Stolen Flyght – Chapter 8

“Hello, Eamon.”

“Aw, fuck,” he says, sighing and sinking into his chair. His hands are cuffed, and a large man from Hera’s security force stands next to him, making sure Eamon doesn’t move a muscle he shouldn’t.

“We’ll leave you two alone to discuss details.” Hera nods to the security guard, and he leaves, not without shooting a deadly look at Eamon. Hera leans close to me. “Whatever you decide to do, I’ll make it happen.”

She squeezes my forearm, and the door closes behind her.

“So,” I say, sliding into the chair next to him, “how are you liking lockup?”

His face hardens, and his eyes narrow to slits. “Why do you care? You’re the one that got me there in the first place.”

“Nuh-uh.” I raise my finger into the air. “You got yourself jailed by attacking me.”

His shoulders drop, and he sulks even more. “Fair point.”

I sit back and drum my fingers on my knee. “Tell me why you ran.”

“Does it matter?”

I want to tear his pouty lip from his face, but I restrain myself.

“There might be a way out for you if you’re willing to work with me.”

“A way out of prison?” He perks up, his pallid skin turning pink. “Because they’ve been telling me I’m only days away from being handed over.”

If Hera had already told the military she had Eamon in custody, then I wouldn’t be here talking to him right now. Because there would be no way out for him.

“I think I have some pull here, but only if you’re willing to cooperate.”

He sighs, throwing back his head.

“Fine! Okay, so, yeah. I got in a lot more trouble than I let on to you and Skylar.”

I fold my arms over my chest, waiting for the rest of the story.

“Ai was only the beginning of my experiments into sexbot tech. I had a lot of luck with her and another AI I was developing. They were so good, they were almost sentient. I gave Ai to Skylar, but the other one, Ten, I gave to a different friend who didn’t safeguard their ship as well as Carlos does. Their ship was commandeered by the military over a year ago, and eventually, their search led back to me. By the time they found me on Palo Alto, I was way into my development of the first independent android.”

He shakes his head. “Man, I could have made billions on what I learned.”

“But you stole it. Did you really not think they’d come for you, eventually?”

“How many times do I have to tell you? I didn’t steal anything. It was open source!”

I close my eyes and count to ten like I’m dealing with a toddler who won’t listen instead of a grown man.

Eamon huffs. “Sorry.”

I open my eyes and take a deep breath.

“Sorry,” he says again. “You look like my mother when I’m on her last nerve.”

“I think that’s accurate. Okay. What happened on Palo Alto?”

He picks at the fabric of his pants and keeps his eyes down. “I received a tip-off from a friend working at the Concord City Spaceport. Someone had been sniffing around, looking for me, and I took that as a sign I was humped. I got my equipment out and was off-planet by the time they raided my lab.” He blows a frustrated breath out from between his lips. “I was so confident they’d never find me again.” Rolling his eyes, he sinks into the chair. “I’m a fucking idiot.”

It’s hard not to agree with him. You’d think he’d at least change his name or something if he was going to pull illegal stunts like this.

And for all his bluster on Laguna, his sleazy suits and his swagger, he’s just a scared guy the same age as Skylar and me. We’re all hopeless, young, and inexperienced. It’s hard not to feel sorry for him.

But I’m not here to bestow pity on him or become his best friend.

I have something better.

“You make some awful decisions, Eamon. I’m not gonna lie. You are very close to ending up in a military prison.”

“Fuck,” he whispers. “I’m so screwed.”

I’m giddy with this upcoming reveal. He’s so desperate for help, he’ll do anything. Right?

“I have a proposal that I think would be in your best interest,” I start with and continue as he raises his head. “Hera Lee has given her assurances that, if you help us out, we’ll let you go and won’t turn you into the military.”

His returning stare is dubious. “I thought they were already coming for me. That this was a done deal.”

I stand up. “I could make it a done deal if you prefer a military jail.”

“Wait!” He lunges for my hand, and I hide my smile.

We stare at each other until he backs away and plants his butt in the chair.

“What do you need?” He drops his voice. “I’m almost afraid to ask.”

