The osiris shift trinity.., p.18
The Osiris Shift (Trinity Sprawl Book 1), page 18
What I found odd was that the security was still in place. Onyx would have done an investigation. The local security force would have had to disengage the system to allow them entrance. The fact that they had tried to cut it means that they couldn’t gain access any other way.
“What’s up, you see something?” Bast asked me. I turned to face her and noticed that one set of her arms was cradling around her waist while the other two sets were displaying more confidence. “I think this thing is off the grid.” I replied. “What makes you so sure?” She said. “Look at the pockmarking. Someone was left with only one option and that was to cut their way in.” I responded.
She cocked her head to one side as she thought through my line of thought. “Which means they couldn’t access it electronically.” She said to show she was following along. She gave a single shoulder shrug and said. “Well I guess that’s that. Where do you want to go now?”
I looked back at the center plate and then back to her. “ You don’t think,” I started and she leveled a sharp silvery gaze that could have cut me open had I continued. “I might be the muscle but there is no way in hell that I can move that. You’re supposed to be some magical unicorn. So use your magical unicorn powers or something.”
Her tone caught me off guard. “My magical unicorn powers?” I repeated and blinked a few times. “Look, is everything alright? You have kind of been on edge since we stepped foot in this place.” I asked a little concerned. I mean my life was depending on her.
Bast looked around with an annoyed expression on her face. She bit back a few words before replying. “I grew up in a rat trap like this.” She said. “My parents still live there. Being back here just makes me feel like I haven’t truly escaped it.”
I could sympathize. I had felt that way the first few years after I had left the Magi and Felix behind. “Well, get your shit together.” I said as sympathetically as I could. “I know, it’s just it’s so quiet in these halls. It’s freaking me out.” She replied. I stopped and took notice at that. “Why?” I asked while a bad feeling started to make itself known.
“What?” She looked at me like I’d gone sideways. “There are hundreds if not thousands of people just on this floor. When was the last time you saw someone? There should be kids running up and down these halls with people milling about to go or do something. Places like this are twenty-four hour hives of activity.” She said as if it should have been plain to see. “I mean that is the way it is at home. It might be different here.” She finished in a tone that let me know how true she thought that possibility was.
It really hadn’t occurred to me. I never passed anyone in the halls at home. All my neighbors were temporary and there was never a need to get to know them. This had seemed perfectly normal to me. “Too many coincidences are piling up.” I said looking once more down and back along empty hallways.
Bast narrowed her eyes at that. “Are you expecting trouble?” She said as two sets of her arms moved to rest her hands on the four different butts of her guns. She looked more relaxed now her fears had been voiced. “I’m not sure what to expect.” I said, noticing that we were effectively boxed in.
“Duarte Fernández was a no nothing maintenance tech. A glorified custodian.” I said reaching into my utility pouch that hung next to my spare ammo. “He used his last employer to get a rung up through a little corporate espionage.” I grabbed three of the six disposable micro cams I kept within.
“His sister said he was getting more and more paranoid talking about things that never happened to him or his family. I figured he was a Mnemosyne junkie, but the timeline didn’t fit.” I said more to myself but enough to help bring Bast up to speed. “But now.” I started turning to look at the metallic plates covering Duarte’s unit. “Now, I’m thinking his paranoia started sometime before his more recent ascension.”
Bast looked to me then the unit. “What has that got to do with anything?” She asked. “I came here looking for a lead to whoever brokered his deal. He would have needed a fixer like me to put him in touch with the right people to get taken seriously.” I pulled the tab to expose the sticky adhesive. The camera automatically activated and connected to my node. Estimating where the door should be I placed the micro cam high and across from it.
“But now, I’m beginning to think he was singled out. Someone targeted him.” I tossed one of the micro cams to Bast and tapped my temple with my index finger. “Go about fifty meters down and set up the cam. Just pull the tab to activate it. It will auto connect to my node. Don’t worry about orientation, it will adjust on its own.” I said through the link.
As she ran off down the right of the passage I took the left. Fifty meters was about the total coverage of the cams. They were intended to cover blind spots. I watched as the first one I placed finished connecting appearinng in my visual display. The panoramic view was a bit disorientating but would give me eyes down both sides of the hallway. I saw Bast’s cam starting to connect and I pulled the tab and set the last cam.
“What makes you so sure he was being targeted?” Bast asked as she retreated back up the hallway. “His spending habits. It indicated he had a girlfriend or someone that he felt was out of his league if some of the gifts he bought were any indication. I thought at first that she might have been his broker.” I replied on my way back.
“But now you think she was a honey pot?” Bast said as we both met up in front of Duarte’s unit. “His sister did say he likes spending his time in leisure pursuits, drinking, gambling, and women. There are other things that fit as well but what I’m hoping to find on the other side of that barricade is a lead on the mystery woman.”
“So, the objective hasn’t changed just who you’re looking for? That makes sense but how are we going to get in?” She said looking toward the armored wall. I looked at the wall of metal and smiled wide. “The same way Duarte got in.” I said. “Through the front door.”
