Cache
The more we closed in on these surveillance drones and whoever placed them, the more we had to keep up appearances.
Nai and I had found one drone in our apartment building, and the very next day we had to walk into the other building we knew to be bugged.
Combining our cascades had let us sweep our investigation’s office building in under an hour, all without leaving our chairs.
Just like Shinshay’s data suggested, this building actually had two mysterious signals in it. The first was…interesting. But the second belonged to a familiar mosquito-like drone clinging to the outside of an exterior wall. Its leg barely shifted out of place to be in contact with the window to our conference room.
It made my skin crawl discussing actual progress in our investigation within earshot of a known eavesdropper, but that was the price of outwitting them.
Until we were ready, we still needed to keep digging into anyone who might know more about Nora’s gang of abductees. Keeping up appearances.
Berro Jo and Rende Braskin had been worthwhile, but there was one more target on that list that we hadn’t contacted yet.
Fran. The faceless Casti criminal with fingers in every pie.
“If there’s no picture on file,” I said, “how do we know he’s a Casti?”
“Do we even know it is a ‘he’?” Nora added. “In English, Fran would primarily be a girl’s name.”
“The Coalition doesn’t have anyone who’s laid eyes on him personally,” Serral said. “But we’ve detained and worked with associates of his in the past, and they referenced him, however vaguely.”
“I take it that’s what we might do this time too? Make contact with one of his people?”
“Something like that,” Serral said. “We have options. A lot depends on if we want to be friendly or not.”
“Is there any reason we wouldn’t want to open friendly?” Nora asked. “I mean, besides the obvious.”
“The obvious reason is a rather large one,” Serral pointed out. “If even half of what Fran is accused of is true, he’s not someone anyone should want to make friends with.”
“Apparently it hasn’t stopped you guys,” Nora said.
“Not my call,” Serral grumbled. “And if it were, we wouldn’t. Ever.”
I hadn’t put much stock in it when Serral had said he opposed the other Ase ’s attempt to detain Nora. But now that I had some time to think and compare with my own time around Serralinitus, it occurred to me there might have been a specific reason he had been stationed out a super remote power plant on an enemy occupied planet.
“And what? It’s just war?” Nora snorted. Her words were mocking, but her expression immediately afterward gave a more disquieted air.
“It’s actually even more complicated than that. The last time Coalition intel was in contact with Fran, we killed some of his people. So the question should be how friendly can we actually manage to be.”
“What does the Coalition have that Fran wants?” I asked.
“Leverage,” Serral said. “No small part of Laranta’s job is to liaise with colony leadership here and the few places we’re welcome on Yawhere right now. It wouldn’t be impossible to get pressure removed from Fran’s criminal operations.”
“The alternative being the opposite? ‘Tell us what you know, or we make things difficult’?” I asked
Serral nodded. “That’s about the sum of it.”
“…Fran is probably rubbing elbows with the Red Sails too, right? I mean if they’re such a big criminal, they have to have dealings on Vorak occupied rocks too.”
“Yes. It’s one of the reasons the operation is so criminal,” Serral said. “Laws about interplanetary trade can be pretty strict. It’s only specific businesses that are allowed to operate across a whole star system, and Fran’s network is primarily dedicated to circumventing and avoiding those laws. He first got on the Coalition’s radar when the occupation first started, smuggling supplies for the Red Sails to keep them afloat while they stabilized their presence.”
“I know which way I’m leaning then,” I said.
“[I thought you were over the Vorak grudge,]” Nora frowned.
“[I don’t think the Sails abducted us,]” I corrected. “[There’s a big gap between that and ‘over it’. They still have all the bodies from our ship, including my friend’s.]”
“[I thought you said they lost the bodies,]” Nora said.
“[They said that. I don’t believe them,]” I said.
“Other opinions on Fran?” Serral asked the room, trying to move our conversation along.
Nai was in my corner, ready to make life bad for criminals. I got the impression Serral wanted to lean that way too, but this was bigger than any one person’s opinion.
