Brak picked a pair of razor-shielded swords from the rack and held them up to the light to examine the mirror-smooth blades.
“They aren’t going to be much use without armor,” Lucien said. “You’ll never get close enough to use them.”
Joe bent to retrieve a bulky belt and vest from a shelf below the melee weapons—a personal shield. He handed the pieces to Brak. “This should help.”
Brak put down the swords and donned the pieces of the shield. The vest wouldn’t close, but he cinched it shut with the belt.
“Does it work?” Lucien asked, eyeing the setup skeptically.
A loud pop sounded, and the air shimmered around Brak.
“Looks like it does,” Joe said, and grabbed a matching vest and belt for himself. Lucien took another and tested the shield as Brak had done, activating it via his ARCs. His augmented reality contacts weren’t connected to the ship’s network, so he decided he could probably risk using them to make short-ranged connections with other devices.
“We’d better get out of here,” Joe said. “We’ve taken too long as it is. Grab some grenades before you go.”
Brak deactivated the shield and collected a pair of belts and scabbards for the razor swords he’d chosen. He strapped them crosswise across his back and went to get a stun pistol for his waist.
“We’re ready,” Lucien said, turning to Joe.
“If you say so,” Joe replied, his nose wrinkling at their modest choice of weaponry. He led the way out, back through his clothes closet and bedroom, through his throne room, for lack of a better word, to an elevator beside the stairs. The elevator opened immediately and they piled in. Bob walked in last, and Joe selected P1 from the floors listed.
A split second later, they walked out into a parking garage filled with sporty-looking hover cars. Joe walked by all of them to a hover van marked with a generic utility company logo. He waved the doors open as they approached and they climbed in. Lucien and Brak sat facing Joe and his android, Bob. Joe gave directions to the driver program, indicating another night club—presumably where they were going to meet Fizk and Guntha.
The van’s engines rumbled to life, and then it drove out of the parking lot, up a ramp, and through the public parking area behind the club. From there they joined the alley that Lucien and Brak had driven down all of half an hour ago.
Seedy bars and clubs flashed by the windows in a neon-colored blur.
“You look nervous, Lucy-lu.”
Bob the android wore a blank expression, but Joe was smiling like he didn’t have a care in the world. “And you look too calm for someone who’s making an impromptu assault on the most secure facility on Astralis.”
Joe shrugged and turned to look out the side window as the van rolled to stop outside a busy-looking bar. They hadn’t even reached the end of the alley yet.
Two men were waiting on the curb. Joe waved the door open for them and they climbed inside. Guntha sat beside Lucien, elbowing him in the ribs to make him shove over, while Fizk, the demolitions expert, sat with a scowl beside Joe.
“What the frek, Joe?” Fizk said. “The op isn’t supposed to be for another three days!”
Joe jerked his chin at Lucien. “Lucy’s brat ratted us out.”
“A narc just like her daddy,” Fizk sneered.
Joe ordered the van to take them to the Res Center and it raced down the alley once more.
“The Faros got to her,” Lucien explained.
“Sure...” Fizk drawled.
Joe elbowed him in the ribs. “Shut up and listen. Skullman—” Brak hissed and bared his teeth. “—yeah, you,” Joe said. “You’re going to cut the power to the center’s ventilation system.”
“Why Brak?” Lucien asked.
“Because none of us can pull off that disappearing act of his. Now listen up, Skulls, it has to look like an overload, not sabotage, so you need to wire in a capacitor—we call it a spike. That will generate the power surge. The spike will dump its charge automatically after you hook it up. All you have to do is match the colors of the wires and splice them together. Don’t let the wrong ones touch or you’ll be the one who gets overloaded. You think you can do that, Skulls?” Brak hissed, and Joe looked to Lucien. “Is that a yes?”
Lucien smiled. “Close enough.”
“All right. I’m going to get you close to the center, but you’ll have to find your own way in.” Joe produced a palm-sized holo projector and placed it on the floor of the van. He waved it to life and browsed through a list of files until he found the one he was looking for.
