‘And you’re sure it was him?’ said Kelly. Her hands were still bandaged and she sat on her bed in the infirmary.
Rebecca visited the captain alone and it was close to three in the morning. Dim lights cast shadows in the hallway outside Kelly’s room. The entire floor was encased in silence save for the footsteps of nurses working nightshift. When Rebecca peeked into Kelly’s room, she was surprised to see that the captain was still up.
‘It looked exactly like him? You checked?’ Kelly said.
Rebecca nodded. ‘Hiroshi Inoue. I’m telling you it was him. He’s definitely alive and he’s building things for Nexus Rogue using his little VR hideouts.’
‘What were you doing roaming unsecured servers by yourself?’
‘I was doing my job. I was following a lead and ended up there.’
‘Your brain could have been scrambled. You could have exposed us. Did he see you?’
Rebecca awkwardly rubbed her arm. She honestly didn’t know if she’d been caught during her solo VR escapade, but in scenarios such as this there was no room for uncertainty. Bec just wanted time to find the right words, to phrase her answer properly. She wasn’t going to lie to Kelly.
‘Did he see you?’ Kelly demanded.
‘I don’t know. He might have. I jacked out as soon as he....’
The captain massaged her temples. ‘Shit. Okay, get the others onto this. Tell Akira I need to speak to her. Dig up whatever else you can find on Hiroshi. It’s time we found out why he’s not dead.’
Rebecca dozed on the couch when the captain returned to HQ after being cleared for duty. Other than a few new scars she looked just the same.
The first thing Yuri said to her was, ‘Captain, few new scars for the collection, huh? Never thought I say you look more frightening than before.’
Kelly didn’t smile but Bec had a feeling that the captain felt happy to be back. Kelly said, ‘Let’s hope the enemy feels the same way,’ and then, to the rest of the team, ‘Nothing has changed. Back to work, all of you.’
Rebecca chuckled. It was good having Kelly back. Bec had been working tirelessly on the NR manhunt while the Kelly and Connor were recovering. The glass-wall interface showed the diagram naming Sato, Robb, Felix (the hacker named X-Ray that they extracted from the den in Afghanistan) and now Hiroshi.
Rebecca was fortunate that the answer as to why Hiroshi wasn’t dead may have been hidden in the encrypted files she intercepted from Eastern Europe. It was the GCSD’s initial plan to go to Prague and shut down whoever was broadcasting the information. By some stroke of luck Rebecca’s automatic decryption managed to crack the file after several weeks of trying, and right before departure to the next mission zone. The information proved to be bad news, however, as it contained a modified schematic of the AI system Bec had helped to build. A tinge of guilt came over her. But now this malicious AI was a digital trail for Rebecca to follow and it pointed her directly to the location of another hacker den. She knocked on the captain’s opened door and stepped inside.
‘Cairo,’ said Bec. ‘We have to go to Egypt.’
Kelly sat at her desk and was cleaning one of her sidearms. Bec had noticed the incredibly polished nature of the captain’s equipment, and believed that Kelly used cleaning time to medicate, more than anything else.
‘I told you our next scheduled mission is set for Prague. We need to shut down that communication hub.’
‘No, you don’t understand—’ A stern look from Kelly and Bec composed herself. ‘—Sorry captain, it’s just I cracked an encrypted file and found schematics for an AI. I mean, it could be the one NR hired me to work on, but I suspect this one’s been modified so I don’t know. It’s not in the wild yet but it needs to be recovered.’
Kelly set her gun down.
‘Is it a threat, at this stage in its development?’
‘The impact might not be catastrophic, but it’s unpredictable. Like I said in my report, I think Hiroshi is experimenting with a new kind of virus. An AI hybrid, maybe. If NR release their main weapon, there’s only so much I’ll be able to do, but if I can study this version… Well, there should be some valuable data for me.’
‘You’re certain?’ Kelly eyed Rebecca carefully.
‘Yes.’
The decision was instant and absolute.
‘Then we better make the preparations. I’ll put in a request for another squad to hit the communication hub.
Rebecca nodded, spun around and left the room, then stopped and returned.
