Chrome Symphony - Chapter 4

Atlas returned to his hotel room. Duncan and Shell had just finished setting up a conference table in there.

He took a quick shower, got dressed, and sat on the bed for a moment with his communicator. He looked through some old news articles on the 'net regarding the Price family and Crest corporation.

One article read:

God, thought Atlas. She must have gone through hell back then, not only with the loss of her mother but the constant fear that she or her father would be next. Now her father is in the hands of the Herei Mob Army.

Atlas put his communicator away and lay on the bed as he turned on the large flat panel screen along the wall. He selected the live news channel and watched for a few minutes.

The reporter was discussing the recent incident with the EMA headquarters building.

"We have learned from the police that the Herei Mob Army has indeed claimed responsibility for the sudden, deadly implosion of the EMA corporation headquarters building. We have also learned that over 200 employees were in the building at the time, despite the fact that many had been apparently warned not to come to work that morning."

"In other news, the head of Crest corporation remains missing as authorities frantically search for clues as to his whereabouts. Authorities have assured the public that the EMA building incident and the disappearance of Richard Price are unrelated..."

"... this just in: More tragic news today as we have been informed that the daughter of Richard Price has died last night during an apparent kidnapping attempt. Jessica Price, age 22, was found dead in her home in the Eastern quadrant of..."

"WHAT?" shouted Atlas. "They're putting out a fabricated report!"

Atlas jumped up from the bed and ran to the door to the other hotel room. He knocked but received no answer. He waited a moment and then opened the unlocked door, looking around. No one appeared to be in the room. He looked around the room for a second and was about to go back to his room when Jess walked out of the bathroom, wearing a towel.

"I'M SORRY!" shouted Atlas. He ran back into the other room and slammed the door behind him. He heard Jess scream.

Atlas walked back over to the door and yelled through it, "P.... please turn on the news, Jess. Something's going on, they're saying you died..."

Atlas sat on the bed for a few moments. His communicator flashed a message from Duncan. It read:

Atlas!  We're sitting down to dinner.  Please join us.

- DuncanDonutz

Atlas sat there. He heard the television switch on in the other room and, about a minute later, Jess came walking in, having finished dressing.

"Let's go tell the others," said Jess, having calmed down a bit. "Something reeks about this false news report."

Elise shook her head at he brief conversation between Atlas and Jess on the beach. She was going to butt in, but it would be rude to interrupt after that, so she left them to their own devices and headed back to the room a little after the others.

She arrived at the room to find only Shell actually present. "Hey, seen Laz anywhere?"

"She went in to take a shower," Shell answered.

"Ah, guess I'll have to wait my turn or make do," Elise replied, as she began doffing her swimsuit and changing back into her previous outfit. As usual, it's a very nice full suit.

"Why do you call her that, anyway," Shell asked, curiosity and a hint of something else on her face.

"What? Lazarus? In this sort of business, you really don't want to go by your real name. And I figure, hey, she got back up from the dead, so she's earned a new one, like it or not."

"I see."

"It ain't meant to be an insult, you know. Everyone's gonna earn one eventually."

Once Elise finished dressing, she and Shell headed down to meet the others for dinner.

* * *

Down in the hotel dining room, the decor was tastefully muted, as befitted a potentially semi-formal establishment. The wooden paneling on the walls and the tables all looked like actual wood, which would've cost a small fortune even before lugging it all the way to orbit. The entire place dripped with a bit of sterilized Old World charm, carefully recreated for the entertainment of the guests. On the plus side, it was fairly quiet and had nice lighting, even if the large group forming around one of the tables was bound to draw a bit of attention, between the old-fashioned cybernetics, military fatigues, and other idiosyncrasies.

Elise and Shell claimed their seats, to interrupt conversation between Duncan and Renk. "You know," Elise said, "I begin to think we hardly look like typical patrons, when we all get together."

"You can say that again," Duncan seconded the notion, and barked a short laugh. "Still, we're here, so we might as well live it up a little."

"It seems like some of us are having a hard time relaxing," Shell added, not naming any names.

"It's easy to get the jitters." Elise nodded sagely. "But still, there's nothing we can do about the wait before a performance." The tone of her voice changed a bit more like that of Eclair, when she spoke next. "So let's all just relax and be ready to give it our all on the big day~" She made a face, winking and sticking her tongue out.

Renk was the first to speak up after the unexpected outburst. "That's...uh, that's just a little weird, you know?"

Atlas and Jess arrived together, the both of the looking grim. "We've got some bad news," Atlas began, although Jess interrupted before he could finish.

"They're reporting that I'm dead," she hissed, avoiding a shout, but clearly angry.

It took a while for anyone to speak up after that, with the general murmur of conversation being that it had to be some kind of fabricated report. "...Still, you've got to look on the bright side of death," Elise quipped. "Not many cops go around looking for a corpse." She paused for a while. "Or...someone back home has decided to disown you in a most spectacular way." She shrugged.

"That's not a very good prospect," Jess shot back.

"Yeah, but it's something to consider. All we know is it's a line of drek that someone's complicit in spewing. Not who or why."

Everyone was sitting at the table as the wait staff took their orders.

"We shouldn't talk too much about the... mission... here," said Duncan, keeping his voice down in the quiet atmosphere.

"Let's hash out the plans a little better when we get back upstairs but I was thinking... Herei's looking for a nice big ransom, right? If we can manage to have some of us pose as a negotiation team, that will give us a way to dock at the asteroid without raising suspicion. The trick is to ensure that our initial contact is over a channel that appears to be from Crest corporation."

Jess nodded. "I still have the security codes if you want to access Crest's corporate communications systems," she told Duncan.

