Requiem (56 page)

'The station is
built upon a small asteroid orbiting close to the Verison Star. The
station was built as a means of conducting research free from the
wandering eyes of the Yurrick and so is virtually undetectable
unless you already know where it is. Other than the star and bits
of debris, the Verison system has nothing of interest for the
Yurrick.'

'Where did you
get this information?'

'Humans lacked
the resources to construct this installation themselves and so
requisitioned the Ordonian hierarchy for assistance. Only a handful
of Ordonians know of the station.'

'And you have a
way of getting onto this station?'

Gliphen looked
down at the Warlord and Daniels. Its beady eyes shifted between
them. 'You will follow me,' it said and it led them out of its
chamber at the end of the hall. It approached a wall and pushed
against one of the large stones. The stone swept back on a hinge
and Gliphen led them down the dimly lit passage.

They were taken
through a labyrinth of passageways and tunnels before coming back
into the light. The chamber they entered was almost perfectly
cylindrical but from the look of the walls and the cascade of water
running down its surface it looked entirely natural. In the centre
of this natural silo was a raised landing pad. Stationed in the
centre of the pad was a ship. The ship was coloured entirely black.
Small, sleek, like a crow preparing to take flight. It was an older
model but it would still do the job. It wasn't large but the crew
would fit inside.

There were only
four other Ordonians stationed within the silo. Two of them were
heavily armoured and the other two looked to be working alongside
two of the repair drones on the hull of the ship.

Gliphen led the
Warlord and Daniels up to the ship and gestured with its open paw
for them to examine it for themselves. There was some superficial
damage done to the back of the hull which Gliphen informed them had
happened during their acquisition of the vessel.

When they'd
finished examining the ship and were satisfied that it would allow
them a safe approach to the Verison Station they returned to
Gliphen.

'So you've seen
the ship, human. Now I will see your serum.'

The Warlord
radioed back to the others still on the ship they had arrived on.
Gliphen had one of its men escort them and the serum to the
silo.

They arrived
through a different entrance to the one the Warlord and Daniels had
taken. Jemma was walking at the front with the serum canister held
in her arms, cradled like an oversized child. Seventeen and
Anderson followed behind her with their pistols holstered at their
waist.

Jemma stood the
canister on the dirt floor but remained standing next to it. She
was eyeing Gliphen. Disgust and fear written on her face.

'A pleasure
doing business with you,' Gliphen said to the Warlord. 'You'll
forgive me for not shaking hands. But with all that serum floating
around I wouldn't want to put this new friendship to the test just
yet.'

Gliphen took a
step towards Jemma, towards the serum but Jemma held her
ground.

'You'll get the
serum as we leave,' said the Warlord.

Gliphen turned
to him.

'This ship may
get us past the station's outer sensors,' said the Warlord, 'but it
won't be much help once we dock and they see that we aren't even in
uniform.'

Gliphen made a
strange motion with its shoulders that was probably a shrug. 'The
ship for the serum. That was the deal.'

'You killed men
to get this ship,' said the Warlord. 'You would have taken their
uniforms and a means of getting through the security checks.'

'That was not
part of the deal,' said Gliphen.

'Then we make
it part of the deal.'

Gliphen smiled
at this. 'Then the deal must change on both sides. I will provide
you with your suits and a means to pass the security checks on the
station but you will bring me the girl once you have the
information you need from her.'

The Warlord
watched Gliphen through the eyes of his mask. He thought of the
statues, the paintings, the desk, all the human artefacts
cluttering the chamber in Gliphen's catacombs.

'What is it you
want with the girl?'

'That is none
of your concern,' said Gliphen. 'You are the one who wished to
change the terms of this arrangement. Do you agree to the deal or
not?'

The Warlord
continued to watch the shifting eyes, the heaving chest, the
insectoid mandibles. He knew that Gliphen had no way of getting
onto the station itself, that without a direct invitation they
would spot it and any other Ordonian that might try to enter and
probably kill them on sight. There was no way an Ordonian could
fool the cameras long enough to get inside. The Warlord was
Gliphen's only chance to get at Seline.

