Bubblegum Crisis Fan Fiction ❯ Black Knights, Steel Hearts ❯ Chapter 6

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

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The Bubble Gum Crisis OVA's (which this story is based on) are copyrighted by
Artmic Inc. and Youmex, Inc. I am just borrowing the characters for a little
while for non-monetary reasons. I can be contacted at the Email address above.
Serious C&C will be accepted, out-and-out flames will result in a Boomer
or two being sent after you, once they get around to building them.

Please, enjoy my take on the Bubble Gum Crisis universe . . .

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Ch apter 6

Gulf and Bradley Regional Headquarters
MegaTokyo, Japan
December 21, 2035
10:15am

Carlton Bradley stared out of the window of the small office he'd appropriated upon his arrival in MegaTokyo. They view was less spectacular then the view from GENOM tower, but Carlton didn't care for views that much. He stared at the massive obelisk that was GENOM Tower.

He was tall, as his father had been, but he hadn't inherited his father's bulk. His face was a series of sharp angles, and his eyes were cold and hard. He had long dirty blond hair that hung in a ponytail that reached halfway down his back. His blue suit was expensive, but somber in tone.

He heard some enter the office. "Bored already, Sister?" he asked without turning.

"Yes," replied Cora Bradley. She looked a lot like her twin brother, being only slightly shorter then him. She also shared the same cold harness in the eyes. "The poor girl isn't much fun when she drugged to the hilt. She can't feel the pain."

"I need her alive and sane. Once we've gotten what we need from her, we can eliminate the drugs, and you can have her screaming to your heart's content."

Cora smiled coldly. "How much longer?"

"A few days, a week at the most."

"I can wait that long."

"I'm sure you can. But I have something else to occupy your attention for a while."

"What?"

Carlton turned and faced his sister. "Greg Mallory is in town," he replied in an even tone.

Cora's eyebrow went up. "Is he? I take it then MALCORP is still trying to recover the girl?"

"It would appear so. Now, the question is, is MALCORP going to hire the Knight Sabers to retrieve the girl, or did he bring in the Black Knights?"

His sister shrugged. "Doesn't matter. We have enough `liberated Boomers' to handle either one, or both."

He sat down in his chair. "But not enough to waste them like GENOM does."

"We could always set a trap."

Carlton's smile matched his sister's in its coldness. "True. I suppose you have an idea?"

"I do, but I need a couple of hours to work out the details. I'll tell you at lunch."

"Lunch it is."

Cora turned and walked over to the door. She turned slowly. "Is there I chance we could capture a Knight Saber? I would enjoy the opportunity to `question' one of them."

"We'll see."

"Thank you, brother." After she left, Carlton rotated his chair to stare out the window, and at GENOM Tower.

"We have some unfinished business, Quincy," he said. "And I always finish my business before I move on."

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AD Police Headquarters
District 3
December 21, 2035
10:39am

The small plaque next to the door said COMPUTER SECURITY OFFICE. The office itself was tucked off in a corner of the twenty-eighth floor, hidden from the rest of the world. It had taken Nene ten minutes to thread her way through the computer banks and occasional desks to find it.

She had spent the time between Daley's conversation and now pulling all the data she could on MALCORP and Janie VanDell out of the computers. The disk containing the data rested in her purse, ready to be passed on to Linna at lunchtime. She'd only skimmed the data, since there was too much to read at the time, but there were some very interesting stuff there. She'd alsotaken the opportunity to crack into Leon's file and make a notation that he was on a week's vacation.

She stood staring at the plaque. This is it, she thought nervously. My new job. New responsibilities. I hope I'm up to this.

She entered the office carefully, and looked around. The room was about the size of her living room, with four gray walls and ceiling. Two cubicles occupied the far wall, taking up two thirds of the office space. The cubicle on the left was unused, empty of everything except a computer console sitting on a bare desk in near darkness.

The other cubicle was occupied, and Nene looked in. She was surprised at the clutter that had accumulated in such a small area. Computer disks were laying around the desk, alongside cups, papers, books, pens, something that looked like a CD player, keys, and other knickknacks. The computer was on, and she saw it was running a program of some sort.

