Earthbound (The Reach, Book 1) (45 page)

The encryption sequence had been changed since Knile had been here last, but that didn’t hold him up for long.  A few alterations to his attack vector and he was through.  Once the lock was bypassed, he also connected remotely into the camera system and disabled that for good measure.

I love you.  Don’t leave me.

“That wasn’t her,” he told himself again as he pushed through the door.  “It wasn’t her, and she wasn’t talking to you.”

You have to go back.

“I’m not going back.”  He gritted his teeth and said it again, more forcefully this time.  “I’m
not
going back.”

The door clicked shut behind him and the whooshing of the fan blades was stifled, replaced immediately by the eerie thrum of the field generator.  Through the darkness Knile could make out the shape of the baffles, a collection of elongated walls that surrounded the field generator and which slanted off at acute angles, forming a kind of tall and seemingly impenetrable hedge maze before him.  These acted as an energy dispersal system, reducing the reach of the generator’s electromagnetic discharge.  Above these, blue-violet waves of light swam across the ceiling like turbulent ripples, a by
-
product of the energy produced by the generator itself.  It was beautiful in a way, Knile had thought the last time he had been here.  With all that had happened in the Atrium shortly after, he had almost forgotten about the phenomenon.

Knile began to step through the baffles, winding his way through the angular corridors within as the energy flux on the ceiling lit his way.

He checked his wristwatch, aware that he had to work fast.  Mottled iridescent hues swam across his arm in the shifting light, causing the pinpricks on the Skybreach tattoo to twinkle like a sea of stars.

Then he was through, and the light of the field generator hit him with such force that he winced and covered his eyes.  When he opened them again he saw the huge orb in front of him, an obsidian sphere as tall as two men, spinning laterally on its axis as curls o
f that blue-and-
violet energy wafted around it like strands of luminescent mist.  It was both beau
tiful and awe-inspiring, an artefact of technology that made him marvel at man’s potential to create.

They made things like this, but they couldn’t stop the Earth from dying.

Knile might have stayed just to look at the spectacle of the generator for longer had there not been other more pressing things on his mind.

He found the control terminal over by the wall and jacked into it with one of the cables he’d  brought in his backpack.  The terminal itself was air gapped so that it couldn’t be tampered with remotely.  There were no outside systems that connected with it whatsoever.  That was why he’d been forced to come here, into the room itself to access it locally.

Concentrate.  Don’t make the same mistake as last time.  The reverse has to happen for just a small window of time.

He knew where he’d gone wrong on that previous occasion.  He’d configured the field generator’s power input to increase too slowly.  Once it reached the required setting it had found an equilibrium, remaining at the critical state for far too long.  That was why the Stormgates had remained in a reversed position for almost half an hour.

This time he needed the power to spike instead of
having it climb gradually.  If he calibrated the inputs correctly, he could make the fields reverse for a much shorter duration, only about five seconds.  That would be perfect.

Still, he and Ursie would need to be ready when it happened or they’d miss out.

He checked his watch again.

Damn, where is the time going?  Only
thirty minutes left to get to the Wire.

He weighed up the timing.  He needed to balance the time it would take to get to the Stormgates, and then again to ascend the final elevator to the Wire.

Twenty
minutes to get to the Stormgates. 
Ten
to get to the Wire.  That should do it.

He set his watch to count down to the mark, then began to calibrate the field generator settings, performing some on-the-fly math as he did so.  He punched in the digits that he thought would be correct, then
, as he was about to leave, counted up the numbers in his head again.

No.  That’s only going to reverse the field for one, maybe two seconds.  If I lower–

There was a noise behind him, and a terrible thought came to him.

I didn’t lock the door behind me.  Too damn preoccupied with Mianda–

He turned and saw Alton Wilt coming at him like some nightmarish spectre, the light shifting across his face and causing his features to distort and churn grotesquely.  Knile reacted swiftly, turning his body and slipping his hand behind his back as he reached for the 9mm in his belt.

His fingers caught nothing but air.  The gun was gone.

Ursie fought against the exhaustion that was threatening to overwhelm her, pushing herself on even though her legs felt like rubber.  The soles of her feet and her ankles throbbed, and she felt as though they might give out any minute.  She wondered if she would even be able to get back up were she to fall.

