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The canal stretched dark and quiet beside them, the waters reflecting the soft glow of street lamps. Mai and I walked arm in arm, our pace slow—not for romance, but for observation. The early morning hour meant fewer crowds, fewer moving pieces in this chess game to observe.
I was loose as a screw in a carny rollercoaster, admiring the water as it flowed along unworried and persistent. Mai, on the other hand had the veneer of the cat catching the mouse by the tail and letting it go, but underneath, emotions, fears, and uncertainties pressed against the floodgates.
"Your guy is getting too close. Tenbin." I said to Mai, calling her out by her official code name.
Her eyes opened in shock for less than a second and then she was back. Cool as a cucumber and calm as a lake.
I had intercepted her info from her voice comms in the restaurant earlier, before I jammed them for our conversation. The line was open now, via my proxy -- offering superior encryption -- as a sign of good intentions. "I'll call him Provost and I'll hug him and love him forever." I gibbed to a laughing Mai. I also let them know their oopsy to which he double clicked his mic in confirmation.
Firmware updates will kill ya in this game. Literally.
Mai tsk'd at no one in particular and out of alley way to our right emerged a well built yet average looking man leaning over to pick up a well planted box while looking over to us, nodding and just as quickly disappeared into the shadows.
We walk back toward my hotel. Just making idle conversation. I was an actively negging her on her relation with Provost, just trying to chip away at the indifferent vestige she clung to like a life preserver at sea.
"Lovers maybe? He looked like he has a lot of endurance." I said smirking at her seeing the annoyance build.
"Are you always this annoying Detective? " she smiled back.
"I try."
“Are you always this insufferable?” She sighed, swirling her takeaway drink before taking a slow sip.
"Are you always so evasive for someone who want's to build a friendship"
"Not a friendship Kay--trust." She said and laid her head on my shoulder. I harrumphed and we kept walking.
"Besides our friend Provost, I count four more tails. The Italians, most likely… or maybe some other friends tagging along for our date."
The mic clicked once, then twice more in fast succession, which I had to assume was an internal code but didn't take a Timmy to figure out they didn't know about our tails. Maybe the code was a preset action plan? Smart.
Mai finally showed a true reaction closing her eyes tightly and curling her hand into a tight fist. In terms of spy craft this was a major loss of face.
Also smart, unfortunately, were the comms these tails were using. They had to be using AI based encryption because every time I got a word decrypted intrusion protection would kick off, the algorithm would dynamically change and I'd have to start all over again. I kept it up just to keep burning their cycles, nothing as sophisticated as a multiphase denial-of-service attack , an oldie but a goodie, or anything else to really occupy their resources. Just enough to let the AI know 'I see you', just enough for plausible deniability, and keep them on their toes.
"Seems we're playing with the big boys here. Quant-encryption. Military grade", Mai's eyes tightening as I said it.
This reminded me that I had to kill the AISE trace that I was still tinkering with all night. I could keep this up infinitely but it was an entertainment that had lost its gloss by now, so I rerouted them into a deeper trail which would tie them up through morning and eventually end somewhere in South America.
"Have fun in Paraguay, boys." I mumbled to myself.
Mai looked up at me skeptically, shook her head and asked him "What are you saying?"
"Just thinking about checking in on an old friend."
She took my hand into her smaller delicate hand and said, "There's your hotel." Followed by a muted silence.
She finally broke the moment and said "I guess this is where we part ways" as I felt a small micro usb chip no bigger then a thumbnail pressed into my palm and unbeknownst to her was able to read its contents right away and sync it to TAI, who had been a quiet passenger along the entire walk. Unusual.
The data was mostly duplicate data we had already found on Falieri, but some of it filled in gaps from local observation.
Things like daily routines as well as panic-routes for when he felt pressed. Seems he has eight different variations of escape route leading to 3 different places before he was lost. Impressive.
"Yea it's probably time to hit the hay. But, anything else before we go?"
She leaned up for a cheek kiss and whispered "Valiant roads lead to imperiled lives," followed by an address. This was the info agent. She came out of the embrace studying my face for any reaction. Studying her current ally.
Studying a potential future enemy.
"Fancy words. You get those in a fortune cookie?”
A grin broke her facade, and she shook her head with a slight giggle slipping out.
We left promising to stay in touch. One trail followed her leaving behind three for myself.
“Seems like you’ve still got it, Kay,” TAI said as I walked toward the hotel.