The only occupant was leaning back in a high back chair. His eyes were closed, and he had earphones over his ears. He was of medium height, squat, and average looking. His dark hair, with a few white hairs showing, was a wild mess. He wore glasses, and it looked as if he'd
forgotten to shave today.

"Good morning Sergeant," he said, without opening his eyes. He slipped off the earphones to hear her, and Nene noted that he was listening to Priss and the Replicants.

"How...er...."

"How did I know you were there?" he asked, his eyes still closed.

"Yes." Nene felt irritated. She hadn't been here ten seconds, and she was already on the defensive.

"Your perfume. A rather expensive brand too." He opened his eyes, and smiled at her. He stuck out a hand. "Alan Tremolini, ADP's ACTING computer security officer. You're my new boss, right?"

She accepted the hand. "Nene Romanova." His handshake was firm, but controlled. "Just for the record, What happen to the previous senior computer security officer?"

Alan shrugged as he released her hand. "GENOM offered him the same job he was doing here, at twice the salary. He had a wife, two kids with a third one on the way, so he grabbed it." He leaned forward, eying Nene carefully. "Inspector Wong told me earlier that someone had accepted the job. He just neglected to tell me who."

"Did he? All Daley told me was that there one other person in this department, and, for some reason, couldn't accept the position as head of department. He also said you were a solid, reliable guy who won't mind me taking over."

Tremolini shrugged. "He got that right. Why don't you have a seat?"

Nene perched herself on the edge of his desk. "Why can't you accept the position as head of department?"

"I'm classified as B-1 limited duty. The head of any ADP department must be classified A-2 or better."

"Oh." She looked at him again. "Why B-1?"

"Medical reason that I rather not talk about." He stared at her startled look. "No, I'm not a burnout case that's on the edge of going off like a rogue Boomer. I'm as sane as anyone else in the ADP - which means I have a couple of screws loose, but not that many."

Nene let that pass. "How long to get me up to speed on the security system?"

"Depends on how well you know the computer system right now."

"I know it fairly well," she replied carefully. She didn't want to let on exactly HOW well she knew the system.

"Well, to tell you the truth, ADP system security is rather poor. And this replacement system is more porous then the old system ever was."

Tell me about it, thought Nene. Porous isn't the word for it. "What have you been able to do to secure the system?"

"Not a hell of a lot. The new software we've got has more bugs in it then a Kansas wheatfield. All I've been able to do is throw up roadblocks across some holes, and monitoring programs on others. This jobs need more then two people to do it well, but try telling that to
the higher-ups."

"How bad is the Cracker problem?"

"Ah, you do know something about cyberculture after all."

"A bit."

"All right." He turned to the computer, and hit a couple of keys. The program that was running was replaced by a list of some type. "In the last six months, there has been three thousand attempts to breach ADP computers."

"Yoew!" exclaimed Nene. "That bad?"

"I said `attempts'. Over half couldn't get through the first layer of security, as poor as it is."

"And the rest?"

"The second level stopped about three quarters of those who got past the first. Only three hundred and fifty three got far enough in to do any damage, but most of them just did the cyber version of graffiti over several directories."

He tapped the computer. "I've put together a program that managed to isolate the serious attempts and assigns them to a certain Cracker based on several factors."

"I'm impressed." This doesn't sound good.

"I have a list of seventy-four crackers who made it past the two levels, and seem more intent on getting data from our systems then raising hell. I've been able to positively identify thirty-six of them, and have probables on another fifteen. The other twenty-three are the problem."

"You can't identify them?"

"Nope." He pointed to a line on the list. "Most aren't worth the effort to track down, but a few are. Take cracker forty-four as an example. Whoever it is, they're good. I can trace their penetration of the ADP system back at least four years, maybe longer. They've penetrated
security eight time in the last ten months, secure the data they're looking for, and they gone. No stumbling around, no random destruction, nothing to trace them with."

"What type of data?" asked Nene quietly. Has this guy been tracking me through the system without my knowledge?

"That's the interesting thing. I think this one is works with the Knight Sabers. I fact, I think they are a member of the Knight Sabers."

"What?" Nene looked at him, shocked. "How do you come to that conclusion?"

"Several things, Boss." He typed in a command, and the screen changed. "The data."

"Explain it to me, Alan." I REALLY need to know.

