23 – Mystery Machine

  At Glitch’s words, Beef grunted and slammed a meaty fist into his palm. “Guess we ain’t gonna get much sleep tonight.”

  Glitch, still gripping Addie’s shoulder, asked, “Do you have his PAI? I can try to crack it and get his biometrics and whatnot.”

  “Would that be easier than just cracking the door?”

  Glitch shook her head. “No, but it might give us more options. Let’s not rush into anything carelessly. As of right now, his partner’s still in the room, and she might think he’s just gone for a walk or something.”

  “I mean, she could be calling him right now, panicking—”

  Glitch snapped her fingers. “Get Humpty out. We’ll put my driftjack on the roof.”

  Addie nodded and hurried over to her pack, and while she worked to get Humpty out and loaded up with Glitch’s little device, Beef broached a subject she’d been dreading: “I mean, maybe we should just ice these two. I’m sure that dude saw—”

  “Don’t even think about it!” Addie growled. “His name is Gabe, he has a family, and he doesn’t seem like a very bad guy. Besides, I pulled his PAI and—”

  “And I’ll be able to delete his footage of our partner here,” Glitch finished for her, gesturing toward Addie as she spoke.

  “Don’t gotta be worried about him hearing,” Beef remarked, eyeing them both from under his heavy brow. “He’s barely breathing, and I put plugs in his ears, anyway.”

  “Plugs?” Glitch asked.

  Beef shrugged and sat down on the bed. “Yeah. Guy had some foam ones with the shrink-cords. Not really the kind of stuff you find in a nice guy’s pocket, you know?”

  “Anyway,” Glitch said, turning back to her crystal-glass, “I’m with Ember. Let’s not go murdering people unless we have to.”

  Addie watched Beef’s face as he leaned back on the pillows, frowning. If she were guessing, he wasn’t upset about what they’d said, but more about the fact that he’d come off looking like a “bad guy.” He might not want to admit it, but he cared about how they thought of him. “I know you were just thinking of our safety, Beef.”

  “It’s whatever.” He folded his arms, visibly sulking. Addie turned back to Humpty, making sure he had a firm grip on Glitch’s driftjack, but Beef wasn’t done. “It’s just, when I was with the Helldogs, we didn’t have fancy netjackers or people who could walk through walls. Shit was a little more…in your face. You know?”

  “I get it, sweetie,” Glitch replied, her voice taking on a note Addie hadn’t heard before. She sounded sweet, and Beef’s frown faded as she continued, “We’re all stressed out right now. This might turn out to be a good thing, though.”

  Addie perked up. “How?”

  “Well, I’m not in yet, but I’m hoping I can snag this guy’s credentials. We might be able to use them to get past the checkpoint.”

  Beef clapped his hands. “Hell yes!”

  “Seriously?” Addie asked, pausing on her way to the window. “Should I forget the driftjack?”

  Glitch looked up, shaking her head. “No, no. Think about it; even if I can get his creds and we leave right away, his partner could make trouble for us.”

  Addie opened the window and sent Humpty through. “I agree.” As the little drone zoomed out and she split her attention between her eyes and what he was seeing, she carefully moved to the foot of her bed and sat. In seconds, Humpty was hovering over the roof, and Addie could see the antenna array, several little sat dishes, and bundles of cables. “Does it matter where?”

  “Just close to the main antenna. If you can get a direct connection, it’ll make my life easier.”

  Addie nodded and zoomed Humpty close, scanning the little network housing. It was plastic and had a latch, but it didn’t seem to be locked, so she set the driftjack down on the icy roof beside it. “Can it get wet? I’m assuming—”

  Glitch waved a hand. “It’s fine. Designed to operate outdoors.”

  Addie used Humpty’s little tentacle-like arm to pull the housing open, exposing a pair of data ports. A minute later, she was tugging the cable out of the base of the driftjack and plugging it into one of the ports. “Done.”

  “Damn!” Glitch chuckled. “I’ll never get used to how quick you are. That would have taken most drone operators ten times as long.”

  Addie smiled, sending a recall order to Humpty. She walked over to the window and pressed her forehead to the glass, looking out. “It’s really coming down. When I was outside earlier, there was a four-foot drift at the mouth of the alley.”

  “Yeah, but the plow throws snow up in the alleys,” Beef replied. “Still, you’ve got a point. Think the van can even make it out of this district?”

  Addie saw Humpty approach and lifted the window for him, shivering at the draft he brought through. She closed the window with a thud, then looked at Beef, contemplating his question. Could the van make it out? “I mean, if the roads are open, that means they’re plowing, right?” Before he could answer, she said, “JJ, monitor the traffic. Keep track of road closures between us and home.”

  “What’s he say?” Beef asked.

