Further ahead, the Earth hologram had grown in size. Of the many eye-catching curiosities in the underground base, the planet render begged for attention. At the top of a metal staircase, Jessica and the entourage passed a single door that led to an operating nexus underneath the globe. As soon as she entered the circular haven of technology, she was floored.
Floored.
A gallery of terminals populated the inside torus, Earth's hologram the epicenter. Computers on the left, computers on the right, the interior was illuminated by an endless stream of LED buttons.
Jessica skipped past the operating staff of random uniforms, past the guards, up a short series of steps, and stopped just underneath the globe. There, she found the node. So cleared her throat, inhaled, and in her deepest and throatiest voice uttered a single word.
"Commander.
"I once stepped into a Star Trek set and began pressing random buttons. I don't think I can do that here."
Sure, the nexus looked fascinating, but it was the software—the potential schemes of resistance computer programs—that cultivated her curiosity. She pondered the differences to surface technology, but just as her curiosity caught fire, Monarch stepped into her personal space.
"Excuse me," he said flatly, "but you're here because you have something to show us."
Apparently, someone invited the whole party, because Jessica took a single sidestep before flinching at Valerie, Shannon, and an entire rebel inquisition blocking the entrance. At first, they were glued to Valerie, Monarch included, but Valerie pointed at Jessica. "Don't look at me," she said, shrugging. "Jess is the whiz who cracked the secrets of the Wizard's cell."
"Way to put me on the spot, Homegirl."
Monarch folded his hands behind his back and reared tight neck toward Jessica. "You said you had pertinent information on Pine Rime's destruction? We know those pointy-ears are responsible, but our best insider was recently compromised. Meaning, we have no damn evidence or retaliatory measures."
"You know," Jessica started, sober, "I always wondered if there was a secret world, like an upside-down dimension to the lies shoved in our faces on a daily basis. Then, I found out you were real but in the wrong light. Now that I see this place, I wonder; what does Sub Terra hope to accomplish?"
Monarch tongued his cheek. "It starts with your intelligence."
"My IQ's pretty high."
"I refer to—"
"I know what you mean, I just said my IQ's high." Near nervous, Jessica retrieved the white flash drive from her front pocket and cautiously handed it to Monarch. As it touched the palm of his hand, Valerie stepped forward.
"Sir," she began. "What of the operatives who found this data? Where are they?"
"They went dark," he drawled. He inserted the drive into the node. "For so many years, our war against the Union corporations has been one of information. Progress is negligible and scarce. Let's face it, our predecessors submitted to the aliens because of a gross technology gap."
Above, the Earth hologram rapidly shrunk and pixelated under an array of files. Jess guided Monarch to the aforementioned evidence, helping him steer away from the temptation of opening more. As a result, the playback eventually commenced and resounded throughout the entire headquarters. Jess and her friends would have to sit through the traitorous recording again.
"Increase the volume," said Monarch.
The reverberation of the sound managed to lift their collective skin hairs, supplanting the industrial ambiance with an ominous discussion. Two voices echoed, acting as a clockwork sedative to everyone's workflow. Every pair of eyes steered to where the globe had been, fixing on the holographic emulation of soundwaves.
When she first heard the recording, Jessica was gripped by confusion and anger. It still had that effect, minus the confusion. This time, her reaction came vicariously. Azareans were the enemy, as far as these rebels were concerned. Even now, however, every listener subscribed to quiet disbelief and disgust. By the last few sentences, disdain was engraved on their faces.
Like a vacuum, the echoes between Malvis and the fake resistance leader sucked every shadow of doubt from the compound.
The playback ended.
"What else is there?" Monarch deadpanned. He turned, surprising Jess with his blank expression. Compared to everyone else, he may as well have been a cold shell.
"There's plenty," she asserted. "I'm not even—not even—going to get into the socio-political shitstorm, but thi—this will throw a wrench into future ploys on the Azareans' sinister bucket list, okay? They won't see this coming."
Monarch's brow furrowed. "This recording?"
"With all due respect, sir," Valerie interjected, I don't think the people who risked their lives getting this information considered it useless."
"Not what I'm implying. But in recent months, the Azarean regime has demonstrated the reach of their false epistemology. Since they always succeed, our options are limited. We need something on top of this, revolutionary staying power: technology, operations, intelligence on the backend. We need actionable info on how they're running the show."
"Fine!" said Jessica. "I've seen what's on the chip. There's plenty data on heinous projects— corporate schemes: how they funnel their finances, experimental research base locations, and some real fuckery going on."
