by Alex Kings
As more data emerged, the figures didn't look good. Of the six attacks Albert Wells had organised, only the first two were successful. The remaining four failed: The Petaurs had gone to ground, leaving behind deadly traps to kill their attackers. The Petaurs must have known the attack was coming.
Albert Wells sat in front of his fireplace, trying to get in contact with yet another team who had gone silent. His face was stony; even with the depths of despair, believing he would soon lose everything, he refused to surrender his dignity.
Forgive me for my hubris, he thought.
*
Mr. Hand whistled while he worked. He was with a small group of Petaurs hidden in an abandoned building in an unremarkable Petaur town. He sat in a tiny cubbyhole, an armoured hiding place, following the course of the battle on a tablet. So far, he hadn't been attacked, but six other Vihan Yvredi groups had been.
As soon as he had finished talking to Mr. Soul, he began contacting the other leaders of Vihan Yvredi and warning them about a potential attack. Every group active in the field had been told to lay low and set up traps.
Most of them hadn't been attacked. Two had been attacked too soon and had died. The other four had managed to survive, catch their attackers off guard, and kill them.
He was quite satisfied. It was clear the attacks, on balance, had been a failure. Too few, and largely ineffective. He was winning, and he knew it. And now his enemies had revealed themselves, he would soon be able to crush them.
He gestured at his tablet to call the ice base.
“Still nothing?” he said.
“Still nothing,” the Petaur at the base confirmed.
Mr. Hand nodded, frowning slightly. According to Mr. Soul's intel, Rurthk and his crew were planning to attack the ice base. That was supposed to be the main strike. But so far, they hadn't turned up.
“Stay on high alert,” he said. “And keep the Blanks ready in every corridor.”
“Yes, sir,” said the Petaur at the base.
Mr. Hand ended the call and thought for a moment. There was a lull in the attacks. That might mean they were over.
But he couldn't be certain of that. It was possible they were changing tactics.
Which meant he had to move first, to keep them off-guard if nothing else.
He decided every Vihan Yvredi group had to move to a backup location and lie low to see what happened next. Staying in constant motion was how they'd remained safe up to now. They would have to move one after the other, so they wouldn't all be vulnerable at the same moment
And he would move first.
“Check outside,” he told ordered the guards, who still stood at the entrance.
“It looks clear,” came the reply after a few minutes.
Mr. Hand opened the armoured door to his little cubbyhole and stepped out into the room. “Disable the traps and pack up the equipment,” he ordered the group. “And hurry.”
Chapter 71: Stealth
Mero sat alone in a fast food joint, with a luminous pink smoothie, casually looking at his tablet. His team, a dozen Petaur mercenaries costing in total just over a million credits, were scattered in a rough circle around Mr. Hand's location. None of them were closer than a hundred metres. All of them were alone and looked inconspicuous, like civilians. And all of them were keeping a careful eye on their surroundings, both with their eyes and hidden cameras.
Come on, you bastard, thought Mero. Move already. He took another sip of his smoothie. I can't wait here all day.
“I think I see them,” said a voice over his comms. The mercenary sent a video feed to Mero.
It showed Petaurs slowly filing out of the building where, according to Yilva's tracker, Mr. Hand has last been seen. These Petaurs, too, looked inconspicuous. They were wearing normal clothes, and like Mero's team, avoided moving in a large group.
But, besides all coming out of the same building, two things gave them away.
First, they were all clearly in a hurry.
Second, they were all carrying cases or bags.
“Get ready,” he told his team, peering at the feed. “Where are they headed?”
“Northwest.”
After a few moments, Mr. Hand stepped through the door.. “That's him,” Mero said. “Move!”
He leapt off his chair, leaving the smoothie half-finished, and headed out into the street. His mercenaries quickly converged on Mr. Hand's group.
Mero turned a corner, emerging onto the street where Mr. Hand was walking alongside several other members of Vihan Yvredi. There were civilians scattered about … but that couldn't be helped.
The mercenaries arrived on the street within seconds of Mero. And as soon as they did, they took their guns out of their jackets and began to shoot.
The street descended into chaos. There were screams. Civilians scattered. The Vihan Yvredi Petaurs were caught off guard. A couple went down instantly. The others bounded across the street, took cover, and began to fire back. Mero's mercenaries pushed forward.
Mero fixed his gaze on Mr. Hand, watching as Mr. Hand dropped to the ground and ran, leaving his case behind. That was the target.
In the commotion, Mero bounded forwards. There was gunfire all around him. The mercs were tearing apart bags, throwing their contents on the floor.
Mero reached the case. Guns went off all around him. Either side might kill him. He jabbed a knife into the case, wrenching it open, hoping against hope that Yilva had been right.
Mr. Hand's terminal was inside. Not all of it – just the shell, its smart matter folded up and contracted so it would fit.
Mero unfolded the contracted mass or smart matter, searching. A sudden roar of gunfire forced him to drop his head. His ears fell flat against his skull. He grabbed his gun and shot at the Vihan Yvredi members trying to move from out of cover.
