Eclipse Phase: Firewall

202 Pages·2015·28.277 MB·English

by  Posthuman Studios

Firewall is a secret organization sourcebook for both players and gamemasters.
It includes:
■ Details on Firewall’s history, organization, and ongoing operations.
■ Firewall’s notable people, locations, and internal factions.
■ Rival organizations, including the argonauts, Jovians, Titanians, and ultimates.
■ New traits, gear, and 16 sample characters
ECLIPSE
The Eclipse Phase Conspiracy Guide
PHASE
21102
Eclipse Phase created by Posthuman Studios eclipsephase.com
Eclipse Phase is a trademark of Posthuman Studios LLC. Some content licensed under a Creative Commons License (BY-NC-SA); Some Rights Reserved. © 2015
Firewall is a secret organization sourcebook for both players and gamemasters.
It includes:
■ Details on Firewall’s history, organization, and ongoing operations.
■ Firewall’s notable people, locations, and internal factions.
■ Rival organizations, including the argonauts, Jovians, Titanians, and ultimates.
■ New traits, gear, and 16 sample characters
D I R E C T A C T I O N . E X T I N C T I O N
v s
ECLIPSE
The Eclipse Phase Conspiracy Guide
PHASE
21102
Eclipse Phase created by Posthuman Studios eclipsephase.com
Eclipse Phase is a trademark of Posthuman Studios LLC. Some content licensed under a Creative Commons License (BY-NC-SA); Some Rights Reserved. © 2015
Firewall is a secret organization sourcebook for both players and gamemasters.
It includes:
■ Details on Firewall’s history, organization, and ongoing operations.
■ Firewall’s notable people, locations, and internal factions.
■ Rival organizations, including the argonauts, Jovians, Titanians, and ultimates.
■ New traits, gear, and 16 sample characters
D I R E C T A C T I O N . E X T I N C T I O N
v s
ECLIPSE
The Eclipse Phase Conspiracy Guide
PHASE
21102
Eclipse Phase created by Posthuman Studios eclipsephase.com
Eclipse Phase is a trademark of Posthuman Studios LLC. Some content licensed under a Creative Commons License (BY-NC-SA); Some Rights Reserved. © 2015
FIREWALL 12 Preventative Measures 74 Jake Carter 104
OUR MISSION 14 Deep Cover 75 Magnus Ming 104
Internal Security 77 Moxie Harper 105
THE SECRET
ONGOING FIREWALL OPERATIONS 79 Nevermore 105
HISTORY OF FIREWALL 14
EyeWiki Search: Ops and Cases 79 Nezumi 105
Waving Flags
Case ASTURIAS BLACK FLAG 79 Nova Vida 105
on the Path to Catastrophe 14
Operation AXON VULGAR 80 Parallax 106
Scientific Schisms 14
Case BERSERKER VOID 80 Pivo 106
Pre-Fall Outbreaks 15
Operation CARIBOU ABYSS 80 Pyrrhos 106
Solarchive Search:
Operation CENOTAPH 80 Qi 106
Precautionary, Proactionary,
Case CLOSE CONTACT 81 Rokuzawa Chi 107
and Reversibility Principles 15
Operation CLOUD DRAGON 81 Ruqinzhe 107
Downward Slope 18
Case DULLAHAN 81 Sava 107
The Early Fall 19
Case ELDRITCH WARD 81 Shomari Mirza 108
Deliberate Manipulation? 19
Operation Sun Bu’er 108
Black Swans 19
ERRANT ECCENTRIC 81 Tara Yu 108
Solarchive Search: ASI vs. Seed AI 20
Case FERAL MORAINE 81 Tio Silencio 108
The War with the TITANs 20
Operation Violet Perdido 109
Countermeasures 20
FORCED RETIREMENT 82 Voight-Kampff 109
Guardian Ghosts 21
Operation FULGENT TERMITE 82 Yemaja 109
Calling the Shots 21
Operation FUMIGANT 82 Zora Möller 110
Tactical Retreat 22
Operation GEHENNA FORTY 82 RELATIONS WITH OTHERS 110
Evacuation 22
Operation GHOST RADIO 82 Argonauts 110
Aftermath 22
Operation GLASS LICH 82 Autonomists 111
Xmode 1:
Operation ICE NINE 82 Brinkers 111
The First Servers Organize 22
Case IRON WIND 82 Criminal Organizations 112
Philosophical Differences 23
