Insidious. Part 10

Aldriena nodded. He gestured to a magnetically mounted swivel chair, so she dropped down into it.

He took a translucent sac of fluid from the suitcase and affixed a spray applicator to it. She saw a lot of cosmetic supplies in the suitcase, a collection of high-tech disguise knickknacks.

"This'll feel weird for a sec, but no pain, I promise," he said.

She felt a crawling sensation on her scalp for a moment. He pulled down one of her eyelids and put a drop into it, then repeated the procedure with her other eye. His hands were quick. He had to have done this before.

"Put these tabs on the insides of your cheeks, right at the center. Your face is a little round for a European," he said.

He looked at her face openly. She felt comfortable under his honest scrutiny. Most of the time she garnered the nervous glances of men who a.s.sessed her beauty but didn't want to be caught staring.

"How do I look?" she said, smiling.

"Stunning as ever, my dear," he said in a subdued voice, holding out a cheap plastic mirror for her. She figured his distraction probably came from chatter through his link with the Black Core team on Xanadu. She knew the team had at least four or five members.

Aldriena stared into the c.r.a.ppy mirror and smiled. Despite the damaged edges of the mirror, she saw his handiwork. He'd changed her into a blue-eyed blonde. Her epicanthal fold was no longer visible; her eyes looked European inside and out.

"Looks good," she said, although she didn't like it. She preferred her real countenance.

"You were more beautiful before," the man said. His eyes animated again, an indication that he'd concluded his link activity for the moment. He said it calmly and didn't look at her for a reaction, which meant he wasn't trying to earn points with her.

He pulled a green roll from his case.

"You'll blend in more with this," he said. "It isn't much in a sc.r.a.p, but it will short a taser at least."

"Got it," she said, taking the clothes roll.

"Follow me to the door. I'll send you a green line."

They walked awkwardly through the engineering module toward an airlock connected to Xanadu. Using the sticky hand and feet attachments, they moved like bugs crawling across a vertical surface, attaching themselves with a limb whenever they could. Aldriena picked up a pointer on her link and the familiar green line overlaid her vision to guide her.

"Thanks for the setup," she said. "What's your name?"

"I'm Martin."

Aldriena stepped through the lock.

"Good luck," he called after her.

As the lock started to cycle her through, she took the dark green roll and pulled a tab. The fabric released, popping out into the free form of a summer dress. She changed into the outfit in seconds, discarding her light vac suit. Once the thin fabric had detected her body heat, a pattern s.h.i.+fter snapped on and sent white lines streaming across the fabric, moving across her body in a steady, soothing migration, like a wandering spider web that couldn't find an anchor point. It fit quite snug to her figure, but didn't show a lot of skin.

The lock door opened into a tiny lift atrium. Aldriena paused to grab some chewing gum out of the vac suit and stash it into a hidden pocket of the dress.

I should get back to Earth one of these days. While it's still there.

She took the lift down toward the gravity-simulated part of the station. For a moment, she felt dizzy as the lift descended. She cursed.

The doctors told me they'd fixed that. Black Core paid a lot of money for my s.p.a.ce prep. I should complain about it.

She arrived at the station proper and exited the lift. The area beyond exhibited the opulence to which Aldriena had grown accustomed. The floor looked like polished stone. She saw three art prints on the corridor wall depicting peaceful nature scenes. The air smelled fresh, lacking the machine smells of the maintenance area.

She fished into her pocket, brought out some chewing gum, and popped it into her mouth. She started to chew and then realized the gum might tangle with her cheek implants. She frowned but kept chewing. Just another risk to factor into her growing daily regimen of danger.

She walked through into an open area dotted with people and ferns. Xanadu looked the same as she remembered it: colorful and relaxed without any of the crazy freak suits. Aldriena stopped to look through a skylight that gave a view of the outside of the station. Sometimes she had to remind herself how far behind she'd left Brazil. She resumed her walk.

Men and women in the corridors met her gaze curiously but without suspicion.

This was her chance to relax. Ironically, it was also one of the most dangerous parts of the plan. Even with the facial camouflage, if some scanner program or link monitor noticed that she was actually Aldriena Niachi, the Aldriena Niachi, Black Core a.s.sociate currently wanted for questioning for her suspected involvement with the Thermopylae incident, then things could be screwed up fast.