Keeping close to the ground, he resumed his search. If any of them saw what he was doing, they might realise the case was compromised, and the whole plan would be dead in the water.
There it was! There was the security input device Yilva had shown him, the one that read complex patterns of muscle activations.
Mero grabbed a box out of his pocket and opened it to reveal a tiny white grain. He deposited on the input device and pressed it slightly. It seemed to dissolve against the surface. He quickly folded the casing up again and put it back in the case. He left the case open, so it looked like it had been attacked and then dropped again.
All this, from finding the case to now, had taken him just over ten seconds. He looked around to see how the fight was progressing.
Badly, was the answer.
The mercenaries was competent fighters, but so were the members of Vihan Yvredi. And they outnumbered the mercenaries. Five of the mercenaries were already dead.
Mero ran back down the street at a zigzag, trying to make himself less of a target. “Retreat!” he told them. “Now!”
As the mercenaries pulled back, another one of them went down, caught by a bullet to the back of the head. They scattered
The Vihan Yvredi Petaurs didn't follow. They didn't want to be here when law enforcement arrived. They hurriedly grabbed their equipment, dragged away their dead, and moved on.
*
After dropping the mining capsule, the stealth shuttle waited, crouching in the snow-thick air by the ground. After an hour had passed, it took to the skies. Running on the program Laodicean had given it, it flew empty towards the ice base.
*
Mr. Hand stepped into the new location, a basement eighty miles away, far more troubled than he usually was.
That had been close. Far too close. Behind him, Petaurs dumped the bodies of their allies on the cold concrete floor. Mr. Hand had nearly been amongst them.
But there was still work to do. He had to stop Rurthk once and for all.
He opened his damaged case, took out the computer terminal, and opened it up. “Crystals,” he said, holding his hand out.
As it turned out, one of the compu
ter crystals had been broken in the attack. Fortunately there was a substitute.
Mr. Hand slotted it into the terminal and activated it. Other Petaurs were hurriedly putting automated guns on the ceiling. He ordered some more of them upstairs as guards. “Assume we're about to be attacked. Keep your weapons ready and hide behind cover.” Looking at some others he said, “You, barricade the door behind them.”
When everything was set up, he connected to the ice base and asked the Petaur there what was happening.
“Still no sign of them, sir,” said the Petaur.
Mr. Hand thought. According to Mr. Soul's intel, someone had mentioned a stealth shuttle.
“Show me your sensor readout,” he said.
With the snowstorm, visibility around the base was practically zero. But to a broad spectrum of other sensors, the snow may as well have not been there. Mr. Hand studied the sensors.
“Give me atmospheric disturbance data,” he said.
The Petaur ran the raw sensor input through a computer program, and came up with a map showing evert bit of turbulence in fifty miles, colour-coded according to intensity.
It was a great mass of shifting colour. Mr. Hand stared at it for a few moments, watching it slowly shift.
There!
There was one bit of turbulence that stood out. It was moving too fast, in a straight line, heading directly towards the ice base.
“That's it,” he told the Petaur. “Is it in range of the defence systems?”
“Yes.”
“Shoot it down, now.”
White laser turrets emerged from beneath the ice and aimed at the disturbance. The shuttle picked them up and fired first, ineffectually. The weapons fired back. The first shot flash-boiled the outer layers of the shuttle's hull, killing its stealth, The second shot shattered the shuttle completely.
Mr. Hand watched the sensor feed of the shrapnel falling to the ground. “Good,” he said.
“Shall I stand down the Blanks?” the Petaur asked.
“No,” said Mr. Hand. “We can't afford to let our guard down now. Stay on full alert. It's possible that was just a decoy. We can't rest until we know for certain that Rurthk is dead.”
Chapter 72: Heat
The mining capsule sat, buried five metres deep in ice. As soon as the shuttle set off, Rurthk set off.
The shell of the capsule began to heat up rapidly. In seconds it was turning the ice around it into frothing, boiling water. It descended quickly until it hit the rock below. It took only slightly longer before it began to melt its way through the rock.
It descended slowly, effector fields fluttering, swimming through molten rock of its own creation. After a minute or two, there was another momentary pause as it hit a wall of carbide. Then it broke through the ceiling of the transport tube.
Rurthk turned down the heat and turned it on its side. The maglev tracks warped and cracked as the capsule touched them.
The capsule's effector fields were meant for pushing it through magma, but they could just as easily carry it down an empty tube. And without the resistance, it was much faster.
The capsule skated down the transport tube towards the base, its shell glowing cherry-red with heat.
It slowed as it reached the station, but didn't stop. Crawling on its effector fields, it jumped the tracks, broke through the heat-weakened barrier, and mounted the platform.
Alarms blared. Air roared and rippled with the heat. The six Blanks guarding the platform had just enough time to aim their weapons before the capsule ploughed through them. They folded like toy soldiers in a fire.
The capsule left a trail that was warped and melted like wax. It lifted up off the platform and broke through the ceiling. The Petaur at the entrance had heard a sequence of crashes and roars so loud they managed to drown out the alarm. He saw the floor in front of him erupt, and died before he realised what it was.
