“Failed Tests Faked, Says Raven”
It was one of the scariest headlines I’d seen in a while. Ink had published a full copy of Raven’s official statement, which was… Well, Raven hadn’t given me a copy, but I’d heard it all. It wasn’t outside the realms of possibility that I’d memorised or recorded it, despite all the security precautions they had to have taken.
I hadn’t said anything and I was still one of the prime suspects for this. Fantastic. Still, at least the Runners would know Raven was after them.
“I need to go home.” I said.
Vy looked at me, worried. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”
“I’ve got my Running gear there. Even if I didn’t blab, that’s going to confuse the issue at the very least and hiding will only make me look more suspicious.”
Vy made a face. “Yeah, alright. Let’s get your stuff, then.” She put a jacket on and hauled a backpack over her shoulders. It was at least cold out.
I’d had the car drive over, so we got into it. It was beeping happily at us, unused to multiple passengers. When it was done, it unlocked the wheels and slid smoothly out into the road, not wavering at all. I’d always thought it was a little uncanny. Vy slid the Ink article off her tablet and up over the windows, holographic display picking it up. She was taking notes on the windshield, dividing into columns what we knew, what we thought was likely and what we merely suspected. It was unusually organised for her, and I told her so.
“The Admins have worked out contingency plans for a lot of things. The job tends to attract the sort of people that made plans about zombie apocalypses when they were twelve.”
By this time, other Runners and Admins had caught the news, through web crawlers or good old word of mouth. Vy had broken her own recommendations and connected the car to her network, and messages from them were appearing all over the walls. I sorted them by priority. Kraken had already pushed out a broadcast; Bystander, Proxy, Mayhap and Scatter were out of Matsushima’s temporary jail. They’d paid some vandalism fines (mainly in labour) and it was their first time being caught, so this was pretty standard procedure.
He’d called a bunch of meetings, all in a different location to the last couple. I wasn’t so sure that was wise, given we knew our network had been penetrated at least once already, and about half of the active people agreed with me. Kraken pointed out that in many senses lots of meetings was more secure than our network and with small numbers it would be easy to scatter. We definitely couldn’t discuss this over the network; so there was reason to meet face to face.
He ended up winning most people over by the time we’d reached my house. I still wasn’t sure, but given the situation, I thought I better attend.
My apartment block seemed empty when we drove up to it; it was nearing midnight and the other residents had either left for night shift or were asleep. I couldn’t see any police or Raven operatives, so we went up, slowly. I unlocked (good sign) and pushed open my door gently. It didn’t creak. The trope was still around, but doors had stopped rusting a long time ago. Everything looked like it was where I left it.
Yeong was sitting on the lounge, Horned Queen helmet in his fans.
I stood stock still. Vy had the sense to not whisper or try to push past. She turned to back out, but tapped me on the shoulder. Yeong’s Dog was in the doorway, hunched to pounce on one of us.
No getting out that way.
“I’m a fan, you know.” Yeong said. “I’m glad I’m a contractor and not a direct employee. If you’ll take me to the meeting, I’ll put you down as a source, say that you weren’t the leak and you can continue. But I will need to visit that meeting.”
I wasn’t sure how to react. I was still breathing hard from the shock, mind racing. “You’re not the first fan to give me a rough deal recently.” I replied.
“Oh?”
“Can’t really talk about it.”
“Hmm.” He said. “Well? What do you think?”
I sighed. “What meeting?”
“Don’t give me that, Ziska. Given what’s happened, I’d say one of Kraken’s usual meetings would be in place.”
“What will you do?”
“I’m going to be reasonable. I’m pulling in Runners and they will be questioned. But unless it goes further, I’m not going to reveal identities, I’m not going to arrest anyone. We’re only after one of you.”
There wasn’t really a choice.
– – –
The meeting place for our group had was a warehouse on the outskirts of our Running area. Unusually, it wasn’t closed down. It served as a distribution and repair point for some of the larger Plastique 3D printers throughout the city. It had been left unlocked or Kraken had made it be unlocked. He could get a lot done if he wanted to.
We were first, Yeong and the five Dogs he’d brought along taking position at the back, somewhere relatively isolated and stealthy. Vy had been hauled along, but Yeong had been satisfied with her being shut in the car.
Torrent, Mr. Tock and Pitch arrived in their own time, one after the other. We’d had meetings in similar places before, but this one seemed a little quieter, a little larger. I soon realised it was because Glass wasn’t there; she had a way of filling places up.
We took a while to start talking. Again, not something that had been an issue until Glass’s… well, betrayal, I guess.
Pitch started. “So. We’re up shit creek.”
Torrent replied. “Looks like. Any truth behind the theft?”
I cleared my throat and said “It looks like it’s true. There’s certain elements from my non-Running life that corroborate and Raven’s reaction on that Friday make lot more sense with this as context.”
Pitch and Torrent were staring. Mr. Tock was… well, his usual impenetrable self.
“Queen, that’s the most bloody words I’ve ever heard out of you.” Pitch, of course. “You feelin’ okay?”
“Not really.” I said. “The other reason I believe it is because this… gentleman has somewhat forced his way in.”
Yeong had quietly entered the room. “I’m here to represent Raven. We’re only going to ask some questions; you’ll be allowed to keep your identities secret.”
Torrent looked at me. “Queen, what’s this?”
“I didn’t have much of a choice, unfortunately.” I shrugged. “Sorry.”
Yeong interrupted. “You’ve got other problems. We think, and by we I mean Raven, that Mastushima believe that all of the Runners represent a threat to their operations and infrastructure. Come in to Raven, answer some questions, be safe until this dies down a little. That’s the deal we’re offering.”
“Well, this is the biggest crock of shit I’ve heard in ages. You fucks think you can blackmail us into ratting?” Pitch said. She clearly wasn’t pleased.
“It’s not blackmail.” Yeong said. “And you don’t really have much choice.” One of his Dogs had settled on a crate behind Pitch and it hissed right next to her head. She jolted and whipped her head around to look at it. I wasn’t sure she knew it was there. I checked behind me and sure enough, there was a Dog circling.
“I think we should accept. I realise my words might not mean much-” I said, before Pitch interrupted.
“Queen, listen. They don’t mean shit right now, no. But I reckon you’re under some persuasion, so I’m not taking it personally.”
“Trust me on this, Matsushima’s the worst of the two options.” Yeong said. “They’re under the impression you’ve already caused some fairly significant damage and they don’t-”
Suddenly, with a crack, the back door exploded. Three black canisters flew in and bounced across the floor, spewing smoke. People were still frozen, staring at the remains of the door, but the Dogs were already moving. They took cover and pulled back into the crates and shelves across the back wall. Yeong was the first to react, following them and keeping his gun pointed at the door, at the black figures coming through. Between the smoke I could see they had face-covering helmets, visors and filters protecting them from the grenades they’d thrown in, both the choking and the loss of sight.
There were only four of them, but they were already firing. Torrent had already been hit, but the rest of us hit the floor, rolled into cover.
I didn’t think Yeong and his Dogs were going to run, but they’d vanished somewhere up the back.
– – –
As he passed a window, Yeong was yanked sideways and out of the building. He slammed into the ground on his back, air leaving his lungs with a whump, but he’d landed in a good position and started to get up. Immediately, he was slammed back down again as a weight settled on his chest.
He found himself staring into a clear, faceted helmet, grinning features hinted at underneath.
“Hey there.” said Glass. “Heard you were talking shit.”
Running Silver 