“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about.”
“Huh?”
Roman glanced at the doorway, as if worried that he might be overheard.
“The things you know are pretty unique, man. I mean, hacking the Consortium network… as far as we know, that’s never been done before.”
“It hasn’t.”
“And you just admitted you have more work on your plate than you can handle. So why are you keeping this knowledge to yourself?”
Aksel smiled sourly. “Oh, I get it. You want to cut my lunch.”
“What?”
“You’ve seen the way people look at me, and you’re jealous. You want a share of the attention.”
“Go fuck yourself,” Roman spat.
“No, that’s it, isn’t it?” Aksel goaded, grinning, evidently enjoying having the upper hand. “You want me to hand over my knowledge to you so that you’ll finally start getting some respect around here.”
“I don’t give a shit about respect.”
“No?”
“No. I was going to suggest that Knile should be the one you bring into the fold. The guy is a pro, man. He’d pick it up quick, and after that you’d effectively cut your workload in half.”
“I don’t know how many times I have to tell people this, but the answer is no. I don’t want anyone else digging around in my system and screwing things up.”
“That’s a bullshit answer, and you know it.”
Aksel stepped forward suddenly, his eyes intense.
“I know what it’s like for you, Roman,” he said fervently. “I know what it’s like to be a nobody.”
Roman inadvertently edged away from him. “What are you talking about?”
“All of your life you’ve lived in the shadow other people, haven’t you? Better people.”
“The crap that comes out of your mouth–”
“You wish that you were someone like Knile, someone people looked up to, but… you’re just not. You’re a nobody and that burns you up inside.”
“Yeah. Thanks for the psychoanalysis, man. I feel much better now.”
“Do you want to know how I recognised that?” Aksel tapped his finger on his chest. “Because I was there once. Just a year or two ago, that was me. My life was going nowhere. I had a job one day a week stocking cans in a convenience store in Gaslight. I wasn’t good at anything, and no one respected me. I hated myself. But I pulled myself together, worked hard, took chances. I found something I was good at, something that no one else could do.” He eased back slightly. “You can think what you want about my reasons for keeping my knowledge to myself. Maybe I do want to keep this stuff secret, make myself indispensable. That’s none of your goddamn business if I do.” He raised his finger and pointed it at Roman’s chest. “The question is, what have you done around here to earn anyone’s respect?”
Roman glared at him, feeling the heat rising in his cheeks.
“Plenty.”
“Oh yeah? Like getting wheeled around on a gurney? Lying in bed while Knile and that monster took out a squad of Redmen? You must be proud of yourself.”
“Fuck you, Aksel.”
“Get out of here, man,” Aksel said, dropping down on the floor next to his terminals. “Some of us have real work to do.”
Roman stood there fuming, working himself up to a vitriolic retort, then thought better of it. He felt as though he were careening toward an act of physical violence, and realised that such a situation could lead to a very slippery slope. If the powerbrokers of Skybreach got wind of it and decided that one of them had to be expelled, he knew that it would not be Aksel that they shoved out the door.
And that was what was burning at him the most. Aksel was right. Roman amounted to nothing more than a bit player at best around here, an outright inconvenience at worst. He hadn’t contributed anything meaningful to Skybreach yet, not in the least.
Perhaps the worst part of it was that he didn’t know how to change that.
Embarrassed and feeling futile, Roman turned and walked from the room. He glanced back to see Aksel watching him go, shaking his head disdainfully, and then he found himself out in the corridor.
Roman needed to find something to do.
10
Ursie gripped the door jamb and took her first tentative step outside Tobias’ room, the first time she had left its tight confines in a week. Easing out into the corridor, she hugged the coat he had given her more tightly across her shoulders. It was a well worn thing, much like Tobias himself, and far too large for her, hanging down to her knees. However, it was thick and warm, the woolen fabric imprinted with grey and red checks, and it gave off a musty, homely scent that was not entirely unpleasant.
Not exactly a fashion statement, she figured, but it did what Ursie needed it to do. It gave her a buffer, a thin protective cocoon that, in some meagre fashion, shut her off from the rest of the habitat.
In some ways she still felt naked and exposed to the prying eyes around her. She had never really felt as though she belonged in Habitat Thirty-One, from the moment she had stepped off the railcar until the showdown with van Asch in the observation room. This place was just too alien, too strange for her to feel as though she were a part of it.
To her, this foray into the cusp of the outer colonies had been like a bizarre trip through an otherworldly zoo – except that it was Ursie herself who was being observed, she who was the strange oddity that brought people from far and wide to see.
“That’s the way,” Tobias said behind her, closing the door of his apartment and giving it a second tug for good measure. “Down there. It’s not far.”
“Are you sure you can’t just go and get the longwave and bring it back here?” Ursie said, hitching the coat up around her neck. “That would be really great if you could.”
“’Fraid not. The young fella wouldn’t let me take it out of the room last time I went over to have a play with it. Quite protective when you get down to it.” He gave her a smile and a reassuring squeeze on the shoulder. “Besides, stretchin’ your legs will do you some good, no?”
