Warden 2 Read online

  Other than the AR goggles the man wore, he had no obvious augmentations. Because of his pale face and lack of attention to personal grooming, she had the impression he was someone who had given up on the exterior world and spent most of his days in VR, rarely leaving his home. She wondered if his home had survived the bioweapon attack, or if his life had been upended like most of the residents. Then again, maybe he never had a home. There were more than a few VR addicts who lived their lives in the dark alleyways between cargo containers. The bioweapon attack wouldn’t have changed that: it simply meant they called different alleyways home.

  Jairlin appeared, bringing up the rear. The Wardenite was dressed in a bright blue blazer and matching pants, with white shoes and shirt. His face was impeccably shaven, sporting just the right amount of designer stubble. His hair was cropped short on the sides and brushed up and back on the top to form a quiff. He was such a stark contrast to the other man that Rhea could hardly believe they knew each other.

  She focused on the newcomer once more. He seemed nervous, and immediately dropped his gaze when her eyes met his.

  “Warden,” the man said without looking up. “It’s an honor to meet you.” He sounded genuinely in awe.

  “You scanned him for hidden weapons?” Rhea asked, keeping her distance. Well, as much distance as could be had in a cramped cargo container.

  Renaldo nodded. “If he’s stuffed a bomb up his arse, he’s hidden it well.”

  Rhea hoped they had checked him with external scanners, and not via a method that was more… violating.

  “What’s your name?” she asked the man.

  “DragonHunter, Miss Warden, Ma’am,” the man said.

  She frowned. “Sounds like some gamer’s alias. Or a hacker’s.”

  “That’s because it is,” Renaldo said. “Not even Jairlin knows his real name.”

  She glanced at Jairlin. “How do you know him?”

  “He wasn’t always like this,” Jairlin said, running a hand through his perfectly coiffed hair. “Before he started working for the Towners, he had a life.”

  “Towners?” Rhea pressed.

  “It’s a guild in an online game known as Barter Life,” Jairlin said. “They’re essentially a hacking group. Often hired out by different cyber gangs across the world. Anyway, I first met him when I needed some hacking done, years ago. He was still calling himself DragonHunter back then. But he dressed a lot better. He lived in Aradne, believe it or not.”

  “How far the great have fallen,” Renaldo muttered.

  “I chose this!” DragonHunter told the Wardenite heatedly. “I don’t need worldly possessions. Everything I have is up here.” He tapped the goggles attached to his face.

  “Well, I don’t need to hear your life story,” Rhea said. “Do you know anything about Veil, or not?”

  The man swallowed anxiously. Finally, he met her eyes, for a brief moment. “I heard you have a Faraday cage. Can we use it?”

  Rhea glanced at Horatio, who shrugged imperceptibly. “Fine.” She beckoned toward her bedchamber. “Lead him inside.”

  She stepped back while Renaldo and Jairlin directed the man into her bedroom.

  “Nice crib,” DragonHunter commented when he saw the spartan interior. “I remember when I used to have a real bed. Can’t say I miss it. There’s just something invigorating about sleeping outside on the hard ground that can’t be replicated indoors.”

  Rhea entered with Horatio and shut the door. The network signal on her HUD instantly cut out.

  “Now then, Veil…” Rhea said.

  DragonHunter gazed suspiciously at the small dots of the motion sensors that dotted the walls. When his eyes spotted the dome of the security camera, he glanced at her. “Can we shut that down?”

  Rhea shrugged, then logged into its remote interface. “The camera is off.”

  “And can you all stop recording with your local devices?” he pressed.

  Rhea stared at him incredulously, then glanced at her companions. “Deactivate AR recording.”

  She pulled up the necessary menus on her HUD and turned off video logging.

  Then she turned toward DragonHunter. “It’s done. So then. Veil?”

  DragonHunter’s eyes were defocusing. Obviously he was checking if he could read any of their signals. Rhea deactivated her remote interface entirely, not wanting to risk any hack attempts. If Horatio or any of the others needed to talk to her privately, they could pull her aside to the adjacent room.

