Clean Install: Amsterdam Institute, #1

By R. Z. Held

After being infected with nanites from a dead Pax Romana super-soldier, Genevieve should have died, like every other infected civilian. Instead she survived, remade in the image of the so-called Installs. Unable to truly trust her any longer, her people send her deep into Pax Romana space with a mission: upload a virus to destroy the Install reserves.

When she arrives, she finds not the reserves but the self-destructive dregs of the program, the few who didn't die on the battlefield. Not allowed to retire, these Installs are charged with watching over dying infected civilians—but Genevieve knows those deaths aren't inevitable. To win a chance to save them, all she has to do is confess that she's from a conquered, enemy planet, to the empire's most efficient killers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rhiannon Held
• Release date: Apr 7, 2020
• ISBN: 9781943545117

Book preview

CLEAN INSTALL

By R. Z. Held

Copyright © 2020 by Rhiannon Held

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Cover design by Kate Marshall (www.katemarshalldesigns.com)

https://rhiannonheld.com/

Amsterdam Institute Series

CLEAN INSTALL

DIRTY BURNOUT

FAIR EXCHANGE

UNJUST THEFT

PURE MOTIVES

BASE INSTINCTS

Table of Contents

PART I

PART II

PART III

Part I

Genevieve had expected her first sight of a Pax Romana soldier up close to be a slam into her stomach, even worse than seeing recordings of them on a battlefield. Even if this particular soldier was supposedly retired and now working for a security firm, she was still Pax Romana. But the woman who motioned her into a conference room in Tsuga Security headquarters wasn’t wearing body armor, or even a sidearm. She had a hard face, under her burst of short, black hair, but smiling changed it.

The pleasantness of that smile made it harder to imagine her dead, along with all the others in what Genevieve had worked out must be Pax Romana’s reserves, but Genevieve had known that might be a danger, had prepared herself for it mentally. As much as she could with no formal training. It didn’t matter what pleasant expression this woman might paste on top, when the flesh and blood below teemed with technology tuned to nothing but violence.

The woman settled herself at her desk. "I’m Cusco Eriope. Call me Eriope. I hear you’re looking for a job with us? You understand, we tend to draw our personnel from a certain pool...are you ex-military?" She motioned Genevieve to another chair. Genevieve’s back muscles twitched in protest even just looking at the chair’s back, so she remained standing.

No. But I am a nanite Install. The words tasted wrong on her tongue. They might be wrong, but she’d built her cover story to allow those kind of mistakes. Assuming this woman and her superiors accepted the cover story at all.

Her communication system registered a ping and Genevieve allowed it to respond in kind, but blocked any further access. At least, she hoped she had. It wasn’t precisely like reading words in a status message on a screen, nor precisely like hearing sounds from an earbud. It was more...a wider understanding, like a visualization of a screen inside her mind that conveyed its information without any need to pause to read or listen. Maybe. If she knew how to work any of this, she wouldn’t be here.

So you are, Eriope said, and spread her hands flat on the table, rather than jumping to her feet to attack. Genevieve suppressed a flinch anyway, anticipating her next question. How is that possible?

Genevieve thought about touching the small data storage device masquerading as a post earring in her right ear. Thought about it and didn’t, because she at least knew enough to break herself of such a transparent tell. Still, the thought alone of the virus, waiting patiently to be released, grounded her with the weight of why her story had to be perfect. I used to work for TendarisHerron. They were the defense contractor that had developed the nanites, or so her research said. If her research was wrong, she was about to find out. Her back muscles spasmed and she set her teeth until the pain passed.

So you’re, what, a lab accident? Eriope stood and approached Genevieve, more curiosity than suspicion in her expression. Even the early test subjects were military.

They wanted to develop civilian applications for the technology. Genevieve deployed each word carefully, using as few as she could. To her own ears, her system allowed her to speak with a core planet accent, but she wasn’t sure she trusted that. Pay too much attention and everything she said sounded eerily wrong anyway, like listening to a recording, only it was coming out of her own mouth. I was not...fully briefed, shall we say. Given that, I declined to continue my employment with TH. And here, a dash of truth to season it all: I left, I tried to lock it all down and live normally, but I was not successful. I need to learn the systems.

Learn them, and be allowed onto the soldiers’ network, if the virus was to do any good.

I hoped someone here could teach— The next spasm was much worse than she’d expected. Was it the stress? She’d had a bad episode, the kind with screaming, sobbing pain, on the flight to this planet, and between most of the episodes preceding it she’d had at least a standard week’s grace. The background pain and the peaks of the episodes hadn’t gotten any better since she woke with the nanites, but neither had they gotten noticeably worse until now.

Can’t say I blame you for not sticking around for the orientation when they installed on you without your informed consent. Eriope’s brows rose, and she caught Genevieve’s forearms as Genevieve’s knees bent, instincts telling her to go fetal against the pain. She braced Genevieve up and examined the skin along the inside of one of her arms. How much have you been relying on bio power, girl? Don’t know your regular color, but you’re looking sallow to me.

Bio power? As opposed to— To finish the question, Genevieve tried to think of another power source her nanites could be using, and came up empty. It wasn’t like she plugged in, even after the installation process.

Right. Outside. Eriope kept a grip on Genevieve’s wrist and used firm pressure on the back of her shoulder to turn her and escort her into the hall. Genevieve wondered if she should resist, but she was sure that if Eriope wanted to subdue her, with training above and beyond the strength enhancements Genevieve shared, not to mention being pain-free, Genevieve wouldn’t be able to do much about it. They ducked into another room, this one with a wall of windows.

The spasm in her back had eased enough for Genevieve to receive the full effect of the vista like a slap. Everything but the small area around the spaceport was mountains, magnificently visible from this height in the Tsuga Security building. Smaller ones, crumpled and green, eased into larger, white over creased stone. Between two of the closest, she caught a gleam of water, some icy lake perhaps.

Recreation planet, Eriope explained absently, as she slid a plexi door open and broke Genevieve’s spell as she urged her through. Nothing worth the cost of mining, so they started the terraforming process when they built the fueling station and let it percolate along on its own. The railing around the balcony was chest-high on Genevieve. She judged she’d have warning to fight back if Eriope tried to push her off. She couldn’t guess at Eriope’s real purpose, though. Vitamin D?

Eriope turned Genevieve away from the view and braced her hands on her shoulders. Now. Wings out.

Why? Genevieve asked the question more to stall than anything. She’d hidden the things for so long, it was hard to convince herself to unfurl them, instead of keeping them tightly clenched beneath the panel in her back, where no one could see. But this woman was a nanite Install. She had her own damn wings. Probably larger and more impressive ones.

The silliness of that thought broke Genevieve free, and she shrugged off her jacket. She’d gotten tired of ruining shirts, so she’d altered her current one to dip low in the back, like some kind of clubwear. The air was chill enough she bundled the jacket over her arms to at least keep those warm.

Because bio power is inefficient, and it robs the rest of your body if you make the nanites run on it long term. Eriope crossed her arms and waited. She eyed Genevieve. "You’re aware your