Skybreach (The Reach #3) (43 page)

“So we send Holger, Morgan, and Lazarus on the first trip,” Silvestri said.  “Our best fighters.  Aksel will also need to go to assist with any security systems they might encounter.  That leaves one seat.”

“What about you?” Knile said to him.  “You’re trained for combat.”

“No,” Silvestri said quickly.  He seemed to shoot a
quick
glance at Talia.  “I’m needed here.  If anyone, it should be you, Knile.”

“Me?  Why?”

“You’re adept at getting yourself out of tight situations, aren’t you?  You think on your feet.  They might need your ingenuity up there.  Besides, you’re the one who has a contact up in the habitat.  That could prove to be an invaluable advantage.”

“Now, wait a minute,” Knile said, “I told you that she’s not one hundred percent reliable.  We can’t put everything on her shoulders.  We can’t base the mission solely on her intel.”

“I didn’t say that.  I said that she might provide an advantage.”

Holger snorted.  “Or raise the alarm that we’re on our way up.”

“No,” Knile said.  “When I first contacted her, I agreed with Silvestri that I wouldn’t tell her anything about what we’re doing here.  She’s totally in the dark about Skybreach, and I don’t intend to change that.”

“Whatever it is you’re going to do,” Roman said, glancing back at the elevator, “make up your mind.  Time’s running out while we sit here arguing.”

“Hate to interrupt all of this bullshit,” Duran said disdainfully, stepping forward, “but I couldn’t care less about your plans.  It’s been real nice hanging out with you guys, but Zoe and I are done here.  We’re leaving.”

“Not unless you have a parachute, asshole,” Holger said.

“He’s right,” Silvestri said.  “There’s no safe passage right now.  You’re welcome to stand down by the elevator and see if whoever comes out will allow you to leave, but…”  He shrugged.  “Otherwise, you might want to load up and find some cover.”  He clapped his hands together and raised his voice.  “All right, let’s do this.  You have your assignments.  Get busy.”

Knile helped Morgan and Holger load up the luggage into the undamaged cargo bays, thankful that the security scanners embedded within were unable to report on the contents.  Normally they would have flagged the weapons as inappropriate for shipment, but with
the
EMP taking out comms, that wasn’t going to happen.  Together they stowed away several weapons cases and a few meagre personal belongings, including Aksel’s suitcase and a carry-on owned by Holger.

“Is that the lot?” Morgan said.

“Yep.  Travelling light,” Holger remarked as he dumped the last item in the compartment and pulled the hatch shut.  He twisted the handle and then locked it into place.  “As long as the eggheads have done their thing, we should be ready to get out of here.”

“You don’t know what you’re doing,” one of the technicians growled at them from where he lay bound nearby.  The older of the two, he seemed far less intimidated than his younger colleague.  “You don’t know what’s waiting for you up there.”

Holger stalked over to him and hunkered down before him.  “Oh, really?  Maybe I should start cutting off your fingers one by one until you tell me.”

“I wouldn’t have a damn thing to tell you,” the technician spat.  “I’ve never even seen the habitat. Always worked this end of the Wire.”

Holger shrugged.  “Then maybe I’ll do it anyway, just for fun.”

He reached out, an evil grin on his face, but was interrupted by a hoot from Yun nearby.

“It’s up!  It’s up!” he exclaimed, practically dancing before the console.  “I’ve got the first level of comms back online.  I can talk to the habitat.”

Silvestri came running over from where he’d been sorting through weapons, alarmed.

“For shit’s sake, don’t let them activate audio or visual,” Silvestri said.  “If they pick up that we’re not Consortium staff, they’ll shut us down.”

“I know, I know,” Yun said.  “I’m not completely stupid.  I’m communicating through text only on the backup comms.  Audio and video can be restored later.”

“Good,” Silvestri said.  “Tell them there was an attack on the Atrium that knocked out some of the monitoring systems here, but that we’re still ready to launch.”

Yun began tapping on the console.  “On it.”

“Aksel,” Silvestri said.  “We need those launch codes.”

Aksel glanced up from his holophone.  “Yeah, they’re right here.”

“Don’t do this,” the technician wailed from the floor.  “We’re all going to end up dead–”

“You talk again,” Holger said menacingly, “and I’m going to give you a one way trip off this roof.”

The technician shut his mouth but continued to glower at the intruders around him.  Yun conferred with Aksel as he continued to tap on the terminal, and then a few moments later he glanced back at Silvestri.

“Codes are good, but they want visual restored before giving the go-ahead.”

“Tell them we’re working on it and that we expect to have it back within two hours,” Silvestri said.  “In the meantime we’d like to get these VIPs started on their journey.”  He was about to turn away, then added, “Emphasise the VIP part.”

Knile followed Silvestri back down to where Talia and the others were preparing their defenses.  Night had fallen, and out past the edge of the platform, Link and the surrounding landscape was cloaked in darkness.  The bloated orb of the moon had appeared through the murk on the horizon, casting wan light across the landscape.

Knile paused for a second, suddenly realising the enormity of the moment. 
This was it.
  He was finally leaving Earth behind.  After all of the years of machinations, of suffering, after all of the attempts and the failures, this was where it all ended.

He was about to ascend into the heavens, and he was never coming back.

This wasn’t how he’d pictured it.  He’d imagined that, when the moment came, he would be exultant.  Satisfied.  And yet, as he stood there, he still felt uneasy.  Even after all they’d accomplished this day, he still knew that perhaps the greatest test was yet to come.

