He walked, head bent into the wind. The tail of his coat danced behind him as his collar clung to his throat. The images were seared into his mind. He had arrived at the apartment and found the door kicked in, the jamb splintered like so many toothpicks. He felt a weight in his hand. He had unholstered his gun by instinct. He slipped through the doorway and padded quietly down the hall. There was light in the living area but the shadows were off kilter. He rolled into the room and came up behind the couch. He scanned the room but detected no movement. It looked like the whole room had been picked up and shaken. The room had been tossed. Drawers had been pulled out and dumped on the floor. Tables were overturned. A couple of lamps had survived but were on the floor. That was the reason the light and shadows were at odd angles. He was still tense but didn't seem to be in immediate danger. As he slowly stood and finished his survey of the room he saw Grace lying on the floor. The unnatural angle of her body told him that he would never again hold her in his arms. Had it only been a few hours since he last saw her? He took one last look and escaped the carnage.
She had meant something to him and it was hard to leave her this way. Getting caught up in the ensuing chaos that would surely consume this place would not help her anyway. He was known in the area. He was well liked but there would be too many questions that would be unavoidable. The cops might question him about this later, and literal and figurative distance from the scene would help to alleviate being tied up long term. Right now it was time to head for Sebastian’s.
Pushing through the wind and rain he made his way to one of the tunnel entrances without incident. It was the only place in the city not completely sodden. After walking blocks in the autumn deluge, the tunnel air was like a warm embrace. When he reached the bottom of the steps he waved his pass over the turn gate and headed for the platform. The conveyance car had just come to a stop so he didn't have to wait long. He found an open seat and settled in. The ride from here to the western district where Sebastian's was would take around thirty minutes. It was time he was usually grateful for. It gave him time to think. Today, he tried to keep his thoughts from overwhelming him.
He and Grace had been together for a few months. He had just started staying over at her place instead of his room at Sebastian's in the last two weeks. It was the first relationship to make him wonder if perhaps he had a reason to make changes in his life, settling down, that kind of thing. He hadn't yet had the opportunity to introduce her to Sebastian. Now she was gone.
The car stopped and the doors slid open. He stepped out onto the platform and turned for the exit stairs. He made note of the two grim characters leaned against the far wall. The lack of a telltale bulge in their sides would have been a good sign under normal circumstances. In this situation, it had ominous import. Those two were not your average enforcer. They were quite large and almost unnaturally still. Something in the back of his brain hovered teasingly out of reach. He kept his eyes on them as he crossed the platform. And then he figured out what was so odd. Their chests weren't moving. They weren't breathing. They could only be Gillies.
The term was from old Earth. In a region called Scotland, Gilly was a name for a particular kind of hunting guide. Tales of their legendary prowess at camouflage carried through the ages. The modern Gillie was a proficient hunter and expert assassin. While formidable, that is not what set them apart. The name came from their ability to blend in. Gillies were not human.
Luckily for Baldwin he was using some camouflage of his own. With his beard and mustache grown out long he looked like a different man. It was enough to keep him from being noticed by the Gillies. He kept a normal pace as he climbed the steps to the street level. It was only a few blocks to his destination. He ducked out into the rain and pulled his coat close about him. The street was fairly crowded given the inclement weather and it helped to conceal him that much better. He rounded the final corner and saw the flashing neon sign for Sebastian's. A warm room and clean sheets were waiting for him inside. He crossed the street and aimed for the door.
He stepped inside to what could only be described as another world. Outside was a crowded urban center, hard edged and alive with technology. Where he stood now was somewhat dark and had an organic feel. It harkened back to an old world inn. There was a fire blazing in the cavernous main hearth. Here and there were small candle lanterns hanging from hooks in the wall and sitting on some of the tables. Open flame was something of an oddity to the inhabitants of the city outside. Electricity provided the light and heat in the daily world. In here, the electricity had been hidden in order to transport those who entered to another place.