Operation KUDZU 82 Hypercorporations 112
Consolidation 23
Operation LONE WOLVES 82 Jovian Republic 113
The Titanian Schism 23
Operation LONG SHOT 83 Lunar-Lagrange Alliance 113
Xmode2: Firewall Founded 23
Operation MOMBI 83 Morningstar Constellation 113
Early Successes 24
Case MOON GARDEN 84 Oligarchs 114
Failures 25
Case MYSTERY 84 Planetary Consortium 114
Firewall in the Now 25
Operation NECRONOMICON 84 Reclaimers 115
Threat Radar: AF 10 25
Case NEGATIVE GEOMETRY 84 Titan 115
ORGANIZATION 26
Operation SAURON 84 Ultimates 115
Inner and Outer Circles 27 Operation SOLAR STORM 84
OTHER GROUPS 117
Proxies 30 Case SUICIDE DREAMS 84
Sentinels 34 Case THIRD EYE 84 THE ARGONAUTS 118
Other Firewall Roles 36 Operation TRAFFICKOP 84 Kindred Spirits, Uphill Battle 118
Administrative Functions 36 Operation USUAL SUSPECTS 85 Relationship Status:
Firewall Governance 39 Case VAPOR DREAD 85 It’s Complicated 119
Conflicts and Issues 41 Operation VINEGAR 85 Exploiting Each Other 120
Infrastructure 44 Case WATCHMAKER 86 Research of Interest 121
Security 44 Operation WHITE RABBIT 86 Tracking Giants 121
Social Network 44 Case YELLOW KING 86 The Institute for the Study of
FACTIONS/CLIQUES 46 NOTABLE PLACES 86 Emergent Trends (ISET) 122
The First Schism 46 Alpha-Omega: Lunar Terminal 87 HYPERCORP INTERESTS 123
Backups 47 Balani 88 Cognite 123
Conservatives 49 Breakout 89 Stellar Intelligence 125
Pragmatists 50 Cinder 92 King’s Castle 125
The Second Schism 51 Grailhunter 93 Other Corps 126
Mavericks 52 Hotfire 95 JOVIAN AGENCIES 128
Structuralists 53 Redoubt 96 Jovian Intelligence Services 128
Minor Factions 54 Salvage Zone: The Earth Garage 98 X-Risk Preparedness 129
FIELD OPS 55 The Toybox 98 Access to Technology 130
The Watch: The Role of Scanners 55 NOTABLE OPERATIVES 100 Security
Mission SOPs 55 Aun Leung 100 Council Intelligence (SCI) 131
FIREWALL Sentinel Activation 57 Bainbridge 100 Civil Defense Corp Bureau of
Securing Necessary Resources 57 Bento Gelzer 101 Investigations (CDBI) 133
OTHER GROUPS Scratch Spaces 59 Black Pharaoh 102 Council on Bio-ethics and
Mission Factors 63 Branden DeGrass 102 Advanced Technology (CBEAT),
Local Authorities 65 Cacophonous 102 Office of Investigations 134
GAME INFORMATION
Handling Artifacts 67 Firewall’s Generation Gap 102 Jovian Space
Detecting Callosum 103 Force Intelligence (JSFI) 135
Exsurgent Virus and Threats 68 Conrik Tombs (Beta) 103 Senate Accounting Office (SAO) 137
Pandora Gate Protocols 69 Das Frettchen 103 OLIGARCHS 138
First Contact Protocols 70 Eludere 103 Franko Abramsen 139
Factor Interactions 70 Felicity Costa 104 Stefan Habsburgh 139
Mission Aftermath 71 Ham 104 Rook 139
2
Zarah Rostami 140 Working with NEW POSITIVE TRAITS 172
Nuan Zhang 140 Character Backgrounds 162 Civilian Analyst 172
RELIGIOUS GROUPS 140 Establishing a Server and Proxies 162 Military Intelligence 172
Societas Iude 140 Running Background Checks 162 Military Rank 173
White Butterfly 142 Trust and Player Agency 163 Police Officer 173
TITANIAN AGENCIES 143 CAMPAIGNS WITH PROXY PLAYER Professional Courtesy 173
Organization 143 CHARACTERS 163 Special Agent 173
Contacting the Butterfly 143 FIREWALL MISSIONS 163 Unique Contact 173
Transparency 144 Types of Missions 163 NEW GEAR 174
The “Titanian Schism” 146 Mission Constraints 164 Cyberware 174
Threat Awareness 146 Handling X-Risks in Play 164 Covert Ops Gear 174
Ministry of State: Civilian Intelligence Threat Limiters 164 Drugs 175
Directorate (CID) 146 Clusterfucks 165 Everyday Technology 175
People 151 USING THE FIREWALL FACTIONS 165 Nanotechnology 175
