Dyson's Drop (27 page)

An idea was forming. The plankton was small, all right, but maybe there was something smaller.

She turned back to the meteor, degaussing it, then sweeping it with a deflector field. ‘I’ve removed the last traces of the radiation. Just in case Brown comes this way.’

‘You can do that?’

‘Only where it exists m trace amounts. Okay. Time to go.’

Just then, the clear plastisteel ceiling above them exploded into fragments and a dozen figures dropped down from the sky on rappeller fields.

Brown had arrived.

BLACK and his attack group hit the ground, rolling. Land, roll and fire. Oddly enough, they weren’t getting any takedowns. Anneke must have enhanced the shields of the locals. How thoughtful of her.

‘Rotate harmonics!’ he yelled.

Anneke had, of course, anticipated this and pulled her crew back behind the great lump of sky rock, covering a nice exit. It occurred to Black he’d been precipitous in bursting in like this, but once in a while you needed to do something dramatic.

A pulse beam winged him. His shield crackled into life, absorbing the lethal energy and storing it in the shield batteries to be reused later. In return, he blew off a chunk of meteor to fall squarely on the leg of the man who shot at him. Not very sophisticated, but effective. It would slow down Anneke’s retreat. Anneke would never leave a wounded comrade for the enemy to take. It just wasn’t done in some quarters.

The air filled with hissing pulse beams, the stink of reeker fire, and the shouts of fighting men and women, some wounded.

Fenster, a short squat man, surprisingly fast on his feet, sidled up to Black while keeping his head down. He had replaced Riktar as head of Black’s security detail.

‘She’s getting them out the back exit. You want me to take a squad and cut her off?’

Before Black could answer they heard sirens and whistles in the distance. The Kantorian police were coming. They wouldn’t be pleased with Black since not only had he broken out of their prison, he had practically razed the place - and a number of KSP operatives - to the ground.

There was a point being made here - and that was that
noboqy
locked up Maximus Black and got away with it. A life lesson everyone should learn.

‘On second thought,’ said Black, ‘why don’t we retreat. Have you scanned the meteor?’

Fenster nodded. ‘Reddick took care of that. Got a sample as well. Or it got him. Shrapnel. Embedded in his leg.’

‘Now that’s dedication. Okay. We’re done here.’ As the police poured in through the main entrance,

Black’s people rappelled out vertically, returning the way they had arrived.

Black had what he needed. Doubly so, since he still did not want Anneke Longshadow dead. He might yet need her.

They pulled back to a safe house, which the Envoy, during one of his disappearances, had set up at cost. Inside, two techies were busy finishing a simple jump-gate.

Black sent Reddick, who was limping slightly, up to his flagship with the samples and the readouts from the meteor. Then the jump-gate was recalibrated and the Envoy, after a shielded conference with Black, also departed.

Then Black sat down to wait.

Reports came in, hacked from the Kantorian Security Services hub, showing the city being turned upside down by the KSP and the local cops in the frenzied hunt for Black and his accomplice, Anneke Longshadow. Black had wondered how long it would take for Roag to jump to that conclusion.

He sighed. The man was too predictable.

Indeed, from the start of the ‘tour’ Black had Roag bugged with a nano-worm, undetectable by Kantorian technology. This worm had revealed the ambassador’s hurried meeting with the head of the KSP, Hod. Roag reported on the existence of a weapon that could destroy organisms, but leave physical structures unharmed. He also reported that Black’s ‘delegation’ was a highly trained assault group.

‘Spies. As we expected,’ Hod was saying. ‘You have them contained?’ He was an unsavoury man with unpleasant appetites.

‘They’re in the Edossa.’ h, yes. The prison that looks like a five-star hotel. Very good,’ Hod sniggered. ‘We will start interrogations in the morning.’ nd the rumours? They’re true?’ bout RIM? Yes. Rench is gone. Ousted. The entire network appears to have collapsed. The Kantorian Chancellor has decided it is time Kanto assumed its rightful place among the star systems. Already, an attack on Thrain is en route. We have instructed our people stationed in nearby systems to begin agitating. Big changes are coming, my friend. Big changes, indeed.’

Bigger than you think, you fools,
Black thought, when he heard this exchange.

While Black ate, he considered the situation. He had broken the coded message from Josh to Anneke, and, like her, now had the clue. Local interrogations had revealed that the meteor in the Trade Commission was known as the Needle.

But Maximus still did not know the meaning of the riddle, even though it seemed to be right under his nose.
Has Anneke worked it out?
he wondered.

‘Has Reddick reported back yet?’

Fenster shook his head. Putting his hand to his ear, he listened. ‘Wait a minute. It’s coming in now,’ he said. ‘I’ll transfer it to your e-pad.’

Black flipped open the e-pad, waited for the message to arrive, then opened it. It contained several pages of analysis, which he read meticulously. When he had finished he stared into the distance.

The meteor’s magnetic field had been degaussed. Anneke had used the field to neutralise a trace signature. But what? There were many possibilities. The Needles, where the meteor had been found, were known for their disruptive
n-space
radiation.

Okay. So the meteor had a lingering trace of
n-space,
which would fit the ‘smaller than small’ reference. But what of the rest of it?

He needed another local. And not just anyone. Someone learned, with a broad knowledge of Kantoris.

Someone like Ambassador Roag.

He called for reinforcements. Two squads, armed and armoured, came through the jump-gate in single file. He called them together.

‘Okay. Fenster, you go after Roag. If you can’t take him, grab someone who fits his profile. The rest of us will track Anneke Longshadow. Our orbital scans show three blind spots, two of those look natural. Okay, people. Let’s get moving!’

Black found his own ongoing indecision irritating.