'If you refuse
to hand the girl over to me, Warlord, know that, at the first hint
of your betrayal, I will alert NeoCorp to your activities, tell
them that you killed one of their squads, took their ship and
uniforms and boarded the station. There will be no place you could
hide.'

'If you did
that then you would also lose the girl.'

Gliphen gave
another of its awkward shrugs but there was something off in its
voice as if, for a moment, it was unsure of itself. 'That loss
would be paid for with your death, Warlord.'

'You will
receive the girl when we are done with her and no sooner,' said the
Warlord. When contempt was so close to the surface the lying became
easy. This contempt, the Warlord realised, is what allows the execs
to lie and betray one another at will. There is no bond too sacred
and no deal that cannot be broken if you hate the person whose hand
you're shaking. Hate is all the justification you need. The
foundation of NeoCorp.

'We have a
deal,' said the Warlord.

Gliphen pointed
to one of his guards. 'Bring them the uniforms and pass key.'

The guard
returned shortly, wheeling an open crate. Two legs were hanging
over the edge of it. The crate was brought before the Warlord. He
looked in to see exactly what he expected to see. The fully dressed
bodies of a squad of NeoCorp soldiers. About seven of them had been
piled into the crate, just tossed in like a loose collection of
garbage in a bargain bin. Most of them still wore the black plated
armour of the NeoCorp death squads. One of the bodies was almost
completely naked apart from the mask it still wore.

The Warlord
looked up at Gliphen then back to the bodies. He gestured for the
others to come help him undress them. Jemma stayed where she was
next to the serum canister. Gliphen watched the humans with
interest.

The bodies
stunk of rot and decay and had been mutilated, likely tortured by
Gliphen or its guards. They ignored the maggots and the smell and
lifted the bodies from the crate. They lay them on the ground and
started to remove the suits.

The guard
tossed a butcher's knife on top of the body that Anderson was
working on. 'That is your pass key.' It gave a sputtering laugh
then stepped back to watch.

Anderson looked
up at Gliphen.

'The only way
inside that station is with a fingerprint and retinal scan from the
captain,' said Gliphen, 'and that man is the captain.'

Anderson looked
down at the knife then at the body, at the face, at the man's eyes.
They were open and they were moving. There was a dark red stain
around his lips and down his chin from where his tongue had been
cut out. A dried, choking sound came from his mouth and his eyes
stared directly at Anderson.

'Fucking
Christ. He's still alive.'

Gliphen's laugh
echoed around the silo, circling and circling all the way to the
top.

Seventeen
stepped next to Anderson, drew her pistol and fired a single shot
into the man's head. She said something under her breath then
returned to taking the pieces of her suit from the body she was
working on.

Anderson
removed the captain's suit completely before he picked up the
knife. He looked at Gliphen then at the Warlord. 'Which hand should
I take?'

'The left,'
said the Warlord. 'All fingerprint scans are done with the
left.'

Anderson hacked
the left hand from the captain. The dull edge crunched through the
bone and dried skin with only two cuts. He removed the captain's
left eye with the corner of the butcher's knife, digging it deep
into the socket but struggling to find the right angle to sever the
nerves. He cut the eye free then emptied the alcohol from his hip
flask and dropped the eyeball inside. He put the flask back into
his breast pocket. He picked up the hand, wrapped it in a loose
piece of cloth and shoved the hand into his pocket.

No one had yet
dressed themselves in the fetid armour. They had only taken the
pieces that they would need and piled them to the side. The Warlord
bent down to pick up the first pile. When the others motioned to do
the same he told them,

'No. The deal
is not yet complete. I'll do this myself. Stay with the serum.'

Gliphen smiled
at this.

The Warlord
caught Seventeen's eyes. Her look told him that she knew exactly
what to do. She would indicate for Daniels and Anderson to follow
her lead.

The Warlord
picked up the first armload and walked towards the ship, up the
loading ramp and threw them into one the empty crates. When he
turned to leave again he found Gliphen inside the ship with him,
blocking the loading bay door.

