Provenance I - Flee The Bonds (34 page)

‘COMNET. Roger, wait out.’

The silence lasted ten seconds.

‘COMNET. Charlie sierra six confirms door open in seconds thirty. Sitrep follows, estimate six hostiles around steam vent access panel in maintenance corridor north, estimate thirty hostiles in maintenance corridor west, over.’

Dee mulled over the report, he had a team in the transformer vault covering the vent pipe. Steve’s recon had had its uses. He still controlled the roof, but someone else controlled the forest on the far shore, and the Halos. He’d send someone to occupy the hostiles in the corridor.

‘Alpha one, COMNET.’ Urgency edged Anderson’s whisper.

‘Alpha one. Go ahead, over.’

‘COMNET. Proximity alarm activated, over.’

‘Stay calm, Anderson. Grab your weapons and move to the end of corridor. Make sure you close the door behind you. Hostiles will stick a charge on it, when they do, hit ‘em. I’m on my way.’

‘Thanks. I mean COMNET, wilco, out.’

Dee spun round too quickly and grimaced. ‘Staff, take two to the end of alpha bravo one and keep the hostiles in maintenance corridor west busy.’

The sergeant nodded. ‘Yes, sir.’

Dee looked down the line, ‘Lieutenant?’

The fourth Defender stepped out, ‘Sir?’

‘Liaise with staff and take ‘em across to PB 1, wait for me in the loading bay.’

‘Roger that.’

Three Defenders filed past Dee and jogged along the maintenance corridor towards AB 1. Twenty seconds later the crack of automatic fire rebounded out.

Dee looked over his shoulder, ‘Go!’

A stream of Defenders ran by, picking their way through the parking lot before sprinting across the apron towards PB 1.

Halos were waiting for the third and fifth Defenders. They twisted and crumpled onto the asphalt.

Dee tailed the last Defender. He wheeled left after the parking lot, ran along the apron, and burst into the lobby of AB 2. He slipped, his left knee thudded onto the tiles. Pain split his face into a thousand lines.

With seething breaths, he struggled to his feet and lurched into the unlit corridor.

He was too late.

Fragments of the smashed screens littered the tabletops and floor. The demoted Lieutenant would never wake up. He found the other two lying next to their scattered protector-plates.

Gibson sprawled face down, his lifeless hand resting on a chest plate. Anderson stared blankly at the ceiling, her self-sacrifice evident by the machine pistol gripped in her hand and the line of cratered holes arcing across the wall. His exasperation narrowed in on Gibson’s holstered pistol.
She’d died trying to save someone who was already dead.

Dee dialled his MPS selector. ‘Alpha two, alpha one. COMNET one down, switch to COMNET two, over.’ His secondary comms net was inside PB 1.

‘Alpha two. Wilco, out.’

Dee limped to a chair and slumped down. He unclipped the medpac from his chest plate, loaded the penjector, and stabbed his left thigh. Pain ebbed away on balmy waves.

After tightening the shin protector straps, he eased up. His MCD told him he had 4.589 litres of blood in his body. When he’d arrived, he’d had 4.924.

15:13 SAT 04:11:2119

Intra Zone, Seine-et-Marne, France, Sector 2

Steve hunched over his MCD and shivered. He and Alex sat on a curved stone seat, one of four encircling the raised pond at the centre of Francois’s ornamental garden. According to Alex, it was one of the few places not under surveillance.

He had one message, ‘Steve, it’s Kacee. Be careful, Francois’s SIS. You probably think I am too, but I’m not. I work for Judiciary Command; we’ve been investigating an SIS plot against the Council. Please call, I know I have some explaining to do.’

He turned his head to Alex. ‘Have you checked on Penny?’

‘Dobriana says she’s fine. She’ll let us know if there’s any change.’

Steve had always found an AH’s ability to communicate without speaking unsettling, now he realised how useful that ability could be. ‘Okay, thanks.’ What he’d also realised was that once they were aboard Provenance, SIS might take control of Alex. He needed someone to move Penny.

Alex read his mind. ‘Are you going to call Kacee?’

Steve stared out across the circle of stagnant pond water. ‘She can wait. It’s Dee who’s walked into a trap.’

‘I don’t think he likes you.’

‘He doesn’t, some of the time, but that’s never stopped me.’

Steve connected to
Cool Breeze
; the MCD chimed as it joined a secure network.

‘Hallo.’

‘Maria,
es ist
Steve.’

‘Steve,
er ist nicht hier, es begonnen
.’ She sounded excited.

