Time Siege

by Wesley Chu

  Raets walked as if he had no worries. “Get out. All of you,” he said in a deadpan voice.

  “The air is off in the hallway,” 630 said.

  Raets shrugged. “This won’t take long. You’ll live.”

  339 stuck his hand out and motioned for them to stay. “It’s late, Guardsman Raets. What do you want?”

  “I won’t repeat myself, inmates,” Guardsman Raets spoke again, his voice soft. “Stand aside.”

  “You’re not Raets, are you?” 339 said. “What are you, an assassin?”

  Immediately, 339’s captains all jumped off the bunks and made a wall between him and the fake guard. 461 slipped to the back and blocked the gate. His men’s loyalty touched 339. A few months ago, these ragtag fodders only looked out for themselves. The only thing they cared about was how they could avoid the violence and gangs, to dig for more minerals so they could eat just one more meal, and to survive one more morning in this hellhole. Now, there was a wall of them standing between him and an assassin. The warmth that welled in him felt greater than any heater cig could.

  Then 339 noticed a familiar faint translucent yellow glow surround the impostor guardsman. “Get back,” he cried.

  It was too late. A sudden force expanded from the impostor, and 339’s captains flew backward, slamming into the bunks and the walls. 102, the oldest of his captains, lunged at the assassin, only to stop in midair. He squawked as he floated, rotating onto his back as he flailed his arms and legs.

  339 was a dead man. This assassin was skilled with an exo, not some inmate punk who had just happened to get his hands on a set of bands. In fact, everyone in this cell was as good as dead.

  “Everybody stay down.” 339 pushed 630 back to the ground as the man tried to get up, then put his hands behind his head. 102, still rotating like an errant satellite, floated out of his way as 339 stepped up to the assassin. “Let the rest of the men go. I’m your mark.”

  The assassin scanned the rest of the room, looking unworried and almost bored. “Still the same righteous bastard. Prison hasn’t dulled that sharp stick up your ass.”

  The assassin’s face began to erase itself. First, the skin tones faded and the colors began to swim together. Then the lines across his face unraveled, un-drawing until there was nothing more than a blank canvas on his face. Then the flesh tone dispersed, revealing a sharp face, pronounced nose, and short unruly hair matted to his head. The only thing different was that he was now dark. Much darker.

  339 was surprised. This was the last person he expected to see. A series of emotions surged through him. Some relief, some curiosity, but mostly anger. He clenched his fist. “What are you doing here? Come back to finish the job?”

  “I’m not here to kill you,” the man replied. “I wish I was. On the contrary, Levin Javier-Oberon, I’m here to break you out. Earth needs you.”

  SIXTEEN

  REUNITED

  James could really use a damn drink right about now. The journey to Nereid from Bulk’s Head had been particularly rough. Who would have thought taking a beating from Raets would have been the highlight of his week?

  After acquiring the guardsman’s identity and hopping on the transport, it had taken him two days to reach Appolonia Trading Station orbiting Neptune before transferring to Nereid the next day. Add another day to locate Penal Colony 3, two more to embed himself as a guard, and then one more to locate the right prisoner. Now, the guy that James had made this incredibly long and dull journey to retrieve was telling him he didn’t feel like leaving. For some insane reason beyond comprehension, Levin was actually giving him shit for trying to break him out of jail.

  Black abyss, his mouth was parched. Just the thought of a drink—preferably something from the Luxe Empire—right now made his skin itch. James’s wits and patience were near their end. For the life of him, he couldn’t figure out why the fool wasn’t jumping at the opportunity to leave Nereid. James had just assumed that he would break down into big fat tears of relief once he showed up. Well, maybe not tears. Levin Javier-Oberon was still an auditor.

  “Look, maybe I’m not being clear,” he said, gnashing his teeth. “I came a long way to break you out of the worst prison in the entire solar system. If you don’t want to come then you’re an idiot.”

