Chương 86: 2.27 A Simple Errand

Sass frowned, and the expression was accentuated by the skull; it was dialed to the max, but that was just because it was a smart tatt, and it picked up on her micro-expressions. She closed the news story she'd been reading—just more vague rumors about a "terrorist threat" at the Kessler Rift. The details were thin, especially with regard to Hector and his team. In fact, all the article said was that "raid schedules had been impacted."

Nervous energy made her open Lemon's message again—a reply to her initial, panicked inquiry—though she knew she wouldn't find any answers: Nobody official has contacted us yet. We don't know anything other than a rumor Orin heard when he went to investigate: someone flew a drone through and messed up the rift somehow. We're worried too. Sorry, I don't know more, but I'll message you if we find something out. Keep checking this chat.

The "chat" was an anonymous message board they were using—something Hector had set up before they left Helio. Sass didn't trust it, mainly because Hector said he didn't trust it, so she didn't plan to send any sensitive info through it. She shifted in her seat, looking out the cab's window at the RMC corporate building. It was a heck of a lot different in the daylight and without the crowds of fight spectators. A glance at her AUI told her it was nearly six, but the lot was still crowded with employee vehicles.

Just my luck to come on a day they're having some kind of after-hours meeting. Even as she had the thought, Sass looked at it from a different angle: maybe it was lucky! If most of the staff were in a big meeting, maybe the resort security would be lighter than usual.

"Wait for me here." The cab's AI beeped and responded, "RocketCab policy will only allow me to wait for nine minutes, unless you pay a deposit for—""Fine, here." Sass tapped her ring—loaded with bits Hector had given her—on the silver disc mounted on the dash.

"Forty-nine bits secured. I will now standby for one hour." Before she got out, Sass secured her breather, covering her nose and mouth. It wasn't enough, though; looking in a courtesy mirror that deployed from the cab's ceiling, she could still see too much of her tatt. Even with the retina-shielding, blue-tinted glasses she wore, it was too much of a giveaway. Not that she was famous or anything around Redwick, but Sass had been to a lot of fights at the mine.

She tried for a couple of minutes to get the tattoo to fade naturally. Normally she had some control over it, but her nerves were shot, and it seemed to have a life of its own. She even used some of the breathing exercises Hector had taught her to no avail. Her stress wouldn't fade; she was just too amped. Hadn't she told him she wasn't experienced at this sort of thing? Sass sucked in a frustrated breath, then yanked off the breather and her glasses.

A moment later, she was smearing Dermacalm cream onto her face, relaxing the receptors in the smart ink and basically deactivating the tattoo for "up to four hours." She hated how it made her face feel—stiff and a little numb—but it was better than giving herself away with the tatt. Sass put the specs back on, then the breather, and then she exited the cab. Accessing the trunk, she took out the specialized suitcase she'd picked up in Helio and set it on the pavement beside her.

The hard-shelled case beeped at her, and she touched the follow button and started walking. It rolled along behind her. A few minutes later, she was standing on the moving sidewalk that climbed the steep rise beside the corporate building. She watched as the soft yellow lanterns beside the Rim Resort sign approached. A couple, wearing fine, corpo-style suits, descended past her, and when they didn't give her a second glance, Sass was heartened.

She was decidedly uncomfortable in her own outfit—a too-thin black dress under a puffy gray lady's coat she wouldn't have been caught dead wearing in her old life. It's for Hector. The thought was comforting, to a degree; it was nice to feel needed by Hector, considering all she wanted to get from him. Still, after a couple of days outside his influence, some doubts had crept in. There was something about him—a certain kind of gravity.

It pulled at her, and when she was with him, when she could feel that, she didn't doubt her decision to follow him. Every hour he was away, though, every minute she grew nearer to risking her neck for him, that clarity faded bit by bit. The walkway came to an end, and she followed the sidewalk to the front doors of the resort, where a man in a maroon blazer pulled the door open for her.

"Welcome to The Rim, ma'am." Sass ignored him; she'd had similar jobs in her life and been ignored by plenty of fancy ladies. It would have called more attention to her if she'd been polite. Her chrome heels clicked noisily on the marble as she approached the check-in counter. She'd felt a little guilty about the boots—750 bits' worth of synth-leather and Novachrome—but Hector had given her the money for a reason; she had a part to play and the outfit was necessary.

