“Who uses that phone number? The one he showed you?”
“We’ve got no connection to illegal—”
“I didn’t ask that,” Zoe snapped. “I asked who the number belongs to.”
“Heinser. Michael Heinser.”
“Who is he?”
“I don’t know anything about—”
“Who is he? Who does he work for?”
“He works for …Heinlein …Industries …”
A heat spike appeared on the scanner monitoring his GSR. It started growing, causing his skin temperature to rise.
“Zoe, wait. Hold on.”
I moved behind him and found the source of the heat on the back of his neck, near the base of his skull. A component there had gone active. Whatever it was, it was drawing a significant amount of power.
I accessed his JZI and brought up a schematic. The configuration was old, but some upgrades were fairly recent. Despite the fact that he was unconscious and not coupled to the implant, a lot of energy was moving around in there. It was building in a single component.
“Zoe, stop!”
“What was going on in those clinics?” she asked. “How many more of them are there?”
“They …have to wake up …” he said softly.
The device was a kill switch, and it was about to go off. It was monitoring him, ready to blow his brains out if he fell under the influence of hypnosis or mind control.
“Zoe, let him go!” I shouted, louder that time, but she wasn’t listening.
“Where is Samuel Fawkes?” she snapped, but I didn’t have time to ask her where she’d heard that name; the device was about to trip.
There wasn’t any time to be delicate. I spun Zoe away from him and slapped her across the face.
Her eyes went back to normal, but the look on her face was one of pure shock. A blush began to swell in her pale cheeks. Off to the side, I sensed the energy surge from Buckster begin to ebb, easing back.
“Zoe, I …”
I reached forward and she slapped my hand away, backing up and knocking over her chair.
“Zoe, wait!”
She turned and shoved the door open, running down the hallway.
“Hey, G-man,” Buckster said. When I turned back to look at him, he seemed a little confused, but there was a wary look in his eye. Anger was brewing on his face. “I want my fucking lawyer.”
“You’re free to go,” I told him. “If we have any more questions—”
“You know where to shove them,” he said, brushing by me on his way out the door.
I watched him leave. With what we had, I could hold him. With what we had, I could hold him indefinitely, but Leon Buckster was a drone. He wasn’t behind this. I put a call through to Calliope. After a few seconds, she picked up.
Buckster’s on his way out of here, I said. I think he’ll try to run. I want to know who, or where, he runs to.
It’s done.
Be careful. He’s dangerous.
I still had the image of the scan in front of me. The kill switch wasn’t the only surprise. Despite being a vet, Leon Buckster was also wired.
The connection closed. I thought about it for a minute, then called Noakes.
Wachalowski, what the hell’s going on down there?
I got something. I need a meeting with Heinlein Industries.
Faye Dasalia—Parking Garage, Roof Level
I lay in the car’s backseat and listened to the raindrops drum on the roof. Electric signs had begun to flicker on. Nico still hadn’t returned.
A persistent cluster of old memories kept coming to the forefront—memories of winter, when I had tracked Lev. I had crouched down on a snow-covered sidewalk and leaned into the car where he had waited. The woman behind the wheel was hours dead, her body covered in blood. Lev had waited in the backseat of that car, while the sun set and snow covered the windows. When she returned, he’d grabbed her and targeted the beating mass of her heart. While streams of shoppers passed by them, unaware, he’d stabbed her through the breastbone.
I couldn’t identify the blade he’d used. That had really bothered me.
I would have been horrified to know, I think, that one day I would walk in that killer’s shoes. It was that same killer who instructed me how to avoid the security cameras and access the vehicle.
The clinic, and three others, had been destroyed in response to police raids. That implied a coordinated attack. Motoko and her people were closing in. If they located the ship, then we might lose everything. When I died and realized the truth of my life, I knew I’d found my purpose—one more important than the law I’d upheld. That absolute control over so many could not go to so few; it would change human society forever.
I knew that we couldn’t fail. Still, when I was alone and it was quiet, I imagined the attack that was to come. The more I learned, the clearer I pictured it. When I did, that academic doubt returned:
This isn’t right.
The memory of the man at the clinic, the one that Lev injected, wouldn’t seem to leave my mind. What was it that I had seen? Lev had killed him, there was no doubt about that, but near the end, I knew I’d seen him move. Somehow the man had been reanimated. Fawkes wouldn’t respond to questions about it, nor would Lev, which meant he had been told not to. There were things in play I wasn’t aware of, and I wondered exactly how far that went. At the restaurant, when I’d recorded them, some things were said that I couldn’t reconcile:
“…it won’t just be this city that is destroyed. Fawkes will destroy this city, and then, one by one, the rest will begin to fall….”
Was it just a ploy of theirs, a scare tactic? Or had they really seen it?
The rain picked up and began to fall harder. A message came in from Fawkes.
Call accepted.
Has he returned yet? he asked.
Not yet. Were all of the safe houses destroyed?
No. They missed one, but we’ll have to step up the plan. The ship has begun its approach. When it arrives, the forces inside the city will be awakened, and will be joined by those on the shore. The devices will be distributed at that time, and carried into the targets during the assault. At that time, a pool of names and identifications will be accessible to all units. Eliminating them will be the top priority.
It’s going to be chaos. How will we locate them all?
The new units will become active at that time, and you’ll be connected through your secondary communications node. The new units will have an information-sharing array that will be very useful in tracking individuals. They will pinpoint them, and update the locations in real time.
I understand.
Do you?
I understand enough.
Good. When you’re finished with Wachalowski, regardless of the outcome, there’s one more thing I need you to do before the ship arrives.
An abduction?
An assassination.
Who?
An image appeared, floating above my face. A woman with large eyes peered through long red hair. Her beaklike nose protruded over thin lips. I recognized her face immediately. She had been with Nico at the restaurant.
Zoe Ott, I said.
Yes. Do you remember her from the factory, two years ago?
I sifted through the field of my memories, isolating the specific time and place. I was inside the clean room, and Nico was there with me. He had removed my Leichenesser capsule, which had nearly destroyed me. He meant to save me, I think, like he hadn’t yet realized it was too late…. The door he’d come through opened, and a woman stormed through, dragging another.
The first woman’s name was Calliope Flax; I’d seen her with Nico too. The one being dragged was a red-haired woman, Fawkes’s target Zoe Ott. I recognized the white smock she was wearing.