“I’ve always wanted to blow up a moon base. Yeah. Yeah, I’ll help. Fourteen bombs, huh? You’ll need them throughout a couple of access shafts, on both sides, so that the fire suppression kicks in and then you can walk through. Hmm, they’ll need to be placed just right, out of sight, too. Got someone on the inside?”
“Yes, though she doesn’t know it,” Katherine said.
Rowe snorted. “Will she rat?”
Katherine shrugged. “I had an accident since she last saw me. She doesn’t recognize me, so if I have to, I’ll use my identity against her.”
“You guys were close, huh?” Rowe asked.
“You could say that,” Katherine said.
“Give me a few hours to see what I can find.” Rowe pondered on that for a moment before nodding her head. “Yeah. Let’s fuck up this joint.”
Chapter 9
Once Rebecca became familiar with the system configuration, her pace picked up. She broke the work at each junction into phases: scan the repair drones, scan the security drones, check the system monitors, and then do a visual inspection of the wiring, conduits, and systems. Then she’d upload the tracking system that Captain Andrewson had sent her.
She was horrified to discover there were automated weapon turrets installed in some of the corners in place of any monitoring device. They were set up so that the guards in the outside corridor could override the station’s VI and VA systems and take control of the guns.
Rebecca found the occasional faulty wiring, conduit leak, and even a couple of cracks in the walls. She added all of them into her audit logs and uploaded them. She wasn’t told to repair anything; even if she was, she didn’t have the tools and, in some cases, the expertise to properly do it. She made notes that it was all checked and then she updated the log along with her inspection notes before moving on. Someone else could organize the details.
If this were on the upper level, everyone would fight over getting out of the job because of the tedium. She reveled in tedium these days. It isolated her and kept her safe. Rebecca couldn’t say if she needed to be kept safe from others or herself, but the quiet work allowed her a chance to forget where she was, who she was, what she was. It allowed her to focus on a task, and to complete it to the exclusion of anyone else interfering.
The random chatter of the guards in the corridors filtered in through her earbud. She didn’t really pay attention to it; it was just all background noise. Still, it gave her the sense that she wasn’t hidden away out of sight and mind and could easily be trapped in here to die of starvation.
Speaking of starvation, her stomach growled. She pulled out a hot sauce flavored protein bar. She was pretty sure it was made from cricket dust and algae paste, but at least the spiciness overcame the gritty texture of the thing. Corps planetary rules stated that food had to be supplied to everyone, free of charge, who worked on any Corps property, even indentured people like her.
Rebecca leaned against a closed junction panel and chewed her unappetizing bar. The rules might say free food had to exist, but nothing said they had to taste any damn good. But with the rise in the price of the breakfast items, she’d have to economize or else risk tapping into her savings.
Why are you saving?
Rebecca didn’t bother to answer herself. There was no point, and she wanted to try to keep having a good day for once.
*****
Day 2 – Seven Hours Later
“It’s cruder than I would have preferred,” Katherine said. She frowned as she inspected the shoebox pile of homemade bomb components and the schematic to, in theory, assemble them into something useful. She recognized the bits and bobs well enough, but would they be able to accomplish ripping a nice-sized hole in some reinforced walls? “Are you sure this thing will even work?”
Rowe responded by rolling her eyes. “I don’t know, Captain. Which of us is the bomb expert?”
Katherine continued to inspect the pieces. There were a lot of metal fragments in the box. Well, she hadn’t told Rowe she wanted to minimize causalities, that was for sure. Not that she cared anymore. That was another life, another place. This was survival. “I’ve built a few of these over the years. I should be able to do something with this. Nice touch with the screws.”
“You’ve detonated a few. I’ve been building them since before you were born. Are you satisfied?”
Katherine ignored her curt question. “Ignition?”
“I got a few gel tubes in a box down in storage. I didn’t want to be caught carrying it around. It’ll do the job, provided you can get them.”
“I’ll find a way. I’m still impressed my security overrides have worked. How has no one recognized you?” Katherine asked, amazed.
Rowe grinned. “Annual rejuv. There is a reason I get my skin peeled and stretched beyond my distaste for wrinkles.”
Katherine chuckled. She was honestly amazed security was so lax on the station. It was isolated, sure, but she would have thought updates from the plant would override her handiwork. She wasn’t going to complain. It was nice for things to go better than planned for once.
Katherine sat down across from the box and stared at it. She imagined what it would look like packaged together. “How many can this make?”
Rowe put the cover back on the items and leaned against the desk. “Three.”
“What about your end of things?”
“Eight. But, we have a small problem. By my count, you’ll actually need fifteen to chew through the walls in the lower wards, assuming your station plans are accurate. I’m trying to find more gel. I’m also still working on the neurogas for the enviro systems up here.”
“Think you’ll have it?”
“I’ll know in about an hour, but it looks good. If not, I’ll figure something out.”
“Okay, so what are we going to do about downstairs? We need to a direct route to get to the station hanger. No way are we going to be able to shoot our way through the station.”
