Skybreach (The Reach #3) (46 page)

Duran finished tying up the last of the attackers by the railcar dock and then straightened.  He looked along the line of captives that he’d positioned next to the Consortium techs, satisfied with his work.

“How are you doing here?” Silvestri said, appearing from the darkness where he’d been patrolling the edge of the platform.

“They aren’t going anywhere,” Duran said by way of an answer.

“Good.  We’ve completed our sweep of the roof.  That’s the lot of them.”  He glanced back down at the elevator, where the RECS remained wedged, preventing further passengers from travelling up from the Atrium.  “The roof is officially secure.”

Talia tapped on the cockpit window, and Roman leaned forward to look out at her.

“You can come out now, Roman,” she said.

“Okay
.”  Roman disengaged the lock and the door swung open.  He’d decided to remain inside the RECS until the attackers had been secured, figuring that the sight of the hulking contraption looming over them might help to act as a deterrent from any further acts of retaliation. 
In truth, the power core had all but run dry, and he wasn’t sure if the machine would even have enough juice to start up again.

Fortunately, it hadn’t come to that.

Talia slung her arm around his neck as he stepped down.  “That was some good thinking back there,” she said, smiling
proudly.

“Agreed,” Silvestri said, stepping forward and offering his hand.  “You made the difference, Roman.  We’re in your debt.”

Roman shook his hand and couldn’t prevent an embarrassed smile from creeping onto his face.

“Glad to finally be of use around here,” he said.

Silvestri turned and looked over his shoulder at the covered body of Remus nearby.

“Perhaps if I’d acted as swiftly, we would all be alive to celebrate,” he said, his voice full of regret.

Talia reached out and touched him lightly on the shoulder.  “Don’t worry about that now.  We–”

“Hey!” Yun called out.  He was standing over by the terminals, oblivious to their discussion.  “I’ve got systems coming back online here.  Almost full functionality restored.  Data is coming in from the railcar.”  He tapped away at something.  “Yeah, this is good.  Should make things a lot easier when Holger and the others secure the habitat.”

“Good,” Silvestri said soberly.  “We’re through the worst of it, I hope.”

Roman glanced skyward again, seeing nothing but blackness, and imagined how far the railcar might be from its destination.

“Wait,” Yun said uncertainly.  As Roman lowered his eyes again he saw the tech looking somewhat perplexed.  “I’m getting some weird alerts here…”

“What’s going on?” Silvestri said, alarmed.

Yun’s face drained of colour.  “Holy mother of
fuck
.”

41

“I think I can see something up there,”
Holger was saying through his comms. 
“Or is it… shit, I dunno.  Might be nothing.”

Knile craned his neck and looked out through the perspex dome that covered his compartment.  He couldn’t see anything up there but the blackness of space.

“Holger, we’re still half an hour out from when we’re supposed to dock,” Knile said.  “I don’t think we’re going to see the habitat just yet.  Don’t panic.”

“I’m not panicking, buddy.  Just trying to figure out what’s going on here.”

Knile settled back into his seat.  “I figure when we get close, we’ll know it.”

“Meanwhile, I’m dying of boredom over here,”
Morgan chimed in. 
“Where’s the porno feed on these terminals?”

Knile tapped at the screen that was embedded next to his armrest, but it remained black and lifeless.

“Yun must still be working on the comms,” he said.  “Once those are up, we should be able to use these things.”

“Well, he better pull his finger out,”
Holger said. 
“Things are getting tight.”

“He’ll come through,” Knile said.  Realising that
he hadn’t heard from anyone other than the two brawlers in some time, he glanced out the side of his window to see if he could determine what the other two
were up to.  “Aksel?  Lazarus?  You still with us?”

“Here,”
came Aksel’s voice over the comms.  A moment later, Lazarus also spoke.

“I am here.  Is there a problem?”

“No.  Just seeing how you’re doing.”

All went quiet again, so Knile gave up on trying to start a conversation and shifted back into his seat.  After a moment, his eyes were drawn to the jaw-dropping vista at his feet, a sight that had entranced him for much of the journey.  Even though Morgan had complained of boredom, Knile had found the ride up the Wire to be an exhilarating experience.  Undoubtedly the thought of what lay waiting for them in the habitat above had caused the adrenaline to pump through his system, but in addition to that, the view of Earth slowly receding before him was possibly the most incredible thing he had ever seen.  Largely covered now in shadow, the sheer immensity and majesty of the planet made his skin prickle.  Drifting upward aboard the railcar was like taking a step back and seeing his world from a new perspective, in a different light.

“I finally appreciate the beauty in her,” he said wistfully.

Holger’s voice. 
“Huh?”

Knile smiled ruefully to himself.  “Never mind.  I–”

At that moment, the terminal in his compartment came to life.  A bright green cursor flashed several times, then disappeared.

“Hey, something’s going on,”
Morgan said.

“Yeah, I see it,” Knile said.  He tapped the screen.  “Looks like Yun came through after all.”

The words
Himura OrbitPod
appeared on the screen in a stylised font that looked like a logo, and then it too went away.  The screen remained blank for another thirty seconds, and just as Knile was about to give up on it again, Yun’s face appeared.

“Knile!  Thank hell I got you.”

“Yun, good to see you,” Knile said amiably, but then the smile melted from his face.  Something in Yun’s demeanour wasn’t right.  “What’s going on?”