Ministry of Science: Science Police 152 Backups 165 Robots 176
TITAN HUNTERS 153 Conservatives 166 Sensors 176
Mambo’s Mongooses 153 Mavericks 166 Software 177
Hunter Counterpoint 153 Pragmatists 166 Weapons 178
McBride Family 154 Structuralists 166 USING NON-FIREWALL FACTIONS 179
Operation Harvest 154 USING THE EYE AND I-REP 166 Argonauts 179
THE ULTIMATES 154 Server i-Rep 167 Hypercorps and Oligarchs 179
Purifiers 155 THE PROMETHEANS 168 Jovians 180
Rajput 156 Origins 168 Religious Groups 180
Contact Protocols 158 The Fall and Aftermath 168 TITAN Hunters 181
GAME INFORMATION 160 Hidden Retreats and Redoubts 169 Titanians 181
Ongoing Operations 169 Ultimates 181
INTRODUCING NEW CHARACTERS Individual Prometheans 169 THE TITANIAN SCHISM 182
TO FIREWALL 162 Promethean Fork 171 Driving Forces 182
New Characters vs. Established Promethean Agents 171 Reasons 183
Characters 162 Twists 183
SAMPLE CHARACTERS 185
CREDITS
Version 1.1 (May 2015), by Posthuman Studios
Writing: Rob Boyle, Nathaniel Dean, Jack Graham, contact us at [email protected],
Sarah Hood, Marc Huete, Jason Mical, Ross Payton, via http://eclipsephase.com
Rhett Skubis, John Snead, Caleb Stokes & http://posthumanstudios.com,
Editing: Rob Boyle, Jack Graham, Michelle Lyons or search your favorite social network for:
Development: Rob Boyle, Jack Graham “Eclipse Phase” or “Posthuman Studios”
Art Direction: Rob Boyle
Cover Art: Stephan Martiniere Posthuman Studios is:
Interior Art: Jacob Anderson, Nic Boone, Matt Bulahao, Rob Boyle, Brian Cross, Jack Graham, and Adam Jury.
Adam Burn, Alex Drummond, Danijel Firak, Jaime
Guerrero, Tariq Hassan, Josu Hernaiz, Sam Hogg, Creative Commons License;
Thomas Jung, Mitchell Malloy, Marco Mazzoni, Some Rights Reserved.
Andre Mina, Mark Molnar, Jonathan Moore, James
Mosingo, Frankie Perez, Dhian Prasetya, Maciej
Rebisz, Lorenz Hideyoshi Ruwwe, Andy Wright
Layout: Adam Jury
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Additional Contributions and Input: Damien Huete, T
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution- N
Lucien Huete, Rich Savage, and all our fans who
Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License. E
helped proofread the initial release! T
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Musical Inspiration: Disturnoilt, Muslimgauze,
To view a copy of this license, visit: http://creativecommons.org O
Tribal AD, Wychdoktor C

What this means is that you are free to copy, share, and remix F
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For specific details, appropriate credits, and updates/changes to
this license, please see: http://eclipsephase.com/cclicense
3
This story continues the plot begun in El Destino Verde, the opening fiction to Panopticon.
“So you ain’t surprised, guy we’re going to see knows more than a few researchers who got stupid about the
me by Jake Carter,” Jae Park said. exovirus shot into red smears on Firewall turn-and-
“I don’t care if he calls you Sun Mi Hee,” Kim said, burn ops. Hell, he’d done for a few himself, though he
“As long as when we’re done there we get a clean bill didn’t savor it any.
of health. Anyway, I like ‘Jake’ better. My grandpa “How you doing back there, Bobdog?” Park craned
was named ‘Jae.’” his head to check on the neo-primate. Bob huddled
They were flying over the Noctis tablelands, in the acceleration couch, breathing normally but
heading for an off-grid genehacker facility. The looking gray.
badlands spread out invisible below them, but an Bobdog made the Warlpiri sign for “shit.”
