Cabal of Lies Read online

  “Is there anything else you might want?” the salesman asked, his voice trembling with faint trepidation as he caught up with the young woman.

  “Custom antiprojectile sensors? Maybe some sort of decoy launcher to distract guided missiles?” Jia snickered. “Even Erik doesn’t have that. Maybe that’s not a thing, but you do see it in military transports.” She rubbed her chin. “It wouldn’t be impossible to install.”

  “We don’t have anything like that, but I can talk to someone if you’re really interested.”

  “Don’t worry about it.” Jia waved a hand.

  “And Erik?” the salesman asked, desperation in his tone. “Is he your boyfriend?”

  “Kind of.” Jia didn’t want to admit in public that she was fake-dating her partner. She never knew who or what might get back to her mother, and she wasn’t sure if the salesman recognized her. He hadn’t reacted when she’d introduced herself.

  “Ah, a competitive relationship.” The salesman nodded sagely, some of his confidence returning. Maybe he believed this was all just a big game she was playing. “I think I’m getting a better feel for you, Jia. The Aurora is a great choice for you. It’s a perfect vehicle for a modern woman like you who needs to prove to her man that she doesn’t need him.”

  I might not need him, but I might want him, regardless.

  Jia suspected the price tag made it a perfect fit for the salesman, but she wasn’t going to let a few credits sway her. Her pride was on the line.

  “It’s not quite like that,” Jia explained.

  The salesman cleared his throat. “Might I ask what kind of work you do that you need your flitter to be bulletproof and avoid missiles? Or is this just something you want to show off at parties?”

  “No, this is about saving my life. I’m a police officer.” Jia looked up at him and smiled. She resisted asking if he watched a lot of news. She didn’t want to come off arrogant. “I’m Detective Jia Lin of the Neo SoCal PD. I’ve dealt with a lot of dangerous cases in the last year, and it’s made me more cognizant of my on-the-job and personal-time equipment needs.”

  The salesman took a sharp breath, understanding dawning in his eyes. The corners of his mouth curled up in the smile of a man who smelled even more money and opportunity. “I see. Everything makes much more sense now.” He stepped closer to the Aurora and patted the side. “In that case, I still recommend this vehicle. Excellent acceleration. Great handling. We can get it bulletproofed for you, Detective, with no degradation in handling. I know when you’re doing one of those high-speed chases, you need good performance. You wouldn’t want to let a terrorist get away, now, would you? This might not top out at the same speed as, say, an MX 60, but it’s got better handling under most circumstances.”

  Jia grinned and her voice dropped, practically purring. “Does it now?”

  He really could see through her.

  “Let me guess, your boyfriend has an MX 60?”

  “It’s not so much my boyfriend as my partner,” Jia replied. “It’s heavily modified, but yes.”

  “Of course.” The salesman offered a quick nod. “I understand how competitive police officers can be.”

  I bet if I told him I was a gardener, he would have mentioned how competitive gardeners could be.

  She slowly circled the flitter, taking it in from different angles. She and Erik would probably mostly stick to the MX 60, but it would be nice to have the option, and she never knew where she might be when a call came up. The police might be strangling crime and terrorism to nothing in the city, but that didn’t mean it was entirely gone. Snakes always slithered in alleys, ready to strike. Terrorists didn’t care about how peaceful a city was. In some cases, they preferred it wasn’t.

  “We can get this any color you want,” the salesman offered as she continued looking but was quiet.

  “Red’s good. I don’t care about it being camouflage-capable like my partner’s. Sometimes being flashy is its own kind of camouflage.” Jia nodded slowly. “I’ll definitely take it, along with that VIP protection package.” She ran her hand over the side of the flitter. “If you can get it to me within the week, it’d be helpful, and I’ll win a bet with my partner, too.”

  The salesman’s brow lifted. “A bet?”

  “Yes, a bet,” she confirmed.

  The salesman tapped his PNIU with renewed passion. “I’m sure we can get it expedited, Detective Lin.” He tapped a few more times, paused, then tapped again. A moment later, he looked up. “How does tomorrow sound?”

