CHAPTER 28
Once his singular waffle came out, along with significantly reduced toppings, he began to slowly eat while mulling over what he wanted to cover.
Mostly, he wanted to talk about the investigation. With Kushiel here, there was a chance they’d make a real breakthrough. Nick knew they were close.
“So, we’ve knocked out a lot of the easy culprits,” he explained between bites. “The NLF were patsies, and undertaking questionable experiments associated with Helena’s enhanced capabilities. The mercs nabbed Helena, but crippled her because they expected a double-cross—and got one. But our suspect still has the mainframe, and we have no main leads.”
“But lots of clues,” Kushiel said. “And FYI, the military isn’t as worried about Helena as you are.”
“Huh. Chloe, what did you make of the server set-up?”
“It was as you expected. Somebody constructed it with the expectation that a mainframe would use it to connect to many devices through it.” Chloe’s expression tightened. “But those devices weren’t dolls. They were implants.”
Nick raised an eyebrow at Kushiel. “Well? Did they know that?”
“That wasn’t in the evidence you submitted to them…” She grimaced. “I don’t know why they’d set-up a mainframe to connect to their implants, however. The military’s concerns were if Helena was used on a larger scale. They worried she might be able to override other mainframes.”
“Not without direct access, she isn’t,” Nick said. “The only reason the NLF plan even works is because they were dumb enough to install implants that were connected to this strange network of theirs. Helena isn’t some magic encryption-shattering mainframe. She just…” He sighed, realizing this was missing the point.
The table had salt and pepper shakers, so he poured salt on the table to use as a visual guide.
“So, people imagine the Altnet as this big magical server that all their implants are connected to.” Nick formed a big circle of salt, and several smaller ones around it. “But it’s more like lots of smaller circles. A huge, distributed circle that just needs infrastructure and storage controlled by the Spires. Implants talk to each other directly.”
The Archangels didn’t bother to nod. They knew this already. While he felt that he was explaining the obvious, he pushed on. This sort of thing was often overlooked by Ciphers he worked with in the past.
“Because it’s distributed, implants have lots of safety features. They also have one big backdoor—the security bands. But even those don’t override most safety features. You can’t overwrite memories, stop breathing, or kill people through their implants. Your ability to lock down the nervous system is a specific security feature.”
This time, they did nod. Perhaps the Host understood where he was going, or they just liked this part of the explanation.
“Like I said before, Helena can bypass these safety features. But what’s the purpose?”
This time, he formed clusters of small circles, all linked back to a big circle.
“What does this look like to you?” he asked.
“Salt,” Kushiel said.
Rie rolled her eyes. “Multiple smaller networks connected to a larger control server.” Then she frowned. “Is that what you believe Helena could be? A controller?”
“Actually, this is the intended structure of the Archangels,” Nick said.
They stared at him.
“You said it earlier, Rie. There are multiple Hosts. Each deployment of Archangels is a distributed network. That’s actually different from how Neural Spike designed the prototypes,” he continued. “We didn’t know how to create a truly distributed network. Sigma did that part later. Instead, we devised a cellular structure, where each distributed network operates by itself, but is under the control of a central mainframe.”
He tapped the big circle.
“We don’t have any mainframe controlling us,” Chloe said flatly.
“No, but would it be so hard? The Tartarus security dolls work like that—they communicate with each other, but rely on Helena’s directions. Or did.” He paused and collected his thoughts. “But don’t focus on yourselves. Replace Archangels with implants.”
Kushiel abruptly cursed. “This is basically the perfect terrorist sleeper cell operation. You could have a mastermind hidden behind a mainframe, giving the orders without leaving behind any evidence. All the pawns would be controlled through the implants, unaware of what they’re doing.”
The eyes of the Archangels flashed, and then they nodded.
“Consensus concurs with Kushiel’s assessment. If this arrangement is possible, then it would provide motivation and explain many actions,” Meta said.
