Chapter VI
Langfur, the Quattro Towers. A dwarf of an apartment complex compared to the corporate monstrosities that grew around it over the decades. Within one of these half a century old towers lives Jan Girczuk, the manager of the Fuchs Implant Clinic. You meet up with him in his home.
“Ida Westgard, Europareich Bundeswehr Feldwebel.” You tell him as he nervously checks the camera to see who is at the door.
“Well you look like the military, come in.” He replies before opening the door.
The apartment’s interior reflects the status of its owner, a medium-level manager of a second league bio-tech and cybernetics corp. Granted, it still looks better than your old apartment ever did, with all the antique electronics inside of it. An odd retro vintage style, one which could be considered hi-tech before the Crisis of 07, maybe even earlier judging by some of the items.
One piece in particular draws your attention, it has an odd green blinking digital clock display. But it’s too big to be just a clock, then again you aren’t exactly the kind of person someone would consider an expert on electronics or their history.
“It’s a VCR, you never seen one?” The manager tells you.
“Not really, what does it do?” You ask.
“They used these to make rather low-quality recordings of TV and other analogue video. They kind of died out somewhere after the end of the XXth century. Used to be considered quite the gadget, but you know how it is. This year’s newest model is outdated in a few years and considered a joke among gadget-crazy teens in ten or fifteen years. It’s the same with cybernetics.”
“Mine work just fine.”
“They could work better, now they’re obsolete at least partially. That’s how we make money, we make or buy newer models and replace the old ones. So long as there is progress, we make a profit.”
“I honestly don’t like concept of me being obsolete, even if it is just a part of me that I wasn’t born with.” The mere concept irritates you, but perhaps he is right. What if some day you will be obsolete, below the par set by younger soldiers with newer Netlinks, cyber-limbs and optical implants. Perhaps retirement might be a good option then, if you live that long.
“About your business though,” you decide to get to the point, “got any ideas who might be responsible? Seen or heard anything suspicious lately maybe?”
“Nothing, no death-threats or anything. None of the staff ever said anything about them either, and they’re trained to do so, just in case fanatics do attack. NoMech or Gaia’s Liberation League, you know how they are about augmentations.”
“Right, the GLL can be rather cunning, they almost blew up Prateek Bio-Enhancement HQ once. Still, do you have any other ideas?”
“It could have been our competitors, there are some rumors circulating on the Net saying they are concerned with some of our newer products cutting into their market share.”
“Anything more precise? I can’t just go and interrogate every Blakemore Systems, Prateek or Sidic employee in the TSZ. Hell, even then they could have just had somebody fund and plan this behind the scenes, from the comfort of their own boardroom using a billion proxies.”
“Well I am sorry, but if I knew more I would have told you. It is also in my interest that you find the culprits after all.”
“Right, well then sorry for bothering you. We’ll have to dig up something elsewhere.”
*
After yesterday’s investigation found almost nothing, you are beginning to wonder whether the analysis results will be any better. You spent most of the day driving around the city and talking to Fuchs employees, the only thing you learned today was the street layout of the TSZ. Everyone repeated what the manager has already said, was is either the competitors or anti-cybernetics terrorists
Suddenly the HUD informs you of an incoming call. You focus and answer it, MacKay’s cybernetic face appears in the video window.
“It is done, Miss Żuławska’s computer contains nothing really incriminating. Unless you consider nude photographs of the female in question incriminating.” He tells you.
“So that is it? Is this case cursed or something?”
“I recommend abandoning such superstitious beliefs. She did try to sell images and other visual data to several media corps in the past. But her efforts were fruitless. However her cohabitors had something to hide, rather inefficiently I might add.”
“What did you find?”
“The uncooperative male who suggested we should recharge ourselves, Robert Wis, he visited a number of monitored websites. He used proxies, but such tricks are hardly a challenge even to new ECK agents. He didn’t post anything particularly illegal.“
“But?”
“But he did reveal his separatist views, he’s a Polish nationalist sympathizing with some organizations like the White Eagle. He has also mentioned casually, that an acquaintance of his has was involved with somebody fighting the “kraut nazis” in the TSZ. Possibly the White Eagle or other similar group.”
“Well well, it looks like I may have to talk to him.”
“As much as extracting data from him could be useful, it is logical to assume he is *not* connected to the Fuchs case. The White Eagle targets so called traitors, volksdeutsche, individuals working closely with Europa Bundesreich Federal authorities. This attack does not fit their operating pattern, unless the pattern has changed. Pestering Mr. Wis could sidetrack your efforts.”
“True, however my mission is to maintain stability in the TSZ. If he knows of a White Eagle cell in the area, it would be prudent to shut them down before they do any damage.“
“A logical course of action considering your objectives, its present priority however is debatable. I hope you are efficient in your actions, if needed we will await for further request from you. McKay out.”
