Third Transmission (9 page)

They parked the car in a dim alley. The bones of long-dead cats crunched under the wheels. Old rainwater, the kind that was not acidic but too polluted to be drinkable, dribbled down the walls.

Ace put her hand on the doorhandle.

‘You're staying here,' Six said.

‘Then what was the point of bringing me?' Ace said. ‘To mind your car for you?'

Six was pushing a clear plastic earpiece into his ear, and tucking the cord down under his collar. ‘I can pass for a security guard,' he said, buttoning up his coat over the top of his tux. ‘You can't.'

Ace nodded reluctantly. ‘So what do I do?'

‘Once I've got the invitation, I'll signal you.' Six opened the glove box and took out a spraycan of sevofluorane, a fast-acting airborne general anaesthetic. He clipped it to his belt. ‘You'll get out of the car and come over. We'll take Yu's car, and drive the rest of the way to Allich's facility.'

‘Won't they try to stop –'

Six looked her in the eye.

‘Okay,' she said. ‘Sorry, dumb question. Good luck.'

Six got out of the car. The alley smelled like mould and motor oil. He walked back to the main street carefully, trying to avoid standing in the grimy puddles. He didn't want to look – or smell – suspicious when he arrived at the cocktail party.

He had chosen the location very well. While most of the guests would be driving to the Tower from the airport, Ciull Yu was a local – he should be the only guest taking this dim side street. But Six couldn't rule out the possibility that another car had chosen an intentionally obscure route, or that a group of civilians might come this way. He'd have to stay alert.

He could hear the dull
crump
of grenades exploding in the distance, and the crackling of machine-guns on the breeze. Apparently ChaoSonic had resumed its attack on the rebels.

This is a relatively safe corner of the South Coast, he told himself. But relatively is a relative term.

He'd been waiting only six minutes before a dark limousine appeared at the end of the street. Six took a deep breath. You can do this, he told himself. Then he walked out into the middle of the street.

The limo eased gradually to a halt in front of him. Six held up one hand in a
stop
gesture, and raised his wallet with the other. There was no badge in it, but he figured they wouldn't be able to see at that distance anyway.

He approached the driver's side, keeping his head tilted slightly sideways so the occupants could see his earpiece. The window hummed downwards.

‘Can I help you?' the driver asked. He was bulky, bald, and where his sleeves rode up his forearms Six could see a garden of tattoos along his wrists. There was a tinted glass barrier separating him from the passengers.

‘Sorry to slow you down, sir,' Six drawled. ‘I'm doing perimeter security for tonight's event, and I'm going to need to verify the authenticity of your invitation.'

‘Don't they check that at the door?'

Six casually put his hand in his coat, not like he was drawing a gun, but like he was preparing to draw it. ‘This is a dangerous part of town, sir. Several high-profile guests will be in attendance. Event protocol has been established to minimise the risk of a car-bomb incident. I'm going to have to ask you again for your invitation.'

The driver bought it. He hit a key on the dashboard, and the barrier rolled down. ‘Excuse me, Mr Yu –'

Six put his palm across the back of the driver's head and dragged it forwards. The driver's cheek slammed against the wheel, and the horn blasted for a second. Six whipped out the can of sevofluorane and sprayed it through into the passenger compartment. There was a screech of alarm from the back seat.

Six jumped back from the car, sneezing wildly. The spray was designed for quick blasts to the face, not fumigating whole vehicles. He could hear someone fumbling with the doorhandle from the inside. Then the noise stopped.

Six drew his Parrot and crouched low. He had to confirm that the passengers were unconscious. Holding his white handkerchief over his mouth and nose with his other hand, he slowly approached the passenger door.

No sound from inside. No visible movement behind the tinted windows.

Six pulled the door open as suddenly as he could and clamped the handkerchief back over his mouth. It took him a split second to see a woman unconscious on the floor of the car, and Ciull Yu sitting in the rear corner, an oxygen mask over his mouth and a Raven X59 pistol in his hand. It was pointed at Six's head.

Blam! Blam!
Yu didn't get a chance to pull the trigger. Two rubber bullets hit him in the face, one slamming into his forehead, the other cracking his mask. Six was already retreating away from the leaking anaesthetic gas as Yu slumped to the floor, his pistol tumbling from limp fingers.

Okay, he thought. Phase one complete. He beckoned towards the Peak in the alley, and Ace stepped out immediately. Six leaned through the driver's window of the limo as she walked over, pushing a key to roll down all the other windows. The car was no good to them if they couldn't breathe the air inside without passing out.

‘So far so good?' Ace asked.

‘So far,' Six grunted. He opened the passenger door and dragged the unconscious woman out. Patted down her dress. No ID. He glanced back into the limo, but there was no sign of a purse.

‘Okay,' Six said. ‘Deck intel says Yu is not married. He made the RSVP for himself plus one, no name for the guest. We have no idea who this woman is.' He hefted her over his shoulder. ‘So when we get to the party, use any name you like. Except your own, of course.'

Ace nodded. She watched him carry the woman to the dumpster in the alley.

‘Is that really necessary?' he heard her ask. ‘She's probably already having the worst date of her life.'

Six shrugged, and put the woman down behind the dumpster rather than in it. He looked back at Ace.

‘Good enough,' she said. She reached into the car, grabbed Yu's shoulders, and dragged him out onto the road.

Six searched Yu's clothes. He found the invitation, and pocketed it. He also found a phone, which he threw as far as he could. It vanished into the night sky, and landed too far away to hear the impact.

By the time they'd hidden Yu and the driver behind the dumpster, the breeze had flushed the sevofluorane out of the car. Six and Ace returned to the limousine, climbed into the driver's cabin, and resumed their journey towards the party.

