RETALI8ION: The Cobalt Code Read online

  “Get to the balcony,” Regina shouted, pulling her hard drive from the rig. She then clipped the drive back into place on her belt, picked up her trench coat, and started putting it on.

  “Here,” Thomas said in a rushed tone.

  “Bye, old girl,” Regina said as she took out a small box with a single switch on it. With only a second's hesitation, she pressed the button.

  A few loud pops, accompanied by several sparks and flashes throughout Regina's rig, went off sequentially.

  Regina ran to the balcony and picked up what appeared to be a large umbrella. “You ready?”

  “Ready,” replied Thomas.

  Regina pulled a few feet of cord from the bottom of the umbrella pole and attached it to Thomas's harness. “Get on the ledge.”

  Thomas hopped up on the ledge. “Don't like flying.”

  Regina opened the umbrella, turning it into a small glider, and stepped onto the balcony ledge. “Yeah. Me either.”

  “Then don't.”

  Regina carefully placed her feet on the two small footholds near the bottom of the glider's pole. “No choice. Jump!”

  Thomas jumped as Regina slid off the ledge. The two started sailing through the air as the hotel room's door was broken open, quickly followed by the sound of bullets ripping through the air.

  Regina could not look back to see the stray bullets fly, the shaky glider demanded most of her attention as she had to steer it with her entire body. But she could already see her target landing zone two rooftops away. “See, nothing to worry about,” she said reassuringly as she looked down towards Thomas.

  “I don't fly. Gina don't fly. Why we fly?” asked Thomas.

  Regina could see that Thomas was doing everything he could not to freak out. His paws were outstretched and reaching for something that just wasn't there. “Well, if it makes any difference, we're not actually flying we're just floating.”

  “Not different,” Thomas replied.

  “I'm sorry, friend. We'll be landing soon,” Regina said as she looked back up towards her destination, which was now only one rooftop away.

  “Turn!” came a warning from Thomas.

  Regina didn't even notice the carrier drone coming towards them. She was only able to do a quick slide down the pole to avoid it hitting her.

  Thomas screamed as the drone crashed into the thin wings of the glider.

  Regina quickly lost her footing and barely managed to keep hold of the pole as the glider started a lilting descent towards the side of the building, instead of towards the roof. She looked up and saw that there was nothing she could do. The propeller blades had done a nice job of cutting up most of the glider's wing on one side when it had crashed into them. Seeing no other way out, she thought she'd wait until they came close enough to a building and try to jump over and grab on to something. But, even that seemed like a futile effort. This building didn't have any ledges she could see, but she knew she had to try. “Thomas, I'm gonna connect you to me and make a jump for it, okay?”

  There was no reply from Thomas.

  “Thomas!?” she screamed as she looked down, unable to see him below her. She did see the cord had been extended below her, she quickly spun her head around, trying to match the slow spin of the glider, to look in the direction the cord was going. Regina wanted to scream Thomas's name out again when she spotted him, but held it back as she could see that a distraction could cost them both dearly.

  Thomas was slowly scaling the slick building's surface a few meters from her. His claws were dug in to the sides of the glassy surface as best as he could set them, and it looked like he was slowly trying to climb to the rooftop.

  Regina looked down, the glider was about to run out of cord length for Thomas, and it was about to smack into the side of the building. Regina looked back up at Thomas, who was still about two meters from the reaching the roof. She could tell that he wasn't going to make it to the top before the glider hit the building and started pulling him down with her.

  Thomas turned his head around to try and see where Regina was. Catching sight of the coming catastrophe he yelled, “Jump. Hold on.”

  Regina pressed the release, and grabbed on to the cord as it disconnected from the pole. She felt the quick snap and pull as the cord went taut from her weight at the bottom. Looking up, she winced in pain as she saw Thomas slide down the building's side, but had somehow managed to hold her weight without losing his grip on the glossy exterior.

  “Hold,” Thomas said, as he tried to dig his claws in further, and braced for the second pull on the harness.

