The Dauntless: (War of the Ancients Trilogy Book 1)

by Alex Kings

  The tunnel led to a winding pathway upwards, through a small, busy chamber, then onward to an almost-deserted second. “This is it,” said Hanson. “Check the floor.”

  Yilva dropped down, put her ear to the floor, and drummed her fingers against it.

  “What are you doing?” asked Srak.

  “Oh, wow. Yeah, Engineer thing,” said Yilva. “If there's a fault in the floor plating, it affects the acoustic properties. I've done this plenty of times.” She moved along a bit, tapped again, then pointed. “There!”

  In the segment she had pointed too, the metal plating in the floor wasn't quite in line with the flesh. There was a gap of about half an inch where polished chrome met red ochre. Hanson experimentally pushed at the flesh with his boot. It made a faint crackling noise like dry autumn leaves underfoot, but moved without breaking, opening up the gap to several inches.

  That was it, then.

  First of all, Hanson called Moore up on the comms and told her where to find him. “We may be going into a hostile situation. Be ready and wait outside for us.”

  “Yes, sir”

  “This looks like it's going to be dangerous,” Hanson told Yilva. “Do you want to stay here?”

  She shook her head. “It's fine! I've got armour. It's good.”

  Hanson nodded. “Alright,” he said. “Srak, you go in first. If we encounter resistance straight away, you're best equipped to deal with it. I'll go second. Yilva, you follow. And Agatha, take up the rear.”

  “This is fun, isn't it?” said Agatha. “Very military.”

  Srak pushed back the Afanc's dry flesh and slipped his head through the gap. The flesh crackled and groaned as his bulk as he squeezed though, but didn't give way. Once Srak's tail had vanished, Hanson lowered himself feet-first through the gap and followed.

  He found himself in a sort of crawlspace between the plating of the floor and the flesh underneath it. Except underneath wasn't quite the right word – there wasn't any gravity here. It was also close to pitch black, so he activated his suit's lamps.

  Ahead, he saw Srak moving ahead. He took a moment to make sure Yilva was following, then pressed forward after Srak.

  A little way along, he saw the fissure Bloodtooth had mentioned. He crawled into it, and along for several metres. At last, gravity seemed to return – it felt like they were crawling down at a shallow angle. Then – light ahead. Hanson turned off his suit lamps.

  Ahead, Srak paused for a few seconds. “All clear, I think,” he said in a quiet but deep voice, then moved forward. He vanished through a bright opening, and there was a gentle thump of feet against metal.

  Hanson crawled forward to the gap. Here the gravity was back to normal. The crevice he was in was angled downwards at a little over 45 degrees, and exited near the low ceiling of a chamber.

  Srak held out a hand, so Hanson didn't have to drop all the way to the ground.

  Hanson looked around the chamber, pistol ready, while Yilva and Agatha followed. It was empty, save for a computer console in the corner. Markings in the metal floor suggested something had been affixed there once, but had since been moved.

  There was a bit of shrapnel lying near his boot. Hanson picked it up and turned it over in his palm. A chunk of the armour he'd seen from his first encounter with the mysterious hostile on Vane.

  “This is a bit shit,” said Agatha, looking around. “I thought there were going to be some of these supersoldier guys coming at us.”

  “Encountering the Albascene might have spooked them” said Hanson. “If so, it stands to reason that they moved their operation to where they could get some more privacy. Keep the Glaber out the front looking dangerous, and nobody would know a thing.”

  “So we came all this way for nothing?”

  “We came all this way for evidence,” said Hanson, walking over to the computer terminal. Its screen was blank. He tapped at it a few times. Nothing happened.

  “What, you think they cleared off but left an active terminal for someone to look about in?” said Agatha.

  “No. But it's always worth checking to make sure if your opponent has made a mistake.” He drummed his fingers on the terminal, thinking.

  “Hold on,” said Yilva, coming up beside him. She tapped at the screen a couple of time, then squatted down beside it. “It's probably been wiped. But if we're lucky …” She pulled away a panel in the side, revealing a set of clear cylindrical columns inside. “ … they didn't do it properly. There might be something left.”

