Chapter 19 #2
If he quit, she knew he’d be gone forever. She made fists in her pockets against the sudden, painful hollow in her chest.
“Honestly? I don’t think so. At least not right away...
” She spoke her thoughts as they came. “The Citizen Protection Service hasn’t had a funding cut like this in a hundred years.
That’s why Tapio spent a fortune to come back so fast. And why Pennington-Smythe evicted all the press from the ribbon-cutting gala this afternoon when we kept asking how the slashed budget would affect the Ridderth base and millions of CPS employees on the planet.
” She pushed at pebbles with her boot. “My finder talent tells me more stories here need to be told. I’ve got an article out tonight that connects a long string of convenient ‘accidents’ in Arazak with an active Minder Corps elite team from Ridderth.
Remember that woman I recognized from the lobby in Azarak?
She used to be on Pennington-Smythe’s security detail, but transferred to Contract Security, also known as covert ops.
Professor Olavskaya was just the latest of their targets.
I’ve got enough solid evidence for three more articles, easy, without even mentioning her name. ”
“How much long—”
The ground shook hard enough to slosh the puddles.
No sounds, so that let out close riots or explosions. Ridderth didn’t have earthquakes.
Brenner tapped his earwire and spoke instead of subvocalizing. “Minan, status. We felt a ground tremor.” He drew in a breath, then shook his head and caught her eye. “We’re going home.” He pointed to her head. “Ears.”
She watched as he turned and walked purposefully toward the intersection. Old Arco might have resented his peremptory tone. New Arco preferred living. She could complain later.
Following in his wake, she tapped her earwire to connect to their secure net, then tightened her hood against the rain.
If they had an airspeeder, they could be at the apartment building in five minutes, but on foot, they were twenty or thirty minutes away. The whole Sanjiao District was transitioning haphazardly from automated industrial to trendy residential, with walkways broken up by construction zones galore.
Minan’s voice came over the earwire. “TCS is reporting an unspecified traffic disruption on the commercial artery, about half a kilometer west of Site 1.”
The three-tier commercial transport artery west of Site 1 — her new flat — handled large, heavy ground vehicles. A single broken-down behemoth could snarl ground traffic for days.
N’Dwama’s voice chimed in. “I’m in an autocab, twenty minutes out. Want me to come back?”
“No, go home,” said Minan. “TCS would detour or ground your cab if you tried. Tōn Ko is with me, and Brenner is with Arco.”
“Copy,” said N’Dwama. “See you in the dawn patrol with the noob.”
Arco had forgotten the team was about to grow by one new person.
On the interstellar trip back from the capital, Nilsson, one of Tapio’s security staff, asked for the transfer.
Her team agreed they could work with the woman, and Arco liked both her cheerful attitude and low-level healer minder talent.
She supposed it was a sign of her rising success that security costs were now her top expense category. Money had never motivated her, but she’d come to appreciate the comforts it afforded. Such as people looking out for her.
Their brisk pace took them past one of the district’s myriad triangular parks, then one of its equally common three-way intersections.
They waited for a corroded groundroller to lumber by, then crossed another three-way intersection.
Brenner dropped back to walk beside her again. “Walking too fast?”
She must have been slowing down again, distracted by her chaotic thoughts. “Sorry. I’ll keep up.”
Calling up the memory of a favorite song, she timed her steps to its driving beat.
Minan’s voice broke her concentration. “News feeds are coming in. A military transport on the artery’s third level lost its cargo over the side.
Driver said it’s a decommed spider mech.
You know, those six-legged, mega-weight military assault walkers with the compound spotlights and multiple weapons arrays.
That probably caused the ground tremo… holy shit, it’s trying to get to its feet. ”
“Maybe its AI thinks it’s helping.” That was Tōn Ko’s voice.
Brenner made a rude sound that echoed over the earwire.
Minan laughed. “Null chance. I bet it’s an emergency response to a perceived attack.
And see, there it goes. Limping away from the artery, toward the northbound access road.
Making pretty good time, considering it’s dragging two of its legs as dead weights.
” A moment later, she added, “I’m hearing chatter about military and police mobilization across the city.
Better hope the spider isn’t still armed.
Otherwise, ‘urban renewal’ will take on a whole new meaning. ”
Arco pointed across the street to an open, well-lit loading yard between two mid-height buildings. “If we trust the map, crossing through there is a shorter way to the five-way intersection we passed earlier.”
