“Who he used to be?” Frida cried, carefully lying Tanaka on his back. While feeling for a pulse, she held her ear close to his mouth. “He’s breathing. I . . . ah. I just got a report from his PAI.”
“And?” Juliet was at a loss for words. She didn’t know why she kept diving into Tanaka’s head without trying, and she didn’t know why he’d reacted viscerally when she repeated the boyhood nickname the old man had given him. All she really knew was that this guy, this brutal, deadly hired gun of a man, wasn’t acting at all like she’d expected. If he was a basket case now, that was enough information for her; she could put him in her rearview cam feed, so to speak.
“It’s nothing. He’ll be fine.” Frida’s tone had changed dramatically. Rather than panicked and dismayed, she was all business, her words clipped and short. “Probably best if you leave.”
Part of Juliet wanted to turn on her heel and stomp away down the parking garage ramp. She didn’t have any affection or concern for the man lying on Frida’s lap, but she’d be lying if she didn’t sort of feel sorry for Frida. She stepped toward them, and then, like a switch being flipped, she had the sudden suspicion that this was an elaborate ruse, that they were both working to get her to drop her guard. Juliet froze, and, in the blink of an eye, her Texan was in her hand, and she was scanning the garage, looking for the teeth in the trap.
“What are you doing? Gonna kill us while he’s out?”
“This feels off. A man like that doesn’t faint.”
“Oh, come off it! His nanites sedated him. They detected a severe PTSD episode and felt his blood pressure spiking. His body’s been rejecting the synth heart, and he’s at risk for blood clots.”
Juliet frowned and pointed her Texan at Tanaka. “Look at me, Frida.” When Frida’s wide, panicked eyes looked up and locked onto hers, Juliet stared at her yellow-flecked green irises and asked, “Is there something going on here?” She didn’t know how there could be, not with Angel thoroughly infiltrating Tanaka’s network, but she wanted to be sure. When Frida answered, Juliet ignored the words and listened with her mind, pulling Frida’s thoughts toward her with a soft, steady inhalation.
Tanaka! What are you doing? What is it about this woman? Oh, can’t we just forget her? MedPro will be here in a minute. Just keep her calm. Don’t let her execute the boss!
Juliet sighed and, with a habitual twirl, holstered the Texan. “He’s got premium medical?”
“Of course . . .”
“Don’t ‘of course’ me, Frida!" Juliet took a couple more steps toward the two, frowning down at her. “If his care’s so good, why’s he having problems with his heart?”
“I don’t know. The doctors say it's too much, too fast, or some other BS line. They’re going to try a different brand soon—once his other implants achieve stable bio-integration.” Frida sniffed and gently stroked Tanaka’s forehead. “They say different synth-flesh manufacturers use proprietary biomimetic matrices in their artificial DNA, leading to slight variations in tissue compatibility. We’re going to try the same company that built his lung . . .” Frida scowled and peered at Juliet. “I’m rambling, and you should go. I’ll try to get him to forget about you, okay?”
Juliet gripped the monoblade scabbard in her left hand, drumming her fingers against the hard surface, and then held it out. “I should leave this. Maybe it’ll help him to realize I don’t want anything to do with him.”
“Yes . . .” Frida started to say, but then with a hoarse, rattling cough, Tanaka interrupted her.
“No.” His weird, chrome eyes, with their glowing red irises, peered between nearly closed eyelids, and he coughed again, shifting his weight off Frida. He shook his head and said, “Cancel them.” For a second, Juliet thought it was a threat, but then she connected the dots and realized he was calling off the medical team that was, apparently, en route.
“Everything good?” she subvocalized.
Angel replied immediately, “I’m not seeing anything unusual on the building network or cameras.”
“I’m not going to stand here in this garage any longer. Look, we had the face-to-face you wanted. I offered you your sword. If you don’t want it, then just move on with your life . . .”
“I can’t!” Tanaka grunted. He used the sword he’d laid on the cement as a cane, and with Frida tugging on his other hand, he stood shakily to his feet. Red-faced and breathing heavily, he held out one shaking hand. “You don’t have to fear me. If I activated my boost, I’d kill myself.”
