Twenty's Mission Log
Chapter 2

We had hung around with Di for a couple of hours while her business was quiet. Millie drank two more coffees and was getting hyperactive. I paid for our food and drinks then ushered her outside before she got too rowdy.

Some people have friends that are noisy drunks. My best friend is a noisy caffeine freak. I suggested she work off some of the excess energy by running back to the apartment while I got the scooter unchained. She bolted off before I even got the key in the lock.

I waved goodbye to Di and rode the scooter down to our building. Millie was already out of sight by the time I got there so I headed down to the basement parking lot. It was a small place and there are only ever two other vehicles in there.

A small van that belonged to Mr and Mrs Singh, our building supervisors, and a two seat electric car that Mr Reynolds on the second floor drove. The other tenants used their allocated space to store extra junk that did not fit in their apartments.

I chained the scooter up in the corner we were allocated. It was only dimly lit down here. A single strip light near the stairwell entrance and in daytime whatever light crept in from the street access. As I headed to the stairs, I felt the hairs on the back of my neck rise.

I turned and carefully surveyed the semi-darkened lot. My hand dropped to my pistol holster and I undid the latch. My hearing was good so I reached out and strained to hear anything out of the ordinary.

The usual creaks of a building settling and the gurgling of the water pipes was all I could detect. Somewhere above I heard a door open and close loudly.

I was not spooked. Yet I was certain that something had been here, observing me. Whatever may have been there, it was not looking at me now. For all I knew it was a stray cat or even a small scout drone. Either one was just as likely in this city.

Turning about I headed to the stairs. I did not run up the steps but I did go up faster than usual. I told myself it was so I could burn off some caffeine energy too.

=====

At a quarter to eight Millie and I were buzzing down the highway that led to The Breakers. About as fancy a suburb as you could get here in Spitfield. It was the preferred place to live for the local governor, factory owners and second-rate celebrities who could not get a residence in Pan City.

The address for tonight was a luxurious looking house on a low ridge. It was set amongst tropical gardens and palm trees and had a great view towards the lights of the city.

In honour of the occasion Millie was wearing long black jeans, a black shirt with an old AC/DC band logo in silver, and a leather jacket. Her favourite Doc Martens graced her feet. I was wearing my black uniform and combat boots. I had also worn my armour vest and carried my old Guard utility belt with my pistol, spare magazines and so forth. If there was any trouble tonight I wanted to be ready for it.

At the gated entrance to the house, a private security guard checked us over before giving an all clear. I drove the scooter to the front of the house and parked it. The house was all glass windows and white columns at the front.

“So much for privacy” muttered Millie as we approached the clear front doors. Lights shone down at intervals to illuminate different areas, with others in darkness. Even the interior walls seemed to be clear glass.

A handsome woman with Oriental features (my facial recognition software identified her as mainland Chinese) appeared out of the darkness. She wore a beautiful red patterned cheongsam and had her dark hair bound up with long pins.

“Good evening, honoured guests” she greeted us and bowed from the waist with her hands clasped in front of her. “I will be your hostess for the evening”.

I bowed in response but Millie just stared at her until I gave her a nudge.

“Howdy” said Millie and gave her a wave.

“Please follow me to the master’s study” the hostess continued and lead us through the house.

It was a maze of glass walls, concealed lighting and hidden spaces in the dark. It would be a nightmare to assault without good knowledge of how the various walls and passages were laid out. I was positive that the clear glass was actually a reinforced Ceramiglass and could be rendered opaque or clear on command.

Millie was also awed. “Talk about people who live in glass houses” she muttered.

Somewhere in the centre of this maze we were lead into an opaque walled room. Inside the room the walls were displaying various data and visual feeds from around the city. Jericho-Three was attired in a dark blue silk suit with a Chinese collar. His shock of white hair stood out dramatically in the overhead lighting. As always his eyes were shuttered away behind dark glasses.

The room had three leather wing back chairs facing in towards each other and a small low table set in the middle.