When she stepped up to the counter, she stared until the young man looked up, blinking away whatever retinal display he'd been reading.

"Um, excuse me, ma'am, welcome to The Rim. Did you have a reservation?"

"Lindsay Lacosta," she replied, tapping her chrome fingertips on the counter.

"Ah! We've been expecting you, ma'am! It says on the reservation that you'll use a passphrase for identif—""Midnight sessions on the waterfront."" Perfect." He smiled, tapping something on his crystal-glass display.

"Everything's in order; we have a bit-vault on file for your stay, and I see that the villa was made ready for you earlier today." He pushed a silver, metalline ring toward her.

"Please wear this during your stay; it will allow you to bypass security and enter your villa." Sass took the little band, sliding it over her left pointer finger. It was flexible and soft, but somehow looked like solid silver—shiny as chrome. For a moment, she forgot her role and muttered, " Fancy."

"You can keep it—a souvenir of your stay." The man smiled, and for the briefest moment, his façade fell, and he looked like a normal, friendly person. Then he cleared his throat, and the officious mask was back.

"Are you ready to go to your rooms now, or will you be shopping or dining beforehand?" Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

"I'll freshen up in my villa."" Perfect," he said again, his tone and expression more artificial than the leather in Sass's boots.

"Rafael will show you the way." He gestured, and Sass turned to see a synth approaching. He wore the same uniform as the doorman, but his synthetic flesh was a deep, dark blue that stole her attention. The blue was so dark that it seemed to absorb light, making his features hard to discern. His eyes were fully black—no whites—like polished marbles glinting in a deep blue pool.

"Ma'am," he said, his voice deep and resonant.

"Please follow me." He gestured toward a hallway labeled, ESTATE RIDGELINE. When Sass nodded, he started walking, and she—and her obedient suitcase—followed behind. Sass was cold with nerves, and she knew that if her arms and hands weren't cybernetic, her palms would be sweating. She'd been up to the resort a few times, but never out to the villas. Powerful people lived in the villas, and the ones that were used for resort guests were very pricey—so pricey that they didn't advertise a price.

Hector's AI had made the reservations and set up payment, so even as a guest, Sass didn't know the cost of her stay. In a way, her nerves were due to excitement; she'd had such a small life before meeting Hector. She'd been to the city twice, but never for more than a day trip. In the last few weeks, she'd done more traveling than in her entire life prior. Now she was playing a fancy lady, and walking into a place that, as a young girl, she'd always thought would be off-limits to her.

Part of her hadn't believed the reservation would be there. Part of her had wondered if the whole thing was an elaborate prank. When her AUI pinged with an incoming call from her cousin, it startled her out of her musings. It pinged again, but she was looking around, startled by her surroundings—a tree-lined lane climbing a gentle slope. She felt disoriented, like she'd just woken from a dream into an unfamiliar room. Rafael stopped and looked back at her, his dark features impossible to read.

"Are you well?" She nodded, gesturing for him to keep moving.

"Fine." With a flick of her eyes, she dismissed the call. Hastily, furious with herself for losing track of their progress, Sass opened the window containing the map Hector's AI had given her. The display crowded her view, but she sighed with relief when her mapping program indicated they hadn't passed the spot yet. Before long, she saw the little bench, and she slowed to a stop, clearing her throat.

"Um, Rafael?" The synth stopped and turned to face her.

"Yes, ma'am?" Sass licked her lips, cleared her throat, and recited her prepared line: "I have an important call coming through. I'm going to sit here on this bench a while. You may leave me."

"Are you sure, ma'am? Shall I take your case to your villa?" Sass put her hand atop her suitcase, shaking her head.

"I'll keep it with me." The synth stared for a moment, then nodded.

"G-17."" G-17?"

"The villa. Two right turns and then straight to a cul-de-sac." Sass smiled, moving to the bench to sit.

