Scene 14
Ivana emerged to a faint popping noise that she know from the Tournament – it was the sound of some other physical material being instantly replaced (and destroyed) by her body. Gladiators liked to try and get a translocator beacon at an opponent's feet for an instant-kill 'telefrag', but when you didn't know what you'd just translocated into, it was a scary sound. She opened her eyes slowly, carefully, and saw…. leaves. Branches brushed her face. She looked down and realized that she was standing in a large pot, surrounded by the remains of some dense office plant. Parting the branches and stepping carefully out of the pot, she scanned her surroundings and saw that it was a circular lobby, dimly lit by nighttime runner lights, with a desk in the center and several other plants around the edge. The one to her right looked slightly mangled. Looking carefully around the desk, apparently searching for something, was Anna.
¨You hid translocator bacons in the office plants?¨
¨Yep. Told the receptionist I wanted to check 'em out because I used to be a botanist, and then waited 'til her back was turned. For all the genius scientists and engineers in this place, you'd think they would hire smarter help.¨
Ivana walked over to the reception desk to see what Anna was up to. ¨What are we looking for here?¨
¨Access keycard. The janitor leaves it around here someplace and I think it should get us to the part of this building where Malcom's doctor works. But they must have hidden it somewhere….¨
Ivana inspected the desk. It was pretty bare, except for the computer console built into the center, with a fold-down screen and detachable keyboard that stowed under the edge of the desk. She pulled out the keyboard carefully, on the lookout for anything that might be a camera or scanner, but it all seemed fairly straightforward. Feeling around under the desk where the keyboard had been, her hand brushed over a plastic sheath. She pulled a card out of it and held this up to show the ID picture to Anna. ¨Is this the janitor?¨
Anna inspected it. ¨Yeah, that's the one. Nice work. Let's put it in the ID slot over here by the translocation pad and see what happens.¨ They went around to the front of the desk and found a card reader labeled ¨STAFF ONLY¨. Ivana went to put the card in, but Anna said, ¨Wait a sec, Ivana?¨
¨Hm?¨
¨Give me your beacon first. I'll use the card and then you can just follow with your launcher. Wait 'til I clear you by the comm to come.¨
¨Good call.¨ Ivana handed over the beacon and card to Anna, who stepped on the pad in front of the reader and inserted the ID. The reader beeped and a series of options appeared on a touch screen next to the slot. They said:
OFFICE WING:
COMMERCIAL PERFORMANCE MODULE
COMMERCIAL MEDICAL MODULE
ADVANCED PERFORMANCE MODULE
MARKET RESEARCH MODULE
LAB WING:
INSUFFICENT CLEARANCE
EXIT
Anna gave her teammate the thumbs up and touched ¨Advanced Performance Module¨, disappearing immediately. Ivana tapped on her comm and waited. A couple of minutes passed. Just as she was starting to worry, Anna's voice announced ¨Area secure, Ivana. Your beacon is ready.¨ She translocated.
They were standing in an office, sparsely decorated, with a machined meteorite desk, work console, and a couple other chairs (presumably for visitors). Before Ivana could ask, Anna explained ¨I was going to call you in earlier, but I wanted to check out the office first, and once I was in I just brought you straight here. Anyways, this place is deserted.¨
¨Ah. So this is where Malcom's doctor works?¨
¨Yeah, unless I'm badly mistaken. Now, we need to figure out how to get on this computer. It's got a biometric matcher on the keyboard, and I'm not Doctor Kilgard. Can you think of anything?¨
¨Eh, I don't think so, but let's look around. Isn't espionage supposed to be your specialty?¨
¨Was my specialty, but things have changed since then. New matchers are different. I'm not sure how to override this one.¨
¨Hm.¨ Ivana frowned. ¨Bad luck.¨ She distractedly turned over some papers that were on the desk, and something caught her eye. It appeared to be a memo to Dr. Kilgard, and from the tone, it must have come from some higher ups at FenTech:
MEMO
To: Dr. Francis A. Kilgard
From: Robert Wall
Re: Project Metis
NOTICE: Project Metis, according to the observations of the NEG Bureau of Technological Ethics, has been found in violation of regulation 19.1275, and has summarily been ordered to cease all operations. Official work on the project is to be discontinued immediately, and all official records of research are to be destroyed. A check of your console will be made tomorrow to confirm compliance.