“Thank you Hi-Ling” he said to the hostess and she bowed deeply and left us. The door we had entered by slid noiselessly shut and went opaque.

“This is some pad you have here” said Millie and dropped herself into the nearest chair. I looked at Jericho and he just smiled faintly. He turned to me and gestured to one of the other chairs.

“Please Twenty, make yourself comfortable” he said. I took the offered seat and Jericho gracefully sat in the third.

“Why are you looking for Sister Venerae?” blurted out Millie. She was as impatient as ever.

“She has a talent for replaceing people” answered Jericho. “Especially people that can be very hard to replace by other means. This talent also makes her impossible to locate unless she wishes to be found”.

“So why do you need her to track someone” I asked him. “Don’t you have access to all the drones and cameras run by the Archimedes Network?. If the person you are looking for is hiding in Pan City or even the Spit can’t they be found?”

Jericho laughed at this. “Surely you don’t forget how hard it was to locate Mr Otaki without someone in the field?” he said in reply.

“But you were using the network yourself to try and hide him, weren’t you?” chimed in Millie.

“That is correct. The person I am trying to replace appears to be receiving similar aid” said Jericho.

“Why would the Archimedes Network be trying to hide someone from its own avatar?” I queried. This did not sound good.

“I am not sure if it is the Archimedes AI” responded Jericho. “And he is not the only Artificial Intelligence in the world. There are at least three others that may be taking an interest here in the Zone.”

I had known of other major AIs as the Guard were coded to try and prevent subversion by them. In theory the AI powered protocols on the quantum network kept them secure. Millie looked stunned by the news however.

“There are three more giant a-holes like Archie out there?” she said in disbelief.

“Indeed, young Millie” said Jericho smugly. “The European Union has the Athena AI, the Communist Bloc have Arkangel and the Americans use Abraham”.

“I am noticing a trend in the names there” said Millie. “I guess the programmers did not consult with each when they handed them out”.

“To bring us back on topic, Sister Venerae can track someone even if they are being actively shielded by an AI” spoke Jericho. “I won’t be able to contact her, but I think if you go looking she will let you replace her”.

“And say she does let us replace her, who is it you want her to track down” replied Millie.

“An assassin. A very good one. A woman by the name of Ms Penny Deeds” said Jericho.

“Who has this Penny Deeds been sent to kill?” I asked.

“I am sorry, I had thought that was obvious” said Jericho. “She has been sent to kill me”.

“Well bugger me” said Millie in surprise.

=====

Hi-Ling brought in a tray of coffee and small biscuits. She set it down on the small table between us and served us each a cup. Jericho took a cup with thanks but I noticed he did not eat any of the biscuits. Millie attacked the biscuits eagerly and handed me a couple.

They were wonderfully sweet and crispy although the coffee was stronger than I liked. It complimented the sweetness of the biscuits perfectly. For a machine driven intelligence he served good food.

Hi-Ling bowed her way out of the room once more.

Millie was watching Jericho with some interest. I knew her looks and she was trying to figure some things out.

“Why would anyone try to kill you?” she finally said. “You’re just an avatar of a big computer somewhere. Can’t you just reboot yourself in a new body?”

“That is only partially true” he answered. “This body is grown like the clones from modified ovum and as it matures, cybernetics and quantum processors are implanted. It takes a full year to create the new body to house an avatar”

“But like our friend Twenty here, there is also an organic brain. This helps to keep the body alive, just like any other human, but also stores its own experiences in the brain structure. If I were to be destroyed, the organic memory would be lost. Not all the information I keep is accessed by the Archimedes Network”.

“Holy crap!” cried Millie. “You keep secrets from Archie? Aren’t you just a version of him?”

“Millie” I warned “This is dangerous information to know. Jericho-Three is telling us details that put us at risk”. I glared at Jericho. “Stop these games now”.

“I just need you to know that I am at risk myself” he responded. “I have no intention of being killed, nor of letting you die. You are both valuable to me”. A smooth talker indeed.