“Do I now?” I smirked, flicking a glance at a rare reflection of my remaining tails in a shop window. “Maybe it’s something you’re looking to take away?”
She let the silence stretch just long enough to be deliberate. “Now why would I do that?”
I chuckled, stepping off the curb without breaking stride. “Because, TAI, I still got it. And you want it.”
“Interesting perspective,” she mused.
TAI didn’t respond with anything else, field info or otherwise, but I caught the faintest uptick in processing lag before the line went dead.
She’d let me have that one.
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For now.
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I sat in a comfortable Parisian style chair in the dark going over my own data marts setup for this case. I was technically asleep to the rest of the world after all. It was a relentless job trudging over this data but I had time and to be honest I didn't get bored in the same ways organics did.
But now, it was wrongly quiet. Unnaturally still.
In the modern world, just like in the natural world, there's always some noise. Now, there was nothing. Five minutes ago, the HVAC cut off mid-cycle—not a routine pause, but a deliberate kill. I could tell that the power went out and assumed a small brownout -- they happened all too often these days, but now I noticed nothing restarted and after an active check the electromagnetic pull from the hallway said power there was still flowing.
Power was still flowing outside. Just my room was dark. And the phone line? Dead. Isolated. Guess there goes my morning wake up call. Vinny was going to be pissed -- I could just tell.
I smirked, pulling my pistol—15 armor-piercing slugs, custom-milled. A quiet problem solver.
I revved mana through my palm into the gun, and pointed at the door, which now I could tell was being quietly worked on by true professionals.
They were hand-drilling the lock. No power tools. No sparks. No noise. They wanted in, but they didn’t want to announce it. Smart. I was really starting to hate smart bad guys.
My sensors detected a thin stream of gas seeping under the door—slow, deliberate. So it was a smash and grab--me being the grab.
Well who ever was coming through that door was in for a surprise. I pulled a tablet in front of my pistol put my feet up on the foot stool that accompanied the chair -- rough rug like material that matched the chairs design. I may need to upgrade my chair at home soon. I lowered my head to the side and made it look like I had fallen asleep reading.
Funny thing about androids—we don’t need eyes to see. WiFi waves, ambient signals, my own transmissions let me bounce back images just like radar. The room unfolded in detail, brighter than daylight.
The door finally cracked open. I couldn't hear them talking, but I saw the encrypted comms going crazy. They were probably using throat based mics. No words ever needed to be said with those and only elite units used them due to the amount of practice required to master them.
The first guy came through the door in a low squat gun out and infrared goggles on. He looked straight at me and said something as I saw his Adams apple slightly move about his Kevlar armor, or maybe it was DragonScale armor instead, the later focused on close range knife penetration protection, which may have been what they thought I was capable of as consultant Kay.
I fired my pistol. The recoilless shot off almost without a sound, sharing only a slight spinning of its motors. All they would hear was a cheap fidget spinner if anything. A fidget spinner that could throw out a metallic object at near sound barrier speeds that is. Thankfully no sonic boom on these models. I'd have to talk to Vance about that.
The first infiltrator crumpled, his hip snapping like dry wood. His rifle spun from his grip, clattering away. His semiautomatic of German make spiraling across the floor.
Before he could actually hit the floor I shot at the second soldier through his arms, akimbo, as they showed a clear path to spook two aiming his gun. The subsonic round hit the man's wrist tearing it a part. Luckily for him they make good prosthetics these days, another major export of the Island.
"Man down!, evac!" I heard the first one squeak out in a distinctly American accent.
"Six-man black ops team. One female handler. Two securing exits. Two on overwatch. Last one—likely overseeing comms. Could be in the lobby. Could be outside." TAI said in my head.
I had called her up as soon as I realized their plan. We spent the drawn out time - hundreds of seconds -- discussing our situation. So far it's been a fruitful day.
The third man peeked in and threw a flash bang, the disoriented grunts on the floor scrambling to cover their eyes with their hands, for one his lack there of. He'll get over it.
I let the third man peek again. Bad idea. I yanked him in by the hair—he fought, fast, but I was faster. I drove him into the floor, hard enough to crack bone.
May need surgery. TriMed covers concussions, right?
I walked out the door to be met with the final guy. I was fully prepared to dodge around a bit and avoid damage but it didn't happen. 4th guy retreated -- on orders I assume.