  Regina readied her position to hit the side of the building with her feet to soften the impact in hopes of not pulling any harder on Thomas. Though she wasn't actually sure if he could pull them both up, she was going to do all she could. She hit the side of the building as softly as possible, bending her knees with her weight as she hit. Watching carefully, she saw that her landing hadn't caused Thomas to lose any more ground.

  “Hold,” Thomas said as he started climbing once again, this time much more slowly.

  Seeing him struggling to pull his paw up to his next foothold made tears well in Regina's eyes. She started doing the math in her head. She weighed about 160 pounds, and Thomas only weighed in at around 95 pounds. Granted, he had been engineered as a climber to carry small loads for workmen on skyscrapers, but she had loaded him down with about fifteen pounds of equipment before they left. Tears fell as she watched him plunge his claws into his next hold. She knew Thomas wouldn't give up on her. Splice Cats never left their owners. Many had even starved themselves to death after their owner's demise. Shaking her head, and the tears, she clenched her teeth and let go of the cord with one of her hands to reach inside her coat. A few seconds later she pulled out her knife, a 6 inch folding titanium blade. She flicked her wrist to snap the blade into place and jabbed with all her might at the building's side. The entry point wasn't deep, but it was enough to pull up on a little, and start helping.

  The next ten minutes was a series of slow, and careful, moves upward by the pair. When Regina saw Thomas start to make his next move she steadied her hand, preparing for a new, yet tentative hold. Soon, Regina reached the area where Thomas had first started climbing, and was able to get far better holds with her free hand, and her knife. Another ten minutes and Thomas reached his first paw onto the building's rooftop, and Regina had reached the claw marks that had been drug a few feet down.

  Regina was able to find a small, but usable, foothold within the deeper marks. “I have a foothold. You can rest a moment, Thomas.”

  “Must go,” Thomas replied as he reached his second paw over the ledge.

  Regina winced at the sound of his voice. He wasn't going to last much longer. But she continued to follow his movements and climbed with him. Her latest stable foothold seemed to give just enough relief that Thomas was able to pull himself up, and over the rooftop ledge. Regina waited for word from Thomas that he was ready for her to continue upward. While waiting, she took a few deep breaths, and tried to steady her hands, when something caught her eye. It was one of Thomas's claws. It was just hanging there, in the crevasse it had created. She stared at it, fighting back the tears for what seemed like an eternity. At last, she felt a few more tugs on the rope from Thomas.

  “Climb now,” came Thomas's voice.

  She felt a slight movement in the rope as Thomas finished speaking. Looking up, hopeful tears started to well. “We're gonna be okay, Thomas,” she said as she placed the knife's blade in her mouth, unable to fold it closed with one hand, and grabbed ahold of the cord with both hands, and started to climb. She climbed slowly and steadily, not wanting to disturb whatever tenuous hold Thomas had found.

  A few moments later she managed to pull her head up and look out over the rooftop. There she saw Thomas, who looked as though he had managed to somewhat brace himself under a ventilation duct. Between that and his weight, he had provided a steadfast enough hold for her to climb up the rest of the way. S
he dropped the knife from her mouth. “Thomas!” she screamed. Then, with renewed strength, she pulled herself up the last few feet of cord, hopped over the ledge, took a few steps, and fell at Thomas's side.

  “Safe?” asked Thomas, as Regina fell next to him.

  “Yes. Yes, I'm fine. Are you okay, Thomas?”

  “Hurt.” Thomas replied, struggling to breath.

  “No no no,” Regina said as she carefully pulled him out from under the duct.

  “Hurt.” Thomas again said, this time much lower.

  “I know. I know, buddy. Just be still,” she replied as she started to examine him. She then carefully released the strap holds, and started to get the harness off of him.

  “Better.”

  “Better? Okay. Can you tell me what hurts?” asked Regina, as she slid the harness off of him.

  Thomas growled as he replied. “Muscles hurt. Insides hurt. Paw hurt.”

