Chapter 4

History Overtaken

The moment Abigail had vanished and a door was closed between her and them, Adam rounded on Pritchard. 'Are you insane? No, don't answer, I know you are.'

'Jensen, listen. The reason why I asked you to come is legitimate and serious. And there's something else.' He cast a glance back at the door behind which Abigail was working. 'Look. I said full disclosure and I mean it.'

'And a tour.'

'It's a house, Jensen, not a labyrinth. You know where you came in and I'm pretty sure you looked into every open room. The two closed ones down here were Abi's bedroom and a storage cupboard with a safe. Upstairs the closed doors are the rooms I inhabit. There's a spare bedroom upstairs. You can have it. And you can ignore the MANES now I've told it you're a guest. It won't bother you again.'

'I'll pay her.'

'Abi doesn't need your money. Don't tell me you've never heard of A. Escriva.' Pritchard had the mildly disgusted look he reserved for Adam when he found him especially stupid.

'You're trying to tell me she's the A. Escriva? The guy who writes those epic horror books? Like Parson's Pinions?'

'The guy is a woman. She'll give you a well-deserved talking-to you if you tell her you just assumed she must be a man. And not because it means you never even glanced at the preface. Have you brought any luggage?'

'It's still outside.'

'I'll get it. Get into your room, upstairs, to the left, the door you'll collide with. Wait there. We'll talk.'

Adam watched Pritchard leave, feeling bemused. The other man seemed wired. As if he was … well, not frightened of Adam, but very uncertain. There was a bombshell coming. Damn his curiosity.

The spare bedroom was all dark wood and carpets. It had heavy curtains and a light that could be dimmed. There was a large wooden desk with inlaying and an elaborate and comfortable looking chair. The fact that Francis's sister was a bestselling author of really good and unusually intelligent horror books was … strange. It wasn't Adam's favourite genre, but he'd read a couple of her novels, and there was something special to them.

Francis had always wanted to be a writer. He'd managed to get a contract with Picus only relatively recently. He'd been happy enough to send Adam his screenplay, and he'd read it in Prague. It was … not as bad as he'd thought. But the two played in a very different league. Then again, his TV series had become a success.

All this did explain how the woman could afford such an expensive style. Strange. He'd never really cared what the writer looked like, but if he'd given it any thought, he wouldn't have come up with the person he'd just met.

'Jensen, stop practising your dour expression. It's perfect already.' Pritchard dropped a small suitcase at the foot of the bed. 'Is that all you own or all you brought?'

'It's … all I need. I thought I would rent a place and buy the rest. I usually do.'

'Well. Look. It's like this. Unless you're still jogging around with Interpol, which I doubt you do, you can just as well leave Prague. Or has it grown on you?'

'What do you want, Pritchard?' Damn. He sounded tired even to his own ears.

'Scotland is an interesting country, Jensen. Aberdeen especially. There's a lot going on here. The fun part is that a bunch of companies are actively hiring augmented people. They've been doing it throughout all this mess, and now that the Human Restoration Act isn't just twitching in agony but actually dead, it'll get easier still. So by asking you to come here, I might have done you a favour, if you pause to think about it. Now you already have a permit that lets you work here because they practically gave you the status of a diplomat. I, well, I needed help.'

Francis straddled the chair and folded his arms on the backrest. 'That help came from Conny. That'll suffice as a name. I've … ah. How do I say this? I have a history, you see. I was in jail for a short time.'

This was it. The thing Francis had been so nervous about, Adam was sure of that. To him it was rather anticlimactic. 'I know. Fraud, or something.'

Francis raised an eyebrow. 'Fraud and related activity in connection with access devices and computers. Yes. I don't even want to know how you found that out. Anyway, I wasn't the only one they caught. There were four others. One of them was beaten to death in the streets during the Incident. One left for Scotland. One has been in and out of jail since then, but more in than out. And one is Conny. She works for a rather respectable company and as far as I know, like myself, she's never done anything illegal again, but I called on her skills to get help with my papers.'

'In other words, you asked her to forge papers that make it seem like you're allowed to work in the EU.'

'In essence, yes. You see, Adam, I wasn't the one they caught. They were breaking into a building while I took care of the security remotely. Cameras and lasers and what not. It was a crappy system that could be penetrated from the outside with relative ease. We were rather close and had agreed that if one of us was found and could get a deal by ratting out the rest, we'd do it, but whoever talked owed each of the others one favour, no matter when or what.'

'Odd. Normally people promise silence.'

'And they never keep the promise, so we figured we'd rather not make it. Anyway, Conny was the one who talked. And I never called in my favour.'

'Makes sense, if you have your twisted kind of mind, to put her at risk now.'

'The only risk sits with me, and I even paid her, Jensen.' He raised his hands. 'I may get some money from Picus, and I may get a patent for the MANES and sell that stuff, but I really feel a lot safer if I have a normal job and can actually save some money. And we both know that Detroit isn't going to recover any time soon, so I left for a place where I know there's a friendly soul around.'

'Understandable. What does any of this have to do with me?'

'Peterculter is … quiet. Abi swears the people are rather nice, too. And Aberdeen's just a stone-cast from here. If I were you, I'd do what I'm asking you, and in the meantime, consider making this stay permanent. It's certainly friendlier than Prague.'

'That isn't difficult.' Jensen walked to the window and looked out. He could see the river Dee from here. Francis was right. It was beautiful and idyllic and not a place he'd ever seen himself in. Or Pritchard, for that matter. 'Why the hell did Sarif hire an ex-convict?'

'Because he was in the jury and more impressed than shocked about how I'd done what I'd done.' Francis looked at his hands. 'I'd been charged with cyberterrorism and attempted theft, too, but I had nothing to do with the theft itself and the cyberterrorism part was just ridiculous. Thing is, I could have it easier by making the security kill everything that moved before my friends go in, but I didn't. I did it the hard way, making sure there was no collateral damage. Still, the cyberterrorism charge … it unnerved me. I never even looked at the jurors, I was so frightened. Thought my life was fucked up for good. My parents still think so, they disowned me when I was sentenced. So I walk out of jail seven months later, walk to a tiny apartment that was assigned to me by some reintegration office thing, intend to drink myself stupid and let it sink in that I would never get a job. Cue David Sarif, ringing my doorbell the next morning and telling my hungover self that his cyber security guy is going to retire and would I like the job, if you can believe it.'

Adam thought about it and had to chuckle. 'Yeah. Totally Sarif.'

Francis visibly shook himself. 'This is the first and the last time we talk about this, Jensen. Now what do you know about the abductions?'

'Precious little, aside from what you can read in the papers.'

'Well. I know that Conny informed me that one of us has vanished. They'd had a lot of communication going on via internet, none of them has any augments. And now Marcus Dillinger has vanished. I want him found, Jensen. And I want him safe. And I want you to help me do that.'

Adam raised his arms. 'How?'

Francis's expression changed to something predatory. 'Why, you look through the local police files, of course.'


((About the screenplay … It can be found in Jensen's apartment. And in System Rift there's NPCs telling you that you look like the guy from the TV but with shorter hair or some such.))