  One of Levin’s toadies raised his hand. “Boss, I don’t know what the abyss is going on, but if this guy is here to bust you out of Nereid, God, do it. Go. Take the chance.”

  Levin turned to his man. “It’s not as simple as that. I have oaths to keep, not only to you men, but to someone else as well. I can’t break them.”

  “Boss,” another one of his guys added. “I’m an old lifer. Nereid is my fourth stint in prison and the hole I’ll die in. In all my miserable years, there’s been few good, clean guys, and you’re one of them. One of the last decent fucks in the universe. I owe you more in the two months I’ve known you than anyone I knew my entire life, including my mother, so if this asshole here wants to break you out, oath to us or not, take it. Get the fuck out of here, boss!” Several of the captains around him nodded.

  The news that 339 was not only ex-ChronoCom, but an auditor of the ninth chain, came as a shock but not too big a surprise to his men. They all said they knew something about him was special. James had to give it to the guy: only here a few months and already treated like a messiah.

  “You should listen to them,” James said. “In fact, I can’t even believe we’re having this discussion. Are you space sick or something?”

  Levin dug in. “I chose to come to Nereid to atone for my crimes. I don’t have much these days except my integrity.”

  Flabbergasted, James clenched his fist and his jaws and every part of his body in between, and had to physically will himself not to punch the wall. “Here’s what I’m going to do,” he said finally. “I’m going to step out of the cell for five minutes. You finish up whatever you have to do with your guys, and then I’m going to come back and blast a fucking hole in that wall behind you, and then we’re going to leave.”

  Without waiting for an answer, James stomped out of the cell. He rounded the corner into the corridor and took a deep breath. Convincing an ex-auditor doing a life sentence in the worst shithole in the solar system to leave was supposed to be the easiest part of this job. The guy should be offering to name his firstborn after him. Of course, things were never that easy, not that breaking in here was easy to begin with, but to actually have the job fall apart because the guy wanted to stay in prison …

  A guttural noise crawled up his throat. It killed him that this ingrate was what was keeping him away from Elise and Sasha. It had taken less coaxing from Elise to make him leave her. It had taken his little ten-year-old sister telling him to stop being a concrete-head to get him to fly across the solar system. Now, the only thing keeping him from returning to the two most important people in his life was this asshole dragging his heels.

  “I should just kidnap him and force him to freedom.” No, James knew that wouldn’t work. A guy like Levin was all principle. Probably would rather die than be forced to do something. That could be arranged. No, the Elfreth need him; Elise needed him. Levin had to be persuaded to come willingly. It was the only way.

  James buried his head in his hands. “Black abyss, I need a drink.” Those men were whispering animatedly inside the cell, probably either figuring out how to steal his bands or to tell him to get lost. Well, good luck to them.

  “Time’s up,” he said and walked back in. “How do you want to play this?”

  Levin didn’t look like he was packed and ready to go. In fact, he was sitting on the bed looking more relaxed than ever. He pointed at the bunk bed across from him. “Have a seat, James. Rest of you, please wait outside.”

  James kept his sights on Levin as one by one, his eleven men filed out until they were all alone. Levin pointed at the empty bed again.

  “I’ll stand,” James said. “I’m not staying here long.”

  “How long have you bee
n here in the penal colony?” Levin asked.

  “Long enough to know you’re running half the joint. Impressive, though not a surprise, really.”

  “You know what will happen if I leave, right? My boys will get butchered.”

  James shrugged. “So? This is a prison. Butchering happens.”

  “I’ve made promises. I can’t just leave them like this.”

  James had a bad feeling about what his former superior was about to say next. “Look, we don’t have time for this. I’m not going to stay here and help you muscle a prison war. Not to mention the amount of heat it’ll bring. I’ll have Amazon military here within days. On top of that—”

  Levin shook his head. “I don’t want you to fight this war. I want you to help me prevent it altogether. You do this one thing for me, it’ll allow me keep all my promises and save these poor souls.”

