The Looking Glass War
By Shaine and Shatterclaw. Individual rating: PG for
language.
"Erik..." She had been wrong. So wrong...
She sat on the bed shaking until the ringing of the phone brought her back to reality. Deciding to book a flight to Metro as soon as she could, she picked it up.
"Hello. May I speak to Miss Shaine Kohl?"
"That's me."
"This is ADP Detective Jacob." Shaine was very tempted to hang up and call Erik. "I was wondering if I might stop by and have a few words with you."
"All right..."
"How about ten this morning?"
"That's fine." It would give her time to start packing.
"I'll see you then. Thank you."
Shaine scrambled for her laptop. She wasn't in the Chicago criminal databases yet...as least not as anything other than a victim...and Erik's name came up clean as well. At least, relatively so. Genom itself was implicated in the deaths caused by misfiring of satellite weapons.
Her case was lumped in with nearly a hundred others in a large file. Whereas all the others were clearly and obviously labeled, this one was tagged only as Birdman.
It was huge. Muggings, Boomer attacks, near rapes...all stopped by the same ravenlike creature. Most were marked unsolved. Sketches based on the testimony of eyewitnesses showed a birdlike, or angel-like, figure in dark colors - not unlike a Knight Saber hardsuit. Shaine was certain that the two were connected.
She heard a knock on the door. Disconnecting entirely from the Net, she went to the door. Through the peephole she could see a well-dressed man in his thirties, wearing a suit and tie with an overcoat, and beside him a man in ADP uniform.
"Let me see your badge!" She yelled. The police officer and the plainclothes both held their badges up toward the peephole. ADP Detective Jacob, badge number blah-blah-blah...
"Ma'am, it's Detective Jacob. We spoke earlier on the phone."
Shaine opened the door. "Sorry."
"It's all right, ma'am. This is Officer Jenkins."
"Ma'am."
"The hotel staff reported that there was some sort of incident last night...?"
"I got mugged just outside here. Two men, with odd metal things in their necks."
Jenkins nodded. "Cyber junkies."
"I tossed my purse in one direction and dodged in the other. The next morning, the purse was at the front desk, with nothing missing."
"How did you get away from them?"
"Like I said, I just twisted out of the one's grip while they were distracted. I think they wanted the purse more than they wanted me."
"Really? Nothing was taken?"
"Did you happen to see anything else?"
"No, and no."
"I see." Jacob started scribbling on a battered, old notepad.
"My uncle is Erik Kohl," Never hurt to drop a name like that... "I had just gotten out of his car. They weren't following me back to the hotel; they were already there." Her voice was terse, becoming angrier.
"Yes, junkies go after anyone who seems weaker but still healthy. The bodies fetch a high price on the black market."
"So why did the one with the knife go after the purse and not me?"
"Most likely they didn't want to do any damage. They'd be able to get much more if all of the organs were intact."
All of my organs, you mean, Shaine realized. Erik...!
"Is that all? I'm planning to go back to Michigan today and I still have to pack."
"You intend to leave Chicago?"
"Yes...at least for now."
"I hate to ask this of you," Jacob said slowly, "But we're going to have to request that you not leave town for now."
"Why?"
"If you'll stay just long enough to identify your assailants, and of course file a report..."
"I thought they confessed!"
"They did," Jenkins admitted. "But the confession is in question."
Shaine refused to say anything more.
"How did you know that they confessed?"
She got her purse off of the nightstand and fished out the note. "Here."
"Ahhh!" Jacob opened up the notepad again. "How did you get this?"
"It was in my purse when I picked it up at the front desk."
"Ma'am, would you come back to the station with us?"
"I'm calling my uncle. Now."
The two officers looked at each other. "Of course...once you're at the station..."
"I don't think you're listening to me. I said now." She stood her ground. "From what I understand, you have to leave if I tell you to... "
"Yes, ma'am...but there is still the matter of the law..."
"I'm sure Erik's lawyer can straighten me out on the finer points of the situation." A small smile.
"Fine, call this Erik of yours. We'll wait."
///
"Hello? Yes, Mr. Kohl, please..." She frowned. "Vice-President Kohl. Is there more than one?"
Jenkins whispered something to Jacob as the pair listened.
"Yes.
"Erik, there are police officers here and they want me to go with them...I don't know what to do!
"No, no, they haven't arrested me..."
Jenkins rolled his eyes.
"I don't know if they'll let me wait for you." Her voice was tiny, gone so high-pitched as to seem a full octave higher. "Please..."
She then broke into a rapid string of high-pitched, cracking, and poorly accented German words that lost both officers, then ended with Vogelmann.
They looked at each other. "Ja, Vogelmann!" Shaine repeated. "All right..."
She hung up. "All right. I'll go."