The capsule was too large to fit in the corridor. It forced its way through, breaking apart the walls and ceiling.
Inside the capsule, everything began to judder. A metallic screech sounded and refused to subside.
“What in the world is that?” shouted Dr. Wolff over the sudden noise.
“The capsule was not designed for these sorts of manoeuvres,” said Laodicean. “I suspect we have damaged it.”
Rurthk peered at the echolocation sensors, trying to make out how the fuzzy mass on the screen corresponded to reality. “I think you're right,” he shouted. “It's getting harder to control.”
Some of the effector fields moving the capsule along fluttered and died. It lurched to the side, knocking down another wall, then rolled.
Blanks with heavy weaponry came running down the corridor. They stayed a safe distance away, where their air was only a few hundred degrees, and fired explosive at the capsule. More of its effector fields died.
Inside, the screeching cut out suddenly. The booms of explosives against the shell continued to sound.
Rurthk gestured hurriedly at the control panel. “We've just lost the heat source,” he said.
“Time to go on foot?” said Eloise.
“Let me just do one thing first,” said Rurthk. Using the remaining effector fields, he gave the capsule one last push forward, crushing the Blanks who were attacking them and burst through one more wall.
The last of the effector fields died.
“Helmets on, everyone,” said Rurthk. “You too, Doctor. And take this.” He handed Wolff a bulletproof shield.
Wolff fumbled awkwardly with his helmet, then took the shield and crouched behind it away from the hatch.
Rurthk took up a shield of his own. Laodicean and Eloise did the same.
“Laodicean, get the gatling gun ready,” said Rurthk, checking the control panel.
It was still dangerously hot outside – enough the boil water – but their armour would be able to protect them.
“Let's announce our presence,” said Rurthk. “Grenades first, then fire the gun. Ready?”
He tapped the control panel and the hatch opened.
Chapter 73: They've Sent Someone
Felix Zino tracked Mr. Soul to one of Vihan Yvredi's buildings. It was, he realised as he approached it, the first place he had ever run into Vihan Yvredi, all those months ago when he was working for Sukone and thought of them as nothing more than the Information Brokers.
It was a dingy, drab little building, an old prefab apartment from the early days of colonisation.
He considered his options for a moment, then set off, striding confidently towards it.
“What are you doing?” whispered Olivia, running to catch up with him.
“Put your hood up,” he said.
She did so. “Well?”
“You said your friends have been attacking the other Vihan Yvredi groups?” said Zino. “So they're expecting someone to sneak up and start firing guns are them, right?”
Olivia nodded.
No one shot at them as they approached, which was a good sign. Zino jabbed the button by the door. As before, it didn't make a sound outside.
He waited outside, tapping his foot on the floor and looking entirely relaxed.
After a moment, the door opened. Zino was expecting to see the balding man in a bad suit he had encountered the first time, but this time he was greeted by two Petaurs both pointing guns at him and Olivia.
Times had changed, it seemed.
“I'd like to speak to the Information Brokers,” Zino said.
“They're busy,” said one of the Petaurs.
“I work for Vihan Yvredi. I was stationed at Bloodspray.”
The Petaurs were silent for a moment. “Wait here,” one of them said, and closed the door.
Zino turned to Olivia and gave her a wolf grin.
The door opened again, and the Petaur said, “Come in.”
There were more armed Petaurs in the corridor. They watched him suspiciously as he walked past. They made five in total, including the pair escorting him.
A long desk divided the room. There were eight guns mounted to the ceiling.
There were several Petaurs in the room. Some of them looked like they'd just come out from various hiding spots. Indeed, Zino realised, he could see what looked like the open door of a hiding spot at the back of the room. It blended in the wall, so it would be almost impossible to see when closed.
“Zino!” said Mr. Soul, coming out of the crowd and approaching the desk. “What the hell are you doing here?”
“Something's going down, boss,” said Zino. He could barely hide his glee at being in the same room with Mr. Soul. Previously, he had only dealt with the leaders of Vihan Yvredi at a safe distance. They knew how dangerous he could be – but with everything happening lately, Mr. Soul seemed too distracted to worry about it.
More fool him.
He closed the apartment door behind him, leaving the armed Petaurs out in the hallway.
“Yes, I gathered that,” said Mr. Soul. He looked from Zino to Olivia, and his eyes narrowed.
“My assistant interest you?” said Zino. “I didn't know you liked humans, Soul.”
Mr. Soul glared at him for a moment and then turned away. “Well?” he growled. “What happened?”
“They've sent someone to kill you,” said Zino.
Before Mr. Hand had time to react, Zino grabbed him. Pinning both of the Petaur's arms behind his back with one hand, he moved in front of Olivia, so Mr. Soul was shielding Zino, and Zino was shielding Olivia.
In the same moment, he took a silenced pistol out of his jacket and started shooting the other Petaurs, starting with the nearest.
By the time he had shot the first two, the rest had got their guns out. But when they saw their leader in the way, they hesitated long enough for him to take down another three.
“Door!” he shouted at Olivia while doing this.