“Frankly, I can’t see this working without blasting a hole from both sides. If the deck is anything like other Corps prisons I’ve visited, it’s going to have defensive drones. They could be reprogrammed to fire at the wall. It’ll take them a bit to drill through, but with structural integrity already failing from our lovely display of pyrotechnics, I’m sure we can manage it. And I thought you said you have a person on the inside.”
“I maybe have a person on the inside.”
“Then I recommend you get her onside and fast.”
Katherine stared down at the box of simple supplies, undetectable when walking through a security checkpoint. Normal, everyday tech to repair any number of things. Prepared right, enough firepower to blow a hole in the wall. She would have laughed if it wasn’t all so fucking grim.
She had known from the beginning that she’d need to push Rebecca. They’d even asked her, back at base. What would she do to push? What if she couldn’t get Rebecca onside? What if Rebecca turned traitor once more? But she knew Rebecca better than any of them. Hell, Katherine knew Rebecca better than she knew herself. A chill spread through her before she spoke.
“Assistant. Is it possible to push the feed from Ward 4C directly to Rebecca St. Martin’s ear piece?”
“Yes. She already is monitoring ward security.”
“Okay. Do it. Then, patch me through to Lieutenant Commander Babiak.”
A moment later, a voice said, “Babiak here. What can I do for you, Captain?”
Katherine steadied her voice. She couldn’t allow any weakness to creep in now. “I have further evidence that there is an eminent plot to blow up the station a week from now and those in special lock up are at the centre of it. I need answers, Commander. Get them for me.”
After a shocked silence, Babiak said, “Understood, Captain. Do you want me to increase security?”
“Not yet. I want to gather more information. I’ll meet with you tomorrow afternoon to devise a plan.”
“Understood. Oh, just so you know, we got wor
d that Captain Dags’ replacement will be here from the planet tomorrow. Her name’s Rital Aural. Lieutenant Commander Feema is coordinating.”
Katherine gave Rowe a side glance. “Good to hear. I’ll meet with her the day after tomorrow. Set it up.”
“Will do, Captain. And I’ll take care of the situation in the wards.”
“Good.”
Katherine managed to keep her composure until the call ended. Then she blew out a breath and rested her head in her hands. She pushed aside the sick feeling in her guts. Mav and the gang would understand. Or, even if they didn’t, there were more important things than being liked. “Our timeline just shifted.”
Rowe eyed her in silence.
“Say it. Get it off your chest.”
“That was cold, Captain, even by my standards.”
Katherine made a sound somewhere between a snort and a bitter laugh. “What is it you said at your military tribunal? There’s what is right and what is necessary? This is what is necessary. Get your people into place. The clock resets now. We have sixty hours, max.”
*****
Mav let out a sign of relief when a bruised and battered Patrice was finally dumped back into her cell. Agonized groans escaped her, which soon turned to softs sobs. They already knew she was his sister. They already knew torturing her would send him into a rage. There was no point in giving them the satisfaction of seeing him melt down again. This was the third beating they’d give her and still she didn’t spill. He was so proud of her. She was such a solid operative.
She was also his sister and there were things that not even an upbringing within the Corps military could overcome. One of them was the rage of seeing them hurt his only remaining family. He had to wait. Bide his time until they came for him. Oh, they would come for him. Soon, too. And then, he’d fight back. They would probably kill him, but he knew how it worked. As soon as they extracted what they could from his team, they’d all be executed. He knew the script. If he could get them to kill him before he could spill anything, even better.
At least the guards had returned Patrice drugged. Her eyes were too glassy, too unfocused, her weeping too exhausted. Mav tried to console himself that Patrice couldn’t have anything like internal bleeding or massive head trauma; they wouldn’t have brought her back to the cells. He looked around. Then again, this was a secret, illegal facility. Perhaps Corps rules about medical care for prisoners didn’t apply.
The nameless female guard stared at Maverick. She did the same thing every day since their capture. She never identified herself, and Mav never bothered to ask. To him, she was just another sadistic soldier whose talents lay in torturing inmates without actual permanent damage. He’d been tested for that role and had failed the exercises. Instead, they used his sense of loyalty and commitment to turn him into the killing machine that he was.
Is, Mav corrected his thoughts severely. Mav had been raised and modified to be a killing machine for the Corps, which was why he was now sitting in a max security cell. He had turned his back on what he was born to be. He fought to have children live as they pleased without being bred on ships and turned into the extended hand of the military. He wanted people to choose if they wanted to be engineered, enhanced, or left alone.
And he was a big enough man to accept that his choices would affect the ones he loved. But to love him was to know you were endangered by him. For all of his protective nature about his sister, she was an adult that was well aware of the risks. She had chosen this life just as he had.
The guard held a baton today. “I see that your sister still lives.”
Mav wasn’t in the mood for banter, nor her bait. “I have full confidence in the prison’s medical teams.”
“Do you know what I’m going to do to you today?”
“You do remember I have an anti-torture implant, right?”
