Terradox Quadrilogy

by Craig A. Falconer

  “Do you know how to use it?” Holly asked her.

  Viola nodded with a slowly breaking smile. “Grav insisted on that, too.”

  “That part is definitely true,” Robert said. “He teaches anyone who’ll pay attention.”

  Holly looked out again at Remy Bouchard, a man she’d grown to know and like over two weeks of close company on their Terradox-bound Ferrier.

  In many ways she couldn’t wait to see him and tell him that his family were going to be okay. She couldn’t wait to see the look on his face when he saw her and realised what it meant: that David Boyce was no longer truly in control of Terradox, whatever he thought and whatever he said.

  “Are you ready?” Viola asked, watching Holly watching Remy.

  “Get your helmet on,” Holly replied.

  Viola followed the order.

  Before leaving, Holly asked Bo to call Peter’s rover. It took several seconds for a connection to establish, but when it did Peter sounded surprisingly upbeat.

  “Guys? Who is driving?” he asked.

  “Bo,” Holly said. “I’m with Viola and Robert, too. I’m about to go inside the bunker. Where are you now?

  “Inside New Eden,” Peter replied. This surprised Holly; she had known the VUVs were fast, but not that fast. “I didn’t want to call you in case you were parked too close to Remy and I didn’t want to call the Karrier in case Boyce sent someone in, but there’s been some serious developments here. The first thing was that when Boyce’s vehicle touched down, he stepped out with Grav and the guard. When they got out, Boyce shot the guard in the back of the head and threw him back inside the vehicle.”

  “We think he didn’t want anyone else to know that Grav has been found,” Sakura added.

  “Right,” Peter said. “But listen: after that, the two accomplices came out from underground, one from each of the stairways, and they’re guarding the front of the big house where Boyce took Grav. One of them went into the house for a minute, but they’re both outside again now. That means I could sneak around the back and go down through the rear stairway to free the hostages. I just need the go-ahead.”

  “No way!” Holly snapped, with no idea why Peter would suggest such a thing. “The coerced guards who are down there don’t know who you are and they’ll be under strict orders to let no one in. But once I get inside the bunker, I can use the public address system to tell them that we’ve taken control. They know my voice. There’s no reason at all to go down now. Stay on the line and Bo will talk to you. Unless you hear it from us, you stay exactly where you are. Do you hear me, Peter? You would be putting their lives at risk, not saving them. We have a plan and Grav told us to stick to it no matter how bad things looked, and that’s what we’re going to do.”

  “As you request,” Peter said, taking the order well.

  “Thank you. The tourists aren’t going to be killed now because they’re Boyce’s only post-Grav bargaining chip, but he’s also very unlikely to have left them alone when they could band together and escape. Grav thought that if we managed to flush the accomplices out, which he has, the hostages would be split into groups and some of the coerced guards would be told to keep each other’s families in check. I’ve no reason to think that isn’t what’s happening down there, and you couldn’t walk into that and survive. We need to talk to those guards before we free those hostages, Peter. That is the play.”

  “Holly, I will do as you ask, do not worry about that. Just stop telling me what I already know and start doing what you have to do. This is the main thing: take the bunker.”

  “I’ll see you soon,” she replied, addressing it to Peter but nodding to Bo and Robert, too.

  “It’s almost midnight,” Bo said. “Ten minutes until Anniversary Day.”

  Holly put her hand on the door, preparing to be as quiet as humanly possible before slowly approaching Remy and delivering the fast and easy-to-understand message she had been working over in her mind since she first saw him walking towards the bunker.

  With only ten minutes until Anniversary Day, Ivy ‘Holly’ Wood knew that one way or the other, the future of Terradox and everyone on it would be a lot clearer by then.

  fifty-eight

  “Hold on a second,” Bo said, tapping the dashboard as a green light flashed.

  Holly paused as an incoming message from Ekaterina Rusev played through the rover’s speakers: “We’re fully surrounded at close range, but they haven’t moved since they settled in a circular formation two minutes ago. What’s your hold-up?”