And if I was honest, I would work with Fran if it meant freeing Nora’s abductees sooner.
Still, burning those bridges was going to take more than one day, and we had plenty of drone counter-surveillance to occupy ourselves with in the meantime.
·····
A day later we were still scratching our heads figuring out a way to tell where the drones we discovered were broadcasting to.
With that mystery preoccupying me, our discussion about Fran felt like an afterthought.
That is, until I received a lesson about military postage in the middle of the night.
Nerin was pulling an overnight shift at the hospital and with her suspension of duty, Nai had decided to go with her to keep her company.
Seemed a little unprofessional to me, but I understood why she wanted to go.
Nora and I then were the only ones to be awakened by a screech from a speaker somewhere in the apartment.
“[W-what the shit?!]” Nora asked, bursting out of her room. “[Whoa, watch where you point that!]”
My body had clamped down on the panic in time for me to materialize a gun and begin checking the rooms.
No one else was in the apartment, confirmed by psionics. That let me breathe a little easier.
“[Sorry,]” I said, letting the gun dematerialize. “[What is that?]”
The radio-feedback was coming from a small package slipped through the apartment door’s mail slot. Cascading the package revealed it wasn’t anything sinister. Just a hand radio and a note.
The package was labeled as addressed to me.
“[How did that get here? Who could have gotten here?]” Nora hissed.
“[Standard mail,]” I said. “[Casti postage typically comes at night.]”
“[But we’re on a base, who delivered it?]”
“[Whoever was on duty,]” I said. “[Better question is how it got past screening. It probably got delivered a few hours ago.]”
“[And it’s just been sitting here while we slept?]”
“[Yup.]”
I tore open the package, silencing the hissing radio. There didn’t seem to be anything special about it. Standard Coalition issue.
The note that came with it only read:
I heard you were looking for me.
“[Someone’s eager to get in touch…]” I said. “[Not that many possibilities who.]”
“[…One way to find out?]” Nora said.
True.
I picked up the radio and squeezed the button.
“Talk,” I said into it.
“I’d rather not like this,” a voice immediately replied. Casti by the sound of it. “I’m Fran. I’d like to talk to you two aliens in person. Alone.”
“Not likely,” I scoffed.
“Suit yourself,” supposedly-Fran said. “I’ll only wait ten minutes though. The west gate: you won’t even have to leave the base.”
“It’s the middle of the night,” I scoffed. “Besides, we don’t go anywhere without an entourage.”
“I know. That’s why I won’t wait, and why I’m not giving you time to mull it over. If you want to know what I’m willing to tell you, you’ll have to bend a bit.”
“…Not that I’m agreeing, but why in person?”
“Would have thought that was obvious; it’s the same reason you’re going to come in the first place, and why you’re thinking about attacking my business. I have a keyword if it means anything to you.”
“Keyword?”
“[Insect,]” Fran said, butchering the English.
“[Sonofa…]” I muttered.
‘Insect’ as in bug.
“[Shit…]” Nora swore. “[We might actually have to go.]”
“…Ten minutes?” I asked.
“That’s correct,” Fran said. “Better hurry.”
It was the middle of the night…how quickly could we get Coalition help in position?
Not soon enough. That was the whole point.
Or, it would be.
<…Nai, if this is real…I’m not sure Nora and I can afford not to,” I said. “…and you can’t stop us.>
<…I know,> she said.
Nora insisted.
I said.
I spun up my complex psionics and jacked into her mind again.
·····
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
We made a good time for the western edge of High Harbor base. Our augmentations had let us get here within the time limit, but Deg and Thugnin trailed half-a-mile behind us. Connected to Nai’s radar, I attuned as much of my psionic senses to finding any minds around us.
In this case, though, it was a lack thereof.
It was the middle of artificial night in the city right now, so the lack of activity wasn’t too strange to find outside the base border.
But I could only sense three minds. Two Casti in the gate booth, and another lone mind a few hundred feet outside the base.
“…Alright ‘Fran’,” I said into the radio. “By my count, we have minutes to spare. So where are you?”