Brenner nodded. “Let’s go.”
They had the stained and scarred loading yard to themselves. No stray carts, and the rows of bay doors they passed were closed tight. A flock of large camera eyes zoomed by overhead toward the west, probably seeking the spider.
Tōn Ko whistled through the earwire. “I think Big Spider is going rogue. The news feeds show it heading north. A Ground Division hovercar just showed up. Announcers say mechs and tanks are on the move all over. Big Spider must be more trouble than they’re admitting.”
“In that case,” said Minan, “the onsite Commander will shut down all media in case things go twisted.”
Arco snorted. “As if dozens of raw feeds aren’t already topping planet-wide trends.”
Minan chuckled. “Yeah, that’s the galaxy’s finest military minds for you. Blockade the jump point an hour after the runner ship has gone transit.”
Arco and Brenner rounded the corner of the long building and veered toward the big five-way intersection. She made a mental note to avoid it during business hours. Fortunately, with no traffic, they could pretend to be bipedal ground cars and stride across the expanse to the street they wanted.
The rain lightened. A swarm of small cameras, similar to the ones she usually carried, converged around them. “Shoo.” She pointed west. “The big story is that way.”
The cameras froze for a second, then flew away slowly, bumping into one another like they were drunk.
She glanced at Brenner as he walked, but couldn’t tell if he zapped the cameras or not.
“Big Spider is mad.” Tōn Ko’s commentary sounded like he was calling an antigrav cage fight.
“It just batted the hovercar out of the sky. Made a nasty splat on a warehouse roof. Now it’s turning east, toward the river.
Might take a mech-suited Jumper squad or another spider to stop it. ” He sounded delighted by the prospect.
For no reason Arco could name, she found herself picking up speed. She’d probably watched too many thrillers about giant alien monsters stomping puny pedestrians like ants.
“Zow!” exclaimed Tōn Ko. “So much for the bridge. Ouch. Looks like Big Spider doesn’t like office quads, either.”
She had to half-skip to keep up with Brenner’s lengthened stride. Maybe he’d watched too many thrillers, too.
“Brenner,” said Minan, “should we come get you?”
He glanced up at the surrounding buildings that loomed above. “No point. We’re only three intersections from the front yard. Are you in the annex?”
At the team’s suggestion, she’d short-leased a small, separate office space in one of the new low-rises, one block south, to serve as their security hub.
“Yes. Tōn Ko is on monitors. I was about to fly rounds, but TCS may ground me.”
Brenner shook his head. “Stay put for now. We might need the flitter for fast evac.”
“Copy.”
Arco called up her memory of the map. “We can avoid the second intersection if we go between the orange midrise and the warehouse next to it. Assuming it has lights and no obstacles.”
Brenner nodded. “Worth a shot.”
“Big Spider is still headed east, following the street, like it’s late for dinner… oh hell, the feed cut off.” Tōn Ko sounded disgruntled.
Brenner turned to her. “Up for running if we have to?”
“I’ll manage.” Too late now to kick herself for not making use of the boring treadmills more often.
A dull, distant thud reverberated against the buildings, and then another.
Brenner broke into a trot. She followed, trailing far enough so she didn’t get splashed by his footfalls.
When they crossed the wide street, she looked west. Nothing visible, but the rhythmic, echoing thuds continued. Maybe they sounded louder because the rain had slowed to a sullen drizzle, no longer muffling echoes.
The space between the orange mid-rise and the half-gutted warehouse resembled a broken-field obstacle course but was well-lit and passable. When Brenner looked questioningly at her, she nodded.
They skirted a three-by-ten-meter container marked as “tech salvage,” then swerved to pass a pallet of sealed, unlabeled crates.
Another small swarm of tiny camera eyes swooped overhead, then circled higher several meters to hover like a cloud of bioluminescent gnats.
Brenner glared up at them and growled. They all glowed brighter for a moment, then dropped like heavy rain instead of high-end cameras.
Suspicion crept into Arco’s mind. “Call me paranoid, but I think one of us might be geotagged. Three different flights of cameras finding us instead of the giant, news-trending rogue spider mech is stretching chance too thin.”
He long-stepped over a muddy puddle. “Nothing on my scan.”