The Cold Steel Mind (34 page)

‘You seem to know a lot about these things, Abraham,’ Janna said, smirking at him.

‘The technology, Janna,’ Wallace said quickly. ‘I know a lot about the technology. One of my graduate students was involved in the original research. He had plans for education, virtual reality, very rapid and accurate control of machines. All anyone ever remembers is the neurostim.’

Aneka let go of Ella, but she stayed mildly zoned out for a second or so before the effect wore off. ‘Oh wow…’ Ella said, blinking. ‘We are going to have so much fun with that.’

‘Uh-huh…’ Putting the pad back in its box, Aneka reached into the bag and pulled out the last parcel: hers. As it happened, Cassandra had been given the task of selecting something for her and the android edged forward on her seat, looking nervous. She was the only woman in the room who had escaped without a change of clothing since everyone knew that while she had a partner of sorts, Al was not going to be especially impressed by naughty underwear. Aneka wondered what Cassandra had thought of buying her.

With the wrapping paper carefully removed, Aneka began to wonder whether she had actually bought something at all. The box within had the look of something which had been carefully made by folding card. It slid apart like a piece of origami art, and Aneka gasped. Within was the figure of a woman formed from some form of crystal. She was standing, half crouched, an action pose, one arm stretched out holding a large pistol: it was Aneka. Somehow the diamond-like material had been coloured to form her leotard and leggings, and the black of her gun.

‘It’s…’ Aneka breathed.

‘Beautiful,’ Ella finished for her.

‘You like it?’ Cassandra asked, apparently still uncertain despite the reaction.

‘She’s caught your likeness beautifully,’ Al commented. ‘She was very unsure about it. I told her you’d love it.’

‘You made this yourself?’ Aneka asked.

‘I had a little help from some machines,’ Cassandra replied, ‘but it’s my design and I created the program to cut and colour it.’

‘You altered the crystal structure to change the light transmission?’ Wallace asked, sounding impressed.

‘Yes. It’s not too hard to do really.’

‘In a couple of days?!’

‘It’s not hard to do when you have direct control over the machines,’ Cassandra amended.

Aneka smiled at her. ‘I don’t care. It’s beautiful and a proper example of Christmas spirit. Thank you.’

‘I think,’ Gillian said, ‘that now would be a good time to open more wine.’

