Chapter Text
In this job you learn to expect certain things. Corruption, self-interest, long nights, bad coffee. Being followed is another old favourite. At this point I’m an expert at knowing when there’s someone tailing me. On a good day I can even work out who they are before I see them.
It helps if they happen to be an ex childhood best friend.
“Sasha.” I’d stepped into a doorway to let her and her friend catch up, then come out behind them once they’d passed. Maybe I liked the way that made their faces jump. I’m a simple lady and there’s something in the pleasure of catching Dark Matters agents out. “You two got a reason for stalking me or is this just for fun?”
She straightened her expression fast and there she was; Sasha Wire, dark and angry eyed as ever. “Juno.”
Her friend- though knowing her that would be stretching it- cleared his throat. Hollow cheeks, bad suit, expression that said he operated at constant low-level annoyance and no sense of humour. Standard Dark Matters. “Detective Steel. Your reputation proceeds you.”
“What Agent K is trying to say,” Sasha must have seen my expression and known I was thinking of making a soon to be regretted reply, “is that we’d like to talk to you. In your office. If you still have an office.”
“It’s not burned down yet.” There was no love lost between me and Sasha, but a certain level of snark is allowed from old friends. I didn’t have the energy to be angry with her anyway. “But I haven’t been Miss Congeniality since I was twenty-two. Is there a reason I should let you in?”
“Two reasons. Money.” She sneered at me, “Which is always good enough for you.”
“Touché. What’s the second?”
“It concerns the… THEIA Soul incident.”
Which was all I really needed to hear. I spun on my heel and started marching away. Sasha stopped me with three words. “Juno. It’s back.”
And damn it. You don’t risk your life to bring down a super powerful population controlling, life stealing monster of an AI just to let it happen again.
---
Luckily Rita was at lunch. I didn’t want to drag her any into any more of this THEIA stuff unless I had to- and as the only person who’d hacked into Dark Matters’ database without getting caught, keeping her away from them was a good idea too.
My office is too small. I choose to see that as a bonus. With me in the chair behind the desk there wasn’t enough room for Sasha and Agent K left. They stood opposite me, neither of them wanting to take the single chair I kept for customers and both looking uncomfortable with their proximity to each other.
Good. There's a pleasure in making Dark Matters agents uncomfortable too. “I’m going to regret asking this, but how do you even know I was involved with went down at THEIA?”
“We still have a little surveillance footage- a lot of it got lost in the short out, but enough for us to work with survived.” Sasha sighed. “You get two more questions- and you only get them-“
“Because you owe me? If you know about what happened then you know that I’m pretty much the hometown hero of Hyperion.” It was an attempt to prod her into giving me the specifics of what she knew. Sasha narrowed her eyes instead, expression like she’d swallowed a hot sauce lemon.
“Because we need your help.”
I put my hands behind my head and sat back a little. “You could try to sound nice about it.”
“We don’t have time. Ask what you want to know.”
“How long have you known it was me who broke the Souls?”
“Since you confirmed it five seconds ago.”
Damn. Her smirk was downright nasty. “Fine. I wave my last question. What’s happened?”
“Simple answer; there was a prototype. It’s still out there.”
Damn. “You got any details to go with that?”
“I’ll take it from here.” Agent K stepped forward. “We knew about the prototype from an early demonstration of the Soul last year. Before all of the unpleasantness.”
“That’s one word for it.”
“Mm.” He cleared his throat again. “Following what happened it seemed wise for Dark Matters to prevent any remaining THEIA technology from falling into the wrong hands.”
“Meaning any hands which aren’t yours?”
“Juno, we’d get through this faster if you’d be quiet.”
“Fine, fine.” I wished I could kick them out, but if this were true and a Soul was out there it was worth playing nice for ten minutes.
“Thank you, Agent W.” K shot a far-from grateful look at her before he turned back to me. “Knowing that the Soul was likely in the THEIA vault, and knowing that THIEA were unlikely to grant us access, we decided to take a, mm, more subtle course of action.”
“You surely don’t mean,” I pulled my best obnoxiously offended face, “something illegal? Dark Matters would never!”
“Juno.”
“Come on Sasha. It’s funny.”
“Maybe to you.” K’s voice had a dangerous tremble to it. “This is a serious issue! You of all people should know that.”
“Sue me. I believe in the power of laughter to bring enemies together etcetera.” I sat forward and leaned onto my desk. “So you want me to break in and steal the thing?”
“Hardly. We have professionals for that.” Scoffing, K crossed his arms. “We sent in an agent two days ago.”
Oh.
“Let me guess. They haven’t checked in. And suddenly you’re wondering if you got screwed over by one of your own.”
K’s silence and Sasha’s stormy expression were all the answers I needed. They had a Dark Matters agent gone bad- or gone worse. And either way they’d gone there with a piece of terrifying technology.
“So why have you come to me? I’d think you could track them down.”
“We need someone who knows Hyperion.” Sasha made an irritated noise. “And someone who knows the Soul. You tick both boxes.”
