Codename: Night Witch Read Online Free PDF Page B

network was open to her. At the heart of that network was the central core. The information she sought was here, locked, encrypted and buried behind layers of firewalls and security measures.
    Sigrid tore the last of the firewalls aside herself. She was in.
    "Subject 42: Identify."
    SUBJECT 42. SIGRID NOVAK.
    "All right. You said that. Now tell me something I don't know."
    SPECIFY.
    "Give me a complete history of Subject 42."
    SUBJECT 42. BORN: JAN. 14, 2330, GENEVA, SWISS-GERMAN COMPLEX. PARENTS: PETER AND HANNAH NOVAK. LIFE CONTRACT: PROPRIETORSHIP OF THE KIMURA CORPORATION AS OF 2339. LEASED TO CHEUNG-YOSHIDA MULTI-PLANETARY, SUBSIDIARY OF CORAN INDUSTRIES. PRIMARY SUBJECT OF PROJECT ANDRASTE, ALCYONE—
    "Wait. Computer. Stop!"
    Sigrid sat forward. Something wasn't right. She knew her history—better than anyone. But something was wrong.
    "What do you mean, 'leased to Cheung-Yoshida'? I was never leased to them."
    INCORRECT. TRANSFER OF LIFE CONTRACT CONFIRMED. LESSEE TO ASSUME FULL LIABILITY OF LIFE DEBT. TERMS OF LEASE NOT TO EXCEED A PERIOD OF TWENTY YEARS WHILE GUARANTEEING A MINIMUM OF—
    "Stop! I don't need the contract terms. It's the lessee you've got wrong." The screen went abruptly blank and Sigrid wondered if she'd upset the machine. "No, wait! Computer, display leasing contract. Bring it back up!"
    The screen came alive again and the contract flashed on the monitor. It was a standard contract, full of pages of bland legalese obviously designed to lull the lessor into a stupor. It was a proposal mostly. But there, right on the first page, was everything she needed to see.
    TO: CHEUNG-YOSHIDA MULTI-PLANETARY
    FROM: KIMURA CORPORATION
    SUBJECT: REQUEST FOR TRANSFER OF LIFE CONTRACT OF ONE SIGRID NOVAK. TERMS ACCEPTABLE. CONTRACT APPROVED. SIGNED, LADY KIMURA HITOMI. WITNESSED, KALI SATI, SPECIAL COUNCIL ENVOY, FEDERATION OF INCORPORATED ENTERPRISES.
    Sigrid stared at it with her mouth hanging open. This—it had to be a mistake. Her mistress would never abandon her. She could never sell her. She wouldn't!
    Slowly, Sigrid sat back.
    Or would she?
    Sigrid was never one to believe in coincidences. One, perhaps. Two, rarely, but three? Never. And she was staring at three big ones right now.
    No Council. That was what the orderly had said to her. He'd said they were dead. Assassinated. And now Sigrid found herself waking in some strange place and with a fresh set of battle scars, though she had no idea how she'd come to acquire them or how she'd even come to be here.
    And now this. Her life contract—sold to rival interests. None of it made sense. But there was Hitomi's signature signed on that contract, staring her right in the face.
    Sigrid sat motionless. There had to be an explanation. Some reason! There was something she was missing, and she had to know what that was.
    Her eyes and nose had become wet, and she wiped them dry with the back of her fist.
    "Computer, identify: Project Andraste."
    PROJECT ANDRASTE: ACCELERATED HUMAN EVOLUTION THROUGH TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION: A PROPOSAL FROM THE KIMURA CORPORATION TO THE COUNCIL FOR TRADE AND FINANCE, 2298.
    "Identify: Purpose of Project Andraste."
    PROJECT ANDRASTE: CIRCUMVENTION OF REGIME CHANGE.
    "Explain."
    IN 2294, CTF COMMISSIONS STUDY OF LONG-TERM VIABILITY OF FEDERATION OF INCORPORATED ENTERPRISES. DATA ANALYTICS FORECAST INEVITABLE OVERTHROW OF COUNCIL AND CORPORATOCRACY BY 2380. ANALYTICS INDICATE ONLY ONE POSSIBLE SOLUTION: GENOCIDE OF INDENTURED POPULATION.
    Genocide?
    SEEKING TO AVOID A MASS SLAUGHTER, THE KIMURA CORPORATION PROPOSES A RADICAL NEW APPROACH TO GENETIC REENGINEERING WITH THE SOLE PURPOSE OF—
    The screen went instantly dark.
    "No!"
    Sigrid leapt up and grabbed the terminal, nearly wrenching it free of its housing. "Computer, recall information. Bring that back. Computer!"
    Her only answer came in the form of the yellow lights that flashed above her head and the alarm klaxons that sounded, ringing through the corridor.
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