Ragnarok (43 page)

“Then cut her from the teams, but do
not
kill her. I love her.”

“If this situation arose under my predecessors, the solution would be very simple. You would have to kill her to stay alive yourself.”

“You're not your predecessors.”

“I wonder sometimes if I should be.” He headed for the door. As soon as he turned, the Tikari flew to Vibs and deposited the book in her hand.

“You won't,” she said. “Let her go. She can leave the ravine if she has to, but I won't let you kill her.”

Balder turned back and spoke brusquely. “Then let me offer another deal, one more to the point. Veikko must die. The Geki have—
has
demanded it. There is no question nor debate. Kill him or convince
him to return and be executed, and Violet may leave the ravine
quietly.”

“And if I want to leave with her?”

“After this grotesque emotional display, we won't miss you.”

Vibeke didn't feel the least bit hurt. She linked out on high encryption to Veikko.

“Have book. They demand I kill you or you return to face
execution. We can't count on Niide to make a fake, but we can fake your death at my hands easily enough.”

“Negative, I've anticipated this. Tell Balder I'll return to Valhalla.”

“Veikko, I'm not asking you to sacrifice yourself.”

“There's no sacrifice, Vibs. I have no intention of dying. Tell him I'll be there in two hours.”

Veikko logged out of the communication. Vibeke didn't know what he had planned, but she had to take the chance. Veikko could take care of himself. And soon, she and Violet would be free agents, together out of the ravine. She'd miss it, she thought, but this was the only way.

Alopex spoke. “Wolf Gang approaching Kvitøya, ETA 170 minutes.”

Balder linked in and spoke over the system to the entire ravine.

“Middle teams to defensive positions. Nonessential civilians and junior teams to depart the region, rampart to close in thirty seconds.”

Vibeke was confused at his orders. “Since when has Valhalla evacuated because of a threat?”

“Never. Civilians evacuate. Valkyries fight. Half of us are going topside to deal with the assault. Half of us will destroy Wulfgar's base while Alf kills him.”

Balder walked away, and the earth shook. A deafening grinding noise began to sound. The rampart was moving into position. Vibeke ran for the pogo pad and climbed in, then flew straight out as the rampart closed.

 

 

“T
HAT
SETTLES
it, then,” said Veikko. “I'll take the north road, and you'll take the south road, and you'll get to Scotland before me.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Stay alive. Destroy the Ares. Maybe get some Thai food.”

“But how?”

“At a Thai restaurant, Vibs, do I have to explain everything?”

“Veikko, what—”

“Don't worry. I'll be fine. Just get to the safe house, and I'll resolve the situation. Situations. Take the Wolf pogo. I'll steal something nice for myself.”

“Veikko, you need to tell us what you're planning.”

“Maybe a Hyundai if I can find one.”

“Vei—”

“Shhh. Trust me, there's a method to my madness. Wait for me with the Frasers.”

“What about this book? Why do we need Alf's old intel?”

“Did you look through it?”

“Briefly, his handwriting's not the best.”

“Just hold on to it for now. I'll let you know if we need it.”

“Veikko, you've never in two years not informed us of every detail of an operation.”

“I didn't tell you about my hangnail on project Thanatos.”

“Veikko, what's going on?”

“I'm solving the problem, Vibs. Trust me. There's a reason for everything.”

Veikko stood and bowed, then jogged out of the restaurant. Violet and Vibeke looked to each other. They didn't bother to link. They were both thinking the same thing. Veikko seemed to know what he was doing, but it was completely unlike him, unlike any Valkyrie to leave his teammates out of the loop. He was planning something unusual, irrational.

They had to trust him. That's all there was to it. They stood and headed for the Wolf pogo, still silent. Vibeke started it up and set it for Arcolochalsh. Violet felt nothing at the thought. It was a tactical decision devoid of sentimentality. It had to be done.