“Sure,” Ursie said with a faint smile. She sighed. Tobias was a nice old guy, no question about that, but his awareness of what was going on around him seemed pretty dismal. He really had no idea of the predicament Ursie was in, the chance she was taking by just being out in the open. For all she knew, every Redman in the habitat was looking for her. There was a very real likelihood that she might be a suspect in van Asch’s murder – she had been his only companion after all. People would have seen them together as they’d disembarked from the railcar and wandered about the concourse.
And now here she was, a week later, appearing out of nowhere after van Asch’s death. This little quest of hers could very well result in her apprehension by the Redmen, and yet Tobias saw it as nothing more than an opportunity for her to take a pleasant stroll.
Still, what other course of action could she take? Stay in Tobias’ tiny apartment for the rest of her days? That was not a thought she relished. At some point she had to get out of there and get on with her life.
She had to try to regain control of her future, and this was the first step.
The longwave was the key. If she could get her hands on the device, perhaps it would act as the catalyst she needed to get things moving.
Tobias led her along the corridor and up a flight of stairs. Someone was coming down the other way, a woman in a grey Consortium uniform with a red ‘C’ on the breast, and for one horrifying moment Ursie thought she’d been caught. The woman stared at her as she passed, her face betraying no emotion, but something about her demeanour made Ursie worry that something was wrong. Urise almost reached out with her mind, needing to know what was going on in the woman’s head, but she reined herself in at the last second.
No. Don’t you dare try that. Not out here.
Then the woman gave her a smile and a polite nod and passed on her way.
Ursie breathed a sigh of relief.
“Yeah, fine,” Ursie said. “Thanks.”
Tobias seemed to enjoy making up nicknames for her. Ursalina Ballerina was evidently one of his favourites, for he used it more than anything else. Urse The Nurse was another he preferred, and there were at least three of four others that he dropped in from time to time as well.
For anyone else, Ursie would have found little tolerance for such frivolity, but Tobias delivered the monikers with such winsome charm that she couldn’t bring herself to complain.
At the top of the stairs they came out into a narrow hallway, and Ursie could see the main concourse beyond. Suddenly there was ice in her belly and her legs felt stiff and uncooperative.
The Redmen would be out there, along with Consortium staff and other people who had seen her with van Asch. Ursie could picture their prying eyes already.
She wasn’t sure if she could go through with this after all.
“Come on,” Tobias urged, sensing her pace slowing. “Almost there.”
He led her out into the concourse and Ursie felt as though she wanted to sink inside the coat like a tortoise into its shell. People were moving about all over the place, and to her mind they all seemed to be scrutinising and evaluating her. There were men hauling pallets of cargo, maintenance staff, men and women in Consortium uniforms, and even the dreaded Redmen wandering about. She half expected them to stop and turn to her as one, recognition dawning on their faces; for them to point at her in horror and disgust.
The freak! The murderer! There she is! Somebody stop her!
But none of them did. They all continued on their way, unconcerned by her presence, as if she were just another one of the many citizens of Habitat Thirty-One, someone who had as much right to be there as they did. After a minute or two, Ursie eventually began to calm her frazzled nerves, deciding that perhaps she had been overreacting to the situation after all.
Maybe they weren’t looking for her at all.
Maybe I got away with it.
She realised that Tobias was leading her toward one of the Redmen, a young, clean-cut fellow with blond hair who was standing by the side of the concourse tapping on a holophone. Ursie surreptitiously began to work her way behind the old man as she attempted to stay out of sight, her uneasiness increasing with every step she took toward the man in crimson.
Please don’t let this be the guy with the longwave, she thought. If he starts asking questions, I’m screwed.
It occurred to her that Tobias still knew nothing of her encounter with van Asch. The old man had no way of understanding just how much trouble she’d gotten herself into. As far as Tobias was concerned, Ursie was just a kid who needed a place to stay for a while.
As he’d already demonstrated earlier, his situational awareness was not great. He drifted in and out of lucidity at times as well. It was a very real possibility that he might unwittingly turn her in to the authorities whilst in the process of trying to help her.
She wondered what would happen if she were to just turn on her heel, right now, and start walking back the way she had come.
Tobias will call after you. It’ll make a scene. Too late to escape now.
They reached the Redman, who in turn looked across at them.
“Mornin’, Jaxus,” Tobias said brightly, and the Redman gave him a serious, almost imperceptible nod. His eyes crept over to Ursie, where she was trying her best to stay in Tobias’ shadow, and they lingered there for a few moments before he turned back to the holophone.
Tobias kept shuffling harmlessly past the Redman.
Ursie exhaled slowly, quietly, careful not to make too much noise. She didn’t want to draw another comment from Tobias about being out of breath. She glanced once over her shoulder, but the Redman had not turned to look at them.
Then Tobias was leading her through a doorway and into another corridor, and Ursie allowed herself to relax. Now that they were out of the concourse she felt far less exposed.
