Breakaway

by Michelle Diener

  Kalo inclined his head. “True enough.” His gaze snagged on Leo's hand curled around Sofie's. “All I did was give the girl a few ports to help her out. Looks like you've given her a lot more.” There was something salacious and deeply disrespectful in his voice. “Why the hell would you bring her here? Trying to guilt us into paying out some of the profits? If so, you've wasted your time.”

  Leo was suddenly in front of him, right in his face. “I'll remember you said that, Kalo.” He forced out a deep breath. “I'll expect our path into the weigh station to be clear.”

  “And if it's not?” Kalo was all bravado.

  Leo simply looked down on him, at the bitter droop of his mouth and the hard, cynical glint in his eye.

  “All right, all right.” Kalo flapped his hands. “No one will give you any trouble.”

  He turned and walked out, and they were all silent as they waited for his footsteps to reach the door and then heard the sound of it opening and closing.

  “He's lying,” Dee said. “He'll give us trouble.”

  Leo simply nodded.

  Chapter 26

  Sofie approached the weigh station by Leo's side, huddled deep in her jacket.

  Dawn was just breaking and the lights were still on, throwing shadows on the dusty ground that crunched beneath her boots.

  She felt out of sorts, the four hours of sleep almost making her feel worse than she had before she'd curled up next to Leo on the big bed in his quarters.

  The guard at the gate gave Leo a welcome salute, and as they exchanged a greeting, Sofie studied the small, well-lit guard booth.

  It mirrored the weigh station in its building materials and design, but along the roof she saw the first sign of whimsy--the first indication of her father's eclectic style.

  A carved stone bird protruded from the end of the gutter, wings spread, beak pointing in a clear direction.

  As she followed Leo through into the main area in front of the weigh station's massive double doors, she scuffed the ground with her feet, looking for any designs that may have been worked into it, but although she caught glimpses of differing colors in whatever had been used in the paving, it was so deeply ingrained with ore dust it was impossible to make out.

  “What's that?” she asked Leo as they passed a small building around the same size as the guard house, which also had decorative edging around the gutters.

  “The control box for the station's power.” Leo glanced at it, then made for the open weigh station doors, skirting around the big, wheeled automaton trucks lined up one behind the other. They seemed about to drive into the massive warehouse, all loaded high with ore, but none had their motors running.

  The only sounds were the wind, and the intermittent banging of a loose piece of metal as it hit against the side of the weigh station wall.

  Sofie looked up at the lintel of the massive double doors as they approached them, and saw two carved depictions of the wind from Halatian myth, clouds with mouths blowing what looked like wavy lines, protruding from each end of it.

  They pointed, not forward, or left and right, but both in the same direction, giving them a strangely off-kilter look.

  Sofie didn't need to wonder what they were pointing to.

  It was a little obvious for her father, but he had never meant for her or Rach to come here, so perhaps he'd left clues that a surrogate less steeped in Halatian myth and legend could read.

  Weigh pads filled the interior space, big enough for the trucks to drive onto and be weighed. Beyond them, big transport hovers waited to accept the ore for sale in T-Town, or the few smelters that Leo told her operated just north of Phansi.

  “They stopped weighing when the communications equipment with T-Town went down.” Leo led her to a set of stairs built against an interior wall of the warehouse. “One of the prospectors managed to get the onsite Cores staff to think it was their idea. It's all about delaying things, now. For as long as possible.”

  Sofie could see the miners clearly dreaded what would happen when they could delay no longer.

  The tension was palpable.

  Men and women stood around near the weigh pads, and those who were looking their way nodded to Leo, their faces grim and their eyes worried.

  There was a set of offices at the top of the stairs, cut off from the rest of the weigh station by a transparent wall.

  A door slid open as they approached and they stepped inside, with Dee and Carver right on their heels.

  As the doors closed, they were enveloped in absolute quiet, and the acrid, musty scent of the ore dust cut off.

  Four people turned to look at them.

  “I didn't know you were coming up to Phansi.” The man who spoke was thin, with sharp eyes and graying hair.

  Sofie guessed he was a Cores staffer. One of the ones who bought into the fairy tale they could somehow work their way up.

  “Hello, Hendric.” Leo nodded his head. “I always come up once a month. Now I'm glad I came up a little early. I understand there's a problem with the comm signal?”

  Hendric nodded, tight-lipped. “A direct lightning strike. It's not like we haven't had one before, but this time something went wrong.” He didn't sound suspicious, just nervous he'd get the blame despite it not being his fault, Sofie decided.

  That was business as usual for the Cores.

  “Well, given things aren't moving at the moment, would you mind if I showed my friend around?” Leo slid his arm around her shoulder, and pulled her close.

  “Your . . . friend?” Hendric's focus swung to Sofie.

  She smiled. “I've never been to Phansi before.”

  Hendric looked across at the other person Sofie guessed was Cores staff, a woman who wore the heavy site uniform of safety jacket and trousers with a sleek style her colleague wasn't able to pull off.

  “What's there to see?” she asked Leo directly.

  “Plenty, if you've never seen a weigh station or an ore silo before,” Leo said to her. “Don't you remember how strange everything looked when you first came here, Suz?”

