Chapter 31

Hunter's Moon

As soon as they'd gotten back, they programmed a course to get them out of the area and back into an area of space that it wasn't so odd for a ship to be. After that, they'd taken showers and got something to eat.

Despite how exhausted they were, not just from the firefight or the length of time they'd been on the moon, but traversing it to and from had taken it out of them as well, they sat down and went over what they'd found out.

"So that was the message on the system." Artemis said, pausing in her story.

"I see, so we're supposed to go to Dolus next."

"You make it sound like it's gonna be a trap."

"Oh what? You think it's not?"

"Of course it's a trap, but I don't see where else we can go."

"Yeah, Holloway's sure got us dancing to his tune. I hate that." Gaige grumbled "Still, I can't believe that he actually had an office there, seems like a super weird and random place for that."

"Oh, I hadn't gotten to that part yet, had I?"

"What part?"

"The second floor of the building. See, after I fought off a bunch of bots, wait, the EMP field fried my shield before that, that's right, as soon as I read the message an EMP went off in the office."

"Forget all that, you were saying something about the second floor."

"I was getting there, so anyway, I fought a bunch of bots and was looking for a way out when I remembered that I'd found something in one of the books."

"What books?"

"The ones in the office. Oh yeah, I looked through them before trying the computer, thought it was odd that Holloway would have a small library in his office, so I looked at the books to see which ones he'd handled the most often."

"I still don't know how you do that."

"Oil marks from the fingers on the spine, anyway, I looked in a bunch of the books and found a derringer, some money and a small remote." She said, digging them out of her pack as she spoke and setting them on the table. "So, I was looking for a way out and I remembered the remote and figuring it was to be used in his office went back and tried it. Sure enough a wall opened up and I went down the stairs inside, wait, one of the buttons opened an elevator, but it didn't work, so then I opened the door to the stairs. Lead me to a one-way wall, you know the kind that you can see through from one side but not the other, and I see what's on the second floor."

"Which was?"

"Where Holloway went through all the data his bots stole. Well, not Holloway, but his goons. Employees? Whatever. Point is, it's where his people sorted through all the important data that his bots stole, I mean, I saw a couple of blueprints and transcripts, one of which had the names Zane and Tannis on it."

"That explains it, he wouldn't have wanted to be far from the hub of all his monetary gains." Gaige said, sitting back "Also explains why he'd send the bots there to be worked on, it would be one of the most hidden of his sites so the authorities wouldn't find it easily. It would also explain why he'd make his entire security force there. That's one of the things I found out by the way, the factory was making his security bots, probably for internal use only."

"I was wondering why he'd have so many bots with EMP devices in them."

"Not sure if that was something that was there earlier or a late addition to try and nail us, but yeah, I was wondering about that as well."

"So other than that, you find anything? Or can we go to bed now?"

"Well, I did find an ECHO log, but I suppose it could wait till morning."

"Wait, you're putting something off? You're not begging to listen to something immediately? Either you've already listened to it, or you're tireder then you let on."

"The second I assure you. I mean, I would've listened to it there, but just as I found it the alarm went off. So I was forced to carry it unlistened to."

"Pop it in."

"You sure? You seem pretty tired."

"You won't be able to rest until you've heard it, so it's better this way, besides, it's not that long, is it?"

"How would I know, I just said I haven't heard it."

"Yeah, I know, so hit play already."

"I thought I was the impatient one, yeesh." Gaige said, placing her ECHO device on the table and hitting play. A male voice spoke in the foreground and behind it they could hear another set of voices, one male one female talking. Gaige couldn't make out the background, but the foreground one was talking.

Well, preparations are nearly complete, all we have left to do is to finish packing the units that we're shipping and place the rest strategically. Some of the others have finished setting up the office, wish I could've joined them, I always wanted to see what it looked like, but apparently I'm too important to go up there.

I know that seems counter intuitive, but it seems that I'm one of the more skilled workers on fixing up the HS202's. I don't see why some of them think it's so hard, I mean all you have to do is follow the instructions, but it seems that isn't always the case.

Wish you were here, I mean, I know you would've been if you could've, but with your condition and all, we all understand why you aren't. And we know you support us, I can feel your good vibes all the way out here.

Oh shoot, seems like they're gonna make an announcement, better put this down for a moment and...