Ivana turned the memo around in her hands. Besides the intriguing message, it looked perfectly ordinary. ¨Hey Anna,¨ she said, ¨have you ever heard of the Bureau of Technological Ethics?¨
Anna, who had been busy muttering thoughts to herself about different ways to crack Matchers, waved her off. ¨Just a minute Ivana, I'm….¨ She looked up suddenly. ¨Hey wait, did you just say the Bureau of Technological Ethics?¨
¨Yeah, Kilgard's got an interesting memo here that mentions them. Maybe it's nothing, but take a look anyways… see what you think.¨ She handed the document to Anna, who scanned it rapidly, frowned, then read it again. ¨Can you make anything of that?¨ Ivana asked her.
¨Maybe, but it would help to have a lot more information. You remember that hippie commune that took responsibility for bombing a FenTech plant a couple years ago?¨
Ivana was surprised. ¨You mean, when you were in the Black Ops…? It has something to do with…¨
Anna cut her off. ¨Yeah, listen, I know there is quite a lot about that mission that I never told you, but I had my reasons, and now is a bad time to explain everything. Basically, the commune was supposedly also trying to contact the Bureau of Technological Ethics, and in the message they sent taking credit for that bombing, they called on the BTE to investigate FenTech. Somebody censored out that part of the message, but I got my hands on an original copy.¨
¨Wow. Do you think this is all related to the same project?¨
Anna shrugged. ¨Who knows?¨ I never learned much about what FenTech was doing, but it seems to me like there must be a connection.¨
Ivana sighed morosely. ¨We may never know. This memo is dated three days ago, so any information related to the project is sure to be gone by now. And if it has anything to do with Malcom, they'll have canceled his program, too.¨
Anna shook her head, a pensive look on her face. ¨I think you're wrong about that.¨
Ivana was puzzled. ¨Really? Why?¨
¨Listen, Ivana,¨ Anna said patiently, ¨The NEG, well, it's like a thousand-headed hydra, every head having a certain degree of independence and a slightly different idea about where the body is going. The mandating powers of all these damn government bureaus overlap so much that nobody really knows who gives the orders. On paper, the BTE may be able to tell FenTech to stop. But this company is contracted by the military, which has a lot more behind-the-scenes power than people think.¨
¨So you think the memo is just for appearances? That someone else is telling Kilgard to continue working on the project? How could you be sure?¨
Anna handed the memo back to her. ¨It's right here.¨
¨I don't understand. It says pretty plainly that the work is to be stopped and research destroyed.¨
¨Actually, no,¨ Anna countered with a smile. ¨Read it again and tell me what it really says.¨
Ivana started over, reading more slowly again, then she stopped and looked at Anna. ¨Wow, you're right. 'Stop official work' and 'Destroy official records.' It's practically telling Kilgard to continue unofficially.¨
Anna nodded. ¨This is what I've been looking for, and I believeit has to do with what Gorn is interested in as well. But now what?¨
¨We can forget about his console, if they are checking it,¨ Ivana pointed out. ¨But if he is actively working on this project, he'd want to have his work close by for use. Maybe he keeps the files on an external disk here in the office somewhere?¨
¨Hey, nice thinking,¨ Anna said, enthused. ¨Let's hurry though, we've been here too long already. Somebody's probably seen us on a security cam by now.¨ Sweating in her neoprene, Ivana had to agree that it was time to wrap up the excursion.
