by T. K. Malone
“So, it’s a guess?”
Kenny shrugged. “Well, seeing as I’m no munitions man and haven’t any experience in this area, then sure, I’m guessing. But, Zac, I can recognize when folk are in a hurry and when they’re not.”
“And these—”
“Aren’t. So, I’d say tomorrow.”
Zac nodded and left Kenny to his own devices. He took the stairs down to the next level, and then through the maze of resi-rooms until he found the canteen. His boys were easy to spot: they were the ones all covered in white dust and looking like ghosts. They were even easier to hear. He went and joined them.
“How’re we getting on?”
“Bastard hard work, Zac,” replied Noodle. His eyes looked like a panda’s, the concrete dust seemingly in every crease and fold of his skin. He looked extremely uncomfortable; they all did: Billy Flynn and Pauly, and the rest of the gang.
“Will you get through?” Zac asked.
“If Pebbles gets her way,” Billy Flynn muttered.
“Why? What does she want to do?”
“Blow a fucking hole through,” the big man said, but with an edge that suggested he thought such a thing was way too over the top.
“Well, maybe as a last resort, Billy, so you make sure you keep her reined in, eh?”
“Will do, Zac.”
Zac left them to it, in two minds himself. Sticks’ plan was the only one they had, and it was a bastard good one, but a hell of a lot needed to be done just to give it the slightest chance of working. Back out in the corridor, he headed to its end at the furthest corner of the level, toward the intermittent sound of a jackhammer, and turned into the very last and loudest room. There, sitting in the middle, was Pebbles and Pogo, both now taking a quick breather between bouts of drilling.
“Through yet?” Zac shouted.
“Oh, hi, Zac”, Pebbles called. “‘Fraid not. Were a few feet down and still going. You sure they’re linked?”
“Loser reckons it’s right, and he was dead on with Charm’s room.”
“He’ll be just plain dead if he’s wrong with this ‘un,” she scoffed.
“Don’t suppose he happened to mention how thick the floor was?” Pogo shouted, then took off her ear defenders.
“Don’t suppose he did,” Zac answered.
“Can’t we just blow it?”
“Nope, you can’t just blow it.”
“Works fer most things,” and Pogo smirked a broad smile.
Zac had to laugh. “Yep, that it does, but for now, just keep hammerin’.” He turned and left.
His next stop was Croft, and on his way, he wondered at what point he’d actually become the leader of the place. He took the stairs down two at a time and was soon in the military area. Sticks was in the middle of the loading bay, sorting out their first line defences: a horseshoe arrangement of sandbag foxholes all aimed at the Hell’s Gates. They were placed so Croft’s troops could quickly retreat to the stairwell.
Sticks looked across and gave him the thumbs up, to which Zac nodded before going up the steps to the balcony. There he found Karina Drey sitting with Croft.
“Hey, Zac,” she said, easily.
Something about her made Zac immediately feel awkward. He wished he knew what it was. Hesitating, he pulled a seat out and sat opposite her.
“So, is all progressing well?” Croft asked.
Croft had impressed Zac. Where Zac was all hands-on, always looking over the shoulders of his men, Croft remained more aloof, trusting his men to do their duty. Zac put it down to the in-built authority army men had. Zac’s boys, he had to admit to himself, were a little more free market when it came to discipline, but they got the job done.
“All depends on whether we can break through from the compound to here.”
Karina Drey laughed. “Oh,” she said, her smile somehow appearing devious. “It doesn’t all depend on that. The only thing that depends on that hole is whether my rebels live or not.”
“And you,” Zac pointed out.
“Yeah, and me.”
“Don’t you mind dying?”
She pushed her fingers through her long, red hair. “Survival? Is that so important to you? Do you think I was worried about surviving when I put me and my people between two armies, and in a confined space? Do you think those were the actions of a person who was precious about their future?”
“Now you—”
“Now I nothing, Zac. I never expected to last this long. Now it’s so close, it’s worse; I’ll grant you that.”