Not that Black Core didn't want her to be noticed. They did. But they needed to control when and how.

Aldriena picked her green line back up and followed it. The indicator twisted left and right down two corridors until turning into a walk-in closet with a rack of cleaning robots dominating one wall. Thick pipes routed across the ceiling.

Her green line wound its way up a desk and through a large metal grille. Some kind of maintenance crawlway or air duct. A pulsing red dot appeared on her pathway.

Pause, it insisted.

Aldriena slipped onto the desk and sat with her legs dangling. She could hear the hiss of something moving through the pipes in the room and a rattle of a worn compressor.

She took out her chewing gum and stuck it under the edge of the desk.

"Isto e para voce, Marcelo," she said.

Years ago, a boy named Marcelo had been flirting with the girls in her cla.s.s. He had offered gum to every one of them except Aldriena. Gum wasn't for j.a.ps he had explained, and spat at her instead. After school, Aldriena snuck back into the cla.s.sroom to take the gum out of his desk. She hid under the desktop and chewed his gum, sticking each wad under the desk until all the gum was gone. Once the teacher discovered it, Marcelo had been forbidden to chew gum for the rest of the year.

Aldriena smiled. She always got even.

A message came through her Cascavel.

Everything's set. I'm switching you over now.

Aldriena bent forward and ruffled her hair. A shower of tiny yellow strands fell out onto the bare metal floor. Her vision went blurry for a second, but she blinked and everything cleared. She bit the pads off the insides of her cheeks and spat them out. Her face felt puffy for a moment.

An interesting sensation. Aldriena the s.p.a.ce chipmunk.

She felt a rush of confidence knowing her countenance had reverted. Her first, most familiar weapon was available again. She rescanned the room. No one here to recognize her yet.

Aldriena moved over to the air duct. The plastic grille had a locking mechanism on its frame. She brought out a liquid key. The key looked like a block of silver, smooth and s.h.i.+ny. She adjusted the current running through the key and it softened in her hand. She slapped it into the keyhole and let the key flow into the mechanism. Then she adjusted the current again and took a snapshot of the inner workings of the lock.

Aldriena removed a second liquid key and downloaded the snapshot into it. The software a.n.a.lyzed the data and formed the second key into the necessary shape to actuate the lock. She slipped it in and it fit perfectly. She figured that the key also sent an electronic signature stolen by her Black Core comrades, since the grille door opened. Her face screwed up in annoyance at a puff of dust from the opening. So there was dust even here. Probably shed human skin, she thought.

She slid the liquid keys back into her pocket and clambered into the opening. The duct snapped as the thin metal accepted her weight. She winced and shuffled forward again. More noise.

Aldriena shuffled through the confines of the duct following the green line. The metal screeched and snapped. Her elbows popped the sides of the tunnel causing them to flex. A burst of claustrophobia hit her, but she ignored it, refusing to let it take hold.

"Whose r.e.t.a.r.ded idea was this, anyway?" she muttered to herself. "Shuffling through the air vents? Someone's been watching too many vids."

All the better to fool idiots into thinking you were on a mission here, said a voice through her link.

"s.h.i.+t. You put a sound pickup on me," Aldriena said.

No. I've already got the whole ventilation system bugged, said the voice again. I know it's dumb, but just keep going, you're almost to the spot. You're making as much noise as a rhino in there, I'm sure they've zeroed in on you by now.

Aldriena crawled up to another grille blocking her way. She fished out her liquid key and pushed it in. The lock didn't turn.

"A different key for each one?" she whispered.

Like you said. Too many vids. There were more security measures as well, I had to go to great lengths to get you this far. You should have another key.

Aldriena altered the current in the key she had inserted and took a reading of the new lock. Then she melted it away and took out a fresh key. It formed into a different pattern, which she used to open the grille that obstructed the duct.

"I'm through," she whispered. She crawled along listening to the clunks and snaps of the duct around her. The green line led her down a straightaway and then to her left. She saw the end of the line, a spherical green node that pulsed just ahead.

Okay here you are. Another meter or two.

Aldriena took a deep breath and shuffled forward. She heard more creaks from the duct than before. She slid forward again and then plunged downward in a roar of overstressed metal. A sharp impact followed as she smacked straight down onto the floor.