A 3D schematic of the center appeared, and Joe zoomed in on the lowermost levels where the center’s dedicated reactor lay. He selected a maintenance corridor and indicated a particular set of conduits. “These three conduits power the center’s climate control system. You’ll have to overload all three to take down the power to the ducts. Once you’ve done that, all those servers in the records room are going to start getting real hot, real fast. It’ll trip an alert, and they’ll call for a maintenance crew.”
“What about hacking into the center’s comms?” Lucien asked.
Joe waved his hand to dismiss that concern. “Already done.”
“How?” Lucien demanded. “You only shared the plan with me earlier today. You’re telling me you hacked in sometime in the past few hours?”
Joe just looked at him. “I’m a fast worker.”
Lucien didn’t buy that for a second. They either had someone working inside the Res Center or else they’d hacked into the center’s comms a long time ago already. Either way, it implied that Coretti’s plan to infiltrate the center wasn’t an old, discarded idea, but a current one. Tyra was right: Joe definitely had his own agenda for getting into the center.
“Moving on...” Joe said as he zoomed the schematic back out. “The rest of us will be waiting in this alley here.” He pointed to one side of the center. “As soon as Guntha gives us word that he’s deactivated the security system in the vents, we’ll sneak in and make our way to the records room.”
“What about Brak?” Lucien asked.
“I’m sure Skulls can find his own way out.”
“No, I mean, isn’t he going to join us in the ducts?”
“I don’t see how,” Joe said, and eyed Brak speculatively. “He’s too big to fit.”
“If all I do is disable the power, then why do I bring weapons and a shield?” Brak demanded.
Joe shrugged. “Come back here and guard the getaway car.”
“We won’t need a getaway car,” Lucien said. “Once we find what we’re looking for, they’ll realize why we had to break into the center, and we’ll get to walk out the front doors—unless you’re planning to commit some real crimes while we’re there...?”
“I just like to know we’ve got our asses covered. You all clear on your jobs?”
Everyone nodded except for Fisk. “You have the bomb?”
Joe nodded over Lucien’s shoulder. “It’s in the back.”
“Good.”
Joe waved away the holographic schematic and pocketed the projector once more. That done, he withdrew a handful of glow sticks from another pocket and passed them out.
“For luck,” he said, holding one out to Lucien.
“No thanks. I’ll make my own.”
Joe smirked and settled back against his seat. He squeezed the butt, and the stick lit itself, glowing blue-white all along its length and smoking from the tip.
Soon Lucien and Brak were choking on clouds of sweet-smelling smoke.
Ten minutes later, the van stopped, having arrived at its destination. Lucien waved the door open and scrambled out. His head was spinning so badly that he actually fell in the alley on his hands and knees.
Behind him, the gangsters all burst out laughing.
“What the frek is in those sticks?” Lucien asked.
“I told you it was a good batch,” Joe replied, still chuckling. “Skullman, you’re up. You wearing your comms...? Good. Guntha
pass him the spike.”
“Where is it?”
“Behind you. Reach around... there you go.”
Lucien recovered to the point that he could climb to his feet without fear of falling again. He turned to see Brak getting out of the van. The Gor stepped on Joe’s foot as he left, and the gangster cursed viciously and punched him on the thigh.
“Oops. Sorry,” Brak said as he came to stand beside Lucien. He didn’t appear affected by the glow smoke.
Joe scowled back at him. “Better leave your gear here, Skulls. You can come back for it later if you feel like having some fun.”
Brak stripped naked and cloaked himself, but the spike remained visible, floating in one hand. Invisible fingers closed around it, and the device all but disappeared.
“Good enough,” Joe said. “Let us know when you’re done, and make sure you get the right conduits. They should be marked CC or CC-SYS. If you get lost, send me a message, and I’ll try to guide you from the schematic.”
Brak gave no reply, but Lucien heard a faint whisper of footsteps and felt the air stirring as Brak left.
