Alec and Seara both had reservations about her plan. They’d wanted her to bring Brant with her, but Kayla had refused. Brant wasn’t comfortable on the bike, and she needed people who knew how to ride. Speed was going to be a deciding factor here.
“Are you sure we can catch them?” Carl asked over the headset. Alec had given him a speeder to ride after insisting the Coalition vehicle he’d borrowed needed to be left behind. There was most likely a tracking device installed. They couldn’t afford to relinquish any advantage, no matter how slight.
“No clue, but I’m going to try,” Kayla replied, ducking into the dilapidated building where they’d stored the ruin rat bikes.
Felix threw his leg over the speeder and started up the engine. “Leo won’t agree to help. He’s more stubborn than you.”
Kayla laughed and pulled her bike out of the building. “I’m counting on that stubbornness to convince him.”
She programmed the coordinates Felix had given her to the new ruin rat camp location. Hopefully, she could cut them off before they got too far out of range. Their bikes would be loaded down with supplies, so they’d be moving much slower.
Kayla sped off in the direction they’d most likely be traveling, pushing the speeder into overdrive. They’d had almost forty minutes of hard driving before they caught a glimpse of a large dust cloud in front of them.
“That’s them,” Kayla called out into the headset, crouching forward as she thrust the bike into higher speed. Pulling up alongside the lead bikes, she motioned for them to pull over. Leo’s dark helmet obscured his face, but he glanced over at her and held up his middle finger. She returned his gesture and deftly cut him off.
Leo angled the bike, kicking up more dust and gravel as he skidded sideways into an abrupt stop. He jumped off his bike, fists clenched, and Kayla could hear him swearing and shouting at her from underneath his helmet. Mack got off his bike and engaged the portable UV shield.
Leo yanked off his helmet. “What the fuck? You’re trying to kill me now by running me off my bike? I figured you’d try for something a little simpler. Maybe stabbing me in my sleep. At least then I’d get a few moments of peace before the end.”
Kayla tapped her foot, impatiently waiting for a lull in Leo’s rant. “Are you finished, old man? I didn’t chase you down because I missed you.”
“Well, boo-fucking-hoo. I could have gone a million more lifetimes before I missed you too.” Leo’s eyes narrowed on Felix. “And you. I didn’t give you those coordinates so you could bring Kayla here to kill me.”
Felix gave a half-hearted shrug. “You didn’t specify one way or the other.”
“Worthless,” Leo muttered, raising his hands in surrender. “Can’t find decent help nowadays. The whole fucking world is going to shit.”
Mack tucked his helmet under his arm. “Why are you here, darlin’?”
Kayla gave him a warm smile. “I’m going to need your help. All of your help.”
“No,” Leo said with a scowl. “Not gonna happen. I don’t care how much you flutter your eyes at Mack. It’s a hell no.”
Carl climbed off his bike and approached them. “The Coalition is attacking the towers. With the loss of life and destruction of resources, how much is anyone going to be willing to share with the ruin rats? It could be years before the trading camps are reestablished, if ever. How long can you all survive without regular supplies?”
Leo didn’t reply, but the lines on his face deepened.
“Leo,” Kayla began, knowing this conversation could go either way, “I know this isn’t your fight, but you know the ruin rat camps will be the first to suffer. Now that the districts have been mapped, how useful will you be to the Coalition? They aren’t interested in trinkets from the ruins.”
Leo narrowed his eyes on her. “More useful alive than dead if we get involved in OmniLab bullshit.”
Mack frowned and gestured back at the group of people on speeders. “We’re not fighters, darlin’. Not on the scale you’re talking about.”
“That’s bullshit,” Kayla declared. “We’re all fighters. Every day, all of us fight for our survival. Every minute of every hour is spent trying to figure out how to survive the next. You know better than anyone in those towers what it means to fight and live for your freedom.”
