Skybreach (The Reach #3) (42 page)

Crouched on the narrow path that led to the elevator, Duran had witnessed the demise of the first two Redmen, both launched over the edge of the platform in spectacular fashion.  The third Redman had slipped into the network of machines near the railcar and promptly disappeared.

“The last one,” Zoe said at his side.  “Where’d he go?”

“Beats me.  Either way, we should find cover.  We’re sitting ducks out here.”

“Right.”  Zoe sprang forward and hastened over to one of the shields that the Redmen had activated when the fight began.  She ducked in behind it, and as Duran joined her, she began to survey the platform from this new perspective.

One of the RECS appeared nearby, and Duran saw Knile’s face inside.  Zoe raised one finger, then jabbed it toward the railcar.  Oberend nodded.

On the other side of the platform, Roman, along with a broad-shouldered man and a woman,
came into view.  The kid was limping, looking somewhat bruised and dishevelled after his ordeal in the RECS, but he otherwise seemed okay.  Zoe caught their attention with a wave, then pointed to indicate the position of the final Redman.  The three of them held a brief discussion, then proceeded into the cluster of terminals.

A few moments later there was a cry from over near the railcar, and the Redman appeared with a hostage clutched protectively to his chest.  It was another youth, not much older than Roman, wearing spectacles and cradling a holophone in one hand like his life depended on it.

“Hey!” the Redman roared as he moved away from the railcar.  “Put down the weapons, right now, or this kid gets a lethal dose of plasma.”  He shoved the muzzle of the pulse rifle against his hostage’s neck.

Oberend moved his RECS forward to intercept the Redman with a series of rapid, thumping steps.

“Stay calm, Aksel.  This ba
stard isn’t taking you anywhere,” Knile said.

The Redman sneered at Knile and continued to walk forward.  “You think I’m bullshitting you?  Try me!”  The guy seemed edgy, most unlike a member of the Crimson Shield, but Duran supposed that he’d never been exposed to this kind of situation before.  Men often reacted in strange ways when presented with this kind of stress.  He’d seen it plenty of times among the Enforcer ranks, and it wasn’t a huge stretch to imagine it could happen to the Crimson Shield as well.

The others began to filter through the terminals to surround the Redman, and Zoe ducked her head behind the shield.

“Keep down,” she hissed at Duran.  “The Redman hasn’t seen us yet.”

Duran did as she suggested, keeping one eye just above the shield so that he could see what was happening before them.

“Let him go,” the woman with Roman said calmly.  “There’s no need for this.  It’s over.”

“It’s not over till I say it is,” the Redman said.  “Now, listen up.  I’m walking out of here.  The kid comes with me.  Once I’m safely through the Atrium, I’ll send him back up.”

“Like hell,” Oberend said.  “Let him go right now and you live.  That’s the only deal we’re prepared to make.”

The Redman stopped, gl
aring at the RECS.  “Move that Frankenstein thing back.  Get out of my way.”  He gripped his hostage roughly around the throat and pushed the rifle harder against him.  “Do it now.”

“Do what he says, Knile.”  Duran looked to see a dark-skinned man standing not far away, an assault rifle in his hands.  Slowly, he knelt and placed the weapon on the ground.  “Everyone, do what he says.”

“There we go,” the Redman said.  “That’s more like it.”  He looked around at them expectantly.  “C’mon, I don’t have all night.”  Slowly they began to comply, reluctantly dropping rifles and handguns and whatever else they were carrying.  “And you,” the Redman said, jabbing a finger at Knile, “get the fuck
back
.”

Oberend glowered at him through the window of the RECS, then forced it to take a few plodding steps backward.  The Redman advanced, nodding in approval.

“Yeah, that’s good.  Wasn’t so hard, was it?”

As the Redman passed Knile, he turned his body so that his hostage, Aksel, remained between him and the rest of the group.  In doing so, he pointed his back at the shields behind which Zoe and Duran had positioned themselves.

Zoe gave Duran a surreptitious glance over her shoulder, as if to say
get ready
.

“I don’t know how you turds managed to get this far,” the Redman shouted at them, “but you were never going to get up the Wire.  Not in a million years.”  By the tone in his voice, it was clear that the trepidation he had felt moments before was now giving way to anger.  “I mean, who do you think you are?  You can’t come up here and raise your fists to the Crimson Shield.  You can’t kill my brothers and expect to walk away.”

The door of the RECS opened, and Knile stepped out.  “Let Aksel go,” he said.  “We’ve done what you asked.”

The Redman shook his head, continuing to back away.  He was almost level with
Duran and Zoe.

“You’re not leaving here,” the Redman said, shaking his head, resolute.  “Not a fucking chance.”  He swung the pulse rifle away from Aksel, lifting his hostage even higher, then pointed his weapon dead ahead.  Duran looked, but couldn’t see who he might be aiming at.

“Put him down,” Knile said, but the Redman only laughed.

“Fuck you,” the Redman said bitterly.  He let rip with the pulse rifle, launching a barrage of shots over Knile’s head.  For a moment, Duran thought his aim was off, but then he realised what he was shooting at.

He was attacking the railcar itself.

Gouts of flame erupted from several places on the vehicle, and there was a loud electrical zapping sound.  The broad-shouldered man next to Roman dived for his discarded assault rifle, but hesitated with the hostage between him and the Redman.

Zoe vaulted from her position and leapt at the Redman’s back.  She swung the butt of her gun at the side of his gas mask, causing him to cry out and stumble away.