"Thank you, Miss Price. That will help a lot," replied Duncan.

"Shhhh!" hushed Elise. "You're already saying too much," she whispered.

"Right, right. Sorry. One more thing before we eat, though... One of my sources told me that a lot of the guys running operations on NEA726 are ridiculously enthusiastic fanboys of Eclair Antares," replied Duncan.

The food arrived.

Atlas and Jess sat next to each other. Jess was mumbling to herself, "Why did they report me as dead... what the hell..."

"Fortunately, they're wrong," replied Atlas. Jess just glared back at him.

Atlas cringed and replied, "What?"

Jess sighed, and then assumed a calmer tone. "That's not the point. If they are saying that, it means they're confident no one is going to refute the claim or provide evidence to the contrary. Think about it, Atlas," she replied to him.

Duncan nodded. "Good point, Miss Price. It's important to read between the lines."

"So, uh, please forgive this old man for such a wacky idea but..."

Duncan looked around at everyone. He gave everyone at the table a peculiar, but non-threatening stare. He tilted his glasses downward as he did so.

"Dumb question but... who here can play a musical instrument?" he asked.

There was a now very common awkward silence among the group.

"I play bass guitar," said Atlas.

"I was the drummer for a band back in college," said Renk, as he sipped some wine.

"I'm classically trained in violin," said Jess. "I don't know what you're getting at, though."

"Hmmmm..." said Duncan.

Jess interrupted him before he could say anything else. "I can also play guitar, if that helps."

Shell nodded. "I play a little bit of piano."

Duncan had a pleased look on his face. "I play synths and piano, too. Fun instrument."

Elise had a puzzled look on her face. "What the hell?" she uttered.

After dinner, Duncan and Shell paid the tab, which further humiliated Jess.

Everyone gathered up in the hotel room around the conference table for the planning session.

"So you're planning on somehow putting on a concert to distract everyone while we move in to rescue my father?" asked Jess. "How are you going to manage that," she asked Duncan.

Duncan grinned. "Dr. Heimborem still has some credibility inside the Herei Mob Army. He can tell them that a concert was arranged."

"Why would Crest willingly send Eclair to a terrorist base for a concert, especially after kidnapping their president," asked Elise.

"As far as they would know, to sweeten the deal," Duncan replied. "It's no secret those guys are huge fanboys, despite their violent, animalistic lifestyles."

"It's going to make things weird if I show up to negotiate my father's ransom," said Jess. "Concert or not concert, they think I'm dead.

It's going to make them very suspicious if I just show up."

"I'm afraid we're quite limited on options," said Duncan.

Jess sat there for a minute and crossed her arms. I can't think of any alternate plan. My accounts are frozen, so I can't actually transfer the ransom money on the spot. When they find out I can't pay, they'll kill me. They'll kill us all.

Jess could not handle the stress of her inability to come up with a solution. "We traveled all this way... we could have reached the asteroid days ago via that cargo shuttle but we did this instead..." her hands began to shake. "We played around at a space resort while my father sits in a cage surrounded by bloodthirsty terrorists..."

Tears began to well up in her eyes.

"I don't... I... I don't know what to do..."

Shell was scrolling through cargo shipment schedules for the colony. She noticed something interesting:

Shipment #1107-761806409-B

07:14:22 - Hypolignite fuel cells (260 units)
Source:  EMS-L1 colony, sector 18, third ring
Destination:  NEA726 fabrication facility, level 4

[CLASSIFIED]

Shell was excited. "People! People! I've found a way!"

"What's that?" said Renk.

"I didn't think this was possible but, for some reason, there's a shipment leaving from this colony to NEA726! I have no idea why..." replied Shell.

"Get outta town," said Duncan, flabbergasted.

"That raises even more questions... who's sending supplies to the terrorists from here?" asked Atlas.

Duncan's expression changed to one of anger. It was the first time Jess saw Duncan look this way.

"Hombre... frickin'... Raymie..." growled Duncan.

Jess gasped. She choked back her tears. "We... did we really...?"

Renk's face turned red. Jess hadn't been afraid of anyone in the group so far but Renk emanated a feeling of pure rage. He stood up and threw his chair across the room.

"Do you mean to tell me..." he growled.

"WE JUST FREED A TERRORIST?! WE ACTUALLY HELPED THEM?!!!" Renk shouted.

Renk stormed out of the room and down the hotel's hallway.

Atlas quickly stood up and ran to the door. "Jesus!" gasped Atlas. "Renk is going to kill Dr. Heimborem!"

Renk ran down the hallway. Atlas soon caught up with him as he reached the elevator.

"Renk, calm down," said Atlas.

Renk was furious but quickly got control of himself. "Come on," he said to Atlas, "We need to find Dr. Heimborem and tell Camay that he's shipping fuel supplies to that asteroid."

Atlas shook his head. "Just wait," he told Renk. "I know you don't like that we got played but think about this strategically."

"What," barked Renk, "That we weren't mistaken as aiding a terrorist group? That we ACTUALLY WERE doing that? Do you realize what's going to happen to us?"

Atlas looked at Renk, confused. "You seemed to come to terms with it earlier."

Renk hit the elevator button and turned around quickly to look directly at Atlas. "Yeah, earlier I'd figured when this was all over we'd find out how to clear our names and expose General Mulhauser and we'd all live happily ever after. You know, when I thought we were INNOCENT!" screamed Renk.

Atlas put his hands out in a "stop" gesture. "Okay, man, hey... take it easy, alright? We still don't know exactly what's up..."

Renk got on the elevator. "Let's go find out 'what's up', Atlas. Let's get to the root of this bulls***."