“Worse?”
“Of course worse, Zac, because I can now smell victory as much as I can smell defeat, and I want to live to see which way it’s going to go.”
“Then come with me, or Croft…”
She laughed at that. “Then who would there be to blow the compound? Shall we go and see?”
A look at Croft evoked a shrug. “My part in this is fairly easy,” he muttered. “The benefit of having a good second-in-command. Off you run.” He waved them away like a tired parent.
Karina Drey jumped up and led Zac to the back of the balcony, through a doorway and down and deeper into the military compound. Connor had told him about his escape route, but Zac hadn’t yet seen it. Now, one after another, Karina’s people were carrying up the explosives that had been packed down there.
“Tuttle primed the explosives so Croft could blow them, but it was a fairly rudimentary arrangement. It would have brought most of this compound down around Banks’s ears, but a lot would have survived. This way, a lot more will die. We’re aiming to get the balcony to collapse in a wave, leaving the rooms furthest away from the Hell’s Gates last—least, that’s the plan. Hell of a lot’s ridin’ on Banks cooperating, though.”
“Cooperating?”
Karina Drey grabbed his arm. “Cooperating. Sticks has analysed every way of storming the compound, and they’ve all got one thing in common. He has to come through the entrance. Once he does that, everything is designed to suck him further in. So yeah, it relies on him, and yes, he needs to cooperate. He’s got to be the bastard we think he is. If he hesitates, if he seeks a truce, it’d only take a few runners an’ all of Croft’s men could desert.”
“You think they would?”
“Most haven’t seen the sun fer two weeks. Once them gates are blown, all bets are off. Hell, I might run myself.” They reached the end of the corridor they were in, where Karina clambered up a set of steps. “This here’s gonna be our lifeline.”
Zac clambered up after her, her enthusiasm definitely infectious. Dust coated the top step and everything beyond, and from where came the sound of drills, suddenly louder when she opened a door. Inside, it looked like hell. Zac decided his own gang had a far easier task—at least they weren’t drilling upward.
“How’s your team doing?” Karina asked him.
“A few feet down.”
“Not bad.”
“But we ain’t even sure we’re drillin’ in the same place.”
“That we ain’t, Zac Clay; that we ain’t. So, you wanna get a drink and have a smoke, or you want to see how we’re getting on with your little bolt hole?”
“Mine seems the least important. It’s fairly straightforward.”
“Oh.” She winked, “I wouldn’t say that. I reckon your chances of survival are as close to zero as it gets.”
Zac looked at her across the table. She’d led him down from the balcony and along the side of the loading area until she’d ducked into a doorway. “Kept this a secret from your boys,” she’d said on entering, and he’d instantly known why.
It appeared Croft had his own little bar.
“So,” he said, “how’d you get to be in here? You gotta second name, so you ain’t a full-blast gridder. Didn’t think Charm would have risked bringing folk in.”
“Prying, Zac. That’s just plain pryin’.” She pouted. “Say, don’t you trust me?”
“Oh, I trust you all right; you’re gonna die, ain’t you?”
She raised her glass. “As are you, I suspect.”
“Thing I can’t wrap my head around is this: you said we had to hold the military area, and now you’re happy to abandon it.”
“What can I say? Maybe Sticks had a better plan than I have. Maybe I never saw the escape route—that’s just genius. It was a man called Loser’s idea? Why’s he called that?”
He looked at her; she had a strange glint in her eye. It was as if she was hiding something.
“Not a fucking clue.”
Karina laughed at that. “Maybe I was waiting for someone to show up?” and then she raised her glass again. “Cheers.”
“Cheers.”
“So, tell me, Zac, just what are you going to do once this is all done. You know, on the off chance you survive?”
“Me? I’m going to ride away. Figure I’ve lived me a life in a twenty-mile circle. If I get out, I fancy hitting the road—old style.”
“And going where?”
“Most anywhere. Why? You wanna tag along?”