Bast’s head snapped back at me and laughed in disbelief. “And how are you going to pull that off?” She asked with a wide smile to match my own. “That part is simple. I’m going to use my magical unicorn powers.” I said as I turned to the door.
Case Entry 26
As the last of the micro cams connected I looked at the field of vision I now had. Between the three cameras, and their panoramic views, they covered about hundred and fifty meters. We would have about seventy-five meters coverage down each end of the hallway from where we stood. The coverage had spots where the cameras didn’t quite overlap but it was close enough that anyone leaving one camera was picked up by another almost immediately.
I adjusted the configuration to notify me if any of the cams detected movement. The cameras had a limited number of options suited to their purpose. Most were automatic like night vision but some had to be set. Once I had verified the settings I linked Bast into the feed. Two sets of eyes were better than one.
I felt better now that my back was covered. I would have preferred a full team of runners as backup but at least if there was an ambush I would know about it. Information is a great asset in planning a response. I was unsettled by what Bast had brought to my attention. So I needed all the information I could get my hands on. But I also needed to ensure our safety in doing so. My gut told me that as soon as I opened this door that we would be on the clock.
My first instinct was to just walk away. Try a different approach. But that would take time and still yield nothing. The answers I sought might be on the other side of the armor plate. It was a gamble but I’ve had worse odds. I’d take a couple of decently trained runners against local security any day of the week. And, I would expect to win everytime.
I turned to face Duarte’s unit. It was time to open the door. Having a system off the grid could mean several things. It could mean that there was an analog signal that had to be given to trip the system, like a garage door remote, or it could be a physical system. A physical system would be the hardest to deal with. There would literally be nothing to hack. Get creative and make a giant puzzle out of it and it could take a long time before someone figured it out.
I could feel Bast’s eyes on me as I studied the wall. I imagined her with the cheesy amused smile she had made at my boast still plastered on her face in a mocking expression. Ok, maybe it wasn’t cheesy, perhaps it was kind of nice in a badass warrior woman sort of way, but it’s my imagination. But, she clearly didn’t believe I could do it and I aimed to prove her wrong. I needed her to be wrong. My pride was already nine rounds down and I wasn’t sure it could take another beating.
I took a calming breath and rolled my shoulders. There was a pang of distant pain as it flared and died. I silently thanked the painkillers for doing their job. Calmed, I threaded off parts of my consciousness. The first part went to work scanning the various radio frequencies looking for anything that was actively scanning in my immediate vicinity. The other threads I put to work building node viruses. Well, more like updating a few. Call me paranoid but I just didn’t feel like I was ready for a fight without doing all I could. I was posing as a Tek-sorcerer. I needed to start acting like one again.
I moved to the plate and put my hand out to feel it. Mecha Armor is non-magnetic so anything holding it to the wall had to be a physical structure, probably steel. Back when I first started running I had magnetic grips installed into my hands. When activated it would keep any weapon from being knocked from my grip. I had thought it an amazing idea at the time but in practice it proved to have some major downfalls.
Not wanting to remove them I repurposed them. By amping them up a little and changing the field generation and strength I could feed the output into my optical implants. In short I created something akin to an MRI. When in use I could see about a centimeter and a half into any non-ferromagnetic object I touched.
My left palm touched the smooth semi-metallic surface. It was cold beneath my fingers. I focused on activating the sensitive nano magnets splaying my fingers as I adjusted the field strength and shape. I fed the forming field power in a slow steady stream. Soon the field was upto strength and the under structures started to reveal themselves in my field of vision.
The image was a gradient of greys. The voids within the structure rendered in blacks with the structures returning in various shades of grey to white depending on their composition and density. At the center panel I saw what I expected to see, the door. I moved my hand up and down building a map of the under structure. There was not a sign of any mechanical puzzle lock here. I moved to my left and started moving my palm over the surface of the left panel. As I figured there were steel plates set into the wall to help hold the weight of the armor.
“Are you looking for a hidden switch?” Bast asked as she watched me wave my palm over the plates. I didn’t turn around to answer and continue to finish building my map. “Something like that.” I said. My treads looking for a RF receiver returned nothing positive and reintegrated. “There doesn’t seem to be an analog signal receiver which means it has to be a physical system.” I said. I really hadn’t believed it would be something simple like that but it was worth a shot on the off chance.
Completing a scan of the left plate I moved to the right plate and started my scan. As soon as I got to about chest level I hit pay dirt. I saw five bright white circles in a cross pattern that vibrated with the caress of my field. It was a puzzle lock but from the configuration it was a simple one. Without the magnetic key the circles which I believed to be rods couldn’t be moved and aligned. I changed the strength and field size to something a bit lower. I needed a better idea of how they were set up before trying to align the rods.
I raised my right hand and placed it against the metallic surface. I used the combined strength of my hands to shape a field that would run through the rods and give me an idea of how they were shaped and fitted into their housing. I could tell that each was a simple tumbler that had to be turned in the right direction to release a set of pins that would activate the release. The order of the periphery pins was unimportant. Only the center pin needed to be turned last.
