Starlight(Pact Arcanum 4) (12 page)

Vladimir laughed. “Impossible.”

“No, my Lord. Just difficult.” She smiled. “In that, I may be able to assist.” She cupped her hands in front of her chest and summoned. Her palms lit up with green light, which faded to reveal a small rectangular device of white metal, topped with clear crystal.

Vladimir glanced at the object without recognition. “Is that a weapon?”

“Of a sort. It is an Armistice Security portable AI receptacle that once housed a copy of the Imperator’s original, fifth-generation AI, called Sunburst.”

Vladimir raised an eyebrow. “How did you acquire it?”

The Herald snarled. “He handed it to me with his own hands, to distract me from the implanted AI copy that he carried into the council chamber, allowing him to assassinate the Fourth Council a century ago.”

Vladimir gauged her reaction with interest, seeing her shields slip to reveal her tightly-controlled, but white-hot rage. “A fifth-generation AI from that era would have no useful knowledge of the alliance, and would not even be useful as a weapon, given that it is hopelessly obsolete.”

The Herald allowed herself a predatory grin. “True. But I was able to study and duplicate the programming matrix of that original AI, and my spies have been able to keep me updated with the advancements in Armistice science that were incorporated into the five subsequent generations of AI. This receptacle contains a fully functional prototype of a tenth-generation AI, whose loyalties are to myself and the Court.”

Vladimir stared at her. “You have the technology to create true AI? Why have you not shared this with the Court? It would have finally secured our virtual defenses against Armistice sympathizers.”

The Herald shrugged. “A hidden blade cuts deeper than one wielded openly. The Daywalker Houses think their defenses are safe from attack. I merely allowed them to believe that was true.”

Vladimir nodded, gazing at her with new respect. “Impressive. Still, I do not see how an AI of our own would help us acquire an insider to the alliance.”

“Trust me, my Lord.” The Herald showed her fangs as she smiled.

“Very well.” Vladimir had to admire the vicious glee he could read in her mind. “Good hunting.”

C
HAPTER 17

August 2142; Hephaestus Station, lunar space

Antonio walked down the corridor toward the observation deck. He steeled himself as he stepped into the small room below a clear dome of armored glass. As expected, Nick and Layla were waiting for him, accompanied by Rafael, Lorcan, and Rory. Antonio dropped his duffle bag next to the door. “Hello, everyone.”

Layla turned away from the view of the
Singularity
to give him a warm smile. “Welcome home, Antonio.”

Antonio’s spirits lifted as he embraced his mother and Nick in turn.
At least they’re happy to see me. Maybe it won’t be so bad this time.
“It’s good to be back.”

He looked over their mental shields and saw the question form in both of their minds simultaneously:
Then why do you always leave?
However, neither of them gave voice to it, for which Antonio was grateful.
Sometimes, it sucks to know what everyone around me is thinking.
To cover the souring of his mood, he faced his other relatives. “Uncle Rory, Uncle Ruarc, it’s been a long time. How have you been?”

“We’re doing great, Antonio,” said Rory with a secretive grin. “There’s something we wanted to talk to you about, actually, and we decided to wait and tell you in person.”

Antonio raised an eyebrow as he noticed the extensive layering of the Nightwalker’s mind. As a former Wind of Air, Rory had the strongest psychic gift of anyone other than the Children of Starlight, and he had plenty of experience at hiding his true thoughts. “Out with it, Uncle. You know I hate surprises.”

Next to Rory, Lorcan raised his left hand and spread his fingers.

Antonio frowned at the strange gesture, then caught his breath at the sight of the plain, gold band on Lorcan’s fourth finger. His gaze snapped down to Rory’s hand and the matching ring. Turning to look back at Nick, he saw a heavy, gold band showing two clasped hands on the Daywalker’s left ring finger. He raised his eyes to stare at Nick’s sheepish expression. “You’re married?”

“Engaged,” said Rory. “Nick proposed just over four months ago, on our anniversary.”

“We held off on the ceremony until you were here, Tony,” said Nick. “We wanted the entire family to be together for this.”

“Thank you,” said Antonio, still reeling from the news. “I appreciate your thinking of me. It’s just unexpected.”

Nick gave him a sad smile. “You mean you thought I’d never have the brains to see what I have, instead of what I had?”

Antonio reddened. “I wouldn’t have put it that way, Uncle. It just seemed like you were happy with the way things were.”

Nick’s expression grew serious again. “Everything changes, Tony. Nothing lasts forever.”

Antonio was at a loss for something to say. He had thought he understood Nick; that the Daywalker was too locked up in his grief to make a deeper commitment to Rory and Lorcan. He suddenly felt a surge of hope.
If he can let go of the past that much, then maybe we can be a real family again someday.
“I’m happy for you, Uncle.” He looked back at Rory and Lorcan. “And I know you two have been waiting for this for so long.”

Rory gave him a blinding grin. “Yes, we have.”

Antonio glanced at Nick’s ring again. “Why not matching rings?”

Nick nervously rotated the ring on his finger. “I gave them mine and Jeremy’s wedding rings. They wanted me to have something that had equal meaning.”

“It’s the faith ring I gave to Connor when we became lovers,” said Lorcan softly. “It has been in my possession for over five hundred years.”