‘Oh yes,’ Aneka said. ‘Happy “It’s Not Christmas, but it’s Just as Good as,” everyone.’

~~~

Everyone had stayed to eat the meal Aneka had prepared with help from Gillian and Janna. She was not really sure whether word of her cooking had got around, or everyone wanted to try one of her semi-authentic Old Earth meals, or maybe that the people who had been spirited away by the Xinti AIs felt a degree of camaraderie which kept them together even after some muttering about having to leave.

Janna let out a groan as they lay sprawled around the lounge. ‘You people used to really eat all that every year? I’m going to have to fast for three days.’

Aneka laughed. It had not been a very traditional Christmas meal. Turkeys were extinct, but she had found a variety of reptile with meat which had the right texture and colour, more or less. There were no potatoes, but there were several legumes that fitted the bill reasonably well. No carrots, exactly, but… Well, she had had to replace just about everything with something else, though she had found a fruit-based dessert which worked well as a Christmas pudding analogue. She had been a little worried about the quantities, but everyone seemed full and there was not much left. At least Gillian would not be eating reheated lizard meat for days.

‘Yeah,’ she said. ‘Being inebriated and over-full, and falling asleep during the
Queen’s Speech
was kind of one of the traditions.’

‘Well, it was a wonderful meal, even if I do have trouble getting into some of my costumes when I get home.’ There was a gentle, groaned, round of approval from the others.

‘Thank you.’

‘I tell you, daughter of mine,’ Janna continued, ‘you are beyond lucky to get this one. She’s gorgeous, sexy, intelligent, strong,
and
she can cook. If you ever let her slip away from you, I’ll disown you.’

‘Mom…’ Ella whined.

‘Oh, don’t worry, Janna,’ Gillian said. ‘If she did, I think I could find grounds to have her committed.’

‘Gillian!’

‘Personally,’ Bashford put in, ‘I was going to kidnap her and hold her captive until she realised she was being an idiot.’ Ella squeaked. ‘Possibly with some light torture.’ Ella squeaked louder.

‘Electrodes should be involved,’ Drake added.

‘No one is torturing my girlfriend,’ Aneka said over the sound of Ella choking in outrage.

‘Thank you, Aneka,’ Ella said, snuggling closer in against Aneka’s side.

‘Except me.’

Ella pouted, and then considered, and then said, ‘I can live with that.’

Yorkbridge Mid-town.

Aneka opened the street door of their apartment block and stepped back to allow Janna and Ella to go inside. It was getting dark and they had only just got home. The party had finally broken up when everyone felt sober enough to get home safely. Even then there had been a little reluctance. Gillian, whose house had been invaded for the festivities, was in no hurry to see everyone leave and had eventually persuaded Monkey and Delta to stay over another night, along with Bashford.

Aneka turned in the doorway and saw a woman standing on the bridge behind them. She was tall, slim, and attractive, with a hard, firmly muscled body and not overly large breasts. Her hair was a lovely golden-blonde colour, falling to her shoulders in smooth waves. Her outfit caught Aneka’s attention the most; it was skin-tight and black with long sleeves and a high neck, and she was wearing thigh-high, high-heeled boots. It could have been a combat outfit, aside from the boots, and there was what looked like a lightweight laser weapon attached to her belt.

Stepping inside, Aneka closed the door, making sure the locking bolts engaged before heading for the stairs. ‘Did either of you see that woman on the bridge?’ she asked.

Ella and her mother looked down at her. ‘I don’t remember seeing anyone,’ Ella replied. Janna shook her head.

‘Maybe she followed us over. I’d swear she was armed.’

‘I certainly saw no one with a gun,’ Janna said.

Aneka shrugged. ‘Let’s get inside. I want coffee.’ Silently she spoke to Al. ‘Sample a picture of that blonde and send it to Winter. It might be the woman who talked to Shannon.’

‘I had the same thought,’ Al replied. ‘I’ve already grabbed the image. Sending now.’

‘You’re getting way too good at this.’

‘I live to serve.’

University of New Earth, 27.12.524 FSC.

After a day spent shopping with Ella and Janna, Aneka was almost happy to be back at work. In truth the university was on a break and Gillian was going in to catch up on anything which required direct intervention. Ella was her assistant, so she was going in too, and Aneka had decided to go along because the blonde had made her nervous.

One of the duties Gillian had to deal with was handling issues students were having. Generally that meant problems with research for dissertations, or students who wanted to discuss some point of historical fact they did not understand the implications of. Aneka sat in the outer office with Ella who was filtering the queue of people that had developed as soon as word that Doctor Gilroy was available had got around.

Aneka was quite impressed. Ella asked a couple of questions of each student, listened, and then dismissed well over two-thirds with a book reference or a few words of encouragement. Many just needed someone to validate their ideas, to know that they were on the right track. Of course, talking to Gillian would have provided that, but they did not really
need
to do that; they needed someone else who knew what they were talking about to agree with them.

