The osiris shift trinity.., p.13
The Osiris Shift (Trinity Sprawl Book 1), page 13
This case now had my full undivided attention. It couldn’t be a coincidence that the same company that had ruined my life was the same company that had sponsored a no name street rat for a technician position, first grade. Could it?
I mean what are the odds? My heart was telling me it was causality at play but it could just be a coincidence. I didn’t have any other connection to Duarte that I knew of. Whatever the reason or connection there was something here. There was something suspicious happening at RoxxoR and I had Trinity’s blessing to investigate it. Perhaps things were really starting to look up.
I greedily read over the contents of the file. There really wasn’t much there. Just the basic information of Duarte’s employment contract with RoxxoR, scattering of sightings, and crypto payments. Libby’s crew had done me a great favor in reconstructing his movements based on his crypto purchases and providing an analysis.
“Subject confirmed deposit from a subsidiary holding company in the value amount of three hundred and fifty thousand by current universal crypto standards. Award paid in Z-bond limited crypto, a lower value and easily traded cryptocurrency. Z-bond is prefered for trading as it possesses a corporate level blockchain encryption. It is a plentiful crypto and widely used. Balance was automatically converted to universal standard as the receiving bank purchased the Z-bonds for reuse.”
Up until recently Z-bond had been my crypto of choice for that very reason. But most companies didn’t bother with it when paying employees. So to see it used raised some questions but none more than why a company would pay a signing bonus of three hundred and fifty thousand for a technician, even a first grade. I continued to read.
“Subject transferred one hundred thousand to one Valentina Flores. Subject put a down payment of fifty-thousand on an apartment in Peachtree Towers.” So on and so forth. He was acting like anyone who had just got their hands on a fortune. He was spending it like it was burning a hole in his account. I skipped to the end and read the analysis.
“Based on the pattern of movements and purchases it is concluded that the Subject was working remotely or not at all. There is no pattern in movements to suggest that the Subject ever visited RoxxoR technologies listed as current employer. Purchasing patterns suggest highly that the Subject had recently entered a relationship. Large sums of crypto were being used to purchase items that did not trend with this Subject’s personality make up. Common purchases identify as meals for two, flowers, gifts, and so on.”
I sat back and took it all in. He had received payment for something. It could just be a simple case of espionage. If the little jobs he chose to complete took him into sensitive places within his last company, he could have been stockpiling company secrets to sell. It would fit the facts at hand. A cushy no nothing job with a new title and a fat payday would be easily explained.
The receiving company would want to keep a spy on the outside. So, pay him off and give him a title to help keep up appearances and job history. That way they could turn him loose on another company. But something didn’t feel right about that scenario. He needed connections of someone like me to make the proper introductions. No where did he seem to have that access.
I couldn’t shake it, with everything in his history and work reviews espionage is likely an explanation for all his actions prior to three months ago. So who brokered the deal? Could it have been the person he was seeing? He was spending a lot of money on the mystery individual.
I glanced back over the purchasings and mentally added up the marked numbers. He had spent about fifteen thousand on this individual in three months. He was trying hard to keep them around. That meant high class or what he thought high class was supposed to look like.
I sighed and looked at my display. It was fast approaching nine in the morning. I wasn’t tired due to my sleep inhibitor but I was going to have some long nights and getting my four hours now would be better than needing it later.
The reports had answered some questions and given me a timeline but it only raised more questions. I needed more data. I needed to track down this mystery woman, too many of the gifts purchased were feminine in nature for me not to be sure. Though there was admittedly a small margin of error that I could be wrong.
How Duarte Fernández became an assassin was still a mystery. But I had gotten a sense of the man. I wondered briefly at the other assassins. I wondered if I took a look at them if there was a chance I could find any similarities. I know Onyx had probably done the same but I was looking for a more abstract form of connection than they would.
I shot off an email to my favored Onyx contact asking him for a meet and my willingness to purchase some sensitive material. If I could analyze the profiles of the other assassins perhaps I could find something they missed. It was worth a shot at least. It was also the only other proactive thing I could do before I had a bodyguard.
I needed rest, a few hours laying down would do my ribs some good. I felt the first cooling wave of pain relief hit my system as the first of the micro machines delivered their contents of painkillers directly to the source. The little machines were set for time release and would dissolve back into my bloodstream once their job was done. I had no control over them whatsoever and that bugged me a little but I was grateful they were there.
I stood feeling the pain as a distant echo of its former self. It would help me get to sleep at least. I walked into my bedroom and unstrapped my Taurus hanging it up next to my bed before kicking off my boots and falling onto the soft mattress. I engaged my sleep mode and felt the implant flood my brain with wonderful light headed dizziness as sleep came over me. Tomorrow was going to be another interesting day, I thought before being overwhelmed and falling fast asleep.
Case Entry 18
I woke with a full body jerk followed up by muscle spasms that left me twitching as the stim from the sleep inhibitor hit my bloodstream. My heart felt like a power hammer beating fast with thunderous rapture. My breathing, not to be outdone tried to match pace. My eyes flew open trying in vain to blink the sleep out. I forced myself to steady my breathing. Damn, I’d forgotten how rough the wake up shot was.