It wasn’t a perfect device and didn’t completely take away the fear and pain. It certainly didn’t take away any of the emotional turmoil that would result from an interrogation. His implant was degrading from years of overuse. He had one, maybe two, beatings left in it before it would burn itself out. At that point, he’d experience the physical pain fresh for the first time in over a decade.
The guard quirked a smile and whispered into her mouthpiece. Then she said to Mav, “Since your sister is immune to advanced interrogation methods, I’ve decided to resort to more…barbaric means.”
“She’s not going to tell you anything,” Mav said. “Besides, if she does, you’ll just execute her. As long as everyone keeps their mouths shut, well, you’re going to keep us alive.”
“If you keep talking, I’m going to put you into isolation,” the guard said.
Mav shrugged. “I’ve been in the tank before.”
She deactivated the security curtain and the force fields disappeared. The giants walked in first and Mav steadied himself for the initial pain before the euphoria killed in. They grabbed him, all four limbs and slammed him face down to the floor. His naked body hit the metal and a chill went through him.
Mav struggled against being pinned to the floor. He was a strong man, but several hundred kilos of muscle were pinning his exhausted body. But instinct took over and he tugged and pulled all the same.
The guard walked around him and smiled. “Patrice, tell me the names of your contacts.”
“Choke on my piss,” Patrice snarled, though her words were slurred from whatever drugs they’d given her.
“Well, then. Let’s see what that implant of yours can truly handle,” the guard said.
*****
Rebecca ate her second protein bar and drank her floral tea mix and, in a weird way, felt more grounded than she had in a long time. Even though her Austen files were sent by someone wanting to hurt her, they were still the perfect gift. She decided to lock herself up in her pod tonight with Yeast Noodles #7 from her pod’s vendor. It would cost her three credits more than her usual supper, but it would be a little vacation. It was a good…
Agonized screams filtered in through her ear piece from the security footage. Rebecca let out her own little squeak of terror. She flipped over her tablet and stared in horror at the security footage streaming on her device.
Six black-clad security guards pinned a naked man to the floor of a tiny metal cell. She tried to pull her gaze away, but she stared in sickened horror as they brutalized the prisoner. The other naked prisoners wailed and screamed obscenities, but that seemed to only encourage the attackers.
Rebecca pushed the tablet away from her, and tried not to vomit the protein bar she’d just eaten. She’d forgotten to remove the ear piece, and a harsh, feminine voice cut through the screaming.
“Listen to me carefully, you lumps of shit. Either someone tells me names and locations, or I’m going to shove my baton so far up his ass that it’ll come out his throat. Do you hear me? Names. Now.”
A masculine voice, hysterical from pain and fear, shouted for them to not say a word. “I swear to the Gods, I will kill you, you cocksucking…”
His threat was cut off as he screamed again in agony.
Rebecca ripped her earpiece out and threw it down the corridor. She pulled her knees close to her chest and wept, her heart pounding so loud that it drowned out the background hum of the area’s many computers and systems. They were torturing that man, and doing it in front of the others. What else were they going to do beyond beatings? Was the guard serious? Was she going to have him raped, right there on the prison…
Rebecca vomited all over the front of her overalls. This was why she didn’t protest. This right here. She couldn’t even handle a stranger being harmed. How was she supposed to stand up to these kinds of people, when she couldn’t even keep her food down watching it on a screen?
Pain stabbed Rebecca in the chest and she gasped. What if they come for me? I won’t be able to handle any of that. I’ll die. I’ll tell them anything and turn in anyone to make it stop. This is why I can’t be like Kat. I can’t be…
<
br /> Rebecca faded into a loop of images of assaults, against her, against the man in the security feed, her mind playing an endless movie of torture and taunting. She vomited more until she coughed up nothing but bile.
“You okay in there?” a voice shouted from the entrance hatch.
She tried to answer, but the words didn’t form.
“I’m coming in,” the voice said. “Hold on.”
Rebecca managed enough presence of mind to turn over her tablet and disconnect the security feed. It disappeared and the schematics of the wiring system reappeared.
A few moments later, a guard arrived in her tube. Her heart was still pounding, and she was horribly dizzy, but at least she’d managed to stop sobbing.
He took one look at her and said, “Oh, wow. What happened?”
“I…don’t know.” She didn’t recognize the voice. She’d been in here for most of the day, so she suspected the guards had changed shifts a couple of times since then.
“What did you eat?”
“Protein bar #1.”
“No wonder. That’s made from snail assholes. Come on,” he said, putting an arm around her.
She let him, though she noticed he took a pointed look at her tablet to see what she had been working on. “Well, we should get you to a medic just in case it’s food poisoning. I’ll activate the cleaner to scrub down the corridor. Don’t worry. You’re not the first person to vomit in there. It’s why we have the drones.”
After depositing her outside of the tube, he crawled back in to pack up her things. She didn’t really say much, just went through the motions of moving. Eventually, she was handed off to a medic in the prisoner infirmary for a couple of hours as she was pumped full of drugs to help her keep her meals down. Of course, nothing helped because none of it could erase what she’d seen.
Chapter 10
Traitor (Collaborator Book 1) Page 8