Crow's Gambit, page 9
part #1 of Sylphan Revelations Series
Cassie sat quietly and didn’t say anything at first. “So, when I ran, the FBI got more suspicious and sent someone to find me on the train.”
Darrow nodded. “And you were able to evade them as well.”
“So, every time I gave them the slip it actually made things worse.”
Darrow nodded.
Cassie really didn’t like the direction this explanation was going. “And the Lincoln Tunnel?”
“I am sorry you had to go through that. A terrible accident. It’s unusual for malfunctions like that to happen.”
“Unusual as in never?”
“There have been some incidents with autopilots in the past.” Darrow contemplated his plate of food.
Cassie crossed her arms, sat tall, and tried to act more confident than she felt. “Incidents of that severity? Where the safety systems and backup systems all failed?”
“No. Not that I’ve heard of,” Darrow sighed deeply and finally looked up at her. “It would seem the FBI reported back you ran before they could question you. The people who gave them their original orders thanked them nicely for their help and sent them on their way. Other individuals were then apparently dispatched to stop you. Individuals with a greater legal latitude, or disregard, depending on your viewpoint.”
They were both silent for several moments. Cassie had to admit this was one of the possible scenarios she had explored in her mind. Darrow seemed sincere and at least mostly forthcoming about it. But something still bothered her.
“All of this for a museum project? There must be something else to this. Even if they didn’t know why you wanted to hire me, why all the suspicion in the first place? Are we talking about treason? Are you working for a foreign government?”
“No. Actually I’m working for the U.S. government on this project, or at least part of the government.”
“Wait. You just said it was the government who hacked your system and wants to question me. Now you say you’re working for them. Which is it?” The volume and pitch of her voice increased with her frustration.
He faced her with a straight back and placed his hands in his lap. “You have to realize when you talk about the U.S. government you are talking about an organization with many independent parts. Sometimes one part does not know what another part is doing, or why.”
“So, you’re saying some part doesn’t agree with the part you’re working for?”
Darrow nodded. “I think it’s safe to say they are not on the same page where this project is concerned.”
“And what is your part after? This can’t all be about repairing an old spaceplane, or rocket ship, whatever. The current administration doesn’t care about museums or history that much.”
“I didn’t say repair. I said build.”
“Okay, and why would they care to build...” she trailed off. Unless the government was finally planning to challenge the Sylph’s grounding. She inhaled sharply. Would they dare? Everyone believed the government still dabbled in aerospace research for drones and cruise missiles secretly. But a spaceplane? That was upping the stakes.
Darrow’s face had a genuine smile on it. “You already figured out why, I see. Yes. We intend to fly the XS-9, Cassie—under AI autopilot control, of course. I wasn’t lying when I said we only want you to fly the simulator.”
Cassie was speechless. With great mental effort she willed her gaping mouth to shut. “You’re still crazy.” She pointed toward the image of the plane. “That thing will get zapped before it’s a few feet off the ground.”
“Maybe. Maybe not. It doesn’t matter to you though because all I want you to do is fly a simulator. We need your expertise to help us build an AI to carry out the task. Come on Miss McIntyre, what do you have to lose? Spend a few weeks working for me. You’ll find my compensation package very generous. You’ll go home with enough money to reenroll in college and I can guarantee a personal reference to help smooth the readmission. That is your goal isn’t it?”
Mentally, she weighed her options. With little prospect of new barnstorming contracts, there wasn’t much left for her back in Minnesota. Darrow’s money and endorsement, however, might be enough to get her back into the university.
What he asked her to do wasn’t technically illegal, certainly no worse than what she had already been doing flying the drones. And there was also the prospect of getting a connection with one of Grandpa’s projects. Assuming she didn’t run afoul of any more government agencies, she didn’t see how the downside outweighed the upside.
“Okay, I’m in, for now. But! If things get weird, weirder I mean, I leave. No harm, no foul. Agreed?” Worst case she could just catch a train home and take her chances with Thomas.
“Agreed.”
On the elevator ride back to her room with Gloria, Cassie was silent. She wasn’t sure Darrow fully understood how people might react to his little project. Especially if they thought he was going to try and fly a spaceplane.
The generations older than Cassie still carried a bitterness toward the Sylph, but also a healthy fear. They’d lived in the world before and on Net-Day. Cassie’s generation was too young to really remember and the ones after her only knew a post Net-Day world. To them the Sylph were just something you lived with, but didn’t pay much attention, like air.
All in all, most of the country no longer considered the Sylph a clear and present danger but more like a rattlesnake, something to be avoided and left alone. As a barnstormer Cassie had been on the receiving end of the suspicion, anxiety, and outright anger people showed when you threatened to upset the status quo.
And then there was the radical minority, those who looked at the Sylph as mystical or godlike beings. They practically worshiped them. To defy the Sylph meant defying the will of God. In their worldview, flying wasn’t an act of mortal danger but one of spiritual danger.
Cassie thought about the car accident again. Would one of those groups go as far as to try killing the people who were trying to fly a plane?
