Re-Coil - J.T. Nicholas Page 0,71

Harper is covered in the contract as well, though one of you will have to assume their proxy for purposes of signing the document.” He dropped the cube back into a pocket and while Shay and I were still staring dumbfoundedly at one another, moved quick as a striking serpent, arm wrapping back around Shay’s neck. She barely seemed to notice at this point, but it made me grit my teeth a little harder. “Truly, the generosity of the Genetechnic Corporation knows no bounds,” the assassin finished. There was something in his tone that I couldn’t read—was it sarcasm? Or did he truly believe that Genetechnic was being generous?

It didn’t matter. What mattered was that we had a chance to get out from under Genetechnic’s thumb. A chance to get our backups restored. A chance to bring Harper, at least, out of the deep. It was dangerous to trust an outfit like Genetechnic. They’d do everything they could to protect their bottom line. But, generally speaking, once the contracts came out, you could rely on the megacorps to abide by the terms. They might do their level best to screw you over within the confines of those terms, but the outright breaking of a contract was bad for business. “What about Miller?” I asked.

“Ah,” the assassin said, voice somewhat regretful. “I’m afraid I wasn’t involved in that contract. I understand that things didn’t go well. I’m afraid Mr. Miller is lost.” A brief, faraway look crossed over his features—the look of someone consulting their agent. “Time is running short. Genetechnic is preparing the mission for launch from their station here on Mars. I’m afraid I’m going to need an answer.”

Shay spoke up. “We sign the papers, I want more than Genetechnic’s word that our backups get restored. I want physical copies that we can leave somewhere here on Mars. Somewhere Genetechnic doesn’t know about. Along with instructions on what to do with them if we’re not heard from again.” There was a reason Shay ran the computers and I played space monkey between free-falling objects.

“That’s… challenging,” the assassin replied. “Genetechnic doesn’t have direct access to…”

“Stuff it,” Shay said. “You had enough access to try and melt our backups across half the fucking solar system. You expect us to believe you can’t swipe a copy?”

“Not me, no,” the killer demurred. “A moment.” His eyes got that faraway look again. If we were going to make a move, try to ninja our way out of the situation, now was the time. Only, I somehow doubted that the assassin was quite as distracted as he looked. And all the ways to “escape” a gun to your head worked a hell of a lot better in theory than in practice. I met Shay’s eyes and lifted an eyebrow in question. She gave a tiny shake of her head. If she was willing to sit it out in the hopes that we’d come away from this mess clean, particularly when she was the one in the greatest danger, then so was I.

The assassin’s eyes focused again. “Very well,” he said. “Genetechnic has agreed. I have a revised copy of the contract.” He looked at me expectantly.

“Then drop whatever jammer you have in place and send it over, so our agents can review it,” Shay replied.

That startled me. Sarah? I sent the thought to my agent.

Yes, Carter?

Status.

Wireless functions are currently unable to connect to any networks.

Which meant Sarah was isolated from the broader Net and even from localized transmission to other agents, like Shay’s Bit. And probably had been, I realized, since the assassin walked into the room.

Local access restored, Sarah said. File transmission request received.

“Approved,” I said aloud.

Transmission in progress. File received. It is a text document.

Analyze, I instructed.

There was a brief moment of silence in my head. Analysis complete.

Were you following the conversation, Sarah? I didn’t really need to ask the question. It was more out of habit than anything. Even without Net access, Sarah still had direct—one might even say hardwired—access to my brain and all the input it received, including auditory and visual.

Yes, Carter.

Is the contract consistent with what we’ve been discussing? I asked.

Yes, Carter.

Summarize the finer points, I directed.

Provided you are successful in your undertaking, Genetechnic agrees to forego pursuing any further action against you, Shay Chan, or Zomas Harper. In addition, you will be compensated both financially and with a coil matching specifications of your choosing. There is language regarding your backups that is masked in legalese to avoid admission