be giving me a medal, she thought.
“Nice of you to join us,” Fuentes said, all pretend smile and insincere voice. “Let’s get started, shall we?”
Sasha zoned out after fifteen minutes of nonstop crap from Fuentes. Some lecture about the safety of the citizens, protocols, blah, blah, blah. No wonder Jimmy had a hard-on for her. She was like a female version of him.
“Are you listening?” Fuentes said, stopping in mid-sentence.
“Not really, no,” Sasha said. “The painkillers for my blast wounds are making me drowsy. But I suppose that don’t matter, does it? I could have died in that blast. And yet I don’t get even a single damn thanks for recovering the data. Have you even bothered to analyse what’s on it?”
Jimmy shot her a fierce look. “Sasha! Now, that’s not fair—”
“Give me a break,” Sasha said, standing. “I’m fed up with all the bullshit here. For God’s sake, we’ve got a bunch of computer-controlled snipers and insurgents running around, and all you want to do is complain about my approach. Here’s what I suggest; we get to the damn point. What was on the slate?”
She stared Jimmy down until eventually he conceded. His face reddened with embarrassment or perhaps it was anger. Sasha no longer cared. When he didn’t move, Malik stood up with a slate in his hands.
“If you don’t mind, I’ll take that question.”
“Please,” Fuentes said, “go ahead, Mr Silverman.”
“With the help of Jess and the Alpha server, we’ve managed to crack a portion of the encrypted information. Unfortunately it’s incomplete. We’re unable to decrypt the rest at this present time.”
“So what did you recover?” Sasha asked.
“Like the manifest I found in Benedict Laos’ apartment, it’s a list of individuals within the city. I believe they are targets for assassination.”
“Wait,” Sasha said. “If Benedict had a hit list, why was he assassinated by another of Elliot’s ronin?”
“That’s a good question. From the data on the slate you so bravely recovered...”
Sasha flashed him a quick grin.
“I think that Benedict wasn’t doing his job properly. The chips we found in his apartment should have been dealt out last week. He was holding on to them.”
“Do you think he was trying to make some extra money on the side? Deal to his own people rather than Elliot’s preferred targets?”
“We don’t know if it is Elliot,” Jimmy said. “It could well be the controller on the ground.”
Malik shrugged. “Could be, but his financial records show no extra income, and there was no sign of any cash found in his apartment or recent purchases. I think it’s more likely, given how he was initially welcoming of our arrival to his apartment, that he was purposely holding on to them and not adding to the number of ronin.”
“Huh,” Sasha said, pondering on it. “That would certainly give them motivation to do away with him. It also means that there was probably someone else working with the sniper, someone who would recover the chips. Can we get the video security feed to see who was in the building at the time?”
“No need,” Fuentes said. “The slate included a list of identities of targets, but also one other name: the name of the sniper’s accomplice. We’re assuming she’s still at large and within the city currently.”
“What’s her name?”
“Nothing that can be directly tracked. This group have given themselves code names. The sniper was referred to as Jin, and his accomplice, Tang. It appears their identifiers are based on Chinese emperors. This makes us think that the controller is of Chinese descent.”
“There’s something else,” Malik said. “We managed to recover a number of communications between seven people named on the slate. Although we can’t crack the encryption fully, we have managed to triangulate a single common location.”
“Where is it?” Sasha asked, eager to know of a decent lead.
“An undesignated square
“Nice of you to join us,” Fuentes said, all pretend smile and insincere voice. “Let’s get started, shall we?”
Sasha zoned out after fifteen minutes of nonstop crap from Fuentes. Some lecture about the safety of the citizens, protocols, blah, blah, blah. No wonder Jimmy had a hard-on for her. She was like a female version of him.
“Are you listening?” Fuentes said, stopping in mid-sentence.
“Not really, no,” Sasha said. “The painkillers for my blast wounds are making me drowsy. But I suppose that don’t matter, does it? I could have died in that blast. And yet I don’t get even a single damn thanks for recovering the data. Have you even bothered to analyse what’s on it?”
Jimmy shot her a fierce look. “Sasha! Now, that’s not fair—”
“Give me a break,” Sasha said, standing. “I’m fed up with all the bullshit here. For God’s sake, we’ve got a bunch of computer-controlled snipers and insurgents running around, and all you want to do is complain about my approach. Here’s what I suggest; we get to the damn point. What was on the slate?”
She stared Jimmy down until eventually he conceded. His face reddened with embarrassment or perhaps it was anger. Sasha no longer cared. When he didn’t move, Malik stood up with a slate in his hands.
“If you don’t mind, I’ll take that question.”
“Please,” Fuentes said, “go ahead, Mr Silverman.”
“With the help of Jess and the Alpha server, we’ve managed to crack a portion of the encrypted information. Unfortunately it’s incomplete. We’re unable to decrypt the rest at this present time.”
“So what did you recover?” Sasha asked.
“Like the manifest I found in Benedict Laos’ apartment, it’s a list of individuals within the city. I believe they are targets for assassination.”
“Wait,” Sasha said. “If Benedict had a hit list, why was he assassinated by another of Elliot’s ronin?”
“That’s a good question. From the data on the slate you so bravely recovered...”
Sasha flashed him a quick grin.
“I think that Benedict wasn’t doing his job properly. The chips we found in his apartment should have been dealt out last week. He was holding on to them.”
“Do you think he was trying to make some extra money on the side? Deal to his own people rather than Elliot’s preferred targets?”
“We don’t know if it is Elliot,” Jimmy said. “It could well be the controller on the ground.”
Malik shrugged. “Could be, but his financial records show no extra income, and there was no sign of any cash found in his apartment or recent purchases. I think it’s more likely, given how he was initially welcoming of our arrival to his apartment, that he was purposely holding on to them and not adding to the number of ronin.”
“Huh,” Sasha said, pondering on it. “That would certainly give them motivation to do away with him. It also means that there was probably someone else working with the sniper, someone who would recover the chips. Can we get the video security feed to see who was in the building at the time?”
“No need,” Fuentes said. “The slate included a list of identities of targets, but also one other name: the name of the sniper’s accomplice. We’re assuming she’s still at large and within the city currently.”
“What’s her name?”
“Nothing that can be directly tracked. This group have given themselves code names. The sniper was referred to as Jin, and his accomplice, Tang. It appears their identifiers are based on Chinese emperors. This makes us think that the controller is of Chinese descent.”
“There’s something else,” Malik said. “We managed to recover a number of communications between seven people named on the slate. Although we can’t crack the encryption fully, we have managed to triangulate a single common location.”
“Where is it?” Sasha asked, eager to know of a decent lead.
“An undesignated square
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