“Midii, so good of you to finally report in,” the suave, urbane voice of her erstwhile tormentor said from the other side of the monitor screen. “I was getting worried.”

“I can’t hold this channel open long; security is tight in this place.”

“What have you got for me?”

“Security in sector 5x12x82 has been compromised I recommend you find the agent before they find you. Contact Points Epsilon and Gamma on the ninth latitude have been compromised sever all connections before proceeding with operations in that sector. A raid on Proxima three has been planned, I suggest you abort all operations in that sector and evacuate immediately. They plan to start investigating the unusual covert activities near point 27 x 9 x 14 it would be wise to tone down you presence in that area otherwise they’ll realize that it’s the Consortium working and not that resistance front you’re using. That’s all I have so far.”

“Hmm, very good. However, I’ve noticed that your information up until this point has been sketchy and unreliable. Several of my teams have been compromised, obliterated, or discovered. I expect better of you Une, you’re our best.”

“I’ve done what I can sir,” Midii replied trying to keep her tone flat an emotionless. “Security is tight here. If I had tried to decrypt their files any further it would have set off alarms throughout the system. I’ve gotten you what information there is to be found. Give me a while longer and they’ll start removing my security blocks and I’ll have freer access to their system. In the meantime, perhaps if I had a general idea of what you’re looking for I could concentrate my efforts only on getting what you actually need instead of wasting energy and resources on what is ultimately for you at least useless information.”

“Your efforts aren’t good enough Une, and I don’t like that insubordination in your tone,” said Smith, leaning back into his plush treated-leather chair. “I think you need to be reminded who is in charge here.”

“I don’t sir,” she protested, still trying to keep her voice even.

“Too late,” he said with a small smile, making Midii suspect that he had planned it all along. “Darkness, bring the boy.”

“Alex!” she cried as the face of one of her younger brothers was brought on screen.

“Please don’t do this,” Midii bagged, her voice trembling. The knife drew nearer to her younger brothers littlest finger. There was no sign of mercy or emotion in the face of the man referred to only as Darkness. It was abundantly clear that he would have no qualms about torturing and maiming a child if he was ordered to do so.

“You will redouble your efforts miss Une,” Smith said in a tone that brooked no arguments or excuses. “Your information will be complete and reliable. You know the penalty for failure and don’t even think about double crossing us and selling us out to the Peventors. No matter where you try to hide yourself or your family, in the end… we will find you.”

“Yes sir,” she said obediently, her voice a flat and emotionless monotone. The monitor blinked off and Midii smiled slowly in triumph in the shadows of the darkened office.

“I gotcha now,” she murmured into the darkness. Looking in pleasure at the information she had covertly downloaded from Smiths own hard drive, all of his personal files, all of the mission files that would be coming up, the files that would the Consortium’s overall plan for their activities were now downloaded into a sextuple encrypted detachable memory pod.

As a bounty hunter not all of her “hits” had been taking people out, a lot of them had included spy work or counter-espionage and she had learned a lot of new tricks that the agents of the Consortium had never taught her. That didn’t mean that there was no chance that they wouldn’t catch onto what she was doing, just that it was a lot less likely; especially with the security measures she had already put in place.

<There’s no way I can risk opening the file here,> she reminded herself. For one thing this computer was “public” as in anyone in the Preventors could use it with the right security clearance, any file she opened here would leave traces behind on the hard drive that could be uncovered with the right amount of work. This was one thing she didn’t want any traces of anywhere outside of her control, it would be dangerous if either side discovered her; so despite her burning curiosity it would just have to wait until she reached a secure location.

*

Trowa Barton and Commander Une watched the monitor of the secure room that their inadvertent double agent had accessed extremely late on the same night that she and Barton had returned from their mission concerning Roswel. Une hadn’t believed she’d move that fast but Trowa had convinced her to stick around and see if she tried anything so that Lady Une could see Midii in action.

“I have to give her this,” Une said after a long pause of her working through the various security protocols on the computer itself. “She not only works fast and thoroughly, she’s also very good at what she does. I wonder exactly how far her skills extend.”

“I don’t know, I think it would be a fairly obvious tip-off if we asked her right now however,” Trowa felt obliged t o point out.

“Yes it would, but by all evidence so far Midii Une would rank as a Class Ultra-A espionage agent, not including her bounty hunter work of course,” Lady Une said sipping her tepid tea and observing the young woman work swiftly and efficiently thinking she was unobserved in the room. The official security monitors in the room had naturally already been jammed and she’d run a sweep for additional bugs or security devices, apparently more as a matter of habit than because she suspected anything. Trowa had already set the covert monitor on a different frequency that was resistant to most conventional hand-held sweeping devices and they had been able to observe her without detection.

“There is a lot of reconnaissance and information-gathering involved in bounty-hunter work don’t forget,” Trowa murmured absently as he watched her patch the system through to the Consortium boss she reported to “Mr. Smith” and open a channel while simultaneously covering her tracks on the computer and running counter-detection programs.