  “Veil is one of Aradne's crime lords,” DragonHunter said. “He’s known by many names. Damascus. Resolutus. Scourge of the North.”

  That latter name seemed vaguely familiar, though she wasn’t sure why. “Scourge of the North?”

  The man shrugged. “He’s been very successful. So much so that in recent years he’s expanded his reach beyond Aradne to the Outlands north of the city, where he employs bandits to rob any unlucky salvagers and other travelers who happen to pass their way. They call themselves Veil’s Black Hands. They’ve been known to shoot down passing flyers as well: they’re opportunists to the extreme.”

  “Nice guys,” she commented.

  “This is why we usually take the westernmost exit,” Horatio commented to Rhea.

  “You’ve been relying on the crowdsourced hotspot data for bandit activity?” DragonHunter asked. “If so, you’ve been lucky not to encounter them. The Black Hands routinely mess with that data. Anyway, Aradne’s security forces have tried to root them out on multiple occasions, but the Black Hands always seem to be one step ahead. It’s almost like they have someone on the inside to warn them whenever a raid is coming.”

  “Veil himself?” she asked.

  “Or someone who works for him,” DragonHunter answered. “But even with that advance warning, how they manage to escape without being caught on camera by the spy satellites, no one knows.”

  The communications satellites that had once provided wireless Net access throughout the world had been fried in a cascade attack launched by a rogue nation many years ago. Since worldwide Net coverage was no longer needed, considering that no one lived in the Outlands anymore, the government couldn’t justify the replacement costs. But that didn’t stop them from replacing spy satellites—not that many were lost. While the spy satellites had also been targeted in the attack, most were equipped with defenses to protect themselves.

  She glanced at Renaldo for a moment before returning her attention to the hacker. “So. I was told you knew Veil directly.”

  “Oh, I do,” DragonHunter said. “I’ve never actually met him of course. But I’ve handled a ton of cyberwarfare jobs for him. He often gets me to run DoS attacks against his competitors.”

  Rhea didn’t need a connection to the Net to know DoS stood for Denial of Service.

  “I don’t suppose you can tell me his exact address?” she said. “I’d like to pay him a visit.”

  DragonHunter started laughing. “Sorry. Excuse my laughter: I guess you don’t know how my business works. You have to understand, I make a point of not learning too much about my clients. I never hack them, and never, ever try to get any of their personal information, including their actual physical connection point. Because you see, if I learn too much about a client, I become a liability to them. People who become a liability to men such as Veil tend to disappear.”

  Rhea tapped her lips. “The next time Veil hires you to perform a Denial of Service attack, I want you to run a trace on his IP.”

  DragonHunter stared at her incredulously. “Didn’t you hear what I just said?”

  “I heard,” she said. “Trust me, I don’t ask this of you lightly. I promise you; Veil will be dealt with before he can make you disappear.”

  The hacker met her eyes for a moment, but then dropped his gaze immediately.

  “Your Warden is asking you to do this for her as a personal favor…” Rhea pressed.

  “It won’t work,” DragonHunter said. “His connection is obfuscated. He bounces it ac
ross the world, past hundreds of encrypted nodes to hide his tracks. All the big crime lords do it. They have enough money to hire in-house cybersecurity staffs that dwarf those of major corporations, even governments. With the credits Veil rakes in, they’ll be the best in the business.”

  Rhea smiled patiently. “But surely a renowned hacker such as yourself has a means to get around such obfuscation… a way to outsmart even the best cybersecurity operation in the business.”

  He looked up once more, and she saw a strange, eager flicker within those eyes. She had suspected he wouldn’t be able to resist the chance to show off his hacking prowess: he wouldn’t be the first man who wanted to impress the Warden.

  “There are ways,” he admitted. “It won’t be easy, but yes, there’s a chance I can track his connection when next he makes contact.” When DragonHunter realized he was still looking at her, he quickly dropped his eyes.