“You’re not going to like this, man.”

“Just spit it out.”

“You know that the railcar cargo bays have their own scanners, right?  To check for contraband or any other nasties.”

“Yeah, but those were deactivated so we could stow our weapons without triggering alarms in Habitat One.”

“Well, see, here’s the thing,”
Yun said, licking his lips as he spoke. 
“They just came back online, and they’re picking up something really odd.”

“The weapons,” Knile said, as if it should be obvious.  “Just shut it off–”

“No, it’s not something on our manifest
.  It’s something else.”

“What are you talking about, Yun?”

“Knile, there’s explosives up there with you.  In Cargo Bay Six.  I’m talking a serious payload.”

Knile allowed that to digest for a moment.  “I don’t get it.  We weren’t planning on–”

“They’re stowed inside the briefcase Aksel was carrying.”

Knile felt a chill run down the back of his spine in the ensuing silence.  For several heartbeats, no one spoke.  Finally, Knile cleared his throat.

“Aksel,” he said calmly, “what’s going on?”  There was no response.  “Aksel?”

Silence.

“Listen, you fuckin’ kid,”
Holger began,
“you better start talking–”

“I didn’t know!”
Aksel shouted suddenly, clearly distressed.

“Didn’t know what?” Knile said.

“What was inside it.  He just told me I had to deliver it to the habitat, that’s all.”

Knile went cold at those words.  “Who’s ‘he’, Aksel?”

Knile thought he heard Aksel sob. 
“The guy who was… who was helping me.”

“Helping you to do what?”  When there was no response, Knile raised his voice.  “
Who
, Aksel?”

“I don’t know his name, okay?  He came and found me when I was working in Gaslight, offered to get me off-world.  He gave me his number so that I could call him for help when I needed it–”

“What kind of help?”

“The hacking.  He’s been helping me to do the hacking.”

“I don’t understand,” Knile said.  “Why do you need help hacking?”  There was no response.  “Aksel?”

“Look, I’m sorry–”

“Why are there explosives in your briefcase, Aksel?  Start talking.”

“It’s
his
briefcase.  I don’t know why–”

“What’s the number?” Knile said, his patience wearing thin
.  “Call it.  Get him on the line, right now!”

“He won’t like that–”

“I don’t give a shit, just call the number.”  Knile looked back at the terminal.  “Yun, I need you to patch the call through to the relays down there.  Can you do that?”

“I’ll give it a shot.”

Aksel made a disgruntled sound in the back of his throat, then Knile heard the sound of the call connecting.  It began to ring.

Who the hell is he talking about?  What’s going on?
  Knile’s mind was working overtime as he attempted to figure out what was happening.  Were Children of Earth connected to this somehow?  Had they gained Aksel’s trust without anyone else in Skybreach knowing about it?  A dozen possibilities flitted through his mind, half-formed notions that were dismissed as quickly as they arrived.  Nothing made sense.

The call answered, and a voice flooded Knile’s compartment.

“What is it?”
the man said testily.
  “You were instructed not to call unless there was an emergency.”

Knile listened, confounded by what he heard.  He knew this voice, but from where?

“Who is this?” Knile demanded.  “Who am I talking to?”

There was a pause. 
“I could ask the same question of you.”

Knile processed the sound of the man’s voice again, racking his brain as he sought for recognition.  It was tantalisingly within his grasp.

“Listen, I don’t have time for games–”

The video feed on the call activated suddenly, and a man’s face appeared on the terminal.

Knile sat dumbfounded, in shock.  It was Jon Hanker.

“Hank?  What the hell
is
this?  What’s going on?  I thought you were dead.”

The old man gave him a rueful smile. 
“Me, dead?  Heck, no.  There was no way I was going to burn to death in that consulate.  I got out, took my Redmen with me.  We’re hunkered down, safe in Gaslight.”

“Tell me what’s happening.  How do you know Aksel?”

“Don’t go too hard on the kid.  He didn’t know what I was up to.  I found him a while back, stacking shelves in one of the stores in the marketplace here.  He had a bit of a knack with tech, picked things up quick, so I figured I could use him.”

“Use him for what?”

Hank sighed and rubbed at his neatly trimmed beard. 
“Aksel can’t hack the Consortium network, Knile.  I’ve been feeding him the information he needs.  Whenever he asks for something to be unlocked, I unlock it.  Simple as that.  In return, I told him I could get him off-world.  All he had to do was help Skybreach and, when it was time, deliver the
brief
case up to the habitat.  He didn’t know what was inside.”

“But why?  What’s your endgame here, Hank?”

Hank leaned back in his chair. 
“It’s that bitch, Valen.  She was never going to let me out of this hellhole.  Ever.” 
He smiled bitterly.
  “I was supposed to finish my tenure over five years ago.  Did you know that?  I should have been sipping cocktails in Europa by now, but Veronica… well, she just kept extending my stay.  Shouldn’t be any surprise, really.  She and I have… I guess you could say a chequered history.  Some bad blood from way back.” 
He looked at Knile directly.
  “She wants me to die down here, buddy.  I’m never getting out.  So I made it my mission to see that she and all of her cronies suffered the same fate.”

The horrible realisation of what Hank was saying began to hit home.
  He thought back to their previous conversation, and the bitterness in the consul’s voice as he’d spoken about his impending retirement off-world – a destiny that, in reality, the old man knew he could never have.  It all made sense now.