Free Upgrade by Richard Parry

outcome.”
    “That’s a pretty big byproduct.”   Mason leaned back in his chair.   “R&D didn’t know about it?”
    “It’s not quite that simple.”   Gairovald held Mason’s gaze.   “It’s one of my earlier projects.   It’s been mothballed for quite some time, despite having significant future value to the Federate.”
    Holy shit.   Gairovald hasn’t done the heavy lifting on the science in thirty years.   Mason nodded to himself.   “Ok, sir.   So — new mission?”
    “New mission,” said Gairovald.   “Different outcome.”
    “You want me to catch the thief.”
    “No,” said Gairovald, standing.   He started walking towards the door, then turned back to Mason.   “No one steals from me.   I want you to kill the thief.”

    ⚔ ⚛ ⚔

    Mason stared out the boardroom window.   He pressed a hand against the cool glass, the cloudscape stretched out below him grey and ugly.   “Did you get that?”
    “Of course, Mason.”   Carter sighed.   “Why do you treat me like an idiot child?”
    “For all I know, you could be an idiot child.”   Mason’s lips twitched.   “A savant, I mean.”
    “I get it.”
    “You know.   Like a chess master.”
    “I said I get it.”
    “Or—”
    “Mason?   I got it.”
    “Speaking of getting things.   Have we got a file?”
    An icon flashed onto his overlay, information flicking over the uplink.   “Of course,” said Carter.   “Some of this is from Gairovald’s office.”
    “Some of it?”
    “I don’t spend my days surfing the Internet for porn, Mason.   I do research.”
    “I don’t know where you find the time.”   Mason was already flicking through the information on his overlay.   “Something’s not right.”
    “Something in particular?”
    “Sort of.”
    “That’s not very particular, Mason.   Do you know what ‘particular’ even means?”
    Mason highlighted a section of information.   “Here.”
    Carter was silent for a moment, then she said, “I see it.”
    The information Mason had highlighted was an image from the old hotel’s basement, when —
    Dead hands reached for him, the Tenko-Senshin screaming back at them in the darkness.   His heart hammered in his chest, and he stumbled back as parts of people fell and burned in front of him.
    — he’d found the epicenter.   Mason swallowed, then cleared his throat.   “This one.   The image is from the box.”   Highlighted on the image was a charred piece of metal, the stenciled letters APSEL FEDERATE — ATOMIC ENERGY DIVISION still visible against the carbon scoring.
    Carter was silent for no more than two heartbeats.   “It doesn’t have the R&D logo on it.”
    “You’re pretty quick for an idiot child.”
    “This wasn’t mothballed research at all.   This was live tech, taken from Atomics.”
    “Maybe,” said Mason.   “It doesn’t really matter though.”
    “It doesn’t?”   Carter sounded distracted.   “I’m going to pull together a… meeting between you and the department heads.”
    “A meeting, sure.   The thing is, I don’t care if the tech came from R&D, or from Never Never Land.   Someone stole it.   Mission’s clear on that.   If it’s Peter fucking Pan, he’s going down.”
    Carter cleared her throat.   “I’m sorry.”
    “About what?”
    “About…   About your last handler.”
    “Yeah.”   Mason let a breath out, realized he’d been clenching his fists.   “He made a bad call.”
    “You’d been working with him for two years.”
    “Thereabouts.”
    “Did you have to kill him?”
    “Yeah.”   Mason stood, walking towards the door.   “Yeah, I did, Carter.   He tried to steal from the company too.”
    She was silent a few moments, and he let himself out.   He tossed a nod at Nancy, then headed for the elevators.
    “I won’t let you down, Mason.”
    “I know, Carter.”
    “You do?”
    “Yeah.”   He clicked the button on the elevator, frowning.   Old school .   Maybe