  Rhea nodded. “Good. I want you to find out everything you can about him. Where he’s connecting from, what kind of AR system he’s using, his public profile… everything. Bonus points if you can plant a trojan in his goggles.”

  DragonHunter shook his head and smiled. “I might be good, but I’m not that good. The most you can hope for, given my expectations regarding his staff and equipment, is his physical connection point. And I might not get even that. You have to understand, if I fail, he’s going to know.” He licked his lips apprehensively. “I’m going to have to be paid. Handsomely.”

  “What do you want?” she asked.

  “Ten thousand creds,” DragonHunter said without hesitation.

  Rhea smiled patiently. “You know that I’m trying to restore Rust Town’s water?”

  “I heard this, yes,” he admitted. “But I’m not a charity.”

  “Sadly, I don’t have ten thousand creds,” Rhea said. “But if you succeeded, you would have the Warden’s eternal gratitude.”

  The hacker didn’t answer. Rhea had the feeling she was losing him.

  “You once lived in Aradne,” she said. “Am I correct in assuming you can’t go back?”

  He nodded reluctantly.

  “Then it’s in your best interest to help me,” she said. “You’re going to need water if you plan to stay here. Even if you spend your days in VR, the subdermal packs you use to hydrate your body will only hold out for so long. If you don’t help me, the water you carry in them is probably the last you’ll ever own.”

  Still no answer.

  “Veil tried to have me assassinated this morning,” Rhea said out of desperation.

  His eyes widened. “What?”

  “Yes,” she said. “On this very bed the attempt was made.”

  DragonHunter’s eyes shifted to the bed. “This changes everything.”

  Rhea nodded. “I hoped you’d say that.”

  “You didn’t get any useful information out of the assassin, I assume…” the hacker said.

  “Sadly, the attacker succumbed before I could interrogate him,” she told DragonHunter. “He did shout ‘for Veil’ before he went down. This Veil will try again at some point, no doubt. If he succeeds, all the plans I’ve set forth to restore Rust Town’s water supply will fail. That means you’ll have to leave the settlement behind and brave the Outlands. Or hope Aradne takes you back.”

  “I’m never going back,” DragonHunter said. “I can’t.”

  “Then I guess you’re helping me,” she said, smiling sweetly.

  5

  When DragonHunter and the others left, Rhea reviewed the remaining messages she’d received since last night. These were filtered and forwarded to her by the Wardenites, who handled most of the mail sent to the email address she had associated with her underground social media accounts.

  She received a call from Will shortly after finishing the final message.

  His hologram appeared at the foot of her bed.

  “So, what are your thoughts on that guy?” Will said. “Think he’s the real deal?”

  “I don’t know about his hacking prowess,” she said, “but I’ve received some messages from my SubverseTube subscribers that essentially corroborate everything he told us.”

  “Oh, that’s right,” Will said. “I almost forgot you were going to post to your channel. So, you asked your followers to send you anything they had on Veil, and…”

  “Well, he’s definitely some kind of big-time crime lord based in Aradne,” she replied. “Has a chokehold on the black market augmentation trade. It doesn’t surprise me he’s trying to branch out into other businesses such as banditry.”

  “What is surprising, though, is why he’d have any interest in you,” Will said. “Maybe he doesn’t like your face.”

  “Really, and what about all the fans you say are in love with this face?” she mocked.

  Will shrugged. “It’s not for everyone.”

  She scowled at him.

  “Hey, you’ll only ever get the truth from me,” he said.

  “And is my face for you?” she asked.

  His hologram regarded her uncertainly. “While I’m not really big on faces with exaggerated, obviously cyborg features, yours works on you.”

  “I guess that’s a compliment,” she said.

  “It is,” he agreed.

  “Anyway, getting back on to the topic of Veil, and his interest in me…” Rhea said. “It could be that I’m simply bad for business.”

  “How so?” Will asked.

