neural.coder 0x22 — Trust issues
Can Geoff trust Pete, has he really changed sides?
Twenty minutes, and three slightly battered scones later, Geoff had finished his side of the story. He’d explained about Jenn’s past and everything that had happened to both of them. His success with the coins, the capture, the torture, the whole story.
“I’ve got to say,” Duncan said, “The way Geoff tells it, it looks like you’ve joined an evil organisation that goes way back, to at least the 1980s.”
“Further, they go back centuries. If they had this tweaking tech working, then under Imelda Marsh they would abuse that power, with no guardrails at all. Ethics, morality, common decency, honour, none of that would get in her way.”
“So you’re not going to take me in?” Geoff said.
“Nope,” Pete said. “No, I’m done with them. We can’t let them dig everything you know out of you. No one should have these powers you’ve invented.”
“So let me go, Duncan’s friend has a boat.”
“They’ll find you,” Pete said, “Even with our help and experience.”
“How do you two know each other?”
Duncan said, “We were in the army together.”
“SAS or something?”
They both rolled their eyes, “We don’t like to say,” Duncan said, “even when retired.”
“Anyone who just comes out and says they are SAS,” Pete said, “is lying to you. It’s not something you boast about.”
“So you both were then!”
“Not important,” Duncan replied.
Pete smiled, “Your escape is irrelevant, sooner or later the Obligatto techs will have perfected the code they stole from you, then they won’t need you anyway, but they’ll still have the unstoppable power.”
“Shit,” said Geoff, “So we’re pretty much screwed then?”
“The techies are a matter of days away from cracking it they say, although Marsh still believes we need what’s locked in your brain, or failing that she needs you gone. I have kill orders if you look like escaping again,” Pete said.
“You really are caught up in a nightmare of a job there, Pete,” Duncan said, “doesn’t seem like the old you at all.”
“Honestly? I’m done with it,” Pete said, “they made a mistake bringing in someone from the outside, especially a non-believer. We need to bring them down.”
They’d argued for too long about what taking down the Obligatto would entail. Geoff was concerned that he’d be captured and squeezed for information again. Duncan was worried that two well-trained but aging ex-special forces operatives, and one geeky computer programmer wasn’t much of a takedown force. Pete was more positive about their changes, particular given who their geeky computer programmer was.
Duncan had topped upped coffees, only Geoff had accepted a second scone.
“I still say it’s madness,” Duncan said, “an organisation that’s been hidden for centuries surely has decent secrecy and security?”
“They do, but I know it inside out,” said Pete, “I can sketch us a layout, I know shift patterns, I know the people themselves that we’d be going up against.”
“Cameras?”
“Everywhere. They love information, they’re all about the data,” Pete said.
“Hey, you’ve stopped saying ‘we’,” Geoff said. What he really wanted to say was something sarcastic about Pete being the man who had killed Andy. Geoff wasn’t entirely sold on this turnaround of loyalty. Although Pete did seem very loyal to Duncan. There was no way that was a setup—Geoff choosing to come here to this fishing village, choosing this particular place to stay—it was pure chance that he’d chosen the cafe run by an old friend of the man tracking him, wasn’t it?
“If we truly want to destroy the organisation completely, then we should target their data and systems,” Pete said, “With no archives, no access to their network of surveillance nodes, no communication with their people, it would take them decades to rebuild.”
“But they would rebuild?” Geoff said.
“You can’t beat being raised in a cult, the people will always be loyal to the idea,” Pete checked his watch, “The pickup van will be here in just over half an hour, we need to be ready to pretend I’ve captured both of you when it gets here. The driver is one of my team, Brandenburg, and she’s full-on cult flavoured Obligatto. We’ll have the journey back to London to plan.”
Duncan scratched his chin, head tilted slightly, “Can’t Geoff just teleport us to London?”
“Hell no!” Geoff and Pete said in unison.
“Way too risky,” Geoff said, what I saw happen in that service station, that’s not something we want to go anywhere near.”
“Agreed,” Pete said.
“Doing things at distance is hard, it’s like drawing a masterpiece with crayons, taped to the end of broomsticks, with boxing gloves on. It’s non-trivial. I’m not sure what they got wrong, probably something to do with referencing coordinates,” Geoff said.
“Then there’s no way we’re teleporting anywhere,” Pete said, “I’ve lost enough people to that this week.”
“We couldn’t teleport anyway, I’ve lost all my code.”
“Can you rewrite it? We could do with some magic,” Pete said.
“Yes, I think I can, even through it’s from scratch again,” he paused for a moment, could he rebuild one more time? He’d do it for Jenn and Andy. “I can definitely do it, I’ve seen it all before. It’s kinda like simply retyping it,” he paused, “kind of.” Saying it out-loud made it real.
“You’ve got the drive to London to it in,” said Pete.
“If I’m going to be any help with any kind of raid,” Geoff said, “then we’ll need to pick up some augmented reality glasses, I can’t be running around typing crap into a laptop. I’ve got an idea how to use them.”
“We can sort that,” said Pete.
“We’ll need a good virus as well, to inject into their network,” Geoff said, so I need a way to get online without tipping them off.”
“No worries the van is online, and they won’t question any traffic from it.”
“We’re really going to do this then?” Duncan said?
A crack of lightning forked through the dark, rain lashed view beyond the cafe window, splitting the sky across the harbour into two.
“I reckon the Universe says yes,” Geoff said.
Duncan SAS. Called it, haha!