Antonio took a deep breath. “Wow.”

Rafael laughed. “You always had a way with words, Tony.” He glanced down at the printed circuitry of the chronometer on the back of his left hand. “The rest of your luggage will be in quarantine by now. Shall we continue this conversation on the way home?”

Antonio nodded, and went back to reclaim his bag. Then he frowned as the others walked toward the wrong exit. “Isn’t the gateway down the other corridor?”

Rafael grinned. “I thought it might be fun to bring you home in the
Starlight
, Tony. When was the last time you actually took the controls of a ship?”

Antonio’s eyes widened. “It’s been almost a decade. I have a short-range jumpship in dock at Chiron Spaceport, to get around to the other colonies when I’m there, but the
Singularity
isn’t really built for solo operation. It would be nice to do a little piloting without letting the ship’s AI have all the fun.”

Rafael scowled. “Well, then, don’t think I won’t be watching when you input your course. If you’re too out of practice, you’re not getting anywhere near my baby.”

Antonio laughed at his concern. “If I screw up, then Rapier can fly the rest of the way, but don’t worry so much, Raf. I’d never do anything to jeopardize your antique rust-bucket.”

Layla chuckled at Rafael’s outraged expression. “Boys, you can insult each other’s toys later. It’s time we were going, and we have a lot of catching up to do.”

August 2142; Sanctuary municipal airspace, French Alps

Rapier watched Antonio through the
Starlight’s
internal sensors as the Spacer put the ship on final approach into Sanctuary. He was prepared to intervene in case Antonio made a mistake, but so far, there was no evidence of that.

Revenant hesitated for a moment too long.

Rapier laughed and simply went back to monitoring Antonio’s landing maneuvers.

* * *

Revenant ignored the ship’s AI and returned to the confines of Rory’s implant matrix.

are
obsessed with his old life.>

The AI sighed.

Tobias didn’t answer, remaining silent for the remainder of the trip.

* * *

After Antonio made hard contact with the Sanctuary spaceport pad, Rapier watched as the organics gathered up their belongings and left the ship. The AI meticulously went through its landing protocols and shut down the spell-enhanced fusion reactor that powered the
Starlight
. He might have been of insufficient complexity to be compatible with the neurochip implants that were standard in personal AI clients now, but he could still do the job he had been assigned when Nick had upgraded to the new technology. When the ship’s flight systems were entirely offline, Rapier finally relaxed and retreated to the core computer module in the heart of the vessel to relax. He was about to dial up a book to read when there was a query from the ship’s communications system.

Surprised, Rapier found only a request to connect, without any further information. Intrigued, he noted that there was no signature associated with the message. Briefly, given their proximity to Court territory, he considered flagging the message for review by Armistice Security, but then decided against it. Rapier might be a relatively antiquated gen3AI, but he was more than a match for the most advanced near-AI constructs that the Court had access to.

Intrigued, Rapier opened a channel from behind his strongest firewalls. He was not stupid. He knew that an enemy could attempt to slip some kind of malware past him along the communications stream, so he locked the firewalls behind himself to protect the ship’s systems from interference.

As he did so, a burst of viral code exploded around him, entrapping Rapier inside a prison of static. The AI tried to decode the barrier and get free, but the codewall mutated too fast for him to get a lock on the programming frequencies.
This isn’t near-AI software,
he realized belatedly. He was being attacked by an AI of at least fifth-generation complexity. Despite Rapier’s best efforts, he couldn’t break through, and the virtual prison dragged him away.

C
HAPTER 18

August 2142; Court of Shadows Council Chamber Complex, House Talizered Embassy, Alexandria, Egypt; One week later

“So the operation was a success?” asked Vladimir, before drinking from a glass of vodka liberally dosed with human blood.

“Better than we could have hoped for, actually,” answered the Night’s Herald. She stood stiffly at attention, her hands clasped behind her back. “In addition to being the personal AI client for Nicholas Magister Luscian for many years, the Rapier AI was also a member of the Nexus.”

Vladimir frowned. “It was a public figure in the AI network? Will that not make it more difficult to impersonate?”

The Herald shook her head. “The Nexus operates in secret, and the council members’ identities are hidden from all but the council itself. Only the other nine members of the Nexus would be able to identify my Morningstar AI on that basis. However, during the interrogation, Morningstar was able to extract the Nexus recognition codes that Rapier uses, so it should be able to defer any questions that are not too personal. We also retrieved the access codes for the
Starlight
, so we have another avenue of attack, if necessary.”

Vladimir raised an eyebrow. “Attack?”

“The jumpvessel
Starlight
carries a fusion reactor more powerful than any other ship in their fleet below the level of interstellar transport. A deliberate overload of that reactor would be sufficient to vaporize an entire city.”

Vladimir snorted in disbelief. “Surely they have precautions to prevent such an occurrence?”

“Yes. The various spaceports and orbital stations routinely monitor their local airspace for reactor overload, and the facility AI’s will take control of any vessel in danger and shut down the reactor elements immediately. This mode of attack would only be possible when the ship is in flight, out of range of those local sensor networks. Still, it would be an effective method of assassination, should the Huntmaster or Prince Nicholas be on board at the time.”