Home Front (Star Kingdom #7) - Lindsay Buroker Page 0,51
was worried about knee surgeries or stem-cell infusions this week. There were too many larger things to worry about.
As Oku stepped out, she couldn’t help but eye the sky warily. The fog would have made it impossible to see enemy ships even if they were up there.
Maddie came around to her side of the vehicle but paused to frown at someone on the street instead of heading in. Oku glimpsed a man in a suit before he disappeared into the fog.
“Intelligence is keeping an eye on you,” Maddie warned.
“That was someone from the Citadel?”
“Yes. I recognize the agent.”
“I don’t suppose you’d like to go beat him up, tie and gag him, and leave him in an alley?”
Maddie blinked a few times at this unusual request.
“I’m joking.” Sort of.
Oku hurried for the door, telling herself there was no way Intelligence could know why she had come. It was disturbing that they were trailing her, but it was probably because she’d left and headed into an unsafe area, not because they knew her plans.
The receptionist escorted her back to her usual room where her usual doctor waited. That was a relief. Maybe this would be easy.
A curly-haired woman in her forties, Dr. Pulinski appeared to have aged ten years since the last time Oku had seen her, only a couple of months earlier. She’d always been lean, but she bordered on gaunt, the tendons on the backs of her hands standing out when she gripped her tablet.
“Are you all right, Doctor?” Oku asked as Maddie came in to stand guard by the door.
“I lost my husband in the first bombing.”
“I’m sorry.” Oku gripped Pulinski’s hands, wishing she could say something more useful.
“It’s been a difficult couple of weeks. We can’t even arrange a funeral now because it’s not safe to be out in the city.” Pulinski looked toward the ceiling, not saying but doubtless thinking that it wasn’t safe anywhere.
“Thank you for seeing me. You could have—I wouldn’t have blamed you if you shut the clinic for a while.”
“I would rather work than not. I wish it were busier.” Pulinski tapped her tablet. “What brings you in? I wasn’t expecting to see you again so soon. Are you having trouble maintaining your blood sugar levels?”
“No, they’re fine. Better than most people’s given all the stressors, I’m sure. I came because I’d like you to remove my chip.” Oku touched her temple.
“What? Why? Is it malfunctioning? You should see a cyberware programmer before doing anything drastic.”
Oku hesitated. “Would they be able to remove something I suspect has been there since it was installed?”
“Maybe. What?”
“A back door that lets Royal Intelligence past my passcodes.”
Oku expected surprise from Pulinski, but she opened her mouth in an understanding, “Ah.”
“You know about it?” Oku had been making assumptions on little data.
“It’s typical for the king and queen to have such measures employed on the chips of their children and closest staff that work with the family. It’s not a program for monitoring activity around the clock, but information can be gathered at intervals. The senators must all agree to them, too, when they’re sworn in to their positions. Many of the senior knights who are likely to be involved in top-secret missions too.”
“I feel naive. All this time, I hadn’t realized.”
“Royal Intelligence doesn’t announce it. There was a point in our history, when the chips were becoming commonplace, that they argued that every subject should be monitored thus, but the university students came together and started protests. The government backed down, and everybody assumed that was the end of it. But some people and positions are deemed too important not to be monitored.”
“Important. That’s me.”
“I think with the royal children, it’s more that they want to be able to find you if you go missing rather than a concern that you’re a threat to security.” Pulinski smiled, as if to reassure her.
Oku was not reassured. “If that were true, the locator beacon would be sufficient. And considering how many monarchs have mysteriously died in the past, with their heirs coming to power rather young, I’m sure kings and queens like to monitor their children for other reasons.”
She wondered if Royal Intelligence had ever caught Jorg scheming in such a way. Or Finn? Senator Boehm’s warning came to mind.
“You may be right. They’ll know soon if you remove it—as soon as they go in for a data dump or to check your most recent files.”
Yes, and that worried her, but she lifted her chin and said, “I don’t