“Millie, we have been pulled into this too deep already. Do we try and replace Venerae or do we leave this behind?” I asked her honestly.

“I need to replace Sister Venerae” she answered. “Not for your sake Jericho, but for mine. Give us what details you want passed on and we’ll try and deliver them”.

“Thank you Millie. Thank you Twenty” Jericho said to us each in turn..

“And the price will be five thousand Pandas” added Millie. “On top of the thousand retainer you promised before”. Millie certainly loved to get her hands on Pandas.

“Of course” he replied.

=====

We had been given a secure file from Jericho to pass onto Sister Venerae. Standing outside, getting our helmets on, I looked at Millie. Since the deal had been struck she had been unusually quiet.

“What is troubling you, Millie?” I asked her quietly.

She looked up at me and in the house lights I could see the sheen of tears in her eyes.

“Sister Venerae was always so wonderful to me” she sobbed softly. “What if she is different now? Will she even remember me? She left me behind and never came back for me!”

“If she cared so much she must have had good reason to leave. But it doesn’t matter, because we will replace her and you can ask her yourself” I said. I pulled her into my arms and we stood like that for a moment. She snuffled into my vest and rubbed her nose on the tactical weave.

“Don’t ever leave me Twenty” she said.

“Never ever” I promised and rapped her lightly on the head. “Put your helmet on and let’s get out of here”.

I drove our scooter down the driveway and out of the gate. We waved at the guard there and he nodded back. Was he an actual human I wondered or someone slaved to Jericho-Three? There was no doubt he used such creations, but I was beginning to realise he may use people like us more than I had suspected.

On the highway again I opened the throttle on the scooter. We both loved to go as fast as we could when the road allowed it. It was some distance back to the suburbs so I warned Millie to hang on and let the electric motor cycle up to full speed.

Once we hit eighty kilometres an hour I held it there. It may not be as fast as a motorbike but the cool night air was roaring past and we both shouted for glee. You have to replace joy in your lives when you can.

We were coming back to the streets and crossroads of the Spit so I dropped our speed back to a reasonable sixty. At an intersection ahead the lights flashed from amber to red so I applied the brakes and we came to a gentle stop.

“That was fun” said Millie behind me and gave me a squeeze around the waist. Our little dash had cheered her up.

A black electric van hummed up alongside us. Two men in the front seats looked across at us with unfriendly eyes. I checked them over but did not recognise them. Millie caught the looks they were giving and I could feel her rise up slightly on the seat behind me.

“Not now Millie” I cautioned her. She had more control of her Gunsinger these days but she was still too eager to let it mess with people who annoyed her.

The lights changed to green and I accelerated the scooter away. In the side mirror I could see the van had stayed behind at the intersection. It moved off late and nearly missed the green light altogether.

“Millie” I called out over my shoulder “Did you bring the pistol that Daniel-san gave you”.

“That little pea-shooter?” she called back against the noise of the road. “Nah, I left it at home. I thought you wanted me to play nice with Jericho?”

“I think we are being followed” I said loudly. “Keep your eyes on that black van that was at the lights” I scanned the road ahead to see if there were any others but it looked clear so far.

Twisting the throttle I poured on more speed, accelerating up to eighty again. If there were any police about we could be busted for speeding but that was not my concern right now. In fact I would welcome the police or even a Guard patrol to appear. They would scare off any attackers.

I had my vest on and my pistol at my side. But Millie was in street clothes and had no other weapons than her Gunsinger, as fearsome as that could be. If we were being targeted this was a bad time to be under equipped.

“Twenty!” Millie shouted, “That van is coming up fast. It looks like two bikes have joined it and they are overtaking”

I flicked a glance at the side mirror. I spotted the two bikes – high performance electrics with one rider on each, dressed in dark leathers or armour I guessed. The bikes would be up with us in seconds.

“Do I take them out?” yelled Millie. She seemed eager for a fight but I wanted to just get us safely home.

“You can’t just attack people in the street for no reason” I yelled back at her.