  “Nothing,” Holly said, “I was talking to Peter.”

  “The news on that front was certainly welcome,” Rusev replied. “We’ve seen the accomplices reposition themselves. Via the headset data, that is; we still can’t get any photo-drones inside New Eden. The headset data also tells us that the four coerced tourists who were guarding various internal doors have now congregated into pairs — one pair in the museum, one pair in the nursery. It looks like Grav’s earlier prediction of how Boyce would manage the hostages if he called his accomplices above ground was correct: the hostages are in two groups and they’re now being watched by men who are essentially hostages themselves. The threat of familial harm is the strongest motivator there is, so we’re not overly surprised, but it’s still tremendously frustrating that these guards can’t see how easily they could band together and overthrow their captors.”

  “They’ve been deprived of sleep and probably everything else,” Dimitar chimed in, more understanding of the guards’ compliance. “And Boyce will have told them to shoot anyone who even hints at mutiny. Remember, for all they know he’s watching their every move. No one can risk being the guy who suggests trying something — not when the others have been ordered to tell Boyce about such suggestions, and especially when the threatened punishment for not telling him is so obvious and so extreme. Traditional psychology doesn’t apply in extreme situations. You know that, Holly.”

  “I do,” she said, “only too well. Anyway, can you guys connect to Peter and then put it through to this rover, too, so Bo can talk to everyone at once? I’m going outside to get this done.”

  Holly pictured the hostages as she quietly opened her door. She pictured the Rusevs, hopelessly outnumbered and surrounded by armed guards just one order away from turning violent. She pictured Grav, hopelessly restrained inside the grand house at New Eden with only the twisted and depraved David Boyce for company.

  The collage of these mental pictures had a one-word caption: urgency.

  Outside, Holly quietly closed the door behind Viola then pointed to the ground in an order for her to get down.

  Viola outstretched her hand and mouthed “five steps”, then waited a second for Holly’s permission before taking five large paces and finally lowering herself to the ground.

  Holly continued silently before stopping just ten paces from Remy.

  She held her breath, closed her eyes, then yelled the best line she could think of:

  “It’s Holly, don’t shoot.”

  Remy turned around in an instant, weapon raised and eyes fierce.

  Holly raised her hands. “Don’t call it in and don’t shoot. It’s really me. If you talk to Boyce, everyone dies. It really is me.”

  “Holly? What.. but… how?”

  “I’m going to walk forward now,” she said, “Okay?”

  When she was only five or six paces away, Remy held out a hand in the universal sign for stop right there. He had already lowered his weapon, so Holly wasn’t overly concerned by this.

  “Tell me what the hell is going on,” he said.

  “One of my group tried to free the hostages and one of Boyce’s guards caught him,” Holly said. “I saw Boyce leave and I saw that you were the guard, and I knew this was my chance. Once I get inside the bunker, I can directly contact everyone in New Eden and tell them that we’ve gained control. The hostages — Cherise, CeCe, DeeDee — they’ll all be safe. We have two people hiding in New Eden right now just waiting
for my order to take out Boyce and his accomplices, but first I want to tell the guys who have been coerced into guarding the hostages for Boyce.”

  “I don’t know about this,” Remy said. “He was so clear, Holly. He couldn’t have been any clearer. If I let anyone pass, he’ll do it. He said he’ll make me watch him do it.”

  “It’s okay,” Holly said. She cautiously inched forward and tried to put a hand on Remy's shoulder, but when he shied away she knew better than to force it too quickly. “When I get inside the bunker, it will be decisive. Boyce really isn’t in control anymore. Cutting his headset comms is the first thing I’m going to do, so he won’t be able to give anyone any orders to do anything. As soon as I’m in, I’ll cut his comms and I’ll directly contact the men guarding your family and tell them what’s happened. I’ll lock the stairway doors so Boyce couldn’t get back underground even if the two people we have stationed there don’t take him out. This really can’t fail.”

  Remy was thinking. Holly saw that as a good sign.

