The Search
By Mitch, Shaine, and Shatterclaw. Individual rating: PG.
In Tokyo.
There were faster jets, but the Raven's Wing was still his favorite means of air travel. He hardly regretted the delay as he looked around the sitting area of the lush apartment. It was a business meeting, but Crimson could have sworn that Sylia was trying to impress him again. The woman had no shame, though she hid it all too well.
Her butler brought in some tea and cake, saying that Sylia would be with him shortly. Crimson just nodded and stared out the window. He liked Henderson, really, but he didn't want to get too comfortable just then.
"Sorry I'm late." He turned to see her...she was wearing a low-cut dress with a tuxedo-style jacket. There was an exotic beauty to her slender frame, but he forced himself to remember that she was just as dangerous as any Boomer he'd ever faced.
"It's all right. The view is wonderful from here."
"I'm glad you like it." She smiled. "Won't you have some tea?" Her voice was all too pleasant.
"No, thank you. I'm here for business only."
"Really, now, is that how you treat all of your hosts?" She was up to something...he had known her just long enough to know it. That smile, the sweetness - in fact, she could be as sweet as any other woman, but she could also be very...
With anyone else there might be a million words that fit, but with her...there was never the right word. Crimson sat down; tempting her anger was not a good idea. Not that she would try anything, but she was better ally than enemy.
"So what is Genom doing this time, that would call us to join forces?"
She went still, her body seemed to change somehow. She slowly lowered her cup and stood. "It's not about Genom this time, at least not on the surface. A week ago, a joint force of American military and others were testing a new type of battle suit. Something happened, and the suit and pilot were lost. There are exorbitant rewards for recovering him, both from the joint militaries and from the family."
"This suit...was it your technology?" He steeled himself for an unpleasant response. She was known to be very territorial about her father and his works, one of which was the essential nature of all hardsuits...
"No. But it's too close, too much like our suits to even begin to ask how they might have gotten it." She was now looking out the window, day giving way to night, and the city lighting up one building at a time.
"Where were they testing this suit?"
"Antarctica."
"You've got to be kidding me. With everything going on down there...you want me to send my people into a war zone for a suit that may not even be one of yours?"
"It bears a similar function to your own suits. I could ask you about that..."
"What do you mean, similar function?"
"Cloaking, in one form or another." She turned to look him dead in the eye.
Not possible. She can't even try to accuse me of selling off part of a Ravens suit...
"Not possible. There is no way that it could have come from us; I take great measures to be sure of that - and don't even try to tell me one got out alive and sold it. Alex is dead, his Boomer doubles have been gone for years. Harpy had his own cloaking tech, which we found came from the same man, but that's been taken care of."
"You misunderstand. I know how secretive you are about the hardsuits, even your own privately developed weapons, but no matter where they came from we need to send someone."
"And the younger groups, you don't trust." She's playing me. There's more to this than she's letting on...and I don't even know how much more.
"Why me?"
"As you know, yours is the largest group to date. Ten members, with support staff, and most of you are believed dead, have no recorded identity, or both."
"So we're expendable to the nth degree. What do you want, Sylia? The truth, if it's not too much to ask for..."
"Genom - and every other major power in the world - wants that suit." The fire in her eye showed how much she wanted it taken care of...which lead Crimson to wonder what else had happened to set her off on this crusade.
"So they want the suit, and it's lost in the ice--"
"No," she cut him off. "It's not lost. It's hiding. The reports I have, have the death toll at over a hundred. Every time they come close it lets loose an amazing amount of firepower. More than any hardsuit I've seen."
"A Boomer hybrid? A Boomer in a suit?" The idea frightened Crimson. Could we even stop such a thing?
"No one knows. The files on the hardsuit were sealed and every favor I've ever earned could not get me any closer than this." She handed him a surprisingly thin file.
It was from the U.S. Marines, on one Lieutenant Amster, Robert J. The only information given was his name, rank, serial number, and last posting. "All that work, and this is all you were able to get?" He cracked a smile, and she gave him a look that could have frozen hell or convinced Carter and Erik to play nice.
