Aneka Jansen 7: Hope (24 page)

‘You did?’ Ella said.

‘Of course. Trin first, right?’

‘Yes.’

‘Always did like the exotic, and Ana here is too much like me. I’m just surprised you never got around to Lanyon.’

Ella sighed. ‘I’d have got to him eventually. How was he?’

‘Big. And his hands get everywhere.’

‘Well, yeah… How could they not?’

Pirate Cove, 5.1.560 FSC.

Aneka and Ella sat in the shadow of a booth at the back of Nightside, watching the bar. They had been there for the last couple of hours, nursing some of the local rum. They watched people coming and going, but they watched one person most closely, and they had made sure they were in place before she arrived.

‘I can’t believe she’s the spy,’ Ella said, her voice transmitted to Aneka via her implant.

‘It’s a perfect cover. She sees everyone coming and going. She overhears things. People talk in front of bar staff. And Gwy’s quite sure the encrypted messages came from the computer in her apartment.’

‘Yes, but… I don’t see her as capable of that kind of duplicity.’

‘You’re sure you’re not just painting her in a good light because you slept with her?’

‘No, I’m not sure. But you slept with her too. What do you think?’

Aneka frowned, watching as Naseena poured drinks and chatted to her customer. ‘I think there’s more to this than meets the eye. I think if she’s exposed, she’s dead. I doubt she’s alone.’

‘So we talk to her?’

‘You talk to her. Get yourself invited back to her place. I’m going to break in and set Al loose on her computer. When you get back, we should be ready to deal with her.’

‘It will be six or seven hours before her shift ends,’ Al put in.

‘Yeah… We’ll head out and you can come back later, Ella. I want to take another look at the brothel in Elysium Falls.’

~~~

‘I’m glad I didn’t come over here,’ Ella said as they entered the lounge, ‘even if it did mean I missed the problems. This place gives seedy a good name.’

‘Yeah, but there was something
I
missed,’ Aneka replied, taking a seat at the bar. She gave the man behind it a glower and said, ‘Two whiskies. The good stuff, not that piss you serve normally.’ The man looked at her for a fraction of a second and then hurried to the back, bending down to retrieve a bottle from a low cupboard.

‘How did you know they had better whiskey somewhere?’ Ella asked.

‘They
always
have something better hidden away, and asking for it makes it sound like we know the place.’

‘You know, I’m supposed to be the psychologist.’

‘I’ve probably been in more crappy bars. Actually, I think this place fits “bordello” really well. Anyway, there was something about this place. One of the girls… Her.’

Ella turned her head absently as a marker appeared in-vision, indicating a woman walking in from one of the back rooms. She was tall, attractive, well-built, and naked aside from the silver collar framing her neck. Ella’s fists tightened at the sight of the metalwork, but she focussed on the woman, watching her move. Aneka was right: there was something…

‘She’s not quite like the others. Her posture is better. She looks less beaten. She doesn’t look happy, but she’s… She hasn’t been broken by what she’s being made to do.’

‘I’m glad it’s not just me seeing things.’ Aneka tossed some coins onto the counter and picked up her glass, sipping from it. ‘Not bad. You know, we could bankrupt this place by bringing in some fresh coinage. There’s more gold in my fillings than there is in the local money.’

‘You don’t have any fillings. Your teeth are perfect.’

‘Precisely my point. Anyway, that woman intrigues me. She’s here with a purpose and somehow being forced into prostitution serves it.’

‘There is something else,’ Al said. ‘Those collars give off a regular registration pulse to the control units indicating that they are functioning and giving the slave’s position. Hers is transmitting far more data. It appears to be acting as a network interconnect node. A neural induction interface allowing her to connect to a computer seems most likely.’

‘Can you track the server down?’

‘Not from here. It is interfacing via the local wireless network. The machine could be anywhere. I can make an educated guess, however.’

‘Where?’

‘It seems likely that she will be monitoring communications in and out of Haven. All of it passes through here since this station has the largest communications array. Were I her, I would have my monitoring tool as close as possible to the array.’

‘All right, we’ll hunt that down after we’ve sounded out Naseena. I want to be able to take this one off the grid if we have to. Maybe we could even feed her false information, but we’ll work that out when the time comes.’

‘It’s all on Naseena then?’ Ella asked.

‘She’s where we start.’

‘I think it’d be useful to know how she got here.’

