An Eighty Percent Solution (CorpGov) (26 page)

“Hello all,” Tony said cheerfully
.
Silence greeted his wave
.
“May I ask a question?”

“Yes
.
Now that you
’ve
asked it…” Sonya said with a sly grin
.

It took Tony just a few moments to realize he was being teased
.
He smiled back.
“If there are support personnel, why did you put me with the action group rather than support?”

“We dug up your background
.
You know explosives
.
You know first aid
.
Both are skills vital to us here
on
the action side of things.”

“Oh,
OK
.”
Tony leaned up against a nearby post, trying to look comfortable, but his stiffness betrayed him
.

“Shall we get down to business
?”
asked Sonya, taking her eyes off Tony and glancing around the group.
“Before we get to the agenda,
let me just say
the hospital bombing succeeded beyond our wildest dreams
.
Our hacks uncovered high level corporate communications on how aggrieved they are at their perceived vulnerability
.
We need to strike again soon to widen that even further.

“Now, we have two items on the agenda
:
a new safe
house and our next target
.
Linc.”

“Safe house Zulu-Bravo has been set up in the sub-basement of Green’s Supermarket
.
To enter, go
into
the produce department and through the service doors
.
Announce that
you’re
from Petri Trucking and go down the stairs to the left
.
The combination to the door is
seventeen
left,
fourteen
right,
eighty-eight
left,
and sixty
-nine
right
.
Everyone got that?”

“
Seventeen
,
fourteen
,
eighty-eight
,
sixty-nine
,” Tony muttered.

“And I know
you’ll
all forget it ten minutes from now
,
so I’ve created another nano implant
.
Zulu Bravo
.”
Linc held up his wrist and it glowed with the combination
.
“
It’ll
only trigger on the safe house name, just like the others
.
I’ll pass around this lick pad
.
Suet, as usual
,
yours will show up on your right breast.”

“Thanks, Linc
.
Anyone found a target in their reconnaissance
?”
Suet handed a notepad to Sonya.

“Sonya says that the
Wintel
corporate
office
building
is too well guarded and has a state of the art air displacement scanning facility we haven’t been able to penetrate yet.” Suet nodded.

“We turned up what we thought was a weakness in the
OldsTransport
sensor net, but it only led to a loading dock
.
Beyond that
,
security increased beyond acceptable levels.”

“I have a possible,” Augustine
put in
.
“My team and I stormed an ice list site
.
In it I found reference to an upper level management training facility in
Ohio
.”

“That sounds promising,” Sonya said
.

“I thought it might
.
We
raided
their database last night
.
Tough security
.
Two of my people got injured, but nothing serious.

“The good news
:
The site houses anywhere from fifty to one hundred ten
high
-
level managers training to be executives
for any number of corporations
.”
A collective gasp went round the room
.
“The bad news is that
it’s
heavily fortified
.
The guard force payroll is over a thousand
,
and we found records for some heavy duty firepower
,
including mono-flyers, SCAP turrets
,
and much more
.”
Another more dejected sound went through the group
.
“It’s going to take all of us to make this one work
,
and probably not without a
huge
cost.”

“Could it be a trap?”
Colin
asked
.

“Doubtful
.
We hacked some serious ice
.
I’ve had easier runs into dedicated corp mainframes
.”

Sonya looked about the room
.
“This is almost too good to pass up
.
Any objections
?”
The room fell silent
.
“Let’s move on that, then
.
Colin,
you’re
chief of this op
.
My only requirement is that you include Tony
.
He must be part of our team.”

“As you will, Sonya
.”
Colin’s brunette curls bounced lightly as he turned to look at Tony
.
The steel
gray
eyes gave no indication of what went on behind them
.

“Is there any new business
?
Yes, Andrew.”

“
We’re
low on explosives
.
Frances
and I have been working out a plan for a raid on the Hillsboro Metro sub-depot
—
it has the least security
.
But that having been said, no plan has shown even a moderate chance of success
.”