Sebastian had created a haven for the weary locals who were lucky enough to find this place. It was well off the main thoroughfare. There was no noise from the outside world to disrupt the calm slow pace that Sebastian had worked tirelessly to achieve. That was one of the first things they had worked on when Sebastian had hired him. Sebastian bought the place from a property liquidator. The warrenous space took up most of a block with various shoppes fronting the streets concealing the fact it was one large building. Baldwin helped him carve out the smaller units that he leased out, ensuring that even if he lost all his savings, Sebastian never really had to work again. Not that Sebastian would ever stop working. Hard work had gotten him here and was ingrained in a way that would never see him retiring.
The medieval facade belied the technology that was woven just under the skin. The quiet was just one aspect of that technology. The space behind the walls contained panels that literally shielded this building within a building. From the outside, any scan would show the innocuous innards of a typical building for the area. They even went as far as to delineate internal divisions appropriate to the external perimeter shoppes. Only a handful besides Sebastian and Baldwin knew what lay beyond the inn, a hidden labyrinth that consumed upwards of seventy percent of the space.
The building's restoration was the first work Baldwin did when he landed here and Sebastian, the first friend he had made. They had been the best of friends ever since. That had been rare in Baldwin's life till then. He made a life for himself dealing in items of “cultural significance”. That sometimes put him in contact with unsavory people, left him in dire circumstances, and saw him move about quite regularly. It was not a life conducive to having many friendships. That's not to say he didn't know many people. Baldwin had a wealth of acquaintances, contacts, cohorts, and yes, some real friends. But, he only had one friend like Sebastian. Closer to a true brother would be a better way to describe him. The two men would do, and on occasion had done, anything for each other.
Sebastian nodded to Baldwin as he saw him enter. Baldwin found an empty table, which was a minor feat given the popularity of the inn. One of the wait staff came by with dinner. That was another perk of their friendship- all the staff knew him and took very good care of him. He didn't have much of an appetite.
Now that the immediate danger was over, the emotions were building. He would miss her smile. He would miss her kind way. He couldn't avoid the guilt for bringing her into his world and what it had cost her.
Sebastian's arrival broke him out of his malaise. “I got your message about Grace, I'm sorry.”
Baldwin couldn't meet his eyes, “Yeah, I should've been more careful.”
“I don't know that you could have prevented any of this. And besides, we have no idea who this was or what they were after. It may have been connected to you. It also could have been random.”
Baldwin didn't have any solid theories. “I was contacted a week ago about a job. I don't have any info on it so far.”
Sebastian looked him over, “You should probably get some rest. We can work on figuring it out in the morning. Your room is all set. I had Ava clean and restock the linens.”
Baldwin left the table and headed for his room. He hadn't used his room recently. He had been staying with Grace when not off planet. He walked down a back hall of the inn and turned in to what looked to be supply closet. He reached for the back of a shelf on the right hand wall. After pushing aside a few bottles of cleaning chemicals he palmed the wall. The was no discernible sound as a panel next to the supply shelf slid open. He stepped through to the hidden heart of the building where Sebastian had built his private sanctuary.
The fit, finish, and decor of this part of the building was more in line with what one expected to see. The walls were carbon panels. The lighting was provided by electroluminescent coatings covering various parts of the walls, floors, and ceilings.
The special touches were things that you didn't see. The entrance with it's hidden door activated by a bio-metric scanner that was itself hidden was only one of those features. Inside the wall panels was a layer of ArmorGel. It was a semi-liquid substance that would harden and then soften again within nanoseconds to absorb and dissipate the energy of any weapon of man-deployable size. Bio-conduit circuitry laced through the entire structure and took care of everything from lighting and comfort levels to advanced sensor monitoring and analysis.
This isn't to say that the space was cold and austere. There was carpet on the floor and wood touches that gave the space some style and warmth. This space was just thoroughly modern, unlike the veneer of archaic materials used for the inn.