“I don’t recognize him from any of our files,” Une commented as she got a good look at Mr. Smith when he greeted Midii.

“He must be someone we’ve never really had occasion to cross paths with before, either that or he’s very good at hiding himself,” Trowa said. Then he noted that Midii was covertly moving her fingers over the keypad of the computer. “Hm, I wonder what she’s up to now.”

“It seems that she’s taken the bait on those decoy missions I left out for her,” Une said, sounding pleased as she listened in to their conversation. “I wonder if she suspects anything. Either way it’s unlikely to matter, if she doesn’t suspect anything we win and get a lock on a few of the Consortium’s controlled sectors; if she does suspect something it’s not very likely she’d tell them anything just out of sheer spite.”

“But if she does suspect something it will make her twice as guarded. Spies are known for their paranoia, it’s how they stay alive.”

“That bastard,” Une said as she continued to monitor the exchange. “That kid’s barely twelve years old.”

“It is unfortunate,” Trowa agreed. “But they are in no real danger unless Midii gets caught.” Then he narrowed his focus from the events happening on screen to the more interesting event playing off screen and panned the camera in on Midii’s hands. “I wonder what it is she’s doing with that memory pod. She appears to be accessing and downloading something and then covering her tracks.”

“She must have nerves of steel to be able to work on a download while her family is being threatened,” Une said severely, then gave a small smile. “I like that.”

The monitor winked off and Midii Une said into the silence “I gotcha now.”

“I would give a lot to know what exactly she meant by that,” Une said judiciously, the wheels in her head were already turning. Trowa nodded in agreement.

“If we’re lucky she’ll access the information from her private console once she’s in a location she feels is secure,” he said. “I have a feed direct from her console to mine that she hasn’t detected yet.”

“Very good, once you find anything out we’ll proceed from there.”

Trowa nodded and exited the room.

He would likely only get one shot at this. Once she got to the tiny efficiency she rented for the duration of the time she was working for the preventors she’s likely run a full sweep of the apartment on all frequencies, even the lesser known ones, then set up a localized jamming device for even the obscure channels; if the information was what he thought it might be he was betting that she wouldn’t be taking any chances. His access to her panel was likely to be cut off. How was he supposed to monitor someone who likely knew every trick in the trade and then some? Electronics could be swept or jammed too easily and she wouldn’t do something so amateurishly stupid as to leave the blinds or drapes open so that he could read her lips.

<There is another way I could go> he considered. <But it’s risky. I might end up hurting her or myself or both.> He could try the age old seduction routine, keep her distracted long enough for him to get a transmitting chip on the pod itself so that whenever she accessed the information it would transmit the entire contents of the pod to his computer as soon as it got out of range of the jamming devices. There was a bit of a problem with that however… he wasn’t exactly Don Juan DeMarco. While he might be attractive enough and he wasn’t inexperienced with women, Trowa was better known for his icy demeanor and analytical detachment than he was for having a way with women. Practical aspects aside, deep down, Trowa knew he didn’t want to get romantically involved with Midii Une if he had an ulterior motive. He liked to think of it as an unspoken agreement, she hadn’t made any sorts of moves on him even though for many spies seduction was standard procedure just to make their job easier, Trowa couldn’t do any less to honor the agreement so seduction was out of the question.

Well if monitoring her by electronics was unlikely to succeed, and seduction was out what did that leave him?

Then it hit him, he’d just be one step ahead of her! He could leave his monitoring devices in place and merely tamper with her sweeping and jamming devices so that they worked for everything but the channels he was working with. However… he’d need to buy some extra time. He took out his cell phone and dialed up Lady Une as he knew she was likely to still be up and about at this time seeing as he had just left her side fifteen minutes ago.

“Barton? Is something the matter? Were you discovered?” she asked in bewilderment.

“No,” he said. “But I’m going to need you to do something for me quickly. I want you to call Midii and tell her you need to see her about something. It doesn’t matter what it is just make it plausible and stall her. I need to get into her apartment and tamper with some of her equipment.”

“Done,” Lady Une said and signed off immediately. Trowa hid his vehicle in a darkened alley half a block away from Midii’s apartment and watched her lighted window (the blinds were closed tightly). Approximately seven minutes later Midii emerged from the front entrance and walked in the direction of Headquarters. Apparently walking alone at night didn’t bother her, granted that it was on the better side of town; still, Trowa had to fight the sudden urge to either follow her at a discrete distance to make certain that she arrived unmolested or simply appear out of nowhere and offer to walk with her to headquarters on some flimsy excuse that he was going the same way too. He fought the urge to protect her in this instance even though protecting her was part of the mission profile outlined by Lady Une, he had a different mission to accomplish and that mission came first in this instance.

* * *

Next time on Along the Razors Edge; Trowa finds out precisely what the Consortium is after when he accesses the downloaded data on Midii’s computer…

<That’s it?!> Trowa thought when he read it. <That’s their master plan?! That’s what they’re going through all this trouble for?!>

Look forward to it please!