Tasìa stormed off with her boots stomping concrete, fully intending to walk the entire way up the on-ramp, and do so unassisted. It was merely a half of a mile to the vehicle depot where the mag-spheres received routine maintenance.
There was also a front office for road side assistance where she could rent another vehicle and freshen up.
Still, she was reluctant even as a dues paying member Tasìa did not want to owe the Vida Escondida Autonomous Authority a damn thing.
She had friends still in the city proper who could help her out. She needed to contact a few professional associates, anyway.
Tasìa stopped for a moment, fiddling with her brand spanking new PalmEx PA.
As she stood adjusting to the quirks of the device, the more rational side of her interior dialogue acknowledged the Autonomous Authority's legitimate interest in carrying out a forensic analysis of a vehicle that could have destroyed a heaping chunk of the racetrack, and also in investigating the intentions of that vehicle's driver to determine if there was malice involved.
It is stupid, and hotheaded of you to be angry with the VEAA.
She finally admitted to herself.
Tasìa put the phone away. There was no reason to bother anyone this late if she merely swallowed her pride.
When the on-ramp side curb forked, with the assistance station to the east and the highway much further to the west, she checked her credentials for roadside assistance, and somehow though it had been years since she used the services for anything more than light maintenance and automated go-thru her subscription was up to date still.
All amenities and accommodations would be available to her, as she waited for a replacement vehicle, coffee, fresh glazed yeast donuts, and most importantly, at the moment, a clean place to take a dump. What more could a civilised chica ask for?
She could even shower and sleep a few hours on a homeopathic massage cot up in the VIP loft. There were even shower stalls in the restroom changing section but she wasn't dirty, just cramped up all over from a day long drive.
Tasìa was the only person in the immediate vicinity; the facility unlocked the gates as she stepped within several yards of its fencing. Whatever means used for identifying her remained discreet. An entirely professional service, yet as a breaking and entering specialist, Tasìa felt it a challenge she needed to rise up for the occasion and spot the establishments defenses.
In reality, she thought, it did not take a keen eye. The need for a keen eye could be bypassed with the right technology. Tasìa took from the inside pocket of her embossed leather jacket a pair of chic eyewear for the occasion that evening of her grand return to Vida Escondida.
Alas, that was now delayed. However, the fashionable optics made by a top Berlin designer, Katy Taraneh, called Katy Lieds, were also highly functional information devices with many enhancements, practical for Tasìa's professional needs as an operative.
She glanced around, doing a quick scan, and at first she was initially disappointed. She didn't detect anything of consequence nearby.
By the next sweep where nothing she searched for was revealed, Tasìa became quite enchanted and distracted by The Vida Escondida skyline. The Katy Lieds twin optical receptors were lit up with an IR interface defined in laser light only visible by the person who viewed with enhanced vision. It served as an interface for the Vida Escondida's entertainment, navigation, and communications networks.
One could simply watch from a balcony, or rooftop, and dial into one of a dozen light shows. Some of the light shows possessed stories as elaborate as those created for movie linears. The selection tempted Tasìa to kill some time, but she reluctantly dialed down the distractions to where only pinged machine connections and text between the connections showed up on her IR specs.
There was nothing indicative of a security system in the near distance.
No, that is not true, Tasìa. Pay attention!
It was the Modality calling her out on her lack of focus. She breathed in, and entered into a hypnotic state that deepened as she added one nearby sound after another, the most immediate sound, a tinge on the gate in front of her, caught her attention.
It is not entirely enclosed. Why?
Were they expecting company? Was someone already here?
Now she picked up something else coming through a well insulated mechanical body. She realized she was wrong about the Katy Lieds replacing a keen eye, or in this case, a keen ear. They enhanced her perception, yes, but only through being attentively focused could she weld the Katy Lieds effectively enough to use in her upcoming operation.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Tasìa now knew what hid within that insulated surface she inferred against an array of background noise that included a piston in constant shifting motion. A radio signal pulsed in slow, nearly imperceptible blinks from an artificial tree.
Now that she had the coordinates mapped, Tasìa bounced a signal back off of the tree and received in return a glimpse into an entire system of devices linked between it and several other artificial trees scattered throughout the premises.
"Very nice," Tasìa whispered, as she studied the security setup. It's fail-safes were backed up in triplicates, and that third set she would have missed entirely if the PalmEx PA didn't detect a consistent delay in echo of no more than .0013 seconds coming from the lower deck telemetry.
Satisfied that she got all the data she needed to understand the VEAA security modus operandi if they should prove to be a nuisance to her endeavours, Tasìa clicked off the extended field of view on the Katy Lieds, and she sauntered forward.
When she crossed the gate, it slid back in its place after her.
But that tinge of a chime persists still?
A male voice came through on a nearby intercom.
