by Nathan Lunn
“What the fuck just happened?” Eddie hushed, as they fast-walked down the empty side corridor, taking his nearest right exit to get to the cargobay. Julie shouted to him to stop for a moment, before dashing into a nearby room, and vomiting directly into a bin. “Shit! Are you okay?” Eddie asked, worry seeping into his voice. She waved him off, wiping her mouth on her sleeve and jolting up into place as an alarm blared into action. She locked eyes with Eddie, and they nodded, rushing back out into the corridor to continue their planned route, now with double the speed.
“We can’t know for sure it’s them,” Julie shouted over the blaring noise, swiping at a door and slipping through.
“Right, it may well be that they use the same alarm noise to call everyone to the theatre!” Eddie replied, as he followed Julie through the door. She nodded, spitting to the floor once more as they rounded the last corner and ran directly into Kye and the rest of the group.
17
“Kye! What’s that alarm for?” Julie yelled, grabbing a hold of Kye’s arm as she steadied herself. Panting hard, Kye pointed back in the direction he had come from; the door to the cargohold was sealed and a red light flashed overhead. Julie noticed Danny and Douglass also panting, and Wei at the back of the group, scowling and rubbing his neck, wincing as he did so.
“Douglass tripped it getting the lights back on. We got out of there before the haulers arrived, but we need to get it off now! We’re going to Wei’s office.” Kye shouted, moving his way through the corridor with everyone following close behind.
Julie protested, starting to walk in the opposite direction. “Hang on, isn’t the office over this way? That’s where we were headed.”
Wei scoffed in her face as he moved past, raising his voice to insult her.
“Silly girl, the office is this way. You walk past it!” She rolled her eyes at him, jumping into line with the rest and following his path through the loud maze. They got to the office, and Wei entered, immediately running over to the console at his desk and switching it on. The alarm was starting to get so repetitive that it was phasing into background noise, and the bright red flashing was only adding to the insurmountable pressure. The closed door of the room helped bounce the noise around, making it impossible for Julie to hear anyone speak, so they sat in silence biting their nails until Wei was able to get it shut down. He finished typing, bending up from the desk as the alarm turned off. The silence that followed was palpable; it suddenly seemed wrong to not hear the siren wailing, and so the group sat speechless for a minute longer than they needed, breathing hard to get brain-clearing oxygen into their body.
“I’ve worked out how to use my upgrade, it’s–” Kye started to speak, cut off by Julie who only said one sentence before falling silent again with most of the room.
“Godfrey Croft is here.”
Wei, unaffected by this news like the rest of them had been, turned back to his console to lock up the door, mentioning as he did, “Yes, yes. He is doing a talk on all the good work we are doing here today. Came in through the south entrance like you all did. Are you fans?” He continued typing on his console, before noticing the silence in the room and turning around, a confused look on his face. “Well? Are you fans, or something?”
Douglass shook his head, speaking for the group and dispelling anyone else’s ideas of talking. “No, we aren’t fans, Wei. Julie was simply explaining where she had come from, right Julie?”
Julie nodded, accepting a drink of water that Kye had found in the corner of the room. His hands were shaking, and feet bouncing as he sat down, shooting daggers at Wei from his eyes. Wei ignored this completely, typing another command into the console. The hardlight weapons rack slid back into the wall, darkening the room and triggering the overhead lighting to come on. Simultaneously, the wall by Danny and Eddie slid open – the holographic firearms were replaced with the real ones, as the proper weapons rack appeared into sight.
“Oh, you’ve seen him, have you? How exciting, I would have loved to meet such an important war hero myself. Especially someone as benefactory to the cause as he has been.”
Julie coughed on her water at this, spitting it to the floor as Wei complained, “Oh, come on! Watch the merchandise!” He threw her a thin tissue. “Clean it up, you slob.”
Kye rushed him, grabbing his shirt with both hands and lifting him out of his seat, before he dumped him on the floor. A yell slipped from his mouth when he shoved Wei back from him, “I’ve had enough of your shit! What the fuck makes you think you have the right to shoot me?”