///
An hour later, she was at the police station, having repeated the same story again. And again. There was a momentary break, in the form of a lineup, and she easily identified the two men who'd attacked her.
In normal light, it was pretty fucking obvious.
Another officer walked her back to the well-maintained but drab room in which she had been questioned, and left. Yet a fourth officer soon appeared.
"Hello, Miss Kohl. I'm Lieutenant Jamson."
"Jacob, Jenkins, Jamson...you're pretty damned alliterative around here."
Jamson actually laughed at that. "Genom makes us that way."
"Funny...I'd think you'd have a little more loyalty to the company, then."
He tapped his head and said, "Made in Japan."
"Not in Chicago. What a pity."
"Well, we can't all be perfect." He smiled. "So, why don't you tell me how you got your purse back?"
She launched into the same exact story as before, leaving out Erik's curious behavior in the restaurant and her own intoxication.
"And you never saw or heard anything."
"No."
"Well, that's rather funny, seeing as everything you lost was either returned to you or turned in to us, and your attackers were gift wrapped for us."
Everything? What about the ring? "Are you accusing me?"
"And you never saw anything, not even when you got away."
"Nothing. I've told you over and over...nothing."
"Okay. When your...uncle, is it? and his lawyer get here, we can go over this again..."
Once he was gone, Shaine slumped down in her chair. "God damn you, Erik..." she whispered.
///
She sat there for ten minutes, staring out the window, and then saw Erik walking toward the building with an older man and a Boomer. The clothes on the three of them had to cost as much as the entire ADP's civilian wardrobe for a year.
"Erik...?"
Jacob and Jenkins soon appeared, leading the three into the room.
"Erik, where the fuck have you been?" The sudden, explosive tone of her voice was enough to convey her meaning to the ADP officers despite the fact that she spoke in German.
Erik answered with a much more cultured accent, actually making the guttural syllables seem a bit softer: "Why, getting your lawyer, my dear."
"It couldn't have taken that long. Asshole."
"Such language! I'm hurt."
"You taught me worse," she hissed.
"How did you get stuck in this place?"
She gave a swift recap of the mugging and Jacob's arrival at her hotel room.
"Why didn't you tell me this!" He began speaking in English. "I want the badge numbers of the officers responsible for this...circus!"
Whatever Erik wants, Erik gets, oh yes... Once he had this, he demanded that the officers leave.
The Boomer and the old man stood there, mirroring the actions and questions of the two officers. Not much of a trade. The Boomer was taking notes, too.
"So what have you told them?" The man asked.
"I told them how the mugging happened, how I got away, and I showed them the note that was left in my purse."
"What note?"
It was on the table. She pointed to it, and Erik walked over to the table and picked it up. His jaw tightened and his face became visibly more red. The lawyer followed him.
"I see this sort of thing all the time."
Erik spun around and used every word she'd just hurled at him, with a few gender-specific ones thrown in for good measure. "Why didn't you say anything about this? You know we take care of each other in this family! Who do you think I am, Evon?"
The lawyer seemed resigned. "They'll have to let you go in an hour or so..."
"They're acting like it was my fault!"
"Did you see him?" the lawyer asked again, insistant.
"Who?"
"The 'Birdman,' " he insisted. "The one who caught all of those muggers..."
"I didn't see anything, and that's exactly what I told them."
"Hm. I believe I am going to have to raise my fee..."
"Don't be crass. How can you talk about money at a time like this?"
///
Outside the ADP station, Erik glared at the lawyer and his Boomer. "Go. We'll call you when we need you."
The lawyer seemed about to protest, but then quickly shepherded his Boomer away.
Erik turned back toward Shaine. "I want to talk business."
"Fine. Geschaft."
"I want you to find out whatever you can about this Birdman. It might be...watching you for some reason."
"No."
"No?" Erik's tone was that of one defied once too often.
"I'm leaving this city the first chance I get and I'm not stopping until I get to Twelve and Gratiot."
"After the way I took care of you...?"
"You? Oh, you took care of me wonderfully well!" She let him have it again, her accent in German a bastard mixture of Rhineland and American midwest. "I was drunk. And I just happened to leave that out when they interrogated me."
"I can make this worth your while...how would you like to finally get a new chipset for that tortoise you call a laptop? It would be a simple matter; I'm sure Genom would go ten percent over whatever it is you're making now..."
Believe it or not, Erik, that's a low bid compared to what Veldez offered...
"I'm going home."
"Fine. Turn your back on your family. You really are just like Evon..." He muttered something else; the only word she caught was weak.
Shaine glared at him.
"You might as well leave." A moment later, he glanced at her again. "Still here? Why?"
"I need you." It was a bitter tone of voice, not surrendering in spirit despite the necessary physical defeat. Whatever you may think, you don't own me. You can't break my wings.
