Breakaway

by Michelle Diener

  They'd brought the smell of cold air and ore dust in with them.

  The man who woke her up must have thumped a fist on the table. “He'd surrounded the whole weigh station with explosives. We think we've got all of them, and there were twenty. He hid them in the lids of the access tunnel covers.”

  “I always thought those lids were too heavy.” The woman's voice was slightly hoarse, as if she'd spent time shouting. “I was told they needed to withstand a gas build-up in the tunnel when I asked about it.”

  “Who told you that?” Leo asked.

  She was quite a moment. “Renard. He's gone now. Killed in a hijack on the transports before the raiders were shut down.”

  “You think he knew about it?” The third man spoke.

  “Someone had to set it up. I don't see Fadal knowing much about explosions, do you?”

  There was silence again.

  Sofie thought about it.

  No. She didn't see explosives as being her father's strong suit, either. Although nothing would surprise her anymore.

  She opened her eyes, and took in the five people standing around the kitchen counter.

  Leo stood with his back to her, as if he'd put himself between her and the newcomers. Carver stood to one side, red-eyed and exhausted, and then the three prospectors were huddled close together, their faces streaked with ore dust and their clothes dusty.

  “We need your expert to switch the plant back on.” The woman lifted her gaze as she spoke, and caught Sofie's eye.

  Sofie pushed herself out of the chair. “You sure you've got all the explosives?”

  Her voice was a little rough.

  Leo turned when she spoke, and she limped over to him on a foot that had gone to sleep, and let him tuck her under his shoulder.

  “We've crawled over that plant from top to bottom. If we haven't found one, we're not going to find it.” The first man tugged at his ear, watching her.

  “Then I suggest that everyone either gathers in the lounge, which is bomb-proof, or stays away from the weigh station when I flick the switch back on.” Sofie rubbed at her face.

  “What if we haven't found them all?” Carver asked, and then yawned hugely.

  “Then the few that we haven't found blow up.” The second man shrugged. “We're pushing the limit of what the Cores will accept already. We've had to sneak live explosives out from under their noses for the last three hours. They're starting to get suspicious. They'll be hunting on their own in an hour or less if we don't 'find' the fault and get things going again.”

  Carver shrugged. “Let them look. Especially if you've found and removed all the explosives.”

  “And if they do a deep search through the files and find Fadal's fingerprints all over the algorithms? Or if they really, really put their minds to it and find the switch this friend of yours pulled to shut down the plant?” The first man narrowed his eyes at her.

  “They'll do anything to make sure there's no disruption to the bottom line,” the woman said.

  Sofie drew herself up straight. “As long as everyone realizes that once the power is on again, the moment the first truck drives on a weigh pad, whatever explosives may be left will blow.”

  “We can't find any more than the twenty. Which were enough to vaporize the place.” The first man was still bitter about that.

  She nodded. “Then let's go.”

  Leo helped her into her thick jacket and she climbed behind him on the hover, the prospectors following on small, individual vehicles. She pressed her face against Leo's back to combat the wind as they drove through the deepening dusk, trying to shake off the feeling of not quite being in her body.

  The search had taken all day, but Sofie decided it was a good thing she was coming back to the weigh station as the shadows grew and the light faded.

  It was easier to slip around unseen this way.

  They were forced to park at the gate.

  Leo had spent the trip speaking to Ursula on his comm, and as they walked through the entrance, the three miners who'd come to fetch her strode ahead, hailing friends and using their comm sets, too.

  “I can't go down into the bunker until I know everyone is clear.” Sofie leaned in close to Leo, keeping her voice low. “There's no comms down there, and I don't have one, anyway.” Tapper and Flunky still had hers. She hadn't had a chance to replace it yet.

  Leo looked up from his comm set. “I need to get you one. Ursula says it's clear. She even has Hendric and Suz in the lounge, but we'd better hurry because she doesn't think she can hold them there long.”

  Sofie turned to the power control building and Leo fell in beside her, his shoulder rubbing against hers in a way that she liked a lot.

  With the power shut off in the weigh station and the people all in the lounge, there was a strange silence in the air, and perhaps because of it, they didn't speak as they walked to the door.

  She typed in the code and pulled it open, and then froze at the sight of the woman inside who whirled to face her.

  “Haga,” Leo said, voice smooth. “Find anything?”

  “No.” She narrowed her eyes. “What are you doing here?”

  “We came to find you.” Leo smiled. “There's some sort of meeting in the lounge. They think they've found the problem.”

  “Oh?” She lifted up her comm set, and obviously dissatisfied with what she saw, lifted her head. “Why haven't I heard?”

  “You're hearing now. Hendric and Suz were just called in.”

  Her lips thinned. “Well, let's go then.”

  Leo stepped back, holding the door, and Haga brushed past them. Instead of striding off, though, she turned to wait for them.

  “I left my comm set in the hover.” Sofie patted her jacket pocket absently. “I'll go get it. I'm not interested in the power fault, anyway.” She used the bored tone she'd employed often in the Upper Reaches bars where she went to eavesdrop.

  Without waiting for a reply, she strode away into the growing darkness.

