Page 25 of Tyton: The Spider and the Dragonfly (Tyton #1)

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allum Black stared at his reflection. Tall. Relatively thin. The jaw, his father had made him tweak in his teens. The same had gone for his nose.

Today, he found his gut unappealing. He could use a DocPod to fix it, but that would be too easy. Exercise showed you had time. Wealth. Status.

Callum hung up without waiting for his CSO to respond.

Callum sighed. He knew the problem, and it wasn’t overindulgence. It was stress. And there would be a lot more of that coming.

The shareholders meeting had gone well, but he knew it would be the last. Profits were technically up. Yet they had sold fewer products. Employee attrition hid the shortfall. But up and to the right was the only thing shareholders cared about.

The underlying cause of both? Population decline.

And every CEO knew it. The only solution to keep that line going in the right direction was to cut costs.

Biosig scanners that knew who you were instantly, no matter the weather or what you wore instead of video that required teams to scan and figure out if you’d been DocPod altered.

Reduce security detail to bare bones. Replace more researchers with AI.

But even that road was nearing its end.

Callum had had the foresight to understand the problem earlier than most. That did not mean that he could solve it.

He and the Natalists had arrived at a mutually beneficial arrangement decades ago, or so he had thought.

Modified DocPods for access. The payoff had never materialised.

Three dead. Several more stillborn and the last run off, though technically, he still owned her.

If they could find her. The Natalists’ IVF experiments with the DocPods appeared to have failed as well.

And so, here he stood, the last Black at the top of NovAITech – originally founded on some overambitious pipe dream of uploading human consciousness that attracted enough billionaires to launch a proper Large Model AI venture.

A house of cards that he hoped he would be divested of before it collapsed.

Talia felt Callie’s eyes on her, but she kept her focus on the device.

She had opened her shell a crack, but it had grown attached to the skin.

It hurt. She didn’t regret it, but she still needed time to recover.

She tried not to let Callie’s feet shuffling in the corner bother her.

After a moment, Callie interrupted her anyway,

“What’s that?

The question was innocuous, but it still grated at her. The wound still bled. But if this was going to work, she would need to be vulnerable a lot more often. And heal a lot quicker. She put aside her annoyance.

“It’s a repeater.”

She didn’t ask a follow-up question, but she didn’t leave either. Callie might not understand her, but she was willing to. And that was a lot more than Talia was going to get from most people.

“It, uh…” Talia started. She lifted up the device for Callie to see, but didn’t look at her. “It repeats the injectable that we send out to disable you through your strength amplifier patches. It would take out anyone within range, rather than disabling one person at a time.”

Callie nodded. Talia flicked her eyes to see that Callie was still watching her. Waiting. Things might be okay.

“We’ll probably never be able to use it though.” Talia shrugged. “If we do, the exploit will be found out and we’ll never be able to disable someone remotely again.”

“Unless,” she muttered, “we managed to destroy it before anything unaffected copies the code.” Talia opened up the repeater and started tinkering again.

Before Callie could ask another question, Sesi came into the room holding a folder of Hexcel sheets. “Old blueprints,” she said. “The design won’t be accessible on your Optis for obvious reasons.”

“How did you get them, then?” Callie asked.

Talia’s smile was all the answer she needed.

“We’re going to be going through the roof today, since they’ll be a bit more vigilant with the access tunnels. There will be heat sensors as well as biosig sensors, so you’ll need to deactivate all your cyberware and dress accordingly.” Sesi pointed to a closet.

Talia nodded and pulled out the most absurd clothing Callie had ever seen.

The jacket alone looked like a giant blue marshmallow.

There were pants that had some sort of fuzzy lining on the inside and plastic on the outside that must be at least five sizes too big.

A bizarre hand covering that couldn’t possibly be practical and a hat that made her look like a turnip.

“It’s a toque.” Talia explained, tucking her hair underneath the strange headgear. Hers had a weird pink pouf on top. With her spikes covered and her button nose, Talia appeared even less threatening. Cute, even. Though Callie knew she would be murdered if she told her that.

“How do you move in this?” Callie walked around the room, trying to keep her pant legs from touching.