~~~

Trin lay on her cushions and stared at the ceiling for a few seconds. ‘Naseena. Naseena is your spy?’

‘That’s how it looks,’ Aneka said, ‘and no one else gets to hear about it for now, okay?’

‘If we’re going to use her, then yes. I can introduce her to one of my knives when this is done.’

‘We’ll see. Ella wants to know how she ended up on Haven.’

Trin glanced at Ella, who was currently busy fending off Trin’s tail. ‘We brought her in. We found her on a Pinnacle slave transport along with a hundred others. Damn… We never thought they’d use anyone but their own.’

‘You thought they didn’t know where Haven was,’ Aneka pointed out.

‘That’s true. Naïve as it sounds, it’s true.’

Ella gave up with the tail and left it to play in her cleavage. ‘So she came back to Haven. Then what?’

‘She got the job at Nightside pretty quickly. Supposedly the Pinnacle had picked her up on a planetary raid. She’d been working in a bar before that. This would be… two years ago? Give or take anyway. Nothing’s changed since that time. There hasn’t been any indication that they knew more about us.’

‘Oh, I think she’s just the latest in a line of spies,’ Aneka said.

‘They’ve probably had people here since before the Hope arrived,’ Ella added.

‘Some resistance movement we are,’ Trin grumbled. ‘We never had a clue.’

Ella shrugged. ‘They tipped their hand when they flagged you leaving here, and then they didn’t expect anyone to find out, or you to survive. Don’t kick yourself over it.’ She grinned. ‘Your tail isn’t.’

‘Huh. Damn tail’s a harlot, doesn’t care about spies unless they’re spies with spread legs.’

