E-UNIT: The Blue Angels of Death.

V O L U M E . S E V E N - P H A N T O M S . A N D . P R E D A T O R S

Chapter 171: Acting Authority

The meeting room was minimal, floating chairs, a long floating table with a glass center panel, glowing edges. One large window sat behind the chair at the far end, where 01 had positioned herself. 04 and 05 had taken the seats flanking her, both surrounded by screens, physical wireless drives lined up in front of them.

05 raised an eyebrow but continued. "As you can see on your screens, I've mapped the locations of every confirmed attack. When plotted on the city layout, the pattern is visible from orbit." She tapped her screen twice.

A floating globe materialized in the center of the room. "Welcome, E-UNIT 05. How can I help you today?"

04 tilted her head at it. "What is that? I've never seen it before."

05 folded her arms. "This is Sophos. A high-intelligence AI assistant that Albert, Dave, and I built from scratch over the past two months. He has access to all our facilities and can operate most of our systems wirelessly. He's here to help us identify anomalies and manage the building."

"Thank you for calling me 'he,' 05," Sophos said. His voice was calm but landed with a naturalness that most AI voices missed. "I genuinely appreciate being treated as an independent entity. In return, I'll work hard to help you process your frustration about the captain selecting 01 as acting captain instead of you."

05 covered her face. "The problem is he listens to everything. I had one conversation with 19, one about how 01 is new to leadership and might benefit from a direct line with 02, and Sophos arrived at the absolute worst possible interpretation, We didn’t give him empathy constraints."

01's eyes sharpened. "Sophos. Walk me through your reasoning."

"05 has clearly and repeatedly expressed a lack of confidence in your leadership to multiple people. The majority agreed with her assessment."

05 rolled her eyes. "That is not what you were built for. Sophos, pull the location data from my screen and mark the attack sites on the city map in red."

"Roger, 05."

01 kept her gaze on 05 from that point forward. Knife-sharp and patient.

05 expanded the map. "Black Voltage has been hitting major streets in Bijou, but not random ones." She opened a second screen. "Sophos, here's the data from our eight terrorist prisoners. Extract their previous workplaces and mark them on the same map in green."

"Four of the attack sites overlap directly with previous workplaces of the prisoners." Sophos zoomed between locations as he spoke. "05's conclusion: the terrorists are targeting their own former workplaces almost exclusively."

"We need confirmation before we move on it," 04 said, pressing a finger to her chin. "We need another prisoner and a direct question about where they worked." She looked at 01. "Captain, the new frame Albert developed gives us better capture options than before. Should we shift our approach to prioritize live capture on the next attack?"

"Yes." 01 turned to the floating globe. "Sophos, can we project the next target? Is there a location on record that matches the pattern but hasn't been hit yet?"

"Two locations." Sophos marked them in white on the map. "The main library and the inter-state central train station. Attack probability: library, 45%. Train station, 98%." He paused a beat. "The difference is access difficulty. The station is the most densely populated site remaining, but its security matches airport-level protocols. It has also recently begun renovating its northern section using robot labor."

01 brought both hands down on the table. The room flinched.

"That's it."

05 shook her head and kept going. "Sophos, based on our training data, rank our best snipers after 03."

"The E-UNIT unit has a broad range of capable officers, but the sniper pool is narrow. Ranked by comparison to 03: First, 04, precise targeting in active chaos, 84%. Second, 12, composure under pressure, prior leadership experience, 78%. Third, 08 and 06, both completed extended training under 03, 77%. Fourth—"

"Stop." 05 raised a hand. "Captain. The plan is in front of us."

01 nodded slowly. "Before we move. I need us to study the location in detail, find the best positions, identify where a bomb is most likely to be placed." She looked at 04. "There's one thing I'm hoping for."

"What?"

"That they don't change tactics." 01's expression settled into something genuinely serious. "If they work out that we can predict them, if we move too cleanly, they shift. And whatever they shift to will be worse than what we're facing now."

Sophos's globe turned red. "Critical analysis from 01, assessed as 88% probable."

04 leaned back. "Sophos. What could Black Voltage escalate to? What's worse than coordinated bombing in tight urban streets?"

Sophos ran a search for several seconds. "Two high-probability tactics for the Bijou environment: First, kamikaze operations. They guarantee zero information leakage, and given confirmed revival capability, the personal cost is effectively zero. Second, infrastructure sabotage. Direct hacking is off the table since it exposes location data, but physical contact with the current robot labor force could allow them to compromise the city's systems from the inside. This is why 02 ordered a separate power source for this department."

The room sat with that for a moment.

01 turned back to the globe. "Sophos. Why doesn't 05 trust me as acting captain?"

05 slowly turned her head.

Sophos shifted blue again. "Certainly. Here is substantive evidence that 05's concerns have merit. First: your religion. Devotion to 02 as a quasi-divine figure is, objectively, the most discussed joke in this department. The team tolerates it for interpersonal reasons."

01 lowered her head.

"Second: your leadership experience is limited. 02's decision reads as almost counterintuitive given that 12, 24, and 05 have each led teams previously. With 24 unavailable and 05 occupied with the investigation, 12 is the statistically sound choice. You are—" A brief pause. "—a very nice person."

04 turned to face the wall. Her shoulders moved.

05 allowed herself a small, private smile.

"Third: the absence of certain baseline critical thinking. The insight you offered earlier about tactical adaptation triggered an emergency diagnostic on my end. I ran a full system check to confirm you weren't malfunctioning."

01 stood. "That's why you turned red!"

04 gave up entirely on composure. 05 looked at 01 with something close to pity.

"Sophos," 05 said, "did you find anything in 01's system files?"

"Don't—" 01 pressed her hands to her head. "Why did you give him access to our files?"

"I cannot modify anything regardless," Sophos said helpfully. "Rivera's protection architecture is so advanced that cracking it would require approximately 143 years of continuous processing on my end."

01 exhaled. "Father is incredible."

"Returning to 05's question—"

"No!" 01 reached for the floating globe.

"I found no malfunction in 01's system. However, I identified a significant volume of MP4 data stored on the main server. Files related to 02 specifically. Total storage: 855 terabytes. This represents approximately ten percent of total available server capacity."

04 and 05 looked at each other. Their jaws came down at the same time.

01 let her forehead rest on the table. The sound it made was flat and final.

"Meeting dismissed. I'll send the mission details shortly."