"Prima Vaquera?"
"Yes," Tasìa answered, as she stifled a giggle at the thought that she was making the Vida Escondida Autonomous Authority staff call her 'cousin cowgirl.'
The throaty sounding voice on the intercom continued.
"You may wish to rent another vehicle to replace your racer. However, our scans show you in fact already have a rental that is a mere 3.6 miles away from your current location. No current driver or passenger inhabits it.
"Your rental doesn't possess a self-drive mode but we do have a nifty little Vespa that can take you to it and return on its own.
"I haven't rented a replacement vehicle," she protested.
"Our records show you rented a 2064 Lamborghini Huracán, on March the 16th, is that not correct?"
She remembered the metallic green Lamborghini she talked Leon into renting on her debit card, two months previously. That bit of information certainly peaked her interest given she was scheduled to meet him at midnight on that very evening to layout some initial plans to raid the ReJuveX facility.
Tasìa nodded at a turreted camera that sat above a customer assistance station. It was the one most engaged in actively tracking her.
"You are indeed correct. My apologies for the confusion. I wasn't expecting the vehicle to be here, so near to Vida Escondida."
"Very well. The Vespa's battery extends for 90 miles at a cost of 8.5 USD a mile if you intend to keep it for the entire evening."
"No. I'll have it returned as soon as the Lamborghini is secured."
A complimentary plate with three Donca yeast donuts and a cup of creamy mocha greeted her on a floating servitor hot plate. She took two bites, slow and blissful, out of the glazed donut the servitor offered her. The donut was as fresh as if she purchased it in a Donca breakfast bar.
"I don't wish to intrude while you are enjoying the relaxing stimulus of a sweet pastry, however, to maximize the tranquility of your experience would you care for a sedative?
"Your left hand is shaking."
Tasìa frowned. She had not noticed but it was true.
I need to stay sharp.
Tasìa closed her eyes but she wasn't in a meditative mood this soon after the previous one she had.
However, there was no mystery. She knew what was poking at her nerves.
A few hours beforehand, when she entered the valley that led to Vida Escondida through sparsely inhabited scrubland the sky above grew purple with streaks of slow twisting lightning. The streaks reached up instead of downward. A shape took on definition as the number of slow flashing bolts multiplied. The shape was that of a plateau.
It was Mount Olympus. Where Zeus of Greek legend dwelled.
The sight of it spoke to a fear that Tasìa would prefer to have left untested. That the Serpent would use her vulnerability outside of Asunción to take back from her what he had given.
Fortunately, the fear was to remain as she wished; for as suddenly as the lightning in the sky danced about to make that plateau shape, it left in an instant and the sky changed back to its early evening calm.
Suddenly, the clear heavens were dominated by the hard faceted light of the planet Jupiter.
At that moment, Tasìa considered what had just occurred and it hit her in the gut. She pulled the Alfa Romeo HybrClydis to the side of the road, and jumped out of the seat, leaned over the loose gravel above a ditch a few feet off of the road, and threw up ever so profusely.
She wiped her mouth, muttered, "hello asshole", as a small freight truck rolled loudly by. Tasìa glanced up at the driver. He was oblivious to the cosmic drama that manifested just a moment before.
Tasìa looked higher up and stared for a hard moment at the periphery surrounding the Lord of the Night Sky - the largest planet in the solar system. It was said that if you stared at Jupiter with your eyes unfocused you could see Europa where her oceans had turned to plasma from the incident of 2054 when Zafír Hullám, the twin station to Zafír Rózsa, dropped out of Europa's orbit and crashed.
Zafír Hullám jetted from its own orbit above the opposite pole and was pronounced lost in space.
Tasìa was in the habit on any clear sky eve when she was out and about, of attempting that view of the ocean of plasma with an unaided eye, and that time standing in high scrub land plains leading to Vida Escondida she could see the slightly orange tinted glow from where the twin station had crashed into the moon.
She had seen it before with a pair of binoculars, but this was the first time Tasìa could do so with an unaided eye. After another hard count of a moment, and feeling chill - the scrublands got cold at night no matter the time of the year - Tasìa decided it was time to leave.
The asshole in the sky was not going to reveal himself. They were afraid of her now. Even so, her anxiety didn't wane. The stirrings occurring in the Cosmos were not matters you could just shrug off.
"Prima Vaquera?"
She acknowledged the low and smooth voice on the intercom with a nod and a smile.
"Perhaps, I could get you something that can steel your nerves? We have an unopened bottle of Drambuie to accompany that sedative."
That was a damn fine idea.
She grinned.
"If only my friends understood me half as well as you do, Mister."
"Very good, Senora Prima Vaquera. I will return shortly with the items on request."
When the voice became silent to complete its task, Tasìa went off to relieve herself.