  She reached under her armour and pulled out a contracted tablet, extended it, and plugged one side of it into a port near one of the cylinders. She gestured with lighting-fast speed at the screen for a few moments.

  “Gotcha,” she said after a few seconds, and looked up at Hanson with a big smile. “Glad you brought me along now?”

  “Very much so.” Hanson moved around so he could get a better view of the tablet. “Well done. What've you got?”

  “Oh, wow. A lot. They still don't know I have their keycodes. I'm running a program to collate everything on here and flag anything interesting. But this is definitely them. Project Renaissance. I … Hm.” She tilted her head to the side, and gestured at the tablet a few more times. “Lots of messages about the stasis pods. Got a message here from some Glaber talking to a … Mr. Bell? It talks about testing the blanks. I think blanks are what they call the exploding soldier guys. And another one talks about how a Blank killed several Albascene … You're right. That's why they cleared out. I bet the other gangs would love to know this.”

  “It's proof?” said Hanson.

  “Yeah. These messages prove that the Shrikes are behind the blanks. And that they've been buying out people. I'm downloading all of this.”

  “Anything else we can use?”

  Yilva gestured at the tablet a bit more. “Yes actually. There's this Mr. Bell.”

  “Who?”

  “I don't know. But he's at the centre of this. Half the messages stored here are either to or from him. He's the one giving the orders.”

  “Do you know how to find him?”

  “Hold on,” said Yilva, fingers dancing a few inches above the tablet. “Got it.” She looked up at Hanson. “He's here. On the Afanc.”

  “That's it, then,” said Hanson. “That's our next step.”

  With Srak's help, they crawled back up through the opening in the ceiling, then under the floor plating and back to the chamber they'd come from.

  Moore and Saito were waiting there. Otherwise, the chamber was empty. Hanson gave them a quick summary of what he'd found.

  Moore thought about this. “You downloaded everything you found?” she said. “Why don't we go back to Tethya now – or even Earth – and hand over the evidence we've got?”

  “I thought about that,” Hanson told her. “But what do we have now? Gang politics. Gangs messing about in some criminal activities. Mysterious words like blank, and a name without a face – that might just be a pseudonym. After what happened on Tethya, I don't think that's enough to get a proper investigation. And if there really is a conspiracy, it'll just show the conspiracy how much we know.” He sighed. “We need to go further.”

  Moore nodded, lips pressed together. “So what's the plan?”

  “Yilva,” said Hanson, “could you show us where Mr. Bell is?”

  Yilva made her tablet a bit larger and held it up for them. It showed an odd and tangled map of the various platforms and inner spaces of the Afanc, overlaid with transport pod lanes. “I got this off the terminal,” she explained, then pointed to one of the platforms on the map. “He's here.”

  “Storming in will bring the weight of the shrikes down on us and give him a chance to escape,” said Hanson. “We'll have to try stealth. Get him by surprise. If he has a computer terminal or tablet with him, we search that for evidence. If he's guilty, we jump him out of there.”

  “You make it sound so easy,” said Srak.

  “Getting the head of a criminal conspiracy out
of his own lair without anybody noticing?” said Hanson. “Yeah, piece of cake.” He sighed. “No. Chances are, things will get pretty hairy on the way out. We'll need a couple of external escape routes. And if we can't make it to the berth, Lanik might have to send a shuttle to pick us up somewhere else.” He looked around his team. “Well, then, I think it's time to pay Mr. Bell a visit.”

  Chapter 20: Come In

  It took a little over half an hour for Yilva to find a good route through the Afanc to Mr. Bell's offices. Meanwhile, Hanson called Lanik to bring him up to speed. “We'll probably be coming in hot,” he told him. “Have the shuttles with additional backup ready.”

  “Yes, sir,” said Lanik. This time he said nothing about the number of regulations they might be breaking, but Hanson suspected he was still keeping count.

  Then began the long journey Yilva had mapped out for them. The office would normally be impossible to get to – but Yilva found a passage that was mainly through locked doors. With her keycodes, she had no trouble getting past them.

  After another half hour of walking through winding corridors and empty chambers, they came upon a large chamber with tunnel openings surrounding its outer rim.