“Not just terrorists,” Rie said quietly. “Imagine the military applications of this. While dolls have replaced humans on most fronts, we can’t work intelligence operations. If Sigma or RTM sold mainframes like this—”
“They already can,” Nick interrupted, running a hand through his hair. His skin felt clammy as he recalled this particular period in Neural Spike. “Helena is unique, but there are other experimental mainframes out there that can do this. Sigma took a bunch when the military shut down Neural Spike. RTM would have created several when they developed their own emotion engines. She’s not a one-of-a-kind weapon. It’s more like…”
He grasped for an analogy, and then remembered some movies he watched.
“A broken arrow,” he said. “There are a lot of nuclear weapons out there. Losing one is bad, but it’s not like there aren’t a lot more out there. So I still don’t buy that RTM needs Helena. If they wanted her to develop their own Archangels, maybe. But this? This is stupid. Not to mention that Kim only angered the military after he began pushing for this. Kushiel, if the commissioner had asked you to seize Helena months ago, what would the response have been?”
“Bureaucracy, then yes,” she said. “A lot of officials never agreed with the decision to leave her behind. So long as they didn’t touch Rie’s precious Wraith, I wouldn’t have any space to argue.”
Nick groaned at that nickname. “Don’t call me that.”
“Oh? But aren’t you the most perfect invisible Cipher ever?” Kushiel teased with a broad grin.
“That is entirely unnecessary,” Meta said.
“You don’t need to defend the nickname, Meta,” Nick said.
Inwardly, he was glad that Kushiel had shifted the topic of discussion. He was getting awfully close to some of Neural Spike’s darkest secrets. Secrets kept from even Sigma’s beloved prototype Archangels.
Nick might not be bound by an NDA, but Kushiel’s recent actions were a reminder that the military might not care. Given the right excuse, they would crush him without hesitation.
Meta pouted at him, drawing him back into the conversation about his cringey nickname.
“Oh, but I think she wants to. Maybe she even submitted it to the database herself. I can check, if you’d like? I got cut off from their stupid fanfic collection ages ago, but the Cipher database is police property.” Kushiel began whistling, as if pretending to rifle through records.
The Archangels stiffened, glaring at the prototype.
But Nick merely stared in shock.
“Hold on, police property? Cipher database?” he asked, confused. “What are you talking about?”
“The silly Cipher nicknames. They were all created by the Mark 1s ages ago and kept up-to-date by the Host.” Kushiel cackled. “Stupid shit like Blazebrain, Razorhacker, the Goldmembrane. Yours isn’t that bad, overall.”
The threads in Nick’s mind tied themselves together, using this missing clue as the needle to bind them all. A selection of little things that had cropped up slotted together neatly.
Which left him dead certain about who the true mastermind really was.
“They are entirely accurate and serviceable nicknames,” Meta insisted. “Do not force the Host to censure you once again.”
“And do what?”
Silence.
Nick realized he was being stared at by the Mark 1s. They seemed to expect him to step up and defend their honor, or something.
“Uh, I don’t really care,” he said, then winced at how blunt he sounded. “Look, I have a much more important question. This is a police database right? Nobody else calls Ciphers by these names?”
“The NLF did—”
“And how do you think they learned the names!”
Kushiel’s mouth fell open, while Rie merely shrugged.
“That has already been considered,” Rie said. “The only Cipher name captured in use by the NLF was yours, and the Host considers it reasonably likely to be in separate use.”
Like hell it was!
“But even if it wasn’t, the police Cipher database is open to several departments. A leak could have occurred in the past, or the individual may have used your nickname in the database for other reasons. It doesn’t stand as incriminating evidence,” she said.
“I’m not so sure,” he said, but decided to drop the topic.
If Rie was that confident, then maybe he was putting too much focus on the most recent evidence.
But in his mind, everything added up. There was one person in particular who came to mind when he thought of someone who would use that Cipher database and might not be aware that Ciphers disliked nicknames.
He finished off his breakfast, then pushed the plate aside.
“Kushiel, who do you think is behind this?” Nick asked, leaning across the table.