When they didn’t respond, Kayla pushed ahead, raising her voice so the others could hear. “If we succeed, OmniLab will be in your debt. With your help, they’ve agreed to build another tower specifically designed for the ruin rats. You’ll have access to medical care, food, and other supplies. In exchange, you can continue scavenging on the surface for artifacts and resources.”
One of the ruin rats called out, “Is this for real?”
“OmniLab hasn’t done shit for us!” someone else yelled. “Why would they bother now?”
When others began voicing their agreement about OmniLab’s self-interest, Kayla resisted the urge to swear. She would have been on their side of the argument less than a month ago. They had no reason to trust OmniLab. A gloved hand pressed against her back, and she looked up to see Carl standing beside her. His gesture was more than just affectionate reassurance. He was letting her know they were in this together.
“It’s true,” Carl shouted, drawing the attention of the ruin rats. His presence was a powerful statement to the rabble-rousing group. Carl had more than earned his reputation as being a fair trader, and as a known representative of OmniLab, his words carried far more weight than hers.
“For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Trader Carl Grayson. I’ve been a trader in one of the eastern districts for the past several years. At the request of Alec Tal’Vayr, co-leader of OmniLab, I’ve taken Kayla to the towers to meet with a designer. They’ve already developed some preliminary designs to build a tower for your people.”
Several shocked exclamations of disbelief and skepticism echoed around them, but underneath it all was a cautious hope. Carl must have sensed it because his next words reinforced this. “The only chance your people have to make this new tower a reality is to stand with OmniLab now. If you walk away, I can promise you the Coalition won’t make this same offer to you. You may be able to live on your own without supplies for months, or even years, but your best chance for survival is to work with us. We need your help as much as you need ours. Stand with OmniLab now, and show the Coalition we’re united.”
The ruin rats started talking back and forth, but the tone had shifted. There was now an undercurrent of excitement among the skepticism. Kayla smiled up at Carl and slipped her hand in his. She knew some of them would still balk at the offer of living in a tower, but this was a beginning.
Leo rubbed his chin, glanced over at his camp, and turned back to Kayla. He eyed their clasped hands with a thoughtful expression. “What exactly are you proposing?”
A wave of relief rushed over her. He wasn’t outright refusing anymore. If they got Leo on board, most of the ruin rats would follow him. Leo hadn’t managed to stay camp leader for this long because of his winning personality.
“Come with us,” Kayla urged. “The two leaders of OmniLab are here on the surface. We have a plan to stop the Coalition, but we’re going to need your expertise. The Coalition has inside information about the towers and their infrastructure, but they don’t know how we operate. We’re the wildcard they won’t be expecting.”
Mack and Leo glanced at each other. Finally, after a long moment, Leo nodded.
“We’re in.”
Chapter Fifteen
“We’re about ten minutes away,” Kayla advised over her headset.
It had taken her far longer to mobilize the ruin rats than she’d hoped. After arguing with Leo about whether all the ruin rats should travel with them, they’d finally come to an agreement. Some of the supplies had been offloaded and redistributed to other bikes to expedite travel to the towers, but that meant the remaining ruin rats would be traveling even slower behind them. There was always a risk that an overzealous camp
could overtake them and steal the supplies, but it would be far more dangerous if the towers were overthrown. All their lives could be in jeopardy.
Alec’s voice came over her earpiece a moment later. The anger and frustration in his tone was unmistakable. “We’re positioned a few miles from the towers. The coordinates are being sent to you.”
Kayla tightened her grip on the steering mechanism. If Alec was still outside the towers, then their suspicions had been correct—the towers were completely locked down. The Coalition must be further along in their plan than they thought. She lifted her hand, waving toward Carl to let him know the direction they were headed.
If she hadn’t been given the coordinates, she never would have spotted the temporary OmniLab shelter. They’d adopted similar cloaking technology the Coalition had used to mask their presence on the surface. She made a mental note to get her hands on the schematics once all this was done.
