My typical morning of smuggled omni executive branded coffee (which nobody knows i drink) was interrupted when an old friend sent me an odd relayed COMM message.
It was audio only, but after a triple-verification voice scan i knew it was really Dwayne.
"Wind... man i wish you were here brother."
He always called me brother when things were bad.
"I've just lost most of the squad, we're in the sewers under Omni-1 and it looks like the entire sector is coming down on us, including the 'corns."
The Unicorn Company, the most elite, most deadly enforcers of the Omni-Tek Corporation; yeah, things were really bad.
"They're jamming our signal and if i'm correct they've probably messed with our insurance patterns as well by now. If i was them, i would have."
I pause the recording and do a quick grid level 5 search on the insurance records for the past 2 months. No results on his name or any of the aliases he used, as if he never existed. I will do a more thorough search after i listen to the rest. I unpause it.
"We got maybe ten minutes, fifteen tops, before they corner us completely. Leisner is with me, he figures that he may be able to use the old subway relay system to send out a message on a timer so... after this is over when they stop jamming the area the message will go through."
Yeah, i probably would have done the same, if i had a fixer as talented as Jonathan Leisner at my side, which is rare among the clans. Most fixers think they can hack anything, but in truth only a handful can do what Leisner is capable of.
"I hope you remember the old picnic me and your old man had in Rome a few years ago, that was fun, and quite educational."
I pause it again. He's just given me a very clear clue as to what he's doing... no, to what he did.
Years ago he sent a message to the Council of Truth from Rome when the squad got their hands on some delicate intel. Leisner then used a very unique trick to conceal the intel in the voice patterns of a recording which appeared to be a simple damage report on the squad. It was a specific technique he'd develop which he had taught the chief of communications at the CoT building, Dwayne and my father, who luckily in turn taught it to me.
It's something we rarely used, unless it was a last resort because we didn't want the enemy to learn about it. I remember how to extract the data; but before that, i had to listen to the rest of it.
"Now those were the good days; me, your old man and the rest of the boys kicking some omni ass into the ground without having to explain much to Radiman. Radi was a great politician and peacekeeper, but when it came to pounding down the vultures we were the ones to handle it."
Vultures, that's what he liked to call the omnis. He's talking as if it's the last time he will be talking to me, that and he needs to keep talking so Jonathan can mask the data in his voice.
"If things go down the way they look they're going to, i need you to promise me to buy a round of drinks at the Happy Rebel for the old Black Wolf crew. I mean it Wind, no sad shit, i want everyone to get drunk and cheer my name dammit!"
He's making it sound real, too real. I think he means it. The Black Wolf crew...how many of them are there even left? either retired or handicapped old commandos that usually hang out at Tir's notorious bar.
"Make sure to tell Linda... well you know how i feel about her."
His wife, no... girlfriend, they never married. He never proposed, but they've lived together for most of his 30 years of service. No kids, but i think they were happy. I wonder if they still live in that old safehouse? how can i break it to her? damn Dwayne, i hope all this was worth whatever you're sending my way.
"Listen, i'm really sorry about your old man. I never... well, apologized for saying he was a traitor, even after you told me what had really happened. And, well... i'm sorry brother. I really am."
Damn, he is dead. No way he'd apologize to anyone unless he knew there was no way out.
"I wish i had more stuff to say or give, but the data we managed to get our hands on was turned to bits when one of the vultures blasted Runt's datapad in the first firefight. So this is a lose-lose situation now. We'll try to take as many as we can, but they will be back when their insurance kicks in, nothing they can't afford."
He's trying to make it sound good, without anything to lose he just want them to think he's sending his goodbyes even if they manage to record the message on transmission and play it back. Smart, just like Dwayne to take advantage of a bad position.
During the entire conversation i've blocked out most of the background noise, now i allow it to sink in. Heavy weapons fire in the background, screams and moans of fighters from both sides getting hurt or killed. Things are grim, yet they keep fighting.
"Ok kid, we gotta go, it's just me and Leisner now. Take care and watch your six Wind."
The recording ends.
Watch my six. Yeah, he always told me to watch my back. My father had trained him well, probably the reason Dwayne called me brother, besides the fact we both respected him.
I knew the decoding would take hours to decypher. The complex method that Leisner's "Shadow Print" technique would be easy to execute for transmission, extremely hard to detect even if someone was looking for abnormalities and time-consuming to whomever would be on the receiving end to get the intel.
I went to work.
