Spark the Runner Ch. 05

"The paperwork will be handled in due time, my dear," the Professor told her. "Including the NDA. For now, you must consider anything you hear in this room strictly confidential. Above Top Secret, as it were."

"I understand, sir," she answered seriously.

"Then how about we all sit down to some lunch?" Okami broke in. "I'm famished!"

"You're always famished," Spark pointed out.

"Sit down, shut up, and eat whatever I bring out of the kitchen," Okami told him. "I'm a real Bitch when I'm hungry!"

"You're always a... okay, okay! Sitting down, shutting up!" Spark told her when she shot him that look.

Everybody moved to the table while Okami went rummaging.

"The situation we have, my dear," the Professor addressed Charlie as they waited, "is a particularly nasty group of criminals who believe they own Lizzie. The Al'yans Krovi, or Blood Alliance, have been trying to reacquire her for some time now. The triad are here to fix that. The meta capabilities of the three of them, combined, should be sufficient -- along with my help -- to face them down. It will be very dangerous, with a fair amount of nasty Black Ice, and even nastier Red Ice. That is why I will be along."

"ICE" Charlie repeated. "Intrusion Countermeasures Electronic. Nasty, kill you kind of shit. How do you figure in, Professor?"

"The Professor essentially invented psychodata integration," Spark broke in. "And basically defined the relationship between Artificial Intelligence and Actual Intelligence. He has tools... Shields... that will work against the really nasty ICE. Black will kill your avatar. Red will kill you, period. I don't feel like getting dead. Neither does Lizzie."

"Oh." Charlie looked at the Professor again. "The Professor Lenox. I thought you were dead."

"Apparently not," he smiled. "The reason for telling you this is, it may take several days to get the confrontation set up which Tonya -- I mean, Lizzie -- wants. You will be living here. You may not have noticed, but there are five of us and three bedrooms. If that is important to you, we should talk about it."

Charlie looked like she was going to say something before Okami came out of the kitchen with a huge tray and broke in.

"A bunch of different kinds of sandwiches," she told them as she put the tray down. "You'll have to tell me what you want to drink..." She noticed everybody looking at Charlie, who in turn was looking thoughtful. "Okay, what's going on?"

"Sleeping arrangements," Spark told her. That got Okami looking thoughtful for moment.

"I'll take Charlie," she decided. "Jamie and Lizzie take a bedroom. Professor can take the other one. You only need me for datastream insertion, so I don't have to be fully functional."

Spark, Tonya and the Professor all looked at each other. And nodded.

"She is right," Tonya stated. "Problem solved."

"We've got the one on the left," Okami decided. "Jamie and Lizzie get the one in the middle. The Professor stays where he is, in the one on the right. Now, eat up."

Everyone started grabbing food and giving Okami drink orders.

* * * * *

"Do you want to start with that bunker below the Lobnoye Mesto?" the Professor asked the three doing the Run. "It was HQ last time."

"Sounds like a good bet," Spark told him. "We need to do some stealth identification of their Boss hierarchy. Even if they aren't all there, their signatures should be in the residual data."

"Are you sure you want Tonya along on this run?" the Professor asked. "In case you get made." He had an annoying habit of forgetting to use her Lizzie pseudonym. Spark just mentally shook his head.

Charlie's going to figure it out eventually, anyway, he thought. Whatever...

"Prof, she's got a better chance of killing that which tries to kill us than I do," Spark decided. "Your shields and Okami's stealth insertion should make us nearly invisible. But anticipating Murphy, I'd rather have her along and not need her than need her and not have her along."

"So be it," the Professor acknowledged. "My monitors are up and running. Okami, you can insert whenever you feel like it. I would suggest Heathrow to Domodedovo to Ploshchad Revolyutsii Station on the Mosco Metro. Then you will need to look for utilities."

"You got it, Professor," she told him, then turned to the others. "You want to link us up?"

Spark felt Tonya reach out over their microband transceivers and pick up Okami as well.