‘
Als er zurück kommt, ihn zu bitten, mich anzurufen
.’

‘Okay.
Servus.
’

Alex blew into his hands and rubbed them, ‘What are you thinking?’

Steve flicked a glance at Alex’s bizarre behaviour and stroked his chin. ‘You heard what she said,
es begonnen,
it has begun. Gerhard isn’t home because he and Dee are both at MP 14. On opposite sides of a battle that neither of them are going to win.’ He tapped the screen again and waited for the CONSEC rings to fade.

Admiral Smithson had swapped his dress uniform for battle fatigues. ‘Hello, Steve, how’s the shoulder?’

‘Fine thank you, sir. Have you confirmed Colossus’s trajectory?’

‘We have. Although I don’t think anyone quite believes it. PSYOPS recommend it remain classified until we figure out a way of disseminating it.’

‘I understand, sir. How’s CONSEC holding up?’

‘We’re okay. The Resistance have attacked all Sectors, but it’s only in yours they have tech weapons.’

‘That makes sense. Did you receive my report on the black Prefects?’

‘We did, and if wasn’t for the fact we’d turn half of Sector 2 into a charcoal desert we’d vape the whole plant. Which I see is now under the command of
Captain
Deon Brandleson.’

‘It is, sir. Any chance you can pull Dee out of there?’

‘Sorry, Steve. We’ve got upwards of a hundred thousand people upstairs; SIS can’t know we’re onto them.’

‘Did you know the Council have asked for a protection force?’

‘I did, but they’ve put SIS in charge of that. These attacks have given them the jitters.’

‘I think that was the idea, sir. The protection force is how SIS will get the Resistance army aboard.’

The Admiral rubbed his forehead. ‘That could be messy — even without Citadel.’

‘I expect SIS will order Choo to stand CONSEC down. Once I shut down the SIS AHs he should come to his senses and CONSEC can mop up.’

The Admiral leant forward. ‘I hope you’re right, Steve, because if you don’t get to the bridge, we’ll have no option but to launch an assault.’

‘I understand, sir. I’ll contact you when I’m upstairs.’

‘Good luck, Commander. Smithson out.’

Steve stood. ‘I’m going to MP 14.’

Alex leapt up, ‘You can’t, you’re injured.’

Steve stared across the ornamental garden to the distant chateau, its towering facades dulled under a leaden sky. ‘Dee needs help.’
And I need to test this Cogent’s white setting on a black Prefect.

As he turned away, Alex’s arm shot out. The grip wasn’t painful, but it was unbreakable. ‘What about Penny? We need to go to Provenance.’

Steve smiled flatly. ‘We will, of that I’m sure.’

* * * *
 

Steve returned alone to the blue room and once again, chose to sit opposite Morton. ‘I need to go to MP 14.’

Francois sat at the head of the table, his palms resting on the polished wood, ‘No, it is too dangerous. Also, I do not believe that Dee wants you to interfere.’

‘I’m not interfering. Dee’s injured, which means something’s gone wrong.’

Morton pushed back. ‘Perhaps he was careless.’

Steve’s eyes sliced into black nanocrystalline, ‘Is that based on your extensive experience as an Advocate?’

‘I am programmed with all tactical data used by CONSEC, and Advocates.’

Steve held up his MCD. ‘This contains more than a thousand recipes, but I wouldn’t let it cook dinner. Keep your uninformed opinions to yourself.’ He returned to Francois. ‘We
have
to go.’

Francois’s face crinkled, ‘Why do you desire to go? Is the reason Dee or guilt for Bo?’

Steve ignored Morton’s smirk. ‘What’s your reason for not going? You’re Dee’s Commander, if he’s in trouble, you should be there.’
Remember who you’re pretending to be.

Everyone stared at Francois’s buzzing MPS.

‘Yes, Dee.’

‘I need a sweep over MP 14, now!’

‘Do you have a problem?’

‘Yeah, the Resistance have got tech weapons and I’ve gotta a jammed uplink. Everywhere we turn someone’s waiting for us, they must’ve eyes in the sky.’

‘What is the situation?’

‘Quiet. I’ve got Resistance on the weir lock and around the steam vent pipe in the maintenance corridor, but that’s all covered.’

Steve clamped his hand over Francois’s wrist. ‘Ask him what they’re doing around the vent?’

‘What do they do around the steam vent?’

‘Hang on. Whoa! He’s gone. They dumped a couple of backpacks in the pipe and one of ‘em got in, but he just got boiled. The rest are running, probably gonna write a last letter home.’