AR topo display showing their position hovered over “Hang in there, man. We’ll be at Cagehopper’s soon.”
the central instrument panel. Rank of captain meant Kim had locked her police baboons, Gloria and
Sage Kim could requisition better engines than most Smoke, in the back cabin. Too much chance of Smoke
Ranger prowlers had. They were cutting up sky; throwing a nicotine fit and tearing one of Bobdog’s
wouldn’t take long to get there. long, spindly neo-bonobo arms off. Park didn’t like
It was hours ’til dawn, but Cagehopper would be the baboons much, but they’d come in handy dealing
awake; the genehacker didn’t sleep much. Even when he with the yakuza back at El Destino Verde.
did, he kept a fork up to tend to his living experiments. “Be interesting to finally meet Cagehopper,” Kim
“What do you care if Bobdog and I get a clean bill?” said, real casual.
Park asked, “You going all soft on me, Captain Kim?” Well, shit, Park thought. “You know him?” he asked,
“No,” she said, “But I wouldn’t want to have to keeping casual himself. He’d thought “Cagehopper”
shoot you for coming up zombie, all the same.” Her was a name the genehacker only used with Firewall.
tone measured zero-percent sardonic wit. That she knew it set him on edge, but of more worry
“Wouldn’t worry,” Park said, “This is containment was the simple fact of a Ranger and a black-kettle
protocol. Pretty standard. Just a precaution.” He said genehacker being in the same room.
that, but he was covering. He had that itch in his “Tried to arrest him a few times, sure.”
neck, that crawling feeling in his stomach he always “Complicates things,” he said.
got after facing an exposure risk. The fear never went She reached over the center console and play
away, and that was a damned good thing. He’d seen punched his shoulder. Bit more than a play punch,
4
point of fact, but probably not intentional. Kim was a bust a yakuza front, sure, all in a day’s work. She was
ruster, but her body was heavy on the augments. He’d the law, right? But agreeing to go in and meet a guy
give her even odds against your average fury. “Don’t who’d have a list of felonies for unlicensed genemods
fret, Jake. I don’t give so much as a rat’s tail about a klick long on his rap sheet without her monkeys …
this guy, so long as when we’re done he tells me I’m It was too even-handed, even for a Ranger like Kim.
not gonna end up a barrel-shaped mass of mucus He’d have to watch her close.
membrane with tentacles for a tutu.” [Cagehopper, how about this: the baboons’ll stay in the
“Truly?” prowler. They’ll make nary a peep, unless it turns out we’re
“Truly.” infected. Then we need you to check them, too.]
He believed her, for now. Cagehopper was well A long chunk of dead air followed, but then the
outside her jurisdiction, but the guy got around. She camouflaged garage door scrolled up into the rock
probably knew him from his dealings with the Arsia face, letting a gust of warm humidity out to briefly
Mons smugglers. Didn’t matter, anyway; he had to fog the chill, dry Martian air.
bring her to Cagehopper one way or another. Inside was a dimly lit loading bay. Cagehopper
had a flying car and a buggy parked inside, leaving
only a little space for the big Ranger flyer. The place
was clean and orderly. Park saw a few rats, probably
Cagehopper’s place was dug deep into a gorge smart animals, scurry away as the garage door closed
in the tablelands. Kim’s flying truck had to and he stepped out.
squeeze onto a landing pad that was way too Park got Bobdog from the back seat, carrying
close to the gorge walls for comfort. There the neo-bonobo again. Bobdog looked even weaker
were no trails, but there was a space between F than before; he shivered in the cold air of the garage.
IR
some rocks just big enough for a buggy to E Couldn’t Cagehopper afford an airlock? But space
W
crawl out. The outer garage door blended into A was at a premium. Looked like it’d been part of an
L
the surroundings almost perfectly thanks to a L underwater cave system, formed back in the time
S
programmed coating of chameleon materials. E when the Noctis tablelands were at the heart of a
N
He’d never have found the place by visual. T great, winding alluvial system. As they would be again,
They were probably being watched INC if Park and the rest of the TTO’s army of terraforming
already, not that you could spot any sensors. EL, BAGE workers had their way about it.