Ready when you are, C.B. she informed them. Not for the last time, Spark wondered where the hell she was getting her idioms.

Okay, hang on, Okami thought and reached out for the dataplex.

It was a dizzying hop, skip and jump to ORD, then LHR, then DME, and finally slowing at the Mosco Metro station. Okami didn't screw around. She ignored all the normal distractions a Runner might face, not allowing the biostream to get in her way, nor security protocols. It wasn't until she slowed in the routing and signaling computer at the station that she actually took a look around.

Are we after that big chunk of nothing over there? she asked, indicating the general area of the St. Basil Cathedral.

Just short of it, Spark told her. How about I drive?

Be my guest, Okami told him, letting him guide their avatars through the dataplex.

Spark knew the bunker was heavily shielded, both physically and metaphysically. There was a ton of ICE, black and red, whose job it was to detect and destroy anything that wasn't them. The only way in was a utility feed, normally carrying natural gas, which had a single unprotected coax for switch control purposes. He was counting on the Professor's shields to keep them isolated from the ICE while he merged with the electron flow of the coax and slipped them inside.

The Professor is the best for a reason, he thought as he guided his team into the large command center. This was all new to them and uncomfortably familiar to him.

This command center had many different types of datastreams converging and diverging. There were patterns from all over the world, involving all kinds of businesses, and Spark knew the others would realize, as he had, that they were looking at a Mob HQ. And it wasn't just Russian. As before, there were representative data patterns from every continent and they all had "sinister" strings imbedded. He looked for and located the high concentration of "directive" energy, which indicated decision-making, and followed it -- right into another Executive Level meeting of the mob bosses.

We hit the fucking jackpot, he thought to the others. This is the top brass. The same ones I ran into last time. The ones looking for Tonya.

Stay on them, husband, Tonya thought to him. I need their meta patterns. All of them. This may take me a couple of minutes.

As you wish, luv, he thought back. And you'll want those 'backbenchers' too. Those are probably the subordinates. We can sort this out when we're out of here. I'm recording, too.

Unsurprisingly, the topic of discussion was all the dead bodies coming back from Mars. And the injured, soon to be dead, ones. The ones who were supposed to reel in Tonya. The Bosses were still hot under the collar that she'd hooked up with the Crescians without them, and had apparently acquired allies in the process. Both terrestrials and extraterrestrials. They were demanding answers from their scientists about why the failsafe systems had failed, why she was nonresponsive to their transmitted commands, why she appeared autonomous in the presence of command authority and so forth. The scientists appeared to think that no matter what they said, they were dead.

The Bosses also wanted to know, from their financial subordinates, how the Crescians set up a banking and trade regime over which they had no influence? Why did they not have at least one insider? Who were these Consortium people and how were they to be bribed, extorted or otherwise coerced? Or financially ruined? Or eliminated?

The one question they weren't asking was, what happens if these Consortium people decide a preemptive strike is in order? The arrogance of the Al'yans Krovi simply didn't acknowledge the possiblity.

If Tonya had her way, they were about to receive an education.

They spent almost ten minutes -- a lifetime in dataplex terms -- gathering information. Finally, Tonya called a halt.

Let us get out of here, husband, she thought to him. I believe I have all I need.

Your command is my wish, he told her and began guiding them back out along the coax, trusting the Professor's shields would continue to do their job. He got them back as far as the Metro station.

Okay, Okami, he told her. Fastest way home is probably DEL to KIX to ORD and home.

Hang on, she told them and started her fast-path traverse of the datamesh, eventually landing them back at the insertion lab.

"Welcome home," the Professor told them as they broke their connections to the net. "Charlie's got refreshments laid out for you. It appeared you were successful."

"Gold mine, Prof," Spark told him. "We'll debrief after we've rehydrated."

* * * * *

"Since you look like the cat that ate the canary," Spark told Tonya some time later, "I take it you have a plan."