Its voice was
low, the words bleeding from its mouth like a festering sore. 'I
want to make this clear. You
will
bring the girl to me once
you have the information.'

The Warlord
said nothing.

'Human. You
will bring the girl to me. Do you understand?'

'You want her
as a slave don't you?'

Gliphen choked
back its saliva. 'It is none of your concern, Warlord, but you'd
best change your tone when speaking to me.'

The Warlord
smiled beneath his mask. 'I will speak to you in whatever tone I
wish.'

'In my city, on
my planet, you will speak the way I tell you to speak.'

' I will not
submit the girl to slavery. That is not part of our deal.'

Gliphen stepped
closer. His skull plate eclipsed the loading bay's dim light. 'I
could easily find a way on to that station and track her down
myself.'

'Somehow, I
don't think you'd fit in the NeoCorp uniforms, Gliphen. They'd
shoot you on sight. And if you knew a way to get on that station
yourself, you would've done it by now. The only reason NeoCorp
hasn't killed you is because they still have a use for you.
Whatever that might be.'

Gliphen took
another step. The ship, creaked beneath its weight. 'Bring the girl
to me, Warlord, or I
will
track you down and I
will
make you squeal. I will then find the one you love most to take
Seline Esher's place.'

The Warlord
kept his hands to his sides, his feet planted on the floor and his
eyes on the centre of Gliphen's head. His fingers moved in his
palm, slowly and deliberately.

Gliphen's
small, glassy eyes shifted over the Warlord's face. Saliva fell
from its open mouth in thick strands. There was a noise outside the
ship, shuffling, struggling but neither of them moved.

'I will not
give you the girl.'

The fingers in
Gliphen's mouth twitched. It lunged at the Warlord. Its enormous
hand wrapped around his throat. It squeezed with just a fraction of
its strength.

'You will bring
her to me!'

There were
shots from outside the ship. He wasn't sure how many. At least
five.

The Warlord
opened his hand. The lid of the small metal case dropped to the
floor. Gliphen looked down. Too late. The Warlord pressed the
poisoned tab into Gliphen's outstretched arm. It released its grip.
The Warlord fell to the floor, choking, while Gliphen reeled back
from him in agony, clutching at its arm, its high-pitched scream
echoing through the ship and the silo.

'Humans have
endured slavery for thousands of years,' said the Warlord. 'I will
not allow you to subject my people to such misery. I will not allow
you to prolong another human's suffering.'

Gliphen
shrieking was deafening.

'I will take
the serum,' said the Warlord. 'You cannot be trusted with it.'

Gliphen's fists
were swinging through the air, striking at whatever it could reach.
It slammed its fists into the loading bay wall. It turned towards
the Warlord, blood spewing from its open mouth, the bloody
coagulate spreading on the floor, bubbling violently. Gliphen
stumbled forward, reached out to the Warlord then fell to the
floor. The light was dim but the Warlord could see the shiny gleam
of Gliphen's eyes dissipate into nothing as the blackness dissolved
and a thick pus oozed from the sockets.

Seventeen
walked up the loading ramp. She didn't give a second glance to the
enormous corpse lying in the centre of cargo hold.

'The guards
have been dealt with,' she said flatly. 'The sooner we leave the
better.'

It took all
five of them to drag Gliphen's body from the ship. They left it on
the docking pad, quickly loaded the serum onto the ship and
departed from the planet's surface, leaving the vessel they arrived
on docked in the underground city for the vultures to feast
upon.

The
interrogator still stood facing the Warlord. 'Good,' he said.
'Gliphen was getting out of hand. A bit too ambitious to be useful.
And what did you do once you arrived at Verison Station?'

The Warlord
didn't bother fighting the thoughts in his head. Thanks to the
drugs forced the words out no matter how hard he tried.

'It took over a
week to get to the Verison system. We used the eye and the hand
from the dead captain and once we'd cleared the security gate I
sent Daniels and Seventeen to the security and surveillance room.
There, they killed the staff and put an override on the station's
defence system, killing most of the remaining staff. They also
opened the doors on the detention level and freed the girl.'