"Of course, thank you." She watched him walk silently back toward the resort lobby, and then Sass pulled up the next set of instructions from Hector's AI: a detailed path through the woods behind the bench. Every step along the route was accompanied by a photograph of the ground. She'd never seen anything like it. Had his AI really been recording his every step? Did it do that all the time? It seemed like an exorbitant use of data. Sass took a deep breath, stilling her rushing thoughts.

As she sat there, taking a few minutes to gauge the traffic on the path, she tried to forget what she was doing. She tried to enjoy the exclusivity of her position; she was sitting on a bench that someone had to spend thousands of bits to even approach! She chuckled, shaking her head. Unless you get a job working for the resort, I guess. She couldn't tell through her breather, but she imagined the air was crisp and fresh; it sounded like it would be, whispering through the pines the way it was.

In ten minutes, nobody passed by the bench, and Sass decided it was time to make a move. The suitcase had straps for wearing it like a backpack, so she turned off the follow function, slipped her arms through the straps and, once more, looked up and down the path. Nobody was coming, so she walked around the bench and slipped into the woods. On the train out of Kessler's Reach, Sass had studied Hector's map of footsteps, memorizing the shapes of the ferns and the distinct markings on the bark of the trees.

Things had changed since Hector had been there, but not all that much. The undergrowth was very recognizable, and she didn't have any trouble spying the path from one step to the next. One of the reasons her boots were expensive was due to their ability to repel moisture and dirt with a static field. They buzzed and hissed as she carefully stepped from one damp, springy patch of mulch to another—terrible for stealth, but excellent when it came to not looking like she'd been exploring the woods!

When she came to the spot and saw the trunk from the image—the one Hector's AI had marked with a blinking X—she squatted before it and held still, listening. Birds fluttered in the branches, the wind sighed through the leaves, and bows creaked and groaned. Distantly, she heard the buzz of a prop—a drone zooming through the area. When she was satisfied that she was alone, Sass reached into the top of her left boot and drew out a ten-centimeter ceramic blade.

With great care, she scooped away the soil and mulch, revealing the hollow someone had carved into the tree's base. Just as Hector had predicted, a plastic food container sat nestled within. Sass's heart hammered with excitement; she hadn't admitted it to herself, but she'd wondered if this was real, if there really was a hidden treasure. Looking at the dirty container, she still had her doubts; who would put a treasure into such a thing? Hector, I guess.

She shrugged the suitcase off her back, unfastened the clasps, and opened it. The interior was smaller than the exterior might suggest—a result of the dense layers of shielding. Still, there was plenty of room inside for the food container, and Sass snatched it out of its hiding spot and stuffed it into the case. A moment later, she was fastening the clasps and securing the bio-lock. Her hands were cybernetic, but the finger-pads had her old prints.

As she made her way back to the walkway, careful not to leave an obvious trail, her AUI flashed again, though this time not with a call; her cousin had sent her a text message: Why won't you pick up? We're worried about you. Sass frowned, swiping it off her AUI. Guilty thoughts crept into her mind, distracting her, and she promised herself that she'd call— or at least message— her family when she got to her villa.

A slow smile crept over her face, hidden by her breather, as she regained the smoothly paved walking trail. At least I get to live it up here for the night! Hector had insisted. If she arrived, walked halfway to her room, and then left, it would raise suspicion. If she stayed for the night—a fancy lady escaping the attentions of her overprotective family and friends—and left the next day? Nobody would think twice. She unslung the suitcase, set it on the path, and touched the follow button.

Just as it beeped, another call came through on her AUI, flashing in the corner of her eye. She focused on it, saw the anonymous tag, and was about to swipe it away when her earlier guilt came rushing back. Of course it's you, Jesse. No doubt her cousin was trying to get through to her by blocking the caller information. The path was still quiet, so with a sigh, she sat back down on the bench and focused on the " Answer Without Video" option until her AUI management bot recognized her desire.

"Look, Jesse, can you give me a few minutes? I'll—" Sass's words died on her tongue as the call window expanded and she found herself looking at someone else—a pretty face, but one that had a chilling effect on Sass, so much so that she felt her breaths coming quick and shallow.

"Saskia," the girl said, an impish smile curling the corners of her thin, delicate lips.

"Where on Mars did you get off to? Didn't we agree that you'd be checking in regularly?"