Chapter 13
SENATOR WINTHROP TAPPED impatiently at the top of her desk. In any world that made sense it wouldn’t take this long to set up a secure connection. She placed fifty-fifty odds on whether it was her own security office taking so long or Darrow’s. Without warning, a curtain of holographically induced haze dropped around her. It took the two communications systems a moment to coordinate the virtual landscape and then everything snapped into focus.
“Good evening senator.” Darrow leaned back in his chair and tipped his drink toward her in greeting.
“Darrow.” She watched Neil enter the projection and take a seat next to Darrow.
“You didn’t have any trouble on the way back?” Darrow questioned his associate.
“No. The business in Chicago went as well as could be expected. There wasn’t any interference if that’s what you’re wondering.” Neil searched his surroundings with his eyes. When he looked back Darrow waved him toward a bar in the background.
“I was actually referring to the incident in the tunnel.” Darrow watched Neil pour a drink and come back to the table.
Tish observed them silently. The two had a strange dynamic.
“Oh yeah,” Neil commented. “There was that thing with the car. Fortunately, I handled it.” He spun his ice for a second and then took a sip of his drink.
“By handled it I assume you mean you wet yourself?” she asked.
“Oh absolutely.” Neil raised his glass in a mock salute to the two of them. He paused. “Don’t try to tell me that was a random accident.”
“Okay,” Darrow smiled. “I won’t tell you it was an accident.”
Neil leaned forward and put his face in his hands. “Fuck. Really?” He slumped back in the chair again. “I was actually kind of hoping you would say it was just a highly unlikely accident.”
“The Transit Authority’s investigation will probably chalk it up to that very thing. Nonetheless,” Darrow shrugged, “the car’s AI had been hacked. Someone was using the police override to control it.”
Tish tapped her finger on the desk. For a moment she considered what Darrow had said. “That means someone within the police force or someone with better-than-average cyber skills.
“I guess we really pissed someone off,” Neil suggested.
“Working for Darrow? That was bound to happen sooner or later.” Tish started to reach for her cup before realizing it was empty. With the security protocols in place Vivek wouldn’t be able to replenish it. She really needed to get someone started on using him as a template for her next AI.
“However, this goes beyond anything I anticipated.” Darrow steepled his fingers. “I honestly have no idea who could be behind the tunnel incident. If it makes you feel better Neil, I don’t think you were the target though.” Darrow picked up a sheet of paper and handed it to him.
Neil scanned the page quickly. “Cassie? The report on the security breach? You think it was the NSA, don’t you?”
“Gentlemen, if you don’t mind?” Virtual meetings were wonderful for some things. Others not so much. Tish motioned to the sheet of paper.
Darrow held up the piece of paper and made a gesture. A bright line scanned the document and a virtual representation appeared next to Tish.
“Surely this isn’t the first time someone has tried to hack your system. Why do you think this was the work of the NSA?” she asked.
Darrow gave a tiny shrug. “Someone called in a favor with them.”
“How were you able to find that out?”
Darrow sighed and leaned back in his chair. “Called in a favor myself.”
“So, they downloaded her file. You think they put something together? Something big enough for an assassination attempt?”
“I didn’t expect this level of reaction. The connection at least must be obvious to them. If they haven’t put everything together, they will soon. You were right, we’re almost out of time.”
Out of time. That was hard to believe. It seemed like yesterday when Bill McIntyre had proposed his idea to her. They hadn’t brought Darrow and the others into the mix until almost a year later. The work had been slow and there had been losses along the way. Now, they just needed to see it through to the end.
“And the people she saw on the train in Chicago?” Neil asked Darrow.
He shrugged. “She was right. Someone was following her, but we aren’t sure who. Probably the FBI. Poking around too much to find out would just draw extra attention to her.”
“Wonderful.” Neil tipped his glass back and drained it.
“And you?” Darrow gestured to Neil’s glass. “How are you doing?”
That was an interesting question thought Tish. She was putting a lot of trust in Darrow. He in turn was relying on Neil. Would he be able to keep it together long enough?
“No better. No worse.” Neil pushed the glass away. “Do you think you should have told Cassie what was really going on?”
Darrow set his glass on the table. He looked at it for several seconds. “No. She’s not ready yet.”
“Could you do this without her?” Tish asked.
“Maybe. It depends on how much time we have. But it should be her.” Darrow massaged the back of his neck with one hand before he stood and moved over to the window.
“Don’t go getting sentimental on me Darrow.”
“Tell me how things are going with the team,” he asked Neil instead of answering.
Neil pulled out a tablet and started tapping on it. He linked it to the virtual reality projection system. Screens of data popped into existence, floating mid-air. With a flick of his hand he moved windows aside to find what he wanted.
“Manufacturing is on schedule. Harvey says he’s done as much with Phase 1 as he can. We’re going to need more information before he can fabricate the final pieces.”
“And Phase 2?” Darrow’s looked back at Neil.
