Spark the Runner Ch. 02

"No useful fingerprints," she explained, then went on in a low voice. "The pads interfere with any kind of unique pattern. We get used to saliva swabs. The fact that our DNA, as recorded so far, will match me to about a hundred female Canilupes in the database, does them exactly no good. They will often pass us through without truly checking our identity. It is too much trouble for them."

Spark smiled to himself. Which is why looking for an escaped Canilupe of either sex is nearly impossible. You go, Okami.

Several minutes later, another agent walked up to them and told them they were cleared to go. They wasted no time getting out of the terminal and flagging a hack. They were on the outskirts of Hellas Planitia City, the massive underground complex adjacent to the spaceport, and had decided to take a Prole apartment in the Hive. The guy piloting the hack made a couple of useful suggestions for places to look and dropped them off at the hack stand in Spoke Five of the Hive -- a multi-tiered complex of living spaces around a central hub and shops and services.

It took Spark about two minutes jacked into a terminal to find a three-bedroom utility apartment, rented by the day, week or month Earth Normal Time, no restrictions, no questions. One month security deposit up front, utilities included. Pricey, but worth it for their purposes. A combination of slidewalks and levitators later, they stood in front of a nondescript door.

"Home, sweet hovel," Spark intoned. Their ID badges gave them access. Inside, it was definitely "utilitarian." Three bedrooms, each 3-meters-squared, off of a 5 meter by 15 meter common room including a kitchenette, with a separate bath. A dining table and workstation took up part of the common room, plus one wall had a medium-sized flat vidscreen. Since all the underground dwellings in the Hive were windowless, there was solar-balanced lighting throughout.

They decided Okami would take one bedroom, Spark and Tonya would take another and the third would be work or storage space as needed. Getting unpacked was priority one. Going shopping was priority two. Spark put together a list with the other two, then went out to do the shopping and do a general reconnaissance run at the same time. He wanted to know his physical environment as well as the meta one. Knowing the places to avoid could come in handy. Of course, so could knowing where to get someone to do your dirty work.

Spark confirmed what he'd already researched: the Hive was built on six spokes around a central hub. Groceries, sundries and services were in the Hub. Spoke One contained the live entertainment and sports establishments. Spoke Two had the financial and investment institutions. Spoke Three had the medical facilities, government offices, employment agencies and related services. Spoke Four had the museums, art galleries, library, schools and so on. Spoke Five contained infrastructure and physical plant support and was generally off-limits, except for the access to the grav-lev and hack terminal. Spoke Six was the dodgy one... the various quasi-legal vices: the sex trades, gambling, drugs and the rest of the unsavory activities rather popular with the transient crews. It was there Spark figured to get his most useful contacts.

Running a gauntlet of hookers, beggars and hustlers, Spark made a quick foray into Spoke Six, reminding himself that vice was vice, regardless of planet. Some of the establishments further in were disquieting, pandering to the more extreme interests, but he'd lived on the street long enough not to get caught up in their allure. Instead, he just logged where everything was and to whom they catered.

Noting all this information, he went back to the apartment, heavy a bunch of groceries, to find that Tonya and Okami had pretty much nested. They helped him get the kitchen stocked, noted anything still missing, and finally relaxed over libations, getting a chance to take a breath and wind down. All told, it was a good six hours after touchdown -- bounce-down, Spark thought -- before the three of them were settled in.

Spark glanced around the room, noting that the security camera already had a piece of duct tape over it. Not sure about audio, though, he opened his channel to Tonya and commented, I see the camera is out of operation. Did you do it? And regardless, did you check for audio?

She smiled slightly and replied, the tape was already there. Same for the cameras in the bedrooms and bath. All five microphones have mysteriously failed.

Spark nodded and went back to his coffee. He'd paid premium prices to get the real, imported stuff and he was bloody well going to enjoy it.

"So when, luv, do you think we should deal our new partner in on what we're doing?" he asked as he sipped.

"How about now, husband," she answered. "She is in with us now. She deserves to know."

Okami had watched the by-play, ears up but not interrupting. It was up to them to trust her.