  “What do you care about a bunch of convicts? You’re Levin, High Auditor of the ninth chain. Hardass.”

  “Former High Auditor, and I’ve come to care since I became one of them. That and I don’t break promises.”

  “This isn’t a negotiation. We…” In his head, James heard Elise and Grace, and Oldest Franwil, for that matter, berating him. Bitters make poor lures. It wouldn’t hurt to hear him out. He exhaled, resigned. “What do you want?”

  “I want to take someone else with me when we go.”

  James reluctantly nodded. “It complicates things, but can be arranged. Let the lucky lad know he got a ticket out of hell and let’s get out of here.”

  “He’s not in this block.”

  That threw James off. “Isn’t Block San the People’s block?”

  “It is.” Levin stood up and beckoned James to follow him. James extended his atmos over Levin and they headed into the darkened corridors toward the main hub connecting all the blocks. Outside, the rest of his men lounged in the hallways, watching James warily. Levin told them to wait in his cell until morning, and then he and James made their way to the hub gates. He pointed through the small window across the communal hub to the gate at the far end. “The guy we need to get is there.”

  James pulled the schematics of the prison in his AI band. He frowned. “My intel says that’s Block Ba, the Apex quarters.”

  Levin looked at James, a small smile cracking his lips. “That’s right. If you want me to go with you, we need to take the leader of the Apexes with us.”

  Levin had to be screwing with him.

  “Get outta here. You’re kidding, right?” he asked. “He’s the last guy you want to watch your back.”

  “Like you said; what’s escaping from Nereid worth to a convict?”

  This complicated James’s plans. It was one thing for the man to bring a loyal underling, probably someone Levin could control. Bringing a total stranger could cause problems. The man could stab them in the back or betray them for a pardon.

  He shook his head. “Too risky. It’s a long flight back to Earth. That guy could just murder us in our sleep.”

  “Let me worry about him,” Levin said. “That’s the deal. We bring their leader with us and I’ll cooperate.”

  With almost any other person, James would have refused. However, no matter how much he hated Levin’s guts, he knew the man kept his word. He nodded. “All right.”

  “Good. What’s our escape plan?”

  James shrugged. “Yeah, about that. We’ll need to work something else out. I wasn’t expecting to transport three.”

  His original escape plan literally entailed blowing through one of the exterior walls and carrying both of them out into space to the Frankenstein, waiting for them within the nearby Kuiper Belt. However, his bands didn’t have enough levels remaining to carry three that distance, at least without a little help. They would need to board a ship to take them at least part of the way.

  “We’ll address that once we get everyone on board,” Levin said. “Open the gates. Let’s go visit the Apexes.”

  James bristled at being ordered around. He had never taken to Levin’s authority, even when he was the subordinate. Now that he was here to rescue the man, he took to it even less. It was something they were going to have to work out if they were to coexist. Still, he dutifully did as ordered and opened the gates.

  He put Raets’s paint job back on him, just on the off chance they ran into another guard wandering the halls. The two walked in silence in the darkness, navigating the quiet rooms, opening and closing the gates through James’s control band as they traversed the sprawling facility, past the fabricating shop, through the processing plant into the commune. It took them twenty minutes of winding paths and a dozen flights of steep stairs before they reached Block Ba on the opposite end of Penal Colony 3. It was located in the lowest level of colony, converted as a late add-on when the prison had become overcrowded. It was also the farthest from the rest of the other colony, offering the residents here the most privacy.

  “That was like descending a steep mountain,” James said. “It must be a hellish trek after a day in the mines. Why would anyone want to live so far away from the rest of the colony?”

  “Block Ba used to be an old storeroom next to the heat generators. Even turned off, the corridors and shared rooms in the block stay relatively warm.”