“Ready to go. The new equipment is all installed and tested. Unless the last few pieces throw a wrench in the works, Harvey assures me that assembly will be over eighty percent automated. He just needs to upload the final files.”
Darrow turned from the window and walked back toward the chairs. “And the special package?”
Neil paused for a moment to smile. “Ready to go. It’s the simplest piece of the whole thing. Like riding a bike.”
“Great. So, I’ll have Gloria bring Cassie down to the lab in the morning. You’ll be there to meet her?”
“Yeah. I’ll catch the express in the morning. There are a few things I want to check on before she gets there.” Neil’s eyes looked up at Darrow before sliding the sheet of paper back to him. “I don’t think you paid attention to everything in that report.”
Darrow skimmed the report on the security breach again quickly. “The intrusion only took a few seconds.” His eyebrows narrowed into a deep frown. “They knew exactly what they were looking for when they took her file.”
Neil picked up his empty glass and studied it for a second before sliding it across the table in frustration. “We have a mole.”
“Fuck,” Tish swore under her breath. Her intuition told her there was something else happening they didn’t understand. It was time for her to call in a few favors herself.
Chapter 14
THE NEXT MORNING, GLORIA collected Cassie from the hotel bright and early. They climbed into the back of the same black sedan from the previous day and headed south. While Darrow currently lived in New York City, the headquarters for Crow Research was in Virginia just outside of Washington, D.C. There was coffee and a croissant waiting in the back seat for her, along with a mobile workstation. It had a copy of the XS-9E simulator installed on it. Her task during the morning drive would be to get up to speed before she met the rest of the research group.
They certainly don’t waste any time.
At one point during the drive she took a break and watched the scenery go by outside the window. They were on the bypass around the Baltimore Restriction Zone. The Baltimore attack had been the worst terrorist attack on US soil in its history. Before Net-Day, most attacks were still committed against targets outside the US.
That changed after Net-Day when there was a spike in ideological groups trying to regain lost power or status. The world’s governments were in disarray and security organizations were disorganized. Terrorist groups became much more brazen in their attacks around the world.
An anti-American group saw an opportunity in the mayhem and smuggled a stolen nuke into Baltimore Harbor on a cargo ship. Most people believed the eventual target had been Washington, D.C., but the weapon detonated before it could be moved.
It had been a particularly dirty weapon, causing widespread contamination. Luckily, there hadn’t been another successful attack like it since. Not that some groups hadn’t tried.
Intellectually she knew there was little danger outside the Restriction Zone, but it still made her skin crawl. The heavy concrete and steel barricade created after the attack to contain the radioactive devastation still stood as a silent reminder the Sylph weren’t the only ones to fear.
She shook herself and returned to the task at hand. Starting up the simulator again, she noted the handling was much different than the virtual drone interfaces she was used to flying. However, she adapted with minor delay. Her memory of the stimulator helped. More than once she found herself thinking about her grandfather.
She could hear his quiet coaching, explaining how to do a maneuver more efficiently or why the simulator had complained about something she tried to make it do. By the time they reached Virginia things were starting to come together. She still needed practice to refresh herself, but her comfort level was rising.
When they arrived, they pulled up to a security gate and were waved through. The building itself was a large, two-story structure. The front of the building had office windows down its length on both floors. The car stopped in front of the main doors. The entrance consisted of glass with a large border of shiny stone, dark blue—almost black. At the top of the entrance the building was identified in large white letters as Crow Research Applications. Below that in smaller letters was printed A Darrow Industries Company.
Gloria opened Cassie’s door and she hopped out. She was ushered inside to a large, brightly lit lobby. In the middle of the floor a large mosaic of a crow was embedded. Gloria nodded at the receptionist and led her toward a security station complete with chemical detector and millimeter body scanner. She looked at the guard thoughtfully and remembered what Lizzy had said about the assassination attempts on Darrow.
Gloria handed her an identification badge on a lanyard. “You’ll need to keep this on any time you are inside the building. It has an RFID tag that will allow you access to those areas you are approved for.”
Cassie looked at the badge. When had they taken that picture of her? The only words on it were her first name and an employee identification code. Down the right side was a thick black stripe with a thin red stripe.
“Please do not lose your badge,” the security guard stated. “If you had an IPU, we could code the badge directly to you...”
“I have one,” Cassie interrupted.
“Oh.” The guard looked confused. “I just assumed, well, they’re quite expensive to get.”
“What’s your point?” Her tone turned icy. She could see Gloria scowling silently at the man, as well.
She had gotten her IPU soon after reaching the minimum age of twenty-one. Having an IPU wasn’t a necessity to be a barnstormer, but without its block encoding security it wouldn’t be long before you would be identified and arrested. Barnstorming would never have been a realistic possibility for her without it. She supposed the guard could be forgiven. Under normal circumstances she wouldn’t have been able to afford it.
“Just one second.” The guard looked away and tapped out several commands on his console. “There. Your badge is encoded to your IPU. It will only work for you now.”