  “That sounds perfect.”

  The salesman inclined his head and extended his hand. “Just feel free to let all your friends know about us. We live to place the perfect vehicle with each customer.”

  Chapter Two

  Erik let out a hearty laugh as he stepped onto the parking platform, pushing a hoverdolly carrying numerous long, sealed crates.

  A bright red flitter waited in the spot nearest the door, Jia sat behind the control yoke with a huge grin on her face. He shook his head and made his way over to the flitter. She’d actually gone and done it. He’d been sure she wouldn’t.

  “I knew you would lose the bet,” Emma commented.

  “Why were you so sure?” Erik scoffed. “She’s been talking about getting a new flitter forever. I figured a deadline would prove she was bluffing. And then she shows up in this thing?” He gestured toward the vehicle. “I’m surprised she didn’t have a heart attack when she chose the color.”

  “Perhaps Detective Lin’s tastes are wider than you believe.”

  “Looks like it.” Erik arrived at the flitter, wheeling his dolly opposite the driver’s side. He stepped away from the dolly and slipped into her passenger’s seat. Honesty compelled him to admit the seats were damned comfortable, although that wasn’t a huge problem. He didn’t intend to spend any more time in Jia’s new vehicle than he had her old one. He hmmmd and huh’d before sliding back outside and over to the dolly

  “Huh?” Jia frowned. “You hate it that much?”

  Erik pointed to his dolly. “I wasn’t pushing this for my health. Open the trunk. I’ll have to put some of this in the back seat. Good thing you bought a four-seater.”

  Jia gestured toward one of the crates. “Are those what I think they are?”

  “Guns, guns, and more guns.” Erik patted a square crate. “And grenades. Tightly-packed death.”

  “Are you a rolling gun show today?”

  “I told you to clear your schedule for something fun.” Erik smiled. “And these crates are filled with fun.”

  Jia offered him a grin so wide it belonged on a shark yaoguai. “Before that, we have a little business to discuss.” She leaned forward in her seat to tap the screen on her console. The trunk popped open.

  Erik grabbed a wide and long case that likely held his laser rifle. “I hate losing, but yeah, bring it on.” She could hear him just fine as he walked around to the back.

  Jia waited for him to deposit the case in the trunk. “I believe the terms of our bet were quite clear. If I didn’t buy a new, sexier,” Jia made air quotes around the word, “flitter by the end of July, I would pay for your breakfast, including at least two beignets, for a month. If I won, you would pay for mine.”

  Erik picked up another crate. “I was just trying to motivate you, and I was successful. In a way, we both won the bet.” He opened the back door on his side to access the back seat.

  “You’ve motivated me to let you repay me after I buy more expensive breakfasts for the next month.” Jia laughed. “And don’t feed me a line. You totally thought you were going to win.”

  “No soldier wins every battle.” Erik continued ferrying his supplies into the flitter, filling the trunk and the back seat with deadly cargo. “Let me run this dolly back to the utility room, and I’ll explain where we’re going.”

  He departed with a quick nod to finish his errand. A couple of minutes later, he jogged back to the parking platform, settled into the passenger seat, and swi
ped over his seatbelt.

  Jia tugged on the control yoke, and the Aurora began to rise. “I’m surprised you were so willing to let me pick you up.” She nodded toward the back. “Especially with the arsenal. This thing might be able to take a few bullets, but it’s not nearly as souped-up as your baby.”

  Emma appeared in the back seat, arms crossed and partially obscured by boxes. “Alas.”

  “The MX 60 is in the shop,” Erik explained. “I needed more hidden cargo space, and some of the electronics reinforced. It was one thing when we were just running into basic criminals, but now we also have terrorists and high-end cyborgs sent by conspiracies. I want to make it harder for them to kill us.”

  “Funny. I was thinking the same thing when I bought the Aurora.” Jia pulled her flitter away from the parking platform. “Why do I have a feeling I’m going to end up spending half my savings improving my new flitter?”

  Erik shrugged. “You don’t have to. We can just use the MX 60.”

  “Sometimes I like to be in control,” Jia complained.

