by Cindy Borgne
Everyone started asking questions at once, making me feel trapped.
Sonny walked by and turned toward the table. He stepped over, folded his arms and smirked. “He’s not allowed to talk about it, so don’t get him in trouble.”
Dieter hunched down. “Sorry, boss.”
Everyone at the table went silent. Sonny and I glanced at each other. I hoped he could tell I appreciated the help. The less they knew the better. If things were different, I would’ve liked to be friends with them. I checked to see if Kayla still watched, but she was gone.
“I might as well eat with you guys tonight.” Sonny took a seat at the end corner across from me and set his tray down. “Why don’t we go play some pool tonight?”
Everyone roared in approval.
“You coming, Ian?” Sonny asked.
"Sure, but I may just watch.” I wasn't about to tell this crowd I had no idea what this "pool" thing was, or how you played it.
Sonny winked and nodded as if he'd read my thoughts. "Great."
Once again, they found a way to distract me. Worse yet, I enjoyed spending time with Sonny. I imagined that this was sort of what it was like to have a father.
Chapter 14
Over the next week, my visions about my fellow workers continued. Any problem that could’ve went wrong, I stopped it before it happened – even a couple of more minor accidents such as Dieter almost getting a piece of metal in his eye from forgetting to wear his goggles. When I told him to put them on, unlike Hector, he didn’t hesitate.
Visions about Sonny were unique because I suspected them to be about something in the past. It was always the same thing. Him yelling ‘no’ over and over in a dark room standing before something covered on a table. I always snapped awake, heart pounding, before I could find out any more. Whatever troubled him, he never talked about it.
The workers knew I had some sort of ability, but they thought of it as a quirk and didn’t make a big deal of it, which was how I wanted it. Meanwhile, I wasn’t having any luck trying to find a way out of Marscorp.
When I came into my room after a long shift, the holo blinked with a voice message from Clare.
“Just wanted to let you know I’m on my way to an outpost to train more ensigns for a few days, but don’t worry there is no combat in the area. I will try to contact you when I get there. Please be careful in those factories.”
I should’ve known Clare would eventually be going on some trip. With her gone, I had a chance to steal her hovercraft and use her security codes to cross the border. Even better, any supplies I needed were at the house.
She never used her hovercraft anyway and could easily get another one. The only problem was I needed a key to unlock it and start the engine. She kept the key in the study somewhere in her desk. I should’ve thought of this sooner.
Only thing was I had to skip dinner and sleep to do it. In protest, my stomach growled for food and my muscles begged for rest while I grabbed a few things and stuffed them into my pockets.
When my hand rested on the doorknob, I pictured Sonny searching the entire shop for me in the morning. He deserved at least a goodbye. If I was successful in starting Clare’s hovercraft, I would message him from there with a brief explanation. He’d be disappointed, but Beacon wouldn’t tolerate my stalling much longer.
As I came out of the hall, Sonny’s and Hector’s voices drifted out of the office. I rushed past, hoping to look like an unrecognizable blur and hurried into an open elevator.
After taking three elevators and a tram, I entered the executive bio-dome while the sun set. My cart was gone so I walked all the way, but didn’t mind. After working in the shop, the color of trees and vegetation appeared more intense than I remembered. I hadn’t fully appreciated the beauty of this place and could only imagine how striking it would be to Sonny or others who were seldom allowed in a bio-dome.
I went in through the front door, raced into the kitchen and set the food processer to cook roast chicken. My mouth watered as the chicken rotated and turned golden brown. Still it wasn’t fast enough.
While I waited, my com buzzed and Sonny’s name popped up. At first, I didn’t know if I should answer it, but the continual buzzing nagged me into giving in.
“Hey Ian, where are you? Is everything okay?” His gentle concerned voice made me guilty for not answering sooner.
“Oh yeah, sorry I forgot to tell you I went back home to get a few things.” I was the worst person on Mars lying to him this way.
“You missed dinner. Aren’t you hungry?”