  “Well, he’s been starting to ship bottled water to the settlement through various black market channels,” Rhea explained. “And he’s charging the residents of Rust Town huge mark-ups. If I succeed in getting our water restored, then he loses that business.”

  “But that doesn’t explain why Veil sent The Scorpion after you,” Will said. “That happened before Rust Town was attacked, and the water shut off.”

  “We still don’t know if Veil was the one who sent The Scorpion,” Rhea said. “But if so, you’re right, it doesn’t explain it.”

  “Oh well, with luck this Veil will make contact with our friend soon,” Will said.

  “Yep, and I guess we’ll see if he’s as good a hacker as he claims to be,” Rhea said. “Assuming he lives up to his end of the bargain.”

  “He does seem like a spineless fellow, doesn’t he?” Will said. “Maybe he’ll grow a pair and get this done. Then again, probably not. Oh, by the way, Miles says his team has Operation Fidelity ready.”

  That was the codename for their plan to restore Rust Town’s water supply.

  “Good news,” Rhea said. “Tell him I’ll be down to see him in about fifteen minutes.”

  With that she disconnected and spent several moments trying to calm the sudden trepidation she felt.

  Why are you so worried? You don’t even know the full extent of the plan yet!

  And yet she knew enough to understand that restoring the water supply definitely wasn’t going to be easy.

  Rhea sat in the conference room. One of the larger cargo containers in the stack composing the compound, it contained a mid-sized table surrounded by several chairs. Miles resided at the head of that table. Horatio was on her left, Will her right. Renaldo and most of the remaining Wardenites took up the remaining seats.

  “So, tell me how we’re going to restore water to Rust Town,” Rhea said.

  Miles cleared his throat. “All right, well, first I want to tell you all the different avenues we explored, so that we don’t get comments from you guys like: why didn’t you do this? Why didn’t you do that? Originally, we wanted to 3D print a bunch of pipes, and use drills to lay them in secret underground, linking up with the main pipeline that feeds Aradne from the ocean. However, the costs proved prohibitive: there wasn’t enough material to build such a pipeline, even if we smelted everyone’s home in Rust Town. Nor were there enough donations on social media to purchase new materials and the drills we’d need, considering the big payment processors banned your account.”

  Rhea was still smarting over t
hat. She’d accumulated over a hundred thousand credits in donations from across the world, but before she could withdraw anything, CredPal banned her account for “violating its terms of service” and she never saw a dime of it. In its place, Aradne city council started an “Official Rust Town Rebuilding” online fund. So far it was up to thirty thousand creds, but again Rhea doubted the slums would ever receive any of it.

  “And even if we could afford the project,” Miles continued, “if Aradne ever discovered the pipeline, it wouldn’t take much for them to destroy it, even underground. Besides, we’re mostly looking for a short-term solution, something we can put into play while negotiations with Aradne continue. We’re operating under the assumption that eventually they’ll turn on our water supply.”

  “A good assumption,” Rhea commented. “Though I’m hoping to avoid the mass deaths in the streets it would probably take.”

  “We all are,” Miles agreed. “Though already there have been some deaths live streamed, with people falling dead from lack of water while walking the street. So far, it hasn’t brought much of a response from Aradne city council, despite the outrage from its citizens online.”

  “Yes,” Will said. “Online outrage is very easy to ignore. Maybe if its own citizens started rioting, Aradne might start paying attention.”

  “We might have to look into staging a riot with the help of our contacts in the city,” Rhea said. “Assuming the security forces don’t simply arrest everyone. Somehow I doubt more demonstrations would help.” She glanced at Miles. “Anyway, go on.”

  “Since the project only needed to be short term, we thought about using disposable rubber hoses that could link to the main pipeline, and supply the city for a few weeks,” Miles said. “Something we could lay discreetly, out in the open, in the Outlands. But even that was expensive. Plus, a surface operation left us exposed to attack not just from the city, but from roaming bioweapons and bandits.”