Talia bobbed her head from side to side and the pouf jiggled. “You’ll get used to it.” Callie bit her lips to restrain herself from squealing in delight.

Sesi just laughed. “The heat sensors are only tuned to pick up really large signatures like Thermabulles. They don’t want them to go off every time a seagull lands.” Callie pouted, but Sesi ignored her. “I’ll take care of the biosig sensors, then signal for you two to move in.”

Talia and Callie nodded. It felt like her neck was held in place by a million layers of gauze.

Sesi locked eyes with Callie. “There will be a lot more guards this way. Killing will be inevitable. Are you okay with that?”

Callie nodded again. Talia was certain there was some tension between her and Sesi, but she dismissed it as residual from what had happened the first time they’d attempted this job.

“The control room is here. When you’re done, leave the same way we came in.

” Sesi handed Talia a sheet of Hexcel which Talia examined.

“All you’re doing,” she said, pointing to Callie, “is warning me if someone comes while I take the tech. Talia won’t be able to see me or this corridor from where she is.

When it’s done, I’ll come get you, and you’ll follow me out. ”

“How long do I wait for you?”

“Just keep waiting. If you get caught, say nothing. We’ll make sure we get you out. The last thing we want is for you to wander off because you got impatient.”

That felt a bit insulting, but Callie had to admit that she really didn’t know what she was doing.

“Ready?”

Callie was unsure if she would ever be ready, but she agreed anyway.

Minutes later, they were on the roof of some building.

Callie couldn’t recognise which one. Everything looked so different up here.

And the wind was awful. Moments ago, she had been sweating and now she couldn’t recall ever being so cold in her entire life.

Sesi ran ahead, her boots made of some sort of animal skin Callie didn’t recognise, but it silenced her footsteps.

She didn’t know how it was possible to run on a roof and make no noise, with or without boots.

Callie didn’t have long to ponder this as her nose started to run. Talia recognised the panic on her face.

“That’s normal when your body is cold.”

“Your face leaks? How do people live up here?” Callie hissed. She wanted to yell, but wasn’t sure if that was a good idea in the middle of a heist.

“You’ll get used to it. Just drink a lot of liquids when you get back.”

Callie nodded, but her body began to shake uncontrollably.

“That’s normal too. Your body is just burning energy to keep warm,” Talia said in the calmest voice she could muster. “We’ll be back inside soon.”

“How come your body isn’t doing this?” Callie demanded. “Is your Thermabulle on?”

Talia laughed. “No, I’m just used to it. You’ll get used to it too.”

Callie did not want to get used to it. Callie wanted to never experience this again.

“Come on, let’s go,” Talia pointed with her head. “Sesi’s ready for us.”

Callie was grateful to be moving again, though she was certain her teeth chattering would set off some sort of alarm and then Sesi would have to come up with her back-up-back-up plan.

The three of them stood, huddled around the maintenance hatch.

The late winter light had just started to fade and it blanketed the world in a dingy grey hue.

Tyton spread out like a filthy blemish on a pristine blanket of snow beyond it.

Callie had seen the clean snow with Sparx during their power station check, but it wasn’t like this.

Tyton seemed so insignificant compared to the vast expanse around it.

She felt like she was beginning to understand why Sesi cared so much about what happened once they were gone.

The last humans clung to their petty existence, about to ruin everything she could see.

Sesi’s whispered commands interrupted her thoughts.

“I’ll signal when the sensors are down. Talia, you’re on your own after that, Callie, stick with me.”

The hatch opened with a hiss of air. Sesi disappeared. She heard a muffled gurgle and a few moments of silence before Sesi whispered “clear.”

Tallia quickly raised her eyebrows at Callie and she dropped into the hatch. Callie followed, grateful for the warmth inside, though now, she could really feel the ice in her fingertips. Sesi waited for Talia to get to the control room before flashing a smile.

“You’re doing great, Freckles” she spoke quietly into her ear.

Callie flushed. They stepped over the body and left the access room.

The hallway only had dim emergency lighting.

There was a stairwell to their right and three doors straight ahead.

If the blueprints were correct, the experimental tech lab would be behind that third door.