Mentioning that the guys were 'still alive, for now', may have helped.
I took the stairs down to the lobby as I was still tracing the encrypted US comms to its common denominator. Black jacket, big glasses, straight out of a north shore New Jersey ad, was the handler. I walked toward the door, as she checked me out in a cool detached way. When I passed in front of her I stopped, turned and tipped my hat.
"Ma’am, better check your room for vermin. Found four rats in mine. Pretty sure two more are still on the rooftops."
As I point to the ceiling.
She stared as me her jaw slightly apart, weighting her options for escape.
Then I continued to walk out swiftly through to the shadowed docks, the soft lapping of the canal masking his steps.
The narrow alley behind the hotel opened up to a small private pier, where a gondola swayed gently in the water, its oars resting in place.
The gondolier? Asleep.
Curled up under a thick, old jacket, his hat pulled low over his face, boots propped against the wooden side. Dead to the world.
Considering my options, I didn't have many. The Grand Canal is too exposed, a water taxi would be too loud and too easy to track. I need quiet and unnoticed.
I looked back toward the alley and sighed. Never the easy way is seemed. Footsteps. Distant, but moving.
I jumped onto the gondola, barely disturbing the balance, and nudged the side of the gondolier with my foot trying not to startle him. Instead the gondolier let out a light snore. I crouch next to him and taps his shoulder but nothing.
A light shake. Still nothing.
I sighed again as the footsteps start to reveal the Jersey shore lady. Leaning over I whisper shout into his ear, low and firm, “100 euros if you get me out of here. Now.”
The gondolier snorts awake, mumbling something about tourists and “non è ora”—not the time—before blinking at the shadow looming over him.
Gun in one hand, money in the other planted in front of his face.
"Now."
Then, a slow, resigned sigh as the gondolier begrudgingly sits up, rubs his face, and grabs the oar.
A second later, the gondola glides into the quiet waters, disappearing into the labyrinth of Venice’s canals.
I look back to see Jersey staring at us and pissed.
I can handle a black ops team. But an angry Karen? Different story. I patted the gondolier’s shoulder. “You and me, pal. New best friends."
The gondolier, for his part, was purposely ignoring my existence. Smart.
The ride to Rialto Market at 4 o'clock in the morning was beautiful and relatively long for the gondolier at 35 minutes.
During that time I put a call into Mai, who didn't pick up until the 3rd attempt. Something was wrong. She sounded different.
“Kay, that tail… Provost. He’s gone.”
Her voice was steadier than I expected. Too steady. But there was something under it. Something raw.
“They came for us.” A slow inhale, like she was steadying herself. “And he—he held them off while I ran. I ran, Kay.”
For once, I was honestly at a loss for words. TAI was the one who stepped in.
“Mai, make it to a safe house. I’m sure you have some. Go there now.”
She didn’t answer. Just silence.
I took over. “Can you do that, Mai?” Trying to soften the tone.
A breath. Shaky.
“I had two safe houses.” A humorless chuckle, quiet. “Doesn’t matter now.”
A beat. Then, quieter: “I called my handler, Kay. Standard protocol. They were supposed to extract me for the sit down.”
A pause. Too long.
“He told me…” She exhaled, and I could hear it—slow, measured, the kind of breath you take when you’re trying not to fall apart. “That I was free to the wind.”
Still flat. Still quiet.
But now, I caught it. Not just processing. Distrust.
“They cut me loose, Kay.”
Then, softer. “They knew.”
It was barely a whisper.
“They didn’t just leave me. They waited. They were already there.”
The silence stretched.
“I ran, Kay. And Provost…” Another pause. "My love." A whisper. This one worse than the rest. “He didn’t.”
She didn’t need to say the rest.
He wasn’t just trying to protect her. He had turned on his own team.
And they’d put him down for it.
Her breath hitched, just once, before she caught it. She was good. One of the best. But even the best break when they realize their entire world just turned to ash.
“I don’t know what to do.”
"Meet me where I'm going Mai. Do you understand? Where I'm going. Meet me now.".
Silence for a bit continued.
"Yeah. I'll be there. Be safe Kay you're probably next." she said and hung up the line.
I didn't want to tell her about the black ops team. She had enough to worry about. I wasn't being saint either. I didn't want her to somehow blame me for Provost's death through some type mental gymnastics.
"Kay. Grab her. Get to these coordinates at any cost. It's time to regroup." TAI said.