Halo: First Strike (6 page)

dark invocations of another time, leather and furnishings

conjuring up men's clubs, smoking rooms, the somber whispers of

deals going down.

Traynor's eyes lost focus as he went rapt, listening to his

voice within.  Even if he hadn't been aware of Traynor's

dependence on his Advisor, Gonzales would have known what was

happening.  Traynor, higher up in the executive food chain than

anyone else of Gonzales's acquaintance, needed permanent real-time

access to the information, advice, and general emotional support

his Advisor supplied, so Traynor was wired with a bone-set

transceiver just under his left ear.  Wherever he went, his

Advisor's voice went with him, through cellular networks and

satellite links.

Traynor finally looked up and said, "Look, I want you to get

focused on a job you're going to do for me.  Can you do that?" 

Gonzales shrugged.  Traynor said, "You're upset and angryyou

were attacked, almost killedI know that.  But look:  you work

for Internal Affairs, it's an occupational hazard.  You and your

machine poked hard at this man's operation, and you spooked him,

so he did something stupid."

"And I want to make him pay for it."

"You play along with me on this one, and maybe you'll be able

to.  But laternow I've got other work for you."

"Okay, I'll do it."  Gonzales knew he had to play along:  it

was his only chance to even things up with Grossback.  Play now,

pay back later.

"Good," Traynor said.  "How much do you know about Halo City

and Aleph?"

"The city was put together by a multi-national consortium. 

SenTrax has a data monopoly, employs a large-scale m-i to

administer the city.  That's about all I know."

The wallscreen at one end lit up with a glyph in hard black:

_0

The voice of Traynor's Advisor spoke through a ceiling

speaker; it said, "The sign you are looking at is the original

emblem of the Aleph system when it was built by SenTrax.  In

Cantor's notation, it represents the first of the transfinite

numbersdenoting the infinite set of integers and fractions, or

natural numbers.  Aleph is also the first letter of the Hebrew

alphabet and the name of a story"

"Get on with it," Traynor said.

"The system was constructed at Athena Station, in

geosynchronous orbit, where it supervised the construction of the

Orbital Energy Grid, and later was transported to Halo City, at

L5, where it serves as the primary agent of data interpretation,

logistical planning, and administration."

Gonzales said, "Seems odd to have a project the size and

importance of Halo administered by an obsolete m-i."

"It would be so if Aleph were obsolete," answered the

Advisor.  "However, this is not the case.  The machine we refer to

as Aleph, has capabilities superior to any existing m-i."

Gonzales looked at Traynor, who held up a hand, indicating

have patience, and said, "Next series."

On the screen came a pan shot across a weightless space where

a man floated, encased in a transparent plastic bubble.  He was

naked, and his limbs were shrunken and twisted.  He had tubes in

his nose, mouth, ears, penis, and anus, metal cups over his eyes. 

Two thick cables connected to junctions at the back of his neck.

The Advisor said, "This man's name is Jerry Chapman.  He

suffers from severe neural damage, the results of a toxin

transmitted through seafood contaminated with toxic waste.  Though

most motor and sensory functions are disabled, he is not comatose. 

In fact, he appears to retain all intellectual function.  Note the

neural interface sockets:  they are the key to what follows."

"He's at Halo?" Gonzales asked.

"Yes," the Advisor said.  "He was taken there from Earth."

"Very special treatment," Gonzales said.

"The group at Halo has been looking for such an opportunity,"

the Advisor said.  "To explore long-term Aleph-interface."

Traynor said, "In fact, Chapman's relations with Aleph go

back to the machine's early days."

The Advisor said, "When he and Aleph worked with Doctor Diana

Heywood, who at the time was employed by SenTrax at Athena

Station.  She was blind at that time."

"Even in this deck, Doctor Heywood's the joker," Traynor

said.  "She was involved with Aleph at the time, and later she and

lived with Chapman, on Earth.  She was released by SenTrax for

unauthorized use of the Aleph system, but we've brought her back

into our employ.  She's going to Halo, where she will assist Aleph

in an attempt to keep this man alive."

"Alive?" Gonzales asked, gesturing toward the hulk on the

screen.  "There doesn't seem much point."  As he understood these

things, given the man's condition, withdrawal processing should

have started, SenTrax as medical guardians making application to

the Federal Medical Courts for permission to cease support.