“Lucky me.”
“Juno.”
“I’m going to do it.” Damn it all, I really was. “And I’m not even going to tell you how much you owe me till the end. Just- next time you decide to do something involving THEIA, maybe come to me before you put all of Hyperion in the firing line?”
I stood, pulling back on my coat.
“You’re sure your agent left the THEIA building?”
“We caught him on security cameras. He left. Then he turned the corner, hit a blind spot and vanished.”
“And standard Dark Matters protocol is to delete any public recordings of agents at work, so that footage is gone.” K at least had the sense to look vaguely embarrassed at shooting his own investigation in the foot.
“All right. Your agent. I want to see where he lives.”
K went for another throat clearing, but the audacity of me wanting to do my job was just too much: he ended up coughing. Violently. I exchanged a look with Sasha and she rolled her eyes, patted the man on the back. He straightened up with a red face and tissue clamped to his nose. “Helium allergy. It’s the time of year. And you can’t. Dark Matters agents operate under the radar, if we went around just-“
“You know I’m right.” I turned to Sasha. “If they took it then they took it to sell. Any evidence of that is going to be in their apartment.”
She met my eye and nodded once. “Fine.”
“It really isn’t.” K glared between us, “You-“
And the coughing returned. I sighed, gestured to the side room. “There’s a tap through there. You can use it to get water. Often almost translucent.”
He glowered, but left in the direction I’d pointed. I waited till I heard the tap running.
“Remember that third question I waved? I’m changing my mind. You know that I was involved in what happened with the Souls. What about-?”
“Your secretary’s safe.” Sasha’s voice was low. I’d been right to wait for K to leave, apparently she didn’t want him in on this conversation either. “Involving good people in what we do isn’t fair. As far as the rest of Dark Matters goes you acted alone. I’m the only one who knows there’s no way you could take down THEIA without someone else to do the brain work.”
I inclined my head slightly. “Thanks.”
“Didn’t do it for you.” A muscle tightened in her jaw. Indecision flashed over her face. “Listen, this case. Our agent-“
But whatever she’d been about to say was cut off by K coming back into the room. “Let’s get going. No time like the present to break our security protocols.”
“I’ll be a second. Got to make a couple of inquiry calls.” I shot a look at K. “Not to the sort of people who’ll talk if they know Dark Matters is involved.”
Sasha saved me again, hurrying him out the door along with her, only pausing to give me a warning look back over her shoulder. Be smart, that look said. Which was entirely unfair. My bad decisions were down to an all-time low of 60%.
First call was to Rita. She picked up as fast as ever and spoke around mouthfuls of whatever she’d been in the middle of eating. “Mista Steel? What’s wrong? You never call me at lunch! You say it’s supposed to be time for me to not be working and that you respect boundaries now and-“
“Listen.” I kept my voice quiet, only half trusting Sasha not to have an ear pressed against the door. “The code you used on the SOULS. Can you send me a copy?”
“What? But Mista Steel, if you need the code that means-“
“Yeah. I know.” I could hear her vibrating with fear at the other end of the line, I pressed my hand against my face, “Please, Rita. Don’t panic. Just send me the code. And then- I don’t know. Can you get out of the city? If this all goes wrong you’re the only one who can stop it. There’s someone I met when I was away- Buddy Aurinko. Last I heard she was in the Cerebrus Province. She’s... not evil. Tell her the stakes and she’ll help you do whatever you need to do.”
A long pause before she replied. “… Yeah, Mista Steel. I can do that. But I could stay and help you too.”
Damn. Why was I so damn selfish? “… I can’t have you here with me. Dark Matters’ involved. But- but if you could stay in Hyperion for one day- just one day. By then it’ll either be solved or you’ll know you need to run.”
“If that’s what you need.” She swallowed. I could almost hear her determined little nod. “Yes, Mista Steel. I’ll do it.”
“I know you will. Rita… Thanks.”
I hung up before things could get emotionally weird. Asking Rita to involve herself in THEIA again-
I knew I could rely on her. I knew that I didn't have to be alone for this, that she made me better. But this was different from before. Dark Matters- the whole organisation- would be watching. By now Rita had to be high up their enemy list. Bringing her in would thrust her into the spotlight, she was better off helping from a distance. Safer for her. Safer for everyone else too.
Second call was less dramatic. I got voice mail.
“Cecil Kanagawa is unavailable! How sad for you! Leave your message!”
Honestly it was easier than talking to him.
“Hey, Cecil. It’s Juno. Listen- I was wondering if you’d heard anything about some sort of… fancy tech for sale? Private, not-strictly-legal style? I’d really appreciate any info you could throw my way. Thanks.”
If I had more time I’d have sent out other feelers, but Cecil Kanagawa would do in a hurry. Anyone as rich as him was always offered a seat at the table of illicit auctions.
With my messages sent I took a last look round the office, straightened my battered coat, and hurried headfirst down the stairs and into whatever disaster was waiting.