Kayla pulled her speeder under the shelter and shut off the engine. Swinging her leg over the side, she pulled off her helmet and hung it on the handlebar. Brant nodded a greeting, watching as the rest of the ruin rats pulled up behind her.
“Where’s Alec?”
Brant pointed toward the center of the compound. “He’s with the communications technician. We’re still trying to contact the towers.”
Carl motioned for her to go ahead without him. “Find out what’s going on. I’ll get Leo and everyone sorted.”
She glanced at Brant, who was eyeing the ruin rats with suspicion. Apparently, he still held a grudge for Leo’s perceived betrayal earlier. She leaned over to Carl and added, “You might want to make sure Brant doesn’t kill anyone.”
Felix jogged up behind her and took her arm. “I’d be more worried about your Omni pal. If he keeps walking around with that stick up his ass, he’ll end up tripping and falling on his face. Although, that might be an improvement.” At Brant’s scowl, Felix chuckled. “Come on, crazy girl. Let’s go see what trouble we can get into.”
Kayla grinned at him, but it didn’t last. The deeper they moved inside the temporary shelter, the more grim expressions she saw. A thick tension emanated from every Omni they passed. The reality of the situation struck her. These people had never known anything except the towers, which, to them, represented safety and security. They were now locked out, their prosperous existence threatened. Fear and desperation were beginning to set in. The combination could prove even more dangerous.
Felix leaned in close and whispered, “You feel it too?”
She nodded and hastened her pace. The sooner they resolved this, the better.
At that moment, she spotted Alec and Lars standing together. They were looking down at a console screen where a technician was working. As though sensing her presence, Alec looked up and met her gaze.
She peered over the technician’s shoulder. “What do we know?”
Alec rubbed the back of his neck. “All the secure frequencies, including the priority ones, appear to be locked down. The signals from the towers are completely offline. They’re not registering our equipment on the network. We’ve sent a few people to try to access the bay doors for the towers, but they weren’t successful.”
Kayla frowned, looking over the communication data. “What about the trader camp channels? Have you tried contacting them through there?”
The technician shook his head. “They’re offline as well.”
Felix studied the screen. “Do you mind if I try something?”
The technician glanced up at Alec, who nodded his assent. When the technician stood, Felix slid into the vacant seat. He began pulling up the communication relay and studying the channel maps. “Veridian and Xantham know we’re on the surface. They would have set up a way for Kayla to contact them if things got bad.”
“You’re right,” Kayla agreed, leaning forward and pointing at the screen over Felix’s shoulder. “There. Try that frequency. Veridian and I used that as a distress frequency when the traders were moving in or if we didn’t want our camp leader to monitor us. It’s not secure, but we just need a way to communicate.”
Felix entered a few commands and switched to the indicated frequency. At Felix’s nod, she began speaking. “V, this is Kayla. Are you there?”
There was a lengthy pause filled with static. Felix pressed the button, and Kayla repeated the same phrase again. A moment later, Veridian’s voice came over the speaker. “Kayla? You’re okay?”
She let out a small laugh, relief flooding through her at the sound of his voice. “Oh, just getting into the usual amount of trouble.”
There was another pause before Veridian replied. “I’m all too familiar with your brand of trouble. It seems to be catching.”
Felix frowned, adjusting some of the settings. “We’ve got listeners on this frequency, Kayla. You need to hurry. They’re tracing the transmission origin.”
With a nod, she leaned forward and rested her hands on Felix’s shoulders. “Make sure Cruncher keeps you out of trouble. We don’t need another Aurelia Data Cube incident. I’ll see you soon.”
“You too,” Veridian replied. “V out.”
Kayla motioned for Felix to cut the transmission.
Alec frowned at her. “Why do I get the feeling far more was communicated than what we heard?”
Felix chuckled. “Because there was. Kayla told him we’re outside. They’ve got big trouble inside the towers. My guess is the Coalition has already secured most of the key areas.”
