* * *
In a small control bunker, nestled deep inside
Waste Station 5-B
, unit 661-R stared, unmoving, at the displays before it, tirelessly monitoring everything from the facility’s environmentals and power output to waste product drainage levels and pressure readings throughout the piping network that syphoned waste from all of the surrounding facilities.
Its attention was drawn to an alert indicator along the southern line of that network. A pressure loss in drainage pipe 32-C. As per standard protocols, 661-R began to run a diagnostic to determine the source of the malfunction or possible breach, in which case, a repair unit would need to be dispatched.
Before any substantial information could be retrieved, the pressure levels in the pipe returned to within normal operating parameters. Allowing sufficient time to ensure that the new readings remained stable, 661-R returned its attention to monitoring all stations, ensuring that an incident notation was created and dispatched to the system administrator before doing so, in the event of any further recurrences. As per standard protocols.
Another handy feature of Arden’s ship’s advanced system databanks was its highly detailed and very up to date blue print layouts for just about any known facility in the system that one might want to gain access to. Jarred could think of numerous reasons as to why the crime lord would want to have such information at his disposal, none of which really mattered at the moment, suffice to say, that it was a good thing that he did.
Checking the portable positioning device he had downloaded the content to, Jarred concluded that, after one half hour of sloshing through this putrid muck, it was time to make their exit. Not that they had much choice. Their drainage tunnel was coming to an end a dozen meters ahead of them, the pipe connecting to what must have been some sort of syphoning basin where the waste was pooled.
The positioner currently had them directly below the facility’s air circulation system, one of the few places the facility blue prints showed the piping to be above floor level, therefore, one of the few places inside the facility that they would be able to cut their way out and not find themselves embedded in meters of solid foundation. Just a few moments with his laser cutter and he had carved another doorway out of the tunnel. Removing it carefully, he stuck his head up through the opening and made a three hundred and sixty degree survey of the area. All clear.
Jarred lifted himself out of the drainage pipe, Tarik and Elora following. He replaced the solid slab into the pipe’s opening, as he had before, and then removed his breather mask, taking his first breath of un-putrefied air in the last half hour. Elora removed her own, and then immediately vomited. He couldn’t say that he hadn’t nearly done the same. She seemed to compose herself quickly though, wiping her face and tearing eyes before stepping up next to him.
“Where to from here?” she asked, her face drained of most of its color.
Jarred retrieved the positioner again and held it up so that they could both see the display. With a double tap of his finger, he reduced magnification on the floor plan and pointed to the area they had just entered. “We’re
here
. Ground level.” He then rotated the image from an overview to ground view and began to scroll downward through the facility’s sub levels. “We need to descend levels to
this
area.” He stopped at the bottom level and increased magnification again. “These large open rooms look to be the most likely place to house large numbers of people. It also looks like the most restricted area in the facility, with only this one lift access point. It’s our best bet.”
“So how do we get down there? The lift? Won’t that be guarded?”
“Most definitely.” He scrolled back up to their current location, tracing his finger along a narrow vertical structure as he went. “We’ll need to travel down this air duct.” He pointed away from the positioner to their actual entry point into the shaft, a large bulkhead built into one wall with an opening occupied by a rotating fan that circulated the air from this level to all of the others below it. “Which we’ll enter
here
.”
Elora followed him across the room to the fan opening he had indicated, inspecting it for a moment before looking at him. “How do we stop it to get through?”
Jarred answered her question by shooting his hand into the unit, ensuring his timing was accurate, and catching hold of one of the passing fan blades. Exerting himself, he brought the fan to an almost immediate stop, its motor whining with effort as it fought against his hold. Pinning his elbow against the curved edge of the opening, he was able to hold the fan in place while using his free hand to retrieve the miniature grappling gun he’d acquired from Arden’s ample stockpile of gear. Reaching his arm inside the opening, he fired an anchor into the solid ceiling of the bulkhead, letting the attached spool of high tension cable fall down the length of the shaft.
“After you,” he said to Elora, over his shoulder, standing aside to allow her room to pass through. Surprisingly, Tarik stepped forward, grunting as he looked inside the opening, wasting little time before climbing in. Jarred shrugged. “I guess he’s going first.”
Elora followed, Jarred giving her a hand as she climbed up and through the space between the fan blades. Once she was inside, Jarred unslung his rifle and used it, in place of his arm, to keep the fan locked in place so that he could climb through himself. Using his feet and back to pin himself in place in the shaft, he removed the rifle, allowing the fan to resume its rotation.
They then proceeded to descend, using the cable as a support guide and their feet to walk down the shaft wall. Tarik did not seem to require the former, using the claws on his hands and feet to maneuver his way down with ease. It wasn’t very surprising considering his ability to scale the much more treacherous rock formations surrounding his own village. Jarred wasn’t so concerned with the aid in climbing down the shaft, so much as back up, which they might have to do at a fairly rapid pace if being pursued.
Reaching bottom, the shaft spread out in four directions, the ducts much smaller than the main shaft. They would still be able to walk in them, though crouched. Jarred opted for the duct that would take them over the area he was guessing they would be most likely to find the holding cells. From there, they would find a good, concealed vantage point and wait, hopefully, for Ethan to turn up. The situation and variables as they were, it was the best plan he could come up with, that had any chance of success, and if he was alone and this was Mac he was coming for, he would be doing the same thing. He had to ensure that he was treating this as he would any other hunt, well planned out with a cool headed execution. If he played it any other way, there would be too much room for error.