“It’s not permanent, boss! You just need more time and a different . . .”
“Quiet, Frida.” Where before he might have barked the command, his tone had grown soft after his collapse, and Juliet could see he was trying to spare Frida’s feelings. “If my body worked perfectly, I’m still not the same. Lucky, will you please sit down with me? I have so many questions.”
Juliet wanted to leave. Part of her was furious with herself for listening to this man after how he’d beaten her, plainly intent on killing her before she’d gotten the better of him. Another part of her reasoned that she’d been breaking into a facility he’d been hired to protect. Had he known that Lilia and Honey were kidnapped? Perhaps, but she didn’t know that. How would she have responded in his shoes? The only answer she could live with was that she wouldn’t have taken such sadistic pleasure in dominating whoever broke in. Another part of her liked Frida and wondered how someone like her could be so wrong about a man. Was there more to Tanaka? Was it possible that he really had changed?
Before she could think more, losing herself in the spiral of conflicting thoughts and emotions, she opened her mouth and let the words roll off her tongue, “I’m leaving. I’m leaving, but if you don’t hound me or bother me or my people, I’ll contact you when it feels right. Then, we can sit down.” She looked around the plasteel garage. “Someplace with other people. A restaurant or something.”
“Thank you.” Tanaka started to bow, and Juliet growled.
“Stop that!” She glared at him as he straightened up, then turned to regard Frida. “I’ll be in touch.” Then she turned and, rubber soles squeaking on the plasteel, stomped down the ramp and around the corner. When she was sure she wasn’t in their line of sight any longer, she leaned against a plasteel support column and breathed, trying to get control of her hammering heart.
“That encounter wasn’t like anything I’d expected,” Angel said, and her voice was very comforting to Juliet’s frazzled mind.
“I know, right?” She started walking again. “Is the cab coming?”
“Yes, it’s one level up, but descending quickly.”
“Thanks.” Juliet moved to the side, angling toward a pedestrian walkway that led to the next level’s elevators. When she stepped onto the bright yellow paint, she turned and waited for the cab.
“When you called him that name, Noraneko, what were you intending?”
“Nothing. It just came out because I was kind of reeling from a, I don’t know, vision, I guess. I saw a memory of Tanaka’s from when he was a little boy. An old man who, I think, took him in called him that. How do I know that it means stray cat? I don’t speak Japanese.” Now that she thought about it, she wasn’t sure the entire exchange had been in English. She hadn’t been watching Rutger Tanaka’s memory; she’d been living it. “I wasn’t trying to deep dive. I was just trying to get a read on his thoughts to see if he meant to attack me or something.”
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
As the squealing tires of the cab approached, Angel remarked, “It often seems that your ability ferrets out exactly what you need to know, regardless of your conscious efforts.”
“I don’t know why I needed to know that Tanaka was an orphan living on the streets, taken in by an old monk who trained the rich kids from a corporate boarding school.” Juliet laughed—she’d certainly learned a lot from a brief visit inside Tanaka’s head. When the cab pulled up and the door swung back, she ducked inside, leaning the sword on the seat beside her.
“Welcome back, SOA operative XR713-004.”
Juliet closed the visor on her helmet and continued to speak to Angel, “Any activity on Applebaum and Hawkins? What’s Frida doing?”
“Nothing on the two off-duty operatives. As for Frida, have a look for yourself.” Juliet watched as Angel updated the feed from Frida’s ocular and auditory implants. She saw her pale, freckled hand resting on Tanaka’s shoulder as they walked back to the elevator together.
“What was that all about, boss? Do you really want to die?”
Tanaka didn’t answer for several long seconds, but as the elevator doors closed, he began to speak, his voice surprisingly soft, “I don’t know, Frida. I don’t know what I want. I imagined my encounter with that woman a million times, but I never imagined it happening like that. She hardly spoke, but what she said ripped something open. She cut through the numbness and reminded me that I wasn’t always Rutger Tanaka, the cold-hearted mercenary. She reminded me that if that man’s dead, it doesn’t mean that all of me is dead.”