After a few minutes, Baldwin reached the door to his suite. He crossed the threshold and the light level rose to a soft glow throughout the main living area. He hung his coat and walked to the kitchen. He opened one of the sleek black mahogany cabinets to get a glass. He sat the glass on the counter and thumbed the pad in front of it for a drink. When the dispenser had finished it's work he took the glass with him to go sit in the corner chair by his personal view screen. The adjacent wall lit up with the city skyline.
There were no windows in this part of the building, the view was simulated by a wall sized view panel. He was seeing the city in real time from an exterior feed. He tapped his view screen and flipped through the com logs to see if anything needed immediate attention. Nothing stood out that would need him tonight. He took a sip and relaxed back into his chair...
Baldwin awoke not knowing how long he had been asleep. It felt like only a few minutes but a quick check of his screen showed 4:03 A.M. He had knocked his drink onto the floor and he wasn't eager to return to the nightmare that put it there. He picked his glass off of the floor and deposited it in the sink then went through the bedroom into the bath. He figured he could shower and head out to the inn's main kitchen. He decided to shave off the beard and mustache when he got out of the shower. Grace had liked the facial hair but he never really got used to it himself. The razor slowly revealed his square jaw. He wiped away the remaining shave cream. This is what he had looked like when they had first met. Grace had described him as ruggedly handsome but confessed it was his deep set green eyes that had pierced her heart. Those eyes were now overshadowed by a furrowed brow caused by his irritation at himself. He couldn't let everything he saw or did remind him of her. He had to push the emotions to the back of his mind. It was time to get dressed.
Finn and Elliot would probably be about by the time he got there. They were both masters of their craft and good company besides. He could score a gourmet breakfast and coffee for the low price of chopping a few vegetables. Eating with them in the kitchen during slow periods was an occasional treat that would be welcome right now.
The two cooks had known each other longer than he and Sebastian. When Sebastian offered to hire Finn he was told that they were a package deal. Sebastian had taken the gamble and had collected the jackpot many times over. Like most of Sebastian's staff they were long-term and closer to family than they were employees.
Sebastian commanded an extreme loyalty from the people that surrounded him. It was well earned by how Sebastian treated people and the lengths he would go to for those he loved. Even amongst people that had a casual or business relationship, Sebastian was liked and well respected.
Baldwin on the other hand was somewhat different. He treated people fairly, but he didn't go out of his way to know people or form relationships. In his line of work it was incautious to be to open and chummy with individuals who were sometimes the unsavory sort. He had a reputation for being cold and machine like. It kept those who could be dangerous in line. Everyone knew right where they stood with Baldwin, somewhere between a solid handshake for a payment transfer and a reticule. He didn't waste time on small talk. He was all business. But, that was to the world at large. To this ragtag family, he was warm as you could ask for.
When he arrived in the kitchen his hopes were rewarded. Finn was firing up the range and grill. He gestured to the carafe sitting on the prep table and continued at his task.
“After you've had enough coffee to get you going, chop an onion,” Finn said over his shoulder.
Baldwin found a mug and filled it. He started chopping the onion, “How is life treating you, Finn?”
“I'm getting old and everything hurts. I don't sleep enough. I've realized that I'm never having a wife and children, and I'm stuck with you lot until my miserable life comes to and end.”
“Same as always, then?” Baldwin chuckled. Finn had been a cantankerous old goat for the better part of a decade that Baldwin had known him.
Finn retrieved the onion he had finished chopping. He stopped and placed a hand on Baldwin's shoulder. “I was sorry to hear, lad.”
Baldwin knew that's all Finn would say about the matter. A word of comfort and then he would move on to less weighty conversation.
Finn turned to the range and started combining ingredients in his magical way. “See if this is to your liking,” Finn said, sliding a plate of food to him.
Baldwin took a bite and the rest of the world melted away. “Itffs mooey fwimfagrrrpphhll.”
Finn looked over at him. “Let's keep it simple, lad. Don't strain yer head with that many syllables this early.”