The plan worked! I sit back down across from him, doing my best to hide my shaking legs. I didn’t think he’d take the bait.

“I have a mission to complete, and I need someone on the team who is good with androids.”

He narrows his eyes. “Good with androids? What does that mean? Building them? Programming them?”

“Hacking them.”

He closes his eyes, and his lips move in either a silent prayer or an epithet. Hard to tell which.

“Fine. But it’ll cost you.”

“Nope.” I stand up and prepare to leave. “No, it’s not. It will not cost me one damned credit. You tried to swindle us, then you attacked me. And now you’re not in any kind of position to bargain with me.”

“I wasn’t going to swindle you,” he insists through a locked jaw. “I had your ship’s AI ready to go.”

I open my mouth to call bullshit when he raises his hands in surrender.

“But it doesn’t matter now, obviously.”

“You’re in?”

He shrugs. “I’m in. It’s better than jail.”

I reach over and smack him on his leg. “That’s the spirit.”

—-

“Now that we have everyone we need onboard…” I direct Eamon to sit at the dining room table with everybody else. Skylar is the least pleased person in this room, right before Gus. It’s clear Eamon does not inspire confidence in either of them. Skylar does not smile back when he grins at her. “It’s time to talk specifics.”

I sit down at the table but don’t take the head seat. I am not a leader here. All I’m doing is gathering the people we need to get the job done.

“Simon?” I ask, folding my hands on the table. “Let’s hear what you have planned.”

Hera Lee lifts her eyes to train them on Simon, and everyone turns to give him their attention. For a moment, I think he’ll pass the ball back to me, but he clears his throat and nods.

“Right now, we have a loose plan based on the intel we gathered about Neve and the specialists brought together here by Ms. Kawabata.”

I look around the room at the people I’ve put my trust in. Jinzo, Ken, Gus, and Mat are all sitting together. Skylar sits with Carlos and Lia. Marcelo stands behind Hera Lee’s chair. Eamon sits with Asteria and Yan Martinez, and Gloria hovers near the door. I wish my father were here to even out the room, but I still need to talk with him after everything that happened on the Amagi on Sonoma. Some people should be here but aren’t, like Malina Tsing, Alipha Cardoso, and Renata Dellis…

So many of us working together just so I can repurchase my land. I swallow a giant lump in my throat.

“Our plan is for Matias to make a regular delivery to the Neve military base. He told us he takes orders and delivers goods before he picks up the materials he needs for his micro-computing business. He will smuggle in Vivian, Gloria, Jinzo, and Lia.”

Mat signs that we should call him Mat, and I translate for him. Simon nods in acknowledgment.

“How will he smuggle them in? In wine crates?” Asteria asks.

Mat raises his hands to catch everyone’s attention. “I think it’ll be best if we smuggle them in with the frozen goods” — my lips falter over the words — “I usually deliver.”

“I’m sorry, Vivian,” he says to me, sadness clouding his eyes.

“What did he say at the end?” Gloria asks, irritated. “You’re not translating word for word.”

The image of the two boys in the cryocontainer, their bodies curled into one another, their skin blue-white with frost, crashes into me, and I inhale sharply.

“No,” I say, turning to Jinzo. “Absolutely not.”

“Vivi, it’s the only way we won’t be detected.” Jinzo leans to the side so that his eyes meet mine. My brain is diving way, way down into the depths of a cryocontainer. A thing I never wanted to see ever again, much less be shipped in one.

What if I go to sleep and never wake up? People have been known to lose limbs in cryofreeze due to frostbite.

My lungs want to breathe at the speed of light, and the room darkens around the edges.

“Hey, you’re going to be fine, and everything will turn out okay.” Suddenly, Gus is down on one knee next to me, his hand on mine. I didn’t even see him move. “I’ve done all the research, and I’ll make sure you all come out healthy and whole on the other side.”

The warmth of his hand steadies my heart. I snap back to the room, and a dozen people stare at me. My friends and family show sympathy for what I need to do. The Athens team, though?

Gloria shrugs. “I’ve been in a cryocontainer before. It was part of my training. It’s not so bad.”