“Boss, this isn’t like you. Cold-hearted? That’s not how you talk. It’s not how you think . . .”
“You aren’t listening. The ‘boss’ you knew is gone. I have to discover who I am now. I know I never told you this, Frida, but I think of you like family, like a daughter. No matter who I am, I’ll have a place for you, hmm? Don’t be upset.”
Frida’s vision grew blurry, and it took Juliet a second to realize the woman was crying. When she spoke, her voice was hoarse and thick with emotion. “I won’t have a place if you let people kill you out of some fucked-up sense of honor or . . .”
“That’s over. I offered her my life, and she didn’t want it. We’ll move forward now, don’t worry.”
“Okay, Angel. Cut the feed for now. I mean to me. You should keep an eye on her.” Juliet felt a little dirty watching Frida’s emotional heart-to-heart with her boss. As the cab left the garage and started motoring through the narrow traffic lanes out of the downtown area, she leaned back and tried to focus on her breathing. If nothing else, she felt confident that Tanaka didn’t have a vendetta. He wasn’t going to try to find the people she cared about and kill them. As far as she was concerned, that was a win. “Call Bennet, please.”
As the tone sounded and his face resolved in her comm window, Juliet smiled and gave a thumbs up. Of course, Angel made sure her projected image mimicked the action. “Well? I’m alive! Do you think everyone is up for a nice dinner?”
“I am. Not sure about the others; you made me promise to keep quiet about you being on the surface, remember?”
“Yeah, but did you?”
“Well, is it my fault Bradbury was charging in the gunship and heard you stomping through the corridors to get that sword? Is it my fault he started asking questions and ran squealing to Alice as soon as he figured out you’d been here?”
Juliet laughed. “Are you really blaming Bradbury? You got the poor synth to take the fall for you?”
Bennet grinned. “Anyway, yeah, the rest of the crew are eager to see you. What kind of food have you been craving?”
“Noodles!” Juliet said immediately. “Remember that noodle house we went to when you first rented the hangar?”
“Kimchi Noodle Nest? Yes! I haven’t been there in a month!” Juliet could see Bennet’s eyes light up as his grin stretched his cheeks upward. “Jeez, Lucky, I eat so much better when you’re in town! Hey, speaking of eating well, I couldn’t tell in that getup you were wearing, but I hope you’ve been keeping up with the weights. We’re going to have to get back into a routine. First thing tomorr . . .”
“Bennet!” Juliet laughed. “We’ll talk about it at dinner. Can you tell the rest of the crew? I’m going to take a shower and change. There’s still running water on the gunship, right?”
“Oh yeah! We flushed the system when Aya replaced about a half kilometer of those self-healing polymer water lines. Talk about a pain in the . . .”
“Bennet!” When he stopped, smiling sheepishly, she continued, “I’ll be back in just a few minutes. Save something to talk about for dinner, huh?” She winked and then cut the line. “He’s too much!”
Angel made a soft “hmm” sound and said, “I think he’s funny.”
“You missed him, huh?” Juliet closed her eyes and leaned back in the cab’s surprisingly soft cushioning.
“I did! I missed Bennet and Aya, especially. Are you pleased with the outcome of your meeting with Rutger? Do you think the crew is safe?”
Juliet breathed deep, slow breaths with her eyes closed. She felt like she could drift away into a nap right then and there, and perhaps Angel thought she would because she didn’t press for an answer despite Juliet taking nearly five minutes to respond. “I’m happy as far as Tanaka being a threat goes. Not only do I think he’s sincerely not looking for vengeance, but I think your surveillance of him through Frida is more than adequate. The whole thing has me worried about other threats, however. I feel like we need to start making headway when it comes to WBD. I think we need to get you into their network.”