Her eyes met his. Odd, they were...the blue of a cold sky or the barren winter wind, flecked with grey like dirty snow on the side of a city street...
The weight of the past day fell down upon her all at once and she found herself in his arms again, her tears slowly soaking through the expensive fabric of his shirt.
///
"Good morning, Miss Shaine! Did you sleep well?"
A pale white face loomed over her. "Whatinhell--"
"Mister Erik gave me a list of foods you like. Make sure you eat well. I'll draw a hot bath for you." The pink-haired Boomer's smile seemed almost painted on. "Is there anything else I can do for you?"
"No. I just...need some time to myself."
She ignored the smell of hot coffee and scrambled eggs that was, quite honestly, making her stomach churn. She couldn't eat, especially after all that had happened. She vaguely remembered arriving there...
Erik had insisted upon finding her a new apartment immediately. She had fallen asleep in the car while he was off doing that. He woke her up, made her walk just to the door...once it was locked behind them, he picked her up. The human contact felt good. She hadn't wanted him to leave, but she was half asleep again by the time he set her down again on the bed. Such a short distance. That last brush of his hand against her cheek had been searing; she knew that was the end, and couldn't stand to be there alone...
But she had had to. And it didn't take long for her to fall asleep.
Shaine quickly set the tray on the floor, away from the bed. She heard the sound of water running. Good. She'd sneak into the bathtub as soon as the Boomer left, and with any luck it would take her hint about the food.
The water was too damned hot. She felt overheated already, like her entire body was covered with an oh-so-thin coating of slime that held in its heat, and the second tubful of water was on the border between lukewarm and cold. Adding bubble bath, she pronounced it perfect then gingerly lowered herself in and began feebly scrubbing at her arms and legs.
She heard the telephone ring. The Boomer answered in the perkiest voice imaginable, and Shaine tried to block out the noise.
Then the Boomer opened the door without a hint of caution, saying, "It's Mister Erik!"
Shaine took the phone. "Mister Erik, I do believe I'm going to kill you for this."
"What exactly is that?"
"Oh, but I shouldn't. This unit is so loving, and kind...I could let her wait on me forever!"
"Oh. The Boomer. She may need some adjustment before you're satisfied with her, of course."
"No shit."
"With your skills it shouldn't be a problem."
"And what, Mister Erik, is that plate of arterial congestion you tried to slip me this morning? Bacon? Ham? Coffee?"
"You need to put on some weight, dear. Don't think I can't tell that your rings are getting looser. Why, it even looked the other day like one had slipped off of your finger."
"It's not like I've been able or willing to eat very much in the past few days."
"Do you need anything from the hotel room? Your old apartment?"
"Mmm...the computer, my backups, CDs, books, clothing, jewelry..." She sighed. "My plush Sailor Pluto doll..."
"I can take care of that. Anything else?"
"No, I don't think so."
"How about your car?"
"Damn. That POS?"
"Well, what kind of car would you rather have?"
"Ohhhh, no. You are not doing this to me."
"Doing what?" His voice was completely innocent.
"You know what you're doing."
"I have no idea, dear..."
Shaine decided on the blunt approach. "No. You are not buying me a car."
Just then, the Boomer walked in again with a set of keys.
"Thank you, Uncle Erik..." Shaine slid down into the bubbles, outgunned and outnumbered. "So what exactly is it?"
"A New New Beetle, of course." She could almost hear him smile. "I remember when we'd pass one, and you always used to point and shout, Beetle!"
"Wonderful. So now I can just get in my car and not be able to drive anywhere because I'm too busy pointing at myself and shouting Beetle!"
"Well, then. Now that that's taken care of...I do hope you're not going to just sit in there all day."
"Yes, I'm sure you do hope."
The Boomer shook her head no.
"This is the city that mugged me and falsely accused me. How much time do you think I want to spend slumming with its wonderful citizens?"
"What, ready to give up after one bad night?"
"It was bad, all right?"
"Just find me this Birdman and you'll be cleared - not that the ADP aren't going to pay for what they've done..."
Her voice was flat. "So it's business again."
"It's always business, dear."
"Thank you for clearing that up." She motioned for the Boomer to leave.
"As soon as you get your laptop, see what you can find out?"
"Mm." She was out of the tub quickly and wrapped herself in a towel. She saw that the Boomer had left a new one for her on the floor, cables trailing beneath the door and out of the room.
"You know, if you're having trouble with the Boomer, just tell her to go clean the house. They do listen to simple commands, you know.
"Unlike certain humans..."
"And what exactly does that mean?"
"Have you ever understood the word no?"
"Hmmm, I do seem to recall such a word...but of course I don't keep up with slang..."
"Think back. In the restaurant...later when you told me about this Birdman shit..."
"What about it?" he snapped.
"I seem to remember saying something of the sort then."