In some ways, he felt that he was just as far away from his dream now as he had been a month ago, a year ago.

“Hey,” Talia called out as she rushed past with a S
amsonite case hefted in one hand.  “Good luck up there.  Talk to you again soon.”

“Yeah,” he called back, lifting his hand to wave, but she had already turned her back on him.

Keeping things short and simple.  No theatrics.  Probably a good idea.

Knile looked around for Roman and spotted him climbing into the RECS that Knile himself had abandoned a short time before.  The door closed and the lights on the machine activated, and then it began to stomp away.  Knile called out and waved his hand to attract Roman’s attention, but there was no response.

Behind him, a loud groaning sound like the shifting of a gigantic set of gears made Knile turn toward the railcar.  A gust of warm air buffeted him like a sudden summer breeze sweeping across the rooftop, redolent of grease and rubber and scorched metal.

A sprinkling of white, green and blue orbs shimmered along the length of the railcar.

“It worked!” Yun cried, punching the air in ecstasy.  “They’ve given us the green light!”

Knile hurried forward to where Lazarus, Holger and Morgan were waiting.  Aksel and Yun left the console and joined them as they conferred in a tight circle.

“So that’s it?” Holger said over the din, his waist coat flapping about his legs.  “We can go?”

“Yeah.  Get in,” Yun said.  He held out a hand to wish the brawler farewell, but Holger merely turned away, fiddling with the guns he had stowed under his garments as he prepared to board.

Knile reached out and shook Yun’s hand.  “Thank you, Yun.  Keep us updated with what’s going on.”

Yun smiled.  “Will do.”

Knile glanced behind him, but Silvestri and the others were still busy with their preparations and had not turned to watch them leave.  Knile gripped his backpack and jogged forward, reaching the railcar in a few strides.  Nearby,
Aksel still fiddled
with his holophone.  Knile glanced skyward at the Wire itself, the column of alloy that disappeared into the infinite night.  From this perspective it seemed so flimsy, so insubstantial.  Not the kind of thing on which to hang all of one’s dreams.

Before them, the transparent egg-shaped windows of the passenger compartments spread apart, and Aksel slid the holophone into his pocket with a satisfied grin.

“Fuck yeah,” Holger said, stepping up and taking his place in the first compartment.  Morgan and Aksel followed in quick succession.

Knile turned to Lazarus, who had remained oddly quiet.  The Redman stared up into night sky for a moment, then met Knile’s stare.

“The heavens await,” he said simply.  Knile nodded, and the two of them seated themselves in the last remaining pods as the countdown to launch began.

39

Ursie placed her hands weakly on the Redman’s gloved fingers, attempting to pry them from her coat, but there was no point.  The Redman was monstrously strong, his hands like iron, and Ursie was nothing but a thin, gangly adolescent.

Without her psycher abilities, she had nothing to use against him.  There was no chance of escape.

“I’ve been wondering when you’d show your face again,” the Redman said, peering down at her as he scrutinised every part of her countenance
.  “Thought you might have escaped to the Outworlds.”

“Please, I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Ursie said as she attempted to worm away from him.

“You killed four people, left them with mush for brains.  That’s what I’m talking about.”

“No,” Ursie said, shaking her head.  “I didn’t kill them.  It was van Asch–”

“Who?”

“Jodocus van Asch.  He was trying to kidnap me.  He’s the one who killed them.”

“Oh, I see,” he said with mock thoughtfulness.  “And that’s why you went into hiding instead of seeking out the authorities.  Because you were the victim.”

“I didn’t think anyone would believe me.  I was scared.”

“You’re one of those psychers, aren’t you?” he said.  “One of those damn mind-rapers.  You get inside people’s heads.”  He tapped a finger on his temple.  “But you won’t get in here.  Not when I’ve been trained to keep monsters like you locked out.”

Ursie’s eyes darted to the Redman’s waist, where a short sword hung from his belt.  He carried no other weapons.  She fleetingly considered reaching for the sword, but knew that course of action would be futile.  Even if she did manage to wrestle it away from him, she doubted she would have the strength to penetrate the leather armour in which he was clad.

She was completely at his mercy.

For the first time in many years, Ursie felt utterly helpless.  Ever since she had been a small child, her psycher abilities had been there to protect her, allowing her to manipulate people as she required, to negotiate any pitfalls that might appear before her.  Now that they were gone, she was just a worthless street kid again, another defenseless wretch doomed to live out the rest of her days in the shadow of the strong.

Losing her abilities was not some inconvenience or minor setback; it was like losing the very thing that made her who she was, her defining trait.

Without it, she was nothing.

The Redman’s lips were moving, but she did not hear a word of what he said.  He gave her a shake, then began to drag her along the concourse, and Ursie stumbled and almost fell at the sudden shift in momentum.

She wasn’t sure where he was taking her, and right at that moment she didn’t care.

Her life as she knew it was over.  Looking back, she realised that it had been over since the moment van Asch had broken the thing in her mind that had made her special.  The week of agonising pain that had followed had been like some kind of hellish pupal stage, a rebirth, and she had emerged from the cocoon of Tobias’ room as a different creature, one that she no longer recognised as herself.

The Redman hauled her unceremoniously forward, and this time she did fall
.  She flailed at his arm for purchase.  Her hand slipped down beneath his glove.