“Outside the gate, I’m waving.”
Sure enough, the single mind I could perceive beyond the gate was casually waving a Casti hand over his head.
“I thought you said this would be in-person. I hope you’re not expecting us to come out there,” I said.
“Not a bit,” Fran replied. From a distance, I could barely make out him speaking into a similar radio. “I was serious. This is only talk.”
“Why the special time and place, then?”
“Insurance against our mutual snoop,” they said. “I wanted to make sure it was one of you aliens I talked with, and I’ve learned these surveillance machines aren’t quick to reposition. Therefore, this conversation is safe from being overheard.”
“You’ve found drones spying on you too?”
“In a manner of speaking,” Fran confirmed. “I came to know of it more than a year ago, however. Which is interesting considering when you first come onto the scene.”
“Explain quickly,” I said. “I have half a mind to come out there and drag you back to this side of the fence.”
“I would disappear before you could take ten steps,” Fran said. “Believe me, I came prepared in case you didn’t listen when I said ‘alone’. So, before I say anything, just how much do you know?”
<…I’m not sure we have much choice,> she said.
“I’m not the only human out here,” I said. “The Coalition is helping me unearth where the rest of them are, and these drones have been spying on our investigation.”
“Not Coalition command?” Fran asked.
“No.”
“I’ve heard from some people in the Red Sails and Admiral Laranta’s gaggle,” Fran said. “The story says you were abducted from your homeworld, that this isn’t a real and proper First Contact.”
“…I’m pretty confident whoever is behind these drones also abducted us,” I said. “Nobody else has shown the kind of technology our abductors did. And since you’re the only other person to be remotely aware of these drones…I’m beginning to wonder if you aren’t the ‘whoever’ in question. What’s your connection to them?”
“Exploitative,” Fran said, unashamedly. “The controller of these ‘drones’—as you put it—isn’t omnipotent. Adept-made drones are valuable because they can be decomposed leaving no traces. But they can’t do everything, and they can’t go everywhere. Whoever is behind these drones also uses live assets.”
“They have people working for them, you mean,” I said.
“Inside the Coalition, likely blackmailed or coerced in some way,” Fran agreed. “Whatever the hook, they have people facilitating those drones. You don’t have to be another void fleet for spying on one to be valuable.”
“How do you know?” I said.
“Because drones aren’t the only way they’re spying on me either,” Fran said. “About a year ago, one of my best Casti receives an anonymous wire. Someone was threatening to reveal a betrayal of hers unless she helped feed them information on my activities. She agreed. Only she also told me it happened. She was told to put drone support systems in key positions. Power banks, signal boosters, all sorts of things.”
“And you’ve been content to let the drones hear exactly what you want them to,” I said. “How’d you find out they were after us too?”
“She told me. The same day a handful of Coalition ships flew in from Archo, my Casti gets a message to make some inquiries with the Coalition about some First Contact that came with them.”
“So we have a mutual enemy,” I said. “One you’ve known about for a while. So what changed? What are you actually here to say?”
“I’m here to pass a message,” Fran said, voice dripping with interest. “So here it is, they know.”
“Sorry?”
“Whoever is behind these drones? They know you’re aware of them.”
“…What?” I said.
“A few hours ago, my Casti gets a new assignment: look into certain Coalition personnel, check a few batteries. Nothing she hadn’t been told to do before. So, like every time, she looped me in, and I got to know just what this mystery person wanted her to do. Only this time there were extra details in the assignment. Attached information that had no bearing on what she was being told to do.”
“And you’re all too happy to sell us the extra info…” I followed.
“Nope,” Fran said. “Today it’s free of charge.”
“You don’t strike me as a charity.”
“I didn’t say I wasn’t getting anything out of it,” Fran shrugged. “Just not from you.”
“What exactly was there then? What has you so sure they know we’re on to them?”
“Among those extra files? Transcripts of conversations you’ve had, along with commentary. It describes some of your efforts to avoid discovery and disguising your attempts to learn more.”
