“You’d drop a rock on ’em,” Noah said flatly. “You drop a good sized rock, just big enough to take out a city, and they’ll empty us out–if they don’t just shoot holes in us.” Horror expanded in his eyes. “That can’t happen,” he said, his voice hushed. “We’ve got lookouts everywhere. And the rock jocks can deflect anything in time. Or blow it up.”
“Noah, could someone subvert the Con? Bring CSF up here if you didn’t want them to?”
He paled. “Point taken. You don’t really think… yeah, you do.” He looked away, his face all sharp edges. “Ahni, there are a lot of safeguards in place. I just don’t think it could happen.”
He was pleading, not asserting and that scared her. “Kyros brought me over from his ‘safe place’,” Ahni said wearily. “He said that the security system had been alerted, that we had to be careful because they were running all kinds of scans to find stray ships.” She let her breath out slowly. “They didn’t spot us, Noah. And I think… he has brought rocks down here before. How big a rock would you need?”
Noah looked down at his hands, lmotted in his lap. “I’d like to say no one would do that… not for all the credit there is,” he said slowly. “But you know–the miners–they’re kind of an odd bunch. You don’t go be a miner because you want to get rich. It’s a long way out there and it’s… it’s a long way. I don’t know that… dropping a rock on Earth would mean all that much to some of them.” He shook his head, like someone waking up from a nighttmare. “I just don’t think you could do it. We’d spot it, coming in.
That’s our whole argument for us bringing rocks down to orbit. We can’t miss ’em.” He glared at her.
“Earth has warning beacons all over the place this side of the Belt. We’ve got rock jocks out grabbing every scrap of floating junk.”
“Kyros will know.” Ahni swung her legs over the side of the futon. “I need to talk to Kyros and then I need to find Li Zhen.”
“The Chairman of Dragon Home?” Noah looked aghast. “Are you crazy? He’s totally against secession.”
“No, he’s not,” Ahni gathered herself, the pain threatening to break through her control. “He has a son, Noah. Like Koi. And my brother intends to betray him.”
Noah stared at her, silent and considering. “It’s all out the lock now anyway. I’m not sure anything we do right now is going to save Dane. So hey, why not knock on Zhen’s door and ask him to play?”
Ahni put weight on her foot, fought down dizziness. Okay, she could make it. Took a cautious step.
Another. Noah put his arm around her and she leaned on him, which helped. They made their way out into the hall. “We’ll have to get back up to the hub without getting arrested,” she said as they made their way down the hallway. “I want Li Zhen in on this before we go to the CSF commander. He has more clout here than I do.”
They were lucky and met no CSF in the hallway. Clearly, the force was stretched thin and as long as no crowd gathered, they were probably content to keep track of this level mostly through the vid eyes. The few residents they passed neither looked nor spoke.
They reached the elevators without incident, and Ahni used her implanted hardware to override the lock and send the car clear up to the hub, as she had on that very first trip here. The diminishing weight on her ankle was a blessing, and by the time they donned the straps and Ahni floated free, she was able to relax some of her tight control. Pushing off with only one foot, she made her way back to Dane’s private lock, her senses tuned for anyone who might be watching for intruders, felt a familiar prod of intent behind them as they neared the lock.
”Wait, Noah.” She caught a planted tube. “We don’t have to find Li Zhen. He just found us.” She turned to face him as he arrowed toward them out of the green distance. As he neared, Ahni recognized the small, handheld tracking module in his hand. Idiot, she thought. Of course he had planted a beacon on her. She had never thought to scan herself for one.
He spilled his momentum neatly, drifting gently, two meters away. “This is the one who was to find the data for you?” he asked her in Mandarin.
She nodded. “Noah, meet Li Zhen.”
Noah nodded, tense and nervous.
“Li Zhen, Xai is playing a double game with you,” she said harshly. “He intends to betray you the same way he betrayed our father. He means to destroy Dragon Home and all the platforms.”
”What do you know?” the chairman snapped. “Why should your brother betray me?”