"I believe I have an approach which will work," she told him. "Provided my understanding of human nature is accurate and you continue to be as good at running as you have been."

"Okay. I haven't screwed up in a long time, but it can happen. What's your plan?"

"I believe we can sort through the meta signatures we collected and isolate the top-tier of the Executive Committee from their subordinates. We will need to acquire residential locations for the subordinates, both home and current, which we can use to individually inform them there is about to be a regime change and that they should disassociate themselves from the Senior Executive. I doubt they will report these disturbing messages for fear of being preemptively eliminated.

"We will also plant the idea that this regime change is due to the shortsightedness of the current Senior Executive and that they should shift their focus from reacquiring that which they no longer have any control over, to cooperating with the Consortium and thereby maintaining at least a little profitability.

"Then you get me into a meeting of the Executive, like the one today, and I will effect the change."

Spark looked at her for a very long moment. It certainly would change the current dynamic if the Blood Alliance suddenly began cooperating rather than coercing. And it would put the Solarians in a much more favorable position with the rest of the Crescian Trade Alliance.

"Okay, so match a bunch of meta signatures in Moscow to a bunch of home locations, all over the world," Spark summarized.

"Essentially," Tonya smiled.

"The difficult we do right away," Spark quoted. "The impossible takes a little longer. Miracles by appointment only."

* * * * *

Eight days later, they had the residences of all the subordinates, both in Moscow and at home.

The day after that, Tonya began planting her messages. Waking up, in the shower, at breakfast, at dinner, relaxing to go to sleep... whenever she could get an opportunity.

Five days after that, she felt ready to drop the bomb.

"I believe we have planted the seeds in everyone necessary. What I am not sure of is how long to let it fester before executing the plan."

"Executing is right," Spark breathed. "Just let me know when you're ready."

"If I may venture an opinion," the Professor commented. "I would let it 'fester' for another week. I would also spend time monitoring conversations between underlings. They may not feel safe broaching the information to their bosses, but they might want to feel out their peers, in case something really did happen. Or, they may be sufficiently paranoid to just clam up altogether."

"Then we will do that," Tonya decided. "X-day is one week from today."

A week later, there had been no chatter among the subordinates. But Tonya could tell from their meta that they were agitated... anticipatory. They had no idea when the axe was going to fall, or whether it was all an elaborate hoax.

"According to their agenda, they are meeting again today," Tonya told her team. "Shall we go wreak some havoc?"

"The same procedure as last time," the Professor instructed them. "I am monitoring and have my shields ready. If you follow the same insertion and extraction routes, you should be fine."

"Okay, Okami. Get us to the Metro," Spark told her, and they were off.

ORD to LHR to DME to the Mosco Metro. The utility coax into the bunker. The Executive Boardroom with all thirteen of Tonya's targets sitting around the table.

The discussion was still the same: how to capture or kill Tonya and her teammates, how to extort the Consortium, how to discourage rebellion among the beholden governments and so forth.

Okay, Killer Queen, Spark thought to her. It's your show. Tonya didn't bother responding.

Slowly, the thirteen began having problems breathing. The ones talking the most manifested fastest. Then they began to experience chest pains and looks of confusion shot through the group. As the breathing got more labored and the talking stopped, as the thirteen began clutching their chests, the 'backbenchers' began sitting up and taking notice. Their Sergeant-at-Arms noticed, too. He called for a doctor and moved to assist the Head of the Directorate, who by now was beginning to tremble. The others were not far behind him.

The trembling went to violent shaking and thrashing about. Then one of the most amazing things Spark had ever seen began to happen. On the forehead of each of the thirteen, blazing lines of energy began to appear. The victims would have been screaming, but they couldn't breath. The lines resolved into a series of letters and numbers -- II-376 -- and below them, the word Spravedlivost'.

The doctor came running in to see them, one by one, slumping in their seats, dead.

Impressive, Spark thought to Tonya. What's with the graphics?

II-376, she thought back. Iskusstvennyy intellekt. Artificial Intelligence No. 376. My project number.

