The outside of The Leadbelly may not have been pretty, but Deckland had to admit – the ship had served them well so far. He was starting to realize that, much like her owner, there was more to The Leadbelly than first impressions would suggest.
An alarm beep emanated from Berenger’s bionic arm. He opened the panel on it and glanced at the screen there. “Ah, here they come,” Berenger said. “Right on schedule…”
Deckland and Berenger turned, looking out into the distance as two small specs appeared in the sky, flying toward them. The Rangers made their way to the rear of the ship as the specs came closer, revealing themselves to be drones, which landed at the men’s feet before folding back into their square compact states.
“There’s only two of them,” noted Deckland. “I thought you sent out three drones when we first visited the scene where Roseca was discovered.”
“I did,” Berenger replied as he knelt down and plugged the interface cable from his bionic arm into one of the drones and began downloading its data.
“Then where’s the third one?”
“That’s a mighty fine question, Rook,” Berenger said as he downloaded the data from the second drone. “I sent these drones out to explore a search grid in the direction I estimated Roseca Villem had come from. It looks as though these two didn’t find anything. But if the third drone is missing…”
“It may have found something,” Deckland finished.
“And just like that, we have our new lead,” Berenger said as he stood back up and dusted off his pantleg. “I reckon if we follow the flightpath of that third drone, we’ll be able to find out what happened to it.”
Deckland looked at the mountains in the distance. “Those mountains are awfully far away,” he said. “If we fly The Leadbelly there, Stygaard will know we’re here for sure.”
“Which is why we ain’t flying,” Berenger said as he started walking back up the ship’s ramp.
“I hope you’re not suggesting we walk,” Deckland said as he followed his partner on board.
“Why walk, when we can race?” said Berenger with a smile as he pulled a lever on the cargo bay’s wall.
With that, a vehicle was lowered from one of the storage docks on the roof of the bay, the lift clamps releasing it a few feet from the floor where it hovered briefly until two wide-tread tires extended from short arms beneath it. It had a long body with a single seat and handlebars, and the name Silver was stenciled on its rear engine area with chipped and faded lettering. Deckland regarded the vehicle, curiously.
“What the blazes is this thing?” he asked.
“This here is Silver,” Berenger said. “My trusty OSV.”
“OSV?”
“Off-Road Speedtrack Vehicle,” Berenger elaborated. “It’s the preferred method of transportation in the wilds of the Frontier. They’re kinda like faster, single-passenger versions of Roamers. Got themselves two 360-degree maneuverable tires and limited hover abilities to traverse any type of terrain. We Frontiersmen refer to them as ‘Racers’ on account of their speed.”
“Very nice,” Deckland said as Berenger put on his longcoat and hat. “You got another for me?”
“Nope,” Berenger said as he mounted the Racer and powered it up. “Silver here is my only one.”
Deckland frowned. “Then what am I supposed to ride?”
Berenger smiled and patted a small secondary seat behind him.
“You want me to ride the pillion?” asked Deckland. “You can’t be serious.”
“You either ride the pillion or you walk, Rook. Your call.”
Deckland sighed before reluctantly straddling the secondary seat of the Racer, pressing uncomfortably close to Berenger as the man finished uploading the missing drone’s flightplan into the vehicle’s onboard computer. Deckland awkwardly hugged Berenger’s waist as the man revved up the Racer’s engine.
“Careful with the contact there, Rook,” Berenger said with a mocking grin. “Hug me any tighter and I’m gonna insist you buy me dinner.”
Deckland scowled. “Don’t flatter yourself,” he replied. “Even if you were my type, I’d like to think I could do better.”
“Touché,” Berenger said with a chuckle.
The moment the drone’s flightplan appeared on the Racer’s HUD, Berenger gunned the engine, and the two Rangers peeled away, kicking up a trail of dust and dirt in their wake as they sped toward the distant mountains, and whatever awaited them there.