I wasted no time in turning the periphery pins, two at a time, with the palms of my hands and a field strength that was a bit stronger than I was comfortable with. By time I got to the center pin the metal was getting really warm to the touch. Just about the point where you could burn yourself if not careful. I turned the last tumbler and I heard a motor buzz to life above me as a robotic arm came down in front of the center plate.
The hinge that mated the wall to the ceiling caused the plate to fall forward as the arm adjusted to take the plate’s weight. Once the plate had fallen to about a twenty-five degree angle the arm rotated and pulled back lifting the plate up. The plate’s angle continued to increase as it retracted into the ceiling to lay flat. I heard the harsh metal on metal sound as the clamps took the weight of the plate. The arm detached and retracted back into the ceiling a moment later.
I looked to the now exposed door then back to Bast, her eyes wide in disbelief. “How in the hell,” She started. “Magic.” I said cringing a little inside as I said it. I cleared my throat uncomfortably. “It was a simple locking mechanism. Wasn’t too hard once I found it.” I added more to dispel the notion of magic and Magi. “I see.” She said with just enough disbelief to let me know she wasn’t buying it. Damn she was perceptive.
I turned back to the door and placed my hand on the handle to discover it was locked. I let out a sigh and stepped away. “I guess I’m going to have to pick it.” I said reaching into my coat to see if I had remembered my lock picks. Bast seemed to have other ideas. She stepped past me and with a swift sharp kick the door exploded open hitting the strike place with the handle and rebounded slowly as the force was distributed through the door as it vibrated.
Bast looked at me with mirth in those silvery eyes. “Standard breaching block.” She said as if it was supposed to mean something to me. Seeing my confusion she elaborated. “All these rat traps were built on the same plans. Every unit has a built in breaching block where the door and bolt latch into the wall. If security ever needed to breach a unit the breaching block would slide out with the right amount of force applied. No damage to repair. No way for someone to hold out a siege.”
I blinked a couple of times and looked to the now open unit. “I’m so glad I don’t live in a rat trap.” I said my mind coming back to the task at hand. “Once we enter the unit we will be trapped if security decides to check out all the noise. Be ready and if possible don’t kill anyone. Breaking and entering we can explain away. Dead bodies not so much.” I said feeling the seconds starting to mount. I moved to the door putting a hand out to catch it and move it out of the way. I stepped into Duarte’s apartment with Bast hot on my heels.
Case Entry 27
As we entered the unit I was overcome with the smell of stale beer, something gone rotten, and pervasive body odor probably from unwashed clothing. I pulsed a node command for light instinctively and was surprised when the room became a glow in soft dim light. It seems he hadn’t changed the units command defaults.
Duarte’s apartment could be best described as a shoe box. Opposite the door was a shallow closet just deep enough for a jacket or heavier coat. Passing the small hallway that was created was the living room followed by a decent but unused kitchen flanked by what I gathered was the bathroom with the bedroom at the back accessible by a door in the back wall of the kitchen. It would have been considered nice with its modern fixtures and design aesthetic that anyone born in Sector C would have taken as upscale.
Bast entered the room and smirked. “It’s just like what my parents downsized into after I left home. Minus the beer bottles, pizza boxes, and discarded clothing. This guy was a slob.” She said, taking a good look around. “I can tell you this, there are only two types of women who would ever set foot in here. The ones being paid or ones who want something.”
I couldn’t disagree with her. I was pretty sure she knew her gender better than I did. “Keep an eye out on the door.” I said moving further into the room. I wasn’t sure what I was looking for but figured I would know it when I saw it. I proceeded to conduct a search of the living room, kitchen, and bathroom looking at the most obvious hiding spots. It’s amazing how many people seem to think the freezer, or under the couch, or in the tank of the toilet are good places to put things they want out of sight. It had taken only minutes to go through them and surprisingly I had found nothing.
I could have done a more detailed search but I wanted to check the bedroom and rule it out before I started to look for slits and cubby holes. Hiding places that might be behind a power outlet or cut into the door jam. Hard to access but well hidden. He was paranoid enough to try and kill someone so I wouldn’t have put it past him to do something equally paranoid to protect his secrets.
I moved into the bedroom where I could smell stale sweat and musk. The room was big enough to fit a queen size mattress and two nightstands on either end. Which is what he had done. The bed had an elaborate wooden headboard which seemed to be the only concession to taste Duarte had allowed himself.
The bed itself was a mess. It was still unmade and I doubted he had changed the sheets in months. I moved to look at the nightstands when a metal waste basket caught my eye. Inside, beyond other waste, were several used condoms. It seemed a woman had chosen to enter Duarte’s apartment voluntarily. And, given the clues I had to go on it only confirmed my feeling of which of the two types of women would willingly enter this monument to bachelorhood.
For a Mnemosyne junkie, sex is almost a requirement. The intense emotions that sex requires can be some of the most addictive if not the most short lived. Confusion and paranoia go hand in hand with a junkie. They are like a companion who throws all reason out the door by telling them the wrong answers to simple questions. The memories he acquired would be limited to his short term memory with only fragments getting stored in long term. Even a daily dose wouldn’t be enough to implant or change memories just store the random fragment. Hence, the junkies’ constant companions.