Cagehopper would have microdrones scattered LH Kim got out and made cop eyes at the cave. “Not
AO
around, and he might be hip to the Maker CP much for sensors in here,” she observed.
KP
trick of using lizards as camera platforms. KE “I think he figures anyone gets in the front door, he’s
ER
An AR alert flashed up in Park’s peripheral T n already screwed,” Park said.
T
vision. Telefono. L “Public AR,” Kim said, and started walking toward
E
[Carter? What the fuck, citizen? You’re heavy a G the back of the garage. Park flipped over to the lab’s
E
few bodies.] N public AR channel himself. A trail of red dots led in
E
[Heavy a few on account of we all got coughed H the direction Kim was headed, so he followed.
A
on during the last run. Need you to take a look,] C [Stay on the path,] Cagehopper messaged.
K
Park messaged. E After going through a decontamination airlock,
R
[And you show up in a cop truck?] they followed the red dots through a maze of narrow
Park messaged, [Look, you’re not gonna like corridors cut into the rock. Cramped as the garage’d
F
this, but my shotgun on this ride’s a Ranger.] been, the rest of the place sprawled. They crossed IR M
E
[Perceptive, Carter. You’re fucking right I don’t dozens of silent, unlit intersecting passages and an W U
A
like it. Not at all.] equal number of heavily reinforced doors. The stone, L R
L T
[Look, Cage, I got Bobdog LaGrange here in a rather than echoing, drank up their footsteps. Lot R S
bad way, and we’re all several of us exposure risks, JA bigger than he’d expected after the cramped garage. ECS O
right down to the baboo—] KE [What’s he need all this space for?] Kim asked. RUAG N
des[Biraeb nooo nfus!c kCinagr tpeor, liycoeu b arobcoko nlsiz ainr dm’sy cplolaaccea ,o fI FIRE CART T[Nheev edr owtasn etendd teod k anto wa, ]h Peaarvky mmeestsaalg eddo obra ctkh.at slid IT, MAE KIM
estTabhliissh rmeeanctt.i]on was cantankerous even for WALER A ochpaemn bteor . rIenv eaa cl irac les poafr slieglhy t fcuarsnti sbhye dan o ocvtaegrhoenaadl RTIA n
LK N
C““aPHgreeoh bdolopeepmsen?r.”’t Klikime baasbkoedo.ns. I didn’t know.” PROXYA JAE P dsseuovrcegtroiacrla brl oofiltl xisnttuogr oteda,b msleeosvt eoiorfa ndll ieamsgse natota sltt hitcea ebhqleeuasid p gmolfee aonmnt ese,td oa.on Add RANGE
She sighed. “They can stay in the prowler, AR by the other two. Other than the tables, there was R
K
long as we don’t take too long.” n no place to sit.
Park thought about that. All in all, Kim’d Cagehopper came out of a sliding door on the
been too acquiescing by half. Helping out far wall. “Sit on the tables,” he said, and they did.
5
His neo-neanderthal morph was shorter than Park left his truck. The baboons hadn’t crapped the seats;
or Kim, thick-browed, with a barrel chest and hands Kim looked to be in a good mood about that.
that looked like they could bust rock. Cage went to Bobdog was pretty animated for someone in a new
work. He injected Park with what he figured must be morph, but then he’d had the benefit of Cagehopper
diagnostic nanomachines to do blood work, then took having kept the engine warm for him instead of
throat swabs and dropped them into a sequencer. sleeving him into a morph that’d been packed in
[What’s he doing?] Kim asked Park. stasis gel. “All right. Not bad. Kind of, too human,
[He’ll work with all the displays visible only to him,] he you know? Clumsy toes.”
messaged. [You can’t risk someone with an advanced infec- “Yeah, I been in and then out of a bouncer,” Park said.
tion knowing you’re on to them.] They were making small talk, but they’d have to
Cagehopper took a swab from Bobdog, frowning at cut that off shortly and make with the planning. He’d
the treatment Bob’s morph had taken, then dropped gotten Eidolon, one of the crows, to analyze the data
that swab in the sequencer, too. they’d grabbed from the yak front. The meat of it
“The hell happened to him, Jake?” Cagehopper asked. was an undecipherable record of shipping times and
Park said, “Yakuza using neoprimate parts for routing numbers. The rest was an operations manual
Traditional Chinese Medicine.” for handling exsurgents and extracting bodily fluids
“I don’t want to hear more.” Cagehopper went back from them without becoming contaminated oneself.
to work. The manual then went into how to store and package
[Why’s he even in the room with us?] she asked. the fluids for shipment.