Because they were going to kill her if she returned. Everything had changed in an instant. She had lost the ravine by punching Vibeke and gained Vibeke by—something she didn't fully understand. Mishka was dead, but Violet couldn't comprehend how that changed matters, or even if it was what did. She grew concerned that Vibeke's love for her might be as impermanent as the prior rejection of it. They boarded the pogo and set course.

She tried to tell herself it was different now, that it had changed forever. She had an instinct to enjoy it while she still could.

“Wanna make out?”

“I'm worried about Veikko.”

“Me too. Wanna make out?”

“Not right now, Vi.”

“'K, how about now?”

“You have fewer settings than Wulfgar's copy of you.”

“It's a long trip, Vibs.”

“It's a long life, Violet. We have plenty of time.”

“Yes, and we should spend it kissing.”

“We'll have to make a living.”

“We should apply as orbitliner attendants. Spend the rest of our lives alone in zero-g.”

“I was thinking assassins.”

“We did just kill the competition.”

Vibeke sighed in relief. Mishka was gone. Probably. Vibs had tried not to let herself gauge the actual odds again. Part of her said Mishka was unquestionably still alive. If you don't see a Valkyrie's liquified brain, they're still alive. But Mishka wasn't a Valkyrie anymore. No more Dr. Niide. No more friends to save her. She had to have died.

Violet looked over Vibeke. For the first time she was thinking of Mishka and smiling. She shifted around to behind Vibeke's seat and put her arms around her, hanging them in front of her chest.

“I've wanted you so long I don't know what to do now that I've got you.”

“I don't know what couples do either. I think we're supposed to, like, have dinner together and talk about… stuff.”

“Well, we've done that for two years.”

Vibeke took one of Violet's hands and kissed the back of it. She didn't put it down, but kissed it again and held it on her lips.

“Two more hours to Kyle,” said Violet.

“Talk to me. Tell me everything,” Vibeke replied.

“About what?”

“Everything,” she said.

 

 

V
EIKKO
USED
an emergency link carrier to call the police. They arrived within minutes. Two officers, one pogo. They found Veikko lying on the cold ground.

“Sir, are you awake?” asked the first officer.

The second approached him and prodded his body. He didn't move. One readied his scanner to take a pulse. Veikko sprang into action and attacked both simultaneously. He knocked both out within the first second of his attack, then continued to break both their necks. He piled them into the back of their pogo, alive but paralyzed. Just in case he needed them.

He flew north and examined the police sensor array. It wasn't too shabby, standard collision avoidance and terrain survey equipment, but also a long-range com landscape tool and high-end defensive arrays. He set the longest scope to observe the ravine.

 

 

C
ATO
WAS
busily hacking the GAUNE meteorological database. If the weather was going to be bad in Maynila, GAUNE's conglomerate, Graco would delay their attempt to take over UNEGA's conglomerate, SM Prime Holdings. Then Cassandra would have time to hack in and crash their stock, making GAUNE give up its Maynila operations altogether, operations they'd never have started if the UNEGA monitor junction in Poprad hadn't been evacuated due to a nuclear event.

“Veikko,” he muttered under his breath. All of Valknut. The upstart team had been a nuisance since Udachnaya and this, this was the last straw. If the Geki didn't kill Veikko, Cato would. If Violet returned, he'd be first in line to end her, for ever touching her teammate. With some luck Vibeke would turn civilian, and Varg would stick with the PRA. There was some dim hope of ending the accursed team forever.

With all that was about to happen, V team had to detonate the first nuclear blast to grace the globe in 200 years. How did the damn Geki not kill them all in that instant? As far as Cato was concerned, they deserved what they got at Veikko's hand. They'd gone soft. Everyone was going soft. Everyone but Cato.

Cato was about to do for the ravine what Balder never could, what Alf never would. He logged out of GAUNE but didn't return to Alopex. He stayed offline. That would be critical.

Cato crossed his arms and leaned against the rock wall. Truly he was above and beyond any other Valkyrie. He had more guts, more vision. Or so he thought. That's why he never saw Veikko coming.

 

 

T
HE
F
RASERS
door was lit. They were home. Violet knocked.