"And that would mean...? "
Her voice dropped to a menacing whisper. "There's still more I could tell the ADP...as I think I mentioned yesterday..."
"The ADP and the normal police are very proud. These so-called Birdman attacks make them look bad...and so they would do anything to find out more about them."
"Throw me back to them. I don't care. Want to see how fast I can disappear from here?"
"Of course, you'll only get five to ten at the most." For what? "And disappearing may be harder than you think. I own this city."
"What good does owning a haystack do when it's the needle you want?"
"I suppose you'll just have to see for yourself...Alice..." So he'd been listening to her talk to herself in the hotel room. Which meant the apartment was almost certainly also bugged.
By that time, she'd had plenty of opportunity to use the laptop. "I think you may want to check your e-mail account at work..."
There was a short silence, then the clicking of keys on the other end. Suddenly he swore. "You won't get away with this!"
"That's only the beginning. Just try to even trace me back here."
"There are still...certain things that the FBI may want to see."
"I'm not afraid of Mulder."
She hung up.
///
Headed downtown in a cab, Shaine examined her clothing carefully. No bugs. All right. Current assets: a few credit cards, fake IDs, my bare-minimums backup from the old laptop...a pen. Not much. I need to go get some new clothing, not too much like my usual style, and a new pair of earrings if I want to keep wearing them. The rings have to go. She slid them into one pocket, then removed the small silver hoops from her ears. I don't have a gun. Probably shouldn't risk buying one. I need a new place to stay, preferably someplace shady enough that they won't cooperate with the ADP. Preferably far away from Chicago. Fake plane tickets and train reservations to several places in different directions, preferably places I've been before to make it look more credible...
But first there's one last thing I need to finish off with dear Erik...
Getting out at the aboveground portion of the downtown district, she slid into a net cafe and tried Genom again. No luck. Gritting her teeth, she tried to access his account again.
The account name kohler does not exist, is expired, or is under administrative lockout. Please contact the network administrator for more information.
Good. At least he hadn't gotten through her lockout yet.
She decided to use the back door she'd inserted in the Starbright mainframe to mask her location while making her false travel arrangements. However, her browser crashed every time she tried to do so.
Of course. Erik was already on to them.
A dialog window appeared: Do you want to play a game?
Sure. Why not. I'm screwed anyway.
It looked like another Doom-style shooter, but she didn't have a gun. The corridors were empty. She took a few turns and came to a ball of light hovering in the middle of the hallway.
Out of the one million Boomers in Chicago, over one half are misused and go rogue.
A gun appeared.
Soon she came to another ball of light:
At the current rate of production, by the year 2050 Boomers will outnumber humans.
It gave her a clip of ammo.
A third ball of light, and a third message:
By the year 2120, Boomers alone will be sufficient to catastrophically overpopulate the Earth.
The floor dropped out from beneath her, and she fell into a citylike setting. She saw a Boomer attacking a human. It turned toward her and charged...
Shaine started to shoot at it. Another fact popped up. Normal bullets cannot harm a rogue Boomer. The ADP goes through ten thousand bullets for every Boomer it puts down.
Another character was in the game, a metal-suited Birdman figure. The Boomer didn't seem to notice it.
Soon the game ended, and another dialog box popped up: Thank you for using Dormouse. Your connection has expired.
///
"I need to talk to Veldez. Now."
"The green-haired secretary didn't seem ready to oblige her. Ms. Veldez is on her break at the moment. It won't be long..."
Shaine sat down and somehow managed to keep reasonably calm.
"Ah, Miss Kohl! I apologize for the wait. Now, what can I do for you?"
"I...need to talk to you in private."
"All right..." Veldez led her to a large office with a view of the lake. "Have a seat. Can I get you something to drink?"
"No thank you. ...I've been thinking about that job offer. Genom made a counterproposal, but I'm not inclined to take it."
"Have you made a decision yet?"
Shaine stared at Saki intently, searching for some clue as to what was going on. "That game of yours...have you ever seen the level with the Birdman?" She was a tough read, but her eyes seemed to sparkle in quiet victory... "That copy you gave me is a great stress reliever - and I've needed it, considering all that's happened. This is quite a lively city, you know."
Saki turned to look out the window. "I see. It gets worse every year..."
"And does he get worse every year?"
There was a long pause, then something in Saki changed. She seemed full of energy...barely contained, yet perfectly under control. "That depends...on which side you see yourself on."
"We each see things differently; our views are shaped by outside forces."
"Tell me...how do you see this city, Miss Kohl?"
"It's a haystack."
"Ah," She seemed pleased. "You're right, in a way. The city is a haystack, and each day we lose more needles than can ever be found again. Far too easy to get lost, and disappear where neither we nor Genom can ever reach.
"Part of it is because humans need hope, and that is taken away from them.
"What is left in a life without hope?"