You spend some time researching the subject of the White Eagle. Adam was right, they mostly target Polish corporations working closely with the Europareich Government, usually it’s sabotage occasionally a killing or kidnapping of a high-ranked manager. Sometimes they attack “treasonous” representatives in the Europareich Parliament, but so far that only happened twice and they were stopped by the bodyguards once. The Fuchs clinic doesn’t fit the profile.
Another blinking indicator, it appears somebody else wants to talk to you. The icon suggests this is something very important, you answer the call and turn on the microphone in your helmet by thinking about it.
“Herr Major, what has happened?” You ask as the Major’s face appears on the video stream overlay.
“Two or rather three important facts have just reached me. The surgeon who survived the blast at the clinic is dead, nobody saw or heard anything, all we do know is that he was strangled in his apartment between 6 and 10 pm yesterday. According Officer Orłowski and his team that is, but my guess is they are right about the timeframe. The tapes from various CCTV cameras show nothing, at least at first glance.”
“This is bad news indeed Herr Major, what else has happened?”
“On a hunch Orłowski sent a team to the assistant’s home, she’s also dead, the cause is the same. Nobody saw or heard anything, they policemen found her dead on the sofa with the TV turned on.”
“They wanted them both dead, but why? Did Orłowski talk to any of them before they were killed?”
“He called them both, but they said they know nothing. He thinks they may have been lying as they were nervous for some reason when talking to him, but it was just a cop’s hunch as he called it. Nothing to bother us with anyway. Either way there is a possibility that they knew too much or helped with the bombing somehow. Either that or simply stress as they did manage to miraculously survive an attack.”
“Anything else Herr Major?”
“The lab technicians wanted to thank Gefreiter Laukaitis for the samples, they were very well preserved. They sent in their report, it was a home-brewed nitropenta based explosive mixed with a plasticizer. The Gefreiter made some notes on where he found the samples and compared them to the damage done. There were multiple charges, linked to detonate at once and cause maximum damage with a minimal use of explosive material.”
“An awful lot of effort for a terrorist attack Herr Major, not to mention fairly expensive. They had to know where to place the charges, only somebody with a lot of experience could have done it that fast. This had to be a professional with either governmental or corporate backing. The question is which.”
“Russians are the most likely, but even then you have at least three governments that could be responsible. Add to that the number of Oligarchs with a grudge, along with enough money and power, and you have a dozen or so potential suspects.”
“Assuming they were Russians.”
“Who else Frau Feldwebel?”
“It could have been Fuchs’ competitors.”
“They’re corporate, if they paid for an attack like that they would have targeted R&D or another critical part of Fuchs’ business like an assembly line. Hitting one clinic wouldn’t be worth the trouble. Jihadists are also out of the question. It could have been a well funded and organized group like NoMech, GLL or similar. But if it was then we have no leads as to how to find them, at least with the evidence we gathered yet. Either way investigate this further. I want the people responsible captured or killed. ”
“Affirmative Herr Major, Westgard out.”
You wonder if this case isn’t another example of your tendency to pick overly ambitious goals. No solid leads so far and a long list of suspects many of which most likely have a name like Dmitri or Vladimir. Still, there are quite a few Russians around and some of them powerful, like in the local office of Khomyak Petroleum.
There are two dead bodies somehow related to the bombing. You will…
A)…check in with Orłowski, see if you can help his men find any signs of break-in or other clues at the apartments of either the Surgeon or the Assistant.
B)…look very closely at the footage from the cameras in the Surgeon’s apartment building’s neighborhood.
C)…ask the close friends and relatives of the deceased employees if they heard or seen anything suspicious. Something that might have linked them to the attackers.
D)…ignore their deaths for now, go to the DSE and see what you can learn there.
E)…ignore their deaths for now, have a *chat* with Robert Wis about his White Eagle friend.
F)…ignore their deaths for now, ask the Russian refugees in the camp if they heard of or seen anyone who might have been a Russian agent.
You also have two military cyborg-hackers from the ECK at your disposal, maybe they could help you by…
1)…investigating the DSE power outage. With all those augmentations they can probably handle that task alone.
2)…checking the security footage from the cameras in the Surgeon’s apartment building’s neighborhood.
3)…scouring the data contents of the deceased clinic employees’ computers and other devices for clues.
4)…thoroughly checking the past and present of all Khomyak Petroleum employees with a corporate passport.
5)…not doing anything. Let them monitor the Net activity in the TSZ as they usually do, maybe they’ll pick up something.
Once again you may pick four people out of the following squad members to accompany you, the rest stays with the unteroffizier:
Beauvis, Mazowiecka, Osterhagen, Smith, Borg, Laukaitis, Bosch, Richter.
