Sunspire (The Reach, Book 4) (27 page)

Their efforts had not escaped Roman’s notice, either.  “Nice job back there,” he’d said afterward.  “Are you two ex-Enforcers or something?”

Norrey had seemed amused by the comment.  “No.  Just a couple of relics from a long-forgotten army.”

Talia had begun to think that maybe they’d caught a break by ending up in the care of Norrey and Kolos.  She wasn’t sure how she and Roman would have negotiated the lowlands alone.

As they continued on and the hours ticked by, more features of their destination had become visible.  The mountain itself was like an extension of the lowlands, bare apart from a scattering of dead trees, and on its northern end jutted a craggy granite cliff face streaked in vertical lines of black and grey.  Talia thought she could see a strip of dirt winding its way around the base that may have been a road.  At the mountain’s peak she could now see something tall and slender rising up into the murky heavens above – the space elevator.

“Well, at least we know where to go,” Roman murmured at her side, his eyes also transfixed by the mountain peak.

“And that the elevator hasn’t fallen apart.  Yet.”

The remnants of a broken highway emerged from the sand before them, heading due east like a guiding light for the weary travellers.  They followed it, making their way past burnt out structures and more ruins that might have been gas stations or even the last vestiges of towns that had once lined the highway.

As they neared the base of the mountain, Talia was startled to hear her holophone ring.  She took it from her pocket.

“Hello?” she said uncertainly.

“Talia.”
  Knile’s voice.

“Knile, thank god
,” she said, her relief immense.  After the events of the past twenty-four hours, hearing that he was still alive was like a gift from the heavens.

“You can hear me?”

“Yes, finally.”

“You must have gotten close enough to a decent relay for the transmission to go through.  Probably just caught a lucky break.”

“Yeah.”  Up ahead, Norrey and Kolos stopped and turned to look at her.  “What’s been happening up there?  Have you been hearing anything I’ve been sending you?”

“Bits and pieces.  I gathered that you got in touch with the cruiser captain, and that he’s on his way.”

“Ngozi.  Yes, he’s on his way.  But we don’t have much more than half a day before he docks.  We’re running out of time.”

“How close are you to Sunspire?”

“We’re almost there.  Hopefully we can be at the top in a few hours.”

“That’s good.”

“What about you?  Are you there yet?”

“Closing in.  We should be there within the hour.  How’s Roman and the others?”

Talia took a shaky breath.  “Roman’s fine.  But we’ve had some bad shit go down since we left the Reach.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Yun had some sort of personal crisis, said he couldn’t go through with it.  He left before we got on the dirigible.  Later, I had to put the dirigible down in the lowlands.  It was the last one Bagley had, and it was in pretty bad shape.  There were raiders on our tail, so we hid in some ruins, but…”

She could feel tears in her eyes once again.

“What happened, Talia?”

“The raiders found us.  Silvestri was shot before we could escape.  He didn’t make it.”

There was silence for a few moments, then Knile muttered,
“Goddammit.  I’m sorry, Talia.”

“Yeah.  Like I said, some bad shit.”

“So you and Roman are out there alone?”

Norrey and Kolos were out of earshot, examining a gadget of some kind that Norrey had pulled from his coat
.  She turned her back on them and lowered her voice.  “No.  We had to make a deal with some mercenaries to get a ride on the last dirigible.  They were heading east, like us.  They agreed to help us across the lowlands.”

Another pause. 
“Can you trust them?”

“I think so.  They’ve helped to keep the raiders at bay.”

“Well, I’ll leave it to your judgement.  You know how to handle yourself.”

“Yeah, it’s under control.”

“So, I don’t know how long this relay will hold out.  For all we know, we might not be able to contact each other when you reach the top of Sunspire Mountain.”

“So what do we do?”

“I don’t know exactly, yet.  Not until I’ve had a look at things from this end.  At the very least, you should try to bring the systems down there online.  We can hopefully work it out from there.”

“But I’m not an expert in this stuff, Knile.  I don’t know how a damn space elevator works.”

“You don’t have to.  Just get power to the place if you can.  I’ll work out the rest.”

She pursed her lips.  “Why do I get the impression you’re just making this up as you go along?”

“Who?  Me?”

“Yeah, you.”

He began to say something in response, but then stopped. 
“Uh, I might have to call you back later.  Looks like we’re almost there.”

Talia craned her neck and looked up into the afternoon sky, wondering where Knile might be up there, but there was nothing to see but unending layers of toxic clouds.

“Okay.  Keep in touch.”

“Will do.  Good luck.”

She hung up, then breathed another sigh of relief, wiping the moisture from the corners of her eyes.

“Good news?” Norrey said, placing the gadget back in his coat.

“As good as it gets, I suppose.”

Norrey nodded.  “Glad to hear it.”

They continued on, and a short time later came to a crossroads at the base of the mountain.  An old man appeared on the road from the north, haggard and smeared with grime, hauling a cart loaded with what appeared to be blackened rocks behind him.  Toothless and pockmarked, he seemed as colourless and drab as the dirt on which he shuffled; a decrepit personification of the land itself.  As they neared, the old man slowed to a halt, then stood waiting for them in the centre of the crossroads.

“You don’t look like no raiders,” he commented in a nasally voice.

“We’re not,” Norrey said.  “Just travellers making our way.”

“Then you’d have no cause to kill me and take what’s mine,” the old man said.

“We’re not here to kill you, old timer,” Talia said.

“And we don’t want your rocks, either,” Roman added.

The old man glanced back at his cart.  “These ain’t rocks, you blind fool.  These
here be burnin’ stones.”

