Up Against It - M. J. Locke [176]
Vivian’s avatar ran hands through hir hair. Ze looked, in that moment, very young and vulnerable. “I can’t say.”
“Vivian, I know that you must have been working with Nathan Glease. There is no way he could have obtained that hidden space in Kukuyoshi without the Viridians. Obyx has all but admitted all this already. But I need more specifics about Upside-Down. Without it, we are potentially walking into a trap.”
Vivian still didn’t speak. Hir avatar stared at Jane, arms folded.
“Look. I’m a chrome. You’re a mute. We both have reasons to distrust each other. But we are both Phocaeans,” Jane said, “we are stroiders, and the Martian mob has no love for either of us. There may be a way we can stop them, Vivian, but I can’t do it without you. I’m no longer resource commissioner, and I have no interest in harming your people.
“So. Fight together, or fail separately?”
Vivian stared at Jane across wavespace as if ze were trying to read some cryptic script scrawled inside the back of Jane’s skull. “Commissioner, where do you learn all these things?”
Jane’s mouth twisted. “I have friends in high places.”
“All right, then.” Ze sighed, face pinched with worry. “Yes. Six months ago, Nathan Glease came to us. He wanted our help. We honestly didn’t know what he had planned. All we knew was that he wanted to expand Ogilvie & Sons’ presence on Phocaea.”
“What did he tell you he was after?”
“He wanted a way to keep an eye on his enemies.” A furtive glance told Jane he had made no secret of the fact that he counted her among said enemies. “He had bribed John Sinton—”
“As in, John Sinton, CEO of Upside-Down Productions, Phocaea, Limited?”
“Correct. Glease bribed him to allow Ogilvie to hack the ‘Stroiders’ stream.”
“Are you sure?” But of course ze was sure. “Do you know what he bribed him with?”
“I’m not sure. But whatever it was, Sinton really wanted it. I overheard him once talking about how excited his superiors back on Earth would be when they heard what he had accomplished. He expects a big promotion, and a transfer back Downside.”
Sinton must have secured a promise from Glease that after the coup, Phocaea’s new administration would renegotiate the “Stroiders” contract. The most powerful communications network beyond Mars orbit would remain in Upside-Down’s hands, and not transfer to Phocaea when their “Stroiders” contract expired.
“Go on. Glease bribed Sinton to allow him to hack ‘Stroiders.’”
“Yes. But Sinton didn’t have anyone who could do it.”
“So he cut a deal with Obyx to bring you in.”
“Precisely.”
“And did you?”
“Did I hack the ‘Stroiders’ stream, you mean? Well, yes.” Vivian looked bashful. For a moment, Jane thought ze was embarrassed, but ze said, “It was quite a challenging problem, actually. It took me several months to crack it. The data stream is huge! And it’s encrypted with some of the best security there is. Not only is the data itself encrypted, but the time and date information has its own separate encryption, which makes it virtually impossible to figure out which chunks fit with each other. Like a kajillion-piece jigsaw puzzle and the pieces are all identical. Nobody has access to the keys, other than a handful of high-level company officials, Downside. But”—a self-deprecating shrug—“I figured out a way to grab any desired two-minute chunks and stream it to Mr. Glease’s back office.”
“So he was hacking ‘Stroiders.’ Clever bastard. And you! Even Tania Gravinchikov said it was pretty much impossible.”
“I know. She’s quite good,” Vivian said. “A little training, more gene-kink, and she could be a Viridian.”
“Well, that’s reassuring. So, you hacked the stream for Glease.” Jane pinched her lip. “Vivian, did it ever occur to you that you were committing treason?”
A long silence. “Do you have any idea what it’s like to be a mute in a chrome world, Commissioner? We’re barely even treated as human. Half the shopkeepers won’t sell to us. Chromes in restaurants get up and leave when we show up. The police often don’t respond to our emergency calls. It got to where Learned