“He serves another master, Li Zhen. The Gaiists. I have proof. They mean to empty the platforms. That proof is in public space, and I have the links.”
“Show me.”
She handed him the data sphere on which Noah had recorded his synthesis of his media search on the Gaiist movement against the platforms. Li Zhen pulled out a pocket desk, dropped the sphere into it.
Minutes crawled by as he skimmed through the information. Finally he looked up, humming with reaction.
“I talked to Nilsson,” he said in English.
Ahni’s chest tightened and she drew a labored breath.
“Where is he?” Noah broke in. “Still on NYUp?”
“I do not find that our goals are… dissimilar.” Li Zhen iggnored Noah, switched back to Mandarin. “I will hear what you know about Huang Xai and what you suspect him of.”
“For that we need Kyros.” She pushed off, heading for the lock, flanked by Li Zhen and Noah both. The lock didn’t respond to Ahni’s palm when they reached it. “Kyros?” She felt a moment of fear that he had left after all.
“Who’s with you?” Kyros’s growl rumbled from the speaker.
“Li Zhen, Kyros. We need you. Fast.”
Silence. Ahni held her breath, her eye on the small green telltale that indicated pressure in the lock, waiting for it to turn yellow, then red, as Kyros blew the lock and took off. Said a small prayer to her ancestors that if he had stuck it out this long, he’d stay.
The lock melted open and she let her breath out in a rush of relief. Kyros faced her, his expression hard.
“You owe me a lot.”
”Yes.”
Li Zhen pulled himself past her and through the lock without a word. Kyros gave way before him, still nervous, keeping distance between himself and the Chairman of Dragon Home.
“We are here. With your miner.” Li Zhen faced her as the lock sealed behind them. “Explain.”
“Kyros.” Ahni drew a deep breath. “I think there is a plan to… drop a good sized rock on Earth.” She felt rather than heard Li Zhen’s reaction. “Could someone play hide and seek with someething that big?
Like you played it coming over here?”
“A rock?” Kyros’s eyes narrowed. “Why the hell would anybody want to drop a rock on Earth?”
“To shut down the Platforms,” Ahni said. “All of them. Say they dropped something less than 100 meters in diameter. It might explode in the atmosphere, but it would cause enormous devastaation if it came down anywhere near a population center. And it’s our worst nightmare. You’d have the world population calling for the end of the Platforms in one voice.”
“Why, damn it, why?” Kyros looked shaken.
“Because to the Gaiists, the Platforms are an alien cancer, an enemy of the planet and the planet is their goddess,” Ahni said. “They are behind the uprisings in NYUp.” She turned to Li Zhen. “Elder Brother.”
She switched to Mandarin. “Did you know Xai was working with them? Did he tell you that?” She reached into her singlesuit, handed him the data dot. “This needs to go to the CSF commander. It is the data file of the others who are involved with this.” And I will match you betrayal for betrayal, she thought.
“Your agenda will be destroyed if their agenda succeeds. Which master does my brother serve here, Li Zhen? Where will your son grow up, Elder Brother? Will your father welcome him?”
Li Zhen took the data dot from her. Pocketed it. “I will examine this.” His face and tone were cold and closed. He looked
at Kyros spoke English. “Miner, you have not answered her. Is it possible for someone to bring a small M-type asteroid into the gravity of Earth without our beacon satellites’ detection?”
Kyros looked from Li Zhen to Ahni.”Yes,” he said.
“There are some crazy folk out in the Belt,” Kyros went on. “I guess… if you had contacts on Darkside, on the moon, you could find ’em. Even the real crazies have to come in once in awhile, and everybody knows who they are. We all sort of give ’em a wide orbit,” He frowned, thinking hard. “There are a few I know of who could pull it off… get a rock through the screen. They… uh… do that already.” He looked away from Li Zhen. Swallowed. “They’re real careful about it–a few people have gone out of their airlock because they got careless. But the money is real good if you do. Real good. A couple of the beacons… don’t reeally work. Looks like it from this end, but it’s a fake picture, you know? There’s some real talent out there in the fringe. You got to stick with small rocks–under 250
meters. But if you know the screen… there are holes. You use hull mounted receptors and every time you come down to Darkside, you record when the scan beams touch the ship. You do that long enough, you swap your data around with like minded folk, and pretty soon you got a nice three D map of the sentry shell.”