“…I’m lost then. Why would you be sent this information? Why would they still be spying on us with drones they know we know about?”
“I’ve been wondering that myself,” Fran admitted. “At first I thought someone screwed up. If this mystery player uses agents to support their drones, then there must be some agent in charge of handing out assignments to all the coerced assets. I figured someone attached the wrong file to a message when they sent it to my employee.”
“…But something changed your mind,” I followed.
“Quite. I was wondering if this mystery group knew you were looking into them despite your efforts, then I began to wonder if I was really playing them as much as I thought.”
“…Your employee,” I said, “you think whoever’s behind the drones knows your employee confided in you about the blackmail.”
“Yes,” Fran said, low and menacing. “I like that you’re following this, because it took me some time. If they knew my employee was alerting me to everything they wanted her to do, then they would know anything they sent her would find its way to me.”
“You have a theory,” I accused.
“I know firsthand how hard it is to compartmentalize information. Every organization takes a risk when it brings someone new into a circle of trust. I think someone is trying to move information to certain people without being discovered. I think our mystery group has a traitor, and the ‘certain people’ in this case being you.”
That…would explain some things. But it raised more questions than it answered. The leading theory was that our abductor didn’t have a ‘group’. It was just one person, backed up by a ton of machines.
It even jived with the fact they were coercing people into doing legwork the drones couldn’t.
“…If today’s conversation really is free of charge, are you going to leave us a copy so we can corroborate this?”
“Yes,” Fran said. “And I rather think the Coalition will owe me for this one.”
“…You said you were passed transcripts,” I said. “You know what we said yesterday.”
“I might. There’s plenty more reason to play messenger though. Giving this to you is going to make something, somewhere fall apart. And I’m more than happy to pick up the pieces. I’ll leave the datashard right here.”
They set something down on the bench and stood to leave.
“…Fine.”
“A pleasure doing business with you,” Fran said, walking away. “Or maybe not. I really am just facilitating.”
“Are you really Fran?” I asked. “The one at the top? Or are you just one of his ‘employees’?”
“That’s for me to know and you to wonder,” the Casti shrugged.
I seriously debated chasing after him. But it would mean ducking past the Coalition soldiers manning the gate.
“[Oh, I hate this guy,]” I muttered.
“[Think he’s telling the truth?]” Nora asked.
“[…Unfortunately, I don’t think anyone would go through the trouble just to feed us an obvious lie. I doubt it’s the whole truth, but there’s going to be something convincing there,]” I said.
·····
There was.
Our whole exchange with maybe-the-real-Fran had taken less than five minutes. Nai and our bodyguards had caught up only a few minutes after the Casti departed.
Much fretting was done over our safety, but Nora was projecting enough of her age, and I had done enough due diligence that no one was questioning our decision to show up.
The actual package Fran left us was damning evidence.
Full transcripts of conversations we’d had in range of the drones, plus a risk analysis from when Nora first found one sitting in the vent. Even some blurry photos.
I didn’t even care that Laranta’s other Ase were twisting themselves into knots again. This new information had come from an unverified source, yet again.
Sure, they knew who Fran was, but Nora and I had no proof we’d actually talked to him aside from a walkie talkie and a vague note.
I wouldn’t have believed me either.
Since there was a bug at our apartment and the investigation office, we wound up spending the night in Nora’s old hospital room. It was under the pretense of medical concerns, but I doubted that was fooling anyone.
Whoever was behind the drones knew we knew. But…what did they know now?
If Fran was right, and they wanted us to know we knew they knew…
“[Oh, you’re totally right,]” I huffed. “[This ‘we know you know we know’ stuff is some bullshit.]”
Nora raised her eyes.
“[Language,]” she said on reflex.
“[You swear like a sailor,]” I frowned.
“[Yeah, but you don’t usually,]” she said. “[But…sorry. Habit. My parents were really strict about it, and now I’m making up lost time.]”
“[With expletives?]”
“[There’s certainly been occasion for them,]” Nora said.