Adrenaline had driven her through the Greenhouse, through Lux, even through some of the Plant Rooms.  Now even that had gone, packed its bags and headed to a more hospitable climate, somewhere far away from her.  She was running on empty now.  There was practically nothing left to give after this day and a half of mayhem that she had endured with Knile.

For the first time, she wondered if any of this was worth it.  Had she simply gotten herself in too deep?

No
, she thought, gritting her teeth.
I’m not ready to give up, not when I’m this close.  There’s a future waiting for me if I can just get out of here.

She turned again and saw another of those blank walls before her.  With dread, she knew that she was heading for a dead end, and worse – it was too late to turn around.  From the footsteps behind her it was clear that the bald man was almost upon her.

She kept going into the dead end, and as she rounded the corner her foot snagged on the edge of the platform and she went down in a heap.

Terrified, she struggled into a sitting position, reaching madly for her satchel.  She dug her hand inside it and touched the case.  Her future.

She was out of sight of the bald man, tucked away in a corner of the dead end.

Please go past.  Please.

She squeezed her eyes shut as she tried to tap into that last mote of strength stirring within her.  She concentrated her energy, tried to find focus.

Breathe.  In and out.  Come on, breathe.

The man was getting closer, just a few steps away now.  She had a terrible premonition that he’d seen where she’d gone.  She hadn’t fooled him at all.

She could picture his grinning face as he wove between the curves in the walkway, preparing to drag her back to Wilt or just slay her where she sat.

She readied herself for one last effort.

The kid wasn’t half as smart as she thought she was, Tucker figured.  She was tiring, that much was evident, but even at full strength she would not have outrun him.  Her many changes of direction hadn’t come close to shaking him off either.  This was easy meat, the kind of task that Tucker revelled in.

Tucker was enjoying this more than he should have.  He’d always been one to enjoy the pursuit more than the catch itself, the feeling of suspense before the final moment came, but something about this one was really stoking his fire.  Maybe it was the kid’s vulnerability, her seeming helplessness that made him feel so powerful, so vital.  The end result of this encounter was inevitable, and he knew that she must be feeling it as keenly as he was.

Tucker eased off his pace, savouring the final moments of the hunt.  There was time.  Plenty of time.  Once he’d finished with the kid he’d be able to return to his boss to complete the mission, his final task for Alton Wilt.  Then after today, Wilt would be gone.  Tucker would be elevated into his place.

After today, people would be calling Tucker the boss.  And Tucker liked the thought of that.

He had big plans, machinations that he had been dreaming up for years now.  As much as he respected Wilt, he knew there were ways he could make things better.  More efficient.  Many of Tucker’s plans had already been set in motion, surreptitiously carried out without the knowledge of Alton Wilt.  The angles that Wilt was using, the creds he was bringing in – that was child’s play compared to what Tucker was going to do.  He’d turn Link upside down, and eventually the Reach as well, and make every inch of this place his own.

Tucker would make Alton Wilt look like an amateur.

He had it all ahead of him.

But right now, he was going to enjoy dealing with this kid.  He was going
to draw it out for as long as he liked, make her wait until he was ready.

Tucker pulled the .45 from its holster and racked the slide.  The sharp sound of it cut through the background noise like a knife.

He hoped the kid heard the sound and recognised what it was.  He hoped she knew what was coming.

The kid turned into a narrow ramp that led to a blank wall, and then Tucker saw her head to the right and stumble.  She disappeared from view.

Don’t worry, kid.  Not long now.

He stopped and waited, holding back to see if she emerged from the other side of the conduit.  She did not.

Tucker walked slowly, letting his boots thump against the steel beneath his feet.  He faced the blank wall and stopped, taking a deep breath.  He listened for movement, but there was nothing to hear.

Sounds like she’s given up.

He started to walk again, edging to the left so that he could see where she had disappeared.  It looked like a dead end.  No wonder she wasn’t going anywhere.

Okay, enough.  Time to end this.

With a sharp movement, Tucker rounded the corner and brought up the .45.

There was nothing there.  Just a control panel, the walkway, and empty space.

“Hey!” came the kid’s voice.

Tucker turned to see her slumped against another panel on the floor behind him, pointing a 9mm right at his chest.

She narrowed her eyes.  “Surprise, fucker.”

Tucker had time to wonder how on earth she’d managed to double back around without him seeing her, and then the gun boomed.