Part 46 (2/2)
”Only a small portion.”
Thomas didn't care how small, it was still unacceptable. ”How far has he spread into our internal
systems?”
”Just through the post office mesh,” Steve said.
Thomas didn't believe him, but at least he knew where to start. ”How does that piece of Bart talk with
the Alley?”
”He sends bits of himself out on the labels of unsecured mail.”
It made sense. Sooner or later, after the package left the base, someone outside would link to one of
those labels. Bart could jump through their system to the world mesh. Even if he really had accessed only the post office, security had been compromised. The mesh gurus would have to check every NIA system. It would be one h.e.l.l of a job. At least it helped get Matheson off the hook. If anything, it pointed suspicion at Thomas; he was the one who had given Jamie the crate. Who would have thought a three-year-old could open a backdoor with a post office label? The officer who gave Jamie her badge had explained how to behave on the base, but it hadn't occurred to anyone that Jamie could manage something so sophisticated or arcane. Thomas wasn't certain he could have done it, at least not that quickly.
”If I hadn't checked out what happened with Jamie,” he asked, ”would the Alley have come clean?”
”I don't know,” Steve said, his voice shadowed.
Thomas didn't like his answer. ”Even if this is all true, the NIA post office has no links to the safe
house.” They had isolated the house from other meshes, even more so since Alpha's break out.
”We accessed the safe house through Alpha.”
”You got into Alpha's internal mesh?”
”Yes.”
Despite the cool air, sweat gathered on Thomas's palms. If the Alley could do so much, and had links to
Charon, they could probably kill him even with his sec-techs here. He had taken a risk coming to this meeting, but he needed to know what Hughes had to say.
”How did you get in her mesh?” Thomas asked.
”It happened after she took you and Sam Bryton hostage the first time,” Hughes said. ”When the Air Force moved to rescue you, they weakened Charon's security. It gave Bart a chance to punch a hole and jump into Alpha's internal mesh.”
”Why Alpha instead of Charon?”Hughes's voice went flat. ”We find Charon vile.”So do I. If Bart had stashed part of himself inside Alpha, the a.n.a.lysts working on her might have found him, but his chances of hiding while piggybacked on her mesh were better than those of his breaking into the safe house on his own. And it meant he hadn't cracked the place from outside, which Thomas
had believed impossible. Given the trouble Bart had caused, it didn't surprise Thomas that the Alley had sent a different EI to talk with him. He would have been tempted to give any physical manifestation of Bart a hard right hook to the jaw.
”Why would the Alley set me up?” Thomas asked, his hand gripped on his magnum.
Hughes stopped in the middle of the field. ”We didn't.”
”Alpha came straight to my house.”
”We expected her to come to us. Our agreement was this: in exchange for our protection, she would tell
us everything she knew about Charon.”
It was rea.s.suring to know the Alley hadn't so pervaded human civilization that they knew everything and went anywhere.
”She reneged,” Thomas said.
”Yes. After she deleted Bart from her mesh.”
Thomas's voice cooled. ”His decision to help her escape could be considered a hostile act against this
country.”
Hughes's eyes were dark. ”His first loyalty is the Alley.”
”So why should I trust him? Or you?”
”We could just as easily ask the reverse.”
Thomas remembered his last conversation with Bart, when the EI called for a moratorium on attempts to
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