[Ain’t his real morph. He’s put up a different face every [You got anything yet, E?] Park messaged.
time I been here.] Eidolon’s response came slowly; they were an
“What kind of tests are you doing?” Kim asked. AGI inhabiting a massive art installation outside
Cage’d been scowling at an AR window. The Locus, in the Jupiter Trojans. Park had plenty of
outline of it was visible so that they could see he was contacts rimward. He liked using hackers outside
E
reading, but to anyone but him, the contents were a Consortium jurisdiction when he could. ID
O
misty blur. Without turning, he said, “Tossing your [Yes, Jake. It is most distressing. The yakuza gang that L
O
junk DNA, looking for jabberwockies. For starters.” Bobdog LaGrange discovered have been shipping their N
Cagehopper got a bunch of tests running, then fixed product to orbit, but I cannot deduce where. They are n
F
up Bobdog a little. Once Cage’d put nanobandages on using combinatory routing codes.] IR
the worst of it, Bobdog put his hand to his throat and Park did a mesh search on what that meant. EW
looked at the neanderthal. Park wondered how long Combinatory routing codes were a form of A
L
severed vocal cords took to heal. encryption used when sending physical goods— L
C
“I don’t have a quick fix for that,” Cagehopper said. which meant they didn’t get used much. Parcels R
O
“I can put you in a healing vat for a few days, or I can from multiple suppliers with combinatory codes W
drill in some new implants and resleeve you.” on them would stack up at a routing center until
Bobdog looked at Park and signed, “New body,” in all of them were there. Only by combining the
Warlpiri. Cagehopper glanced over at Park. codes on all parcels could you determine the final
“Says he wants a resleeve,” Park said. destination. Corps who didn’t want competitors
“I’ll trade you this one,” Cagehopper said, patting finding out where large quantities of components were
his chest. “By the way … you’re all clean.” being sent used them in the dark ages before microfac-
“Good,” said Kim, “I gotta talk to my people at the turing. Now they were mostly used by criminals.
Ranger station.” Park patched Eidolon through the prowler’s
Cagehopper scowled. “Hopefully not about me.” speakers. “Y’all should hear this,” he said. “Eidolon,
“Paranoia and egocentrism don’t go so good how do we figure out where the cylinders were going?”
together, paatno-san,” she said, and left the room. After a long pause, Eidolon said, “You must find all
Cagehopper snorted and went back to prepping of the facilities from which they were originating. Or
Bobdog for new mesh inserts. you could simply go to the routing center, and if there
“How you holding up, Bob?” Park asked, “Know are enough parcels there, I might be able to deduce
it’s a lot to ask, but I need you solid, or you’re out.” both their origin points and the final destination by
“Can walk straight,” Bobdog signed. decrypting the collected routing codes from them.”
“What’s he say?” Cage asked. “You know where the routing center is?” Kim asked.
Park told him. After a long moment, Eidolon’s reply came, “Of
“Remind me never to leave my burrow for you, course. I only hesitated to provide the location
Carter,” Cagehopper said. because I feared I might have made an error in
decrypting the code, but I have re-checked my work
and am quite sure. It is a disreputable drinking
establishment in the Zhongguancun neighborhood
“How you like the new morph?” Kim asked. They of Olympus City, on Mars. Sending you the precise
were flying back to the stop on the M5 where Park’d address now.”
6
“That don’t sound like an error at all,” Park said. “Hey, pause it and go back a couple seconds,” she said.
An AGI not grokking the idea of a front business She’d noticed something on Bobdog’s tacnet movie.
didn’t surprise him. “Nice work, Eidolon. We’ll talk “Here, have the controls,” Park said.
again soon.” She shuttled back about a second and a half. There.
“Good day, Jake.” “Hello again, cupcake,” she muttered.
Kim said, “I can’t do anything for you in Olympus, She zoomed. Cowering in one corner of the frame,
Carter.” doing a good job of looking terrified, was a scantily
“I can,” Bobdog said, “I’ll leave right away.” clad pleasure pod. Almost a dead ringer for the one
at El Destino Verde—probably the same model year.
And again, high rent for the establishment they were
looking at.