The two black-clad intruders went to work, inspecting every inch of the desk, chairs, walls, and even the wastebasket. Finally Ivana stopped and said ¨Let's think about this. If you were a brilliant doctor with a secret, where would you hide it?¨
¨I don't know; honestly, there might not be anything here. Maybe he takes it home with him. We don't even really know what we're looking for.¨ She sighed and picked up a simple plastic picture ID card that was sitting on top of a stack of papers. FENTECH LABORATORIES, it said, and had a picture of a hawkish-looking older man with the name Francis Kilgard underneath it. Anna frowned. ¨Where are you hiding your data, Doctor Kilgard?¨ she asked the picture.
At that moment, they heard footsteps in the hallway outside.
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Anna stood, frozen, watching Ivana to see what she would do. The Dark Phalanx captain wasted no time thinking, ducking into the corner behind where the door would open and motioning for Anna to go behind the desk. No sooner had she done so than the door burst open and two guards in full SWAT gear and helmets entered, crouching behind their shock rifles, the taller and heavier one leading the way, and a lighter-built figure thatAnna guessed was a woman following.
¨Don't move!¨ the woman yelled. ¨Keep your hands where I can see them!¨ She stayed with her shock rifle trained at Anna, covering her squadmate, who moved in to cuff her. As soon as he lowered his shock rifle, Anna saw Ivana quickly slide out from behind the door, silently pulling the sleep sprayer out of her belt. Anna hastily looked back at the advancing guard, but it was too late – he'd caught her eye movement. He snarled and whipped up his shock rifle, blastingher in the chest as she desperately tried to dodge, and yelling ¨Your six!¨ at his squadmate. The beam knocked Anna down and stunned her, but she dimly saw the guard who had shot her turn aroundtowards Ivana, shock rifle ready.
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As soon as she saw the guard raise his shock rifle to fire at Anna, Ivana leaped towards the woman from behind and wrapped her arms around her shoulders, discharging the sleep sprayer up under the woman's helmet shield into her face at about the same time she heard the other guard fire his shock rifle. Ivana's prey instinctively swung her shoulders to fling the unseen attacker off, but she calmly held on and the struggling stopped almost immediately as the woman went limp in her arms. Rather than let the body drop, she held it up and peered around the shoulder.
The male guard was facing them, unsure what to do, and Ivana used the opportunity to release one arm from her human shield's chest and snatch at the shock rifle that dangled limply in its shoulder strap. The other guard read her intention and tried to dive behind the desk, but she snapped off a one-handed shot from the hip that skimmed the top of the desk, slamming into his shoulder in mid-dive and knocking him over onto his back. Ivana quickly let her sleeping captive fall with a thud to the floor, and ran around the desk. The man was struggling to get to his knees when she ripped his helmet off and sprayed him full in the face with the sleep canister. He collapsed instantly.
She crouched in front of Anna and lightly shook her shoulders. ¨Anna! You ok?¨
Anna's eyes opened sluggishly and she struggled to move. ¨Yeah… just need… a hand….¨ she panted. Ivana breathed relief and hooked an arm under her friend's shoulder, lifting her up quickly.
¨Good thing they had those things set to stun and you're wearing armor, or you'd be waking up in jail.¨
¨Or dead. Let's move!¨
They stumbled out into the hall. Anna directed them towards the exit, and Ivana dragged her down the hallway to it as quickly as possible. She leaned Anna against the wall next to the translocation portal. ¨You going to be able to walk?¨
¨In a minute or so. I've walked away from worse.¨
¨Good. Give me the keycard and your beacon, and wait for my word on the comm to translocate out of here.¨
Anna nodded, unclipped her beacon, and fished the janitor's keycard out of her pocket. She didn't even have time to say ¨be careful,¨ and Ivana had disappeared through the portal. She propped herself up against the wall right next to the portal and went to unclip her sleep sprayer, ready to hit anyone who might come through, when she noticed with some amusement that somehow she was still clutching onto the office ID of Doctor Kilgard. She stuck it in her belt, thinking bitterly, Might as well have something to show for the visit.