  “This one,” said Yilva. “We're nearly there.”

  They moved through the tunnel, eventually coming to a door. Yilva plugged her tablet in, tried a few keycodes, and the door slid open with a hiss.

  On the other side was another chamber, roughly teardrop-shaped, but with one side looking out into a much larger internal space. In the middle of it, three Glaber, caught unaware, looked over at them. There was no cover between the two groups.

  “Oh, crumbs,” said Yilva.

  Agatha was the first to react. She grabbed Yilva's arm and pushed her back behind the group into relative safety. A moment later, Hanson's hand was on his pistol. He raised it, steadied his aim, and shot the middle Glaber.

  The other two fired back as he dived to the side. A bullet glanced off his armour. He heard Agatha grunt in pain. A second later, another shot from Srak's pistol took out the second Glaber.

  The last one, seeing he was outnumbered and outgunned, turned and headed for a console on the far side of the chamber. An alarm.

  Just before he got there, a burst from Saito's assault rifle sent him down.

  “Agatha!” said Srak.

  Hanson quickly glanced round the chamber in case there were any more hostiles waiting, but there was nothing. It was an empty chamber. To their right was a view of one of the Afanc's giant internal spaces. To the left, a organic wall smoothly joined to the ceiling. And directly ahead, a door set into a segment of artificial wall.

  When he looked back, Agatha was brushing off Srak's attention. “Sod off. It's fine,” she said. There was a puncture in her armour just below the right shoulder. She moved her arm a bit and winced. “Damnit,” she whispered.

  “How bad is it?” asked Hanson.

  She grabbed her pistol in her left hand and held its grip firm. “Don't worry,” she said. “I can still shoot. I won't be a liability.”

  Hanson had dealt with plenty of pigheadedness in his career. “Saito,” he said. “You have field medic training, right?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Have a look at it.”

  “Oh, for crying out loud,” said Agatha.

  Srak turned to her and gave her a look. She relented, and turned to Saito so he could get a look.

  After a few moments of examining it, Saito said told her, “No immediate danger,” he said. “The armour took most of the force out of it. But you'll need to get it checked up when we return.”

  Agatha shrugged, then winced. “Fine,” she said. “Can we get on now?”

  “Alright.” said Hanson. “Yilva, could you open the door for us?”

  “We're inside,” said Yilva. “No locks. Just through there, and straight ahead.”

  On the other side was an empty corridor. “Right,” he said. “Moore, Saito, you're in backup position. I want you to wait outside in one of the adjacent tunnels. Make sure no-one else stumbles on us.”

  “Yes, sir,” said Moore. She and Saito retreated.

  Pistol ready, Hanson tapped the sapphiroid panel by the side of the door, and it slid open. On the other side was a sort of anteroom. It was oversized in all dimensions, with a set of armchairs to the right and a carpet underfoot. It might have been a room on any Alliance space-station, except a long window to the right gave a view of the same internal chamber. There was a door in the middle, leading out to an open platform where a transport pod stood waiting. More doors on the left led elsewhere. And directly ahead, a large double-door stood in the centre.

  “That's the one,” said Yilva.

  As they padded across the anteroom, everything felt eerily quiet. The décor inside combined with the view through the window gave Hanson a surreal feeling, at once familiar and alien.

  At the door, he glanced back to his teammates, who raised their weapons, then tapped the panel. A moment later, a voice from some hidden speakers said, “Come in,” and the door opened.

  Chapter 21: Snoopy Tie

  The main room was as big as the anteroom, with a few pictures of human ships – from the earliest space shuttles to the latest IL test ships. To their right, a floor-to-ceiling mirror took up almost the entire wall. A rounded ebony desk sat at the far end, and the room's sole occupant stood it front of it.

  He wore a dark suit that looked entirely formal save for a Snoopy tie. He was in his late thirties, with slicked-back light brown hair. He held an extended tablet in one hand, and tapped it with the other.

  A transparent cylinder of bulletproof sapphiroid, two metres across and several inches thick, surrounded him.

  “Captain Hanson, I presume?” he said with a smile.