The male voice from the background came on, a bit distorted from the obvious distance

Attention everyone, stop what you're doing and listen up, I have an important announcement to make.

Due to the unfortunate actions of the observation squad, the targets have become aware of our plans and while we doubt they will be able to move faster than anticipated, it still does push up our schedule to an uncomfortable degree, therefore everyone will have to stop what they're doing and immediately go help the installation crews. We will no longer be able to work here and we are going to have to cancel plans 3 and 4, proceeding directly to plan 5.

I understand that this is no doubt disappointing to many of you and trust me, I understand your frustration, but our hand has been forced.

A different voice called out from the side

What happened to the observation squad?

The male voice replied

There's no easy way to say this, but they confronted the targets. Apparently, they thought they saw an opening and tried to strike. I'm sorry, but there were no survivors.

A clamoring grew throughout the crowd, with some sobs for different people who must have been part of the squad and others cursing their inability to not have refrained from attacking

Look, what's done is done. All that matters now is how we deal with the ramifications of their actions. So, let's all do the best we can and make those three pay for all they've done to us.

There was a cheer from the crowd and a rushing of feet accompanying the sound of the ECHO player getting knocked around, a bust of static and then silence.

"So, what do you think?" Gaige asked, trying to broach the uncomfortable silence.

"I think we might have been the group that the observation squad was observing."

"No, really? Wow."

"Sarcasm still doesn't suit you."

"And dumb doesn't suit you."

"I wasn't being dumb, I was just..." She slumped sadly.

Gaige groaned and punched her own head "Look, I'm sorry, you weren't being dumb, I'm just a bit tired is all, so I'm being a bit petty and stuff. I get you were just trying to say what we were all thinking, I was just hoping you had something to share that I'd missed."

"Well, uh, I wouldn't know what you missed without talking about it."

"Arrg, good point, fine, let's do a quick rundown of what we learned. First, there's little doubt that the observation squad was the ones that attacked us on Jaka, right? Good. Second, it seems like they jumped the gun by attacking us, which screwed up their plans."

"Something about dropping two parts of it, wonder what that meant?"

"No idea, but I'm guessing that they were other planets they were going to send us to."

"So instead they're what? Sending us to the final planet?"

"Sounds like it."

"So, I suppose the question is whether it's for a final confrontation or a final trap."

"Donno, but I suspect a trap."

"That makes two of us."

"Urru"

"Well, it's a consensus, not that it helps us that much since we don't have any other leads at the moment."

"Well, maybe we'll have better luck in the morning."

"Right. Well, let's finish this discussion up and get to bed. So, wait, where was I?"

"Uh, number two?"

"Right, but what was number three going to be?"

"No idea. Let me listen to the thing again and we'll see what we get."

Gaige shrugged and hit play again. As they listened to the opening Gaige reached out to fast forward, only to be stopped by Deathtrap. He indicated to Artemis, who had her eyes closed and was mouthing something. It took Gaige a moment, but she realized that she was listening to the conversation going on in the background, having seen her do something similar before, so she waited until that part was over to speak up.

"Find anything?"

"Yeah, but it doesn't make sense."

"Why?"

"Well, that guy, the one doing the announcement, he's not the boss."

"Yeah, we got that, Holloway is."

"No, that's not what I mean. The way he spoke to the woman, he called her boss. And it wasn't just that she was in charge of the site either, it sounded like he really respected her. She was the one that brought the information about the observation squad, but it sounded like she'd just found out herself, but she chastised him when he cursed them, something about not being able to hold it against them or how'd it go? After what those three did, any one of us would've taken the first shot we could at them? Something like that."

"Huh? So maybe she's Holloway's secretary or on-site manager, you know, his proxy while he hides."

"Maybe, let's finish this thing." She said, indicating that Gaige should hit play, so she did.

They listened to the rest of the log, but near the end, Artemis suddenly waved her hands causing Gaige to stop the playback.

"What? What is it?"

Artemis ignored her and turned to Deathtrap "Did you hear that?"

Deathtrap responded by shrugging and making a noise indicating that he had heard something, but wasn't sure what.

"Rewind it a little bit, just until he finishes his speech."

"Alright, but what are we listening for?"

"Right after he finishes the speech, the guy says something to the woman."

"What?"

"I don't wanna taint your perceptions with what I thought I think I heard."