Baldwin managed a smile around the mouthful of food.
Finn looked behind Baldwin. “Good morning, Sebastian.”
“Good morning, Finn,” Sebastian said as he shuffled past and found his own coffee and breakfast.
Baldwin picked up his breakfast and the two made their way to the small table at the back of the kitchen. Finn was the only one of the staff that was up and about. The rest wouldn't be down until around six so they would have privacy for the next hour or so.
“So what's this latest job about?” Sebastian asked him.
Sebastian didn't often get too involved in Baldwin's contracts as the inn took up a lot of his time. Baldwin's chosen field blurred the lines between legal and not. Sebastian wasn't bothered by this, he just didn't like the amount of travel and time away from home. On occasion, he helped where needed but otherwise stayed uninvolved.
“I got a call about a week ago,” Baldwin began. “I was asked to track down a lost family friend.”
“Okay. That's not too out of the norm,” Sebastian responded. “You've done family stuff before.”
Baldwin leaned forward. “Exactly what I thought when I took the job. But, there are a couple of things that were starting to make me question that. The contact is keeping a very low profile. I don't know who they are. I wasn't going to hear from them again until tomorrow. That's when I'm supposed to get details on who I'm looking for. And if you add in what's happened to Grace, it doesn't paint a pretty picture.”
“So what's the plan from here?” Sebastian asked.
“I can't shake the feeling that this job and Grace's death are connected. We find out who hired me, exactly who we are looking for, and who else is in play here.”
Sebastian nodded. “Send me what you have on the contact and I'll start on that. You start working on our anonymous malefactor.”
They talked about other things while they finished their breakfast, catching up on what each had missed during Baldwin's latest brief trip. He had been out finishing another job and had been in only a little over a day.
They avoided the obvious painful topic. Sebastian knew his friend well enough to gauge the time he would need before they could really talk about it. Right now, foremost in Baldwin's mind was figuring out the puzzle pieces and settling up with those who had done this.
Baldwin finished up and left to go ask a few questions from some of his contacts. Not every piece of information was stored in ones and zeroes, he liked to point out. Baldwin was often described as someone who didn't quite fit in his own time. He liked the human touch. He had reservations about the digital nature of existence now a days. He liked things he could see and touch.
Sebastian left for the “command suite”. That's what he and Baldwin called the room in the heart of Sebastian's personal quarters. It was where all the surveillance, data, and sensor lines terminated. Sebastian liked to think he had the whole world within reach from this one place.
He had started off as a young prodigy, attending college early, and then through the private sector to finally end up the man behind a very successful datacorp. He lost his family to an accident and had left his former life behind. He had traveled for a few years until he had found this place and put down roots again. This was the remaining vestige from his old life. Well, that and the money.
Sebastian had been enamored of technology from an early age. It would always be a part of him. And so, this room rivaled those housed in military installations, government spy programs, and powerful mercenary corporations. Admittedly, it wasn't visually impressive. There was nothing overt to give away the room's true nature. That was part of the magic.
The room held a table with room for a few workstations, a small refreshment center, and a couch. It wasn't until Sebastian was a few feet away from the back wall that the main view screen came to life. It was set to his personal bio-metrics. Upon sensing his presence, the computer awoke to serve whatever need it's user presented.
Today Sebastian was on a manhunt. He flicked his left hand in a series of motions that brought the files Baldwin had sent him to the fore. Baldwin had retrieved Grace's phone from the apartment and Sebastian added that to the mix. Twisting the fingers of his right hand separated the relevant pieces and sent them where they needed to go. The voice print from the conversations with the unknown contact went to a program that would search out a match amongst various databases. Baldwin's phone also had software that would help trace the location of the call's origin.
The computer looked through the phone's diagnostic log to see if anything had been placed on the phone by anyone attempting surveillance on the other end. The phone was pointedly set up to not repel such intrusions. Measures were put in place to protect any valuable data that was stored within but otherwise seem as innocuous as possible. You never knew what information you could get by parsing someone else's attempt to spy on you.