  Regina breathed a slight sigh of relief. If he could still talk this well, he was probably not in mortal danger. “Okay. Is anything broken?”

  Thomas tilted his head ever so slightly for a moment before answering. “No. Just hurt.”

  Regina took in a deep breath, and then let it out slowly. “Alright, my sweet paw prince, you just rest for a while.”

  “Can't. Copters.”

  Regina turned to see that, indeed, there were several helicopters heading towards the area. It was nice to know his hearing was still far better than hers. But, being unable to tell if the helicopters were from some branch of the security forces, or a news station, she couldn't take any more chances. “Alright then. It's time for me to carry you for a little while.”

  -2-

  It had started raining in the last two hours since the duo's escape from the hotel, and showed no signs of letting up any time soon.

  “Wet,” Thomas stated unhappily.

  Regina reached behind her to give Thomas as quick pet on his head that was sticking out of the makeshift backpack she had put together from her trench coat and Thomas's harness. “I know, buddy. I am too. I'll get that fixed just as soon as I can.”

  Regina stabbed a small crowbar into the cover lock on a control panel at the base of cellular data tower. She had spent the last two hours leaving the building they had crash landed on, and climbing the 60 levels of stairs of the Caldwell Building across the street to reach the roof, and access to this particular data tower's panel.

  “Why we here?” asked Thomas.

  The crowbar slid out unsuccessfully as Regina pulled on it. “Shimatta!” she shouted in disgust with how difficult the lock was being. “We're here so I can try my hand at direct interfacing with a tower without authorized access during a rainstorm.”

  A few moments later Thomas replied, “Why?”

  Regina couldn't see it, but she knew Thomas had tilted his head before stating his next question. “Sorry, that was sarcasm. I'm trying to get in touch with Artemis, and not let whoever is after us know our location when I make the call.”

  “Okay.”

  Regina smiled. It seemed Thomas hadn't lost his need for a simple explanation. Taking a deep breath, she again struck at the box's lock. Again with no luck. “I'm gonna sit you down. Okay?”

  “Yep.”

  Regina carefully lowered the makeshift backpack to the ground. She then reaffirmed her grip on the crowbar with both hands and started swinging repeatedly at the lock. After six direct hits, she heard the clanging sound of something metallic releasing or dropping from its location. “TD Mobile really should invest in some high-end electronic locks so that vicious thugs like me can't just break the control panels open,” she said, nearly completely out of breath.

  “You would hack,” Thomas stated.

  Regina laughed, probably for the first time since seeing how badly Thomas had been hurt. “You're right. I would.”

  She let out a sigh of relief as she pulled her data tablet from her belt. Turning it on, she smiled. “Still got a good charge and it looks like the manufacturer wasn't lying when they said this model was water proof.”

  “You need prove water?” asked Thomas.

  “No. It means water won't hurt it.”

  Thomas titled his head. “Water not hurt me. I prove water.”

  Regina smiled again, thankful for the distraction from how much her muscles wanted to give up on her. “Yep. Me too. Now, hold still, I need to find something,” she said as she reached down in the makeshift backpack holding Thomas to try and find her left inside pocket.

  “What finding?”

  “These,” Regina said as she pulled two cords out.

  Thomas bit at one of the dangling ends as they rose out of the bag.

  “You're bored, aren't you?” Regina asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Sorry. Just give me a few minutes to talk to Artemis, and we'll get some food, alright,” Regina said as she started connecting the cords from her tablet to the now exposed control panel.

  A few taps on the tablet and one cord rearrangement later, Regina saw a connected message appear on the program she was running on her tablet. “Well... at least something is going the way I planned it,” she said as she sat down and put her back against the base of the tower.

  “Your hair run away,” Thomas stated.

  “What?” Regina asked. She reached up to feel her hair, but didn't feel anything amiss. She brought her hand back down to look at it. As sure as Thomas had said it, her hands were covered in the blue dye she had recently used to temporarily color her hair. “I guess you're right. Do I look funny now?”

  “Yes.”

