by Matt Verish
Cole shrugged. “I could’ve asked this guy that very same thing if Inspector Testy here hadn’t intervened.” He ignored Emmerich’s one-finger salute. “My guess would be that Caliber didn’t have anything to do with us being transferred.” He met both their gazes in turn. “Are there any other members of your cabal I should know about?”
“Other than the traitor?” Emmerich asked, referring to Forester.
Cole tilted his head. “Technically, Lin and I are also traitors...to your cause, that is.”
She sighed and patted her rifle. “You have a death wish, Musgrave.”
“No,” Lin said, addressing his question. “There are just the three of us. Research kept the members of our group to a minimum.”
Cole finished tying his “new” boots and stood, trying not to think about the warm, moist feeling in-between his toes. “That you know of,” he said. He elaborated when Lin narrowed her eyes. “You, Emmerich...” He pointed to them both and thumbed behind himself, “and Forester were the three you knew of. Who knows how many other moles Research planted within this company to keep an eye on things.”
“Regardless,” Emmerich interrupted, annoyed, “even if we were being monitored without our knowledge, it’s not possible anyone would be able to infiltrate SolEx to initiate a transfer under Caliber’s name.”
“That is correct,” Lin said. “The SolEx security system utilizes a state-of-the-art nanobiotechnological CPU and is virtually impregnable. Upgrades are constant, and the AI is ever-learning to deter hackers. To override such a complex firewall is a monumental undertaking and would require directly accessing the mainframe and recoding the system. Such a task is impossible for humans, our feeble minds slow and predictable. It would take a superior mind—computer mind—to accomplish successful infiltration.
The trio’s eyes widened at the sound of CAIN’s androgynous voice through the ship’s loudspeakers. Cole was the first to recover from shock. “Hey, Cain.” He delivered a sloppy salute in no particular direction.
Cole couldn’t help but grin at the title. “This little gathering all your doing?”
He hacked SolEx! “Glad to see you’re still with us,” he said, making his way toward the still-dark console, “but we’re all a bit confused as to your aim.”
Lin caught up to Cole and held up her hand to interject. “CAIN. How did you manage to come back online?”
“He seems...different,” Cole whispered. “Like he’s in control.”
Worry creased Lin’s brow. She placed her hand on the console, her fingers gliding across the smooth, metallic surface. “CAIN. Are you making your own decisions?”
Lin spun toward Cole, her eyes bulging. She grabbed both his arms and appeared on the verge of hysterics. He frowned. “You’re kinda freakin’ me out with those eyes, Doc.”
“Are the two of you done conspiring?” Emmerich asked. She was sitting on the backside of the unconscious officer. “They’re not going to sleep forever, and people are going to be asking questions soon. How long before they figure out a program duped an entire corporation?”
“She’s got a point,” Cole said to Lin, though she was staring off at nothing. “Yeah, keep doing that,” he said, freeing himself from her grip. He patted her on the head like a puppy and jogged back over to Emmerich.
“Any bright ideas, Captain?”
Cole raised his finger to answer, but no words fell from his lips. In actuality, he had no idea what was supposed to happen next. Common sense screamed that he to take the lift down, bolt from the ship, find the nearest foreman, and declare his innocence, minus the assault on two company officers. Despite his gut feeling about a bleak future, continuing any further down this current path would only make matters worse. Now that CAIN had come forward with its involvement, the status of his fate was still undecided. Perhaps there was a chance he would be spared the Debt Colony after all. If he saw things right.
The snapping of Emmerich’s fingers brought Cole back to reality. “Hey, I don’t need you going all mannequin on me too, Musgrave. Get it together.”
Cole gazed down at Emmerich, then at the assault rifle hanging from his grip. “I can’t help you.” The despair in his voice made him queasy.
CAIN said in response to Emmerich’s initial question.
Emmerich stood and nodded her approval. “Sounds good. Let’s get to work.” She slapped Cole on the shoulder and stepped past him. She slowed when he did not follow. “You got a problem?”
“Aside from the obvious?” He indicated the officers splayed out on the floor. “This has to stop, Emmerich. It’s gone too far.”
“Maybe for you it has.” She jabbed her index finger at him. “But as I see it, Dartmouth and I have no alternatives. We’re debtor fodder for certain.”
“And what do you think is going to happen after you roll said officers down the ramp and onto the bay? Are you going to put your faith in a glitchy AI program to fly you both to safety? Do you really think you’ll last more than a day on the run from Research, SolEx, and Terracom?”
Emmerich was unfazed. “Already distancing yourself from us?” She took a step closer to him, her expression intense—dangerous. “Do you honestly think you have any chance of salvaging your ‘career’ as an interstellar cargo pilot after what you did to them?” She pointed angrily toward the two officers.