“Skulls?” Joe asked.
Lucien nodded down to the end of the alley. “He’s already gone.”
“Frekking aliens,” Joe muttered.
Chapter 43
Astralis
Skulls? Joe asked via text message.
But there was no reply.
Brak? Lucien tried.
“Frek it!” Joe said. “Why doesn’t he answer?”
Lucien shook his head. It had been over half an hour with no news from his partner.
“They must have been waiting for us,” Joe said, looking around quickly, as if expecting to find a squad of security officers lurking in the shadows of the alley. He took two quick steps toward Lucien and grabbed him by his shield vest, as if to hoist him up onto tip-toes, but the difference in their heights made that impossible. “Is this some kind of sting?”
“You’re joking, right?” Lucien asked.
Joe sneered and began nodding to himself as if he’d suddenly figured it all out. “That bit about the Faros taking over Astralis was a load of krak, wasn’t it? You’re undercover, trying to pin something on us. Well it’s not going to work. I tape everything that happens in the club. I’ve got a recording of you explaining how all this was your idea.”
“This isn’t a setup,” Lucien growled, and jerked out of Joe’s grasp.
“Then why’s your partner gone dark on us?”
A telltale hiss sounded, and the air beside Joe shimmered. “Boo,” Brak said as he appeared.
Joe almost jumped into Lucien’s arms. “For frek’s sake!” he roared and aimed his rifle at the Gor. “I should shoot you!”
Brak grinned and chuckled darkly. “Gors are hard to kill. You shoot me, I’ll still have time to rip out your throat.”
Joe scowled. “Why didn’t you reply?”
Brak waved a hand over the comm link to make it de-cloak, too. “No signal on the reactor level,” he explained.
“Did you overload the conduits?”
Before Brak could answer, Guntha called to them from where he sat inside the van. “We’ve got the call! I’m starting the clock. Twenty minutes.”
“Everybody in!” Joe barked.
Lucien jumped in the back of the van and buckled up while Joe gave directions to the car. They turned around and went back up the alley to join the main street running by the entrance of the Resurrection Center. From there they drove by the entrance and pulled into the guest parking lot. Joe directed the van to park near the back, in the shadows. Guntha waved the door open and climbed out. He’d changed into a maintenance worker’s coveralls while they’d waited for Brak, so he was ready to go. Guntha walked around the back of the van and retrieved a tool box.
I’ll let you know as soon as I’ve got the security disabled, Guntha texted via their comm links.
We’ll be waiting, Joe replied. “Looks like you get to come along, after all, Skulls,” Joe said aloud.
“Yesss...” Brak replied as he retrieved his equipment from where he’d left it littering the floor of the van. Before long he was dressed and ready for action again.
While they waited for Guntha to check in, Fizk popped open the briefcase in his lap to check on his bomb, and Lucien thought to check on his wife.
“Tyra, are you there?” he asked aloud.
“Finally!” she replied. “I was afraid to call and distract you at the wrong moment. Is everything okay?”
“We’re about to go in. No word from Wheeler?”
“No, sorry. You’re on your own.”
Lucien nodded. “All right. I guess—”
Lucien, they’re here... Tyra said, switching to text-only comms.
Who is? Ship security? Stall them. Ask to see their warrant.
Not security. Marines. Graves is with them.
A muffled bang sounded in Lucien’s ear, followed by the sound of Theola crying and Tyra whispering reassurances in their daughter’s ear. They just broke down the front door, Lucien... they’re coming up the stairs!
Hide!
Another bang sounded, followed by Tyra saying, “Don’t shoot! I have a baby!” Then came the muffled screech of weapons fire and a thud. Theola screamed. Another screech of weapons fire sounded, and then her cries cut off sharply.
“Tyra!” Lucien yelled.
No reply.
“Shhh!” Joe hissed. “Are you trying to get us caught?”
Lucien was shocked speechless. Graves had just shot his wife and his baby girl. His mind raced. He must have stunned them. He’d never get away with killing them. But still, if they hadn’t adjusted the intensity of their weapons properly, they could have killed Theola by accident.