Sebastian let the computer do it's thing while he scanned the local networks to see if anything of note was going on and to pass the hours. Sometime later a soft chime had sounded and one of the icons was slowly pulsing. The voice data had been matched. Sebastian started looking through the results when he felt the blood drain out of his body.
Immediately, he called Baldwin. “Baldwin, if you're not tied up, I think you need to get back here right away.”
“Do we have a situation?”
“No,” Sebastian answered, “but I've come across something and I think you should be here when you see it.”
“Understood.” Baldwin hadn't made much headway on his end, so it really didn't bother him to head back in for the day. He had managed a few meetings with some local contacts that hadn't added much to his limited pool of knowledge. What did bother him was the tone of Sebastian's voice. Something had shaken him. Not much did that. Add that to the fact that he didn't want to discuss it over the phone and the sum added up to nothing good.
Baldwin was being cautious with his movements so it was late evening when he arrived back at the inn. Sebastian had brought some food down to the command suite just before he arrived. Baldwin hadn't eaten since breakfast.
Sebastian let him finish before saying anything. "I guess it's time we get down to business."
Baldwin set down his plate. ”You said you had something, but you didn't tell me what, and you didn't sound too happy about it."
"I got a match on the voice print,” Sebastian told him.
"Okay," Baldwin said, a little confused. "That's good news, right?”
"You told me it was a guy you were talking to on this job?” Sebastian asked, not quite answering Baldwin's question.
"Yeah, middle aged, generic accent, nothing that stood out to point to an identity,” Baldwin answered, still confused.
"That's because it is a fake. The voice has been run through software.”
Baldwin shrugged. "The way this is going, that doesn't surprise me.”
"Would it surprise you to know that it was female?” Sebastian asked.
"Now this is getting interesting. You said you had a match. What's the drop, Bass?”
Sebastian paused for a moment before answering. "The drop is, it was Grace.”
Baldwin couldn't say anything. Quite honestly, at that moment, he couldn't even breathe. The questions racing through his head were the only way he could tell he was alive. Had she not trusted him? Had she known she was going to hire him before their relationship started? Was it all an elaborate setup?
"Baldwin?” Sebastian's voice snapped him out the downward spiral. He looked up. "I realize this brings up a lot of uncomfortable questions. That also means Grace wasn't collateral damage. She was the target.”
Baldwin rolled that around in his head for a moment. He hadn't caused her death. She had quite possibly known what danger she was in better than he. The loss was still there, still hurt. But the guilt wasn't going to gnaw away at his soul like some infection he couldn't clear. She had known."What else do we know?”
"Nothing else has broke through the surface as of yet," Sebastian told his friend. "I would say that we move this up on the priority list, though.”
Baldwin nodded. "Getting a lock on who she was will lead to knowing the what and the why a lot faster at this point. You see if there is anything else in the comms and I'll start looking into exactly who my girlfriend really was.”
"Right.”
There wasn't much conversation over the next few hours. Sebastian focused on the main screen parsing through the data logs and analyzing any traces he found that might give them a bit more to go on. Baldwin was busy making calls. He reached out to his network to see what he could piece together about Grace's movements and interactions while they were apart.
So far he had found out that her part time job was legit. Or at least it was in the sense that she was there when she said she was, did the work, and collected the pay. Right now he was trying to nail down when she had arrived and where she had come from. He knew she wasn't from here. She had told him as much and he believed her. Neither of them had spoken much of the past. But what she had told him didn't fit with growing up in a place like this.
Ordos was a small moon. It had few resources of its own. The main export was data for the finance and business sector. Most of the imported workers lived and worked in the tall buildings that filled almost every square inch of the surface. The small local population worked in the service industry that kept the higher-paid offworlders happy and mostly unmindful of the lack of natural amenities. The restaurants, bars, and nightclubs kept the young executive wannabes entertained and oblivious in their few off hours. The manic, urban existence didn't lend itself to family life and wasn't close to the recollections Grace so wistfully recounted to Baldwin.