“I’m cooking some chicken.”
“Oh, no wonder you went back home.” He chuckled. “I don’t blame you. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Yes,” I said, sheepishly and shut the com. I stared at the wall remembering all the funny moments with the guys, especially Sonny. In the long run, Beacon would only let me stay if I had the visions for him, which I wasn’t about to do.
After devouring the chicken, I went into the study and pulled the desk drawer, but no keys. I shifted everything around, but still didn’t find them. Next, I went through all the drawers and cupboards, but found nothing. She must’ve anticipated my plan. Why couldn’t Clare help me instead of getting in the way? In a burst of anger, my fist struck a collection of old books and knocked them off the shelf.
I couldn’t give up yet and thought harder. Her holo might contain an override code for her vessel. I plopped down in the chair in front of Clare’s holo, switched it on and tried to hack into it – entering passwords for an hour before giving up.
At least I had another day to work with Sonny, so I decided to get a few more of my model ships. I went upstairs and stopped in the doorway of my room.
A couple of model vessels were on the floor. My case of data chips was open and a couple of chips were on the desk - the ones about famous psychics, like Edgar Cayce and Nostradamus from hundreds of years ago. Everything inside my desk drawer was mixed up.
“What the hell?”
The closet door was partially opened. Inside, on the floor, my tools and boxes were switched around. Clare had gone through my things. I considered going over to her room and trashing it.
I switched on the holo, but found all the data missing. Even the delete bin was empty. My hands tightened around the handles of the chair. Clare might snoop, but she didn’t erase data.
The case of the holo looked different. A scratch was missing – one that had been there a long time. The black metal shined more than usual. I held my breath and stood up - this wasn’t even my holo. Someone took it.
I hurried down the stairs and checked the front and back doors. There were no signs of tampering. Nothing appeared out of place, until I spotted the basement door opened a centimeter. Clare would never leave it unlocked while away, let alone open.
The lock had laser burn marks around it. I hurried down the stairs and over to the door wall - again, hacked into with a laser. A holo sat on a counter among test tubes and a slew of lab equipment. It was on – although in power saver mode. A tap of the keyboard woke up the holo. A 3D image of a human brain appeared with the sections labeled. I recognized it as the same image of Nate’s brain, but this time a metal device was inserted into one of the lobes.
I took a step back. A bad feeling caused me to break out into a sweat. Then I shrugged. It had to be an idea Clare had for saving Nate that failed. Clare’s lab holo had retina scan security on it, which was impossible to break into – but someone had. I searched through the files trying to find out more, but it was nothing but reams of medical babble among diagrams of brains and the device.
Of course, I tried to find a code to her hovercraft too, but just my luck that information was not on her lab holo.
Someone broke in, but who and why? My eyes widened as I realized it had to be Bret and Kayla. Maybe they wanted to find out more about me. Instead, they came across Clare’s work.
As for my holo, it also had the retina scan security, but maybe they hit a snag an
d took it – perhaps to keep trying. Even if they hacked into it, I didn’t care if they saw my searches for red heads or my questions to a few organizations about defectors. But as for Clare’s lab holo, I imagined they had downloaded a ton of information and already transmitted it to Vallar. Not that I cared.
But how did they get into the dome? The normal entrance was impossible to pass without a correct retina scan. The only other possible way was the private hangar. I turned off all the computers in the basement and ran outside.
Using a cart, I arrived at the private hangar and hurried inside. A few hovercrafts sat there unmoved – all civilian models. Another vessel had parked in the spot where my hovercraft once sat. Clare’s vessel was there with about two inches of dust on it. Even if I somehow got through the door, the engine wouldn’t start without the correct codes.
I put on an envirosuit to examine the airlock and went outside. Again, the panels for both hangar doors in the airlock had been tampered with, but what didn’t make sense is how they got past the robot patrols. It had to be Bret and Kayla.