‘So, you’re not still mad at me, are you? For jacking into that server?’
Kelly laughed.
‘Bec, I’m your captain. If I was angry, you’d know. Don’t do it again.’
Egypt. The helicopter swept over the Nile River and Rebecca watched the sprawl of the ancient city unfold beneath her. Cairo was one of the oldest cities in the world but it appeared almost the same now as every other desert-type metropolitan. The traditional landmarks were obviously what made it stand out. Rebecca smiled when she finally caught a glimpse of the Pyramids of Giza. The captain sat across from her, also staring out the window.
‘You know,’ said Rebecca, ‘al-Azhar University here in Cairo is one of the oldest universities in the world.’
‘Is that so?’ said Yuri.
‘Yeah. It was founded in 975. Pretty cool, huh.’
Bec looked back out towards the pyramids. A terrorist incident about twenty years earlier had left one of them severely damaged. What followed was a debate that lasted over a decade on whether or not the landmark should be repaired using modern technology. The result ended up being a full repairing of all three pyramids using proper construction metal rather than stone. The reconstruction caused quite an upheaval. Bec thought the new pyramids looked better.
‘I ran this VR sim, once, to see what it was like here over two thousand years ago, you know, back when there were pharaohs and stuff. Hey, did you know Cleopatra lived closer to the moon landing than to the building of the pyramids?’
‘Are you some kind of Egyptologist now?’ Yuri grinned.
‘Actually, that one I picked up in a fun-facts book I found at the airport.’
‘No time for sight-seeing,’ said Kelly, using her captain voice. ‘We have a virus to destroy.’
‘So, what’s the actual objective, captain?’ said Akira.
‘I’ll do a proper briefing once we get to the safehouse but essentially our two objectives are to contain NR’s experimental computer AI-virus hybrid, shut down the VR server that Hiroshi Inoue has been using to complete his development projects and then locate Hiroshi himself based on whatever data we can recover here.’ She looked at Rebecca. ‘No one goes near a server room until it’s cleared of any booby-traps.’
The helicopter landed at the safehouse and the team rushed inside for the sweet airconditioned air. While Rebecca worked on her laptop to get a fix on the AI’s location, the others were in the armoury preparing for the mission, selecting their guns and their gadgets. Bec didn’t need an armoury to prepare. The guilt from the her mission in Russia had stuck with her and now she only carried a side-arm on Kelly’s orders. Bec didn’t really believe that all these problems could be resolved without violence, she wasn’t so naïve, she just wanted to be out of the way when the shooting started. Thankfully, on this mission, she would be.
‘This van has air-con, right?’ said Akira, trying hopelessly to cool down in her heavy-duty clothes.
Yuri turned on the fans and hit the AC button, it hummed and blew out warm, funny-smelling air.
‘AC works but not very good.’
Akira sighed.
Rebecca tugged on the front of her shirt. A bead of sweat falling from her hairline as she tried to focus on her computer. The surveillance van was uncomfortably stuffy with six people crammed inside. The captain sat next to Bec and continued to polish her sidearm even though it was already ridiculously clean – a ritual to keep her mind focused.
‘I have it,’ said Bec. ‘I’ve hacked into their system. Are we nearly there?’
Boris glanced at the GPS route projected above the dashboard.
‘Almost.’
But something went wrong with Rebecca’s laptop. For a moment it failed to respond and a red alert icon flashed on screen.
‘What is that?’ said Akira, leaning in. ‘That doesn’t look good. What is it?’
The virus forced Bec to manually reboot her computer.
‘Fuck! This can’t be happening.’
‘Rebecca, what’s wrong?’ Kelly demanded.
‘They’re onto me. I’m being hacked.’
‘Well, hack them back.’
‘I’m trying! They’re uploading the virus.’
‘What? Where?’
‘I’m not sure but if we want to stop it, I’m gonna have to go with you and deactivate it manually. We have to find the device their working from right now!’
The captain hesitated for just a second as she weighed up the risk of bringing Rebecca directly into combat. Then she punched the back of Yuri’s seat and said, ‘Alright. Yuri, hurry up and get us there.’