‘Oddly,’ Aneka replied, ‘that’s exactly what we’re going after.’

~~~

Ella was giggling as she preceded Naseena into the girl’s little apartment. She stumbled a little as she walked, giggled more and then threw herself onto the bed.

‘Better lie down before I fall down,’ she said. ‘Saves some time anyway.’

Naseena joined in the giggling as she began undoing her dress. ‘I don’t think we should waste
any
time. I remember the last time and I want to make sure I get plenty more.’ Her dress pooled around her feet and she cocked her hip, standing there in just a thong. ‘Get your clothes off.’

‘I think,’ Aneka said from behind her, ‘that Ella can stay just as she is.’

Letting out a squeak, Naseena turned, seeing first Aneka and then the huge bulk of Racine. ‘What…? What do you want? I’ve no money to–’

Pushing the pistol into the girl’s stomach, Aneka forced her back towards the bed. Ella, suddenly not seeming the least bit drunk, grabbed her wrists and pulled her down, holding her arms behind her back. The barmaid was trembling.

‘It’s like this,’ Aneka said. ‘We know you’re spying for the Pinnacle. Currently we’re the only ones who do. You get this one chance to explain
why
you’re doing it before we decide to broadcast it on the local news channels.’

‘Oh shit,’ Naseena breathed.

‘Not a particularly satisfying explanation. What do you think, Ella?’

‘I think she could definitely do better.’

‘Uh-huh.’

‘They… They took me in a raid,’ Naseena began.

‘We’re aware of that.’

‘Yeah, but what you don’t know is that they already knew all about Haven. They had spies here already, but they’d lost one somehow. They never explained what happened, but they needed a replacement. They said… They gave me a choice. It was a mining colony or I come here and work for them. Do you know what the life expectancy is of a slave in one of those places? They explained the odds. They said if I made my next birthday I’d be lucky. They–’

‘Conned you,’ Ella interrupted.

‘What?’

‘It’s not a viable way to run a mine. They have high enough tech that they can do a far more efficient job of ore extraction without slaves in the mix. I grew up in a mining colony and the actual requirement for people was largely supervisory. And that was with less automation than they’ll have. The Pinnacle wouldn’t waste their time with people wielding pickaxes, and if the life expectancy is so short, they’d have denuded the population of every world between here and Old Earth by now. I spent time as a house slave. I was treated pretty well and I didn’t see anyone conspicuously abused.’

‘But everyone’s heard of the Pinnacle mining camps! Everyone knows someone who–’

‘Knows someone who had a friend’s sister’s nephew die there?’ Aneka suggested. ‘
How
do you know about these camps? Ever met someone who’s actually been in one?’

‘I… No. Rumours and stories.’

‘Another control mechanism,’ Ella said. ‘I have to hand it to them, they’re clever and they know their psychology. They’ve got Haven so that people think there are people fighting for them, and they have these mining camps to keep them in line… I’m starting to wonder who actually started Haven.’

Aneka nodded. ‘So, Naseena, you chose life, even some freedom. All the messages we’ve intercepted have come through your personal computer. You say there are other spies?’

‘Four. Well, four I know of, plus Lenora. She’s–’

‘Your handler, the girl in the brothel with the fake collar.’

Naseena’s eyes widened. ‘You really have been watching us, but there’s one other. I’m not sure who that is. They don’t send reports out through my system. I know the Pinnacle cross-check everything we send to make sure we’re still working for them. Lenora’s the only one who gets orders from outside. A-as far as I know.’

Aneka slid her pistol back into its holster, pursing her lips, and Ella let go of Naseena’s arms. The barmaid rubbed at her wrists but remained where she was. She looked uncertain and vulnerable, and she waited silently for whatever judgement which might be about to befall her.

‘The unknown is the problem,’ Aneka finally said. ‘We can get around Lenora, and the others all route through your computer, so if they won’t play ball we can just silence them, but this unknown…’

‘P-play ball?’ Naseena asked.

‘We have a plan, but to make it work the Pinnacle are going to have to think everything here is normal, even when it stops being. So you and your friends are going to feed them information indicating that it’s all business as usual. The problem is that we don’t know one of the players.’

‘Th-this plan? What do we get out of it?’

‘Real freedom.’

Naseena pulled herself up straight. ‘For that you can take my kidneys. I’m in, and the others will “play ball” as well. Lenora… I’m not sure about her. She’s not entirely here by choice either. I’m not entirely sure what she did, but something she said once… She said this was her penance. And then she made some threat about having me spaced if I screwed it up for her, but the
way
she said it… I don’t think she
really
thinks she’s ever going to leave.’

Aneka shrugged. ‘We’ll need to have a little talk with her anyway. What can you tell us about our outsider?’

‘Not much. He’s got access to communications. He might not be a he, but he must be someone important. He seems to be able to go anywhere he likes.’

‘It’s something to work with. We’re leaving now. You’ll be watched, and we’re monitoring all communications in the system. If you warn the Pinnacle, I’ll make sure you’re still alive and in pain when they show up to turn this system into gravel.’

Naseena gave a nod. ‘That’s fair, but I won’t.’ She seemed quite clear on the matter, and there was something a little different about her: there was a new determination in her eyes, a glimmer of hope which had not been there before.

Gwy.

‘Give us the summary, Gwy,’ Aneka said as she walked into the cabin with Ella.

‘I have only had thirty minutes to work on the module you found, Aneka,’ Gwy replied as her image appeared in the wall.

‘Yes, but you’re a gorgeous, super-fast, hyper-intelligent computer and the best ship in the galaxy–’

‘Second best.’

‘Only if you haven’t already discovered the name of this mysterious agent.’

Gwy’s image grinned. ‘Case proven then. However, I do not believe that information is stored within Lenora’s system. She may know, but if she does, it is not recorded. I found detailed information on all the other spies, but the only things suggesting a further one are in the form of messages stating that information has been cross-checked.’

‘Do you think this could be another control?’ Ella asked. ‘Something to keep their people here in check. “We have someone you know nothing about and we check everything you say against his reports.”’

‘We can’t afford to make the assumption,’ Kade said. She was sitting at the room’s desk, examining data on a screen. ‘If we can’t identify them, then we may have to risk it, but we need to try everything to find them first. You say this thing was integrated right into the main comms hub?’

‘Too integrated,’ Aneka replied. ‘It had to have been built in during construction.’

The pirate sagged. ‘Pirate Cove was one of the first asteroids to be converted.’

‘Ella was wondering whether the Pinnacle actually set this place up.’

‘Yeah… that was the conclusion I was coming to. There are records in here going back centuries. Maybe they didn’t exactly start the colony here, but they were in right from the start making sure it would never become a real threat.’