He gave them an uneasy shrug. “Believe me, it ain’t the solid sphere they like to brag about downside.
More like a big net and it’s got a few good sized holes in it. It could happen. And…” He let his breath out in a long sigh. “I always listen to the close-in chatter when I’m down here, and a couple of days ago, I heard someone say they thought they saw a rock going through. Nobody looks too close. If you’re towing a rock, your butt’s on the line and you’re carrying heavy hardware to deal with the curious.
Everybody but the sentries steers clear of incoming–when it has a rider. And… this one had a rider.”
“So there’s a rock down here in Near Earth?” Ahni said softly. “All set to drop?”
“Dunno about all set to drop. Who the hell would drop a rock?” Kyros looked away. “I don’t know where it is. Probably half refined by now.”
“Find out.” Li Zhen said softly. “Now.”
Kyros bristled.” Can you find out?” Ahni put in quickly. “Kyros, could you ask people in the… the chatter… to tell you if they saw something? It’s going to get dropped.”
“One rock looks like another if you park it,” he grumbled, his stare fixed on Li Zhen. “Folk don’t talk about that kind of thing. Even between us.” He sighed, looked at Ahni. “I can try,” he said. “And I know a couple of local… parking places. Some big holes. Bounce from the Platforms makes ’em. Down here, it’s a lot easier to hide a rock. The Platforms are looking for little local threats — junk and stuff that can bust a hole in the Platform hull or at least bang it up good. Everybody figures we’ll stop the big stuff before it gets down here. Once you park the rock, you cut it up and move it. You move under power, you don’t aim to hit anybody and you’re pretty much invisible in the traffic.”
He was worried, and that scared Ahni. “Can we go check out the parking spots? Li Zhen, you can take the data to the CSF commmander. Maybe they can pick up these people. They may be on Dragon Home,” she said to Li Zhen. “At least some of them.”
For an instant, Li Zhen’s face tightened as if to refuse, his anger a lightning flash between them. Then he looked away. “I will look for them there before I go to the commander,” he said.
“I don’t think you have a lot of time.” Kyros looked grim. “You bring a rock down here, you don’t sit on it and have a picnic. While you’re fetching the marines, I’d better start looking now. Damn, we need Dane.”
”Nilsson, why?” Li Zhen narrowed his eyes.
“He was a miner for years and he still gets along with everybody. He’s got an in with NYUp Admin and he pulls strings. People trust him and he knows the parking places, too. He has a ship and he could help us look.”
Li Zhen considered. “Nilsson is Council property. From what you say, we do not have enough time for a Council argument. If…” he looked at Ahni, “you are correct about the intended course of events.” He looked from her to Kyros. “I hope that you are not. Begin looking.” He palmed the lock open and pushed himself through. It sealed closed behind him.
“So is he going to do anything or not?” Noah stared after him. Ahni looked at Kyros. “I’m coming with you to look.”
“No.” Kyros turned his back on her.
“Yes.” Ahni pushed off with her good foot, slammed into the ship’s hull in front of him, killing her momentum with a slap of her palms that sounded like a shot in the small space. “I can hear them Kyros.
My brother. The Gaiist. I’ll know if they’re close, even if your instruments can’t spot them. It’s an edge.”
Kyros met her glare for a moment. Then his shoulder slumped slightly. “You.” He looked back at Noah.
“You get this end. Here.” He pulled a portable link from his suit, spun it toward Noah. “That’s the link to the old lighthouse where your Administrator and Dane’s kids are hiding out. They’ve got enough air and supplies for about ten days, okay?”
Noah caught the link, looking uncertain. “What should I do?”
“I don’t know.” Ahni shrugged. “Whatever you need to. Make sure Laif and Koi’s family are okay.” She pulled herself into the ship behind Kyros, grabbed the webbing as the closing hull cut off Noah’s protest.