The leading rider drew a gun and his bullet shattered my left side mirror. My poor scooter!

“Take them down!” I shouted to Millie.

“Copy that!” she said and stood up on the foot rests. She spun nimbly around so she was facing backwards and sat once more. Two more shots rang out as the other bike drew closer but I did not hear them hit us.

The hairs on the back of my neck rose up as Millie started a high pitched keening note. I could feel her Gunsinger rise up from inside of her and possess her mind and body. I never told her this but it really felt like she was summoning something dark and forbidden. It could be a monster at times and I fervently hoped she could control it.

The bikes were almost on top of us when she let the power she had summoned go. I felt the air around us thicken and then it was like we shot forward into a vacuum. The Gunsinger attacked.

In my right hand mirror I saw the bikes slam into an invisible barrier and flip up end over end. The riders spun wildly in the air and then slammed back to the road surface. Bikes and bodies bounced awkwardly along for twenty or thirty meters then came to a stop. The men did not move as the van swerved around them and came after us.

“Hold on, I will try and lose them” I yelled to Millie. A narrow alley was coming up on our left side. I dropped the power and braked hard, twisting the handlebars savagely. The rear wheel slide out and I put out my leg to brace us in the turn.

My left boot dragged across the asphalt and then we slid into the alley. I gunned the motor once more and we shot down the narrow way, our headlight illuminating trash cans and fleeing rats.

Behind us the van screeched to a stop, reversed and followed us down. They did not swerve around the trash cans, they just crashed through them, scattering plastic bags of garbage in all directions. I am sure the rats had a banquet with all the trash the van left in its wake.

“Twenty, stop swerving about” complained Millie loudly. “I can’t focus my Gunsinger on the van!”

I did not reply as I was too busy trying to avoid hitting anything more solid than us. Millie has no appreciation of the finer arts of vehicle operation.

The alley ended and we shot out into a back street. There was only a sparse set of street lights to show the way but I turned right on instinct. My internal maps were fine but I was not sure exactly where we were.

Preceded by a final crash of flying garbage bags the van roared out onto the road behind us. I was pushing the scooter up to top speed, then I saw the dead end road loom up ahead. In our headlight I could only see walls of buildings hemming us in. I slammed on the brakes and skidded us back around to face them. Millie squealed and lurched in her seat but she stayed aboard.

They knew they had us cornered. The van stopped in the middle of the road, its headlights shining into our eyes. Both doors opened and the driver and his companion got out. Even in the glare I could see the metallic gleam of machine pistols in their hands.

There was little space to get past them on the scooter, even if I thought we would survive a barrage from their guns. Fleeing was not an option so it was time to fight.

I turned off the engine and dropped the stand. Standing up I said to Millie “Stay behind me, you are not wearing a vest”.

“Screw that, Twenty” she said in reply and stood alongside me.

The men walked slowly forwards until they were about thirty meters away. A long shot for my pistol or their guns but definitely in range. Millie could launch her Gunsinger over three times that range with ease given the chance.

I drew my pistol and watched them warily.

“We just want the account codes from Tan” shouted out the van driver. “We know he passed them to you to get released”

“What the hell are they talking about?” muttered Millie. “Do they mean that Jacob Tan we busted this morning?”

“I think they do, Millie” I answered her. “Did Tan give you any such codes?”

She looked at me sideways and snorted. “He promised all kinds of crap but he did not give me anything like that”.

“Quit stalling” shouted the companion to the driver. He brandished his weapon in our direction. “We know he got released only an hour after you brought him in. You made some kind of deal for the codes. Give us the fifty thousand or you bitches are in a world of pain”

“Did he really just call us that!” snarled Millie. I knew without looking she was getting ready to unleash her power on them.

“Jacob Tan never gave us any codes” I called out to the men. “If he had we wouldn’t have taken him into custody. Think about it. It makes no sense.” I tried to sound as reasonable as I could. I did not want to have a gun fight over some misunderstanding.