"That's not all, but it's the best I can give you."
"Ah...and you want me to trade what for the rest?"
"It's not like that at all. While I do want you to openly share some of your 'toys' I will not force the issue. I will, however, ask a finder's fee. There's more than enough being offered for it to go around."
"It's not about the money. My people will be in grave danger. This mission is one that will draw attention, possibly expose us...but I can see no other way. We'll take it, and we'll make sure that if the suit is 'Stingray' that it is put down. Do you want it back if there is anything left?"
"Yes, if it's not too much trouble."
"No trouble at all." He began to walk toward the elevator, then called back over his shoulder, "Just have a hell of a good cover story ready."
Hopefully the team would be able to back up that boast.
///
It was less than seven hours after Mitch's recruitment into the Steel Ravens, and his head was still spinning. Crimson left abruptly after they arrived at the Nest, taking Hugo with him, and all of the others had gotten bizarre chores to complete during his absence. For James it was to get Majestic 13's file on Lieutenant Robert J. Amster. For Shaine it was to obtain a current map of Antarctica, including troop movements.
Harris went almost straight to bed after reaching the Nest, but neither Wolfstone nor Kohl could sleep. Both wound up in the commissary, with the latter drowning her sorrows in Jell-o.
"So...what they got to eat here?"
"Dunno. I stopped looking as soon as I found the Jell-o."
Mitch opened the refrigerator. It was immense, and packed with nearly every kind of food one could imagine. "Ahh, fresh salmon! Wonderful!" He pulled it out to reveal a five-layer cake buried deeper in the fridge.
"Is that cake?"
"Oh, do you like chocolate cake, Shaine?"
"Yes, yes!"
"They only have five-layer double chocolate. Are you suuuure?"
"Bring it on!"
Just then, Belladonna walked into the room. "Hey, guys! What's up?" She snagged a piece of the cake as Mitch brought it to the table.
"Getting a little something to eat..."
"Fish? And pass up pizza?"
He laughed. "Is that all you eat...cake and pizza?"
"No," Shaine said. "There's Chinese...and let's not forget Jolly Ranchers and Jell-o..."
Mitch laughed harder.
"So what did Crimson ask you guys to do?"
"Map Antarctica...whatever that's good for."
"He had me pulling files on goverment ops stuff." She did a double take. "Antarctica?!"
"Yeah."
"What the heck? ...Well, that might explain the cold weather suits."
Shaine shivered. "I hope not."
"Oh, anything's possible when he leaves like that...means something big is going down. Anyway, I heard he was coming back around the end of the week, and he wants everything he asked for by then."
"What's this all about, now?" Mitch took a big bite of his salmon.
"If I knew that, I wouldn't be asking you guys. He's locked down all of the computers...and Mom's not talking." She got quiet. "In fact, no one's talking..."
Mitch scratched his face and looked at Shaine. "Do you know what's happening in Antarctica?"
"Well, yeah, there's that stupid war going on," Belladonna said.
"Some troop movements; haven't got anything too up-to-date yet. I can't tell if they're unusual or not. I don't usually go staring at the South Pole for fun...rather be looking at Star Trek vids."
"Yeah, all white...who wants to watch that all day?" Bell finished off her cake. "Hey, can I see that map?"
"Sure."
"What would anyone want with that overgrown icebox?" Mitch mused.
"A big supply of ice cream!" Bell giggled. "Or the world's only fresh water...what's left of it...plus oil, minerals...rock..."
"Did you know it gets down to 120 below at night there?"
"At least, if not lower. We'd freeze down there without some sort of special equipment."
"Power lines snap like twigs at 50 below..."
"And Kohls snap like twigs at 20 below." Mitch laughed at that; Shaine started paying more attention to her cake to keep from panicking.
"Oh, man, permanent frostbite..." Bell said.
"The suits wouldn't work at night unless..." Mitch stopped to think.
"I'm not sure about that. If they were running hot they might still work without modifications, but we've never tried it... Do Boomers still work at that temperature?"