“Burni
ng stones?” Talia said.  “What’re they
?”

“Stones that hold a flame.  Dug ‘em out of the cave up there on the ridge myself,” he said, waving vaguely to the north.  “Takin’ ’em with me on my way home.  Keeps me and mine warm in the cold of night.”

“Do the raiders give you any trouble out here?” Kolos said.

“Me?  What would they want with me?  I ain’t nothin’ to nobody.”  He glanced about the group.  “And what of you?  Where you headed, if you ain’t come to kill me?”

“We’re going up the mountain,” Talia said.  She gestured behind the old man, where a sagging chain-link fence topped with barbed wire seemed to encircle the mountain.  “Is that the road to the top?”

The old man turned and waved to where the vague outline of the road disappeared up the mountainside.

“It’ll take you there, sure thing.”  He turned back to them and regarded them solemnly with his watery eyes.  “But you don’t wanna go up there.”

“Why not?” Talia said.

“Haunted,” the man grunted.

Norrey arched his eyebrow doubtfully.  “What do you mean by that?”

“I mean just what I say.  The damn place is haunted.  You’d be best to stay away.”

“There’s no such thing as ghosts,” Roman said.

“Believe what you want, kid,” the old man said.  “No one goes that way.  Not anymore.”

“Well, thanks for the warning,” Talia said, “but we have to keep moving.”

“Do what you gotta do,” the old man said, tugging on his cart as he began to shuffle off again.  He offered no farewell, heading west along the road in his shambling gait, and soon he became indistinguishable from the land around him once more.

“A cheery fellow,” Kolos remarked.

“What do you think he meant?” Roman said.  “What’s with the haunted stuff?”

“Superstitions,” Talia said.  “The folk out here aren’t the most educated types.  You can’t blame them for believing in spirits and the afterlife.”

Talia saw something flash across Norrey’s face – indignation?  However, it was gone so quickly that she couldn’t tell if she’d imagined it or not.  Then he smiled and nodded.

“Foolishness.”  He glanced around.  “Shall we continue?”

They reached the fence around the base of Sunspire Mountain a minute or two later, and the old man’s words suddenly seemed more ominous than before.  Hand-painted signs had been thrust into the ground around the gate, stating various warnings with the same general theme: “Keep out”, “No t
respassing”
.  There was also a ghoulish assortment of sun-bleached skeletons that had been strung up on the barbed wire – some human, some animal.

“Are those real?” Roman said.

Talia didn’t answer right away.  “It doesn’t matter,” she said eventually.  “We have to go up there anyway.”

“Can I ask,” Norrey said politely, “what is your business in this place?  Surely there are better places to run to.”

“We’re meeting friends here,” Talia said.  “Up on the mountain.”

“Strange place for a rendezvous,” Kolos said.

She shrugged, offering no explanation.  “Yeah.”  She held out her hand.  “I guess this is where we part.”

Norrey took it and shook it warmly.  “Are you certain about this?”

“Yes, thank you.  You’ve done so much for us already.”

Norrey glanced worriedly at Kolos.  “I don’t feel as though we’ve repaid our debt to you.  Not until we’ve seen you safely delivered to your companions.”

“This place doesn’t seem safe,” Kolos agreed.

Although Talia was appreciative of their concern, she felt it was probably time to part ways with the bodyguards.  She wasn’t sure how they would react if they found out she and Roman intended to travel off-world.  It could cause complications if they were to react badly to the revelation.

Better to part ways now and continue on without them.

“Thanks,” she said, “but–”

“No, I won’t hear of it,” Norrey said, striding toward the gate.  He pushed a broken section aside and held it open for them.  “We’ll make sure you reach your destination.  Then our debt will be repaid.”

Talia was about to argue, but realised she wasn’t going to get anywhere.  Norrey was adamant about this; she could see it in his face.  It would be easier to simply let them fulfil their sense of obligation than to stand here arguing about it.

“All right,” she said wearily.  “Let’s go.”

She wrapped an arm around Roman’s shoulder, and together they stepped through the gate and began the ascent along the road that led up to the peak of the mountain.

33

Knile eased the acceleration of the handcar and their momentum began to slow.

Not far ahead was a door unlike any they had seen in the Skywalk so far.

“Is that it?” Ursie said breathlessly as she made her way forward to stand next to him.  “Is that Sunspire?”

“I don’t know,” he said.  “But we’re about to find out.”

They came to a halt not far from the door and dismounted, then stood staring up at it.  Unlike the previous doors, which had been comprised of grey and silver interlocking panels, this one was a striking, deep orange colour, like a tropical sunset.  It also appeared to be one solid piece of steel, accentuated by a series of grooves and notches that might have served no purpose other than decoration.

“Fancy,” Ursie said.

“Looks like the access panel is
over here,” Tobias said, wandering over to a console on the wall.  He tapped a button and the terminal began to glow.  “Well, that’s somethin’ at least.”  He took out his swipe card and badged the sensor, but the console turned red and the door remained firmly in place.  “Ah, bugger.  Worth a try.”

Knile took out his holophone and a cable from his backpack.  “Give me a shot.”  He gave the old man a quirky grin.  “I’ve opened a few doors in my time.  Why not one last time?”

Knile connected up his gear, and Tobias loomed over his shoulder sceptically.  “You might’ve opened a few doors down where you’re from, but this here’s a whole new kettle of fish.  You can’t just walk in here and–”

The orange door made a creaking sound and then began to rise slowly.  “Done,” Knile said nonchalantly.  “Same operating system as half the doors in the Reach.  Same exploit.”