the commander’s, and so was rather perplexed when they walked past it. She didn’t speak, though; she’d trusted Garza this far and figured she could see where the woman was leading her.

They continued past several similarly appointed offices, then turned, and Garza opened a door leading to a stairwell. Once inside, she turned to Juliet and said, “I’m disabling your watchdog for a while.”

“You can do that?”

“Of course. Anyone at my rank or higher can do that with our subordinates.” A moment later, the watchdog icon on Juliet’s AUI grayed out. Garza nodded and said, “Keep following me and keep your head down. Kent’s not in this stairwell, but he’s in some of the rooms we’ll pass by.”

“Roger,” Juliet said, sudden hope blooming in her chest. Was Garza on her side? Was she a plant like her? She followed her up three flights of stairs, then into a quiet hallway where they hurried past several glass-walled offices and into a small elevator Garza opened with a chipped keycard. Once inside, Garza sighed in relief and held her palm to the control panel.

It caught Juliet off-guard when the elevator began to descend rapidly. There was no display saying what floor they were on, but it felt like they went down for a long while. As the little elevator came to a halt, Garza nodded and said, “I took us on a little roundabout trip in case Gordon or someone else was monitoring your progress. We’re about to step onto a highly classified level; there won’t be any outside monitoring going on. It’s a research department I was given control of when their chief executive died a month ago.”

“I’m lost, Commander,” Juliet said truthfully. “Can you tell me what’s going on?”

“Sure,” she smiled. “That’s why I brought you here. Come on, follow me.” She touched the control pad, the doors opened, and they stepped out into a sterile, white hallway. “Only COO Conrad knows I’m in charge of this department, so you’ll be secure here for now. There’s also a medical team here that can give your head a thorough scan, the results of which will inform me as to where I need to go from here.”

She picked up her pace, and Juliet followed her past several nondescript, black-tinted glass doors, around several corners, and then they stepped through a door into a white room with a full suite of medical equipment. Juliet saw a CT scanner in one of the corners, very much like the one she’d just fled. A middle-aged Asian man with short, salt and pepper hair, wearing a very steampunk, copper and wire visor and a white lab coat stood up from a terminal and said, “That was fast!”

“Is the scanner ready?” Garza asked by way of greeting.

“Yes. Sit down,” he said to Juliet, pointing to the CT machine.

“Um,” Juliet started to lift her deck from around her neck. “Can I set this here?”

“Yes.” He pointed to a nearby table. Juliet set her deck down, walked over to the machine, and sat in the reclining, plastic chair. The man—Juliet saw a name sewn into his coat, Dennis Cho—maneuvered the arm with the dome attachment over Juliet’s head and then started to walk away.

“Hey, what about the, uh, lead blanket?”

“Huh? Oh, radiation? It’s such a small amount. You’ll be fine!” He turned back to his terminal, and Juliet looked over to Garza, but she stood impassively, her bulky arms folded over her chest, staring at Juliet, clearly deep in thought. “Hold still!” Dennis said, and then before Juliet could consider any further objections, the lights flickered, and the machine clicked several times.

“Well?” Garza asked, coming out of her stupor.

“One minute, please, boss! The program is analyzing.” Dennis stared at his screen, and while he was looking, he said, “You can get up,” offhandedly.

Juliet didn’t wait for another invitation, standing up and moving over to the desk where she’d set her deck. As she looped it over her head, Dennis spoke again, “Some tiny burst vessels near the surface, around her ocular nerves. Nothing more.”

“Those mother fuckers!” Garza smacked a thick fist into a meaty palm and turned to pace in a small circle. “Thanks, Cho. Roman, follow me.” She didn’t wait for a reply, but strode to the door, jerked it open, and continued through. Juliet hurried to catch up. The commander turned twice, then walked through a door and held it open for Juliet to follow. They entered a small room with plain white walls, a small glass table with four chairs, and a mini fridge.

Garza walked around the table, sat down, and lifted a high-end data cube from a drawer Juliet couldn’t see. Garza tapped the top of the cube a few times, and then Juliet immediately felt the presence of a jamming field. Her vision flickered momentarily, and her ears buzzed, but it wasn’t enough to cause discomfort. “I’ve lost all network access,” Angel announced.

“Sit down.” Garza pointed to the chair, and Juliet hurried to comply. “Okay, it’s time to trust each other a little. You’ll start. Tell me what the hell is going on with this GIPEL bullshit and why Vance and Gordon might have wanted to scramble your brains.”

“So, well,” Juliet fumbled for words, and Garza frowned. Shaking her head, she tried again, “I think that guy, Joshua Kyle, was one of Vance’s subjects. I think whatever he did to Polk and me has to do with this Gipel ‘bullshit,’ as you put it.”

“Why do you say that? Can you do what he did?”

“No!” Juliet was glad she didn’t have to lie; she had no idea how Kyle had managed what he’d done. “It’s just . . . because of this thing in my head, I could sort of feel the attack coming from him. I know it doesn’t make sense, but it’s like having another sense almost, like, imagine trying to explain hearing to someone with no ears.”