Metal-framed robots patrolled the outside of the executive bio-dome. Armed with lasers, they would transmit a warning at any sign of an intruder. Anyone who worked on the outside of the dome had to call ahead to make sure the robots knew about it. I adjusted the visor magnification and spotted a lump of metal on the ground about sixty meters away.
No other robots were in sight, so I hurried out to take a look. A robot was broken and partially covered with dust. These robots were resistant to laser fire and difficult to disable. Dents marred the metal of this robot and its arm dangled by a few wires.
A hole went right in the through the chest and out the back. I couldn’t imagine how Bret could get close enough to it to drill a hole in him.
As I examined the hole, a lead bullet fell onto the dust. My mouth dropped open. It made sense. Bret purposely used an old gun to get through the robots defense. This impressed the hell out of me, but it scared me too.
I imagined Bret was trying to make a decision about me – to let me live or die. He had the skill to kill me quietly if he wanted. I had to escape before finding out. The cargo hovercrafts were my last possible way. I needed to get another look at the shipping route.
I hurried back to the house and cleaned up the mess, even fixing all the locks. If Clare found out it might lead to an investigation, which might lead to Kayla being discovered. I couldn’t let that happen.
By the time I left the house, it was dark. As I rode in an elevator back to the factory, I thought about Kayla. It had to be hard for her to come here so soon after the loss of Layne. I wished I could tell her Layne’s last words, but that would be too complicated. How could I cheer her up? She didn’t even know me that well.
Around 0400 hours, I stepped out into the elevator section right before the tube where one could view the cargo vessels. The familiar vibration of particles blowing over the tube calmed me. I’d pay tomorrow for staying up this late.
The lights on the cargo vessel walls bounced on the side of the buildings. Traffic had lightened up. A few vessels were from allied organizations, but how could I make friends with one of the pilots?
Footsteps clicked near the entrance of the tube. I turned, but saw no one. Yet another unexpected noise startled me. At the end of the tunnel, a man stood with his back to me. Something about him made me uneasy, and I inched toward the elevators.
The man turned around, his forehead and chin covered in a black mask. His mouth formed a straight menacing line. He took steady steps toward me.
I stumbled backward and put my hands up. “Whoa! What do you want?”
He said nothing and kept coming. I spun around, ran down the tunnel and bolted for the elevators that I had just gotten off. I pressed the button to open the elevator door, but heavy footsteps charged down the tube after me.
I waited until he was behind me, spun around, and put my foot between the log-like like legs. The hulking figure crashed to the floor.
“Sorry, but just leave me alone, okay?” I backed away from him and shifted toward the tube.
A gruff voice mumbled something unrecognizable. He scrambled to his feet and burly arms lunged for me. I ran down the tube again. Thick hands grabbed my collar and jerked me to the floor.
“Please stop!”
The man tried to hold me down, but I squirmed away, stood up and ran all the way to the opposite elevator lobby.
“Stop running and fight,” the man said - his voice altered through a distorter built into the mask. He slowly started for me.
I pulled the com out of my pocket and tried to call Sonny, but the man reached for it, so I put it back in my pocket. We shifted left, circling each other. Had Bret sent this man to kill me?
The man outweighed me by at least a hundred pounds. He wore long sleeves and gloves.
“Why are you doing this?”
Hard blue eyes stared at me with an insane intensity. “I heard you need to learn your place.”
“What are you talking about?”
Instead of answering, he charged. I tried to trip him again, but a cement-like leg swiped my foot away. Another foot came around and hit me in the stomach.
I bent over, straining to breathe. “Please, sir, I’m not your enemy.”
“Shut up!” His fist rushed toward me.
I tried to block it, but the powerful punch pushed right through my arms, hitting me on the side of the face and dropping me to the floor. A claw-like hand yanked the com out of my pocket, dropped it on the floor and a thick heel dug into it. Tiny metal parts shot out from under the large foot and scratched along the floor.