"Okay, here's the deal," Spark told Okami, turning towards her. "Tonya was built by a criminal super-mob, the Al'yans krovi, or Blood Alliance. They pretty much run Earth. They dropped fifty billion credits on making her as human as possible, but still a construct with all the advantages that go with it. They built in programming to allow her to dominate... I guess that's the right word... an alien species called the Cresco, which recently made contact with humans, here on Mars. The mod's problem is, she slipped her leash. Our problem is to 'run what she brung' to hook up with the Cresco first. Tonya's in a perfect position to influence interstellar trade for the next two thousand years or so.

"And of course, we're being hunted, so we need to be as paranoid and stealthy as possible. To that end, we have several things we need to do. First, we need to run the Mars Plex and see if we can isolate the Cresco on it, figure out their story. At the same time, we need to know who the Blood Alliance operatives are and how to avoid them. Anything hinky around those two objectives needs to get looked at. We need to really understand the cesspool we're about to dive into."

Okami nodded as she listened. Other than aliens she'd never heard of, the rest was already gospel for Canilupes trying to live a peaceful life.

"Would you like me to do the first runs, Jamie?" she asked, deciding to stick to Spark's cover name. "I can access the Mars Plex with no trace back to us. If either you or Tonya, or both, wish to passively monitor me during the run, you could record what seems important to you."

"That sounds like an excellent idea!" Tonya put in. Spark didn't even get a chance to respond. "You can identify the Cresco contacts we need, and Jamie and I can work on how to exploit them."

Spark shrugged, "why not?" So it was decided that Okami would access Spark and Tonya first, to get whatever information they had about the Cresco, then run the Mars Dataplex with Spark shadowing her. It seemed safer to keep Tonya off the Plex for the time being.

* * * * *

"Dominate is putting it mildly," Okami informed Spark after their data dump to her. "They are designed for sex and Lizzie is designed to give them a religious experience. Their whole society is run by who is the most virile, females included. As a race, they are somewhat psychic, with the leaders being more so. With that kind of meta sensitivity, they don't stand a chance."

"Okay," Spark grinned. "Ready for a deep dive into the Mars Plex? We're going to want to know everything we can about the Cresco's food chain, especially who's on top. For real, not just politically. We need to know where to find them, plus aboveboard, and below, ways to contact them and so forth. Who's most susceptible to bribery or blackmail. And while we're at it, we need similar information about Mars' political and underworld situations. The little bit I got when I scratched the surface implied there was a lot more to be had."

"Yes, I am ready," Okami answered thoughtfully. "You will be monitoring me?"

"It appears these little microtransceivers of the Doc's can interface with your normal meta, both ways," Spark explained. "So like we just did where you took a trip through our memory lane, I'm going to try to tune into you. I'll see what you see, except filtered for your biases. So don't overthink what you perceive. Let it pass through to me. We can sort it all out later. It will be Lizzie's job to make sure we're not interrupted and to call time if we run too long."

"I think eight to ten hours is about my maximum, Jamie," Okami told him. "After that, I start getting tired and sloppy. Not good if we are trying not to get caught."

"Then we'll limit it to six," Spark decided. "How long do you need to recover?"

"About the same... six hours."

"Then we'll keep it to not more than six on a Run and not less than six off. It's going to be weird, piggybacking on your innate abilities, but I've heard of stranger. Let's all get fed, hydrated, evacuated and refreshed. Then we'll do the first one. Mild stuff... just trying to locate their lair, or whatever you call it."

"Home, husband," Tonya told him gently. "It would be their home."

"Good point," Spark nodded at her correction to his perception. "Their home. Let's get ready and do this."

* * * * *

Spark realized that the jagged edges of the Mars Plex were vastly different from the amorphous ebb and flow of Earth, as he tagged along on Okami's run. Mars wasn't overrun with human development interspersed with the rest of the biosphere trying to survive. Mars was five major hubs of human habitation with a couple dozen outlying settlements. There were Grav-lev connections between the hubs, and various forms of subterranean or surface transport to the others, each with its own datapath, like a vastly simplified transit system on Earth.