  The woman tilted her head back, possibly annoyed at Leo's reminder that she was an interloper, unlike he was. Then shrugged, as if she didn't care, either way.

  “Excellent. Donnie and Ursula, this is Sofie.” Leo had turned to the two other people in the room, and while they probably also took their salaries from the Cores, Sofie remembered their names from last night. These were the two Kalo said had tried and failed to reset the algorithm. Part of the conspiracy.

  They each sat at a control panel set along the back two walls, and had spun in their chairs when she and Leo had stepped into the room. Neither of them looked thrilled to see her.

  “I'll show Sofie around, Leo.” Ursula stood up and stretched as if she'd been hunched over the control panel for too long. “You probably have things to discuss with Suz and Hendric.”

  Leo hesitated, then gave a nod. “See you later.” He kissed her cheek, and Sofie just managed not to grin at the overly solicitous way he did it.

  “Was that for show?” Ursula asked as they stepped back out of the room and made their way down the steps.

  Sofie glanced back and saw Carver was coming after them. “Mostly,” she said, and caught the laughter in Carver's eyes.

  The controller grunted, and then stopped at the foot of the stairs. “What kind of specialist are you? I heard from Kalo you're a little busybody from T-Town looking for a piece of our action.”

  Carver made a sound behind her. “Kalo is an asshole, Ursula, one who'd say anything if he thought he'd get an advantage out of it, and you know it.”

  Ursula paused for a moment, then gave a tight nod of her head.

  Sofie looked over at her, decided the hostility level had abated a little. “I'm a specialist in Ronald Fadal.”

  Ursula frowned. “Then you might want to see this.” She lead the way across the warehouse floor to the far side, where there was another enclosed area.

  Unlike the offices, it was on gr
ound level; a long, thin lounge area, with couches and jah machines, and no transparent walls.

  Until Ursula opened the door, Sofie had no idea what she'd find inside.

  When they'd all stepped into the room, Ursula waved her arm in an expansive gesture.

  The space didn't look like something her father would design, but perhaps he'd had to be more practical here. It would have irritated him, though, to take beauty out of the equation he always worked to when he built.

  She wondered what Ursula thought she would see here. She already read the signs her father had left behind and knew where to go, and it wasn't here, but she took her time looking over the space.

  When she looked down at the floor she saw part of a floor design hidden under a floor covering.

  She grabbed the end of it, began rolling it back, and Carver stepped up to help her.

  She looked at the design for a long time. Lifted her gaze, and looked at the walls.

  Although this room was in a corner of the weigh station, the thick sheet metal that made up the structure wasn't obvious here, the walls were clad in a smooth material. There were no windows looking out, as well as looking in to the interior of the warehouse.

  “Why did you bring me in here?” She walked to a wall, ran a hand down it, and then looked over at Ursula.

  “My father worked on the construction of this site with Fadal.” Ursula shrugged. “He told my father this room was the heart of the site. That if anything ever went wrong, my father should run here.”

  “What is it?” Carver finished rolling up the carpet for her.

  Sofie shook her head, crouched down to look at the floor design more closely. “What happened when the algorithm reset?”

  “Well.” Ursula pursed her lips. “The whole plant sort of flickered. All the power surged, then almost went out, then settled back to normal. But it had never happened before, so we stopped the trucks coming in and put a test weight on a weigh pad. We do it every few months, to make sure the twenty percent under-reading is still in effect.”

  “Right under the Cores' noses?” Sofie couldn't keep the surprise out of her voice.

  Ursula nodded. “Leo made the test weight. It has the weight stamped on the side.”

  “And that stamp is twenty percent less than the actual weight of it. And no one in the Cores has ever thought to independently check it.” Sofie gave a slow, satisfied smile.

  Ursula nodded. “It over-read. Or,” she shrugged, “read correctly, I should say. We couldn't risk letting any of the trucks weigh in, because there would be an official record of it, so Donnie put out a theory we'd been hit by lightning, and he wasn't getting a signal. Then a few people went up on the roof to 'check' and made sure we couldn't get one.”

  “Do not, under any circumstances, let a truck weigh in.” Sofie rose to her feet. “I need to get to that power control hut.”

  She headed for the door, and Carver opened it for her, looked out, and then just as casually closed it. “Ursula, you know who those people are who are walking to the office?”

  Ursula stepped up beside him, and he angled the door open again.

  She peered out. Hissed. “Cores.”

  They were out of time.

  “I need to get to that power control hut now.” Sofie didn't hide the urgency in her tone.

  “You got a spare uniform?” Carver asked Ursula.

  She nodded. “Not here, though, in the sign-in unit near the guard house. There are showers and lockers there.”

  “Too far, will take too long.” If someone switched something on, this was not going to end well.

  “What do you think is going to happen?” Ursula's stare was skeptical.

  “If a truck drives onto a weigh pad, this whole place will explode. My father has set it to blow, and the trigger is the first weigh-in after the algorithm switches back.”

  There was silence at her words.

  Carver's face told her he not only believed her, he understood the urgency.

  Ursula looked less sure.

