‘Lazy.’
‘Or overconfident. And that’s something too – if you can wipe surveillance data like that then—’
‘You must have Pantheon behind you.’ They said it both together. It felt like a mantra. Jack sipped his coffee. It had cooled to lukewarm.
‘And we definitely can’t go straight to her now?’ he said.
‘No. Even back then she wasn’t easy to track. She had a bot-layer covering her basic weave functions when she wasn’t herself. It was a very good one. I only found it when I ran a custom data density check on her. All the basic public stuff went on – the bots pretended to follow set daily routines – but there was nothing happening behind it. Half the time, she was a fiction. And then she just disappeared. A few months after Devlin was killed. There’s no record of her death. She’s an invisible.’
‘Do InSec even have anything like that?’
‘We don’t need it. And frankly, even if we wanted to pull something like that off, it would be beyond our capabilities. Not to mention every kind of illegal. Data faking like that will have already severely compromised Yamata’s fetch potential. Her life’s lost to the Coffin Drives.’
‘Like Penderville’s and Devlin’s.’
Corazon laughed again. ‘And all the other people they’ve silenced,’ she said. ‘You know, it’s quite liberating? Realising that at least one of the Pantheon just doesn’t care. Maybe they all don’t. They could all be lying to us. Perhaps we don’t owe any of them anything after all.’
‘I certainly don’t think we do,’ said Jack. ‘But that’s a dangerous thing to understand.’
‘I suppose it is.’
‘We shouldn’t have come here. It’s too public. You should have just arrested me. We could have talked in a holding cell.’
‘No. Our conversation would have been monitored. Lestak would have queried your arrest. Anyone could have seen that you were in the building because of me. All this has been going on for a long time. I don’t know who’s involved with it. I couldn’t risk alerting them.’
‘But they’ll have picked up your searches …’
‘Out into the weave from behind the InSec firewall. I randomised my wp address. They’ll know it’s InSec, but nothing else.’
‘Unless they see you with me, here.’
‘I’ve been running an anonymiser all the way in. I just look like another shopper – and the bandwidth load of all the promotional sprites here will confuse any surveillance even more. It’s even tough for puppets to handle. So I suspect Fist will have gone rather quiet.’
‘He has.’ A distant [fuck you] echoed through Jack’s mind. He laughed, then wondered briefly about living out the rest of his life in shopping malls. ‘Anyway, all this is very impressive,’ he continued. ‘You know your stuff. Where did you find that custom data density check?’
‘Wrote it myself.’
‘Very sharp for an East acolyte.’
‘We’re not all weathergirls and ad candy.’ Corazon smiled sadly. ‘Maybe she was right about me, at that.’
‘What next?’
‘I’ve been on the offensive. Quietly and discreetly. I wrote a passive app to track Nihal’s data flows. See if he was still around. And I’ve found him.’
‘Where?’
‘He moves a lot. And he’s well protected, so I can’t be too precise. But he seems to be based somewhere in Access. He’s a bit lazy about his travel flags, I’ve got him passing through the station there regularly.’
‘I’m going to go after him.’
‘No, Jack. You’ve got to let me keep digging. We need to know more about him.’
‘And then what? You can’t even talk to Lestak about it. I’ve made my own plans. Let me follow them through.’
‘I want to help.’
‘You’ve helped already. It’s safer if you let me handle this. I’ll let you know how it goes.’
‘I’ll set you up as a contact,’ she said. And then, ‘Done.’ Jack imagined a new statue growing in his weavespace.
‘We’re almost finished now,’ she said. ‘There’s just one thing that’s been puzzling me. Why didn’t they kill you, back when it was all beginning?’
Jack spread his hands flat on the table, fanned his fingers out and pressed them against the cool plastic table top. ‘Grey always said he did the best he could for me. Maybe he did.’
‘It’s so hard to tell what the truth is,’ sighed Corazon. ‘The Pantheon lying to us and manipulating us, for their benefit, not ours. That just makes us pawns, doesn’t it?’ Her words cut into Jack’s conscience. He thought of Harry and Andrea. Corazon saw him wince. ‘Is there anything else you want to tell me, Jack?’
He paused for just long enough to convince himself that his answer would seem honest and told her: ‘No.’
‘I’ll be on my way then.’ She looked around. ‘I’m going to have to spend a little time in a quiet room, after all this.’ They said their goodbyes, then Corazon stood up, paid the bill with a wave and slipped out of the café. Jack waited for ten minutes or so more before leaving, watching tides of silent shoppers roll by.
On the train back home, Fist emerged.
[ I hated it in there. Don’t let’s go back.]
[ We might have to.]
[ I was wrong about that bitch. She’s dangerous. I hope you’re not going to see her again. We should block her calls.]
[She’s on our side. If she tries to get in touch, it’s priority.]
[She’s one of us? Is that why you didn’t tell her about Harry and Andrea? You’re just using her. You’re no better than Grey.]
[ I’m just trying to keep them safe.]
[ You’re fucking things up, Jack.] Fist’s high sharp voice held a soft new menace. [ I don’t care how safe we’re meant to be, going to her is an escalation. My property is going to get damaged.]
[ It’s not yours yet, Fist. Until then, I’ll do what I want with it.]
[Oh, we’ll see about that.]
Chapter 20
‘What the fuck do you think you’re playing at, Jack? I told you, don’t go to InSec,’ said Harry, rage shaking his voice.
‘She came to me. And we can trust her.’
‘Christ, Jack, what would you know?’ He thrust a finger in Jack’s face. ‘You’re just an amateur.’ He stabbed it towards him. Jack was careful not to flinch. ‘A Homelands numbers boy.’ He jabbed again. Jack thought of pistols. ‘It’s my case, we run it how I say.’
‘It’s not your case,’ said Jack, quietly. ‘It’s our case. And I haven’t been an amateur for a long time.’ He refused to let any emotion enter his voice. ‘I fought a war. I spent five years in prison. I know who to trust. I learned the hard way.’
Jack had also learned that overt, theatrical anger like Harry’s was often more impressive display than actual threat. The truly dangerous never blustered or gave warnings. They just struck, hard and fast.
‘You’ve learned a lot, Jack, I’ll give you that. But you’re still no copper.’ Harry grumbled some more, but the worst of the storm had blown itself out. ‘Damage is done now,’ he said, in the end. ‘We might as well use what she’s found. I’ll go see what I can get from Access station. Won’t be long.’
Andrea wasn’t around. The house was silent. Jack went upstairs and looked into empty bedrooms. Her aunt’s clothes were vacuum-packed in plastic, to protect them while she was gone. Jack made himself a cup of tea, carefully remembering where the kettle and mug had been so he could replace both in exactly the same place. Then he went back into the living room and waited. After an hour or so, Harry reappeared with several security camera images.
‘That’s Nihal. Easy once Corazon showed us where to look. He’s usually there at about half eight in the morning.’
‘How did you get these, Harry? You can’t have clearance.’
‘The way I always get information. I went and talked to the camera nests. I found out what they wanted, gave it to them and then they helped me out.’