Hostile Alliances by TW Iain

Author:TW Iain [Iain, TW]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: TW Iain
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Deva

Deva threw herself into her training. She wore herself out with exercise, got more bruises than she thought possible in unarmed combat work, and used the firing ranges until she could hardly stand the sight of a gun.

And when she wasn’t training, she learnt. She ate with her palm-terminal open, read files before she fell asleep at night. She learnt Kaiahive’s secrets, official and unofficial. She explored the city through the terminal.

And she researched the facility that gave birth to the Eve project.

Most of the information was boring. There were too many files on the history of the place, how it had built up over the years. There were lists of personnel‌—‌researchers, techs, biomeds, administrators. There were timelines of the break-throughs, annotations on how the facility’s work had produced so much that helped humanity. Most of this seemed to consist of tweaks and amendments to the lattice, hinting that the lattice was the gateway to a new kind of living, how this was only just the start.

“Got that one right, though, didn’t they?” Deva said to herself. “The start of you lot controlling everyone.”

Other files hinted at darker operations beneath the surface. Deva read transcripts and listened to recordings from workers who had escaped. Some of their stories seemed ridiculous, but many sounded far too plausible.

She found no hard evidence, though. There were some images, taken with clandestine equipment, but the details were open to interpretation.

The Heralds had people on the inside, and Deva reckoned most of them would be low-level workers‌—‌cleaners, catering staff, general clerks. Faceless drones who were beneath the interest of those in charge.

Except deep down. Deva reckoned the darker reaches of the facility had their own drones, ones vetted by the bosses. She wouldn’t be surprised if they had alternative entrances, and were fully self-sufficient. Take the main building out, and the subterranean levels would hardly notice.

So destroying the place would take more than levelling the building above ground.

She checked on some of the names mentioned in the files. The researchers had decent-looking backgrounds, loads of qualifications, years of experience. Some of them had worked on lattice-adjacent tech, but nothing to indicate any darker projects.

Because that data was hidden, wasn’t it? The company kept it locked down. And if Chiron had access to any of it, he kept it restricted. Either way, Deva couldn’t access it.

But she wasn’t alone here, was she?

She checked her chrono‌—‌half an hour before her next session at the range. She tapped in Wrench’s contact on the internal base system, got a ping-back straight away.

“Hey, Wrench?”

“That you, Deva?” Pointless question, when the system would show her ident.

“Yeah. You busy?”

“Always got things going on. Why?”

“Got a favour to ask.”

He hesitated. “Yeah?”

“Nothing major. Any chance of meeting up?”

“Sure. Not doing anything time-sensitive, Come on over. You know where I am, right?”

“Unless you’ve moved from last time. Be over in a couple of minutes.” Then she cut the link, grabbed the terminal, and left her room.

Deva didn’t run, but she wanted to. She forced her legs to take her calmly along the corridors.

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