  Sofie crooked her fingers at Ursula in a come-here gesture. “Give me your uniform. Stay in this room, because my father built this to withstand the explosion. It's the bomb shelter. Call everyone you can using your comm set and get them here.” Sofie held out her hand impatiently for Ursula's jacket.

  The controller's mouth formed a mulish line. She turned to Carver. “You buying this bullshit?”

  He nodded. “Give her your uniform, Ursula. If anyone can turn this around, it's her.”

  “Even if this is bullshit, what do you have to lose?” Sofie asked her quietly. “A few hours at most, and a bit of embarrassment at buying my story.” She let that thought settle. “And if I'm right, at best you help save the weigh station, at worse, you save the lives of your friends and colleagues.”

  Ursula shrugged off the jacket, and it was big enough for Sofie to don it over her own. She slid out of her trousers and swopped them for Ursula's in quick, efficient movements.

  “How do I get people in here?” Ursula asked, tugging Sofie's pants up over her hips.

  Sofie shook her head. “Any way you can.”

  She stepped out with Carver, putting her head down and staying on the far side of him.

  “You think they'll recognize you?” Carver murmured.

  She shrugged. “No sense taking the chance.”

  If Flunky and Tapper had circulated her image as someone to look out for, that could be a problem. But usually execs or techs coming to inspect a mine or plant wouldn't have access to those notifications.

  She hoped.

  They made it as far as the doors when they encountered three double hovers, just like Leo's, and four guards ranged across the entrance.

  “Where are you going?” One of the men tapped the laz he was holding against his leg.

  “There.” Sofie pointed at the power control center. She kept going, moving with a purpose, but unhurried. Carver strolled beside her, hands in his jacket pockets, body hunched as if against the cold.

  “Wait.” One of them snapped out the order.

  Sofie turned, but kept walking backward. “What?” She made her tone a little irritated, a little bored.

  “Who gave you permission?”

  She came to a stop, and Carver did as well, angling himself so he could shield her if he needed to.

  Oh, no. None of that. No one was being hurt for her.

  “Excuse me?” She kept her tone even, her head angled in confusion. “Permission?”

  “Who said you could go there?” The guard took a step closer.

  “Why don't you go in there and ask?” Sofie said, gesturing into the weigh station. “We have to be at the panel before they try to reboot the comm signal, but if we're not, and it makes things worse, I'll make sure to let them know who stopped us. What's your name?” A sudden gust of frigid wind tugged at her jacket and icy dust pelted her hands.

  The guard had to turn his face away for a moment, and the way he moved told her he was starting to regret his challenge.

  Beyond the guards, the two Cores techs had reached the top of the stairs, and were stepping into the offices.

  Her heart sped up a little.

  Leo was inside there. And the first truck that rode onto a weigh pad would set this place up like a conflagration.

  The design on the floor of the rec room couldn't have been more clear.

  If these idiots didn't let her and Carver go, they would have to make a run for it.

  “For fuck's sake, Dyl, you don't know how this place works. This isn't T-Town. Let them do what they have to do.” Another guard shifted his weigh, then pulled the top of his jacket closed and rolled down the face protector from where it had been sitting on the top of his head. It turned him into a faceless thug.

  “Why don't I make sure you get where you need to go?” Dyl smiled at her with a show of teeth.

  “Suit yourself.” Sofie spun back and started walking again, and after a moment, Carver fell into step with her.r />
  He looked like he wanted to say something urgent to her, but Dyl was suddenly on her other side.

  “What's the hurry?” Dyl asked.

  “You delayed me.” Sofie hunched deeper into her jacket.

  The door to the control room was facing away from the entrance to the weigh station, something her father had surely done on purpose, to give him cover as he came and went.

  She hadn't had time to stop and wonder why he'd done this. Set things to explode. It was probably as simple as he wanted everything the Cores touched to burn, and this was the first step.

  Followed to its logical conclusion, Felicitos would be next, or maybe it was burning right now. She shook off the thought. She couldn't do anything about it, even if it was.

  There was a keypad on the door, and she hesitated for a moment. Her father never wanted her here, so she couldn't assume a DNA identifier would be in place. This wasn't Felicitos.

  She glanced at the guard.

  “Thought you were in a hurry.” His eyes narrowed in suspicion.

  “I'm not supposed to open it in the presence of a non-employee for security reasons.” She spoke by rote, as if from a memorized rule book.

  Carver stood in front of her, blocking Dyl's view. “That should help,” he said, but there was a tension in his stance, and she could hear it in his voice.

  He was worried she couldn't open the door.

  For the first time, she was, too.

  She typed in her special code.

  Nothing happened.

  She closed her eyes for a moment, then held her breath as she typed in the general resistance code used in Felicitos.

  The door clicked open.

  “Only authorized personnel allowed,” Carver said as she stepped through, and he edged in after her, shuffling so that Dyl had no way to come in.

  He pulled the door shut, pulled out the laz he'd been holding in his pocket, and leaned back in relief. He didn't say anything--they both knew Dyl was standing on the other side, listening--but the look of exaggerated relief he gave her was funny enough she had to suppress a giggle.

  Then she turned to look at the floor to ceiling panel in front of her.