“Talk to me, Lucy-lu...” Joe said. “What’s going on?”
Before Lucien could say anything, a gruff voice joined the conversation. “Hello.” It was Graves, speaking to them over their comm links.
“I’ll kill you!” Lucien roared.
“You can’t kill me, Lucien,” Graves replied. “Who else is on the line? Coretti?”
Joe’s eyes widened, but he said nothing.
“Listen up. Security at the Resurrection Center has already been alerted, and in case you think you can get by them, the Marines are on their way. You’re not going to get far, so I suggest you turn back now while you still can, and maybe we can all just forget that this happened.”
“Frek you, Graves,” Lucien said.
“I have your wife and daughter here. If you do somehow expose me, then I’ll expose them—to space. What do you say? Fair trade?”
Lucien gritted his teeth. “If you touch a hair on their heads, I’ll rip you apart!”
Graves laughed at that. “You’re welcome to—”
Joe ripped the comm link from Lucien’s ear.
“What are you doing?” Lucien demanded, swiping at Joe’s hands to grab it back.
The gangster held it out of reach, and he removed the comm unit from his own ear and tossed it aside. “You don’t need to listen to that krak. We need to move. It’s now or never.”
“He has my family,” Lucien said.
“Yeah, and if you give in to him now, he’ll still have them—but he’ll also have everyone else on board.” Joe shook his head. “The faster we pull this off, the faster we can send the authorities after them.”
Lucien shook his head. “I can’t wait that long.”
“Then don’t, but we’ve got a ship to save—with or without you.”
Lucien looked to Brak, feeling torn.
“I go after your family,” he said. “You stay. Get what we came for.”
“Good idea. Take the van,” Joe added.
“Guntha reports that the security system in the ducts is down,” Bob declared.
“We need to move,” Joe said. “Let’s go!”
Everyone piled out of the van except for Brak.
Lucien traded one last look with his partner. “Find th
em.”
Brak nodded and bared his teeth. “Do not worry.”
Joe waved the door shut and ran, taking Lucien by the arm and dragging him along as he went.
Lucien kept half an eye over his shoulder to watch as the hover van raced off with Brak inside. Lucien’s mind railed at him. He should have been the one in that van racing off to save his family.
They came to a giant vent along the wall of the Resurrection Center. It should have been blasting waste heat into the garage, but it was dormant now thanks to Brak’s work on the reactor level. The vent was at shoulder height, but Bob reached up and ripped it out of the wall, popping rivets as he did so. The android set the cover aside and then turned to help give Joe a boost up into the duct. Next he helped Fizk climb in with the briefcase bomb. Lucien ignored the android’s attempts to help him up, and grabbed the rim of the open duct to pull himself up. As soon as he was inside, Bob climbed in behind him. Lucien glanced back to see the android pull the vent back up. A bright flash of crimson light illuminated the duct as Bob used one of his pulse pistols to solder the grate back into place.
“Please proceed,” Bob said.
Lucien turned back to the fore and hurried after Joe. As they crawled through the ducts—turning right, left, climbing up, shimmying down—Lucien realized that he had no idea which way they were going, but Joe led the way without hesitation, always knowing exactly where to go. Maybe he was following his stolen schematic, or maybe he had the way memorized. Either way, Lucien was beginning to feel more like the accomplice than the mastermind of this plot.
How was it exactly that Joe already had the van packed with all their equipment just a few hours after they’d supposedly formulated their plan, and several days ahead of schedule?
It was almost like Joe had been planning to execute this plan for some time already when Lucien had come to him with the idea. Joe had admitted this was an old idea that he’d decided not to use, but what if that was a lie? What if he’d caught them in the act of breaking into the Res. Center for their own reasons?
No small coincidence there, but it was possible. If that was the case, then they were using him to add legitimacy to an actual crime.
Dark Space Universe (Book 2): The Enemy Within Page 34