“Pay attention to anything Frankie does on the network, and look for a way to access her messages on it,” he said. “We just need positive confirmation that she’s been communicating with Jack recently. If so, we’ll proceed to a full interrogation.”
When they arrived at Hox2’s place, it looked like it was transitioning between trashed party spot and community lab. The wet lab was still partly a wet bar, and people were helping themselves to last night’s beer. Frankie was uploading data to a projector cube in the center of a long lab bench that bisected the dance floor. She laughed when she looked up and saw Eliasz and Paladin arriving. “Feeling a little hung over, Aleksy?”
“Not so much that I wasn’t able to get over here to see if you can do anything other than dose unwary engineers.”
“I’m flattered.” She returned to gesturing at the projector.
Paladin tuned local radio wave transmissions, looking for any signs that Frankie’s projector was networked in a way that would give the bot access to whatever server she was using. Just as Frankie’s audience started plunking down cups of beer on the bench, Paladin found her opportunity. Frankie was networking her glasses with a protein synthesizer she’d pulled down from a shelf. Monitoring the exchange, Paladin managed to capture the authentication sequence the synthesizer used to connect with the glasses.
Presently, Frankie reached a point in the presentation when she no longer needed to use the synthesizer. She severed the connection. Now Paladin could send the authentication code to Frankie’s glasses, which had already been set up to receive connections from the synthesizer without question. Paladin was in. Jumping through directories quickly, she located a batch of recent messages stored on the device and encrypted with a very old algorithm that took only seconds to break. One of the messages was clearly from Jack, though its origins had been obscured—it had been routed through a server located in a research lab on the Moon.
Stop manufacturing that Zacuity shit until I get back. Very dangerous. Lots of fatal side effects in the Zone. Also, don’t expect me in fall—I may have to lie low for a while.
Frankie had replied: No problems on my end. Be safe.
It was time for the question and answer portion of Frankie’s presentation, which soon turned into a debate over Adder, the language she’d used to write the tool that error-checked phosphorylation pathways. Three developers sitting together at one end of the bench were extremely taken with a new language called Ammolite that had been written last year by some researchers at a free lab in the AU. They took turns pointing out how Ammolite would solve some of the problems with data structures in her tool.
“Oh, for shit’s sake,” groaned Mecha, who had settled next to Paladin. “I can’t believe this is going to turn into another Adder versus Ammolite debate.” Then she raised her voice, aiming her irritation at the group of Ammolite enthusiasts. “She wrote the damn tool in Adder—get over it. Can we please talk about fucking phosphorylation?”
“Yeah, I think we’re getting off topic at this point,” Frankie agreed.
This seemed to be the signal for general talk to break out, and for several people to stand up and pour more of last night’s beer into cups.
Paladin shared her intel with Eliasz’ perimeter, while he did his best to ingratiate himself with Frankie and WTF, who had just come down from the loft.
“I could really have used your tool in my last job,” Eliasz said to Frankie. “What do you call it? I want to find it on the net.” She ignored him, conferring in a low voice with WTF. Eliasz feigned casual disinterest, checking messages on his wrist. He shot a look at Paladin when he saw the data. Good work, his expression said.
Finally Frankie turned back to Eliasz. “I haven’t released it yet, kid. But I might throw what I have up on the Hox server tonight.” She walked upstairs without a second glance.
Mecha, however, was eager to talk. “Frankie’s very perfectionist about her tools. Don’t feel bad that she doesn’t want to let you see it. That’s just Frankie.”
Eliasz watched Frankie’s tuft of pink hair and WTF’s lumpy skull as they entered the loft together. “So does she live here with Hox2 or something?” he asked casually, toying with his beer cup.
“No, she lives in the medina, sort of close to that teahouse where we met.”
“I like that area,” Eliasz continued conversationally. “I was thinking of getting a flat there, too.”
“A bunch of us live there because it’s cheaper than downtown.”
“Is it cheap enough that you don’t need roommates to afford a place?”
“Oh, yeah,” Mecha said enthusiastically. “Frankie lives by herself and has a great place. I have a roommate, but the flat is so big we barely see each other.”
They continued to talk while Paladin listened, wondering why it was that Mecha would give away dangerously personal information about herself and her friends in the middle of a casual conversation with someone she’d only met the day before. She supposed that everyone had their vulnerabilities, and Mecha’s was talking. She couldn’t resist giving away what she knew. And that meant Frankie was vulnerable, too, especially if you added in the poor state of her network security.
There was one way Frankie was very secure, however. Eliasz kept trying to engage Frankie in conversation, and he kept failing. She looked increasingly harassed, and finally grabbed his arm and steered him to the edge of the bar/lab. Paladin trained her audio sensors on them.
“Look pal, I’m not going to kick you out of this lab because it’s open to everybody, including covert IPC agents.” Frankie’s syllables were clipped. “But I’m not your friend, and I’m not going to help you get whatever you’re here for. So leave me the fuck alone.”
Eliasz chuckled and threw up his arms while backing off a few inches. “Hey, that’s cool. Not sure what you mean by that, but I’m sorry to bother you.” He returned to the bench with Paladin and Mecha, staying for another fifteen minutes of Adder versus Ammolite debate. Then he and Paladin left by the same path they had the night before, crossing from the dance floor to the elevators. But this time, both were on high alert.
When they reached the street, Eliasz took stock of their surroundings. The triangular shape of the Twin Center’s entrance was formed by two angled staircases that started on the sidewalk and led to an elevated park nestled between the towers that gave the place its name. Now the mall sheltered pirates, and the park hosted an informal night market with stalls offering everything from fresh fruit to pirated software.
“The good news is that we have solid evidence that she’s linked to our terrorist,” Eliasz said. “I now have authorization from the Federation to interrogate her.”
Paladin had studied interrogations, but never witnessed one. “How will you do that? She’ll never talk. She already suspects you’re with the IPC.”
“I have a little something that I doubt she’s patched against.” Eliasz patted the side pocket in his pants. “I also know exactly what route Frankie’s going to take to get home. All we have to do is follow her. When we get there, you grab her and I’ll give her a taste of my medicine.”
Later that night, Eliasz and Paladin took advantage of the poor lighting on the path to the medina to merge with the shadows in a closed teahouse doorway. At last Frankie walked by, trailed by WTF and a few others from the lab. They followed at a distance, passing beneath old, arched gateways made of stone, and polymer awnings that flapped quietly in the wind off the ocean. A few people were on the street, emerging from yellow strips of light that edged the cracked-open doorways of teahouses.