  “Viola, stand up,” she called before casually turning back to Remy; needless to say, the casualness was all part of the act of looking like she was in control before she truly was. “This is Viola Harrington; daughter of Olivia, who was killed by Roger Morrison. Cherise doesn’t have to die today, Remy. No one has to die today.”

  “It’s true,” Viola said, already having retracted her helmet without removing it fully. “You probably know the story, but every part of it is true. Morrison fell because we got into this bunker, and Boyce is about to follow him.”

  Holly nodded repeatedly, both pleased and impressed by Viola’s snappy line.

  But her pleasure was short-lived, dying a quick death when Remy shook his head. “I can’t let you in. I just can’t,” he said. “Not with so much hanging in the balance.”

  “Everyone dies if you don’t move out of the way,” Viola said, now speaking a little more firmly than Holly would have liked. “That’s the balance!”

  “It’s nothing personal,” Remy said.

  “Listen to me, Remy,” Holly snapped, suddenly even more firm than Viola had been seconds earlier. “If this wasn’t personal, I would have shot you from behind and you would be dead by now. Your family and every other family would be safe by now. The only thing standing in my way is you, and the only reason you’re still standing there is because I’m allowing you to. This is happening.”

  “I could say the same to you, Holly. The only reason I haven’t pressed this button to tell Boyce someone is trying to get past me is because that someone is you.”

  Remy made a show of hovering his finger over the button on his headset, an inch away from dooming everyone.

  “Take off your headset and I’ll explain everything again,” Holly said. “Tell me which part you’re struggling with and I’ll go over it as slowly as you want. Remy, we’re on the same side here. I need you to remember that.”

  “I need you to turn around and leave,” Remy said, his voice becoming less hesitant with each word.

  If Holly had ever needed any further proof that traditional psychology didn’t apply in extreme situations, or that the threat of familial harm was the greatest of all motivating forces, Remy Bouchard’s unexpectedly obstructive behaviour would have convinced her for good.

  “Just take off the fucking headset,” Holly said. She raised her weapon. “I don’t want to use this and I’m not going to use this, okay? But I need you to know how serious I am right now, Remy. Okay?”

  Remy took his hand away from his headset but re-raised his own weapon with the other, looking as unconvincing as an armed man could. “Lower your gun first,” he said.

  Holly shook her head. “That’s not what’s going to happen. Viola is going to slowly remove your headset and I am going to slowly lower my weapon. Do you understand what’s going to happen? I’m going to lower my weapon when Viola removes your headset. Is that okay, Remy?”

  His hand began to shake, still unconvincing, and his eyes blinked tightly and slowly several times.

  “I’m going to take the headset now,” Viola said, moving behind Remy and feeling far more comfortable on the safe side of his weapon, however unconvincingly he may have been wielding it.

  Viola reached for the headset and began to slowly lift it off, taking great care not to press the button.

  And then it happened.

  In a flash of desperate madness, Remy grabbed Viola by the arm and held his gun to her exposed temple.

  Holly’s finger reacted in the only appropriate way, pulling the trigger and sending a bullet into Remy's forehead.

  Viola screamed. The rover’s door opened and quickly slammed closed. Robert Harrington yelled and balled as he sprinted over.

  Holly heard none of it.

  Viola flailed her arms, pushing away Remy's lifeless body like she was trying to free herself from a giant spiderweb. Holly instinctively grabbed her and Viola instinctively grabbed right back, burying herself in Holly’s shoulder and crying harder than Holly had ever seen anyone cry.

  Holly heard this.

  Viola stammered between sobs: “Is… is…”

  “Shhh,” Holly whispered, holding her tight.

  Holly didn’t need to hear anything else to know what Viola had been trying to ask.

  “But yeah,” she said, fighting with every fibre of her being not to choke up. “He’s dead.”

  fifty-nine

  Holly stood stunned, staring down at Remy Bouchard’s slumped body as the full realisation of what she had just done slowly but surely dawned on her.

  Despite her strongest hopes, this wasn’t like when Dante shot Robert. This bullet wasn’t fortuitously lodged below its victim’s collarbone, and this time there would be no recovery.