Gaige looked at her, she seemed a bit rattled, so she didn't press her on it, just hit play and tried to listen through the crowd, but all she could hear was noise. Shrugging she turned and looked at the other two, but to her shock they were exchanging a look suggesting that whatever Artemis had heard, Deathtrap had too.

"What? What'd I miss?"

"As soon as the speech ended, the guy turned to the woman and said 'This way Mrs. Holloway.'"

"Wait, what?" Gaige felt like she'd been punched. But after a second, it started to make sense, the woman on the ECHO must have been Holloway's ex-wife, Marcie's mother. Sure, they'd been separated, but that didn't mean she wouldn't also want revenge against the person that had killed her little girl, in fact, the fact that she hadn't tried anything before now was actually a bit surprising. Maybe she'd just been leaving it to her husband, or maybe there was something else to it, but once her husband was locked up, she must have moved, rescuing him from jail and setting their revenge into motion.

"That explains a lot." Gaige finally said, laying out what she thought, the other two seemed to be on the same page as her, since they both nodded.

"Now the only problem is finding her." Gaige finished, sitting back, lost in thought.

"Well, maybe a fresh mind will help." Artemis said with a barley suppressed yawn.

The Next Day

A good night's sleep did wonders for them, though Gaige had been afraid that she was going to toss and turn for hours with everything on her mind, but it turned out that she only had to listen to the sounds of Artemis sleeping for a few minutes before she joined her.

After a leisurely breakfast, they found themselves sitting in the sitting room again, but this time they had no idea what to do.

"Well, we know the next planet's going to be a trap."

"Just like the last two."

"Right, but this time I think they plan on finishing us off, for good."

"You mean unlike the last two?"

"Yes. I think those two were more playful hopes than honest attempts. I mean, they thought that it would be great if they worked, but they were to wear us down more than to really try and kill us."

"You mean they were to buy them more time?"

"Uh, yeah, that works too. Anyway, the way they sounded on that ECHO, I think the next one isn't going to be playing around."

"So, we should avoid it."

"Yep."

"Then where should we go?"

Gaige sat back, that was exactly what had been bothering her, they'd been following the only clues they had, so if they abandoned the trail, where did that leave them? She had no idea.

Not getting any reply, Artemis walked over to the computer and started typing at it in her slow way.

"What'cha doin?" Gaige called over, happy for a distraction.

"Was going to look up what I could on the Holloway Robotics, as well as Mrs. Holloway."

"Well, you won't find much about her, she was always one to avoid the spotlight, unlike the rest of her family." Gaige spat. Thinking back, Mr. Holloway had always been at Marcie's events, but the few times her mom had been there, she'd been overshadowed by her husband to the point that Gaige only had a vague remembrance of her.

Imperious. That was the word that sprung to mind when she thought about her. Sure, she'd been pretty, but more than anything she always seemed aloof, condescending. But that might have been that she didn't like kids.

Her thoughts were interrupted by Artemis stating "Oh, hey, we missed like, six calls from A.I. ngel."

"Wha? What'd she want?" Gaige asked, feeling a bit put out at the mention of the other girl, though she couldn't tell why, maybe it was the tone Artemis always got when she talked about her?

But that didn't matter at the moment.

"Donno, she didn't leave a message. Probably should call her back. Let's see, what time is it there? Oh, they should be getting up soon, so let's try."

She keyed in the call and let it ring. And ring.

Eventually they had to concede that they might not be up yet, so figuring they'd call back later, Artemis reached for the switch to cut off the call, when the screen sprang to life showing a slightly disheveled girl.

The instant she saw who was on the other end of the line, she quickly tried to straighten herself out, which was laughable since they'd already seen her, but neither of them commented on it, instead, they just waited for her to finish.

"Hi." She said a bit breathlessly as she tugged at her shirt "You got my message, I was worried I had missed you."

"We just woke up." Artemis answered "And, well, last night we were a bit too tired to think of looking to see if we'd missed a call. Sorry about that."

"It is all right, I understand. But it is good that you called. We found something."

"We?"

"Timothy and me. We have found something important. He should be here for this, but I will have to walk as I tell you, since it is important."

"Alright, what'd you find?"

"Well, I had said I wanted to help, right? So, I thought that I would try going through the Holloway Robotics books, see if I could find anything."