I rolled onto my back and stretched out on the bed letting the jolt run its course. I could still feel a twinge in my left side. No doubt the combination of painkillers and stim went a long way to dull the pain. But if I’m honest, the price was just too high. Feeling my body’s rhythms starting to normalize I risked rubbing the sleep from my eyes. When the spasms fully subsided I gently rolled to my right and pushed myself upright.
The room was quiet and still. It echoed my own feelings of solitude. Clumsily swinging my legs off the bed I got to my lead filled legs. I could feel my whole body shaking and it wasn’t just from the stim. The ravening claws of hunger reached up from my stomach threatening to choke me if I didn’t feed it. While I had eaten something yesterday, it was well below my minimum daily intake requirement. I had a healthy amount of implants to feed after all.
Limping, or perhaps hobbling, on what felt like a star field of pins, I went to the kitchen. Rummaging quickly in the cupboards I grabbed a pre pack; unceremoniously I pulled the heat tab tossing it on the counter. By the time I was done with my shower and cleaned up my meal should be ready to eat. Task done, I took slightly more steady and pain free steps toward the bathroom.
The noise and feeling of the running water from the shower was calming. The sight of myself as the water ran down my body on the other hand was a bit disturbing. The bruising from where the pipe had impacted had darkened becoming a technicolored mass of blacks, blues, and yellows.
It sprawled over my torso on the left side just starting under my peck and running down to my abdomen. It more than just hurt to look at, the warm water stung as the bruising protested the touch and heat. Painkillers would help; there was no danger of pooling, the autodoc had seen to that, but it was definitely going to restrict my movement.
I put my head under the lukewarm water slightly cursing the stim in my system that made anything hotter a fools gamble, vasodilators and hot water just don’t mix, but just the sensation of running water over my body helped bring my racing mind to order. I was going to need a clear head if I wanted to get through the next few days.
I turned the water off and let the stall’s dryers blow warm air across my body. Showering done, I got a good cleaning on my teeth, and emptied my bladder thanking my efficient digestion implant for the fact that I would never have to use the toilet’s other intended function. Then I recycled the cleaner with yesterday’s dirty clothes. Starving, as reminded by the sounds and feel of my stomach, I got fully dressed.
Once my Taurus had taken its place at my side, I grabbed the steaming pre pack, a fork, and popped it open after I sat down at my desk. By sheer luck or good fortune I had grabbed a beef stroganoff, with real beef. Hell, for all I knew it could have been cloned beef, I doubt I could’ve told the difference given how fast I inhaled it. I’ve had the real stroganoff but I’ve always been partial to the Great Value brand pre pack version. It’s just twelve hundred calories of goodness.
Still hungry, I made seconds ensuring this time to take the little packet of sour cream and mix it into the heated meal, absolutely delicious. Hunger contained, body rhythms normal, and mind clear I felt ready to take on the world. Granted, that was partly the stim talking, but I was feeling more optimistic about my current job than I had before I started. There was a personal investment now and that can do a lot where motivation is concerned.
Taking a few more bites of my second pre pack I noticed two priority messages waiting for me. I had long ago set up filtering that would push Harry or any of my contacts to the forefront of the mass of spam everyone got. With a wave of my hand I pulled up my monitors and opened my Onyx contact’s message first. A quick glance confirmed he was willing to meet at our regular ramen stand near the Sector A border crossing. I leaned back taking my meal with me as I took another bite of the creamy beefy goodness.
I would need to go down to the garage to get a gift for him. Something to insure a smooth transaction and possibly shortcut any price gouging. My reputation had taken a hit; if all the lowlifes knew then it was a sure bet that anyone working for Onyx knew. I confirmed for eighteen-hundred hours and sent the message on its way.
Peach Trees was in the opposite direction but that would have to be my next stop. I needed a lead on this mystery woman that Duarte was trying to romance. Either she was his broker or she would lead me to them. It was the best play I had at my disposal and I didn’t want to waste it.
The subject line on Harry’s message read “Alena ‘Bast’ Novak”. I opened it and read the full message. “Breck, Bast agreed to a meeting. She should be arriving around fourteen-hundred with a guest pass issued from my account. She is a real pro and whatever you do don’t stare. Harriet.”
Short and to the point, Harry had included a small dosiar on Miss Novak that I downloaded and opened. I wondered briefly what Harry was setting me up for with her, don’t stare, comment but I wrote it off to Harry being Harry. I turned my attention to the dosiar as I took the last several bites of my meal and discarded the tray.
Bast, as other runners called her was a straight up razor girl. She had been through some serious training with people I knew personally. High marks in hand-to-hand, blades, and several varieties of firearms. She was described as a tactical thinker who excelled in mid to close range combat.
Her preferred weapons were machine pistols and blades. She had a good job completion record though I did note that she seemed to bounce round teams. Never working for the same one more than twice. She had all the hallmarks I would normally look for and I wondered why she wasn’t a bigger player yet.