  “Sec…” Addie was looking at the map JJ put on her AUI. Many streets were red, but he’d found a route to one of the checkpoints into District 8. That district didn’t look much better, but again, Humpty found a route. She zoomed out and saw a line, loaded with yellow and red slowdowns, leading all the way to the Blast. “As of right now, there’s a route, but it’s a four-hour trip with the slowdowns.”

  “Oh, hell. Seriously?” Beef groaned. “We might as well sleep—”

  Addie interrupted him, shaking her head. “We need to at least get out of this district. We can crash somewhere after we drive for an hour or two.”

  “I’m in,” Glitch said, interrupting. “Here.” She stood and walked over to her duffel, digging around until she came up with a small, round, red-colored device. “See this lens?” She pointed to a glass circle on the side of the orb. “Point it at the retina scanner on the door panel. I’ll program his biometrics into it.” She tossed it to Addie and returned to her crystal-glass. “Listen, I’m gonna delete his footage of his conversation with you, but do me a favor and keep his partner from seeing your faces, yeah? I’d rather not have to hack another AUI tonight.”

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  Beef stood up with a grunt and tugged his duffel bag close. “We’ll wear visors.” A moment later, he handed Addie her visor, the one she’d had on earlier, then tugged on the larger one Glitch had modified for him.

  As she pulled it over her eyes, she pointed to their prisoner. “You’re sure he’s not gonna get loose?”

  “Not a chance, sis. Doubt he’ll wake up anytime soon, anyway. You ever had a PAI yanked? Fucks you up for a while at a minimum.”

  Addie felt her stomach sink a little, the gravity of their recent actions sneaking up on her. She relaxed a fist she hadn’t realized she’d clenched, then walked over to the door. “Let’s get done with this.” In the hallway, she drew her pistol and slipped it under the flap of her coat. Glitch was watching the cams, but Addie didn’t want to take any chances; she wouldn’t be caught off-guard.

  “All clear to the first floor,” Glitch reported, and Addie led the way to the stairwell. She looked at Beef, saw his hands empty, and frowned. Why was she even bringing him? She could be a lot sneakier without an oversized bruiser in a dark visor and trenchcoat shadowing her.

  He caught her looking and shrugged, surprising her once again with his perceptiveness. “I’ll watch your back.”

  Addie smiled. More important than her ability to sneak around was the comfort she felt, knowing Beef was with her. She hurried down the steps, opened the first-floor hallway door, and peered into the long, dimly lit, empty corridor. It was late at night in the middle of a storm; she doubted any of the few guests at the sleezy hotel were even awake. Her local mini-map showed her destination just three doors away on the right.

  “Careful, you two. Just got into his messages. His partner sent him several messages, but she hasn’t tried to contact anyone else yet. My driftjack’s online, so I’ve got control of the local-net.”

  “Did her messages sound worried?” Addie asked.

  “More irritated. Anyway, just be careful.”

  Addie looked at Beef, and he shrugged. Addie withdrew her needler from inside her jacket, crept up to the door, and pulled Glitch’s little device out of her pocket. She looked at Beef again; he was leaning against the wall, his huge pistol in one meaty fist. When Addie glanced at it, he shook his head, and she knew what he was saying: It’s just for show. She took a deep breath, held the device up to the little scanner in the door panel, and it immediately beeped and flashed green. The door clicked unlocked, and Addie pushed it open.

  She slipped through, gun out, ready for action, scanning the room. Her eyes fell on the two beds, and what she saw made her stop short and snort a soft laugh. Their mark, Gabe’s partner, was sprawled out, face down on the mattress, five or six little liquor bottles—empty—on the bed and floor beside her. Beef bumped into her as he hurried forward, taking her sudden stop to mean something was wrong.

  “The hell?” he whispered, also stifling a chuckle.

  Not taking any chances, Addie pointed her pretty chrome needler at the woman’s butt—clad in a wrinkled, hiked-up corpo-style business skirt—and fired two needles into it. Her target convulsed briefly and then grew still. “Well, that was easy,” she said, grinning at Beef.

  He chuckled. “Poor chick’s gonna have a hell of a hangover.” As he spoke, he walked over to the bed, tugging two shrink-cords out of his pocket.

  Addie holstered her needler and then looked around the room—no suitcases, but a couple of go-bag-style duffels. She dug through them, found a small pistol in one, some spare clothes, and a compact data deck, which she didn’t touch; they didn’t need it, and it would probably have some kind of tracking enabled.

  “Got her PAI.”

  Over comms, Glitch asked, “Is she auged? Can she break the cords?”

  “Nah, don’t think so. Arms feel normal.”

  Addie looked over at him and smiled when she saw that Beef had pulled a blanket on top of the woman. “We good, then?”

  “Yeah,” Glitch replied. “I got what I need from this guy’s PAI, but bring hers, anyway.”

  Five minutes later, they were back in their room and packing their bags. As he shouldered his duffel and picked up the bag of Dust, Beef asked, “You’re sure about this?”