Julie looked up in shock, gasping out, “Shoot? He fucking shot you?” Danny and Eddie stood awkwardly by the weapons rack, as Kye walked over and grabbed the real 3D printed pistol from its stand. Wei scrambled back, head hitting the underside of his desk with a loud thunk.
Kye pointed the handpistol at his bent knee, and spoke, “Yeah, just like this.” In one fluid motion, he pulled the trigger, and the group winced, expecting to hear the inevitable shot ring out. Instead, a beep came from the pistol, as Wei began to laugh and stand up from under the desk. Kye, realising his mistake, struggled to prime the printing process, but had the weapon taken from his hand as Wei shoved him back into the middle of the room. Wei tutted, priming the weapon and pointing it towards him, monologuing as he aimed for Kye’s fake arm.
“Somebody clearly wasn’t paying attention earlier. Maybe if you hadn’t been talking to this one–” he waved the gun at Julie, causing her to flinch, then moving back to a seething Kye – “you would have had some semblance of an idea on how to operate this thing.” He smiled cruelly. “No worries. I’m no stranger to repeating myself.” A click ran through the room. Eddie looked in confusion at his fully loaded Stockholm shotgun, rolling it over in his hands as Wei slowly moved his line of aim to be at his feet.
“What’s happening? It’s loaded and the safety is off!” Wei sighed, commanding Eddie to drop it.
“Just down there please. Honestly, I’m disappointed, Douglass, you usually bring a much better caliber to do business.” He laughed at Eddie’s face, a perfect paradigm of perplexity. “Oh, wipe that stupid look off your face please. You may be the one with the finger on the trigger, but I own the gun.” He lowered the On-the-Fli to his holster, drawing relieved breaths from the entire room. “Now, can we do some business so you all fuck off out of here?”
Douglass moved forward, palms spread and voice low. “Wei, you aren’t going to fire on us again are you? We have your word?”
Wei nodded, collapsing into his chair, and replying with disinterest, “You know me, Douglass. My methods hold a lot to be desired, but I’m not actually here to hurt anyone.”
Kye scoffed, “A lot to be desired? You tried to fucking kill me!”
Wei faced him, an intense fire burning behind his eyes. He spoke, calm and collected. “I taught you an important lesson, boy. Don’t trust anybody in this business. Keep your guard at all times.” He reached over and tapped Kye's purple arm.
Kye shook his head, motioning to him as he spoke to Douglass. “He’s crazy. Just buy the stuff so we can leave.”
Wei nodded, clapped his hands together, stood, and spoke. “Positively. Though clearly I work wonders. You have all unlocked your full potential, thanks to my, I assume, much-appreciated help.”
Kye shook his head and went to the weapons rack with the rest of the group. Douglass waved them to pick their selections up, pulling five credit chips from his pocket and handing them over to Wei, who threw them on the desk and stuck his hand out. Douglass reluctantly shook it, as Julie walked up and stuck her own hand out. Wei regarded her with surprise, but she just let out an exasperated sigh, and muttered, “I need the weapon. Give me the handpistol.”
Wei smiled, moving his hand to pass it to her, calling to them as they left out the door and went down the hall, “Say hello to Godfrey Croft for me! That is, if you happen to spot him again, of course.”
“Douglass, that was a serious miscalculation,” Julie protested
. All five of them stood in the corridor, far away from Wei’s office.
Danny chimed in, his Amaterasu Goggles bobbing on his head as he spoke. “Yeah, he had some real anger issues. Why didn’t you warn us?”
Douglass scowled, chastising them as he moved onto the next topic. “I did warn you. We’ve left now, or at least he thinks we have. Julie, did you catch when the talk was due to start?”
Julie nodded, a wave of nausea rising up again and threatening to expel itself. She controlled herself and managed to speak. “Not only that, but I caught when it was due to end. He implied I join him afterwards, and that he’d be looking out for me.”
Kye spluttered, anger bubbling to the surface, “He invited you to join him?”
Julie shook, pushing the memory out of her head as she spoke. “No. Basically told me I had to. Fuck that guy, it basically falls right into our plans.”
Kye reached out to pat her shoulder but she shrugged him off. Douglass ignored them both and faced Danny, beginning to form some plan in his head.