Elora was an unstable element in the equation, in that she was very emotionally involved, which made her a risk. He would need to keep her calm and rational, otherwise she could wind up doing something reactionary and off the rails of their plan, which would more than likely lead to them failing and being captured. He had explained all of this to her once she had made it clear he would not be going after Ethan without her, but saying and doing were two completely different things.
The duct continued on straight across the complex, branching off at multiple junctures. Jarred consulted the positioner regularly, though he had already committed this part of the grid to memory. More than likely, the area where the slaves were being kept would not even be included, with any accurate detail, in the floor plans. Multiple cells in the bowels of a waste facility would be something organic designers and engineers would talk about. Whatever slave holding areas and facilities there were in this plant, they would have been installed after the site’s original construction and there would be no design specs to prove they ever had been.
Coming to the first of the large open spaces indicated on the positioner, Jarred quietly popped open a ventilation grill, the opening leading into an open space, no taller than the shaft they were in, between sections of drop away ceiling grates and the solid foundation of the floor above them. Solid parallel walls also rose up to meet the floor foundation, the crawl space, which was filled mostly with batches of power cabling that ran in all directions and through outlets in the surrounding walls, appearing to run over top of a system of corridors, but not into the surrounding rooms themselves, or cells, as Jarred suspected they were.
Slowly, the dense cabling hindering their progress, they made their way down the corridor until coming to a cross junction. They waited there a moment as Jarred considered which of the corridors to follow. He chose to do nothing, motioning to Elora and Tarik to remain quiet as a mech rolled along one of the corridors toward their position, coming to a stop just under them. It waited there for a time, doing nothing, before finally turning and rolling back the way it had come. Jarred remained still, consulting the positioner for a moment.
“Where now?” Elora asked from behind him.
“We stay here,” he said, decidedly. “This spot is near the middle of what looks like the holding area. If there are slaves down here, this will be a good place to spot them when they start moving.”
Another moment passed.
“How long do we wait?” she pressed.
“As long as it takes,” Jarred answered. As it happened, that wasn’t very long. Almost as he had finished speaking the words, a set of doors slid open far up one of the corridors and a multitude of foot steps and voices began to approach. He turned to glance back at Elora, who looked obviously excited, and motioned her to remain still again. “Stay quiet.”
She nodded in response and Jarred returned his attention to the approaching group, a mechanical leading the way. A curious, synchronized tone sounded out at, what seemed to be, long regular intervals from somewhere within the group itself. He stared down through the grating, looking for any sign of Ethan as they passed beneath them. He found none. Once the group had passed completely, he looked back towards Elora again, who’s excitement had diminished noticeably.
“He wasn’t with them,” she said, sadly.
“That’s alright,” he reassured her. “They’re probably split into groups. We’ll follow them to where they’re going.” Jarred was about to start moving along the corridor when he heard another pair of voices back in the direction the group had come from. One of the voices sounded young and he almost immediately recognized it as being Ethan’s.
“It’s
him
!” Elora nearly exclaimed, though her voice was only slightly above a whisper.
“Hold on,” Jarred cautioned. Calling out to him or jumping down there right away would give away their location to any mechs in the area. Once Ethan and whoever he was walking with had passed under them, Jarred waiting another few seconds to be sure that no mechs followed, he lifted the grating, sliding it away to create an opening. He then dropped down into the corridor, Ethan and the man with him turning at the noise he had made.
“Jarred!” Ethan nearly shouted, Jarred raising a finger to his lips to quiet the boy who nearly charged down the corridor, colliding with him in an embrace he felt himself welcoming and returning.
“I knew you would come,” Ethan continued, his voice lowered significantly. “I
knew
it.”
“Where else would I go,” Jarred answered, a bit overwhelmed by the unexpected tide of emotions surging through him. “But I didn’t come alone.” He motioned up to the opening in the ceiling, Elora staring back down through it, tears welling up in her eyes.
“Elora!” Ethan called up to his sister, as she climbed down through the grate, dropping to the floor where she was immediately embraced by him, tears, most likely comprised of happiness and relief, shared by them both.
“You came,” he spoke, his voice muffled by Elora’s shoulder.
“Of course we did,” she answered. “We wouldn’t leave you in this place.”
Ethan pulled back, a strange expression coming to his face as he looked between them both. “You guys smell awful.”
Jarred ruffled the boy’s hair. “Thanks for noticing.”
Ethan smiled, looking back towards the man he had been walking with. “I
told
you they would come.”
The man’s expression was not very impressed, but he seemed to do his best to put on the slightest of smiles, Jarred surprised at himself for not having noticed who he was earlier.
“Yeah,” Mac answered, his eyes locking with Jarred’s. “You called it, kid.”
“Mac,” Jarred greeted the man, a smirk coming to his own face. “Funny running into you here.”
“I was just thinking the same thing.”
“Come on Ethan,” Elora interrupted. “We need to get you out of here.”
“Is Mac coming with us?” Ethan asked, moving back to stand next to the man.
“Of course,” Jarred answered, keeping his eyes on Mac. “We wouldn’t leave Mac in this place, either.”
“Lucky for me,” the man commented, sardonically.
Ethan put on a concerned look, directed at Jarred. “You’re not going to turn him in, are you?”
“I was considering it,” he answered.
“You can’t,” the boy exclaimed, looking from Jarred to his sister, pleadingly. “He helped me. He looked out for me.” He glanced back at Mac. “He’s . . . my friend.”