Part 6 (2/2)
”Yeah? Well, what did the freaks in the suits say about Red? Where was it built? What the h.e.l.l was it, some kind of experimental military design? And why does it spin instead of walk?”
”It spins?”
”Yeah. I can't say I really understand how it moves or why it moves that way.”
”Well, all these people know about Red is that it was smart, and it served as a sort of enforcer for the top executives.”
”The ones who're dead? Do you think it was a full-blown AI core and it killed the executives to hide itself?” Bren asked.
”I don't know. Let's cooperate on it.”
”We made a good team before,” Bren said. He took a step closer to Nicole.
”Then we'd better work closely together,” she grinned. ”Where are your quarters?”
”Right this way, ma'am,” Bren said. He led her to his quarters, pleased with the turn of events. Bren realized it had been some time since he'd enjoyed the company of a woman incarnate. And he'd often reflected on his time with Nicole.
”Nice s.p.a.ce,” she said as she walked into his room.
”You know what they say. Rank has its privileges.”
She laughed. ”I do recall hearing that once or twice. So you're a powerful man now?” She slipped into his waiting arms.
Bren looked into her eyes. A flood of memories from his academy days came back to him-meeting her in the wilderness of Pike National Forest, playing cat and mouse with her at the dorms, trips to Colorado Springs, and their many torrid encounters.
She pressed against him. Although she felt familiar, he experienced the heat of a new beginning. He kissed her and she responded immediately. They took a quick circle of the quarters, kissing furiously while leaving clothing behind at every step. They finally found his bed. Bren gave the lift command through his link, elevating the net from its base to create an acceleration web.
He rolled her onto her stomach so she lay suspended on the web with her legs and b.r.e.a.s.t.s hanging through it in disarray. His fingers interleaved through her silky hair and then tightened into a grip. Then he lost himself to primitive impulse.
Her cries rose in the small room. Bren felt the thrill of her body again. It was as good as he'd remembered it ... better.
After their urgent coupling, he collapsed next to her in the webbing. The atmospheric controls had compensated for their sweat, drying the air and circulating it to keep them comfortable. Bren became quiet.
Nicole smiled. ”It never takes you long after we're done to start thinking about work again.”
”Sorry.”
”No, I like an ambitious man,” she said, propping herself up on one elbow to face him ”What's on your mind?”
”Well, you have me curious about your spy,” he said. At least here, they could talk aloud if they felt like it and not raise suspicion.
”She is beautiful, isn't she?” Nicole said.
”No, I mean about what she was up to.”
Bren linked into the a.s.sAIL unit databases with Nicole tagging along as an observer. In his PV, he filled out a match request against all the face models observed by the robots during the Thermopylae raid. Bren used the normal face model provided by Nicole and didn't get a match.
”Nothing for the naked face,” he mumbled.
Bren started to run the second model. He realized Nicole had said something.
”Excuse me?”
”I said what about the suited face?”
”Sorry. I'm running that now.” He felt the blood rush to his face. She knew about his link bias, and now she knew it hadn't improved in the time they'd been apart. He had been absorbed in the match interface details and hadn't heard her question.
Bren got a hit from Meridian's module for the second model. He brought up a few seconds of footage from Meridian a.s.sociated with the match. He ran the clip and watched a familiar sequence of events: a gunman popped out from behind a sliding door and fired a sonic weapon at Meridian. The robot pursued the a.s.sailant and plucked the weapon away. Then it evaluated a medical machine for a moment before pressing onward.
”Ah, that guy,” Bren said.
”That girl,” corrected Nicole. ”She's a courier for Black Core. Been here before, according to the records we have from off base.”
”She got the same amnesia?”
”I don't know. She made it off the station during the raid. We're following up with Black Core, but they're stalling us. They claim she wasn't on the station at that time and that she'll be in s.p.a.ce for several weeks.”
”She got off the base? d.a.m.n. That gun she used took out the a.s.sAIL's audio pickups. She might've been expecting it to do more damage.”
”If we can get a hold of this one, we'd make some serious progress. I have a hunch she could tell us a lot about what was going on at Thermopylae. We're trying to get the prime minister to put more pressure on Black Core, let them know we're not d.i.c.king around this time.”
”So you think this one woman is the key? She's not even Bentra.”
Nicole shrugged. ”This is a low priority issue right now as far as Jameson is concerned. We're starting to dig into clues about robotic research going on in the corporations, trying to see if this is just a Bentra thing. None of the Brazilian companies really command any market share for heavy robots. Other companies have been s.h.i.+pping a lot of resources up here and we don't know why. This Black Core employee may have been another one of those delivery people. She managed to take off in a fast courier during the confusion.”
”Maybe she knows if they're trading for something, or if it's some kind of global blackmail.”
”Maybe.”
Bren frowned. ”Wait a minute. We never found any support for the robot on the station. What if it's not based there? What if the courier that escaped brought it here? It could have been a Black Core machine.”
”Is that possible? It was a small courier.”
”Well, obviously it was developed somewhere else, but she could have deployed it via a courier that size. Our nexus accommodates a dozen a.s.sAIL units at a time, and it handles deployment and long-term maintenance. She would only need a bay a fraction of that size to initialize the AI core and charge the machine.”
”Red couldn't have had its own power plant?”
”Doubtful. Too small, too fast,” Bren said. ”Besides, AI cores almost never have serious power plants; it gives them too long a lifespan.”
”I can't believe they would use AI cores at all.”
”We do.”
”I can't believe we do, either.”
Bren nodded. ”Same with nuclear weapons or killer viruses ... I've heard rumors about nano swarms. Mankind will never stop, until we die.”
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