“Our boss thinks otherwise” said the driver. “Last chance” he finished and they raised their guns.

My combat trainers in the Guard had always insisted, if conflict seems inevitable, strike first.

I lifted my pistol and fired in the blink of an eye. My reflexes are designed to be faster than an organic human could ever hope to be. My first bullet hit the driver just over the sternum. The second hit his companion slightly to the left, jarring his shoulder. Damn, he had started to move already so he was likely combat wired.

My pistol was loaded with Civilian Suppression Rounds, nominally non-lethal bullets formed from high grade rubber. In theory they could stun or disable a target without killing them. It was my usual load unless I seriously expected to kill people.

The first guy went down hard as expected, but his companion just cursed and aimed his machine pistol in our direction. Even as his weapon spat fire and noise, Millie sang out in a clear and strong voice.

Her Gunsinger surged forward and slowed the hail of bullets, catching them easily and throwing them aside. I could see the look of terror suddenly spring onto the shooter’s face. He had guessed he was facing an Awakened after the incident on the road but this was something else.

The harmonics of Millie’s notes changed, deepening, and then all the sound compressed into a rush of solid air that grabbed him. He was hurled back against the windshield of the van, shattering the glass.. He dropped stunned and unmoving to the hard tarmac.

“Well done Millie” I called to her and went to check them over. I kept my pistol trained on them but each was out cold. I checked their pockets and found no Ident cards but they had a cheap disposable phone each. I took both of those and their weapons.

“So what are we gonna do with them?” asked Millie as she came up next to me.

“We are in enough trouble with their bosses already” I answered. “Leave them alive and hope we can explain ourselves later to someone who will listen”.

“Copy that” she replied.

We dragged them over to their van and put them in the back.

“Sleep well, a-holes” Millie said and we shut the door.

On the main road once more, I stopped on a bridge over a canal and dumped their guns into the sluggish water. They disappeared with barely a ripple.

We made it home to our apartment without further incident. I had kept a keen watch for any other vehicles that might be following us but nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

The scooter was locked up tight in the parking lot. I groaned at the damage done to our poor little ride.

“We can get the wing mirror replaced” said Millie as she saw me stroking the damaged section.

“But they hurt our baby” I whimpered a little.

“And we showed great restraint in not tearing their heads off” answered Millie. “See what nice people we have become”.

We headed up the stairs, Millie stomping loudly in her boots, me walking quietly behind as usual. She was oblivious to the complaints we regularly got from the other building residents about how noisy she was on the stairs. They never said anything to Millie but I got to hear it all and offer what apologies I could.

Our apartment seemed fine when we got there, even though I had insisted on approaching the door with my pistol drawn and safety off.

Millie stripped off once we were inside and headed to the shower. She had gotten a lot more comfortable being naked in front of me these days.

I had taken off my armour vest and my boots when one of the phones we had taken rang loudly. I picked it up and hit the button to answer.

“Hello” I said neutrally.

The line was quiet for a moment then a male voice asked “Are they dead?”

“We spared them, but your riders had nasty falls. I hope they are alright” I answered.

“That was considerate of you” the voice continued. “It seems my first instinct to use force was mistaken. Perhaps we can make a deal to get the information we want?”

“We are always willing to look for non-violent solutions” I responded evenly. “Shall we call a truce for now and arrange a meeting?”

“That sounds acceptable. I will be in touch” he said and ended the call.

“Copy that” I said to the dead phone.

Millie appeared in the bathroom doorway, wrapped in a towel and dripping water. “Who was that?” she asked.

“The bad guys” I replied. “They want to meet us”.

“Cool” she said and dropped herself on my bed. “Can you dry my hair? She gave me one of her adorable looks.

“Fine” I answered and went to get the hair dryer. Why was it always my bed she sat on after a shower? I wouldn’t mind except she never dried herself off properly. I had complained to Daniel-san one time that she always made me sleep in the wet spot.

He had gone bright red and had to leave the office. I heard him laughing aloud out in the reception area. I still don’t get what he found so funny about that.