Re-Coil - J.T. Nicholas Page 0,57
any questions. “Look, I’m not saying we should. Hell, it’s unlikely we’d be able to find anything, anyway. I’ll guarantee you, this Bliss project and all its various offshoots are locked away in the most holy of holies in that lab. I’m good enough to get us into the building, and maybe out again. We could root around any unsecured areas. If we got lucky, we could probably get into the lower-security stuff without triggering any alarms. But there’s no way we’re getting into whatever vault they’d be using to store the Bliss data.”
“What the hell, Carter,” Shay growled. “I thought I was the criminal here.”
“I told you I worked repo before salvage. There’s a pretty thin line between repo and outright theft, particularly if the person you’re doing the repossession on skews toward the dangerous side. You learn a lot about getting around security systems, getting in and out of places without getting seen.” A slight grin stretched my lips. “And a fair amount about how to defend yourself, too, at least if you stay in it long enough. Look, it was… lifetimes ago, but I still remember how.”
“You are a man of many layers, Carter Langston.”
There was something about the way she said it that made me glance over at her. She gazed at me with an expression that was pure, inscrutable Shay Chan. That look had a weighing quality about it, like I was being evaluated, or, perhaps, reevaluated would be the more accurate term, that somehow made me nervous. But I just gave her my best grin and said, “I’m a mystery. Wrapped in an enigma.” I plucked at the front of the VaccTech suit. “Wrapped in plastic. For freshness.”
A wry smile twisted her lips and she gave her head a little shake but said nothing. “So,” I continued, “we can’t get into Genetechnic, at least not and get anything that would be useful to us. And I assume that you’re not confident in your ability to hack them?”
She shrugged. “Ordinarily, I’d say it wouldn’t even be a challenge. But we may be talking about the people who hacked their way into the backup servers. You don’t try something like that without being really, really certain of your own defenses. And the big corps don’t rely on passive programs; they’ll have security people actively monitoring things.” She sighed. “It’s risky.”
“Right,” I said. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t get more answers from someone at Genetechnic.”
Shay’s look went from assessing to skeptical. “I’m not sure that walking into their headquarters and demanding answers about their top-secret project—the one they’re willing to delete people over—is the best solution.”
“Who said anything about walking into Genetechnic? We’re not on a station or hab, Shay. It’s not like the Genetechnic staff lives at the office. They have to go home sometime, and I guarantee you that the lead scientist or CEO or whoever, is going to have a lot less security than the lab itself.”
But Shay was shaking her head. “It’s the same problem, Carter. We could snatch the President of Genetechnic off the street, kidnap him, whatever. But no court—not on Earth, not on Mars, not even on Daedalus—would accept it as proof of anything. Information obtained under duress isn’t admissible. And if we tried to go to any authorities with it, we’re the ones who’d get arrested.”
“Damn it,” I growled. Shay was right. Of course she was. But I was past the point of caring. “Then we get them to tell us where proof—physical proof, not just data that Genetechnic will claim is a fabrication—can be found. And we go there and get it.”
“And if they don’t want to talk?”
I thought of the rest of the crew of the Persephone. Harper, missing. Miller, dead and never to be re-coiled. Chan, stuffed into a coil that seemed so ill-suited to her when she had suffered so much and tried so hard to prevent that very thing from happening. I couldn’t keep the anger from my voice as I said, “Then we make them talk. However we have to.” The grim finality in my voice startled me, but Shay was nodding. “Assuming you’re willing.”
“Do you know how long I waited to get my previous coil, Carter? Years. Four years, to be precise. Four years in a Class Four bio-female body, just so I could get the exact coil of my choice. One that closely resembled that to which I was born. Petite. Flexible yet strong.” She looked down at the table,