Chapter 15
The wind whipped across Deckland’s face as Silver raced across the wide flat plains of Sarjana. The vehicle’s motor revved loudly as Berenger accelerated, tearing across the landscape at over a hundred miles an hour. They’d been traveling for a few hours already and Deckland was positive he’d swallowed a half-pound of dirt in that time, but the distant mountains were getting closer with each passing second.
The HUD of the OSV had a path traced upon it leading to their destination, showing the route toward the missing drone’s last known location, which appeared to be somewhere in the mountains. As the terrain grew rockier, Berenger adjusted the OSV to retract its tires and transition into hover mode, which made the ride a bit smoother but cost them in terms of speed. Eventually, the rock formations became too much for the vehicle to traverse, and Berenger was forced to come to a stop.
The two men dismounted from the Racer, picked up their hats upon which they’d been sitting and punched them to restore their shape before putting them back on. Berenger looked up at the rocky mountain before them, colored a pale yellow and dusty orange with uneven slopes and numerous boulders and rock formations. He opened his bionic arm’s control panel and checked the screen there.
“The drone’s flight plan indicates it would have passed through the mountain’s valley over yonder,” Berenger said as he pointed ahead of them.
“Looks like we have a bit of a hike ahead of us,” Deckland said.
“Looks like,” agreed Berenger, not waiting to engage in further conversation before starting to make his way up the mountain.
Deckland followed as best he could. The uneven rocks made the journey a bit treacherous as he hiked his way up the mountain behind Berenger. It was easy to slip and fall on loose stones shifting underfoot, so the Rangers treaded carefully. The sun was high overhead, and the heat was once again stifling for Deckland, but he soldiered on.
The Rangers navigated over a hill to a valley in the rocks, which seemed to wind its way between two larger summits. The summit to the left was tall and ominous, and the one to the right was jagged and oddly shaped. However, the ground in the valley was more stable, and the breeze that was funneled there made Deckland feel a bit cooler as they walked. Referring to the screen on his arm, Berenger led them over the rocks and along the path the drone would have flown during its search.
As they walked, Deckland kept an eye out for anything which would indicate what had happened to the machine. It was possible the drone could have crashed on its own or malfunctioned somehow, but there was no way of knowing exactly why the device hadn’t returned until they found it. Deckland just hoped that when they did, it would give them a lead that would crack their case wide open.
The two men hiked up an incline to a flat area nestled between the two mountainsides. Large boulders and rocks littered the location, apparently having broken off the jagged mountainside to the right and rolled down into the clearing over time.
“This is where the other drones lost the signal from the third,” Berenger said as he looked out over the scene.
Deckland’s gaze went to a small wreckage on the ground toward the center of the clearing. “There!” he said, pointing. “It’s the drone!”
He and Berenger began making their way toward the wreckage. Deckland was so focused on getting the drone’s data, he didn’t even notice the noise which stopped Berenger in his tracks.
There was a sharp clicking sound, followed by a low whirring noise. Berenger turned toward a nearby rock in time to see its top flip open
and a blaster turret rise from within, the turret’s head aiming toward the Rangers as the neck upon which it was attached stopped extending.
“Get down!” Berenger cried as he grabbed Deckland by the collar and quickly rushed him behind the nearest boulder he could find.
Deckland had barely had time to understand what was going on when the turret opened fire. Red streaks of plasma flew around them as they both dove behind a large boulder, the impacts of the bolts chipping off pieces of the rock.
The two Rangers quickly braced against the boulder, both of them breathing heavily from the sudden surprise attack of the deadly turret when the firing abruptly stopped.
“What the squick?” cried Deckland. “What is that???”
Berenger went to peek his head over their cover right before more plasma blasts hit the rock, forcing him to duck back down.
“It’s a sentry turret,” Berenger replied. “Most likely automated with a motion sensor of some type. My guess is that’s what shot down my drone.”
“A hidden sentry turret?” said Deckland. “In the middle of nowhere? There’s nothing out here that warrants being guarded by that type of firepower!”