"How'd you get your hands on those?" Gaige asked, knowing that the books wouldn't be easily accessed without a number of court orders. In fact, they were probably bound up in legal limbo at the moment.

"Well, let me just say that I went through a door that they had in the back, I think that is how they say it."

"You hacked it?" Gaige said with an impressed look.

"I would not say such a thing over a line, even one that I think is secure." Came the reply accompanied by a sly smile.

'When did she learn how to be so crafty?' Gaige wondered, both about her ability to hack as well as her evasiveness about what she'd done.

"Ah, here we are." A.I. ngel said almost as an aside, having arrived at Timothy's office. In the background they could see him working at his desk, looking like he hadn't had a break in a week.

"Who's that you're talkin to pumpkin?" He asked, a bit of Jack creeping into his voice.

"Artemis and Gaige."

"Oh, you finally got through, that's good. You tell them yet?"

"I was working on it. I thought since you had helped, you should be here when we tell them."

"That's sweet of you. How far'd you get?"

"Only that I had looked at Holloway's books."

"Oh, well then, carry on."

"As I was saying, I accessed the Holloway Robotics records and was looking through them, but I could not figure out what I was looking at, so I asked Timothy for help, since he knew more about that kind of thing then I do."

"And I found something."

"I was just getting there." She sounded slightly peevish, which was new, but it didn't seem like the first time that Timothy had heard that tone, especially not directed at him, so he just shrugged. "Like he said, he found something. Something I never would have. Now you may tell them what it was."

"Really? Oh, I suppose I could."

"Just tell us already." Gaige snapped.

"Patients. All good things come to those who wait."

"Not in my experience." Gaige muttered before speaking up "So what was it you found?"

"I found their blacksite." He said with a triumphant smile.

"Wha? How?"

"It wasn't easy, I mean, no company advertises that they're siphoning money off for a blacksite budget, but my time working for Jack gave me a certain amount of knowledge about that kind of thing, so I was able to spot the pattern in the books."

"That's...actually pretty impressive." Gaige conceded, a bit reluctantly.

"I know, is he not great?" A.I. ngel said smiling at him.

Timothy seemed to be unused to being complimented, especially by her so he smiled a bit goofily and tried to brush it off while obviously relishing in it. "Aw, it wasn't that special. But that might be only the second time I've been grateful to Jack."

"So, what else did you find?" Gaige asked, trying to get him back from the little world in his head he was retreating into.

"What?" He snapped back to attention "Wasn't that enough for you? Wow, girls these days."

All three girls shot him a dirty look causing him to rapidly backpedal "I was kidding. I mean, it was a bit of Jack talking. Of course you want to know what else I found, let's see, what else was there?"

He trailed off, thinking about it, but shook his head after a few seconds "Unfortunately there wasn't much, I mean, I was only able to figure this much out due to them using a few of the same techniques as Hyperion did for shifting their money around, it wasn't like they put up the schematics for what they were working on."

"Ah well, still better than nothing." Gaige said.

"Actually, it's a huge help." Artemis added. "So where was it? The blacksite I mean."

"Oh, yeah, guess that's important isn't it. Some planet called Erinyes. Never heard of it myself, but then again, if someone like Holloway wanted to use it, it's got to be as pathetic as he was. Sorry. Jack."

"No, in this case I can't argue with you on that." Gaige said with a shrug. "You two did good. Real good." She said it as if she were swallowing a bitter mouthful of something.

"She's right. Good job." Artemis added.

"It was nothing." A.I. ngel said, smiling and looking away in embarrassment.

"Nonsense, take all the praise we deserve." Timothy crowed.

Gaige rolled her eyes and said "Well, we should get going, gotta plot us a new course and stuff."

"Oh, right, I suppose that makes sense. Do be careful and let us know what you find out."

"Will do."

"See you."

"Bye."

They hung up and sat back. After a minute, Gaige broke the silence.

"Well, what d'ya think?"
"I think I was proven wrong, I never thought Timothy would prove useful."

"I know, right? But other than that, about the planet, I mean."

"Probably should change course."

"So, you think we should go?"

"Well, considering we know that Dolus is a trap, I don't think it would be a bad idea to hold off on it. I mean, if Erinyes doesn't work out, we can go back to the traps."

"Yeah, makes sense. Let's do it."