She blinked several times, as if surprised he was asking her. Her shake tipped toward herself in a questioning manner.
“Yes, you. Is there somebody else named Kushiel?”
“Maybe you have invisible friends.”
“I don’t have an implant, so that’s a hard no.”
She snorted, then placed her shake on the table. “I know what the military investigators know. They think Kim’s behind it.”
“Really?”
That put a damper on Nick’s internal theorizing, but he wasn’t ready to give up on his suspect yet.
“Yup. They think this is a political power play. Take down Tartarus to look good in public and weaken the influence of the military. Use the NLF to spread chaos, which only the police can put down. Establish himself as the problem solver and the man to trust, while shuffling Chief Andrews off stage left.” Kushiel shrugged. “It’s a fairly self-contained theory.”
Nick had to admit that it had some appeal, but there seemed to be assumptions about Kim that he was unaware of.
“What about Helena? Why bother with the mercs?” he asked.
“The mercs weren’t part of any theories,” she said slowly. “They figured Helena was just a bribe to RTM, as they installed him as commissioner. Kim’s been stalling the Liberator replacement so that RTM can supply their own emotion engine models, after all.”
“Is that rumor or fact?”
“Fact. RTM recently asked for another 12 months to deliver an emotion engine prototype.”
“That’s not what fact means,” Rie said drily. “But while there isn’t any evidence to suggest that Commissioner Kim sabotaged the procurement previously, he has bought time for RTM to catch up to Sigma. The Liberator replacement will be one of the single largest doll procurements in the world, after all.”
“Really? Just in Babylon?”
“Where we lead, others follow. It’s likely that all of Neo Westphalia will purchase the same model for interoperability reasons, much like with the Archangels.” She gestured to the dolls sitting around them.
Nick sipped his coffee, then stood up. He decided to walk and think. The Archangels followed him, which looked almost comical with Kushiel towering over him.
“That doesn’t match what I heard from Kim,” he said after a minute.
“Because he’s lying,” Kushiel scoffed. “There are two Dennis Kims: the one appointed by RTM to support their financial aims; and the one who gives passionate speeches to the Assembly about how dolls are the future of humanity. The former got appointed, but the latter wants power. What better way to get that than by manufacturing a crisis?”
“Passionate speeches?” Nick looked at Rie.
“Commissioner Kim is a staunch member of the Roboticist faction of the Assembly. He believes that humanity should no longer do any menial labor.”
“Sounds great,” Nick said.
“That’s a surprisingly glib response.”
“Well, not having to work is a great… idea…” His mind returned to yesterday, and Hammond’s furious face filled his mind. “Fuck.”
He stopped dead in the middle of the mall. Wordlessly, the Mark 1s fanned out around them to watch for attackers, while the others waited for him to say something.
When he didn’t, Rie said, “I take it that you had an epiphany.”
“Hammond told me about his father yesterday.”
The expressions of the dolls became strained, while Kushiel merely nodded grimly.
“Some of the military guys tell me that Paul used to be a hotshot Cipher in his younger days. Then everything went to shit, and here he is, a reminder of why trusting humans is a terrible idea,” she said.
“I’m glad you think so highly of me,” Nick said.
“Once you start going downhill, I’ll be sure to package you up so that Rie can enjoy you for the rest of your life.” The military doll winked at him, but he wasn’t sure if that meant she was joking.
Rie scowled, then pushed Nick ahead. She looped her arm around his and attempted to gain a lead on Kushiel. That didn’t work. The older doll soon towered over him again.
“So, does the military assessment change your mind?” she asked.
“Almost. It’s formed by people with more knowledge of Kim’s background—I don’t give a shit about dumb Spires politics.”
“Maybe you should.”
He shrugged. “But the theory has a bunch of holes in it. Helena feels like an afterthought, and it doesn’t explain the experimentation by the NLF. If Kim wants to sow chaos and appear like a savior, why were the NLF lying low? It would also be too moronic for him to install them in RTM factories, as that damages his public standing.”