“Maybe there is, and we just can’t see it,” Berenger said. “You wanted a new lead, Rook? Well, I think we just came across a mighty big one.”
“I prefer my leads to be far less life-threatening,” grumbled Deckland.
“Don’t we all,” agreed Berenger.
Berenger picked up a nearby rock and weighed it in his hand briefly before chucking it out from behind their cover. As the rock flew through the air, blaster bolts immediately shot toward it, peppering the surrounding vicinity before one of the blasts impacted the falling rock right before it hit the ground. Berenger looked thoughtful for a moment before turning back to Deckland.
“Alright, here’s the plan,” he said as he pulled out his pistols from their holsters. “You distract that turret. I’ll take it out.”
Deckland gave Berenger an incredulous look. “That sounds like a terrible plan,” he replied.
“It ain’t.”
“Yeah, because you’re not the one being used as bait!”
“I got me a trick knee,” Berenger argued as he tapped his right knee with one of his pistols. “You’re faster and more spry than I. You’ll make it.”
“Not that I don’t appreciate your sudden bout of confidence in me and my spryness, Berenger,” said Deckland with more than a bit of sarcasm, “but the second I emerge from behind this rock that turret is going to melt me.”
“Not before I take it out,” Berenger replied. “Whatever motion sensor that thing is equipped with has a good five-second delay on it as it’s trying to zero in on its target. Which means it fires where its target was before it adjusts to fire where it’s gonna be. That gives you some time to avoid getting shot.”
“Even if that is the case, does that give you any time to actually destroy that thing?”
“Squick, I’ll have that sucker down in three seconds.”
Deckland shook his head. “Those margins are too thin to stake my life on, Berenger,” he said. “There’s got to be some other way.”
“That thing back there is automated, Rook,” Berenger pointed out. “It can wait us out indefinitely. That means our options are either to die slow as we cower behind our cover, or to die trying to destroy that thing. Is this the best plan? No. But it’s the only one available to us. I can understand your hesitation with two seconds being the difference between life and death, so it comes down to this: do you trust me to have your back?”
Deckland met Berenger’s gaze as he considered his partner’s words. Deckland sighed with exasperation before sitting up into a crouching stance.
“Don’t miss,” Deckland said.
“I never do,” Berenger replied.
Deckland carefully moved to the edge of the boulder they were hiding behind. There was another larger rock a couple yards away. It was close enough so that Deckland could make his way to it but far enough that it would take more than five seconds to reach. Berenger crouched, getting ready to pop up over their cover the moment Deckland moved.
“Count of three,” Berenger said. “You ready?”
“Ready,” Deckland said as he prepared to sprint.
“One… two… three!”
Deckland began moving, racing forward toward the other boulder. The second he cleared his cover the turret turned toward him and began to fire. Deckland could practically feel the superheated bolts of plasma streaking by behind him as he ran.
Berenger rose a second after Deckland made his move. His bionic eye flashed as it targeted the turret’s neck that housed its sensor machinery. His bionic arm reacted with amazing speed as he brought his pistol to bear and fired.
Sparks flew from the turret as Berenger’s shot found its mark, and it stopped firing just as Deckland dived for cover, the turret’s last shots whizzing by him uncomfortably close.
Deckland quickly scrambled up against the boulder he was now behind, his heart beating so hard it felt ready to burst from his chest. He breathed heavily, adrenaline pumping through his veins. For the briefest of moments, he couldn’t believe he’d just done what he did. Then, just to make sure, he quickly checked himself to see if he’d actually made it through unscathed.
There was a soft whine as the turret lost power and its head drooped limply. Berenger walked out from behind his boulder as he scanned the turret to ensure it was no longer a threat. “You okay, Rook?” he asked.
“Yeah, still in one piece,” Deckland replied, feeling relieved.