She lit herself a smoke. “Nah, a birdie tells me your life’s complicated. Don’t think I want any more complicated. You asked me where I came from and I didn’t tell you.”
Zac sat back and lit his own smoke. “So?”
“So… I haven’t decided whether I can trust you.”
“Is it that bad?”
She gave him the slightest of nods. “Depends. You might just wanna kill me.” She ran her tongue across her lips. “But then, I suppose we’ve only got a day to play this game. If I were to tell you that I’ve been preparing for this day for nearly as many years as I’ve been alive, would you believe me? If I told you a bunch of us have? What if I told you we’ve lived among you for many a year? What then, Zac Clay?”
“Who the fuck are you?” Zac asked, getting fed up with her games.
“I’m Laura’s half sister, but that’s not important. What is important is that I am part of her legacy. I am the one who would keep her dream alive. We all, all my so-called rebels and I, are just her reaching out from the grave, finding any way to complete her plan and preserve this…” and Karina swept her arms around. “This compound needs to endure, and it will.”
Though she hadn’t mentioned any names, Zac immediately cottoned on who Karina was talking about. “But I was told she was mad.”
“Who?”
“Sarah Meyers.”
Karina shrugged. “Aren’t most inspirational people considered mad? She stayed alive long enough to teach all of us. To have us commit to her cause. Me? I’ve been getting paid a pittance to guard this place for years, just to get into this position.”
“That doesn’t quite ring true. If you knew this place from top to bottom, how come it was one of mine who sussed out they were linked?”
“Loser?” and Karina laughed. “Just how much do you know about him?”
“That he…” and suddenly it all made sense. “He’s one of yours, isn’t he?”
She nodded.
“But he tortured…”
“Did you see a body?”
And then Zac realized that none of them had gone back to check, just leaving Loser to it. He remembered that Loser had been linked to the Meyers, that they’d recognized him. “So, all this time?”
“Sarah Meyers knew she’d be double-crossed. She just made sure she got them first.”
“Is he your—”
“Brother? Father? Uncle? Good God, no. We’ve just got the same hair. No, he was supposed to be the one, but then Connor came along. So, you see, Zac, Sarah Meyers had even infiltrated your gang. Not bad for a dead woman.”
Zac raised his glass. “Not bad at all.”
She was an incredible woman, that was for sure, but Zac didn’t need any more complications in his life, but it appeared that Noodle, now standing above him at the top of the steps to the compound’s upper level, certainly did.
“So, not interested, then, boss?”
“Haven’t you gotta hole to dig?” Zac growled.
“Pogo and Pebbles wanted to get all sweaty and dirty with Billy Flynn, so I felt a bit like a spare prick, you know. So, Karina?”
“I swear, Noodle…” Zac threatened as he ran up the steps.
“You’re always swearing, boss. Just answer the question.”
Zac grabbed Noodle by the shoulders. “Listen; like as not we’re all going to die, and quite soon—”
“That’s my point: no time to lose.”
Zac couldn’t fault his logic. “Instead of thinking with yer cock, think with yer brain, for once. Tell me, Noodle, you wanna live past tomorrow?”
“Course, boss.”
“Then we need to prepare our place; need to get the guns stashed, the HUDs in place. Need to make sure the ropes are fast, the whole place secure.”
“Secure, boss,” but Noodle still had that glint in his eye. “And once I’ve done that, boss?”
Zac broke into a smile. “After you’ve done all the… Your time’s your own.”
“Thanks, boss,” and Noodle hurried off.
Zac found Loser in Charm’s room, from whose door led a queue of gridders, all the way down the corridor, around the stairwell and into the next. He couldn’t help but think they all looked scared, terrified even, like they were being led to their death, which he supposed was what it was like for them. From what Molly had told him, they’d all been gassed out and transported here, only to wake up to find that everything they knew had been wiped out. Man, he thought, that must have been a real head-fuck.