"Opa!" she said. She stared up at the gaping hole in the duct above that had disgorged her.

"Hold it right there!"

Aldriena looked into the slugthrowers of three male guards.

"Puxa! You boys looking for someone?" she asked.

No one replied as the nearest security officer secured her hands behind her back with a glue rope.

"You've been watching too many vids," one of them said. "We've been following you for a while now."

"Can't blame a girl for trying," she said.

"Take her in," somebody else said. Aldriena glimpsed at a group of spectators gathering to get a look. One of them, a Brazilian man in a business suit, actually stared at her with his mouth open.

"No ha duvidas de que os gorilas da forca do es.p.a.co querem apenas uma descupla para se aproveitarem dessa inocente inspetora de respiradouros," she fired off at him in Portuguese as the officers pulled her away. No doubt these s.p.a.ce force gorillas just want an excuse to feel up this innocent vent inspector.

Her last glimpse of his face showed no change of countenance.

Two officers marched her through several corridors past more gaping engineers and scientists. Aldriena struck a defiant yet seductive posture, relis.h.i.+ng the few moments of attention. They came to a security annex and pulled her inside, away from the public eye.

They deposited her in a small metal room with a table and two chairs.

"Oh, nice interrogation room," she told the retreating security men. "Now who's been watching too many vids?"

They didn't answer. The two walked out and sealed the door with a heavy metal clank that didn't leave much doubt as to its integrity.

Aldriena waited for long minutes. She dusted her dress off a bit here and there and inspected it for damage. It seemed in good enough condition given her recent clambering through the ventilation system.

"Somebody going to offer me a drink?" she called out.

Still nothing. Aldriena summoned her patience. She hoped they didn't leave her here too long. Prison was so dull. She found herself already longing for escape, and she hadn't even seen her cell yet.

Finally, someone came into the room. Some kind of security officer, not a lawyer type, judging from his uniform. The man had a squat frame and a square face to match. He closed the door behind him.

"Fala portugues?" Aldriena asked. The man shook his head.

"No Portuguese. Uhm, nao falo."

Aldriena rolled her eyes. The man pulled out a chair and sat across the table from her.

"English it is then," she said.

He stared at her. Aldriena leaned forward and spoke in a softer voice.

"Hey. You going to let me go?"

"Sorry. You're being detained for the s.p.a.ce force. They should pick you up in a day or two."

"You're not s.p.a.ce force?"

"Tell you what, lady. You talk to us first; we can guarantee you some rights that the s.p.a.ce force won't give you. I can file to keep you here-"

"I don't have anything to say."

"Think about it. I can get you a better deal if you talk to me. The s.p.a.ce force, they'll whisk you off and who knows how long it'll be before they decide to send you back to your company. If they ever do. Your comment about gorillas might be closer to the mark than you know."

"My company will trade to get me back." She believed it. Corporations traded people every day, just like computer chips, robot cha.s.sis, ESC, and carbon credits.

The man's eyes narrowed.

"You think so? You think Black Core can't do without one troublemaker? They have legions of people ready to take your place."

"They'll trade for me."

The man nodded. "Sure they will." He stood up.

"Lemme know if you change your mind. Cool off for a while, they won't be here soon."

He walked around to detach her glue cuffs from the chair. "Don't fight; it'll just make it worse."

"That's what all my boyfriends say, cabro."

Her needling didn't evoke any response. He yanked her up and then pushed her down a cramped hall to her personal holding cell. The metal door slid open to accept her, responding to a command from his link. Her Cascavel picked it up, even though one sample wouldn't do any good.

The cell looked like a metallic version of an economy hotel room in Hong Kong-a tiny bunk in a closet with a toilet handle that pulled the seat out of the wall. She knew it probably also had a link inhibitor to keep her out of trouble while incarcerated. An old-style video screen and keyboard built into the wall took the place of her usual link services.

She felt the cool spray of solvent on her hands and wrists. The glue slid off her skin releasing her hands. The officer thrust her head down then shoved her into the cell. She staggered forward and then stopped in the middle of the cell. She slowly bent down to flick a piece of glue off her foot, keeping her back to him.

Aldriena turned and caught his eyes returning to her face.