The hubs had similar infrastructures and similar data management systems, having been imported from Earth during the successive colonizations. Each hub serviced a particular exploitation of the Red Planet. Hellas Planitia, for example, sat in Mars' largest crater with huge ice reserves below the surface and supported the spaceport, along with power generation, through the production of hydrogen and oxygen. Olympus Mons, the largest mountain on the planet, sat on top of vast mineral reserves and supported a gigantic mining operation. Schiaparelli Crater also sat on top of ice reserves perfect for supporting hydroponic farming, harvesting water and pipelining it to Acidalia Planitia where the native soil was an excellent match for Earth-originated crops. Elysium Mons turned out to be sitting on a thermally active region ripe for being exploited by manufacturing, since the thermal differentials could be turned into useful mechanical work.

Although Acidalia Planitia was the first settled area, due to its combination of flat lowlands and nutrient rich soil, the primary spaceport had been constructed at Hellas Planitia and it evolved into the general center of government. And the underworld.

Now Spark was riding Okami's datastream as she explored each of these areas. She was incredibly thorough, in Spark's estimation, and so they ended up spending a six hour session on each of Olympus, Schiaparelli, Acidalia and Elysium. They spent three sessions on Hellas alone, because of the relative density of both creatures and institutional data.

Okami hadn't been bragging when she said she could run the Plex anonymously, with no tag-backs to her. Anonymously, though not undetected. To most security I.C.E., she looked like an innocuous browser, just drifting along. Inside that program construct, though, was a very effective and very invasive data gathering tool. Following Spark's instructions, she wasn't trying to filter anything -- just sending it back to Spark for later analysis. Which is how they found out that each of the hubs had a Cresco presence, with the primary one being an actual Embassy right in Spoke Three of Hellas and the top Cresco being one male and one female Ambassador.

The less well documented little subsets of Cresco habitats were the more interesting. They were significantly more active on several levels of the datastreams. Spark cataloged them for future deep dives. It started to get very interesting when the meta trails of the Cresco intersected those of the Mars government, particularly the Senators.

Mars was set up with a Governor General, appointed by the Earth's Federation Council. He, Theodore Reynolds, ran the Executive Branch and was pretty much God on the Planet. The Senate, the major Legislative Branch group, was made up of appointees. There were eleven Earth nations left after all the collapses and mergers, and each of them selected two Senators. There were eleven major Megacorps and each of them got two Senators. Five were appointed by the Interplanetary Defense Systems military and one, who acted as President of the Senate, was appointed by the Governor General. Fifty Senators in all, with the Deputy Governor General breaking any ties.

The poor working stiffs were represented by the Tribune Council, whose members were elected by the populace. Their function was mostly to crab, complain, bitch and moan to the Senate about whatever the current injustices were perceived to be. They didn't really have any legislative say, nor any true power. Any kind of rebellion in the past had been met by shutting off critical services. It didn't take a lack of air, water or sanitation very long to still people's minds.

By Spark's first rough estimate, better than a third of the Senate was in the pocket of mobsters. They were the ones the Blood Alliance would have been counting on to use Tonya with the Cresco.

"There's something weird, Jamie," Okami commented after one of their runs. "Every one of the Cresco enclaves is surrounded by Security. Human Security, physical and meta. And every one of the enclaves has at least a half a dozen human patterns living with them. The only place there seems to be any public traffic is at the embassy, here in Hellas City."

"It's probably that lock-down thing," Spark mused. "They were isolated when they were judged too disruptive to 'normal society' and humans who had been 'corrupted' by contact with them conveniently disappeared. I would guess they would be the ones living in the enclaves. That is going to make contact and coordination difficult."

"But not impossible," Tonya put in. "They are meta-sensitive and we can use that to approach them. We simply need to figure out how to bypass the security."

"Jamie," Okami asked as if in afterthought, "are you aware that almost all of Mars' datastream is managed by one huge computer complex, under the control of the Governor? There are very few independent systems, plus those of the actual populace when they're connected."

"Your point?" Spark asked, wondering where she was going with this.

"Well, it means they can't implement full military-style security, if public systems are going to use the network. All we have to find is some kind of utility path into the compound that isn't well guarded."

"Like a control cable in an underground bunker," Tonya smiled and Spark remembered why.