I ignored the pain and forced myself to stand up. I had to get back to the elevators, somehow. I stood hunched and wobbled, pretending to be dazed and waited for him to get closer. The masked form moved slowly toward me. I took a swing and caught him in the jaw before he could block it, but he only flinched.
I rushed to the elevator and pushed all the buttons for the three elevators.
The man shook his head and lunged. I swung at him again, but it was blocked. He picked me up by the collar, held me up in the air for a minute and thrust me down to the floor. I rolled over, trembling and gasped to catch my breath.
As stars floated around the ceiling, I strained to get air back into my lungs, slowly rolled over and struggled to get up. He made me feel like a limp seal being tenderized for a shark.
“You little bastard!” The man yanked a six inch knife from his belt and thrust it up against my throat. I winced as the metal dug into my skin.
I struggled to speak through chattering teeth. “Who a-a-are you?”
“They offered me a great reward to watch you,” he whispered in a creepy tone. “The brass is going to make me an elite security officer and give me a home in the executive bio-dome.”
My teeth could only chatter faster.
Overseer Williams’ shoes clicked as he came around the corner with a few officers at his sides. He leered over me. “Foolish boy. You think you can lead Admiral Beacon on a mad dust devil chase?”
“W-What?” I asked.
Williams leaned down and opened his com, holding it in his palm. Admiral Beacon materialized above it in the form of a holograph. He sat a desk with his hands folded. “Connors, I am disturbed by the fact that you gave me false information. Your lie caused me to waste three days. I will not tolerate insubordination. Williams will carry out your punishment.”
I’d forgotten about giving him a fake location of the Gentech base. The conversation with Clare seemed like a year ago. I had to pretend it was a mistake. “I didn’t do it on purpose. Everything I said, I thought was right.”
Beacon’s image froze. It was only a recording.
Williams snapped the com shut. “He told me to ignore you if you continued to lie.”
“This is a mistake. Just let me talk to him.”
“Proceed.”
“Wait!”
He dug his knuckles into my shou
lder while keeping the knife to my throat. Something sharp stuck into my skin from his glove. An uncontrollable scream came out of me as intense pain radiated down my arm.
He pulled his hand away and sheathed the knife back onto his belt. The pain continued to come in waves going from my shoulder to arm. Every movement amplified the torture. The officers pulled me to my feet while my arm trembled.
The hall weaved as I rose up and I cradled my arm. “What are you going to do?”
“You’ll see soon enough. Try to think of this as coming directly from Beacon. He gave me specific instructions on what to do with you.”
They dragged me into an open elevator. Williams pushed me onto the backseat. I hunched over, strained to breathe and tried to stop shaking. As the elevator rolled along it felt like a knife turned in my arm. I bit the bottom of my lip as the doors opened back at the elevator factory.
“Get out and over to your station,” Williams ordered.
I forced myself out, feeling light headed and swaying. The clock read 0600 hours and most of the other workers were at their stations. When I moved my arm, another whimper tried to escape. I pressed my lips shut and sank to my knees outside the elevator.
Tears welled up and spilled down my cheeks as the officers yanked me up. Beacon had made up his mind. He knew I lied, but it was worth it to protect Kayla. They dragged me over to my station. The big man stood with his arms folded, still with the mask on like some sort of robot.
Everyone in the shop looked over, but I didn’t see Sonny. Williams gave me a final shove toward my workbench. I bumped into it and a few screwdrivers fell off their hooks.
“Now turn on the track and get to work.”
My left arm hung limp and any movement caused a new round of torture. How could I work?
“Do it!” Williams snapped. “Beacon doesn’t want you to like it here, so the object is to make you hate it.”
I hit the green button and lifted a drill with my right hand. An elevator in need of repair rolled into the station. Williams and the officers stared, waiting for me to repair it. I tried to steady the drill to get the bolts off to remove the back plate. The drill felt as if it gained twenty pounds. Pain distracted me too much to hold the drill into the screws. It slipped over and over, scratching up the metal. I begged my arm to work, but it refused.