The launch was well disguised. The Tower had no halogen lights, no red carpet, no banner that said welcome. There were two security guards standing by the big iron doors, and Six knew they were there every night.

Allich wouldn't want to attract too much civilian attention. Not in this part of town.

Around the corner there was a long line of black cars, expensive but not flashy. Evidently the other guests had parked here and walked back to the entrance. Six drove to the front of the line and pulled up beside the kerb.

Ciull Yu and his guest had had a chauffeur – it would seem suspicious if Six and Ace emerged from the driver's compartment. They climbed through the window into the passenger's cabin, and then stepped out the rear doors. It would appear as if they were leaving their driver to wait for them.

Ace's heels clicked against the sidewalk as they strolled towards the party. Six could feel eyes on them from behind tinted windows as they walked past the other limousines.

‘You ready for this?' he asked.

‘Of course,' Ace said. She laughed and playfully slapped his shoulder.

Six frowned. ‘What was that for?'

‘The people watching us,' Ace said, smiling. ‘We're supposed to be partygoers, remember? You look like you're on your way to a funeral.'

‘I have years of field experience,' Six protested. But he forced a smile anyway. She was right – they had to blend in.

The guards stared as they approached. One was twice as tall as Six, the other twice as wide. Superhuman or not, they looked like they could pummel him into a fine paste.

‘Sir, madam, I'm going to need to see your invitations,' the wide one said, echoing Six's words to the limo driver.

‘Of course,' Six said. He drew the plastic slip from the pocket of his tuxedo.

The tall guard scanned it with a pen-like tube. A green light flashed on the end.

‘Enjoy the party, Mr Yu,' the guard said. He nodded to Ace. ‘Madam.'

‘Thank you,' Ace said. She giggled and put her arm through Six's.

The iron doors creaked open, and they walked through into the brightly lit corridor. There was a security checkpoint at the other end.

‘You're overdoing it,' Six whispered.

‘No I'm not,' Ace replied. ‘Have you ever actually
been
to a party?'

‘That's beside the point.'

‘Trust me, Six,' she said. ‘You're the invited guest – the scientist or the official or whoever Yu is supposed to be. But I'm just a plus one. Everyone will expect me to be a babbling airhead.'

Six had always thought ‘airhead' was slang for ‘pilot', but he had no time to question her. They were nearly at the checkpoint, and it was much more intimidating than the two guards outside. There was a metal detector, an X-ray machine, and seven security guards with full body armour and Vulture shotguns.

So much for my Kevlar vest, Six thought. A blast from one of those would cut me in half.

‘May I see your invitation, sir?' the closest guard said.

Six held it up. The guard took it away, and fed it into a machine.

‘Place your right index finger on this, please,' another one said. He held out a blue pad.

Six pressed his finger down on the centre. Jack had put a layer of latex over each of his fingertips, carved to match Yu's prints. He hoped they were good enough, and that there would be no further identity tests.

The pad flashed green.

The guard held up a plastic tray. ‘Place any metal items in here,' he said. ‘Keys, mobile phone, loose change.'

Six took out his wallet, the keys to the limo, and the mobile phone Jack had given him. He hesitated. He hadn't known there would be an X-ray machine. Would the Geiger counter inside be obvious?

‘In the tray, please, sir,' the guard said, with growing impatience.

Six tried to work out a way to avoid handing over the phone. ‘This won't wreck my triple C or my phone or my credit cards, will it?'

The guard shook his head.

‘Are you sure?' Six asked. ‘Is there a cloakroom, or somewhere I could put them so I can collect them on my way out?'

‘The cloakroom is inside, sir,' the guard said. ‘All items must pass through the scanner.'

‘Okay,' Six said. There was no other way – he put his wallet, keys and phone in the tray.

‘Thank you.' The guard put the tray on the conveyor belt.

‘Will my necklace be a problem?' Ace was innocently asking the security guard standing on the other side of the metal detector.

‘No,' he said. ‘Do the heels of your shoes have a metal brace inside?'

‘Oh, I have no idea,' Ace said. ‘The tailor didn't say. Should I take them off?'

The guard shook his head. ‘No, it's fine. Come through.'

Ace strolled through the grey archway. No alarms sounded.

The guard beckoned to Six. ‘You too.'

Six walked through the metal detector, heart racing. Would the flashbang set it off? His tray was
disappearing into the X-ray machine. In only seconds, his mobile phone would be on the screen, its secrets revealed.

The metal detector didn't beep. Six joined Ace on the other side. The guard by the metal detector picked up an explosive-residue sniffer from a table, and swept it over them. It made a small puffing sound and then a green light blinked.

Six's tray trundled out the other side of the X-ray machine. Six pocketed his phone, wallet and keys, and turned to leave –

‘Just a second,' the X-ray guard said. He was staring at the screen, and Six could see that he'd paused as the tray went through.

‘Can I see your phone, please, sir?' he asked.

Six wished he'd thought to take a decoy, a plastic duplicate phone that could have gone through the metal detector unnoticed. He could have handed it over for examination now, the Geiger counter nestled safely in his pocket.

He passed the phone to the guard.

‘How long have you had this?' the guard asked.

The other guards were moving closer. Six didn't want to make them suspicious by turning around to look at them, but he thought he might have heard a holster buckle click.

‘A month, maybe two,' he said.

The guard was staring at the screen on the phone. He turned it over and examined the back.

‘Ten-year warranty,' Six told him. ‘Supposed to last a lifetime; it's got some new type of battery in it. Is there a problem?'

Ace's hand squeezed his arm tightly. I'm going to get her killed, he realised. I've put us both in danger.