On the one hand he needed Anneke alive. On the other, he could ill afford her constant harassment. She was his most challenging adversary and she managed to find help no matter where she was. How she had managed to surround herself with operatives willing to lose their lives for her, was beyond his understanding. No, he had to put her down once and for all and hang the consequences. Whatever that meant.

Unable to move freely above ground, Black used the orbital scans - plus some judicious hacking of the Qule Municipal Board’s computers - to construct a detailed map of all underground routes around the city, including sewers, stormwater drains, maintenance shafts, subway tunnels, linked basements, subterranean market precincts - used in Kanto’s ferocious winters - and even an ancient system of catacombs.

Black’s troops moved out, splitting up a kilometre from the safe house. Fenster’s team headed north while Black’s continued due east, towards the likeliest blind spot. Two hours later they reached the outskirts of the area.

To Black’s disappointment, it proved to be a false positive. But he had some good news. Fenster had located Roag at his family home and was having a quiet chat with the ambassador. He would report in as soon as he was done.

‘Give my regards to him,’ said Black.

‘I think I’m demonstrating that regard effectively, s1.r. ‘

Black led his team south to the second blind spot. As they neared it, his scanners picked up fragments of encrypted chatter with a RIM signature.

Deploying his troops for a surprise assault, he sent

Reddick, returned from orbit, and a female operative ahead to place charges.

They returned minutes later and gave Black the thumbs up.

Black did not give the signal to advance immediately. An urgent message from Fenster came in. Black listened intently and signed off.

Interesting. He couldn’t be sure, but he had an idea where the second set of lost coordinates might be found. And if he was right, it was an ingenious hiding place.

He gave the signal to proceed.

His team moved into the positions marked on the 3D scan of Anneke’s hidey-hole and blew the charges. A series of sharp cracks ricocheted through the tunnels. The air filled with smoke reeking of chemicals. People shouted and pulse beams sliced the air.

Black slid his infrared eyepiece into position and advanced at a run.

Straightaway, a figure loomed in front of him. Black’s shield took a sizzling hit, making him stumble. He recovered and returned fire. The attacker took one in the shoulder, spun backwards and dropped. Black leapt over him and kept going.

Then it was blades, fists and feet.

Black dropped two defenders but realised Anneke was pulling her troops out again. Indeed, the place seemed undermanned, which meant only one thing.

She’d been expecting him.

In which case -

Suddenly he was caught in an immobiliser field, unable to move. He cursed. He’d once got his foot stuck in such a field, designed for rodents. No doubt Anneke would find that appropriate.

Fortunately, the field was dispersed over a large area. Black found he still had a small degree of movement. He spoke rapidly into his intercom, sending orders. He activated a field to try to even marginally increase his range of motion.

It didn’t. Damn.

He tried another approach. It also failed. Black was sweating. Standing there, he was, despite the smoke, a sitting duck. Then he had an idea. Actually, it was Anneke’s idea.

He lock-synched his main deflector field with four of his team’s, removed the safety protocol, and pushed it to maximum. If he could blow the field over a large area, the collapsing harmonics would destabilise the immobiliser bond. In theory.

All he could do now was wait for his opportunity.

Two minutes was all he needed.

But it didn’t look like he would get them. Suddenly Anneke was standing in front of him, blaster aimed at his head.

‘This isn’t the morgue,’ Black quipped.

‘I can fix that,’ said Anneke.

‘You were expecting us.’ Where were his men when he needed them? He needed to stall for time. Hopefully she wouldn’t check her field readouts otherwise she would see what he was doing.

‘Naturally. This was a dummy blind spot. We figured it would draw you here.’

‘How clever of you.’

‘Seems you’ve been one step behind me all the way this time, Nathaniel.’

‘Oh, I wouldn’t say that.’

‘You haven’t figured out the final clue, have you?’

‘Maybe you shouldn’t have degaussed the meteor. Bit of a giveaway.’

‘Didn’t have much choice. But that doesn’t mean you know where the coordinates are.’

‘And you do?’

Anneke nodded. Her finger crossed the firing stud of the blaster. Black stopped himself from making another jibe. Anneke was so wired she might shoot him, immobilised or not. He needed seconds more.

‘I guess we’re looking for something
microscopic.’

She started. He was right. He knew where the lost coordinates were!

‘Pity Uncle Viktus isn’t here to congratulate you.’ Anneke visibly took control of herself ‘I wouldn’t go there if I were you . . .’ she hissed.

‘Why? Did he beg for mercy? Well, wait till I get the rest of your family. Wait till I get my hands on Deema ...’

That did it.

The blaster in Anneke’s hand seemingly went off of its own accord. The pulse hit Black’s shield and did what he hoped it would, overloading the maxed out overlapping harmonics.

The whole field collapsed, giving off heat and a blinding flash of light. But unlike Anneke he’d been expecting it.

Now he was free.

He whipped up his handgun, saw Anneke’s dazzled eyes widen, took careful aim, and fired.

But as he did, a fist-sized chunk of concrete came out of nowhere, knocking Black’s gun from his hand, deflecting the shot.

A boy’s voice called out. ‘Anneke!’

Smoke swirled about Black. When it had cleared, Anneke Longshadow was gone, with those of her crew still able to walk, stumble or lurch.

Momentarily disoriented, Black swung about, aiming his handgun at anything that moved.

Finally, he let his hand drop. At least he knew the location of the lost coordinates. The next step in his grand plan could proceed.

He called his troops together, collected the wounded, despatched those beyond help, and headed back to the safe house.

As Black made his way there, General Hod, head of the security services, earned his high salary. By capturing Nathaniel Brown.

The trap was supremely simple, the timing perfect.

Black was so focused on recent events that he and his troops walked right into the ambush.

Fenster had detected a moving blind spot paralleling their position.