Mrs. Fraser fainted as soon as she looked. Mr. Fraser stared at the video-door for a full five seconds before he understood why. He opened the door and let the undead in. He didn't even ask her companion to explain. He tended to his wife first. As she came to, the duo explained a standard Valhalla contingency tale to spin when encountering someone known previously.

“They had to make the Wolf—the Orange Gang think I was dead, or they'd have pursued me till I was. They gave me some work with—”

“No need to explain, lassie. I'm so happy to see yeh, yeh could tell me you were brought back t' earth by the devil himself, and you'd be welcome in these walls, and I migh' buy the old man a drink for havin' brought yeh.”

“Another friend may be joining us soon,” said Violet, suddenly worried he might not.

Vibeke picked up on it too, “may be.” There was every reason to think he'd lied, that he intended to die to get them free and clear of the ravine. And every reason to think he did have a plan, something brilliant. Or at least audacious.

They observed the niceties and then retired to a guest bedroom.

“What do you think he's going to do?” asked Violet.

Vibeke only cringed.

 

 

T
HE
W
OLVES
appeared on the HMDLR's outer field. A large pack of them, bearing fangs. Alf linked the external defenses to activate. The array outside the rampart erupted from the ground, shaking the earth beneath Balder and his team. The Bs rode individual roving guns. Balder stuck to his old Ice-CAV, a giant horseshoe crab of an armored tank. Perth team took his right flank, Wunjo team his left, both teams in APCs. Alf's tank made the surface on HeR Mode to lend its arms and legs.

Othala and Sowilo manned the small battle pogos, two per vehicle. Everyone else was on the way to Hashima or busy trying to ease the tensions of a postnuclear cold war.

Alf monitored the incoming fleet. All glossy black, classy pogos. One of them a Rolls-Royce. Wulfgar hadn't lost his sense of business style. It would be business for him. Wulfgar was not a master of warfare. He'd not start shooting, and indeed his fleet circled the ravine without firing a shot. He was there to do business. He would begin with an offer. There were two cargopogos. One surely contained the Ares. But the other… Wulfgar had something planned.

 

 

V
EIKKO
ARRIVED
two kilometers south of Kvitøya. It was no longer a ravine, but a dome. The rampart was closed. And under siege, pogos circling.
A hopeless endeavor
, he thought, but it afforded the opportunity he needed. As he flew closer he saw Balder's Ice-CAV on the surface. Balder was the only man that ever drove it. The enemy acted strangely. They weren't making any kind of assault. Their patterns were merely defensive, protecting the cargopogos.

Veikko logged into the police pogo's mainframe and dug his way into the personnel files for William Testling of Sydney, Australia. UNEGA police records appeared. Testling had died in action in 2212. Veikko knew, of course, that he had not. He'd hacked Cato's files the first time they had a run-in with the old bastard. He'd gone no further. There was little to learn and no point in learning it, but now he had a cause and a necessary effect. He looked through the records. He found Will Testling's link frequency and carrier ID. Something that wouldn't change, even when he entered Valhalla. And with that information, Veikko could forge his messages.

Cato would be among the teams calming tensions between UNEGA and GAUNE. The likelihood he'd be signed into Alopex was almost nil. Veikko had to risk it. No plan comes without risk. He signed in, and no alarms tripped. He was the only Cato online within the system. Internal voices were hard to mimic but not as hard as real ones. He didn't have to mimic Cato's voice, only his cadence, his mannerisms. Easy job, being a total dick. He'd test it on the one girl certain to forgive him if it didn't work.

“Alright listen up, Skadi,” he said, imagining an Australian accent, “need you to veer away and check out the blip to the south, looks like a police pogo.”

“Cato? I thought you were—”

“Don't pay ya to think, sheila. Get on it.”

On his sensors he could see Skadi turn toward him, away from the action. It worked. He linked into W.

 

 

W
ULFGAR
'
S
CARGOPOGO
lowered the drill. Alf armed the defense array but didn't fire. The drill was small. It wouldn't afford entry to any pogo. He remained calm and linked out through Alopex.