And the other? he asked.

Justice.

The room erupted in chaos.

Let's get out of here, Okami prodded. We can find out what happened later.

Agreed, both Spark and Tonya answered, and Spark began guiding them back out of the bunker.

* * * * *

"You really kicked over the ant hill."

Tonya, Spark and Okami sat at the table, sipping wine and smiling.

"There are so many conflicting meta and datasphere spikes happening, it borders on the impossible to track," the Professor went on. "I'm sure there will be several power surges as the various criminal elements vie for supremacy, before they realize that Tonya's message was very clear. I expect a rather violent purge. My guess is at least a couple of weeks for it to settle down, to where the Blood Alliance gets back to trying to conduct business."

"My hope was sooner than that," Tonya told him. "However, anything that brings them to the table in a cooperative mode will be good."

"How long do you think we need to stay on Earth, in case reinforcement of the message is needed?" Spark asked.

"I would guess one to three months," the Professor told him. "You could take a goodwill tour of the Consortium enclaves, establish your presence, return to Mars better prepared to wheel and deal. We have identified nine bodies of water, seas or oceans if you will, which we will want to harvest. Four are serviced by two enclaves, while five are serviced by only one. If you were to spend a week on each enclave, including travel, you would be right at three months."

"Would that mean I would travel, also?" Charlie asked. She was still in awe of the fact that Tonya could conduct a mass execution with her mind. And that the Professor was by no means a decrepit old man. Not with the "adjustments" the Crescians had made for him.

"Of course, my dear," the Professor told her. "What better way to learn our structure and operations than accompanying the four of us on a world tour?"

"Wow... that just sounds awesome," she answered, almost dreamily.

"We'll make sure you get a workout," Okami chuckled.

"Where would you suggest I have the child, Professor?" Tonya asked.

"Wherever you are when your water breaks," he answered, tongue in cheek.

"You're pregnant???" Charlie was floored. A pregnant sex maniac that killed with her mind was way beyond anything her imagination was prepared for.

"Yes," Tonya admitted. "About 12 weeks. And I am serious, Professor. Where is the best place for me to have my child?"

"You're fine on Earth, Mars is almost as good, and I'm not sure about Recensere or the other planets, or their spacecraft, but it wouldn't take much for a civilization as sophisticated as the Crescians' to do an adequate job," the Professor told her. "So seriously, wherever you are when your labor starts."

"What kind of itinerary are we talking about, for the enclaves, Professor?" Spark asked. He was starting to think in terms of what if something went wrong?

"There are two covering the North Atlantic," the Professor explained. "Virginia Beach and Penzance. And two covering the South Atlantic -- Rio and Luanda. Two more cover the North Pacific -- Vancouver and Shizuoka, and two more for the South Pacific -- Chimbote and Brisbane. We've got one covering the Arctic at Utqiagvic, one covering the Antarctic at Palmer Station, one covering the Mediterranean at Malta, one covering the Indian Ocean at Sri Lanka and one covering the Caribbean and Gulf in the Cayman Islands. So nine managed bodies of water and thirteen enclaves."

"So Lizzie will be 25 weeks pregnant when we want to go back to Mars. And/or Recensere."

"I believe that is about right," the Professor agreed. "Why do you ask?"

"Because I think I'm going to want to talk to the Crescians about hitchhiking before we get that far. Probably a lot less traumatic on mother and child."

"Good point," the Professor nodded. "I'm sure we can arrange it."

*~*~*~*~*

Author's note: the story of Spark, Tonya and Okami - and now Charlie, the Professor and others - is intended to continue with their interactions with the various peoples of the Alliance and Tonya's adventures into motherhood. Spark's, too, for that matter, but for now, this is the end of this part of the story. Just so it gets said, like all the last times, Geeks Rule! Even us Dinosaurs. I hope you enjoyed this continuation of the tale, in the vein of Aliens, Criminals and Shadowrunning type Sci-Fi. Cheers.