Given what Jezebel Thorn had insinuated, her mole had to have been Lawrence himself. Who else would have thought to plant a camera outside his office? Why else had he hidden an industrial-grade data chip in his office in a place where most people wouldn’t think to look? And how else would Madam Jezebel have gotten her hands on the video?
Still, the makings of a counter-plan were starting to form in Aster’s mind. She had blurted out how the data chip she had taken was blue in colour, and Jezebel seemed to accept that as fact. If she gave Jezebel a blue data chip and convinced her that it was genuine, then handed over the red data chip – the real one – to the DNI, she could get official protection by the time Jezebel discovered she had been duped.
The sky-taxi alighted on the nearest public landing pad, and the Thorn family walked the short distance back to the apartment. Aster ushered the children through the front door and locked the door behind her, heaving a sigh of relief once she had done so. The children were glad to be home, too, and raced to the living room. After piling onto the couch, they began fighting over the wireless data-glove that controlled the holo-TV.
“Holo-TV, on.” Aster enunciated as she walked into the room.
Responding to her voice command, the holoscreen activated, covering the opposite wall with the projection. The channel happened to be the news.
“…stock price collapsed by an eye-watering 27% after unconfirmed reports that its labs were raided by the DNI. Chairman Darius Avaritio hasn’t been seen in public for…”
Aster plucked the data-glove out of Orion’s hands and slipped it over her own hand, dismissing the news report with a swipe of her fingers and flicking rapidly through the hundreds of channels in search of something other than the evening news.
She found a decent family movie to watch and snapped her fingers with the data-glove to select it. The children moved over to give their mother some room on the couch and she sat down with them, removing the data-glove and tossing it onto the coffee table.
As the movie began to play, Aster was too distracted to pay attention. It was nice to be home, but the first night without him was always hardest, even without the day’s events weighing on her thoughts. She was also bothered by how her mother-in-law had so easily picked up her children from the medical centre. Just how many connections did she have? The paranoia was starting to get to her.
Aster stood up abruptly.
“What’s wrong, mommy?” Rose asked.
“Nothing, sweetheart,” Aster replied with a reassuring smile, “just keep watching the movie. Mommy has some work to do.”
Leaving the children in the living room, Aster went to the master bedroom and shut the door behind her. She approached what looked like an armoured closet on Gabriel’s side of the room and slid her thumb across the sensor panel. The light on the biometric sensor panel went from red to green and the twin doors slid open.
Inside was a humanoid figure with a matte black finish standing still as a statue, its faceless and featureless head drooped in programmed slumber. On its right breast in white letters was emblazoned the model name ‘Maganiel’.
Aster reached up and wrapped her knuckles against the android’s forehead. The android’s eyes lit up electric blue as it activated. It inclined its head towards Aster, looking her straight in the eyes before flash-scanning them.
“Good evening, Aster Thorn,” the android greeted her in a digitised voice without any Human inflections, “Maganiel Mark V online. How may I be of service?”
“Personal protection for the family.” Aster enunciated.
“Understood. The DNA signatures of: Aster Thorn…Orion Thorn…Rose Thorn…Violet Thorn…Leonidas Thorn…Gabriel Thorn…are already stored in my database. Please confirm that these are the individuals who require personal protection.”
“Confirm.” Aster instructed the android.
“Understood.” The maganiel acknowledged, “Please be aware that the use of lethal force is strictly regulated, and in most cases is prohibited, by Asgard Municipal Codes. Do you wish to authorise lethal force?”
“Yes.”
“Understood.” The maganiel replied, “Please be aware that the use of lethal weaponry, including firearms, is strictly regulated, and in most cases is prohibited, by Asgard Municipal Codes. Do you wish to authorise the use of firearms?”
“Yes.”
“Understood.” The maganiel replied, “Mission directive and parameters: confirmed.”
The maganiel reached back into the closet and pulled out a military-issue sidearm, checking the settings before stowing the weapon on a magnetic plate attached to its thigh. Aster stepped aside as the armed android exited the closet and waited quietly in the corner. Mentally exhausted, Aster flopped down on Gabriel’s side of the bed.
After staring at the ceiling for a while, her gaze drifted sideways until she was looking at Gabriel’s bedside table. There in pride of place was a framed holo-photo from their wedding day. It was one of the few times Aster had seen him smile, and it stood in remarkable contrast to the stern expression he usually wore around the house.
Madam Jezebel had attended the ceremony, and paid for the venue. She had even put on an award-winning performance pretending to be thrilled that her son was marrying a colonial girl – even one with multiple engineering degrees. Most of the other guests had been former classmates of hers at engineering school as well as some sinister-looking DNI types that Gabriel presumably knew from work.
At least, they had looked sinister to Aster. She couldn’t help but wonder if the DNI did something to its operatives to make them that way. Was Gabriel always so dour, or had he been put through the same personality-dulling process?
Even so, it was a nice photo, and Aster smiled back.
* * *
Latched onto the underside of a nearby mag-rail track was a small pod, its presence concealed by a variety of cloaking systems. Inside the cramped surveillance pod, two men watched on a holographic screen as the Thorn family stepped out of the sky-taxi and headed inside, following them through the camera network all the way to their front door.
One of the men touched the holographic screen with his finger and thumb and zoomed in on Aster Thorn as she walked away from the camera.
“Damn, that is one fine piece of ass.” He said with grin.
“We’re on assignment, Blake.” The other man reminded him.
“Hey, I’m just saying,” Blake replied unapologetically, “good on the lucky guy who gets to bang that every night. Don’t you think?”
“She’s not really my type.” The other man casually slid his hand across Blake’s thigh.
“Ugh! What the fleek are you doing, Gibson?” Blake wriggled away in alarm.
“Serves you right for perving out on the mark.” Gibson replied with a satisfied smile.
“What do you mean ‘the mark’?” Blake said, confused, as he settled back into his seat, “we’re on a surveillance op., not a hit.”
“Of course, it’s not a hit, moron,” Gibson replied, “you surveil a mark for intelligence, and you mark a target for death. Who let you out of the academy early?”
“Ok, whatever.” Blake said dismissively.
“So, are you gonna call it in, or would you rather ogle the mark some more?”
“Fine, fine.” Blake said as he activated a secure link, “Big-brother, big-brother, this is watchdog-two-zero, Agents Blake and Gibson checking in.”
“Roger, watchdog-two-zero, big-brother reads you,” a gruff voice replied.