Perfect Dark Second Front

Chapter One Residence of dataDyne CEO Mlle. Cassandra DeVries #1 Rue Marinoni Paris, France January 18th, 2021 It had been almost two months since Cassandra DeVries had gotten a good night's sleep. Almost two months of near-sleepless nights since she'd been named dataDyne's new CEO, since she had been named Zhang Li's successor. Almost two months since she had become the leader of the world's largest hypercorp, since she had found herself one of the most powerful people in the world. If not the most powerful person in the world. Almost two months since she'd murdered the CEO of pharmaDyne, Dr. Friedrich Murray. There were good reasons for her insomnia, despite the fact that Cassandra DeVries knew that she was more exhaustedphysically, emotionally, and mentallythan she ever had been before. At best, she was managing two, perhaps three hours of sleep a night; at the worst, she was managing none at all. On those nights, after tossing and turning in futility for an hour or more, she would give up altogether, deciding there were better uses of her time. Throwing back the handmade silk sheets of her new antique four-poster bed, she would rise and pull on a silk robe she had no memory of buying. She would cross the expanse of her bedroom to the door and step out, and the two dataDyne Shock Troopers standing post there would each snap to attention as if expecting a surprise inspection. Then one of the guards would ask, his voice positively deferential even behind the odd amplification of his full-face helmet, if there was anything dataDyne's new CEO required. "Sleep," DeVries would say. She would then begin walking the cold and nearly silent hallways of her very old new home, followed only by the whisper of transmissions passed from one guard post to the next as each accounted for her movements. Most of the time, she couldn't even hear what was being said, but on occasion she would catch a word or two, and this was how she learned of the code name she had been given. They called her "Future." "All posts, Future on walkabout." "Future, second floor, south two." "Future, third floor, north three." "Future, third floor, west one." Finally, DeVries would reach the very old study of her very old new house, and two new Shock Troopersor perhaps the same two, she honestly couldn't tellwould already be in position there. One would open the door for her solicitously, closing it softly behind her as she passed within, but not before she heard the final transmission. "Future, third floor, west two, study. In for the night." They were her ghosts, dedicated to her safety and survival, each of them handpicked to work her private home security detail by Anita Velez, the director of corporate security. Selected by Anita Velez, kingmaker, who had stood beside Cassandra DeVries and nodded the barest approval when Cassandra had shot Friedrich Murray. Anita Velez, who had believed that Cassandra DeVries was the only possible future dataDyne could have. Anita Velez, who had, strangely enough, become the new CEO of dataDyne's only friend. Once in the study, Cassandra would open her laptop, typing in her password, offering it her left eye for retina confirmation, making certain the friend-or-foe chip she had implanted in herself at her wrist was read properly. She would log into her office, and begin working, or, more correctly, she would resume working, because she had discovered that she was never, ever, going to be finisRucka, Greg is the author of 'Perfect Dark Second Front', published 2007 under ISBN 9780765315724 and ISBN 0765315726.