  Erik laughed. “You don’t even use manual control most of the time.”

  Jia’s hands tightened on the control yoke. “Well, it’s not like I never do. I am now. But let’s forget about all that. Care to explain why we loaded the arsenal into my new flitter on our day off? Unless there’s some secret syndicate raid I hadn’t heard about, I thought we were supposed to go to the tactical center?”

  “The tactical center is useful, but it has its limits.” Erik pulled back his duster and patted his pistol. “All the fancy nanotech, holograms, and misdirection allow us to be anywhere, but it’s all fake in the end.”

  “I’d hope so.” Jia chuckled. “We put our lives on the line often enough during our job. I don’t want to risk them for a training exercise.”

  Erik shook his head. “Even the guns are fake, though—the weight, the feel, the recoil. It’s close, but not the same as the real thing. In the beginning, I only cared about getting you to shoot without reservation and making sure you had better tactical resources. The center is good for that, but we need to take it to the next level.”

  “Meaning what?”

  Her PNIU chimed.

  Erik looked into the back seat and nodded at Emma. “Sent her the address already?”

  Emma nodded back. “I figured we could discuss everything on the way.”

  Jia’s eyes darted between them. “The Shadow Zone? Please tell me we aren’t doing some rogue raid.”

  “Nothing like that.” Erik looked out the side window, a wistful expression on his face. “Live fire is important. I know you already get that, so it’s time to mix live fire with the training scenarios. The best simulation in the world can’t trick the human brain, and sometimes it’s good to train when you’re not getting shot at.”

  Jia accelerated, and her flitter zoomed away from the parking platform. “I’m not saying I disagree, but what does this have to do with the Shadow Zone? And what does live fire constitute, exactly?”

  “You’ve gotten over your tendency to use that stun pistol for everything,” Erik explained with a shrug, “but you need to be comfortable with a wider range of weapons, not just the occasional rifle. If we run into Talos’ Tin Men or yaoguai again, you’ll need to be able to use everything the colonel’s provided, and anything I can scrounge from a wrecked exoskeleton.” He nodded. “It’s simple. Alicia’s hooked me up with a place where we can train with all my weapons.”

  Jia frowned. “My newfound willingness to play fast and loose with the rules doesn’t necessarily extend to illegal Shadow Zone operations.”

  Erik grinned. “There’s nothing illegal about it. It’s just the kind of business respectable Uptowners don’t want near them. On top of that, very few people have the necessary permits to use the kinds of weapons we’re going to train with, so it’s on the expensive side.”

  “Oh. That’s not so bad.” Jia’s frown vanished.

  “Exactly. It’s not like I’m saving all my money for the future. This place won’t be as dynamic as the tactical center, but it’s not just a range, either. They’ve got target drones and that kind of thing. I want to hit it at least monthly, so we’re both comfortable with all the weapons we have available. You never know who or what we’ll run into. I still want to get you rated for exoskeleton piloting, too, but one challenge at a time.”

  Jia shook her head and gave him a bright smile. “So, we’re spending a day off pretending to kill people?”

  “Nope. We’ll be blowing actual things up. Totally different,” he replied.

  Chapter Three

  An hour later, with her flitter parked deep in the Shadow Zone, Jia noticed she was biting a fingernail.

  How many times am I going to worry that the flitter will be stolen?

  Despite the sophisticated antitheft features, she wasn’t convinced it could survive the attention of a dedicated Zone criminal intent on scoring a fancy new red flitter.

  As much she despised antisocial criminals, after working so many cases, she couldn’t deny their ingenuity. The smart ones stuck to nonviolent crimes, so they didn’t end up getting shot by a TR-7 or some ex-soldier in an exoskeleton. Of course, the truly intelligent didn’t take up that kind of crime. They just joined a corporation, found a method to steal from people, and called it legal.

  Jia took a deep breath and shook her head. There was a thin line between being pragmatic and being jaded. Counseling and Erik’s friendship had helped pull her out of a dark spot, but she needed to be careful not to fall back into it.