"First, the timing." He pointed to a list. "Six times cracker forty-four has slipped into the system, a major event involving the Knight Sabers has happened within thirty-six hours."

"That's not much to go on." I have to know how much you've found out about my setup here. "How many times has the Knight Sabers appeared that cracker forty-four didn't put in an appearance?"

"Seventeen times. But they were all Boomer rampages that didn't need ADP files."

Nene nodded. "What else?"

"The type of data our friend's been collecting. Mostly stuff like after action reports on Boomer rampages, examination reports of destroyed Boomer's memory systems, GENOM's replies to our reports, and Boomer technical reports."

"Maybe someone wants to put their own Boomer together without paying GENOM royalties."

"Maybe, but here is the centerpiece of my belief that cracker forty-four is a Knight Saber." He brought up a new screen. "Remember that nutcase that took over this place over with that group of Boomers a couple of years ago?"

"I remember." I nearly got killed by one of those Boomers, came close to getting Chief Todo's niece killed, and nearly got blown up, along with the entire building!

"I manage to retrieve some video footage for a security camera located in the auxiliary computer control room. It's not in great shape, there's no audio, but it good enough to view."

He hit a key on the keyboard, and the computer screen flickered to life. Nene stared hard as the footage began to run. It wasn't very sharp, but Nene could see herself, in her familiar blue and pink hardsuit, working at the computer console. The angle of the camera made it impossible to see Mackie, so it looked as if she was alone in the room.

As she watched, her mind flashed back to that event. She and Mackie had been in a desperate race to save the ADP building from the Boomer who had attached itself to the main computer system. It had been a close thing, but she'd manage to overload the Boomer's circuits, destroying it before it could destroy the building.

After several more seconds, the screen went blank. Alan leaned back in his chair. "What do you think?" he asked.

Nene shrugged. "Not much to go on," she replied in what she hoped was a neutral tone.

"It shows that this Knight Saber has more then a passing familiarity with our system. The type of familiarity that a very good cracker would have."

"Maybe. Have you told anyone else about this?"

"Who am I going to tell?" Alan's face took on an expression of irritation. "ADP policy is I tell the department head, and they take it upstairs. The fact that this department HASN'T had a head for the last six months isn't covered in the policy manual."

"And the Chief follows the Policy manual?"

"Like it's tattooed to his forehead."

Nene sighed. "All right. You've told me. What else should I know right now?"

They spent most of the next hour reviewing the basic security setup, and Nene realized this job was going to be a major headache. Alan had tried his best to cover the major holes, but they security system needed a major overhaul.

Nene glanced down at her watch and swallowed a gleep of shock. "It's after twelve!"

"Is it? Midday or midnight?"

She looked at him, wondering if he was kidding. Before she could answer, Daley stuck his head in the door. "How's it going, Nene?" he asked.

Nene tried to stammer out a reply. "Er...uh...well...."

"She'd doing fine, Daley," replied Alan, with a yawn. "She's going to be OK once I've taught her the ropes."

"Great. Nene, I found someone who was waiting for you at your old desk. Something about lunch?"

Nene groaned. "Linna. I promised to have lunch with her today."

Daley smiled. "Well, since I was coming down here anyway, I thought I'd save you a trip."

Linna stuck her head around the door, grinning. "Hey there, Sergeant," she said brightly. "Ready to buy lunch for a poor working stiff?"

"Sure. I need to talk to you anyway." Nene turned to Alan. "How long have you been here?"

"What day is it?"

"Go home Alan," said Daley. "I don't want to see you until tomorrow morning. You two have some long hours ahead of you."

Alan shrugged. "Give me ten minutes to set up the monitoring programs, and I'll go crash for a while." He looked at Linna. "Hello, Linna. Still teaching aerobics?"

Linna looked mildly shocked. "Alan?"

"You know him?" asked Nene.

"Er...yes." Linna looked puzzled. "Alan, You never said you were with ADP."

"You never asked." He yawned. "Go have lunch, Boss, and let Linna fill you on what little she know about me." He turned back to the computer, and started typing in commands.

"I think we've been dismissed," said Daley dryly. "Come on, I'll escort you to the lobby."

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Sylia's Apartment
Friday, December 21, 2035
11:57am

Sylia sat in the living room, reading the newspaper quietly. Despite the holiday season, she'd taken the day off. If there was problem in the store below, she could be downstairs in minutes. But today, she thought spending the day with Mackie was more important.

