Mina Cortez: From Bouquets to Bullets (9 page)

As she passed several open spaces, Mina could
imagine them filled with people her age. Now, everything was
tailored to people like Dr. Kimura; locations had names that were
references to things that flew over Mina's head. All of the
buildings of the University itself were similarly tailored to their
fields. Looking in windows as she walked revealed rooms structured
very similarly to her school classrooms, but now full of books,
machinery, historical artifacts, models of star systems or early
humans, and various other things she couldn't identify. There were
a few people about, but no one took much notice of her.

Mina continued to follow directions which
updated themselves every time she thought she might be nearing her
destination, before finally heading into one of the buildings near
the center of the university. The chipped instructions led to an
elevator. Once within, there were a few moments of confusion before
Mina rolled with going through rote actions, guided by her chip.
She opened the emergency panel, disengaged two wires which were
mounted loosely, then touched the tips together. The elevator
hummed into motion. The lights showed her going into the basement.
Motion continued well past that point, with the elevator doors
finally opening some distance beneath the ground. Her instructions
updated, leading her down a hallway. Rounding a corner, she almost
ran into the Director.

“Miss Cortez,” Director Richter said without
prelude. “This is Seattle's central chip programming center. There
are only four like it in the United States. Aside from your own,
and that of a few of the nation's highest officials, the people who
work here have some of the highest security clearances available.
This is where your own chip was developed. This is also where Scott
Szach worked before his disappearance.”

Chapter
Nine

The statement took Mina aback. Common sense
and her chip quickly informed her that it was highly irregular to
put an agent on a case involving someone they were close to. Much
as Scott had been on her mind, she hadn't remotely made a
connection, partly because this was against proper procedure,
partly because she simply hadn't considered that this was the sort
of thing the AIA would handle. Of course, now that she was here, it
made sense that they would, but not that she'd be called in on
it.

The Director led her through two security
doors, pushing in a code before both she, then Mina, had to pass
fingerprint, eye recognition and voice recognition tests at each
station. As they went, the Director talked, sounding like she was
not pleased in the least to have Mina there. “This installation was
largely protected by anonymity. The programming center was moved
here thirty years ago. Black marketeer infiltration into both
military ranks and a handful of private security services
complicated security for programming and data loading onto highly
sensitive chips. Reactionary terrorists also hit the Houston
facility around that time, using a targeted EMP pulse to shut down
everything, and destroyed a lot of the chips in development. Since
then, the data on chips is better protected, though a strong enough
pulse will still cause reboot and recovery periods. Everything
needed for high level testing was here, but since production
continued in Redmond, most people assumed the programming was also
done there.”

Mina kept quiet, pretty certain that telling
the Director that Scott may have mentioned that detail wouldn't
help any at this point.

“Despite that, no one trusted a bit of
misdirection to hold up, however much appearances were maintained,”
the Director continued. “This place has state-of-the-art security.
This sub-basement doesn't exist on any maps or blueprints. The
elevator system shouldn't be obvious to most. Then there's the
codes, plus three-step identity verification. If every person in a
group doesn't pass each station, the doors won't open, to prevent
people from taking a single worker hostage and forcing them to lead
through security. Significant security resources are available
should a single alarm be triggered. Additionally, every inch of
this place is monitored by security cameras at all times.”

The second set of doors opened when Mina
finished her verification. Just inside the door, they were met by a
middle aged man. Only a few inches taller than Mina herself, he was
heavyset and looked even thicker due to a full, slightly unkempt
beard and thick glasses. He wore rumpled clothing and smelled like
he'd been in that same set of clothing for a couple days. Over it
all, he wore a taupe gray jacket with ivory lettering on the arms
and back reading 'SECURITY', though he didn't look much like any
security guard Mina had ever seen. Given the cramped quarters and
stale air of the place, she decided she wouldn't mind not seeing
him again any time soon.

“Miss Cortez, this is Fulton Hawkins,
director of security. Fulton was the one who first reported
multiple programmers missing and found the floor supervisor's
body.”

Mina was certain that Fulton Hawkins had some
kind of title he was used to going by, or at least would typically
be Mr. Hawkins, Chief Hawkins or Director Hawkins, to those outside
the facility. Based on Director Richter's subtle body language, the
director didn't think much of Hawkins, and insisting on forgoing
any hint of formality was an intimidation technique. She was also
sure it was working, given the way the basement troll shied away
from her boss. Mina still didn't like her much, but suddenly felt a
certain tiny amount of perverse pride at the reaction.

After a couple of moments of uncomfortable
staring, Fulton seemed to realize it was his turn to talk.
“Normally, all the stations are monitored from the electronic
security room. Accessing it requires going through an additional
layer of security, with different codes. My security chip syncs
with the algorithm it uses to generate the codes,” he explained,
drawing a quirked brow from Director Richter and an impatient
glance from Mina. “That means that I could open the door, but no
one else. I can see the whole facility from in there. The cameras
shut down, and the doors locked me in. The University is on its own
power grid, and we have our own backup down here. That shouldn't
have been possible. And had there been any serious interruption, it
should have set off an alarm to at least get someone checking
things out. We're too far underground for me to call out using my
subdermal comm, so I had to wait ‘til systems came back up to get
out. I couldn't have been stuck in there for more than ten minutes,
max. When I got out, the supervisor was dead. Someone had shot him
in the head. He was just ...” Fulton gestured. “... just lying over
there, face down. No signs of a struggle or anything. All of the
programmers who had been on duty were gone. Again, no struggle, no
nothing. The cameras caught nothing. No alarms went off, but all
records of entries and exits were wiped for a half hour period. Any
of the programmers could have pulled off that kind of hack, but not
many others. This is high-level stuff. Even they should have set
something off if they'd tried to hack it.”