“Danny, do you still have any Neurovirus that Julie could slip him? Assuming she would be okay to do so.”
Julie nodded as Danny shook his head, muttering under his breath, “No, not with me. You’d be mad to have to take it with you to this place.” Douglass sighed as the group cursed, all stuck on various bad-willed ideas and fiddling with their weapons as they stood, pensive. Kye stared at them all, watching around the group as they picked and clicked with their firearms, before he suddenly snapped his fingers, exclaiming his idea to the group.
“Why don’t we just use the weapons we’ve bought?” The group looked up to Kye in bewilderment. He continued, a smile breaking across his face, “I’m serious! We should go into the hall and kill him. If we sneak back to Wei’s console, we can shut down the cameras again, like he did for the cargohold – and Douglass, you can set off the alarm to create confusion and clear anyone left nearby out. As long as we reach Godfrey Croft before he leaves, there’s no issue with this plan. We can be out and away in no time!” Douglass mulled it over in his head, as Kye looked around the corridor at the others, smiling positively still as they debated the idea. Julie looked at him and nodded, as Eddie and Danny whispered something to each other and nodded at Kye as well, with a short, “Sounds like it could work.” They all turned to Douglass, who was standing, remaining calm and placid. Kye was impatient, and persisted a response from him.
“Well? What do you think?”
Douglass sighed, scratching the bridge of his nose and shaking his head. The group’s enthusiasm fell, before he spoke, and brought them back up to their previous levels. “It’s not at all as well thought-out as I would have hoped these plans would be. But an opportunity doesn’t come around like this very often, and we would be fools to pass it up.” The smile was contagious, spreading around the corridor, as they leaned in and began to plot out the finer details.
Julie walked in front, holding her Stockholm P40 Combat Shotgun to her right side, her On-the-fli pistol holstered over her left thigh. She was tailed by Kye, flexing his newly unlocked arm by holding the Clayton Automatic Rifle in just the one hand, showing no strain as he did so. Finally, Eddie brought up the rear, slotting shatterpoint ammunition into his Type 400 Submachine Gun as he walked. Douglass and Danny were off on their own separate tasks, and they were all back on a secure commlink connection.
Julie tested it out, speaking at a normal volume as she checked the straps on her holster. “Douglass, let us know when you’ve made it back to the cargohold, we’ll let you know when to trip the alarm. You’re going to have to get out pretty quick afterwards, so keep-a-hustling.”
“Affirmative,” Douglass gruffly replied, clearly stepping at two times his usual pace. Julie continued on, as they rounded the corner and reached the entrance to the Debriefing Theatre. Danny spoke into the commlink, confirming he was also en route to the cargohold, heading to pick up the abandoned pad left on the floor from only an hour earlier.
“Alright, I see it. Want me to send the haulers away?” He had reached the cargohold with Douglass and was turning over the portable pad in his hands, running his thumb over the sharp cracks and ridges in the screen.
Douglass replied to him, moving over to the display set into the wall. “No, keep them. Just watch your way around where they are.”
Danny chuckled, slipping his fingers into his pocket with his left hand and drawing out a cigarette. “Alright.” He lit it and took a long drag as he booted up the pad, holding the smoke in his mouth as he waited for the logo to flash across the screen. Light poured from the cracks as white filled the glass display, before a logo emerged in the middle. Danny coughed, clouds of smoke engulfing his head. He waved it off and showed the pad to Douglass, speaking over the commlink as he did so, “Thank fuck! The pad’s on.” The group outside the theatre, who had been waiting with bated breath, let out a sigh of relief.
“Okay, brilliant. Get the cameras off across the whole site, but go for the theatre first. Let me know when this is done.” Danny confirmed he had heard, and got to work on fixing the cameras up, connecting his commlink to the pad and tapping as best he could around the jagged edges. A minute passed in stressed concentration, and Julie felt herself asking once more, “Danny. Now would be a good time to get it done?” Muted applause sounded through the theatre door, as Julie repeated herself, again. “Danny!” Douglass chimed in as Danny finished, their voices lapping over each other in an explosive mess.
“Alright! I’m done, cameras are confirmed off, across the entire south side of Fugurah Station. Go kick some rich ass.”