"Okay, so if we get access, and it would have to be passive, how do we contact them?" Spark mused.

"Maybe some physical reconnaissance, Jamie?" Tonya suggested. "See how they are protected from direct contact."

"Or..." Okami hesitated. "Jamie, can we run Spoke Six again? Slowly and carefully?"

"Sure," Spark nodded. "Why?"

"Because I don't think the Ambassadors are the ones in charge. There was a sex club down Six that I thought had a Cresco presence, but it was very well masked. If there are Cresco involved in running the club, I would bet they would be the top of the food chain, as you put it. It is nothing more than a hunch, but it is what I have got."

Spark thought it over. Operating out of a sex club would give them better, less monitored access to the human population, especially any dark connections that wanted to maintain their anonymity. He was sure the Government wouldn't want their members' doings tracked while savoring the more salacious offerings of Six. It made sense.

"Okay, lets' do it. Next run. Right now we need some R&R. And yes, Ladies, that means sleep, first."

Tony and Okami shared a bemused smile before Tonya went to the kitchenette to put together a light dinner. Okami headed for the shower. Or, more precisely, the 'Fresher. She had discovered that the Mars colony had reduced its dependency on water by using the ultrasonic Refreshers common on interplanetary cruise ships. It used a combination of water mist, ultrasonics and heated moving air to clean the skin and Okami had discovered it worked just as well on her fur. Spark had teased her the first couple of times she'd come out of the 'Fresher looking like a furry puff-ball. She'd taken it good-naturedly and he'd dropped it. By the time she was out, dinner was ready and Spark had a plan.

"If Okami's right," he told them over dinner, "then once we locate the psi-signatures of the true Alpha Cresco, I take a trip to the club and identify them physically. After any adjustments required, I can offer them the fuck of a lifetime... basically pimp for Lizzie."

"Just Lizzie?" Okami objected. "Why just Lizzie?"

"You could offer them both of us," Tonya smiled. "If they survived, I am sure we could seal any deal." Then she turned serious. "And I will be going with you on your recon, if we do find them."

"No, you won't," Spark told her. "It's too dangerous for... an attractive... why are you looking at me like that?"

"I am more lethal than you are, husband," Tonya told him flat out. "On many levels. I will be going to protect you and to give us two pairs of eyes on the environment. You can do the talking, as my pimp. However, my presence will most likely trigger their interest."

"Why is it you are cutting me out of all the fun?" Okami objected, again. "Why cannot I go with you and add a bit of tease as well?" Spark and Tony both looked at her, thinking.

"Okay..." Spark finally drawled. "Next run is isolating them. Then we visit the place and confirm. Then we try to seduce them. And we stay the fuck out of any other trouble while we're doing it. I will be blunt: no killing unless in obvious self-defense. We don't need to attract the Governor's boys."

That was acceptable to Tonya and Okami. They finished their meal and all three retired to Spark and Tonya's bed. Okami was there at Tonya's suggestion.

Spark took one look at all three of them standing there and told them, "I said after sleeping. You two take this room. I'll take Okami's. A minimum of six hours sleep, longer if I can get it."

Begrudgingly, they let him go and Spark wasted no time going toes-up. Here on Mars, he didn't even have to plug in his sleep module to disconnect him from the Dataplex... it wasn't intense enough to intrude. He was out like a light in minutes.

Eight hours later, he woke to Tonya blowing him. And Okami pressing a tit to his mouth while she tickled his balls with her tail. With a low moan, Spark relaxed into the hedonism and just let the women have their way with him. There were a lot of perks to that.

When Tonya decided to mount up, so did Okami. Tonya impaled herself with Spark's turgid member while Okami tried to use his tongue for the same purpose. The strangeness of the feeling of Okami's fur on his face was only matched by Tonya's amazing control over her vaginal muscles. None of which Spark was going to complain about. And he didn't have to see them to know that Tonya and Okami were making out above him.

The amazing part... the part that made sex with these two beyond incredible... was how their meta energies flowed in and around their physical, enhancing what would have been immense pleasure and making one feel like their entire core had been converted to one huge sex organ -- that nothing existed but pure pleasure, possibly more than one could survive. Frightening and fulfilling at the same time.