The queue was down to two people when another walked in. This one was a girl dressed in a short, plaid skirt and a very small tube top in scarlet, and she walked with the faltering steps of someone unsure of whether she should really be there. But this was no student. Her short, blonde hair had been pulled up and back to form a pair of asymmetric pigtails which gave her face a slightly different shape, but this was Winter. The woman had one of those faces people forgot. In Aneka’s time she would have been noteworthy, but in a world of attractive people she could wander around virtually unnoticed, and she did just that.

‘I think I’d better take this one,’ Aneka said, keeping her voice low.

Ella looked up, spotting the newcomer, frowned, and then realisation dawned. ‘Yeah, might be best.’

Aneka walked over to where Winter was standing near the door, still putting on her uncertain schoolgirl act. ‘Did you have to wear a plaid skirt?’ Winter’s eyebrow rose.
Of course she can do the Spock thing.
‘At least you aren’t sucking on a lollipop… What, you don’t have Catholic schoolgirl fantasies now?’

‘We don’t have Catholics,’ Winter pointed out, ‘but I’m glad you like the outfit. I need to talk to you. The coffee shop?’

Aneka turned towards the other end of the room. ‘She has some questions about Old Earth. I’ll field it, and get the coffee in. I’m betting Doctor Gilroy could use some.’

‘Good plan,’ Ella called back.

Aneka walked out, followed by the grinning Winter. After a few seconds Aneka asked, ‘Do you have to swing your hips quite so much?’

‘It’s part of my cover.’

‘Huh?’

‘Aneka, pretty much every student in the department would give their right eye to be going for a coffee date with you. I’m just pretending to be the lucky girl who’s doing so.’

‘Great, so now they’re going to think I use my fame to pick up naive students.’

‘Of course not. Unless you plan on inviting me back to your place.’

‘You’re enjoying this far too much.’

‘It is rather amusing. However, I didn’t come here to embarrass you.’

‘I gathered. Something to do with that blonde?’

Winter nodded. ‘When we get to the coffee shop.’

With the coffee bought, and an orange juice for Winter, they went to one of the small tables at the back of the shop. Winter hoisted herself onto one of the stools with a slight frown. ‘This skirt is a little shorter than I usually wear.’

‘You could have got away with something longer. Not all the students wear that kind of thing.’

‘I was getting in character. If I’m trying to pick up a celebrity I should be showing the goods.’ Settling herself she adjusted her top a little for emphasis. ‘We identified the blonde as Mistress Delaney.’

Aneka’s eyebrows went up. ‘You don’t have a first name for her?’

‘Mistress
is
her first name. Her parents apparently had an odd sense of humour, but a prophetic one. She’s a psychic. Not a telepath like Miss Patton, Delaney’s talents lie in persuasion.’

‘Mind control?’

‘More like suggestion. She doesn’t actually take control, she’s able to suggest things to people and they do them. She’s also very good at slipping away from my agents. We think she can persuade people to not see her. She probably used the same trick to make Miss Patton forget what she looked like.’

‘So Ella and Janna probably wouldn’t have seen her, even if they’d seen her? Explains why she could walk around armed and not get noticed.’

‘She,’ Winter said, emphasising the word, ‘is not the main problem. She’s a known associate of a man named Ardus Quint, an information broker. He’s also believed to be involved with drugs and slaves, but it’s his more public face which is worrying. He claims to be able to find out anything about anything and anyone, and his claims are not entirely without foundation.’

‘And you think he’s trying to find out about us, the Agroa Gar team?’

‘I believe he’s after Xinti technology. Those robots you found on the station, those are his style, and I can’t find evidence to link him to those mercenaries, but I’d be willing to bet they were his work. Now that you’re back he’s probably looking for information on Negral.’

‘Well he’s not going to get very far unless he can hack Aggy, or my brain.’

‘Fairly unlikely, but he may be able to get it from one of the others.’

‘How? The AIs erased the location from their minds, if they even knew it.’

Winter’s face got very serious. ‘Quint is a psychic too. He
is
a telepath and a very good one, with a speciality in mind alteration and deep searches. You can’t totally erase memories from a Human brain, just… submerge them. Quint is very good at digging them out.’

Aneka frowned. ‘Drake and Shannon. They were the pilots on the proving flight. They’re the most likely to know.’

‘I’d considered that, yes. I’m arranging security for them both, and for Doctor Wallace and Cassandra. Doctor Gilroy should be covered by you here. Mister Bashford will be arriving later to take her home. I suggested her son and his girlfriend stay with her for the moment. I doubt anyone will get to any of them that way. Obviously I’m relying on you to keep Miss Narrows safe.’

‘Not a problem, obviously, but we can’t keep that up forever.’

‘I have people looking for Quint, but he’s a tough man to find. The best we can probably do when we locate him is to persuade him to back off. He’s also very good at covering his tracks.’

‘Great,’ Aneka said sourly. ‘How are the preparations going?’

‘Doctor Wallace is reviewing the work so far on the new communications rig. It’s complicated work, but I think it’ll be finished in a couple of weeks.’

‘Good. At least I won’t have to look over my shoulder all the time in a secure facility.’ She picked up her tray of coffee cups. ‘We done? I should get back to the guard duty I didn’t know I was doing.’

‘Of course. I need to get back to hunting down Quint.’

Aneka got to her feet, her lips twitching into a smirk. ‘And if you need any more help with your studies, you can come around to my flat any time you like,’ she said just loud enough for the nearest students to hear her.