Aksel fell from his grip and tumbled onto the platform.

The Redman reeled, bringing his rifle up at Zoe, but Duran fired first.  Zoe joined in, targeting the unarmoured section around his face and neck, and before he could retaliate, the Redman fell to the ground, bleeding profusely.  He flailed his legs and took one spasming breath, and then he was still.

38

Knile stood over the dead Redman as Holger, Talia and the others slowly made their way over.  Duran hovered close by, his .38 never straying from their fallen enemy, although his eyes continually darted across uncertainly to Knile.  Knile wondered if the Enforcer might be waiting for his chance to plug him full of lead, just as he’d done to the man in crimson moments before.

“Is it over?” Talia said hesitantly.

Lazarus, too, joined the circle around the last Redman, and it was he who spoke.

“Yes.  It is done.”

Talia gripped Roman around the shoulders and kissed him on the head, relieved, then moved to Knile.  He took her in his arms gratefully, savoured the warmth of her body against his, the smell of her hair.  Even though she was sweaty and covered in grime, he couldn’t find a reason to complain.  Embracing her somehow felt like being home again.

“Who’re your friends?” she said, stepping back and nodding toward Duran and Zoe.

Duran arched his eyebrow.  “Not exactly friends.  More like people who were in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

“Either way, we’re grateful for your help,” Silvestri said.  “I don’t know what Knile has told you of our operation, but if you’d like to stick around we could–”

“No thanks,” Duran said quickly, holding up his palm.  “We’re good.”  He finally dropped the muzzle of the .38, but did not replace it in its holster.  Then he turned to Zoe.  “Are you satisfied now?  Have you done what you came to do?”

Zoe glanced awkwardly at those gathered and shrugged noncommittally.  “Uh… yeah, I guess.”

“Then let’s get out of here.”  Duran finally slipped the .38 away and gave Knile a disdainful glare.  “One day I hope you get what’s coming to you, Oberend, even if it’s not me who has the pleasure of handing it out.”

Talia glanced between the two men, confused.  “Wait a minute, what–?”

An alarm sounded over the by the elevator, and they turned to see Remus struggling with the doors, which appeared to be slowly sliding shut.

“Little help?” he called.

Knile broke into a run and began striding along the narrow pathway toward him.

“Remus, don’t let those goddamn doors close!”

“I’m trying,” Remus grunted, “but there must be an override.  They’re not stopping.”

“Jam them open!”

“With
what?
” Remus said shrilly, and then suddenly he shrieked and fell away from the doors.

The elevator slammed shut.

“Quick,” Knile gasped, reaching the elevator and attempting to wedge his fingers through the gap.  Silvestri appeared at his side, hammering on the call button, but the noise of the elevator car descending could clearly be heard despite their efforts.

“It’s gone,” Remus said, getting to his feet.  “Damn thing must have been on a timer.”

“Or someone created a manual override,” Knile said.

“The question is,” Silvestri said ominously, “who’s going to be inside when that thing comes back up?”

The question hung in the air between them for a moment, then Knile looked back toward the railcar.

“Where’s Yun?” he said.

They found Yun crouched over by the railcar.  The backpack he’d brought with him was open, and his hands
darted
about inside as he shuffled through circuit boards and yanked at lengths of cable.  Morgan was nearby, securing the two Consortium technicians’ hands and feet with cable ties, and as Knile and Silvestri arrived, the remainder of Skybreach clustered around as well.

“What’s the deal, Yun?” Silvestri said.  “Where are we at?”

“I’m working on repairing the damage caused by the EMP,” Yun said as he turned a board over in his hands.  He tossed it aside and moved onto the next one.  “I can bypass the fault and bring the system back online, but it’s going to take a few minutes.”

“That’s about all the time you have,” Silvestri said.  “After that, we’re most likely going to have company up here.”

“So what do we do?” Talia said.  “Is there room on the railcar for all of us?”

“About that,” Aksel interrupted.  He was tapping away on one of the railcar consoles nearby.  “I just ran the diags on the railcar, and it’s not good.”

“How so?” Silvestri said.

“Our gun-happy Redman friend ruptured a bunch of compartments when he started shooting up the place,” Aksel said.  “I think he also might have damaged some of the life-support systems.”

“What’s the bottom line?”

“Only five of the passenger compartments will pressurise.”

Knile glanced around, doing a quick head count.  The math didn’t add up.

“That’s not enough,” he said.

“So we go back to the original plan,” Silvestri said.  “We make two trips.  The first team secures the habitat while the second team holds the fort here.  Then we send the railcar back down to pick up the second team.”

“So who goes, and who stays?” Holger said.

Silvestri narrowed his eyes, evaluating.  “We need fighters to take the habitat.”

“But we need them here, too,” Talia said.  “Half the Reach might come pouring out of that elevator any minute.”

Knile turned to Lazarus, who was standing nearby with a pensive, distracted look on his face as he stared out into the darkening sky.  He seemed disconnected from the group now that Murtas was dead and his lust for vengeance satisfied.

“What about you, Lazarus?” Knile called out.  The Redman turned to him slowly.  “What are you going to do now?”

Lazarus seemed to ponder this for a moment.  “My work in this place is done.  If I am able, I will return to the Citadel on Mars and stand before the Council.  I will ask for their judgement.”

“So will you help us to take the habitat?”

Lazarus inclined his head.  “Indeed.  After, I will seek passage to Mars
.”