Kayla nodded. “That’s my take too. Before I left Carl’s camp, I showed Cruncher a program I wrote that circumvented OmniLab security protocols by manipulating the base support systems. I used the program to access Ramiro’s camp when I stole the Aurelia Data Cube. If Cruncher can tweak that program, he can hack the bay doors to get us access.”
Alec raised an eyebrow. “How long will it take him?”
“Less than an hour,” Carl spoke from behind them. “Cruncher knows her program well enough that he’s already developed a patch to be used within the towers. I sent it over to our scientists for review, but it was still being tested. OmniLab should still be vulnerable to her program.”
Kayla scowled, crossing her arms over her chest. “He patched it? You didn’t think to mention this?”
The corner of Carl’s lips curved in a smile. He wrapped his arm around her and pressed a kiss against her temple. “We’ve been a little busy. When all this is over, I’ll make sure you’re all caught up.”
Kayla harrumphed but melted into his side. “Where’s Leo? When they get the doors open, we’re going to need them.”
“They’re making some modifications to their speeders, and Brant’s outfitting them with weapons. We’re limited with supplies, but your friends are being surprisingly resourceful with what we have on hand.”
Alec frowned. “I’m not sure how much assistance they can provide. They don’t know the layout of the towers or the security measures in place.”
Lars held up his hand. “On this, I agree with Kayla. Don’t discount their ingenuity.”
The show of support from Lars caught her off guard. She tilted her head, studying him. It was going to take some time before she adjusted to not having to worry about getting another knife in the ribs. “Great. Now that we have that settled, what’s the plan? We need to hurry before Cruncher gets the door opened.”
Kayla crouched down and reviewed the map of OmniLab. She and a small group had separated from the temporary camp so they could enter the tower. Seara had reluctantly agreed to stay behind with the remainder of their forces until the entrance was secure. If things didn’t go well, it wouldn’t do the towers any good for both council leaders to be captured.
Kayla rubbed her nose as she tried to figure out the best route to take once they got inside. “The security area is closest. We could hit that first to test my energy against the Shadows.”
Alec shook his head. “No. We’ll just have to hope it does. We need to head to the main control center r
ight away. They’ll use biometric scanners to track our movements until we regain control of that area. Until then, we’ll have targets on our backs.”
“Won’t these scanners flag us as not being part of the towers?” Leo asked with a scowl. She’d tried to explain about the energy stuff, but he’d made it clear he didn’t believe any of it. Kayla just hoped he didn’t jump ship when he found out the truth.
“No,” Carl said, lowering his binoculars and offering them to Leo. “If the Coalition members are already in the towers, they would have had to lift the biometric restrictions so they could access priority areas. Your people aren’t in the database either, and they won’t be expecting you. “
A grunt was Leo’s only response as he lifted the binoculars to watch the sealed bay doors. Kayla passed the map tablet over to Mack. Waiting was making her antsy. “On the plus side, even if Cruncher can’t get the doors open, we could walk up and knock. I bet they’d let us back in,” she said with a smirk.
“I’d rather avoid capture,” Alec replied dryly.
She shrugged and shifted her weight. Maybe they could blast the door open. Between Alec and Lars, they had some pretty heavy-duty fire power over here. “What kind of reinforcement do those doors have? Maybe we could just…” She wiggled her fingers in the direction of the door.
“There’s enough reinforcement on the doors that by the time we got through them, we’d have alerted every security force within the towers. We don’t know how many of our people have been compromised.” Alec paused, and Kayla studied him, wondering about the direction of his thoughts. Even if it was liberating being alone in her head, she’d come to depend on using their bond to read his emotions. It was going to be an adjustment.
Alec turned back toward the sealed doors. “However, I’m not discounting the idea. If your friend doesn’t come through, we may have no other option. At least we’d have the element of surprise on our side. I’m just not sure how much damage we’d cause to the towers.”
Tremors of the Past Page 24