Bobdog LaGrange knew some helluv angry monkeys, Park let go a stream of musky smoke. “Well, shit.”
Kim thought. Correction: apes. Never call ‘em “She ain’t just a party favor,” Kim said, “She’s a
monkeys, especially not the ones Bobdog knew. moving part.”
She was sitting on the end of a motel bed eating the He got up and started putting clothes on.
leftover half of a bibimbap burrito. Park was laying “What’re you doing?” she asked. He stopped.
back against the headboard behind her, smoking a “Shower,” she said. “And then shower again. Smoke
joint. They were watching a tacnet replay on a shared smells me all over you, he’ll get jealous.”
AR window of Bobdog’s friends in Olympus tearing He laughed. “Serious?”
up a speakeasy run by a local gang. She had not stuttered. “What’s your hurry, anyhow?”
In the end, the apes found more cylinders and got Park slipped off the jeans he’d started to put on.
the data. Whole back of the place had been set up “Eidolon’s got their nose to the trail, but might be the
for shipping and receiving. Trucks loaded with goods pod girl’s a short cut.”
come in off the maglev railroad stopped at the front “That feed’s from Olympus. Have Bobdog pick
business on their way to the space elevator, left light her up.”
some goods and heavy a batch of nondescript cylin- “Last message from Bobdog said he was going into
ders full of zombie plague. Rinse, repeat. The gang psych,” Park said, “So count him out.”
were contractors—knew fuck all about what they were Reasonable. She wouldn’t want LaGrange having
really involved in. Just knew they were getting paid. her back after what’d he’d been through. Anybody’s
Strictly speaking, as a deputized officer, she ought game’d have some stress fractures after getting cut
to be concerned, but she’d have been surprised if the on for folk medicine by a bunch of technical yakuza
Olympus police didn’t know about the place. That zombie farmers.
department had three priorities: the Space Elevator, “Finding her’ll be a good trick,” Kim said, “She’s
ComEx property, and whomever was paying them gone to ground for sure. Just getting to Olympus’d
bribes, in that order. Bobdog’s neo-primate gang take us hours.”
friends had done the Olympus cops’ job better than “I’m thinking we go after the pod girl from El
the cops would’ve. Destino Verde. And I got a friend who’s good,” he
As for Jake Carter–or Jae Park, which was about said, smiling at her.
the most boring real name a guy could have–she “Me? Carter, I’ve tracked plenty of people, but this
glanced back at him. “How long you think Eidolon’ll one’ll be cold. It’s been eighteen hours.”
take on that?” “I got her mesh ID when I tipped her.”
He smiled. “You got somewhere to be?” She smiled. “All right, that’s different. But it could
M
“I got a department to run, in case you’d forgot.” still take longer than it’ll take Eidolon to break the
U
Although the truth of it was, she regularly went a encryption on those cylinder routing codes.” R
week without setting foot in the station. Running He got up for that shower and sent her a mesh ID. T
S
things via mesh was easy enough. Rank of captain “I got a friend who’ll help, name of Sedition. If you O
in the Rangers basically meant being a beat cop but don’t mind working with someone else, that is.” N
having to answer a crap ton of mesh calls, too. Oh, “Why not, long as they don’t expect access to
and she got a better truck. Ranger databases.” She pulled open an AR window
As for Park … she wasn’t sure this was going to and started a tracker search for the pod girl’s mesh ID
happen again, but he hadn’t been overly disap- on public spimes in the area.
pointing. Like all men, he needed to read the docu- “I let him know you’d call. Use a VPN; he ain’t
mentation; unlike the majority of them, he did what someone Captain Kim wants to be seen socializing
it said. She liked him. They were both Korean, they with. I’m gonna make myself smell nice for your
were donggap—born in the same year, they were both monkey now.” He closed the bathroom door.
from agrodome families (from what she could get out
of him about his history). And it’d been a while. She
didn’t fool around with co-workers, and most other
men she met, she arrested.
7
They were parked on the shoulder of the covered
service road that looped past the spaceport terminals,
Park’s friend, Sedition, was damned good. Said he was waiting for Kim to bring back Cupcake. Every so
a journalist by trade; she didn’t say anything about often a Qianjiao spaceport cop rolled by and gave
what she did. He threw out a lot of unorthodox ideas the ranger vehicle the stink eye, but no one bothered
about what kind of searches to run, stuff far afield of them. Eidolon hadn’t gotten back to him except to say
the cop playbook. the decryption was taking longer than expected.