Tobias stopped a short way along the corridor and rapped his scuffed, wrinkly knuckles on a metal door. He glanced down at Ursie and beamed a quick smile at her, then knocked again.
The door opened and a young man stood before them, scowling. He was olive-skinned, not long out of his teens, and had round, pudgy cheeks and a thatch of jet black hair. He looked at Tobias, then at Ursie, then back to the old man again.
“Heketoro, my boy, I thought I’d find you here,” Tobias said.
Heketoro’s scowl softened slightly upon seeing Tobias. “Hey Tobias. What’re you up to?”
Tobias gestured to Ursie. “Brought my friend here to see one of the longwaves. Thought I’d show it off a bit.”
Heketoro gave him a doubtful look. “You know I can’t do that, Tobias. That’s against–”
“Come on, Heck, pull that stick out of your butt and let us inside. Won’t kill you.”
Tobias pushed forward and Heketoro was forced to make way as the old man came jostling across the threshold. Heketoro seemed somewhat disconcerted by the intrusion, and Ursie was left to smile sheepishly at him.
“Sorry about that. I’m Ursie,” she said, trying to smooth things over.
“Heketoro,” he said with a patient grin. He stepped aside and indicated for her to enter.
“Call him Heck,” Tobias suggested from inside. “Everybody does.”
She expected to find living quarters inside, but instead it looked to be a small workshop of some kind. There were parts strewn along benches that ran the length of the room, and tools of all shapes and sizes hung from hooks on the wall – pliers, soldering irons, hammers, files and wrenches among others. Heketoro closed the door behind them and then began to wring his hands, an apologetic look on his face.
“Like I said the last time you were here, I–”
“Heck’s one of the big wigs around here,” Tobias interrupted, sounding like a proud grandfather. “Really goin’ places, no?”
Heck flushed and glanced shyly at Ursie. “That’s not true at all.”
“Don’t sell yourself short, fella. I’m always seeing you coming and going from Consortium Admin and OrbitPod Control,” Tobias said. “That must mean something.”
“I just fix stuff for them, that’s all.” Heck turned to Ursie. “I’ve applied to join the Consortium three times now, but they haven’t accepted me yet.”
“Only a matter of time,” Tobias said adamantly.
“It’s very tough,” Heck explained to her. “They have some of the toughest recruitment criteria in all of the Outworld corporations.”
She gave him a polite smile. “I bet.”
“Now, about that longwave,” Tobias said. “You still got a spare kickin’ around here?”
Heck seemed to vacillate for a couple of seconds, glancing first at Tobias and then at Ursie, then made up his mind. He shoved some of the clutter away from the bench and pulled out a dark blue box about the size of a house brick.
“It’s a hot swap,” he said. “It’s unallocated right now, but I’m not supposed to let anyone play with it. They’ll need it if one of the others breaks down.”
“Ursie here was interested in having a go at one.”
Heck glanced at her, and she couldn’t help but feel that he was appraising her in some way. He chewed on his lip and then slid the longwave across the bench toward her.
“A couple of minutes wouldn’t hurt, I guess.”
Ursie picked up the box and turned it over in her hands. It was an unremarkable looking thing, and heavier than she expected, with a spongy, rubbery exterior and a long protuberance at the top. There was also a small display screen on one side.
“How does it work?” she said.
Heck stepped over and looked down at the device. “It’s pretty simple.” He pointed at the screen. “You enter your contact details here, and the signal goes out through this high gain antenna.” He indicated to the long protube
rance. “It’s powerful enough to reach the relays down on the surface, if that’s what you wanted. It would be just like calling someone on their holophone.” He jabbed a finger vaguely over his shoulder. “These are used by the Consortium techs when they’re out on the job.”
Ursie stared down at the device, almost daunted by the idea that she now had the power at her fingertips to talk to people down on Earth. It had seemed like such an insurmountable gulf just a few moments before, a chasm with no way across.
What the hell am I going to say? she thought. Then something occurred to her.
The message that she wanted to convey to Earth could not be overheard by anyone else. Not Heck, that was for sure, and preferably not even by Tobias. The things that she wanted to talk about would be viewed as conspiracy, or treason, and Ursie was already in enough trouble as it was. She didn’t want to add any further complications to the situation if she could help it.
She gave Heck her sweetest smile and tried to look coy.
“I don’t suppose I could take it away for just a little bit?”
Heck shook his head. “No, I can’t let you do that.”
She looked to Tobias for help, but he merely nodded encouragingly.
“Go ahead, Ursie. What number are you gonna call?”
That brought up another problem. She didn’t know the number of the person she was trying to reach.
This is hopeless. Why did I think I could make it work?
She handed the longwave back to Heck. “Don’t worry about it. I don’t even know the number.”
“You can use the directory,” Heck suggested. “There are listings for a few restaurants in Lux, bars in Gaslight. Even the Consortium consulates.” He seemed to regret saying that almost immediately. “Just don’t call anyone important,” he added hastily. “They won’t take kindly to pranks.”
Skybreach (The Reach #3) Page 7