Page 33 of Coldwire
“Thank you for the enthusiasm, soldier. I knew you’d come around.”
This is baffling.
“There’s a Medan government program broken up across three files in three locations,” Nik begins. His manner is nonchalant. Almost bored. “An enormous amount of data, and top secret at that. Intelligence networks in both Medaluo and Atahua were told the files were deleted. We want to steal these files before the truth comes out that they were merely hidden.”
I run a quick mental calculation on the school year and the current month. It fits. Nile Military Academy will be preparing to send the newest graduating class on their final exam postings. I would bet anything that they’re going to get involved. The Atahuan government loves to outsource everything to NileCorp, and NileCorp loves to use its cadets in training.
“And what’s the program?” I ask.
The taxi goes silent. Miz fiddles with the glasses on her face, pretending not to be listening. Blare is still staring into their lap, only with an added manner of discomfort, shrinking in their seat.
“Doesn’t matter,” Nik says. Though he was observing me before, his eyes have darted to the window. They reflect the moving shapes, the blue neon in the distance. We pass dark mills and billboards, abandoned cars and falling houses.
“Clearly does.”
“Fine,” he retorts. “It’s classified from you right now.”
Outside of bombing NileCorp property, Nik’s second-most hindering behavior is his insistence on spreading a common slogan across his sites:Indisposition is real.Indisposition has been debunked. It’s something that used to only have traction in anonymous forums, the idea that NileCorp possesses malware capable of infecting a user in StrangeLoom and destroying their mind.
Ever since Nik Grant, though, the idea has been taking root among the masses. Some people are growing afraid of logging in, claiming they could be Indisposed by saying the wrong thing. It’s ridiculous. He’s clearly working off conspiracy theories, so who knows what other flawed information he uses when putting together his missions.
I sigh, folding my arms.
“How am I supposed to help you without knowing what you’re looking for?” Never mind whether this program even exists to begin with.
“You come along for the ride. We’ll let you know when we need you to weigh in.”
“You,” I seethe, “ruined my life to get me toweigh in?”
Nik reaches a hand into his pocket. For a moment I’m convinced he’ll attack me again. I need to prepare to be on the defense. Find the nearest blunt object that can help me fight.
He only pulls out his handheld. I have no clue when that migrated from his bag to his pocket. I definitely watched him zip it into the front pocket earlier.
“Here are the blueprints for each location holding the file. Upsie. Threto. And Kunlun.”
The tension in my body shifts entirely, finding a new target.
“Kunlun?”
“Don’t worry too much about Upsie and Threto. Those files are hidden in their national data centers.” He’s pretending he doesn’t hear my shock. “It will take some work, but breaking in is doable.”
Despite myself, I take the handheld and enlarge the PDF on the screen. Nik watches me like a hawk, tracking each movement of my finger. I treat it like I’m looking at a new mission, needing to understand the brief before NileCorp gives us the environment in mixed reality to train. I find those practice runs on the base more difficult than the real thing: I perform better if I’ve memorized the details before going in, even if that doesn’t tell me what to expect when the engineers re-create our target locations down to the hex code of the graffiti. We run through all the most likely scenarios in those mixed-reality rooms, but half the time, the most likely scenario is just the first one. Not every mission is as difficult as capturing Nik Grant. Usually we’re only guarding high-priority officials entering Button City or transporting critical goods. No need for practice runs two to fifteen. I once asked Teryn if she was also always getting tested on her reaction speed to another unit of NileCorp soldiers converging in on her, and she looked at me as though I’d lost my mind. The engineers on the base design each experience to be unique to the soldier, working off instructions from the previous run about what our weakest flaws are, and for whatever reason, theyreally want me prepared to be ambushed by a rogue unit. I can’t begin to parse why. We’ve never encountered anything close to that on a real mission.
“I don’t know why you’re showing me this,” I remark plainly. “You already had your plan in motion before framing me. I suspect you know how to get into these facilities.”
Upsie’s data center is an enormous building that spans several wings across a field. Only one main entrance, which means getting past a personnel screening turnstile, locks on the server rooms, and passwords on server access. Threto isn’t as bad: it’s a smaller building with more exits. It may actually be harder to move through the city itself without raising suspicion from government surveillance—Threto is the Land of Three Towns, the major hub of the country where all roads lead in and out, highly watched and tightly governed.
I make an attempt to give the handheld back. Nik doesn’t take it yet, despite the careful eye he keeps over my grip on the device. He reaches his arm and swipes on the third PDF he loaded for me.
I look down.
“Oh, sure,” I say. “Hilarious.”
“I’m showing you this because these are the only blueprints we have for Kunlun.”
It’s a picture of me. My ID photo as a NileCorp contractor. It was taken in the hospital only a week after I’d woken so the company could get my registration started. I appear dazed and bedraggled, with visible swelling along my jaw, barely aware what year it was, never mind what I had encountered in virtual. My body wasn’t supposed to come under any harm while I was upcountry performing my final posting, but the nutrient line had tugged out when I seized, and the nodes in the Pod had failed to accommodate the frantic amount of activity happening. They say I was lucky I survived. They say I was lucky that a bout of memories was all I lost.
I push the handheld back properly. “You said you read my files.”