  Remy Bouchard was dead.

  “He wasn’t going to let us in,” Holly said, speaking less to Viola than to herself. “I gave him every chance but he wouldn’t listen.”

  Viola took a deep and deliberate breath, reining in the worst of her sobbing. When she tried to turn around, Holly held her.

  “No. Don’t look.”

  Robert Harrington, sprinting as quickly as his legs would allow, reached their position. Holly passed Viola to him, and the girl — the young woman who now reminded Holly only too much of the innocent girl of four years earlier — immediately buried her head in her father’s shoulder just as she had buried it in Holly’s.

  “What the hell happened?” Robert demanded, directing his anger squarely at Holly.

  “He wasn’t going to let us in,” Viola choked out, parroting Holly’s words from just moments earlier. “Holly gave him every chance but he wouldn’t listen.”

  Holly unzipped her lightweight jacket and crouched to place it over Remy’s face. She picked up the fallen headset while she was there and handed it to Robert. “If anyone talks to Remy, you are Remy. Okay? Press the button to talk, but only if you have to, and just say that everything is fine and you didn’t hear any gunshots or see anything suspicious. Don’t worry too much about an accent, just speak quietly and say as little as you can get away with. I don’t think anyone will try to contact him in the few minutes it’s going to take me to do what I need to do in the bunker… but if they do, we’re counting on you.”

  “Like I was counting on you when you told me you knew this guy?” Robert snapped, still fuming over the danger his daughter had walked into due to Holly’s misjudgement. “I thought this was supposed to be the easiest part? I thought you two were supposed to be close?”

  Viola, understandably volatile, pushed herself away from Robert and told him to shut up; that he didn’t know what he was talking about and that no one could have known Remy would react like he did.

  Holly pushed the headset firmly into Robert’s chest without looking at him. She turned to Viola. “I need you to go back to the rover and tell everyone what happened,” she told her, speaking quickly but softly. This task wasn’t truly necessary given that the photo-drone hovering high overh
ead would have already shown the Rusevs what had happened, but Holly didn’t expect Viola to be in a frame of mind to think of that and she considered it important to give her something to do beyond standing mournfully at the top of the stairway.

  “Should I tell them about Remy?” Viola asked, decisively confirming that the drone had indeed slipped her mind.

  “You can if you want to, but the main thing to tell them is that I got into the bunker and that we’re all okay. Once you’ve done that I need you to come back, because you’re going to stay here when I leave and you’re going to do a very important job.”

  “Okay,” Viola said, glad of the distraction. “But maybe before I tell everyone you got in, I should wait until you actually do get in. You know, just in case…”

  Holly ran down the stairs to the entrance and typed 2 8 2 8 0 2 into the familiar keypad. “Now it’s official,” she said, looking up the stairway at Viola as the door unlocked.

  Viola nodded and disappeared out of sight on her way to Bo and the VUV.

  Holly let out a long and instinctive groan as soon as she stepped inside, reacting to the momentarily forgotten corpse of John Francis, the unwilling and innocent guard who had been casually killed by David Boyce to make a point in punishment for the group’s decision to land in an unapproved location.

  She had nothing suitable to cover John’s face and saw nothing of use anywhere in the bunker. She walked around his body rather than over it — one respect she simply had to afford him — then made a beeline for the system control console from which she hoped to enact the measures which would ensure that no one else had to die at Boyce’s hands. The presence of death was not something Holly would ever be comfortable with and even in the pressurised urgency of the moment she had to compose herself, settle her breathing, and make a deliberate effort to focus on the buttons and screens in front of her rather than what lay behind.

  Following the initial steps on Dimitar’s tightly folded and carefully prepared instruction sheets was straightforward enough, and within no more than a minute Holly had entered all of the codes necessary to access the romosphere’s core systems. She immediately called up a security camera feed from the area around New Eden’s imposing plantation-like centrepiece house and left it on the main screen. She saw Boyce’s two accomplices guarding the house’s entrance.