Langley pushed through heavy wooden double doors to reach a small exhibit room with fancy carvings of fish and dolphins in the ceiling. She slid a solid wooden table from its place between frozen men in seats and slammed it against the closing doors as a barricade.
A dozen heavy tables with glossy surfaces were arranged as two long rows in the room, with several dozen chair which would be considered too fancy for a normal board room. The men in the room were all older, with the youngest appearing to be in his fifties, and were all clad in fine black suits. Few of them had visible cybernetics but many held optical tools for evaluating their trade materials. Armored crates littered the ground and were scattered on table surfaces. The few crates which were opened next to excited convention attendees revealed stacks of magazines of various interests contained inside. Only a few of the men had open magazines to show off to others.
“You caught up fast,” Cooper said from across the room.
“We haven’t even begun to wait for you,” Murphy added, also in a hiding spot across the room.
“The signals were stronger for a moment, but stopped,” Langley said to her teammates. “I think they were moving higher, to the sixth or seventh floor.”
Cooper and Langley stood from their crouched positions behind tables at the far side of the fifty-foot-long room. Faye’s hand showed on Murphy’s shoulder but she stayed hidden behind his doughy frame.
“Thank you, Langley,” Cooper said. He put away his pistol and looked around the room. “We can’t stay in here for long if we hope to catch them.”
“Please allow me a moment for a full system diagnostic.” Langley faced the barricaded doorway with both arms raised to aim her wrist guns at any intrusion.
“Very well.” Cooper nodded and took a deep breath.
“Is this a real estate magazine?” Murphy leaned in to a pair of elderly men hovering over an open set of glossy pages. A full-color photo spread showed a Tokyo street in the evening devoid of people, activity, or electricity. “Look at this headline. ‘Japan’s loss provides bounty for investors.’” He furrowed his brow. “Why would anyone want property contaminated by the plague?” He flipped the issue closed to see the cover with bright letters which spelled out, “World Conquest Buyer,” and was dated 1964.
Faye moved beside him to stand over one of the open crates. She pulled out a magazine which featured a color photo of a dark-haired woman with a beautiful smile in a light duty space suit and dated 1950.
“I recognize this actress,” Faye said. “My grandma loved her in Gone with the Wind.” She scanned the cover for the story listings. “Vivien Leigh, that’s her. But she was in Britain when it fell. There’s no way she made it to a space station.” She flipped through the pages to open a feature interview with the star where she was shown in a mansion lounge with a large window and a view of lunar craters in the distance. “I thought everyone outside our borders perished in the plague.”
“These can’t be forgeries,” Murphy said. “Why would someone go to the lengths needed to create these magazines with fake pictures and articles?”
“Normally printed magazines like this would be contraband until approved by state librarians.” Cooper peered over the tables to see the few varied issues on display. “These are all probably valuable collector’s items to those powerful enough to obtain them.”
“It doesn’t make sense that foreign celebrities would be alive in space stations, or plague-devastated property would be up for purchase.” Murphy rubbed his shaved scalp. “Are these glimpses into hidden truths we’re not allowed to know?”
“Of course.” Langley paced up to Murphy and patted him on the shoulder. “I’ve been to Colombia, but I don’t have any recollection of my military service. The government doesn’t want us to know certain things. For an android like me, it means a purged memory. For a human like you, they instead erase records of your history. The resulting ignorance is the same.”
“What harm is there in knowing a movie star bought a mansion on the moon?” Murphy stared at the photo of Vivien Leigh in Faye’s magazine. “How’s that harm the integrity of anything?”
“It’s dangerous enough we’ve seen these.” Cooper folded his arms and huffed before he walked up to look at the magazines. “We’re seeing information only the elite are privy to. We’ll probably be questioned by agents after this gig. But at least we have a better idea of the type of materials being traded here.”
“And here I thought we’d just find moldy, state-approved editions of Twain and Hemingway.” Murphy snickered.
“Speaking of old books,” Faye said as she crouched to pick up a beat-up, discolored novel with many dog-eared pages. “Burning Bones, a Biography?” She stood and examined the thick paperback. “By Luzia Fernandez. The chronicle of a dark-walking orphan who became the first female Prime Minister of Ganymede. Where’s that?”
Murphy shrugged and picked up a new magazine. He grinned at the cover and flashed it to the others, displaying a photo of a team of logging machines approaching a cluster of trees.
“At least this one’s new.” Murphy flicked through the pages. “Apparently there was a big forest in Brazil. They finished cutting it down in 2005. Why’s that so special?”
“I don’t recall any massive glut in the wood market back then,” Cooper said. “Whatever hidden conspiracy involved cutting down some woodland, it seems benign. How about that biography?”
“My diagnostic is finished.” Langley lowered her arms and turned toward the group. “No major internal damage, and no software corruption. My antenna and plating is the worst of it, fortunately.”
“We now know the hackers are after government secrets.” Cooper grabbed one end of the barricade table and nodded for Langley to join him. “Try not to be too much of a snoop and we should get home with our brains intact.” He grinned at Murphy. “And young lady, stick with Murphy until we’re sure we’ve arrested all the hackers. There may be four of them.”
Langley helped Cooper move the heavy table aside.
“Do your best to track their signal,” Cooper said to the android. “We’ll move directly to them.”
The team burst through the meeting room doorway and ran right for a large spiral stairwell. None of the frozen people moved to intercept them as they made their way to the fifth floor.
***
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