Mackie was asleep in his old room, and probably would be for another couple of hours. The conversation on the way home had been general in nature for the most part, but had change in the tone and content after they dropped off Nene at ADP headquarters. Sylia outlined What had happened at the airport, while Mackie listened with his eyes closed, When Sylia mentioned MALCORP, he opened his eyes.

"Interesting," he'd remarked.

"What's interesting?" she'd asked.

"Do you know who's running MALCORP these days?"

"No, I don't."

"Greg Mallory."

A memory involving a serious looking boy with different colored eyes had flashed across her thoughts. "Doctor Cordila Mallory's son?"

"The same. His father died about a year ago, and he took over the business."

"What else do you know about MALCORP?"

"Not much. At the very least, they've got better PR people working for them then GENOM does. Word is Greg runs a tight ship, and has managed to piss off the other megacorps by not playing by their rules. His rep makes Quincy's look sad in comparison."

"That sounds like Greg. He never did like playing by other people's rules."

The conversation had drifted into other areas after that, but Sylia's mind now roamed back to that conversation. Could that have been Greg Jeena Malso met at the airport? Why is he here? And why is MALCORP looking for Janie VanDell?

The doorbell rang, interrupting Sylia's train of thought. She got up slowly and answered the door. Priss stood there, glaring at her.

"Would you like to come in?" Sylia asked mildly.

"I would." Priss stalked into the apartment, followed by Sylia. While Sylia reclaimed her seat and went back to the newspaper, Priss headed for the kitchen and claimed a beer from the refrigerator. After popping the top, Priss took her beer and plopped down on the sofa. She took a long pull from the can, and glared at Sylia.

"A little early in the day, isn't it?" asked Sylia, not looking up from the paper.

"It's lunch. Where's Mackie?"

"Sleeping. What's wrong?"

"I ran into someone you know at Pop's garage. Pops sent me over to tell you that Greg Mallory's in town."

Sylia looked up. "You saw Greg?"

Priss nodded. "A tall and lean guy, with one eye green blue in color, the other one gray."

"That sounds like him."

"Him and Pops acted like they were a couple of long lost family members."

"Well, Greg's father wasn't around a lot, and Doctor Raven treated Greg like a son."

"Pops seemed edgy for some reason. Told me to tell you and let you take the appropriate course of action, whatever the hell that is."

"I see." Sylia closed her eyes and thought for several minutes. She opened her eyes. "Greg is up to something." She outlined MALCORP interest in Janie VanDell, the meeting of Greg and Jeena Malso at the airport, and the measures the corporation was taking to try to locate her.

"So why would this Mallory be so hot trying to track down a single fourteen-year-old?"

"I don't know, but I've got Nene pulling data on both MALCORP and Janie VanDell from the ADP systems. Once we get an idea What's going on, then we can take action."

"What type of action?" asked Mackie, strolling into the living room, stretching and yawning at the same time. He was wearing a garish green bathrobe over blue PJs. "Hello, Priss," he said when he saw her sitting there.

"Mackie." Priss waved at him. "How was your flight?"

"Long and boring. How's the music biz?"

"About the same." She drained the rest of the beer. "I'd better be going. I've got things to do."

"What are you doing tonight?" asked Sylia.

"I don't know yet." She stood. "Why?"

"I'm having a welcome home dinner for Mackie tonight. You're invited."

Priss shrugged. "Why not? What time?"

"Seven."

"Sounds good. See you then." She waved Sylia off. "Don't bother to get up. I'll let myself out."

Mackie waited until Priss closed the front door behind her before he said, "You didn't tell me about this dinner."

"Until twenty seconds ago, there was no dinner. I thought it might cheer Priss up."

"What's wrong with her?"

"The band tossed her out. I think she's taking it harder then she's letting on."

"What about the others? They might have plans tonight."

"I talked to Linna earlier. She didn't have anything planned. And Nene's not had much chance for a social life lately. I'm sure she'll jump at the chance."

"Assuming there isn't a Boomer rampage tonight."

"Well," replied Sylia, picking up her newspaper again. "Let's hope GENOM gives everyone a night off tonight."

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