I glanced at the time, thirteen-forty. If she was punctual she’d be at my door in about fifteen minutes. Her inconsistency in relationships with her teammates profiled out to me as either the loner type, overconfident type, or both. A good runner team is like a family. You have to trust the others in your team with your life. The closer they are the better they tend to work together.
There are outliers where each member knows their role and can be depended on to carry it out. In this case all the Runners would be known specialists whose reputation did all the talking allowing the team to meld. A team of such individuals tends to last for a single mission before they move on. A runner that jumps teams every few runs can be a cause for concern normally.
I would have to get it sorted before trusting my life to her. Not that I really had much choice in the matter. I needed a bodyguard and Harry had come through. I would put my life into Harry’s hands and as such I would have to trust her judgment of this Bast. I just didn’t have to like it. Then again, there wasn’t much I really liked about my current situation. That was just life.
Case Entry 19
At thirteen-fifty-five I received notice that the building AI had permitted an authorized visitor to enter. The authorization had come from Harry’s account and the AI had granted me the option to monitor the visitors progress through the building. With a node command I pulled up the surveillance feed to my open monitors.
The visitor was a silhouette of contrasting images that blurred their features. It was clear that my guest was wearing anti-surveillance clothing. I was slightly impressed, if this was Bast and she had been doing the kind of jobs her dossier indicated then it made sense.
Anti-surveillance clothing as a whole, didn’t hide you like optical camo, but it was widely available and cheap. It was a low level option that prevented capturing of facial or bodily details. It was useless against higher grade security but when you’re knocking over stash houses or raiding a low grade warehouse it is perfect for the job. The fact that it was effective against my building’s security was worrisome.
With a wave of my hand I dismissed the monitors on my desk allowing the vid stream to appear within my field of vision as I moved to the door. At fourteen-hundred the visitor stopped at the entrance to my office. As I was already monitoring her progress the notification was automatically registered as received and dismissed.
I spoke, in a cool and controlled manner, and the system relayed. “Please reveal yourself then look up and to the right and state your name.” Despite this being a pretty normal occurrence for any first time visitor to whom I couldn’t identify I still found my hand resting on the butt of my Taurus.
The visitor moved and the face of a fairly striking woman appeared. She looked up at the camera and the AI registered that her features matched that of the dossier. When she spoke, her tone and pitch was undeniably feminine falling into the soprano range. It was not hard or soft just sort of plain and normal, familiar even.
“Alena Novak, but most call me Bast. Harriett sent me.” She said equally as cool and controlled. The AI again registered that her vocal patterns matched those provided in the dossier and I relaxed a little. I opened the door hearing the familiar hiss as the pressure equalized and Bast came into view.
I took her in at a glance, she had an athletic build that border lined on boyish. The tight, form hugging, single suit she wore left just the right amount to the imagination and must have been made from a flex mesh that was fairly resistant to most small arms. I wore several pieces of clothing made from the same stuff. For a brief moment she reminded me of those great classical actresses like Olivia Wilde or Keira Knightley.
Her hair, a raven color that was ombre grey to white toward the tips, was cut short, similar to a shaved side asymmetrical bob that framed one side of her face. What drew my gaze about chest high was not a single set of arms but three sets. My eyes widen and I’m sure I leaned in just a little to study the setup.
The arms were articulated on a triangular base plate that interfaced about where her shoulders would normally be. Each arm could rotate independent of the base plate which could rotate three-hundred and sixty degrees. No doubt she had a secondary control AI installed that helped manage the arms depending on the task and coordination requirements. This was something unexpected and amazing to see.
“Beautiful.” I said without thinking. “Absolutely amazing.” Her body tensed as she responded to my utterance. “Hey, my eyes are up here asshole.” She said with a little condemnation in her tone. I looked up and realized for the first time that she was as tall as I was, 1.83 meters or at least close to it. It dawned on me where I had been looking when I said what I had said. “I’m sorry.” I said it softly, feeling wrong footed already. “Your arms, it’s the first time I have seen a setup like it. It’s amazing.” I said taking a step back to allow her to enter.
Bast looked at me for a hard moment, a set of hands on her hips, another set across her spartan chest, and the third resting on a pair of machine pistols tucked into the small of her back as if trying to read my intentions. Her silvery eyes narrowed. She had replaced her A.R. lenses with an upgrade that covered the iris leaving a pool of mercury in a sea of white.
The upgraded implant would adjust to keep the light levels steady no matter how bright or dark. A valuable implant that protected from light flashes and gave fairly decent low light vision. I had a similar but more advanced version that didn’t require the silvering myself. With a soft sigh and a relaxing of two of the sets of arms, I noticed the pair of hands on the machine pistols stayed where they were as she walked passed me into my unit.
I watched as she entered the office area noticing that she was eyeing the sightlines looking for the best potential cover and kill zones the tiny space had available. I would do the same in her shoes. I moved to my desk letting the door close and seal automatically. I gestured to one of the chairs in front of the desk as I sat down behind it. She took the indicated chair finally releasing her machine pistols.
“If you don’t mind me asking but who crafted your arms?” I asked my interest in the tech evident in my tone. “Why is it relevant?” She replied in a professional demeanor I noticed was a bit forced.