“You’ll both be dead before the day’s out.” Cole set down the weapon.
Emmerich spat at Cole’s feet. “We’ll take our chances, slave. If we die, then at least we’ll die free.” She kicked the second rifle. “Have fun wasting away on Terracom 3. It’s where you belong.”
Cole turned to leave, forcing himself not to meet Lin’s pleading stare.
“First your mother; now us,” Emmerich said.
An inferno of hatred ignited Cole, and he rushed at Emmerich with every intention of murder. He came up short, however, when he found himself staring down the barrel of the assault rifle. He trembled with rage, searching for any sign she wouldn’t pull the trigger.
“Don’t think I won’t, because I will. It’ll be no less than you deserve.”
The calm in her voice was enough to bring Cole from his fury. He relaxed his white-knuckled fists and sighed. “You ignorant bitch. You might have served under my mother for a time, but you were oblivious to her true nature. If you’d seen through her heroic façade, you might’ve had a different view of her. She was a tyrant”
Emmerich stared through the weapon’s sight. “My view is impeccable.”
The ship lurched, the engines coming to life. An intense blue glow emblazoned the bridge console, casting everyone in an eerie, cold pall. Cole seized this distraction to reach for Emmerich’s pointed weapon. He grabbed the barrel and yanked hard, pulling himself toward her and out of harm’s way. His elbow slammed into her jaw, and she staggered, the rifle slipping from her grasp. Before she could recover, Cole drove his boot into her solar plexus, sending her reeling backward and falling atop the closest officer.
Emmerich cursed and was slow to stand up. When she managed to rise to a crouch, she looked up to stare down the same barrel. She sighed and remained seated.
“I’m glad you understand the severity of your situation,” Cole said, his trigger finger a hair’s-breath away from blowing open the back of Emmerich’s chest. “I should end you right here. It would be no less than you deserve.” He took a slow, steady couple of steps away from her.
&nbs
p; Emmerich grinned. She raised her arm, and Cole fired. Lin gasped. Blood sprayed against the door of the lift. The heavy clank of metal against the floor barely registered above the din of the gunshot. Cole’s groan was deep and pained. He knew it was all over.
“You shot me!”
Emmerich was scurrying away from the writhing officer who had awakened during the argument. She glimpsed the plastol on the floor, the blood spatter, and the shoulder from which it had come. “Wh-what?”
Cole wished he could blame his regretful action on instinctive response, but his flaring temper and momentary paranoia had clouded his judgment. He saw a gun brandished, and he reacted accordingly. Only now did he understand how grave an error he had made. I just shot an innocent man. I’ve lost my mind.
CAIN announced.
Cole’s head was abuzz with information overload. He had crossed a line from which he could never return. The moans of an officer, the glare of a terrorist, and the tears of genius...they bore into his soul. There was no way around it; he was a criminal who had made yet another powerful enemy. Terracom, SolEx, and the shadow of Research would all want him dead. It was all too much to process. He was at the eye of a galactic storm, being crushed by the weight of the unforgiving universe.
And it was here, on the verge of madness, that he finally found clarity.
18
LOCKDOWN
Cole leaned the rifle against his thigh and breathed the heaviest sigh of his life. He opened his eyes to a new world and snapped his fingers. “Cain.”
“ ‘Space Trucking’ by Deep Purple. Play it on the loudspeaker. We’re gonna need all the help we can get.”
The gritty, driving notes of Jon Lord’s Hammond organ erupted within the ICV-71, causing the other occupants to look all around as though their ears were deceiving them. A song nearly 250 years old was playing in the midst of absolute chaos.
“You’re crazy,” the wounded officer said to Cole, his pained voice barely carrying over the blaring song. “You’ll never make it out of here alive.”
“Maybe not,” Cole said, clapping his hands along with the track, “but you will.” He pointed at Emmerich. “Get up, and grab your weapon. We’ve got work to do.”
Emmerich seemed hesitant to obey. She stared at Cole as though she was witnessing the unraveling of his mental state before her very eyes. It was not until he shouted “Come on!” in unison with Ian Gillan’s shrieking vocals that she did as asked.
“Keep an eye on these rifles,” Cole said to Lin, “just in case.” He collected the plastol and tapped on its stock as though it was an instrument used for something other than death.
Emmerich was watching Cole with concern written on her face. “Instructions?”
“You!” Cole shouted at the bleeding officer. He pointed the weapon at him and flicked it upward. “I didn’t shoot you in the leg, so get up.” He watched the frightened officer do as asked, his hand pressed tightly against his wound. “Now you’re going to assist the good inspector with shouldering your unconscious partner.” He frowned. “Use your good shoulder, of course.”