Cupcake didn’t take long to track down, once they [Be there in a sec,] Kim messaged, [Soon’s I ditch the
put their heads together. The pod girl’d been careful, local jjab-sae.]
had probably used a bunch of fake IDs, but she made Park shooed Gloria way for the fourth time. [Ain’t a
the mistake of buying a ticket to orbit out of the nice thing to call another cop, Captain.]
Noctis-Qianjiao spaceport. Sedition suggested not [I hate spaceport cops. Rangers get imaged and frisked like
bothering trying to draw a line between her real mesh everybody else when we fly.]
ID and any fakes she might be using. Instead, they Kim emerged from the terminal with Cupcake. The
had their muses stake out some likely (and, to her, name on her mesh ID was Janu Vaidyar. Flanking
not-so-likely spots) where her real ID might show up. her were two spaceport cops; the ranking one was
Turned out the pod girl didn’t trust her fake IDs gesticulating and talking to Kim’s back.
far enough. She dropped the masquerade in spaceport Vaidyar’d ditched her bartending outfit—which
security, probably gambling that her real ID would be hadn’t been much more than go-go boots, AR
more likely to get her through, and then she’d be on a graphics, and hair extensions—for a short, asym-
rocket, beyond reach. metrical haircut and severe suit. She looked more like
“Heo-jeob, Cupcake,” Kim muttered. Bad math an intellectual property lawyer for a Lunar design
thinking she could get away with that with a Ranger house than a bar trixie in a yakuza dive, and it wasn’t
on her trail. One fugitive bulletin to the Noctis- just the clothes. Park was disappointed with himself
Qianjiao spaceport cops was all it took from there. for not making her sooner.
She thanked Sedition, leaned back, and re-lit the Park cracked the window as they got closer to the
joint Park’d left on the nightstand. She got a mesh prowler. Even in the tunnel, there was a cold desert
call reporting the pod girl was in the clink by the time breeze cutting through the smell of monkey.
Park got out of the shower. The airport cop’s words got clearer as they
He looked at her funny. “Go-go-ssing,” he said, approached the truck. They were speaking Mandarin.
pulling on his cap. This struck her as funny, that he’d “… with Director Cheng’s sign-off, which is fine, even
put that on before anything else, and she laughed if it’s not standard procedure. But we don’t want to
a little. He raised an eyebrow. “What’re you doing lose face over this prisoner.” He stopped for a second
hitting that?” when he noticed Park. “And who’s this guy?”
She leaned forward and took his wrist. “Ain’t no “TTO,” she said, “They’ve got an interest in this
hurry, Carter. I got our girl. How about helping me case. He’s an observer.” Which was sort of true.
finish this?” Park hopped out and opened the back door of the
“Serious? Strong work, Captain.” He gave her a prowler.
butterflies in the stomach smile and accepted the joint. The airport cops eyed him. “He doesn’t look like an
She watched him inhale; she liked how he looked official,” one said.
with his eyes closed. So Kim’d made up her mind “We don’t wear suits in Operations,” Park said,
about having another helping of Park, but even as watching Janu Vaidyar as Kim bundled her into the
she yanked him back onto the bed, there was one truck and cuffed her to a heavy ring set in the seat
thing she was going technical trying to figure out: behind her. Smoke huffed at the pod but didn’t do
why’d Cupcake need to escape in her body? Wasn’t anything else.
like back-country Mars lacked for shady egocast- He didn’t like this. Vaidyar was an exposure risk,
ing facilities. too. He made sure to get the names of the two cops.
She decided she’d hold that thought. They might need to be checked up on later after
physical contact with her.
“Well, don’t say NQSPD never did anything for
you,” said the port cop.
Park hadn’t liked being left in the prowler with Smoke “I’ll keep that in mind,” Kim said.
and Gloria, but the baboons were meshed. Kim could Once they were in the air, she said, “Cagehopper’s.”
call them off from afar. And anyhow, looked to be Wasn’t a question. “Yeah,” he said, looking back
he was now part of the pack. Gloria kept trying to at the pod girl. Vaidyar stared out the window, silent.
groom him, while Smoke lounged in the back seat “This one’s gonna need special handling.”
idly jerking off. Neither of them went anywhere near
Kim’s seat.
8