Steve pulled Francois’s wrist towards him. ‘Dee, you need to pull your men out of the transformer vault.’

Francois wrestled his grip, ‘
I
am the Commander, this is not your mission.’

Dee’s voice interjected the struggle, ‘Don’t worry Stevie, the man’s pastrami.’

‘Can you see him? Was he ejected?’

‘No, I expect he got jammed up with his pack.’

‘Or it’s an AH about to set off a thermonic.’

Steve continued to stare at the Francois’s MPS.

Dee’s despondency leaked out. ‘Oh no.’

15:32 SAT 04:11:2119

MP 14, Neuhame, Austria, Sector 2

The loading bay’s concrete floor rumbled beneath Dee’s boots, lights flickered, their intermittent bursts catching the dust falling from the roof trusses.

His leg throbbed, and icy self-doubt trickled into his stomach.
I’m gonna lose this.

He glanced down at the MCD screen; a billowing smoke cloud masked the Spotter’s overhead view of the north wall. Seconds earlier, an AH had exited the steam vent access. No human could run that fast.

Before it had reached the end of the maintenance corridor, PB 1’s north wall had erupted in a ground-quaking ball of fire, blasting out chunks of concrete that had churned the river into a froth of foaming plumes.

Dee wasn’t going to wait for the smoke to clear. His voice cut through the grating blare of alarms. ‘NETALL, alpha one. Hostile breach papa bravo one north. All units engage, out.’

He turned to the Lieutenant. ‘Take four men and cover our route out of this location.’ Foreboding drew his attention to the coil gun and its mountain of ammo drums. ‘Better disable the cutter before you go.’

Dee turned to face the remaining Defenders. This was probably their first combat duty, and from the looks on their faces they probably thought it was going to be their last.

‘Alright, lights on. Drones are in the transformer vault and we’re gonna kick ‘em out. Remember, we’ve got friendlies in there, so check your targets.’ He didn’t wait for a response. ‘Let’s go.’

He led the Defenders down a short flight of steps into the disused dispatch office. ‘Remove the lock.’

Leaving a fireteam in the assembly hall to cover the transformer vault’s south door, Dee led the remainder through the warehouse, blanking his mind to the seemingly endless racks of black Prefects.

He shoved through the double doors into the mustard corridor. Twenty metres ahead on the left stood the transformer vault’s east door. ‘Fire position delta.’

The two fireteams of his twelve-man squad moved forward and crouched along both walls.

Dee tapped the shoulder plate of a Defender who wore the sleeve insignia of a combat engineer. ‘Get ready to remove the door.’

‘Yes, sir.’

Dee raised his MPS, ‘NETALL, alpha one. Mission command. Attack hostiles in transformer vault. Alpha two enter door south, alpha one door east. Doors removed. Warning, hostile AHs. Strike in seconds sixty. Switch to LOCNET, out.’ He reached behind and touched the hilt of the
Silencer
. ‘Prep the door.’

The engineer raced forward, spooled out a flexible strip, and formed it around the doorframe. She returned to position and waited for Dee’s nod.

‘Firing!’

The corridor exploded in a deafening boom, a light above the doorway shattered and the ceiling panels buckled in the overpressure.

With his ears still ringing, Dee lurched into the ashen cloud. ‘Go!’

He was the second person to pass through the charred doorway; the first writhed on the floor. Dee sprinted left, took aim and fired. A pair of black coveralls staggered out from behind one of the central pillars, their upper torso engulfed in screaming flames.

Dee barged into the throbbing transformer housing and looked back through a smoky haze. Defenders streamed through the doorway, their automatic rifles filling the vault with a demonic clatter.

Beyond the central aisle and the twisted steam vent pipe, lumps of concrete hung from strands of reinforcement around the jagged edge of a truck-size hole in the North wall.

Breathless shouts in his earpiece yanked Dee back, ‘Sparky on your left look out!’ Some voices were less shrill, ‘Keep right, keep right, cover that opening. Move, move.’

It only takes a few seconds to determine the outcome of a firefight and Dee knew they’d already lost this one.

Ahead, two Defenders crouched behind one of central aisle’s thick columns, their rifles chattering yellow fire. The black coveralls striding towards them was an AH, ripped fabric exposed flaps of polymer skin and dull composite plating. Dee fired.

The plasma ball dissipated and the smouldering AH continued on its course. A Defender stood, took aim, and fired a volley of shots into its head. Sparks pinged, the AH’s metal composite skull shuddered, but its stride remained unchanged.