"Logistics? Weapons? Ways to breach their network?"
"Ohhoho," Jessica laughed. "Are we uncovering secrets or looking for ways to conduct a war?"
"I understand what we have, in regard to evidence, but it's not that simple."
"Maybe not for you. This isn't the 21st century; damning evidence actually means something when leveled against a big-wig."
"We need a method of distributing that evidence to the world. Do you understand how difficult that would be? It involves breaching an impenetrable network, establishing a line to the global broadcasting system, and then holding the line long enough to get the message through. Forget hacking New Sumer, let alone the entire world. New Atlantis, Camelot, Babylon... All of Eden would have a failsafe to stop a breach into the other's cyberinfrastructure. Unless you somehow hack it from the source, there's nothing you can do."
Jessica turned away, tired from looking at the commander. Then again, it was technically morning, and she hadn't slept well. She had just enough energy to roll her eyes in hardcore annoyance. Eyes: pale eyes, dark eyes, dubious pupils. The Sub Terra guards had been staring all the while, keen through every bout of their exchange. She wondered what they'd sacrifice for their cause, twiddling her thumbs.
"You can try hacking Goliath HQ," she mumbled.
"And what are we going to do?" said Monarch. "Just walk in there and steal access?"
"I did."
Monarch's brow furrowed into a chasm. "You did what?"
Jessica turned back around, pursing her lips. "I ran in there and took their files."
"Explain."
"I will explain slowly..."
Jessica dumped the next few moments with recollection every dealing with Goliath. She began with her alias Lynx, her role as a contracted cryptologist, and segued into her dealings with David Mourner, the director of Computer Engineering. She then mentioned Goliath's encryption algorithm, SK-3, and how it gave her a backdoor into Goliath's systems. This eventually transitioned to her woeful memory of Malvis.
"In other words, I can do whatever Goliath can do," she finished. Her anxiety suddenly returned. The crowd had grown in size since the start of her monologue. Armed men and women crouched mere meters away, grey jumpsuits on her left, and a motley crew of polyester tanks and bombers on the right.
"Leaking the data on the internet is easy, but getting it front and center is the tricky part," she added, but deliberately neglected to mention her involvement in the last terrorist incident. Failure still rolled off her tongue.
"So, you were contracted by Goliath?" Monarch repeated back.
"To discover potential backdoors into undisclosed encryption software," said Jessica. "I was surprised to find collisions in a hash function, and that's what I told David."
Monarch cleared his throat of cynicism. Moreover, judging by their faces, the rest of Sub Terra seemed to understand and accept her story.
"In the end, I hacked Goliath and forged a document that would give me access privy to executive personnel, though I haven't tested the limits of that access. But it's there in case I'm ever next to their TPUs, you know, downloading porn or something."
A random listener chimed in. "Okay, but you would still need a signature, right?"
"You would. I got one."
"And how did you pull that off?" enjoined a grunt with blue bug eyes.
"By walking into the Goliath and asking for one."
"Say what?" said Valerie.
Murmurs followed suit. Jessica withdrew a tablet from her backpack. "I copied Goliath's script and hid it in this employee evaluation sheet. Some simple tweaks to the language; goodbye, Goliath administrative access; hello, Tacquizza review."
"Someone signed it?" asked Monarch.
Grinning with a jive for patience, Jessica lifted her goggles and projected a hologram. "This is the bastard," she answered. The still-image of an Azarean lay bare for all to see.
"We've seen that particular Azarean before..."
One ragged member of the motley resistance crew inched forward. "From what intel we've gathered, he goes by Malvis," he said. "Evidence suggests he's one of many agents immersed in shady dealings for the private sector. All off the books, naturally."
"Malvis is a dick," said Jessica.
"That space elf's a bit of a mystery, and a recent player in corporate espionage," rejoined Monarch. "Guesses say he reports to the very top."
"Top of what?" asked Valerie.
"The top...
"There's someone here who can tell you more about him, actually. I would like you to meet him right now. You two will have a lot in common, I'm sure, and he can copy the data from Goliath. Everything. But while I still have you, I want to know something." Straightening his posture, Monarch met Jess with undivided attention. There was a little less condescension and more respect in his eyes.
"You implied that you have access to Goliath's network," he said. "Say you were back in there, hypothetically, could you take control of their systems?"
With feral intensity, Jessica's eyes locked onto the commander's. "If I were inside, I'd make them sing their lies to the world."