12 – Recon

Tony rounded the corner, and the van thumped, bottoming out on its battered suspension as a tire thudded into a shallow pothole. Addie grunted beside him, clutching the grab handle above the door. “Sorry,” he said sheepishly.

“Don’t wreck the tires,” she teased, “they’re the only part of this thing that’s in decent shape.”

Tony signaled, changing lanes and then gliding into a spot near Glitchwitch’s building. “That’s not totally true. The motor and batts seem pretty solid. It’s holding a charge, at least.”

Addie looked at him sideways, giving him a half-smile that said she was about to tease him again. “If you can trust the sensors.”

“Hey, you agreed to this purchase! Just have some faith; we’ll fix it up when we’re a little more cash-flow positive.”

“There she is,” Addie said, nodding toward the railing that bordered the netjacker’s stairwell. Sure enough, a white mohawk was rising into view. Glitchwitch climbed up, tugging behind her a black, wheeled, plastic case almost as big as she was. It was adorned with stickers—band names mostly—scuffed up, and clearly well-traveled. “Go help her!”

“Right.” Tony put the van in park and opened his door, stepping out into the thick, but almost cool air of the Blast. It was getting dark, and some kind of weather was blowing in, so he could pretend he was in some other city or at least a different district for a while, as the rain-scented breeze displaced the usual, throat-scratching harshness of the air. “Yo,” he called, waving.

Glitch—Tony was finding her full name too much of a mouthful—turned her pink-tinted visor his way and nodded, dragging her big case toward the van. He stood by the curb, waiting to help her lift the case down. As she approached, she nodded at the van. “A moving van. Nice cover.”

“Heh, thanks.” Tony grabbed one of the straps on the side of her case and hoisted, gently lowering it down. It was heavy, but it didn’t rattle or anything. Whatever gear she had stowed within was well-packed. He pulled the back doors of the van open, exposing the modifications he’d made the day before, working in the alley behind Bert’s shop.

After taking delivery of the van, he and Addie had driven to a salvage yard on the edge of the district and picked up a bench seat that had originally been installed in a commuter cab. It had comfortable synth-leather seats, belts, and a steel frame that Tony had mounted along the wall on the driver’s side of the cargo area. Four people could sit in it if they squeezed, but it would hold three people comfortably. On the other side, Tony had installed a plasteel shelving rack with mesh, slide-out drawers that would keep things they put in them from falling all over the van if he took a corner too fast.

Bert had supplied the shelves, and Tony had done all the “installing” with a portable welder that had been for sale in the pawn shop for a couple of weeks. The welds were probably ugly to a pro, but they got the job done; the bench seat was solid, and the shelves weren’t going anywhere.

“It has the power connections I specified?” Glitch asked, peering past him into the van’s interior.

Addie swiveled her seat, peering back toward the open bay doors. She waved. “Hey, Glitchwitch.”

“Heya, Ember.” They’d only met once over coffee, but Tony could tell Glitch was trying to be pleasant. Either that, or she just liked Addie more than she liked him.

“I didn’t have to,” he replied, pointing to the outlets in the ceiling where it met the walls. “Already had ’em.”

“Cool. Makes sense for a work van, I guess.” She studied the interior for another couple of seconds, then pointed. “Can you strap my case there, beside those shelves? I need to be able to open the front.”

Tony nodded, climbing into the van and hoisting the big case up, using his cybernetic arm. He rolled it into place, then used a couple of the straps he’d stowed in one of his newly installed drawers to secure it. The van had no shortage of tie-down eyelets. “That good?”

“Perfect.” Glitch climbed aboard, flopping onto the bench seat. “Just us three?”

Addie replied, “For tonight, yes. We’re just doing recon.”

Tony grinned. He liked that she was getting into it, taking on a leadership role with their “subs.” He pulled the doors shut, then moved up to the driver’s seat. The interior was spacious—room for a lot more gear if they needed it. He figured they could even mount lockers up high, above the bench seat, to stow extra weapons and gear, leaving the central space clear for cargo or whatever. When he sat down and put the vehicle in gear, pressing on the accelerator, the electric engine whirred, and it rolled out.

“It’s a rough ride, Glitch,” Addie said, looking over her shoulder. “Needs new shocks and stuff.”

“I’m fine. My gear’s packed well.” As she spoke, Tony heard her seatbelt click.

He sent the address to the van’s AI and slowly released his hands from the wheel, watching as the auto-driving functions took over. Satisfied that they were on course and things were working properly, he swiveled his seat to face Addie and Glitchwitch. “I guess we need to brief you in. Call it a habit or paranoia, but will you turn on your jamming device, Glitch? Hate for certain corpos in the district to catch wind of what we’re up to.”