‘Yes, captain.’
Yuri accelerated, speeding radically through the narrow streets.
‘For fucks sake Yuri, get us there alive!’ Kelly yelled.
A few blocks down Yuri slammed on the brakes just outside the target building. Rebecca nearly tumbled from her seat, her laptop clattering across the floor. No time for subtleties here.
Everyone other than Yuri stormed from the van and approached the 20th century-style two-storey building. Akira deployed a micro-recon drone, a piece of tech about the size of her hand, and it hovered over the roof of the building.
‘Scanning,’ she said. ‘Primary objective is on the second floor with two hostiles. Six more hostiles in the surrounding area. No sign of any VR decks.’
‘Bec, with me. Connor, front entrance. Boris go right side, Akira go left. Move.’
The captain cocked her pistol and took the outer stairs to the second-floor balcony. They stood behind the door with their weapons at the ready. On the captain’s orders Rebecca placed a small explosive on the door and stepped back.
Kelly gave the command as soon as everyone was in position.
‘On my mark: breach.’
Bec triggered the explosive, blasting away the lock as Kelly smashed through the door. The captain stepped in, grabbed Bec and pulled her to cover as a burst of submachinegun fire raked the doorway, sending splinters of wood in all directions. The clip emptied. Kelly leaned out and shot down one gunman but the other collected his laptop and hurled himself out the back window, a loud shattering of glass.
Kelly and Bec ran to the window and watched the man flee across the courtyard. Kelly took a step back.
‘Package is on the move. I am in pursuit.’ She jumped out after him, rolled, kept running.
Bec hesitated but she knew she had no choice but to follow. She jumped, her landing not as smooth as she stumbled along the ground.
Shots erupted all around the complex.
‘Engaging the enemy!’ said Boris.
Kelly was already too far ahead. She crossed the courtyard and disappeared around a corner; Rebecca scrambled to her feet and ran after them, into an alley that led to a main street. A car nearly slammed into Kelly, who slid over the bonnet to keep up her momentum, while Bec in quick pursuit ignored the driver as he threw insults at her in Arabic. Then Rebecca stopped. The micro-drone flew overhead, still tracking the package. She checked the package location on her phone.
‘Captain, I’m gonna try cut him off.’
She veered right and vaulted somebody’s fence, crossed their backyard, climbed another fence and jumped up to the roof of the next house. The buildings here were low and flat enough for her to run from rooftop to rooftop. From this vantage point Bec could see Kelly and the man they were chasing.
‘Enemy vehicle approaching your location.’ Yuri’s voice. ‘Attempting to intercept.’
The man turned right.
‘Bec, he’s coming towards you,’ said Kelly.
He didn’t see her. Rebecca didn’t know she could run so fast, especially across uneven rooftops. She came up above, jumped, and tackled him from the roof. They collided against the ground with a bone-crunching thud, the laptop sent flying, then Kelly jammed her boot on the man’s chest and pointed her gun at his face. Bec scurried over to the laptop, opened it and cancelled the upload sequence just as it reached 94%. She closed the laptop and breathed a sigh of relief.
Kelly looked at her. ‘Did you get it?’
‘Yeah,’ said Bec. ‘We got it.’
Screeching tyres. The derelict car drifted around the corner and accelerated past as a gunner fired three shots in their direction. The first hit the captive in the side of the head, blood and brains splattered the pavement. The second missed. The third… Rebecca put her hand to her neck – she didn’t feel the pain at first, just the blood, and then she collapsed.
Each breath brought a new wave of agony. She couldn’t swallow. She looked up at Kelly, whose red hair fell around her face as she leaned over Rebecca. The captain had never looked so pale, so afraid.
‘Bec! Oh no… no… shit! Okay, you’re gonna be okay.’ She clicked her radio. ‘We got a friendly down. Bec’s been shot. Yuri, where the fuck are you!’
Her body quickly grew weak. Yuri’s voice hoarse and distant, ‘I’m on my way. Hang in there.’
Rebecca kept blinking. She promised herself that she wouldn’t close her eyes, but the sky shined so unbearably bright.
ns 172.70.131.142da2