“He’s appealing to the Spires, not you,” Kushiel pointed out.
“If the military can think of this scheme, then his political opponents can as well.”
She remained quiet, but he could tell that her electronic brain was churning.
In Nick’s mind, he also struggled to reconcile the Kim that he’d drunk whisky with, and the Kim that the military seemed paranoid about. There had been a genuineness in that conversation, even if Nick knew that he had been persuaded to believe that.
More people were filtering into the mall. Quite a few wore clothes like Kushiel’s and were presumably heading to the gym for a morning workout. Almost every single one of these people stopped to stare at the massive doll in her figure-hugging spandex. News was going to spread on the Altnet fast.
“We still don’t have any leads, even if I think we’ve narrowed down the suspects,” Nick said.
“We have?” Rie asked.
“Andrews is a wildcard, but an unlikely one. She lacks the Cipher skills but if this whole thing is political, then she might have friends willing to help. But we don’t even have a motivation, unless ‘upset with Kim’ counts.” He stopped outside a brand clothing store when Rie tugged on his arm. “Hammond is an outside chance, but I get the feeling you’re with him at all times.”
“Not always,” Meta said. “While he often requests protection from us, he just as often tells us to leave him alone.”
“Sounds like him. That raises the possibility.” Nick frowned. “Do you provide regular protection to anyone else?”
“No other requests have been put forward, and Detective Hammond has not asked us to protect other officers or executives. At present, we determine that the officer in the most danger is you, Nicholas.”
Gee, thanks. He held back a grimace and focused on his work.
Rie cut in, “If we don’t have any leads for you to investigate, then perhaps that means it is time for a day off, Nicholas?”
“The Host concurs with Rie’s assessment,” Meta said, receiving a nod from every other Archangel save Kushiel.
“I assume you’ll be continuing the investigation?” he asked Rie.
“Finding the remaining NLF safe houses is a priority. The same goes for tracking the unmarked vehicle that took Helena away. Simon Whittaker’s implant contained memories of it, and we are attempting to locate a matching vehicle in the area at that time,” she said.
“Simon who?”
“Dallas,” Kushiel said flatly. “The dumbass you stalled until I arrived.”
Nick nodded. He had figured that was a fake name. Then again, was Simon his real name?
“If you have his memories—” he began to ask.
“They are imperfect. His neural mod is similar to your friend’s, Sung Jang, and he scorched multiple memories. Presumably they could be recovered from a backup, but…” Rie shrugged. “We assume he did this out of fear of being captured. Much of his background has been expunged from his mind. If we knew more, we could have other countries locate and extradite him if he does reappear. Or have action taken to delete his mind backup.”
Delete his mind, huh? Nick supposed that was no different to killing someone, but it sounded much worse. The world contained corners that he had never explored before.
“In any case, we are still overstretched thanks to Captain Lieu’s orders.” She scowled. “Progress will be made. The drudge work will continue, but the department will be largely empty. Commissioner Kim has agreed that you should take some time off and stay out of the public’s eye.”
“He’s pissed, huh?” Kushiel quipped.
“Or maybe he just realizes what Rie doesn’t.” Nick watched as another person stared at them.
But this person wasn’t staring at Kushiel.
“I, uh, might want to lie low for a bit. That video of the attack blew up on the Altnet, right? So people recognize me,” he said.
The eyes of the Archangels flashed, and then they nodded. Rie sighed.
“It’s still early. But you will stay away from the investigation?”
“Kinda. I still want to get that earpiece and brush up on my shooting.” He gestured at Meta, who lit up again. “Lucas is worth a visit, as he might know something. Then I want to finish what I started with the Tartarus security dolls.”
“That sounds a lot like you’ll be continuing the investigation,” Rie said drily.
She then looked at Chloe, who nodded.
“I am willing to guarantee Nick’s safety in the warehouses. The security situation has lessened in severity, and there are many Custodians and Liberators deployed nearby.,” Chloe said.
Great. Nick was finally free.
