The Trilisk AI by Michael McCloskey Page A

bar.
    “Okay.
Resume,” Relachik said.
    Cilreth
started in on the club’s controls. She started by hijacking Frankie’s
credentials, then shutting him out. Arlin and Relachik physically barred the
front door, then stunned the patrons with their weapons. They went into the
back to get Hadrian while Cilreth finished up with the club security.
    Oops.
The cameras got Arlin and Relachik. I’ll have to work on that.
    Her
allies emerged from the back with a short man in tow. Hadrian. They tied him up
on a chair.
    “I
can get it out of him,” Cilreth said on a separate channel. She flashed a
predatory smile.
    “Do
you really want to do the coercion when we’re there for real?” asked Relachik.
    “Oh.
No, good point. You handle it.”
    “Do
you have a plan to get him to tell us what he knows?” asked Arlin.
    “I’ll
have to think on it,” Relachik said. “For now, I’ll just wing it.”
    Relachik
wound back and struck Hadrian savagely across the face. “The name of your boss.
Now,” he growled.
    “You’re
a dead man,” Hadrian mumbled, a stream of blood pouring from his mouth.
    Cilreth
got an alarm signal. “Dammit. The local constabulary is approaching.”
    “Exit
strategy?”
    “Uhm,
that’s TBD.”
    “Okay
then. Let’s run it again,” Relachik said. “Or should we do the running
firefight with the cops on the way back to the Vandivier ?”
    Cilreth
sighed. “Run it again,” she voted.

Chapter 10
     
    The
surface looked like colored rock at first. As Magnus examined it, he decided
the huge flat plates of greenish-blue material might be plants of some kind.
They encrusted every boulder nearby. The rocks and growths were taller than
Magnus, limiting his view in all directions. The sky, at least, reminded him of
Earth. It was clear and blue.
    Magnus
immediately noticed the isolation. His link picked up only a handful of
services from items they carried. The environment all around was devoid of link
traffic.
    It’s
up to us now.
    “Those
are like giant mushrooms or lichens or something,” Telisa said.
    She
was taking it all in as well. Magnus’s link reported the Iridar as out
of range as the ship lifted away from the planet, taking Shiny with it. They
stood next to the cargo container they had unloaded from the Iridar. The
landing had been tricky on the rocky landscape, made even more difficult by
Shiny’s insistence for a quick drop off.
    “Maybe,”
he said. He walked toward the nearest growth and kicked it. It gave a bit under
the blow.
    “Wait.
Is it safe?”
    “We’re
going to go down into broken underground tunnels on an alien planet, and you’re
worried about kicking a giant... Okay, yeah, you’re right. It could be
dangerous. Especially if Shiny is used to living underground, he may not have
thought to mention above-ground nasties.”
    “He
said the entrance is over there,” Telisa said.
    “First
things first,” he said. He opened the cargo container. Shiny’s probes nestled
inside, each one in its own little hexagonal space like bee larvae. Each was
about the size of a human head. As soon as the lid was clear, the cylindrical
probes activated. One by one, they floated into the air. They emitted only a
tenuous whine as they hovered off, each one in a different direction. The last
one waited nearby.
    “I
guess that one’s with us,” Telisa said.
    “Looks
like it,” Magnus said, lifting the empty holding tray out of the container. He
discarded it to one side, exposing the contents underneath: Scout.
    Magnus
activated the machine with his link. Scout clambered out of the cargo container
on long spider legs and stood ready. The body of the machine was rectangular,
rather than the ovoid of a spider, but its legs made it look very lifelike.
Magnus felt frustration. It had to be all Terran technology this time. The
walker machine had offered so much potential.
    “Okay.
Which way did you say? Just send him toward the entrance.”
    Telisa
gave the command. Scout moved off through