She narrowed her eyes. “I’m pretty sure you two trust each other to keep your PAIs in line, so what you’re saying is you don’t trust me?”

Tony shrugged. “I don’t know you yet. Let’s get this job under our belts together, and then we can start talking about trust.”

“Shepherd…” Addie said, clearly suffering some second-hand embarrassment at his bluntness.

“Nah.” Glitchwitch waved her hand dismissively, unbuckling. “It’s fine. Pretty standard. I’m assuming you know that high-end jammers have exclusion lists. I could block transmissions while allowing myself to transmit. That being the case, I’ll use a more crude, blanket jammer.”

When the van stopped at a light, she stood and went over to her case, unbuckling the front panel to expose a bunch of drawers. She pulled one open and took out a flat, black, rectangular device. She shut the case and then sat back down. “This’ll block our transmissions, and”—she gave Tony a pointed look—“more importantly, it will scramble any attempt to eavesdrop electronically on our conversation from outside the van.”

“Cool.” Tony watched as she stuck the device to the van’s wall with a click. And then tapped a button on the top. A high-pitched squeal sounded in his ears, and Addie winced, clapping her hands over hers, but the sound faded quickly. At the same time, lines of static began to run across Tony’s vision sporadically, and he knew that if he tried to record what was going on in the van, the data would be corrupted. It was a pretty thorough jamming device.

“Satisfied?” Glitchwitch asked, working her jaw in a circle and rubbing her left ear. “Hate this thing.”

“Alright—”

Addie held up a finger, interrupting him. “Why doesn’t that jammer mess up the van’s auto-driving?”

Glitch shrugged. “Your van uses the external cameras and its AI to drive kind of like a person would, only better, cause it can see in every direction at once. All of that’s hard-wired.”

“Oh. I always assumed it needed a network or something.”

“Nah, that’s only for traffic maps and road outages and stuff.”

“So, can I go ahead?” Tony couldn’t help putting a little snark into his voice. Addie glared at him, refusing to justify the question with an answer. He relented and looked at Glitch. “The reason I’m worried about word of this job getting out is because we’re going up against Boxer.”

“Shit, man,” she groaned. “Why didn’t you say that when you hired me. I ain’t looking to get on Boxer’s shitlist.”

“You remember what I told you? You’ll never make it to the higher tiers if you shy away from every job with dangerous marks.”

Glitchwitch looked from Tony to Addie, frowning. “All I know about you, the only thing that gives a little credibility to your story, is that you’ve got an eye worth fifty k. Well, that and your attitude. How will—”

“It was more like eighty k,” Tony corrected, but then he frowned and shrugged. “Well, that was for a pair. Okay, fair. Anyway, listen. We’re not assaulting Boxer in their headquarters or anything. It’s a satellite lab and there won’t be many corpo-sec on duty. Your job is to keep them from calling for help and, if you can manage it, provide us with cover. Like, in my old life, I knew a netjacker who could reroute their comms and give them fake data. I don’t know if you can handle something like that.” Tony was baiting her pride, and she probably knew it, but it seemed to work.

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“I can do it, if you give me prep time.”

“So, you see? The risk to you is minimal. You won’t be going in; if things go sideways, you can bail. No hard feelings. Meanwhile, you’ll be proving yourself to me and Ember, and that means more jobs coming your way.”

“A Boxer satellite lab, huh? You think there’ll be much salvage?” Tony had agreed to give her a cut of anything they picked up on the job, which had been a significant factor in her deciding to take the job.

“We hope so,” Addie replied, and Tony nodded.

The netjacker frowned, running a hand through her mohawk. After a minute, she shrugged and asked, “Okay, so tonight we’re doing recon? When do we hit redline?”

Tony looked at Addie, then back at Glitch. “We’ve got three days to get this done.”

“Whew. Not exactly making things easy with that timeline.” She leaned back, but didn’t object further, which Tony found encouraging.

“The job is worthwhile,” Addie said, moving the conversation back on track. “We’re rescuing a scientist who’s being held against his will, forced to work on a project for Boxer.”

“Yeah? Well, that doesn’t exactly make him special. I’d say there are a few million corpo employees within an hour’s drive who could say the same.” Glitchwitch sighed, arching her back, stretching her neck from side to side. “So? Why’s he special?”

“Not really our business.” Tony shrugged. “Client wants him out, and they’re paying, so we’re gonna get him out.”

“He’s a whistleblower,” Addie said, tossing Tony a pointed glare. He folded his arms, leaning back, content to let her go over further details; he’d never been much of a talker, especially when he felt like the discussion wasn’t necessary. Why did Glitch need to know all the little details? Her job was clear, wasn’t it?

