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‘Not a scratch. You?’ he asked, sweeping Harlow’s hair from her face.
‘I’m OK. The bastard tried but couldn’t get to me.’
His woman spoke savagely, but he felt her tremble in his arms. ‘The shield held then?’
Harlow nodded. ‘I saw him fall. You shot him?’
‘I did. He’da come for you if I hadn’t coz the force field could only sustain so much in an attack.’
She breathed in relief as he leaned in to reassure her with a kiss.
‘Need to patch into the team, baby,’ he said against her lips. ‘I suggest you sit in the kitchen. Don’t look around. We need to see what they were after, but you also don’t need the trauma of the mess,’ he murmured. ‘So stay put til I make sure it’s all secure.’
Harlow nodded and left his embrace, woodenly moving towards the dining and cooking space.
Kage prowled the utterly devastated living area once more. He frowned at the piles of pulverised blocks, plex, concrete and metal scattered around the site. Furniture and fittings lay haphazardly, creating additional clutter and congestion. The dust the crashing flyer had caused slowly settled on all surfaces.
He kicked a fallen chair in frustration, turning on his neural node and reaching out to Mirage and Xion.
Mirage launched into a spiel without waiting for Kage. ‘I’ve got warnings and alarms all over our system, but for some reason, I couldn’t patch into comms or cameras across five floors of 517 for a few minutes. I’m initiating -’
‘Slow down, Mirage. I’m on-site and have eyes on what happened. First, can you raise your threat level across the entire Sable complex, all offices and all our holdings to substantial? Shut down all external access, including terrace doors, fire exits and rooftops. Until we’re sure that we’re clear.’
‘What the hell happened?’ Xion demanded.
Kage gave the pair a rundown of events while still searching the apartment.
‘Let me get this,’ Xion summarised when Kage was done. ‘Our lurker had a flyer with some serious jamming tech on it. They used the terrace as entry and egress. Pretty neat. We need to borrow that tech.’
‘It’s a Rinnax-designed flyer,’ Mirage added. ‘ A covert model not in the market.’
‘Figures,’ Kage snapped.
‘We might own it soon if Zane seals the deal soon,’ Mirage continued. ‘In any case, I’ve found its specs in their database, down to its screws and bearings. The one we’ve full data access to.’
Xion scoffed. ‘Can we please scan that ever lovin’ database and work on mitigating against any and every tech threat listed within?’
‘Patience. It’s a lot of work. I’m on it,’ the AI groused.
‘K, anything else you’ve found?’ Xion asked.
‘They left a few traces behind, including blood and DNA,’ Kage rasped. ‘They were after the obvious, though. Word probably got out of Harlow’s breakthrough. And they saw it fit to target her a few days later. Good thing is she never brings her work home. She always has her comm tab on her, and all her work is on our cloud servers. So even if they’d have nabbed her comm, they’d have never been able to access anything from its screens.’
He paused for a beat. ‘Someone, a sloppy bolo, and at Rinnax, I presume, wants that tech for themselves. I’m also going to wager that our visitor this evening was none other than Ruben Rinnax himself.’
Xion cursed. ‘Why is this burn-bag still on the rock after we found out his firm is out to get us?’
‘Bait. Pure and simple,’ Kage replied. ‘We’re playing the long game, brother. We’ve been pulling threads and seeing where they unravel. I didn’t think they’d have the balls to come after Harlow this way!’
‘So he’s down? Wounded?’
‘Must be,’ Kage said. ‘Mirage, can you find him for us? If he’s injured, he’ll need medical care, so look out for clinics, hospitals, and private medics making unexpected home visits.’
‘On it,’ the AI replied.
‘Can you manage Mirage? Feels like you’re a little overwhelmed,’ Kage stirred.
‘I’m a quantum super-enhanced, self-learning defence and operations AI, capable of running the admin of an entire System should I choose to. So I think I’m OK.’