Angel didn’t reply for a long minute, and Juliet couldn’t blame her. WBD was a big deal; they weren’t a single wealthy mercenary with a long history of successful jobs—they were a corporation that could buy Sir Rodric Barrington’s businesses a dozen times over. Still, when a corp got that big, as far as Juliet was concerned, that only meant more opportunities to find vulnerabilities. As though she’d listened to Juliet’s thoughts, Angel finally replied, “They have a medical research division here on Luna.”
“Really?” She supposed it made sense. Luna was the stepping stone to the broader solar system from Earth, and, of course, WBD would have interests out there. “Well, that’s settled then. When we get a little time, we’ll check it out.”
They rode in silence for a while after that, but then Angel surprised her by opening a vid window on her AUI. “There’s some trending news that may interest you.” Juliet blinked her eyes a little blearily; she’d been on the verge of dozing off. As she watched the vid stream, she perked up, something like adrenaline, but milder, running through her system. It was an interview between a woman from Sol One News and a man in a frumpy brown suit with bushy hair and a very out-of-fashion mustache. The caption identified him as Carlos Villegas from Bonner and Plant Aerospace Engineering.
It was their conversation that got Juliet’s blood pumping. The newscaster, Tiff Reading, said, “As for the broader implications, is it true that you believe this will open up travel beyond our solar system?”
Villegas cleared his throat and nodded. “The data, widely disseminated around the system despite immense efforts to halt it, is almost disturbingly credible. It looks like corporations have been hiding technological advances with dark matter for decades. The data, sold broadly through back channels, is thorough with databases containing hundreds of thousands of sample readings, thorough schematics for the containment devices, and even research details into the uses of the matter to manipulate spacetime.”
“Excuse me, Doctor Villegas, but would you mind explaining what this all means to the layperson?”
“Of course. Essentially, there are now more than a dozen major corporations with the know-how to capture dark matter using gravity manipulation . . .”
Tiff interrupted, “Dark matter? Gravity manipulation?”
“Right, right. Let me back up. Dark matter, well, I could talk for two hours, and you still won’t understand dark matter, but let me just say that we know it's there, but we haven’t interacted with it until now. You see, nothing we do can touch dark matter, but we’ve noticed that gravity affects it. This leaked research data shows that just as we can use artificial gravity generation to allow comfortable life on Luna, Titan, or even large spacecraft, this new technology allows the right collection craft to ensnare dark matter with generated gravity.”
“Ah, mmhmm, and then what?”
“Well, capturing dark matter is a big enough deal all on its own, but it seems that these corporations have already begun experimenting with the captured dark matter to manipulate spacetime.”
Tiff Reading’s eyes widened, and she leaned forward, asking breathlessly, “And that means what? Time travel?”
“No, no, not exactly. However, it might allow us to get around some of the fundamental limits of the physical universe. One of them being the impossibility of traveling faster than light.”
“Are you saying . . .”
“That warp drive technology may soon be moving from science fiction into reality.”
Juliet paused the feed and said, her heart hammering in her chest, “We did that, Angel. We brought that into the open.”
“Isn’t this what you wanted?”
“Yeah, but . . .” Juliet clenched her fists and tried to gather her thoughts. “I thought it would take longer, I guess. I thought the corps who bought the data would compete with each other but keep things quiet. It’s really out there now. One of the corps that bought the data from Tornado must have leaked . . .”
“I think it’s for the best,” Angel replied. “What’s the old saying about sunlight? It’s the best disinfectant. That’s it.”
“Yeah. I guess. Now everyone knows, and everyone’s watching.” Juliet closed the window. She’d seen enough. Whatever came of it couldn’t be worse than a couple of big corps going to war over the data. Now that it was out in the ether, now that a dozen or more big corps were working on the tech, there wouldn’t be any point in fighting about it. Now, it was just a race. “We still have the data, yeah?”
“Oh yes. I’ve been rather intrigued by it.” A sudden fantasy washed over Juliet, and she began to grin, a smile too broad for Angel not to notice. “What is it, Juliet?”
“Imagine if Athena woke up and worked with us to perfect the tech. Imagine if we had the first functional warp drive.”