TWENTY
ANOTHER MEAL TRAY LAY ON THE FLOOR. DANE HADN’T even bothered to lift the cover.
He looked up as the door opened, expecting the guard who would retrieve the tray and vanish without a word.
Li Zhen burst through, a small stunner in his hand. Beyond him, Dane saw the backs of two men in Dragon Home uniform. Their tension and exhilaration rolled into the room like a cloud of acrid smoke.
“Come, now.” Li Zhen jerked his chin at the door.
Dane bolted to his feet, headed for the door. Paused as Li Zhen grabbed him by the shoulder. The Chairman of Dragon Home planted a small black disc on the collar around Dane’s throat, then shoved him toward the door. An override? He’d find out soon enough. He burst from the cell, found himself in a small room with four CSF face down on the floor, hands clasped behind their heads, guarded by six Dragon Home Security.
Dane cast a glance at Li Zhen, but one of the guards was already shoving him toward the exit at the far side of the room. They ran together down the short hall, stepping over another prone CSF. The last two guards backed after them, tossed a gas grenade that burst at the end of the hallway. The guard in charge of Dane said something that clearly meant “hurry up” and shoved Dane through an opening door and into a small lock. The final two guards burst in after, letting their breath out in desperate gasps, a faint sickly sweet scent clinging to their uniform singlesuits. Dane felt briefly dizzy and the small, slight guard closest to the two swayed and nearly fell. Potent stuff. Hands propelled him through the lock of the small docked shuttle, everyone crowding in, bracing feet and hands against the bulkheads as the hull closed and the lock instantly cyycled. The small, dark woman at the controls said something sharply and they blasted out of the lock.
Acceleration shoved at them all, but they were packed in so tightly that there wasn’t much room to fall.
The elegance and cleanliness of the shuttle’s interior and the comfort-padded webbing and jade Buddha mounted above the control center suggested that this was Li Zhen’s private shuttle.
He was speaking rapidly, in Mandarin. His speech was angry, with a hint of subservience that didn’t fit Dane’s impression of the dominant head of Dragon Home. But the rhythm of the conversaation, punctuated with brief pauses, suggested that Li Zhen was speaking to someone downside. It occurred to him that he was speakking to his father, the Chairman of China.
Acceleration slammed them all sideways and then the shuttle braked hard. All up and down vanished in an i
nstant and they floated in microG. Li Zhen faced him as the lock cycled and their ears popped slightly.
“We are at your axle. Where is your ship? Quickly.”
For an instant Dane hesitated, but the raw edge of Li Zhen’s urgency decided him. “Private lock, here at the axle.”
“Good.” Li Zhen nodded. “I was correct. Take me there.” He pushed himself away from the control panel, the hull opening as he soared through.
The Chairman was skillful in microG. Dane pushed after him, a little lightheaded from the gas.
Recognized the main cargo lock at the NYUp hub. His ship was next door. He activated his direct link, waking the ship-core, ordering warm up and standby.
“This way.” Dane pushed through the lock as it opened, into the thick, familiar breath of the garden. He stretched his senses to the limit, searching for the bright echoes of Koi’s people.
Silence.
His heart sank.
“Hurry,” the Chairman snapped.
“Not yet.” Dane stilled his momentum on a tube of peppers, faced the Chairman. “Details first.” He held the man’s glittering black stare. “What is going on?”
“The Gaiists have managed to acquire a rock and some assisstance.” Li Zhen bit the syllables off, his accent barely noticeable. “They will drop it on Earth in order to provoke closure of the Plattforms. This must not happen.”
A rock? “That’s crazy. It would take a lot of careful coordinaation and people who know what they’re doing, up here.”
“Your friend… Kyros?” He pronounced the name carefully. “He believes it is could be done. Ahni Huang says it will happen.”
Ahni… “Where are they? I want to talk to them.”
“They are finding the rock and the ship that guides it.”
Dane closed his eyes. If someone was really doing this they’d carry serious weaponry. Kyros knew that.
Horizons Page 28