That was something he had wondered about before. Not many came to his place that weren't on what they thought was a fast upward track to the big leagues of the corporate world. It did happen though. He himself was an example. He needed a place where there were enough people to help him blend in. A place that had good access to communications and transportation, yet was mostly unimportant and forgettable. Maybe that's what she needed too.
His phone buzzed. It was a guy he knew that worked at the main port for this region.
"Whatcha got for me, Eiji? Uh-huh. OK. I'll be looking for it. Thanks again, Eiji, dinner is on me next time.”
Sebastian paused and looked over at him. Baldwin explained, "Eiji dug up a passenger manifest from about eight months ago. He put that and a couple of other things in an encrypted file drop. Here's the address.”
At that moment, an icon popped up on the main screen. Sebastian made a small stabbing motion and the container moved front and center, displaying the address. A few more motions saw the computer seeking the address, entering the appropriate codes, and then downloading the files that had been secured for them.
Once the files were retrieved, the file drop ceased to exist. These kinds of drops were a one shot deal. That's part of what made them so secure. The data was wiped then overwritten. There wasn't anywhere for someone to look later for what you had stored.
Sebastian opened the files up. "Looks like in addition to the manifest, he gave us some security feeds and some payment transactions,” Sebastian told him without taking his eyes off the screen.
The computer quickly broke the encryption that was on the manifest. They found Grace's name was registered as she had given it when they first met. Baldwin didn't figure on coming up with much there. He was much more interested in where she had come from.
He let the computer chew on that information while he moved on to the video feed. It was of the disembarkation of the passengers. He watched them slowly file down the ramp and waited to see Grace's familiar form. A minute or so later she came into view. He wanted to pause the playback and just look at her until she became real. It was hard to believe he was only a little over twenty-four hours removed from finding her lifeless body in the apartment. She moved out of frame and was gone. Again.
His attention started to drift when something made his heart skip a beat. "Bass! Back that up about thirty seconds.”
"What is it?” Sebastian asked as he rewound the feed.
"Stop right there." Baldwin pointed. "See those two? They were waiting in the tunnel when I left Grace's apartment.”
Sebastian leaned forward to stare at the screen. "That's more than just coincidence.”
"That's not the worst of it," Baldwin told him a little tensely. "They're Gillies.”
Sebastian turned and looked at him. His eyes had gone cold. “Why didn't you say something about that last night? It puts things into a very different perspective.”
"I realize it's not good, but this isn't the first time I've had to deal with hired thugs,” Baldwin replied.
Sebastian shook his head emphatically. "Do you know the significance of having a Gillie after you, much less two?”
Baldwin shrugged. "I've heard about their capabilities. They're not something I care to tangle with.”
Gillies were specially modified androids. They didn't look like your average faceless industrial units. The important difference was in their reaction times and the hardware of which they were comprised. They could move faster, lift more, and unlike humans they didn't require things like food or air. Definitely not on Baldwin's list of preferred adversaries.
"While it's true that they are extremely dangerous that's not exactly the significant thing here. Do you know how much they cost?” Sebastian asked, eyes wide.
"I guess I don't," Baldwin admitted. "I've never had to deal with them before. I've just heard the same stories as everyone else.”
Sebastian continued, "There's a reason you don't see them very often. They cost as much as this entire building.” He watched for a minute as the import sunk in.
Baldwin let out a low whistle. "The people that can afford that kind of help are not your average crime syndicate.”
"No," Sebastian agreed. "That kind of hardware means a government player or a corporate family.”
Corporate families were akin to the royalty of ancient times. They controlled vast amounts of wealth. They didn't marry outsiders. They kept control of multiple planet wide conglomerates that were handed down through generations. This was much bigger than he had first thought. Why would such a big player be involved in the search for an old family friend?
The answer was simple- they wouldn't.