“[No kidding,]” I said. “[This doesn’t make any sense. There’s contradicting behaviors here. The abductor is trying to keep the drones secret, but they’re also trying to surreptitiously pass us information that gives away what they know about us!]”
“[It does put a damper on your Dr. Doom theory,]” Nora admitted. “[If behaviors are contradictory, that’s probably a good sign there’s conflicting interests at work.]”
“[Tispas and Tox aren’t the only ones having a spat then?]” I asked.
“[Maybe,]” Nora said. “[If you think about it, the main things pointing you toward an individual abductor still apply to a group of them as long as it stays small enough. One person could still be a single point of failure for the abduction stage, while there’s still a handful of other people who weren’t in a position to cover for the failure.]”
“[Instead of Doctor Doom…the Sinister Six, then,” I said.
“[There’s not that much difference between one person and some other, slightly larger single-digit number.]”
“[I’m more curious about who’s jumping ship now, assuming that’s even what’s happening,]” I said.
“[I’d feel a lot better if we actually knew someone was,]” Nora replied. “[They might know where Earth is.]”
“[They still abducted us,]” I said.
“[I know. And they’ll answer for it. But in the meantime, I won’t turn down any possible way we have back home.]”
“[…Fair,]” I conceded.
Neither of us were going to be sleeping, and Nai was on the warpath at the prospect of our abductor having people inside the Coalition.
And that got my brain churning as my eyes wandered the hospital ward. The room was so familiar, and yet I hadn’t spent any time here recently.
But when I had…I’d spent day in, day out here.
If someone was spying on us…it might have started here, monitoring Nora’s condition.
Moreover, Casti hospitals, like ones on Earth, weren’t very cooperative with wireless signals. If there had been a listening device, it wouldn’t have been able to transmit its surveillance.
<[Cascade the walls with me,]> I asked Nora.
<[What are you thinking?]>
<[I think…we’ve been repeating a mistake,]> I said. <[When Nai and I first butted heads, we had…some really inflated ideas of how perfectly bad the other was. Conflating what was technically possible with what actually had a reasonable chance of being true. I think we’ve been treating whoever is behind these drones like some perfect villain ready for anything.]>
<[…The very first thing you said you learned about them,]” Nora said.
From the very beginning, things had gone wrong.
I’d assumed that could only be contrary to the abductor’s aim. But like Nora said, conflicting behaviors pointed toward conflicting interests.
Maybe it was a mistake that so many of us had died. Maybe it was by design.
Either way, we’d forgotten.
Our abductor made mistakes. Wasted resources. Couldn’t predict everything.
Got lazy.
Nora and I pried the cover off the duct, and from inside I withdrew our prize. A modular computer, tiny by alien standards.
We’d wondered if the drones were autonomous, storing their recordings somewhere to be delivered later. Or if they were dependent on remote control, constantly transmitting and receiving signals.
We’d found the latter. Now we found the former too.
I recognized the port on the machine. It matched one I’d glimpsed just like it on the mosquito-drone.
But most fascinatingly of all, the computer wasn’t Adept-made. And it was too big for a drone to have delivered it. From what I could tell, it was identical to the device we’d discovered at our apartment building. The only exception was that this version carried no antenna or transmitter.
No drone or microphone accompanied it either.
Had they been dissolved after Nora had woken up? Why bother continuing to surveil a room your targets weren’t frequenting anymore?
They’d just left the computer unit behind, unable or unwilling to retrieve it.
But someone must have originally placed it here, maybe even before Nora and I had even arrived on Lakandt. One more thing in support of Coalition personnel working for the abductor/drone controller.
This wasn’t just anywhere on the base. This was the secure wing of a military hospital. If Admiral Laranta or any prominent Coalition officer was shot, this is where they would be treated.
Access was strictly controlled. It was impossible to enter the secure wing without some record of it.
“[Come on,]” I said. “[We’re going to go find out who put this here.]”
Fran was right about our abductors having people in the Coalition.
And we were going to have words.