“Are you nuts?” Emmerich demanded. “You don’t expect me to—”
“I do,” Cole interrupted, his attention on the officer struggling to stand. He glanced at the surname patch on his uniform: Webb. “Officer Webb, here, won’t give you any shit.” He aimed the weapon directly at the man’s other shoulder. “Unless, of course, he wishes to be a temporary paraplegic. In that case, I’ll help you bring both of them down.” Cole arched his eyebrow, and Webb knelt down to his partner’s side. Emmerich shook her head and followed suit.
The unlikely pair had little trouble lifting the dead weight and hauling him over to the blood spattered lift. Cole was close behind, weapon poised to fire. “We’ll be back in a bit, Doc,” he said with his back turned. “Keep our boy Cain company while we escort our guests off the ship.”
He’s all about that crate. “You see, Officer Webb? He’s got nothing but your best interest in mind. Who says man and machine can’t coexist?” Cole stepped into the cramped space and pressed the barrel against the man’s forehead. “Me? I’ve got my best interest in mind.”
The lift door slid closed, muffling the thundering song. Cole never blinked as they toward the cargo bay. His head bobbed up and down slightly to the beat, and a sliver of a smile spread across his lips. “Glad I can still hear it.”
Emmerich continued to shake her head, though there was a hint of amusement hidden behind those steely eyes. Or was it intrigue? More than likely it was the look of someone plotting to kill the lunatic pilot.
The door opened, the roots of heavy metal pouring in with abandon. Cole stepped back to allow the trio to exit the lift. They made their way past crates, cases, and pallets of unknown cargo until they came upon what they were seeking. It was the only container on casters, the lid unhinged. Most certainly it was not big enough for two men of their size to fit comfortably inside, but the journey would be brief. As if sensing their discovery, CAIN proceeded deploy the loading ramp.
“You know what to do,” Cole told them both. “In.”
“Just let me drag him off,” Webb pleaded. “I can manage. Don’t make me get inside there.”
Cole had been shaking his head the entire time he spoke. “What, and give you the opportunity to alert others of our escape? Nope.”
“If you don’t think he’s already used NuFi to alert SolEx, then you’re completely disillusioned.”
“There you go,” Cole said. “Not sure how that’s possible, but today’s been a day of surprises.” He returned his attention to the officer. “Sleeping Beauty first.”
Defeated, the officer assisted Emmerich in laying his partner on the bottom of the crate. The procedure was awkward, probably painful, but it did not, however, hinder him from lunging at Emmerich the moment they had finished. Cole watched as the former inspector landed a single punch into his wounded shoulder and dropped him to the ground in agony. Her boot connected with the side of his head, ceasing his cries.
Cole tucked the sidearm into his waistband and assisted Emmerich with loading the second officer. Webb fell awkwardly atop his partner to the sound of Ian Paice’s drum solo. Neither made an attempt to tuck him inside. They grabbed the heavy wooden lid, dropped it on top, and forced most of the metal clasps to close. They gave an unceremonious shove toward the ramp, and the crate rolled down. When it reached the bottom, the casters met with empty air, and the momentum caused it to tumble and land on its side. The force of the thunderous impact caused the entire crate to collapse and send its unconscious contents spilling across the hangar runway into a pile of wood chunks and metal bits.
Cole laughed in spite of himself as the loading ramp raised up to close. “You think anyone noticed that?” he asked Emmerich with a grin.
She shrugged, her expression both appalled and amused. “Hindsight being what it is, we probably should have just let him drag off his partner instead. Who knows if we would’ve needed that crate.”
Cole was already heading back toward the bridge. “Hey, we couldn’t disappoint Cain. He had that crate added to the manifest specifically for his entertainment.”
Emmerich was on his heels. “You have a bizarre way of coping with stressful situations, Musgrave. Not that I’m complaining.”
They skipped the lift and ran up the stairs. Cole grabbed the rail and pulled himself up the steps faster. “Might as well enjoy what littl
e time I got left.”
“Who said I’m not enjoying myself?”
“Fine! We!”
They barged into the bridge, slightly winded. Lin was sitting before the console in the co-pilot’s chair. She gazed at them both with uncertainty and annoyance at the tune blaring out of the loudspeakers. Cole offered her a casual wave before planting himself in the seat adjacent to her. He studied the viewport screen, expecting to see an army of security guards and vehicles blocking their escape. Instead there was a clear path welcoming them onward.
“Kinda quiet,” Cole said of the lack of alarm and activity. He grinned at the absurdity of his statement as Ian Gillan’s vocals shrieked. “Out there, I mean. I was pretty sure that stunt we just pulled would cause a huge ruckus.”