  Regina smiled, as she started tapping away on her tablet. “Let's see what Artemis is up to tonight.”

  The screen changed to a small icon indicating that a call being attempted.

  “Pick up. Pick up. Pick up,” Regina repeated as she hopefully watched her tablet's screen.

  “Hello?” came a reply as the screen changed to a video feed showing a balding Japanese man in his late forties.

  “Artemis, it's Regina,” she replied with a hopeful smile.

  “Natali8! Is that you?” Artemis asked in a surprised tone.

  “Yeah, it's me. Sorry, I'm in the rain, I know the video isn't that great,” Regina replied.

  “You will catch a cold that way,” Artemis said.

  “Yeah, that's what I hear. Anyway, can I get you to do me a favor, for old time sake?”

  “Is this a small favor, like helping you get some new identification documents? Or is this a big favor?” asked Artemis.

  Regina bit her lip for a moment before responding. “It's a big favor.”

  “How big? Are we talking corporate take down, exposing a politician, or a good old-fashioned heist?” Artemis asked, somewhat intrigued.

  “The heist is done. But the follow up has gotten very messy,” Regina quickly replied.

  “How messy?” Artemis asked cautiously.

  “Let's just say the goons that came into my empty hotel room at the Kogami didn't stop to ask questions or try to arrest me.”

  “Holy Kitzle! That was you!?” Artemis exclaimed.

  “Yeah, that was me,” Regina replied reluctantly.

  “You are all they are talking about right now on Net3! The geeks are trying to dissect video showing you entering the hotel yesterday, trying to figure out what types of equipment you could have fit in your bags, and some have even been speculating as to what your Splice Cat's name is. Seems that some of the more seasoned netventurers have managed to piece together times and front desk recordings to figure out the fake name you used to check in there. Someone even got ahold of some drone footage that shows you making your, shall I say daring, escape from the Kogami. Wow!” Artemis said in what seemed like one breath. “Wait, are you okay?”

  “I've been a whole lot better in my days. But me and Thomas are okay.” Regina replied.

  “No one really knows what happened after the crash. They've been trying, but they haven't found you yet.”
/>
  “Good. And I hope to be far away and gone without a trace when they figure out what happened. But, I don't think it will take them long once the sun comes up.”

  “Oh, why's that? Is the famous Cobalt Code Thief getting sloppy?” Artemis asked curiously.

  “Accidents happen lot,” Thomas said, jumping into the conversation.

  Regina looked over at Thomas and made a shushing expression.

  “Was that the tomcat himself?” asked Artemis.

  “Yeah, that's him. But please, stay focused for me,” Regina said, turning her attention back to the call.

  “Sorry. Sorry. Yeah, um okay. So, what do you need from me?” Artemis said in a serious tone.

  “I need you to help me figure out who's doing this to me,” Regina said sternly.

  “A tall order. What do you got?” Artemis asked.

  “I got a lot of files form MPHarm, including the one file they sent me in there for,” replied Regina.

  “Who dropped the files to you?”

  Regina hadn't thought about it since everything had started, but she suddenly remembered that Thomas's video feed had, in fact, been interrupted when he was at the pickup site. “I actually don't know. Thomas did the pickup, but the transmission of the feed was disrupted, and I started on the job right after he got back.”

  “That is a nooby mistake, Natali8,” Artemis said, somewhat surprised.

  “Yeah, I was on a tight deadline, and the data stick they sent was encrypted, so I got busy doing that. My gut told me to get out then, but the thought of all that money, and no sign of anything else going wrong, kept me from listening,” Regina said, mad at herself for making such an easy mistake.

  “Well, at least you had a decent enough getaway plan. But next time take a pistol with you to take out any drones in your path,” Artemis said with a chuckle.

  “First, that's not funny. Second, I do carry one, but shooting down drones with a pistol while gliding through the air is bit more difficult than you might imagine,” Regina said, suddenly very seriously.

  “Sorry. Alright, I'm in. Curiously though, what was the pay?” asked Artemis.

  “Fifteen mil,” Regina stated.