Time Salvager (Time Salvager #1)(106)
The room stayed very still for several seconds before Young finally nodded. “Very well. Hameel, put a sniff bug on Handler Smitt’s person and blanket his sleeping quarters. Make sure he takes it with his morning nutrient regimen.”
“This is outrageous, Director,” said Levin. This was mind rape. Levin had been a specialist in the Publicae Age during his time as a chronman. He had seen firsthand where this road led.
Right then and there, Levin realized that Young was no longer in control. Valta, Kuo specifically, was in charge. ChronoCom was now just the time-traveling arm of the megacorporation. Levin kept his face neutral, but his heart seized with indignation. Young must have noticed something, because when their eyes met, the director gave him a slight shake of the head.
“What about his past network activity?” Kuo continued.
“The neural bug will be able to track all his communications through his AI and comm bands,” Hameel said. “I’ve grabbed a snapshot of his network activity within the past week. Note this is only limited to his data traffic. An implanted neural bug will allow us to record his active thoughts.” He paused. “Filtering out extraneous data. Here we go. Handler Smitt made dozens of queries, including five regarding the Uranus substation disaster of 2411, eleven into the Moon virus of 2077, six on the moon Puck, and forty-three into the Nutris Platform. Yesterday, he had seven queries searching for the location of some salvaged items from a previous job—code name Sunken City—and over nine on Cassini Regio. Today, he had…,” he paused, “three queries to the blue sections of the city for prostitutes.”
Kuo bolted up from her seat and hovered over Hameel in an instant. “What did you say?”
Hameel was so thrown off by her sudden intensity that he nearly fell off his chair. Geneese and Shizzu had risen and powered on their exos. Levin kept his hands firmly pressed down on the table. Kuo seemed undeterred as she slammed her hand down on the table in front of Hameel.
“I’m sorry, Securitate,” he stammered. “What are you asking about?”
“What did you say again about Cassini Regio?” she pressed, leaning in close. “Tell me!”
Hameel looked as if he were about to soil himself. “The handler made queries into energy shipments to the colony on Iapetus a few days ago. Then he began to look into the dark side of the moon. It wouldn’t have meant much except I don’t think the Cassini Regio side has a colony.”
“He’s mining Valta classified affairs,” Kuo said, sprinting toward the door. “I’m going to gouge his eyes out until he tells me what he knows about it.”
Before she could leave the room, Levin was there, blocking her path. “You won’t touch the handler.”
The two stared each other down. Kuo was the only one who had powered on her exo, though. Levin hoped that Young’s presence would deter violence from the securitate. Or if it didn’t, the director would realize how unstable she was and pull her off Levin’s command.
To be honest, he wasn’t sure if Young had the spine to defend his auditor. After all, it had been a long time since Young was one of them. Once, Levin would not have questioned where Young stood, but now, as an administrator, the director saw things in a different light. Would standing with his own men be advantageous for Young and his view on what was best for the agency? In the end, as in other situations where Valta was involved, Young sat on the sidelines and said nothing.
“You’re the one who wanted to use the handler for information,” Levin said. “If you burst into Handler Ops right now, what do you think will happen with James and the girl? My guess is we’ll never hear from them again. Wait until we’ve captured James. You’ll get your answers then.”
Levin half-expected a kinetic coil to tear a hole through his chest as Kuo pondered her options. Finally, she nodded. “If any sensitive information from Cassini Regio leaks, I’m holding you responsible. There will be consequences.” She looked over at the rest of the room. “Excuse me while I report this. I need to increase our security diligence on that moon.”
Levin watched her backside as she left the room and walked down the hall. He turned back to Young. “How much longer are we going to have to tolerate this?”
“Finish your f*cking job and you won’t have to tolerate this much longer, Levin.” Young sighed. “Valta’s commitment to Nutris is significant. They’ve been on the losing end of a four-way power grab over Saturn and Jupiter for the past ten years. They’re desperate.”
“What could they have retrieved from Nutris that could change their fortunes?” Shizzu frowned. “I was there. There was no military technology on it. It was a just a biological research facility.”
Young grunted. “Isn’t it obvious? How else do you weaponize cures?”
The rest of the room was quiet as those words sunk in. There had not been a significant use of biological weapons since the AI Wars, when the machines had tried to use a nano-variant of the Ebola plague. The results were terrible.
“It’s not our business,” Young said. “ChronoCom only polices the chronostream, not the behavior of the corps that pays our bills. As auditors, I expect all of you to work toward the agency’s interests, and I’m telling you right now that Valta’s interests parallel ours. Hameel, how soon can you get the neural bug functioning?”