He led them around the facility, cramped,
kept cool, full of some of the highest-end computers Mina had ever
heard of. Basement troll heaven. She could see Scott being very
happy in here ... though probably even happier if a couple of the
lights had been a bit higher. She was almost positive he'd hit his
head a couple times while getting acclimated. As soon as the brief
tour, which included the security room, ended, Director Richter
thanked him with a distinctly 'you are dismissed now, Fulton,' tone
to the politeness. Despite the few options in places to go, he
found somewhere to disappear.

“Miss Cortez, you'll be given full access to
all of the crime scene photos. Both of the other city agents have
been down here and surveyed the scene. There are painfully few
people to be interviewed. You just talked to the primary one,” she
began. “Obviously, Fulton Hawkins remains a suspect, but he's under
almost constant monitoring. He's also been here for several years
with no hint of any incident. Whatever else he is, Fulton is,
historically, honest and good at his job of watching screens and
programming security codes. If he had anything to do with this,
he's made no contact whatsoever with the hostages.”

Mina was already trying to envision the
scene, and running through the reactions she could imagine from
Scott, and a handful of other people like him, to being kidnapped.
Following the directions and locations Hawkins had given them, Mina
moved to examine Scott's work station while Director Richter
continued.

“All of the computers have been swept for any
signs of a clue as to what happened. No one seemed to have left any
kind of warning messages or hints. Everything was undamaged and in
full working order. The only hint of violence was, obviously, the
supervisor's death via a single shot to the back of his head. Going
by his expression and posture, he did not appear unduly alarmed.
We're fairly certain that he was taken by surprise near the start
of the kidnapping. We're also quite certain that this was, at least
in part, an inside job. Someone with extensive knowledge of this
facility and its systems had to be involved. Even then, we have
numerous inconsistencies.”

Mina continued to search the workstation,
looking for signs her friend had been working here, or what he was
working on at the time. While most of the stations had small signs
of the personalities and interests of the users, Scott's station
was mostly clear aside from a coffee cup and a modified ocular
implant interface. Given his home computer station, she was pretty
sure he just hadn't had much chance to move any of his toys in
yet.

“Additionally, while the University grounds
are quiet, a group that size would draw attention. In any
direction, a group would have had to pass any number of buildings,
and eventually, traffic monitoring cameras to get in and out of the
university. No one on campus at the time saw any groups in the
area. Authorized security has swept through every building on
campus, out to the streets on all sides. We're monitoring every
black market contact we're currently aware of for signs of
additional chips becoming available, as numerous chips and programs
were taken, but not wiped off of the existing computers. Everything
was done within a narrow time frame, since the gap in the cameras,
as Fulton indicated, is not long.”

Mina approached the Director again, talking
more quietly now, with one big question remaining on her mind,
above and beyond the mysteries presented by this case. She could
absolutely see the value both in the programs, and especially the
people capable of creating those complex programs. The motivation
was simple. The ways to pull off the disappearing act weren't, but
obviously those had been under analysis for a while by the AIA

“So ... why me? You could call other agents
and specialists in. You have two other agents, and you obviously
know the case. I mean, sure, I appreciate knowing what's going on
here ... but isn't this kind of a breach of protocol? Scott is my
friend. I'd do anything to find his kidnappers, but this is
...”

Director Richter cut her off, narrowing her
eyes. “We are pursuing every angle. This is a matter of security on
the highest level, and I trust you to act professionally. If I
didn't, you wouldn't have gotten that chip, Miss Cortez. However,
you misunderstand. Every other programmer here had a significant
work record and history with the facility. Mr. Szach was a
borderline case. He had a history of system hacking, but his
profile indicated that this tendency was benign. Nonetheless, he
almost didn't get the assignment. He was the newcomer, and in his
first day, received a black mark for a near altercation with his
supervisor. When this happened, he was under review and at risk of
losing the job right after getting it. At this time, we brought you
in on the case due to your familiarity with Scott Szach's habits,
because evidence suggests that he is currently our primary
suspect.”

Chapter
Ten

Despite the shock of the news, and her
obvious conflicts over it, Mina had been expected to continue her
work and go about her day like any other. Throughout much of the
day, she was glad for the chip's ability to let her go into near
auto-pilot for many tasks without risk of mistakes. Her mind was
much more on the data drive in her pocket than the flowers in her
hands. She had to keep herself from fidgeting with it as she
thought. The drive had the record of Scott's argument with his
supervisor, as well as extensive records of his history of hacking
the school's systems, along with the service records of the rest of
the programmers.

That afternoon, between her two actual flower
deliveries, she was given additional information and assignments.
Whoever was on the inside had to have help from someone within the
black market or some other criminal organization. All of the agents
in the city were following up on various leads, and Mina would be
no exception. The following day, following training, she was going
to be sent into the International District on a fake delivery to
look into one of the likely fronts for black marketeers with the
resources to move counterfeit skill-chips.

Mina was so lost in that train of thought
that she almost missed her mother talking to her near the end of
the workday.

“Mina, honey ... it's time to go.”

“Wha ... oh? Another delivery?”

“No, honey. Your dad has the van ready. I
know you haven't had much chance to pack, but they've already
arranged for your new apartment. We thought you might like to take
a look at the place and see what you're going to need. Amiko
started getting some things together for you to move, so you
wouldn't be moving anything too heavy or pushing yourself too hard
after the difficulties.”