  “She'll care if you make less money because of it,” she heard Haga say to Leo, and dipped her head to smile into her jacket as Leo gave a shout of laughter.

  She walked slowly, as if picking her way uncertainly across the ground in the darkness, and then, when their voices faded, she turned back, keeping the power control building between herself and the entrance to the weigh station.

  She had just reached the door again, and was typing in the code, when a hand came down on her shoulder.

  She spun, heart thumping, and found herself face to face with Dyl.

  “Where's Haga?” he said.

  She breathed out, trying to keep it even so he wouldn't realize how much he'd spooked her. “There's a meeting in the weigh station. She just headed there.” She cracked the door open a little and angled herself so she could slide through it.

  “What's in there?” he asked, grabbing the door and pulling it open.

  Sofie stepped inside, blocking the entrance. “Just control panels. I'm afraid no non-employees allowed.”

  “Why are you not in uniform?” he suddenly asked.

  “Because I was off duty when they called me back in. Said it was urgent.” She put her hand on the inside handle. “Now if you don't mind--” She shoved the door, trying to close it, but he put a massive, booted foot in the way.

  “But I do mind. And I think I need to come in and make sure you're not doing anything you shouldn't be.”

  She stared him down coldly. “If you think delaying the repair of this plant will endear you to anyone, and that includes Haga and your other boss, you're mistaken.”

  “I'm not delaying anything.” The smile he sent her was taunting. “I'm just going to watch you work.”

  She shook her head, but in a way that signaled she had given up, but was still disgusted by it.

  He relaxed, sure in his win, and she lashed out hard, hitting him on the knee with her booted foot.

  He gave a cry of surprise, eyes wide, and his leg gave.

&nb
sp; She timed it just right, so as he wavered, she kicked him again, this time in the gut.

  He staggered back just enough for her to slam the door in his face.

  She heard him hammering as she bent to press the button in the bottom corner of the panel, and then she slipped behind it and closed it quietly.

  There was risk to this. If he managed to get in, or got someone else to let him in, there would be legitimate questions about where she'd gone, but the prospectors had not been exaggerating their worry that the Cores would start a top down, thorough hunt through the plant if it didn't switch back on soon.

  She ran down the steps and into the hidden control room, her hand hovering for a moment over the switch. Dyl wasn't safely in the lounge, but there was no way to get him there, especially not now. She had to hope her father wouldn't have wanted a place he might be hiding in to be near an explosion, and that Leo was in the lounge by now.

  He surely must be.

  She flicked the switch.

  Chapter 30

  The lights flickered once, twice, and then came on.

  Leo watched everyone blink in surprise as they switched off the lights they'd been carrying around.

  “Who's responsible for this?” Haga looked around the room. “Who called this meeting?”

  Donnie raised his hand. “I thought I saw a problem with one of the underground cables, so I had someone go uncouple then couple it again, and then I set a battery powered diagnostic on the panel upstairs. It must have just finished running.”

  “Well.” Haga stared at him. “That's good.” She looked around the room. “Who's truck is first in line?”

  Gert, who'd been one of the three who'd come to fetch Sofie this evening, raised his hand. “You want me to start it up?”

  Haga nodded, and then she jogged out, with Donnie on her heels.

  Leo grabbed his arm as he passed by. “Remember, if they haven't found all the explosives . . .” He didn't elaborate further.

  Donnie gave a tight nod. “I need to keep her from looking too closely at my 'diagnostic'.” He pulled free and tried not to look like he was chasing her across the open space toward the stairs.

  “She came through.” Ursula stood beside him, and lifted a sleeve to her forehead and rubbed. “Twenty explosives, Leo. And I nearly dismissed her out of hand.”

  Leo nodded, opened his mouth to speak, and then closed it with a snap.

  One of the Cores guards was limping across to the lounge from the open doors.

  He had a sudden, dry-mouthed feeling of panic. He was standing near the door already, and when the guard stepped in, they faced each other.

  “Where's Haga?” The guard almost spat the words.

  “She just went up to the office.” Leo pointed. “What happened to you?”

  He opened his mouth, and then paused, and closed it again.

  And Leo knew.

  “Come, I'll show you where to find Haga.” He opened the door, slung an arm around the guard's shoulders as if to help support him, and propelled him out.

  He caught a quick glimpse of Ursula, and she shook her head, making the sign of a geyser with her hands to remind him the place could still explode.

  He would take his chances.

  “I don't need your help.” The guard twisted in his grip, but Leo held on.

  He was the same height as the guard, although not as bulky, and he tightened his hold as the door closed behind them. “I don't want to help you. I want to know how you got that limp.”

  “Why?” The guard finally broke away and stepped back, hands fisted.

  “Because there was only one other person out there other than the guard at the gate, and she already had a run-in with you today.”

  The Cores thug thought about it for a moment.

  Too long, as far as Leo was concerned.

  He stepped forward, putting his arm across the man's shoulders a second time, and moving in to give him a hard, quick, double punch to the gut.

  “What did you do to her?” He bent his head forward as if he was sharing a joke.