The Advisor said, "Aleph believes it can keep him alive in

machine-space.  There are special problems, as you can imagine,

among them the need to have love, friendship  I do not understand

these matters well, but Aleph has communicated to me that the next

weeks are critical for the patient."

Traynor said, "However, using Doctor Heywood presents its own

problems."

"She left SenTrax years ago," the Advisor said.  "In somewhat

strained circumstances."

Traynor said, "So she has no reason to be loyal to the

company."  He paused.  "And we have no reason to trust her."

Gonzales said, "I presume this is where I enter in?"

"Yes," Traynor said.  "I want you to accompany her.  You will

represent me and, indirectly, SenTrax Board."  Gonzales raised his

eyebrows, and Traynor laughed.  "Yes, I am representing the board

on this one, unofficiallythey see this treatment as being of

enormous interest but wish to have a certain insulation between

them and these matters, given that certain tricky legal issues

will have to be skirted."

"Or trampled on," said Gonzales.

"As you wish," said Traynor.  "The important point is this: 

from the board's point-of-view, Doctor Heywood cannot be trusted.

Gonzales said, "So you need a spy, and I'm it."

Traynor shrugged.

The Advisor said, "You represent properly vested interests in

a situation where they would not otherwise be adequately

represented."

Gonzales said, "That's a good one, 'represent properly vested

interests.'  I'll try to remember it.  Okay, I'll do my best."  He

turned to face Traynor and said, "To get you on the board." 

Traynor laughed.  Gonzales asked, "How long will this thing take?"

"Not too long," Traynor said.

The Advisor said, "Once Chapman's state has been stabilized

"

"Or he dies," Traynor said.

"Highly probable," said the Advisor.  "Once he is stable

alive or deadyour job will be finished."

Traynor said, "But until then, your job is to let me know

what's happening.  You'll be in machine-space along with them, and

you'll see what they're doing."

"Fine," Gonzales said. "So what do I do now?"

"You fly to Berkeley and talk to Doctor Heywood," Traynor

said.  "Introduce yourself.  Make a friend."

5. So Come to Me, Then

Gonzales arrived at Berkeley Aeroport, a collection of

cracked cement pads at the edge of the water, by mid-afternoon. 

He stepped out of the swing-wing into blazing sunshine.  Across

the bay, the Golden Gate and Alcatraz Island danced in the glare;

the water glittered so intensely his sunglasses went nearly black.

A Truesdale rental waited for him in the parking lot.  He

stuck a SenTrax i.d./credit chip into its door slot, and the door

retracted into its frame with a muted hiss.  The Truesdale's

windows had opaqued against the dazzle, and its passive a/c had

been working, so the dark brown velvet seat was cool to the touch

when Gonzales slid across it.

"Do you wish to drive, Mister Gonzales?" the car asked.

Gonzales said, "Not really.  You know where we're going?"

"Yes, I have that address."

"Then you take it."

Diana Heywood lived in the Berkeley hills, in a Maybeck house

more than a century old.  The car drove Gonzales through streets

that wound their way up the hillside, then stopped in front of a

house whose redwood-shingled bulk loomed over Gonzales's head as

he stood on the sidewalk.  Sun glinted off the lozenged panes of

its bay window.

Her door answered his knock by saying she was a few blocks

away, at the Rose Gardens.  The door said, "It is a civic project: 

volunteers are rebuilding the garden, which has fallen into

disuse.  Many of the local"

"Thank you," Gonzales said.

He told the Truesdale where he was going and set off on foot

in the direction the memex had indicated.  To his left hand,

streets and homes sloped down toward the bay; to his right, they

climbed up the steep hillside.

Gonzales came to a hand-lettered sign in green poster paint

on white board that read:

BERKELEY ROSE GARDENS RECLAMATION PROJECT

He looked down to where broken redwood lattices fanned out along

terraced pathways threaded with a clumsy patchwork of green pvc

irrigation pipes.  Halfway down stood a cracked and peeling

trellis of white-painted wood with bushes dangling from its gaps.

Next to the trellis, a small gardener robot, a green plastic-

coated block on miniature tractor wheels, extended a delicate arm

of shining coiled steel ending in a ten-fingered fibroid hand. 

The hand closed, and a dark red rose came away from its bush. 

Clutching the blossom, the little robot wheeled away.

        Gonzales walked down the inclined pathway, his feet crunching

on gravel, past the bushes and their labels stating often