Deckland picked himself up and joined Berenger out in the open as Berenger recovered the black box of the drone from its wreckage. Deckland looked at the disabled auto-turret, then glanced around the area in curiosity.
“This thing has to be here for a reason,” Deckland stated. “It must be guarding something.”
“Agreed,” said Berenger as he plugged his arm into the small black box and began accessing its data. “Now we just gotta figure out what.”
“The turret was hidden beneath this rock façade,” Deckland pointed out. “Maybe there’s something else like this around here that’s hiding something.”
“Would make sense,” Berenger said. “Let’s search the area. See what we can find. Just be careful. We don’t know if there are more of these turrets around.”
Deckland nodded and drew his blaster as he began to walk the location, looking for anything suspicious as Berenger used his bionic eye to scan around. Both men paid special attention to the large rocks in the clearing, trying to determine if there were any more fake ones hiding unwelcome surprises.
Eventually, Deckland came upon a part of the mountainside not far from the turret that stood out to him. There was an area where part of the rock seemed to extrude from the mountain, and based on the slope and the rock surrounding it, the bulge shouldn’t have been there. Deckland ran his hand across the bulging rock to where it met the mountain, his fingertips feeling a slight crevice that traveled around its edges.
“Berenger,” Deckland said. “Check this out. Can you get any readings off this thing?”
Berenger moved his attention over to where Deckland was inspecting the rockface. His eye glowed as he scanned it. “Hmmmm,” he said. “Picking up a low frequency signal here, similar to what the rock hiding the turret emitted before it opened up.”
“There must be something hidden under here, too,” said Deckland. “Can you open it?”
“I can certainly try,” Berenger replied as he opened the control panel on his bionic arm and attempted to isolate the faint signal the rock was emitting.
Deckland stepped back and kept his blaster trained on the rock, offering Berenger cover as the Ranger completed his interface. There was the faint sound of the clicking of locks as the rockface began to slide aside, revealing a metal door behind the façade.
Berenger and Deckland looked at the door curiously. The metal looked new, sturdy, and thick
. It was attached to a doorframe, which appeared to be built into the rock of the mountain, and there was a small access panel in the frame’s left side that was sealed with a covering.
“It’s a door,” Deckland said.
“Brilliant deduction, Rook,” Berenger joked.
“Perhaps you could deduce where it leads, Mr. Highly Trained Investigator?”
“Into the mountain, by the looks of it.”
“Brilliant deduction, Berenger.”
Berenger smirked. “Alright, alright,” he muttered. “I’ll see if I can crack it.”
Berenger approached the doorframe and flipped open the access panel located there. Behind it was a keypad with a thumbprint scanner. Berenger pulled a knife from his boot and began unscrewing the mounts holding the panel in place, eventually prying the face off to access the electronics behind it. He then plugged the interface cable from his bionic arm into the circuit board located there and began tapping at the touchscreen inside his forearm.
“Any luck?” Deckland asked after a few minutes.
Berenger frowned. “Nope,” he said. “The encryption on this door’s lock is extremely advanced. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it.”
“So, you can’t open it?”
Berenger unplugged from the door’s access panel. “I can, if’n I can crack this encryption.”
“And how long will that take you?”
“Oh, maybe a couple years, if I’m lucky,” Berenger muttered. When he saw Deckland’s unhappy look, he shrugged. “I told you, it’s extremely advanced.”
“Could we cut through it? Return with some tools and blow it open with explosives?”
“That there door is made from ultrasteel,” Berenger replied. “We’d have better luck trying to blow a hole in the mountain. Not that I reckon that’d do much good either. If whatever is built into this rock is also constructed from ultrasteel, we’d need some heavy-duty equipment to pry it open. Equipment I don’t have on my ship.”
Deckland sighed and eyed the door. He looked thoughtful for a moment before turning away and eyeing the area, noting how close the auto-turret was. “Where ever this door leads, there’s got to be another way in,” he said.
Lawmen- Rook and Berenger Page 17