  “Nothing,” the guard hissed. “She kicked my knee and then my stomach. I'll be letting management know.”

  “You do that, and I'll make sure you're standing beside her at some point, so Servos can see how you were bested by someone half your size.”

  The guard sucked in a breath. “Then you tell her to make sure she keeps out of my way.”

  Leo's hand clamped harder on the guard's shoulder. “This is her place, not yours. You keep out of her way.” He stepped back, slapped the guard's shoulder in what hopefully looked like a friendly fashion, and then felt the ground beneath him rumble.

  He shot a look at Gert's truck on the weigh pad, saw it was just driving off.

  Ursula was suddenly at his side. “That came from near the gate.”

  They ran out together, and saw the long, narrow sign-in building was no more.

  Parts of its roof had landed on the security hut at the gate, but even as they raced toward it, the guard crawled out of the wreckage.

  There was a cut on his forehead, but he otherwise looked unharmed.

  The same could not be said for Leo's hover, or any of the other vehicles parked beside the gate. They were buried under debris.

  Servos and two of his goons arrived as Leo was helping the gate guard to his feet.

  “Haga told me the power was back, but what the hell happened here?” Servos jabbed a finger at Leo.

  “This is your plant, not mine. How the hell should I know?” Leo kept his tone short.

  He turned away and looked at the power control station. He wanted to go there so badly, his hands were shaking.

  “When the power went back on, obviously a badly insulated connection started heating up.” Ursula spoke as if she were figuring something out. “There's always been concerns about pockets of gas in the tunnels below the weigh station. Renard had heavy lids built over all the entrances to help contain a blast if one ever happened. Gas must have collected under the sign-in tunnel when the power went out and the systems couldn't filter the air, and when the power came back on, it ignited.”

  Servos rubbed at his head. “Well, what'll the impact be?”

  Ursula shrugged. “We'll have to put a sign-in inside the weigh station until we can rebuild.”

  Servos stared at her. “That's it?”

  She nodded. “The plant itself seems to be untouched.”

  “Then do what you have to do, as cheaply as you can do it.” Servos strode off toward the double doors.

  “As easy as that,” Ursula murmured.

  “Different story if it had been the weigh station,” Leo said. He started walking toward the power control building, but as he headed there, Sofie emerged from the darkness.

  She stopped when she caught sight of him, seemed to sag a little, and then kept going.

  She was in his arms in moments.

  “You're all right.” She spoke against his chest.

  “And so are you.” He pulled back to look at her. “I saw your victim limp into the weigh station.”

  “Dyl.” She made a face. “Not sure if he was just being an asshole, or if he was planning to do something to me, but he wanted to come into the power control room, and I couldn't let him.” She shrugged.

  Leo turned with her, to look at the small area where his hover had been parked. “I'm afraid our ride home has been destroyed.”

  She stiffened. “Leo, we need to get back to Felicitos. If my father set this place to blow after eight years, what's to say he didn't do the same to the tethered way station?”

  Leo stared down at her, mouth open. “You think . . .?”

  She shrugged. “He did it here, didn't he?”

  “But you've never seen something predicting an explosion like the floor mural here anywhere on Felicitos?”

  She shook her head. “I haven't. But I can't believe he'd destroy one part of the Cores' wealth, and not the other. Unless he just couldn't bring himself to, bec
ause of what Felicitos meant to him.”

  “We can't go yet anyway.” Leo bent his lips to her ear. “We still have the original problem, of the weight algorithm.”

  “Oh, no.” Sofie turned to look up at him. “I fixed that while I was down below just now.”

  “What?” He gripped her a little tighter.

  “It wasn't hard. But it's a year by year thing now. I can't set it for longer than that.” She grinned, and then winked, and he realized she knew exactly what that meant for her and her importance to the ongoing scheme.

  He threw back his head, and laughed.

  Chapter 31

  He woke her with kisses.

  Sofie stirred, and then slid her hands up Leo's back, tipping her head on the pillow so he could have better access to her neck.

  She shivered as he worked his way down, and then gripped him hard to stop him going lower.

  He looked up at her, eyebrows raised.

  “We need to leave right away. If Felicitos comes down . . .”

  She could see the thought was as horrific for him as it was for her.

  He sighed, then kissed his way back up.

  She stretched beneath him, feeling sated and happy. She caught his face between her palms. “I think I love you.”

  He blinked. “Do you, now?”

  She gave him a slow smile. “Yes.”

  “Well. And then you cruelly tell me I can't have my way with you?”

  “As you've been having your way with me all night, I don't think you're too hard done by.”

  He kissed her lightly on the tip of her nose. “Perhaps you need a day to recover, having been awake all night?”

  She laughed. “Maybe I do.” Then she sobered. “I have too many friends in T-Town to be able to relax today, knowing something my father did could have put them all in danger. If Felicitos comes down, will anything survive?”

  He sobered. “No. No, nothing would survive. Certainly not T-Town. And I have friends there, too.”

  He stood, put a hand down, and pulled her to her feet.

  For a moment they stood, naked, in each other's arms. She loved the feel of his skin on hers, warm and vital. She took a deep breath, drawing his scent into her lungs.