Molly was with Loser at the head of the queue. From a bench, a chair and a table, they’d rigged up a makeshift set of ascending steps. As each gridder stepped up, a pair of hairy arms reached down and pulled them through the ceiling hatch. Zac looked up to see a very red-faced Pauly, sweating profusely.
“How many?” he asked Molly.
“Sixty. It’s slow going, Zac.”
“Many as you can. Loser, a word if I may.”
Loser looked at him, as though he knew what was coming, and the air seemed to seep from him, deflating his very being. He trudged past Zac and out into the corridor, then into Connor’s old radio room opposite. Zac followed him in, unable to keep a smirk from his face. Loser had plumped down on the couch, seemingly defeated.
“Take it she’s told you everything,” he sighed.
“Doubt everything, but enough to know you’ve double-crossed us.”
Loser held his hands up. “Now hold on, there. I didn’t do anything that hurt the club.”
Zac sat on the edge of the desk. “Oh, I don’t know about that. You put us in danger when we first got in here. You could have settled things right away.”
“Oh, I don’t know about that. Those shots you heard behind you were Garrett’s men getting it. No, I think Karina’s been the one economical with the truth. There are a few of us in the club, mostly from Christmas. I wouldn’t bother askin’ their names if I were you; might open a can o’ worms that don’t wanna be opened.”
“How many?”
“Like I said—”
“Yeah, I know.”
“Think about it, Zac: gun running, booze smuggling, smoke peddlin’; that ain’t excitement. Not when each shipment’s near enough guaranteed to get through. No, we got bored, and bored real fast. Sarah Meyers was an inspiration, gave us somethin’ to work toward. Hell, toward the end, Laura was near enough runnin’ the club. Why’d you think Grimes set up at The Angel Bay? Christmas ran like clockwork fer a reason, you know, and the reason was to keep him away.”
“So, my father wouldn’t have known what was going on,” Zac muttered.
Loser winked and shot Zac with his finger. “Exactly. As long as he got a hero’s welcome when he went back, everything held in place.”
“But why?”
“Me? Why’d I follow Sarah Meyers after what her family did to me? Because she gave a fuck, Zac. She wrote me in the army, made sure I was okay when I got out. No one ever gave a toss about me u
ntil she did. That goes a long way, that does. You got a bit of that yourself… Charisma. I can tell you actually give a fuck about Billy, Noodle, Spritzer, and Pauly—all of them.”
“You too.”
“Even me; miserable, double-crossing bastard that I am?” If possible, his shoulders sagged some more. “You’re a good man, Zac Clay.”
“Just one thing: Laura. Was she just playin’ a part.”
Loser looked up at him, his eyes now seeming much older than his years, and then he nodded. “Could be. She certainly would have, to get the job done. Certainly would have spun the lies. Did she care fer you, though? Well, you’ll have to ask her that.”
Zac nodded, his lips held to a firm line. “Thanks.”
“For what?”
“For the truth.”
Kenny walked in the door, saw the two of them and walked back out again.
“Not so fast, Kenny,” Zac called after him.
He poked his head around the door. “What’s up?”
“Can you show me the feed from the tunnel.”
He looked from Loser to Zac and back. Clearly deciding it was safe to come in, he sidled across to the desk and sat down behind it.
“The feed to the tunnels, eh?”
“Yep.”
Screwing up his forehead, he set to work. “There,” he soon said.
The screen went from grainy to hazy, then cleared. “Looks very much like they’re nearly done,” he said.
“So, what are they waiting for?”
“Best guess is tomorrow. It’s getting on for the middle of the night.”
“So, tomorrow we die,” Loser said. “Just my luck. I was getting on all right with that Molly girl.”
“Now, you hold on, there,” said Kenny.
Zac decided to leave.
“Laters, boss,” said Loser, and gave him another wink.
Zac strode down the corridor, to stretch his legs, then went off in search of Billy Flynn, Noodle, Pebbles, and Pogo. If this was going to be his last night on the planet, it was going to be a good one.
19
Zac’s Story
Strike time: plus 15 days
Location: Project Firebird