  They reached the large double gates of the block at the end of a large ramp. James activated Raets’s control band, and the gates slid outward, with the sound of chains clinking together. The two of them walked into the block and stopped. All the inmates were already in the shared space, awake and waiting for them.

  James took a step back. Why were they out of their cells? The two of them were outnumbered two hundred-to-one. Even with his bands, it would be a difficult fight.

  “Stand behind me,” he said.

  “That’s the second reason,” Levin added. “There’s no cells here. It’s one large room. The Apexes are better coordinated than all the other groups because they aren’t separated like the rest of us.”

  The front line of Apexes moved closer to the gate, some with metal rods and shanks in hand and others yawning and trying to figure out what the commotion was about. When they noticed Levin standing behind James, they all became alert. A few shouts of warnings later, the entire room seemed ready to lynch them, despite James still wearing the guardsman uniform. Possibly in spite of it, for all he knew. The crowd was getting ugly.

  “Back off,” James barked, pushing Levin into the hallway.

  The first of the Apexes got within arm’s reach. James gave him a sharp kick to the abdomen and sent him tumbling into three others. Another came from his blind side. He sidestepped a clumsy swing and elbowed the man in the throat. Still another got closer. This time, Levin stepped in, took the man’s knees from under him, and then tossed him onto the ground, bowling over a group of Apexes. This only enraged them more, and they surged forward.

  “Stop!” a voice rang over the snarls of the ugly mob.

  Immediately, the unruly crowd pulled back and parted ways down the center. James took the moment to assess the Apexes. He noted how well-trained they were, disciplined, like a military force. Every single man here was larger than everyone in that cell with Levin. In a gang war, it seemed the People were indeed doomed to fail.

  “339, what are you doing here?” A shadowy figured appeared from the crowd. “Looking for death? Or you, Raets, Looking to curry favor from the Apexes by delivering him to us?”

  It was probably better James kept as much space as possible between the Apexes and Levin. Once they got their hands on him, James doubted he could get him back in one piece. He took a step forward. “Amazon guardsman orders. You will not touch this man. Tell your boss to call off his dogs or there will be consequences. We need to speak with 881.”

  The figure stepped up to James, looking momentarily confused. “What the abyss is wrong with you, Raets? You don’t recognize me? Nobody tells the Apexes what to do in my block, not even the guards.”

  James should have figured the man
was 881 by the way his men treated him so deferentially. Still, he didn’t have time for this.

  “We need to talk.”

  “There’s nothing to talk about.”

  “Yes there is, Cole,” Levin said, stepping up next to him. “It’s time we address our differences, nephew.”

  Chatter swept through the Apexes at this revelation. James looked at Levin in surprise, his unusual request now finally making sense. He remembered Cole, an unimpressive Tier-4 who had fled to the past. It was quite a large scandal among the tiers at the time for the blood relative of an auditor to desert. Levin himself had to go back and bring his nephew to justice.

  At the sound of his actual name being used, Cole flew into a rage and charged his uncle. By now, James had had enough. He powered on his exo and lifted the man by the front of his shirt, yanking him upward off his feet. The other Apexes around him scattered backward.

  “You got someone with bands to kill me?” Cole snarled as he dangled in the air.

  “Why does every criminal here think I’m trying to kill them?” James said, exasperated.

  “What else do you think happens in a penal colony?” Levin said. He walked up to his nephew, narrowly dodging a kick, and looked up. “If I wanted to kill you, Cole, I would have done it months ago. Are you ready to talk?”

  Realizing how outgunned he was with James there, Cole nodded. James dropped him unceremoniously on the ground and kept his face stony when the inmate popped back up to his feet and glared at him.

  “Who are you?” he asked.

  James dropped his paint job.

  Cole gave him a sidelong glance and then focused his attention back on Levin. “You were less ugly as Raets. What do you assholes want?”

  Levin looked at the crowd of Apexes standing around and turned his back to them. “Let’s talk outside in the hall.”