Only to be dragged into the nearby store.
“While we’re here, why don’t we look at improving your selection of clothing,” Rie said, her voice saccharine sweet.
“Uh, I’m gonna shoot. Maybe there are some NLF that need—” Kushiel said, turning and taking a long step away.
Juliet and Rosa grabbed their much larger sister. The size difference was apparent, in more ways than one.
“Oh, sister, how good of you to join us and purchase some real clothing,” Rie said.
By the time Nick escaped—without any clothes, somehow—it was after seven. By contrast, Kushiel had an entire wardrobe being delivered to her home. Whatever and wherever that was.
“Where do you keep your clothes?” he asked.
“We have secure accommodation in the Spires,” Kushiel said. “I make civilian, police, and military appearances, after all.”
“Ah, yes, civilian,” Rie drawled, pulling on her sister’s clothing. “I didn’t know the entire city’s populace wore fitness clothing all day long.”
“Oh, fuck off.”
This time, Kushiel really did leave. A message appeared on his phone.
Try contacting me directly next time. And for a detective, you’re not too observant, Kushiel wrote.
The hell was that supposed to mean? Then he realized that her contact details had appeared in his phone yesterday.
Nick rubbed the bridge of his nose. So he had read her signals right, but she’d tried to be subtler. When she took his phone, she also loaded her details onto it. He was supposed to see them, then contact her for assistance. Instead, he’d just blundered along and forced her into the group.
“What kind of stupid, Sherlockian idea is that?” he muttered to himself. “Has she heard of just asking?”
Rie peeked over his shoulder, then giggled.
“Oh, how cute.” Then her expression hardened. “If you’re heading into the department, we’ll part ways there. With everyone so stretched, I want to focus on our deployments. But Nick, when this is over, we are spending some time together, and you are taking time off.”
“I thought we were partners. You sound like my boss.”
“And partners look out for each other.” She pecked him on the cheek.
The trip to the Spires was uneventful. Rie gave him another kiss in the parking garage, then left in an interceptor.
“She didn’t even need to come here,” he mumbled, then turned to face the elevators.
Meta, Chloe, Juliet, and Rosa stood in front of them. The dozen Mark 1s from his escort hovered nearby, pretending not to watch his every move.
“I’ve got some time to kill before Lucas even thinks about waking up,” he said. “Meta, why don’t you give me those firearm lessons you’ve talked about?”
Meta led Nick to the armory, which was on one of the lowest floors. The walls were heavily reinforced here, and everything was built from steel and concrete.
In a small room, she gave him a tiny case with a pair of earpieces small enough to lose down a drain filter.
“These are connected to a special band. They operate on the same wireless and neural frequencies that we do, but are locked down and cannot be modified,” she explained. “There is a built-in microphone. Its battery can sustain a full day of use, but recharges wirelessly—and we can supply the power.”
Well, that was neat. Nick had a tiny earpiece that charged itself just by being around the Archangels.
Then he noticed it had no controls. It was just a tiny black bead with an adhesive backing.
“Uh, how does this turn off?”
Meta and Chloe stared at him.
“We will stay off the device’s network outside of work hours,” Chloe said after several long seconds.
“But it’s always on.”
“This is for your security.”
He groaned. Of course they bought him an earpiece that spied on him. What did he expect from the Archangels? The case probably wasn’t even soundproofed.
He’d need to buy something to put these in when not in use. For now, he pressed them against the inside of his ear.
Chloe’s voice instantly echoed in his eardrums. She sounded a little crisper than usual.
“Nod twice if you can hear and understand my voice clearly,” she said. Her lips didn’t move.
Nick nodded twice.
A moment later, his ears nearly burst as a cacophony of voices flooded it. They instantly ceased, but he was left with a nasty ringing for several seconds.
“What the hell was that?” he blurted out, looking at the two dolls.
Both had vacant eyes. He rubbed his temples and waited for them to finish whatever consensus protocol they were undertaking.
Over a minute passed before they returned.