"I'm sure they do. Or, at least, Genom makes some that do. Dad got sent up to Alaska a lot for preliminary testing, and they would've sent him to Antarctica if his health had been better."
"Yes, they have internal heaters that work at temperatures below negative 60 to 70 degrees."
"Um, yeah...but the hardsuits..." She picked up a plastic Spork from the table. "This is the outer shell; here it is in the cold..." She snapped the Spork. "The outer shell would crack, and we'd freeze. But cold weather suits are stronger and have heat cloaks."
"Could I see the blueprints for those suits?"
"I don't know. I'd have to ask Mom, and then you'd have to be cleared for it."
"I think I could help you but I'd have to know what I was working on."
"Well..." Belladonna bit her lip. "I might be able to get us in, but it'd probably trip an alarm or two..."
"How strong's the ice on that thing?" Shaine asked, as casually as if she were inquiring about the price of a new cell modem.
"Um...well, let me take you down there and you can see..."
///
"Slow week," Deis mused. "I can't believe that there were only 107 hits..."
"Well, at least we got that stuff from Cypunk, and that 'mama raven' story, though it can't possibly be true, is still a good read..." They walked down the alley, oblivious to the fact that three of the Steel Ravens had watched James Harris kill a Boomer singlehandedly not ten feet away.
"Yeah, but still! If only we could find some hard proof! Like...I don't know...a feather, or--"
Omar grabbed her arm. "Hey, what about a Raven mark in the street?!"
"What? No way! Oh my gawwwd..." Deis whipped out her digital camera and started taking pictures.
"Come on!" He tugged at her trenchcoat.
"Don't you want to take more pictures? We've finally got proof!"
"Naw, I have a better idea. We'll come back and dig it out, then take it back to..." He looked both ways. "The hideout."
"Revving! That is sooo cool!"
///
Cake in hand, Shaine followed Belladonna and Mitch as the three went down to a lower level of the Nest. Bell cracked the code on a pair of locked doors, then walked over to a computer terminal in the darkened office.
As it booted, Shaine pulled a Hyper-PCMCIA card out of her pocket. The 5GB card held her main set of files, including a copy of SoftIce and everything else she might possibly need for a routine hack.
Belladonna pulled up the new hardsuit designs. "All right..." Shaine slid the card halfway into the drive, knelt in front of the terminal, and set the keyboard on her lap. "Just a matter of whether or not I can copy it... Damn!"
"What?"
"I'm going to have a hard time just covering up the fact that we opened it..."
"Jeeza, Mom put some heavy stuff on this! I'll print it, Mitch, so that you can look this over..."
Mitch nodded.
"Oh my gawd, she's not kidding..."
Beads of sweat were forming on Shaine's forehead. "I'm going to need every file on my hypercard just to jigger the boot logs..."
"Gee, I didn't know she had it in her! Hey, wait...I wonder if I still have a back door here..." Shaine passed the keyboard over and Bell began typing in a blur of motion. "I think I got it! I think..."
The lights went on.
///
"Erik, there's something wrong." The Boomer pouted. She'd clearly come there in a hurry; her clothing was not at all suited to the office. A black scoop neck t-shirt, ending perhaps half a hand's width beneath her breasts, exposed far more of her pale skin than was fitting.
More than Erik particularly wanted Carter staring at.
"Is it that bad."
"I think so." She sat down on the other side of his desk without asking, and dug a hypercard out of her jeans pocket. "Katerin is trying to get into the project databases. She's been damned clever about it too."
"Well, what would you expect from a Boomer modeled after yourself, dear? When I made her, I hoped she could help Evon somehow...I worry about him. But Boomers can't care for others like that...not like you, Shaine..."
The Boomer's eyes shimmered, tears just barely held in. Overemotional. This one is going to need adjustment.
He frowned and took the hypercard with the access logs. "Was there any sort of a message left?"
"Yes, that's how we knew that Katerin was trying to get in."
"What did it say?"
"Third man on a match dies."
He dismissed her. As she turned to leave, the outline of a snake devouring its own tail could be seen on the exposed flesh just above the top of her jeans.