  Erik stood near the back, loading the weapons crates onto a new hoverdolly and whistling like he was having the greatest time in the world.

  Earlier, he’d stepped through a loading door leading into a huge but decrepit warehouse and disappeared for several minutes before returning with the dolly and a man in a faded red uniform with epaulets he had introduced as Big Bill Zantini, the owner of the range.

  The lack of patches or other insignia made it impossible to determine if it was real or a costume. Jia leaned toward the latter. The perpetual grin and faint hint of madness in Big Bill’s eyes made her harbor doubts he’d been part of anything more organized than a sphere ball fan club. The scars crisscrossing his face only fueled more concern.

  Why hadn’t he had them taken care of?

  Despite that, Erik didn’t seem worried by the man, and whatever questions Jia might have, she trusted her partner.

  She glanced his way. When he’d agreed to the fake dating proposal, Jia had hoped it might help quell some of the thoughts that ran through her head at night, but it had only made them worse. She understood his reasoning, but that didn’t mean she had to like it.

  Jia had never met a man like Erik, and she suspected that if he left her life, she would never do so again. There was only so long he would wait before taking Alina’s offer to become an Intelligence Directorate contractor. It made sense. His investigation was dead-ending on Earth, and that position would give him the resources and flexibility he would need to get his revenge.

  She took a deep breath and slowly let it out. He was only staying because of her, but she wasn’t sure about gallivanting around the galaxy. Taking down whatever conspiracy had killed Erik’s people might make the UTC a better place, but she might better serve humanity as a cop.

  Unfortunately, she just didn’t know.

  Erik opened a crate and ran a hand over his TR-7. “Nothing like a lucky gun, but I think I’m going to stick to an assault rifle today.

  Jia let out a mock gasp. “How do I know you’re Erik and not some Zitark using a holographic disguise?”

  He looked up. “I don’t think Zitarks like beignets?” Erik questioned with a shrug. He closed the crate and snapped one lock, then the other. “I was just thinking about how I shouldn’t get too overly dependent on any one weapon. The recent fun on our vacation proved that. I might not always have my preferred toys.”

  “True enough.”

 
; Big Bill ran a hand through his graying hair and whistled in appreciation. “Even without the TR-7, from the looks of things, you’ve got a lot of nice gear to play with. You’re going to be like two platypuses in zero-G in there.”

  Jia stared at the man and awaited an explanation, having a hard time understanding his comparison. She knew plenty about platypuses and plenty about zero-G. She’d even fought under such conditions not all that long ago, but what the man had said didn’t make sense. Her mouth opened to question him, but she closed it.

  Sometimes it was better not to know the truth.

  “You’re right.” Erik patted the longest case after setting it on the dolly. “Got a man-portable laser rifle in here. I prefer my TR-7, but it’s nice to be able to blast a hole through something when you really need to.”

  “A MANPLR?” Big Bill whistled in appreciation. “Nice. I’ve been aching to get my hands on one, but it’s still a bitch to get one of those away from the military. It must be nice to be a vet.”

  Erik nodded, not looking Big Bill in the face. “Something like that.”

  Jia took note of Big Bill’s further admission that his uniform didn’t represent any sort of military service. That wasn’t surprising unless he was a time traveler from several centuries prior—although, given all the nonsense she’d run into Neo SoCal, she almost wouldn’t be shocked.

  “I’ll buy it off you, Erik.” Big Bill’s grin somehow managed to grow wider. “If you’re willing. I could make a killing renting it out. I know a guy who can get me the right kind of power cells, but even he can’t get me a rifle.”

  “No way.” Erik shook his head. “I need this to shoot terrorists and armored yaoguai, and it’s too damned fun to sell.”

  Jia laughed. Erik’s boyish enthusiasm for his heavy weapons had pushed out all the negative thoughts. His predilection for destructive toys was infectious when she let it be.

  “I remember a time when I thought a stun pistol was all I needed.” Jia patted the weapon. “And now it shocks me that the average patrol officer doesn’t carry a rifle.” She pointed to another crate. The shape was suggestive of a particular weapon. “Wait, are we shooting missiles, too?”