“Okay, so why do they want you out of the picture?”

“I think they’re going to clean house. Commander, if you cross-reference the people working with Kyle, I bet you’ll find a lot of GARD subjects. The piece I don’t understand is Commander Gordon. I don’t know why he’s helping Vance clean up his mess.”

“I can connect that part of the puzzle; he and Vance go way back. They’ve got their fingerprints on many, many projects together. So, you can’t do what Kyle did, but what can you do? What was the point of this GIPEL thing?”

“They tested me for the craziest stuff, Commander—trying to guess the colors of cards that people were looking at, um, trying to send my thoughts to other people, that kind of thing. I never was any good at it, I mean, it’s only been a couple of days, but I got the impression Vance was extremely disappointed in me.”

“These jackasses.” Cherise shook her head, frowning. “I’ve had it with these guys and their nutty experiments. So, they created a walking weapon, you took him out, and they’re going to reward you with a brain scramble, hmm? I do not condone this shit!” She stood up and paced, clearly trying to think through her anger. “So the nine missing employees, the ones we’ve accounted for so far, they’re like Kyle?”

“I don’t know, Commander. I never met any of them. Can you access the files GARD has on them?”

“Not from here, but I will. Okay, here’s what we’re going to do—we’re going to play dumb about Vance and Gordon’s attempt to take you out of the picture today. I’m going to post a memo that I’ve had your aneurysm evaluated and treated off-site because I wanted you to attend a valuable training opportunity, and I knew a surgeon who could do the procedure with non-invasive techniques. I don’t need to have the details because they won’t be able to argue; the whole thing was bullshit.

“I’m sending you with White, Houston, and the other recruits for some field experience in Madera Canyon, south of here. The timing is perfect, really; we have a facility there testing some new tech for wilderness traversal, and they’ve had some activity they want us to investigate—some snooping scavengers or militia members, from what I can tell. By the time you all return, I’ll hopefully have the situation with Gordon resolved.”

“White and Houston are all right? I can trust them?”

“Oh yes. Their commander, Anderson, and I go way back. You’ll be in good hands.” She paused and looked into space for a minute, clearly thinking things through, and then she said, “Still, I think I’ll keep the details of the training mission to myself. I’ll use Charlie’s bird and synth pilot; Gordon won’t be able to track it. At least he shouldn’t be able to . . .”

While Cherise was speaking, Juliet had a battle with her conscience; she wanted badly to tell her more—to tell her about the WBD infiltrator that was messing with the watchdog, to tell her more about Vance and the GIPEL subjects, to tell her she had troves of data stolen from GARD and Joshua Kyle. She knew she couldn’t, though. Anything she gave to Garza would expose her lies, her sneaking about, and how she wasn’t who she seemed to be. The commander might be helping her and might not be utterly corrupt like some of the other Grave execs, but that didn’t make her a friend.

“What about our watchdogs?”

“Yeah . . . damn it. I can’t keep ‘em off for all of you for that long. I’ll get myself in trouble. Well, by the time you’re all in the air, I’ll be making life difficult enough for Gordon. I don’t see him having the freedom to try to mess with you out there. I’ll keep him plenty busy; trust in that. Besides, only a fool would pursue a new recruit out in the wilderness, especially with Humphrey T. White watching over her.”

Juliet chuckled before she could catch herself and said, “His name’s Humphrey?”

“Oh yes, and rest assured, I’ll make sure he brings his gauss rifle.” She winked at Juliet and said, “Speaking of White and Houston, I’ll have them meet you at the elevator and escort you to your apartment to gather your things. I want that bird in the air within the hour. I’ll keep your watchdog off until then.”

“Thanks, Commander. Seriously, thank you! I have a bad feeling that I’d be a vegetable by now if you hadn’t stepped in.”

“You’re welcome, Lydia. I recruited you, after all; you’re on my team, and I take my responsibility to my people seriously.” Juliet’s stomach lurched at those words, and she had to battle down her urge to spill her guts for a second time. Instead, she cleared her throat and mustered a smile, scooting her chair back.

“Should I head back to the elevator?”

“Yes, I’ll walk with you.”

As Juliet followed Garza out of the office, and the jamming field fell away, Garza slowed and waved her hand around in front of her as she walked. They’d gone a few steps when she chuckled and said, “Gordon’s not happy with me. He’s trying to say I’m endangering you by taking you off-site. This is good, though—if he had a leg to stand on, he’d be threatening to arrest me and bring me before the administrative tribunal.”

“Um, that’s good.”

“Yes, it is. He knows I’m close with Conrad; if the corruption went higher than Gordon, he’d be making threats. Instead, he’s just whining.” Garza stopped before the elevator and put her hand against the call panel. “I’ll send you on your way. Houston and White will meet you at the top of this elevator and escort you to your rooms. After you grab your gear, the three of you will meet the others on the roof. I’ve already sent out messages to Jensen, Hunter, and Granado. Don’t dilly dally, Lydia; I’d rather White didn’t kill any Grave employees today.”