“The Host has agreed to limit access to your earpiece,” Meta said sheepishly.
“All Archangels directly assigned as your escort will have access, as will permanent attachments,” Chloe added.
Apparently, the Host couldn’t behave. That noise earlier had been the sound of several thousand excitable dolls talking to him at the same time.
Nick noticed that both Meta and Chloe were exclusively talking over his earpiece. He’d been right to assume they were more comfortable speaking electronically.
“Attachments?” he asked.
“At present: myself, Metatron, Juliet, and Rosa.”
Ah. So that was how the Host thought of the Archangels permanently assigned to him. How odd.
Now that he had the earpiece, he was dragged into the firing range by Meta. The earpieces also acted as hearing protection, he noticed.
The other Archangels watched as she spent several hours correcting everything about how he shot. His posture, grip, stance, the way he unloaded and reloaded the cylinder, his aiming method…
“I think the only thing you didn’t chip me on was safety,” he said, after putting another cylinder downrange.
“You have an appreciation of the danger of firearms,” Meta said, watching him far too closely. “I suspect it helps that you have a very large firearm in your hand.”
“It does. I saw what this thing did to that merc. I don’t plan to point this thing at anyone or anything I don’t want blown apart.” Nick grimaced.
His hand cannon no longer felt heavy. He realized that had mostly been psychological, given the materials it was made of. Even firing it was easy, due to how little recoil made it to his hand. Not that he could fire it rapidly with any semblance of accuracy.
But he had confidence he could shoot somebody from across a room and not need thirty seconds to line up the shot. That was the important part.
As it was roughly lunchtime, he figured it was time to visit Lucas. The Archangels refused to indulge him with fast food, so he had his friend order something instead. When he arrived, there was a sizeable burger waiting next to Lumen.
He wolfed it down while the Archangels glared at him, then met his friend and explained what he could.
“Well, I’m glad to see you’re in one piece after that mess yesterday,” Lucas said after nearly crushing Nick in a hug. “But I get the feeling you already know what you’re looking for.”
“Maybe. But I wanted to check whether you’ve ever heard somebody in our circles call me Wraith?”
“Nope. He’d be laughed at, but even then, the name’s never come up. I checked after your lady friend brought it up.” Lucas looked at him. “You reckon your perp is someone who stays out of Cipher circles?”
Nick nodded.
“Huh. That describes basically every police Cipher. The Archangels made their presence known, but the police always struggled to infiltrate. There was a real ‘how do you do, fellow Ciphers’ vibe to them. Supposedly some of us work with them, but I’ve never met one.” Lucas flicked his vape pen around his fingers. “My answers are only confirming your suspicions, aren’t they?”
“Oh, yeah.”
“So it’s not the rich bastard?”
“It still could be. I’m not a detective.”
“Well, shoot him anyway. For me.”
“I think you’d get along with him better than you think, actually,” Nick said.
“That’s always the problem with rich, charismatic bastards. They’re not always awful people, they just do awful things.” Lucas sneered. “Well, sometimes they’re both. There’s been a sudden ramp-up in pressure on the doll district this week. Somebody in the Spires has an agenda to push, and they see all the Aesir and NLF crap as a great smokescreen.”
Nick nodded. Internally, he saw tensions rising in Babylon once again.
Kim had said he was worried about another riot, but was anybody else in the Spires?
After conducting maintenance on Lumen, and once again deactivating the directive that made her request maintenance, Nick found himself stretching in the early afternoon sun.
It was a Sunday and the doll district was busy. Quite a few patrons were filtering in and out of the nearby sex shops, and the bars and restaurants were bursting with clientele.
As he walked back to the SUVs, he noticed that the thugs were less obnoxious this time. While they didn’t acknowledge him, they weren’t staring him down.
“Do you have any other plans for today?” Chloe asked him once they took their seats.
“Nope.”
The SUV took off before he could say another word.
She smiled at him. “The warehouse is secured and ready for you. I assume you wish to finish your work on the Tartarus security dolls.”