“You know what he’s, uh, exposing?” Glitch asked.

“Not exactly, but we know he tried to come forward about something Boxer was doing, something unethical, and that’s when they locked him away. So, I think we’re doing something good by rescuing him.”

“Guess that’s cool.”

They continued talking, but Tony’s mind was elsewhere. He was thinking about the many plans he’d been mulling over to get into the lab. It was a Boxer site, so he had an idea that maybe they could get in by claiming to be Boxer employees—corpo-sec agents with a dangerous criminal they needed to secure. That would be where Glitch would come in; the corpo-sec on site would want to confirm their identities. They’d have questions about why they stopped there instead of going to a proper holding facility. If Glitch could intercept their comms, she could spin a story to explain things.

That was one idea. He’d done something similar in his old life, which was undoubtedly why he’d thought of it. He’d had time to prepare properly, though—credentials, a uniform, and someone with a hell of a lot more experience running the intercepted comms. No, one of his other ideas would probably be better.

He cleared his throat, interrupting their speculation about the doctor. “Glitch, you ever done any spoofing like this? Have you looked into Boxer comm protocols?”

“Yeah. About six months ago, I helped someone liberate an impounded street bike. Boxer was holding it in one of their lots.”

“So you’ve already gone up against Boxer!” Addie exclaimed.

Glitch shrugged. “Well, it was a minor thing, and I wasn’t exposed at all. Even the guy grabbing the bike didn’t know who I was.” She nodded at Tony. “This guy gets nabbed, and he can point Boxer at me.”

Tony smiled. “You don’t have to worry about that.”

“Well, as you said, let’s get through this job before we start talking about trust, yeah?”

Tony’s AUI pinged, and he felt the van decelerating, pulling to the side of the street. It wasn’t common to find street parking in the Blast, at least not in the central parts of the district, but out there, on the perimeter, things were zoned for more commercial activity. Looking at the display projected from the dash into his AUI, he could see the various cam feeds on the van’s exterior, and was pleased to see a lot of vehicles parked nearby. “Looks like we’ll blend in just fine.”

“Can you darken the tint?” Glitch asked.

Tony shook his head. “Nah, basic glass. We’ll upgrade it eventually.” He motioned for Addie to move ahead of him. “Let's get in back, Ember. I’ll hang a cargo blanket to conceal us.” Addie moved to sit beside Glitch, and Tony busied himself with the blanket. Meanwhile, Glitch started unpacking things from her case.

“Should I send Humpty out?” Addie asked.

“Not yet. Glitch can use the van’s cams to get a look at the building, and then she can tell you where to send him.”

“Humpty?” the netjacker asked.

“My drone.”

“Dust-tech,” Tony interjected. “Take whatever expectations you have about her piloting and triple them.”

“Shepherd…”

Glitch gave Addie an appraising look. “That good, huh?”

Tony nodded, turning from his completed task. “She can fly that thing through an obstacle course while cooking a five-course meal.”

“Oh yeah?” Glitch arched an eyebrow, some new respect entering her expression as she continued to look at Addie.

“Well, um, I’m not much of a cook.”

Tony laughed. “You get the idea.”

Glitch ignored him, still staring at Addie. “Can you place objects with it? Interface with data ports?”

She shook her head. “It’s a camera drone.” After briefly hesitating, she added, “It used to be a probe. It was one of the first high-end Dust-tech technologies developed by Horizon Corp. I mean, that’s what someone told me, but I haven’t been able to find any documentation.”

“Can I see it?” Glitch asked.

Tony leaned against the shelving unit, intrigued. Had Addie told him that? If her drone was made by Horizon, that made it exponentially more valuable than he’d thought, and he’d already thought it was worth a pretty pile of bits. While Addie dug her backpack out of one of the storage bins, he asked, “Who told you it was Horizon tech?”

She looked at him sideways, scowling, but not at him—at a memory. “Zane.”

“Ah.”

Addie took her pack and sat beside Glitch again. A moment later, she lifted out her gray, football-shaped drone. Glitch took in an excited breath. “It’s got a gravity drive? Holy shit, I think this really is Horizon technology. May I?”

Almost nervously, Addie handed the drone over, and Glitch turned it every which way, examining the smooth surface. “Can you activate it from there? Or do you need to—” She stopped short as Addie’s eyes lit up with an amber glow, evident in the dimly lit van interior. A moment later, the drone hummed softly and lifted out of Glitch’s hands. “Can you activate the cams?” Before she finished the question, six little apertures snicked open around the drone’s center line. Tiny glass lenses winked in the dim LED lighting.

Glitch let out a low whistle, leaning close. “This is wartime tech, sis. Horizon had an AI; you know that, right?”