Great. Hard-nosed Gloria will think I’m a coward if I don’t do this. I take a steady breath through my nose. Hell, if scared little boys can do this, I suppose I can.

Still. The pale skin of their frozen bodies is all I can see.

“After Mat has delivered the goods, he says he hangs around the area to eat and relax while his ship is being loaded with supplies. Carlos and Eamon… I’m sorry, what’s your last name?”

“Just Eamon is fine,” he replies. Huh. I have no idea what his last name is or where he’s from or anything more. Skylar frowns, and I wonder if she’s thinking the same thing as me. How can we even trust this guy when we don’t know who he is?

But I have no choice. Maybe he’ll prove me wrong and be a total superstar. And Gloria might end up leaving me behind when the going gets tough, even though that would lead to problems with Renata Dellis.

Running my fingers down my pants, I grab a fistful of fabric at my knee and tighten my grip. This deal I made just keeps getting worse.

“So, Carlos and Eamon will hack the base’s android escorts to recognize Vivian, Jinzo, Gloria, and Lia as military contractors, and the androids will then escort them into the inner reaches of the base.”

“I —” Eamon interrupts the proceedings, lifting his hand before using it to cover his mouth and laugh. “This is what you want me to do?” he asks, turning to me.

“Yes. It’s either this or jail.”

Simon throws the footage we gained of the military base’s androids up on the wallscreen for everyone in the room to see.

Hera Lee blinks in surprise. “Wow. I haven’t seen this many androids in one place ever. And I’ve been on board at least a dozen military vessels and on several bases before.”

Eamon nods as he looks at the photos. “Yeah, this is overkill. They must be hiding something significant.” He eyes me across the table. “What are you after?”

I shrug. “We’re not sure. Something with a large energy output. This is a reconnaissance mission, information only. We get in, find out what they have, and get out.”

“This is nuts,” he says, but then he leans in to look closer at the wallscreen. Rising to his feet, he crosses to the screen and uses hand gestures to zoom in on the photo of the female android.

With a sigh, Gloria butts in.

“Can you do it? Because if you can’t, we need to know right now.” Her intensity scares even me, and Eamon shrinks away from her deathly glare. I’m glad it’s directed at someone other than me for once.

He scoffs. “Of course I can do it. This is child’s play. But I need access to their servers and code distribution network. This looks like a basic Echo model, though I’ve never seen one with this facial and hair configuration. The male model is a Bravo. I’ve worked with him before.”

“I can get you access.” Carlos pipes up, and Yan nods. “It’ll be risky, but we have a separate ship that’ll bring us to their data centers, on the outskirts of the base. Yan has given us all new identities, and we’ll be able to drop in and make the changes while the captain and her crew are inside the main base.”

Eamon nods, though his skin is pale and waxy.

“And while you guys are hacking the system, and Vivian and her team are inside, we’ll be setting up a rendezvous point here.” Simon trades the images of the androids for a map of Neve. A small red circle pulses to the east of the military base. Way out in the middle of nowhere. “This is five kilometers from the base, but it’s the only place we can put a ship without being detected. I’m sorry that you’ll have a long way to go on foot to get to us.”

“Assuming we even get out alive,” I whisper under my breath.

“The plan is simple,” Simon assures me. “And, in my experience, it’s fairly low risk because even though we’re sneaking into this facility, we’re taking nothing away with us but knowledge. It could end us up in prison, but not for long.”

I wring my hands together under the table. If I end up in prison, there’ll be no one to save my family land. That’ll be the end.

My life has been stolen from me.

I still don’t believe it.

Hera Lee’s stare stings as I glance across the table at her. She’s either angry with me for getting her family involved, or angry at the universe for bringing this on us all.

Hard to tell which is correct without asking. And I’m not asking.

“So, it’s just like we said,” Simon concludes, turning off the wallscreens and picking up his datapad. “Get in, get the information we’re looking for, get out. There’s something there. We just need to figure out what that is before the military uses it against us.”

There’s no turning back now. I can’t back down.

Tomorrow, we become spies.