  Hanson's grip on his pistol nearly faltered. He looked around the rest of the room as he entered, to see if there was a free console or anything he could use. But there was nothing useful. The desk was clear of everything save an antique lamp, a glass and pitcher of water, and a few photographs of famous sights on Earth and Mars.

  “Mr. Bell?” he said at last.

  “Yes.”

  “You knew we were coming …” Hanson sighed and pinches the bridge of his nose. “Srak, could you break through that shield?”

  “Let's see,” said Srak. He lifted his oversized pistol and fired at the edge. The bullet made an ear-splitting bang, ricocheted off the cylinder, and took a chunk out the edge of the desk. Where it had hit the shield, there was tiny hairline crack.

  Srak laughed. “Just give me some time.”

  Mr. Bell gave them an apologetic smile. “I'm afraid you don't have it.” He gestured to the mirror to Hanson's right. The moment he did so, it became transparent, offering the same view of the Afanc's inner chamber. Outside, a team of Glaber, in full armour and with raised assault rifles stood on the platform in two ranks. There had to be at least thirty of them, possibly more. A single Blank joined them, standing near the edge and holding the same spherical weapon Hanson had seen on Vane.

  And in the middle stood Vance, similarly outfitted.

  Hanson, and the rest of his team, swung their weapons up to the glass. The mirror – or window – rose quietly to the ceiling, and Vance limped forward.

  “You bastard,” Agatha snarled at him.

  “Sorry, Red,” he said. “Shame you ran away from this position. That was never your strong suit, was it? You were never very bright. Ha-ha! But me, I see things. I see the way things are going. There's going to be a whole new world come next week. And I'm going to be near the top of it.” Vance cocked his head. “And you, petal. I'm sorry we didn't get a chance to get to know each other better.”

  Yilva's tail was held stiff. A soft growl came from the back of her throat. Hanson had never heard her do such a thing before. Vance shrugged.

  “Vance?” said Mr. Bell.

  “Their ship won't be going anywhere. Clamped and they don't even know it yet! Hah!”

>   “Good. We still need to find that datachip. Get it out of them,” said Bell.

  “One question, Vance” said Hanson. “If you're working for Bell, why didn't you stop us, or shoot us, the moment we arrived?”

  Vance stared at them. “Really, Captain? You just lost, and you're still playing detective?”

  “I know,” said Agatha. “It's because he didn't know about us. Isn't that right? Bell here didn't tell you to look out for us, so you didn't tell him when we arrived. You didn't think it was anything special. Then you reported an Alliance ship had docked, or Bell contacted you, or something. So we caught you off guard. Is that about right?” She laughed. “He didn't tell you! He doesn't trust you. You talk about being on top, but you're just a low-level flunky, like you've always been.”

  “I'm sorry, miss, but I have to say you're mistaken there,” said Bell. “Trust takes time, and Vance is new to our … organisation. But with his success here, I'm sure he will rise through the ranks quickly.” Then to Vance, he said, “I'm sure you will deal with this issue to my satisfaction.” He gestured at his tablet, and the section of floor he was standing on descended, leaving the sapphiroid cylinder empty.

  “You've got to be bloody kidding me,” said Srak. “Who makes preparations like that?”

  Vance had stopped grinning. “You might wanna drop your weapons,” he said.

  Agatha snorted and steadied her pistol. “Yeah, sure. Why not? Or how about, fuck you, I'll keep hold of it?”

  “Haha! Yes, Red. You be brave. I've got backup.”

  Srak growled. “Can't kill all of them. But we'll both aim for you first. See how much that platoon helps you with a bullet in your head.”

  Vance stared at him, lips pulled back in a snarl. “This …” he said.

  “I might just shoot randomly into the crowd,” offered Yilva.

  If this kept up, it'd end with them all dead, thought Hanson. And Bell would get away unharmed. He ran through a very small list of plans which might tip the hand in his favour, settled on one, and activated his comms to the rest of his team through a subvocal command. He'd have to keep this brief. “Everyone, to the desk. Srak, provide cover. Agatha, grenades, flash then standard. On my mark.”