Tony stuck his hand up.

“Yes, Tony
.
This isn’t school
—
you may speak without raising your hand.”

Tony smiled.
“Why raid a building when we can have them Fed
-
E
x
ed to us
?”

Everyone exploded almost simultaneously.

“Wha’ ya chomping at?”

“Nonsense
.
No one ships explosives,
it’s
too hazardous
!
”

“Should we just call them up and request them?”

“Why don’t we just invite the Metros to our executive meetings?”

“HOLD!” Sonya’s voice cut through the mass of hubbub with the power of a chainsaw
.
“Let him speak.”

“I wasn’t kidding
.
It’s actually
shipped in special protective containers
.
When I worked for Down Put, we used to order our demolition explosives
—
up to a quarter kilo
—
and have it shipped overnight, sometimes even couriered.”

“So how in the farg we gonna ge’ them to ship
’
o us?”

“
We
have an ice jockey
, don’t we
?
It shouldn’t be hard at all
.
We just ship to fictitious
demolition companies we inject into their own databases
.
We use
random addresses and make sure
we’re
there for the pickups
.
Tenth kilo here, quarter kilo there, fifth kilo elsewhere
,
and pretty soon you have enough to blow this city off the map.”

Sonya smiled at him.

* * *
 

“I’m making this report to keep you apprised of the development of phase
four
,
”
Nanogate
reported quietly to a recording device in his private office
, t
his one decorated in wood and warm earth tones
.
A real polar bear rug lay at the hearth of
a
slate fireplace that crackled merrily
.
The fire was real, but the wood wasn’t.

“The subject was positively identified as the perpetrator of the
Mercy
Hospital
bombing
,
and
an
audacious bit of improvisation at the Portland Metro Precinct. The simulations show a near unity chance
he’s
now ensconced within the ranks of the Green Action Militia
.
The
odds
that
the GAM killed him,
or
he
committed these acts
on
his own
, are each
on the order of one part in ten thousand
.

“As a result
,
we should anticipate an increased tempo of GAM operations with increasing effectiveness
.
Projections now indicate a fifteen
percent
increase in losses
, plus or minus three percent,
before the weapon begin
s
culling the membership.

“This is a full five percent higher than the original
projections
. H
owever
,
we didn’t anticipate just how effective this perfect weapon would be
.”

Nanogate
paused the recording and pressed one of his call buttons
.
A meticulously dressed butler entered the office space
.
“You sent for me, sir?”

“Yes, Williams
.
In five minutes I’d like you to send in the natural redhead I purchased in
Cairo
.”

“Very good, sir
.
Should she be attired as usual?”

“No
.
I don’t feel like being bothered tonight
.
Nude will be fine.”

“Yes, sir
.
Will there be anything else?”

“No
.
Please make the arrangements
.”
Nanogate
waited until his servant closed the door behind him before resuming the recording.

“In spite of the higher than anticipated losses
,
the project is proceeding down the
most likely
course
to
fulfill our desired end result.

“Signed
,
CEO
Nanogate
.”

As he shut off the recorder, t
he door opened almost as if
on
cue
.
A
young girl
edged in
, just old enough to have spouted pubic hair and the barest roundness of breast, shaking and as unsteady as a newborn fawn, and wearing less
.

“Come over here to the fire, dear
.
You should be comfortable.”

* * *
 

A
sound like sheet metal being ripped in two reverberated through the abandoned basement
.
Mold and other less savory materials clung to
all but one of the
graffiti
-
covered walls
.

“At least aim in the general direction of the target!” Jonah barked through Tony’s ear protectors
.
“How can you possibly be able to take down muggers with your finger and not even touch a target twice the size of a man at
20
meters
with a
gauss gun
?”
Jonah pointed off toward the wall with the big red target
.
A trio of
30 centimeter
circles of scoured clean
ceramcrete
,
3
meters to the left of the target and not a single one within a meter of the other two, marked Tony’s shots
.