Addie nodded. “Horizon Net. Persephone destroyed it to end the war—”

“Pshh!” Glitch waved a hand dismissively. “That’s the corpo-school line. It was a lot more complicated than that. Horizon had factions, and one of them was working with Persephone. They were working with her when they made this.” She gestured to Humpty. “If you’re right, and I think you are, this was one of the original probe designs meant to go into the Aurora Gate.”

Addie frowned, and Tony didn’t blame her. This was not exactly how the history books explained things. He stayed quiet, though, curious what Addie’s take would be. After a moment’s hesitation, she asked, “But Humpty is Dust-tech; how could he have been developed before the Aurora Gate fell—came apart, I mean. I thought Persephone was dead by the time people were making Dust-tech.”

Glitch chuckled. “I’ve got some corpo-banned vids and interviews I’d like you to watch, sis. That ain’t how things went. Persephone was experimenting and exploring the Aurora Gate for years before things went boom. She knew about Dust and worked with it a lot before the rest of the world knew about it. Trust me, this little guy wouldn’t exist if she hadn’t been. Do you think people would have come up with all those Dust-tech designs so quickly? They were piggybacking on Horizon’s and Persephone’s work.” She pointed at Humpty. “You see his little camera apertures?”

“Yeah?”

“Nanite-actuated. The shutters are controlled at the molecular level; there aren’t any mechanical parts opening and closing. Can you feel it when they open and close? Through your link, I mean?”

“Yes.” Addie nodded, looking up at Tony, almost nervously. “It’s almost like opening my eyes. I feel my awareness expand.”

Glitch grinned, leaning close to grasp Addie’s wrist. “That’s so cool and way beyond what most folks feel when they interface with dust-tech, especially the gear made these days. Can you kind of feel around with your connection? Try to open anything else that might be in there?”

“Anything else?” Again, Addie frowned, but this time it was more a look of concentration than doubt.

Tony watched her, struggling not to say anything or move closer. He wanted to support her, but he also wanted to stay out of it; this was her stuff and she needed to figure out that she was damn good—better than pretty much anyone he’d met. After a few seconds, she closed her eyes, and Glitch glanced at Tony, arching an eyebrow questioningly, and he shrugged, nodding at Addie. Glitch nodded and looked back at her, patiently waiting while Addie concentrated and her drone hummed softly, floating in the air between them.

After a couple of minutes, Addie’s lips parted and she softly said, “Oh.” Then, she opened her eyes and smiled. “Look.” Humpty rotated on his axis, bringing the bottom of his egg-shaped hull in line with Glitch’s gaze. Tony moved around to see. A new aperture had opened there, revealing a data port.

“That’s what I was hoping for!” Glitch crowed. “If you’ll let me, I might be able to unlock his other functions.”

“Um, other functions?”

“This is primo dust-tech, Ember. I’m sure there’s an AI in there that will allow you to give it autonomous instructions. More than that, he has a gravity drive! Think about it. If he can manipulate gravity to fly, he can carry heavy things, too. The nanite-actuated camera apertures are the biggest clue; he can probably adaptively reconfigure his hull.”

“Like change his shape?” Addie asked, frowning.

“Kind of. More likely he can extend limbs of some sort—you know, to grasp or interface with things.”

Tony cleared his throat, his curiosity finally getting the better of him. “Why’d they lock all those functions?”

“The corps that liquidated Horizon’s holdings did that with stuff they sold to the public. You know how corps are; they didn’t want something too useful falling into the hands of folks like you and me; better save the best stuff for themselves. In this case, they made a nice safe little camera drone and probably sold it to the corpo-news propagandists.” She shrugged. “Well? What do you say, Ember? You want a safe little camera drone or you want a high-end, multifunctional probe designed for the most hostile environments Horizon scientists could dream up?”

“You sure you can unlock it without wrecking it?” Tony asked before Addie could reply.

“I’m sure I can try.” Glitch saw Addie start to frown, and she hastily rephrased. “I can try to unlock him, but I’m ninety-nine percent sure I won’t break anything.” She chuckled, waving a hand. “Anyway, think about it. I need my gear back at home to make it happen. If we do it, though, it’ll make this job easier. Otherwise, I’ve got a dumber drone we can use to carry my comm gear into place.”

Addie looked at Tony again; this time, he caved in and gave her a brief nod of encouragement. She smiled, and he could see the excitement in her eyes. “Let’s do this recon. Then, can we go back to your place and see what you can do with Humpty?”

Glitch held up a fist, displaying black-painted nails and a flower tattoo. Addie, beaming, punched her knuckles against it. Glitch laughed, wincing as she shook her hand out. “Hell yes, sis. We’ll break this little guy out of his prison.”