  Glitch shook her head. “I’m sure that I got his clearance codes, but I’m only about a seven out of ten on whether we’ll get through the checkpoint with them.”

  Addie picked up her pack and glanced at their prisoner. “Won’t the codes be tied to him?”

  The netjacker nodded. “They were. I altered the embedded biomarkers to match mine, though.” She shrugged. “In theory, it’ll work.”

  Addie considered their options. They could keep the two corpos on ice, tied up and under wraps. Glitch could even use their PAIs to contact Rise for check-ins or to answer inquiries. Still, there was the real risk of their absence being noticed—if they had to report somewhere or if someone came to meet them, for instance. More than any of that, though, Addie just wanted to be away from the scene of their crime. She wanted to get away from where the thing in the veil had attacked her. She wanted to be home.

  “Let’s go for it. I want out of this district.”

  “Hell, yeah,” Beef agreed.

  Glitch nodded. “Same.”

  On their way to the van, Addie sent Humpty to grab Glitch’s driftjack. She stumbled once on the uneven, snowy sidewalk, so Beef took her arm and guided her as they walked. By the time they were loading their bags into the cargo compartment, Humpty warbled out of the blowing snowflakes, and she happily tucked him safely away into her pack.

  A few minutes later, they were creeping down the slick, snowy roads, the AI doing most of the driving because—as Addie found out—it was criminally easy to start sliding on the slippery, icy roads. “ETA to the checkpoint is about twenty,” she said. “You gonna be ready?”

  “Yeah,” Glitch replied, her knee dancing up and down as she peered through the windscreen, her visor still obscuring her eyes.

  Addie looked over her shoulder. “You stashed the stuff?”

  Beef grunted in the affirmative, shifting to lie on his back, feet extended over the arm of the jump seat. “Not like it’ll help if they’re using those big scanners.”

  “Never know,” Addie replied. She tried to tune out the worries vying for her attention. Of course, when she refused to think about being caught at the checkpoint, her thoughts drifted toward Tony, so she shifted them again, only to have the lingering ache in her shoulder draw her mind toward the encounter she’d had in the veil. What could it have been?

  Were there things living in that strange in-between realm? Were they native to it? Were they from another—what? A different universe or dimension? Another possibility she’d considered was something a little closer to home. What if the thing that chased her—and the others she’d sensed nearby—had been fades? What if that was what happened to people who faded completely? It certainly hadn’t sounded sane, and the nature of its strange, desperate cries had reminded her of the kinds of things fades said when they began to lose their minds.

  More worrisome than what the thing had been was the way it had seemed to recognize her. It was like it had been looking for her. Was it ever going to be safe for her to fade again? Would it—or others like it—always be there? She supposed it made sense that if it were truly dangerous in the veil, there wouldn’t be many people who could fade as well as she could; they either stopped doing it for their own safety or they…died.

  Addie reached up to rub her shoulder. Her injury had certainly been real enough. If the thing had clawed her spine—her neck—she supposed she could have died from it.

  “Not far now,” Glitch said, startling Addie out of her horror-filled reverie. “We need a story.”

  “Huh?” Addie looked at her sharply.

  “I mean, I have clearance codes tied to a fake ID, but what do we say about you two?”

  “I dunno. You hired us?”

  Glitch looked at her, then at Beef, and shrugged. “Yeah, I guess it works. You’re my muscle. I’m on a job for Rise; we’re going to arrest a runaway employee.” She tapped her crystal-glass. “Sending you each some false operator tags. Don’t want this to come back to Ember and Beef.”

  Addie blinked, tilting her head and giving Glitch an appraising look. “You can do that?”

  “I mean, not on the fly; I prepped these IDs weeks ago, just in case—pretty standard for a netjacker of my caliber, sis. They’re not perfect, by the way. They won’t stand up if these guys do a background check, but that’s not gonna happen in the middle of the night during a snowstorm.”

  Addie smiled, leaning over the center console to squeeze Glitch’s wrist. “You’re pretty damn good, you know that?”

  “Yeah”—she lifted her visor and winked—“of course I do.”

  “What the shit?” Beef groaned. “My name’s Shaggy?”

  Glitch giggled. “And Addie’s—”

  “Velma?” Addie laughed, leaning back. “You realize what those names are from, right?”

  Beef and Glitch responded together. He said, “Huh? What?” and she said, “Of course, sis! You think I’m an unrefined savage?”

  Addie looked from Glitch to Beef, and the two women burst into laughter again. Sighing happily, leaning back in her seat, Addie watched the snow swirl outside the windscreen as Beef continued to pester Glitch for the source of his alias. Somehow, Glitch’s silly gesture had driven the dark thoughts from her mind, and Addie suddenly felt sure they’d get through the checkpoint. When the van turned the corner, and she saw the bright floodlights ahead, she turned to Glitch and said, “You know, now that you mention it, this van is kind of a Mystery Machine.”