“Primed and ready to call in the alarm. Let me know when, the doorway is unlocked for ease of exit,” Douglass added.
Julie parsed her way through the conjoined sentences, only speaking after silence had fell through the corridor, “Okay. Great. We’re going to slip into the theatre now then, it seems as though the talk is finished.” Julie looked around the corridor once more, waiting for a nod from each person, lingering on Kye for a moment longer, and walking through the doorway with a purposeful pace. They entered the room, each person’s weapon visible but not aloft. Julie guided them to the back of the theatre, and they stood with backs against the wall. The bulk of the talk had indeed finished, and as Godfrey stood on stage, pacing back and forth from the podium to the banners, another round of applause broke out through the crowd on the ground floor – some of the more ecstatic soldiers decided to fire into the air with their cannons, though their superiors were quick to calm them down with discipline.
“And I thank you very much for your kind support!” Godfrey boomed. He held his hands aloft, feeling the waves of gratitude wash over him. A wide and calculated smile surveyed the audience, scanning the multitudes of glazed faces for the one person he was wanting to see. His smile faltered until he reached the back of the room, where he locked eyes with Julie. She locked eyes back, steeling her face and her emotions even though she was sure he couldn’t see, and spoke to her sides.
“Alright, let’s wait for these ones to clear out. I’m going to talk to him up close, and you guys hang back and try and blend in, somehow. Maybe put away the chairs.”
Kye shifted nervously in his place, muttering over to Julie, “Jules, are you sure? I don’t like the look of this guy, we can come with you–”
“It’s fine. Just stand by for my signal.” The crowd stood, and began to file out of the theatre, chatting amongst each other as they left. Julie thought she noticed Adam poking his face out of the crowd, but he was dragged away in the sea of identically shaven heads. Taking one last look at Kye and passing him her Stockholm, she started to move in, making her way around the seats towards the stage. She spoke under her breath as she did, her words travelling over the Commlink to Douglass, “And Douglass, you are keeping an eye out for the signal?”
Douglass spoke, tension straining in his voice. “I’m ready and waiting. Good luck.”
Julie felt sick to her stomach, an
d her head was swimming with each step she took closer to the stage; a few deep breaths eased to anchor her light-headedness, and as the final audience member left, she was finally alone with Godfrey. A line of 15 Janitorial Sweepers entered the room and started to stack the chairs, efficiently clearing the space. From the doorway, just behind them, a group of mercenaries walked in – decked out in almost entirely the same outfit as the holograms they had trained against only moments earlier. Julie cursed under her breath, as they made their way to each exit and posted up with their weapon and faces scanning the room. She muttered under her breath, desperate, “Fuck. There’s more firepower than we anticipated. Danny, you need to get here soon.”
Kye and Eddie started to move to the chairs. They joined the sweepers in stacking them up, attempting in an unfortunately obvious way, to look like they were keeping busy. Julie sped up her pace as she reached the stairs to the stage, and began to climb, hearing Godfrey talk to her in a casual tone, “Thought I would have noticed you closer to the front. Still, quite happy to see you here after the talk like I asked. Took what I said to heart, eh?” Julie had reached the stage and was walking across the length to meet Godfrey, passing quickly behind the large waving banner and stopping a few feet from him. “Don’t be shy. I just wanted to discuss a job opportunity for you.” He flashed a look at Kye and Eddie. “Cleaners. I thought they were all bots now. Maybe we can move to somewhere a little more private to do so?” Julie nodded, deciding keeping silent was the best option – biding her time to call the signal in and strike. “Very well!” He slapped his arm and smiled, slick and disgusting. “Follow me and I will take you to our private craft.” Julie’s eyes flicked to the mercenaries at the doors, worry etched across her face. Godfrey noticed it, and took it the wrong way, reassuring her of his power. “They’re with me. Got to have some protection at all times, being the celebrity I am.” Annoyance flashed across Julie’s face, which he again mistook. “Don’t worry, sweetheart, I’ll be all yours. Though I understand your jealousy.” He moved past her and squeezed her elbow as he did so. Julie shook, waiting until his back was turned and moved her hand to her temple. One tap, and pandemonium broke out.