“How?” Dana demanded.
“I can tell you where to find him.”
“Where?” said Hugo and Dana at once but Webb scrambled to his feet.
“Wait, wait, wait,” Webb said, getting up limping forward. He fought down the rush emotion that threatened to pour out of him as either curses, tears or vomit. He took a breath to get control before continuing. “Why?” he breathed. “Why are you doing this? Is it just to make yourself feel better? Because I’m not him, you know. I’m not the one you failed.”
Dana and Hugo didn’t speak. They watched Mac with blank faces.
“You can’t understand what it is like to know that everything you cared about has been tortured and destroyed because of you,” Mac said. Hugo’s face flickered. “There is nothing, nothing I can do that will undo everything that’s happened,” Mac carried on, not looking at anyone but Webb. He took a step up closer, looking into his face. Webb noticed for the first time they were exactly the same height. “But this is something I can do…the only thing I can do. So I am doing it.”
Webb took a minute to make sure he could stop his voice from shaking. “Ok. Where is he?”
Mac held his eyes a moment longer, searching for something in Webb’s face. “Storage District,” he finally said, pulling a data thumb from one of his pockets. “There’s a few off-the-radar types who have fashioned some sort of stronghold in one of the bunkers and holed up together there. But be careful. They’re there because they don’t want to be found. I don’t know what lengths they’ll go to, to stay hidden.”
Webb took the data thumb. The sick feeling was still there but he couldn’t figure out whether it was regret for what had happened already or regret for what would never be. “Thank you,” he managed.
Those two words appeared to stabilise something in the older man. He nodded and smiled. A genuine smile. “I’d stay and help if I could, but I now have some highly trained Service Analysts and Eclipse tracking teams on my trail. Besides,” he looked around the dusty chamber. “It seems you have everything under control.”
Webb snorted. “No less than usual, anyway.”
Mac’s smile widened. He glanced back at Hugo and Dana who had already booted up the computer panel and were bent over maps, then turned back to Webb. He hesitated, then reached out and put his arms around him. Webb stood stiff for a minute then returned the hug. He felt himself start to tremble and tried to stop but the effort made his injury throb and squeezed wetness from his eyes.
“I don’t even know what I’m feeling,” he whispered. “These are his feelings. Not mine.”
Mac’s embraced tightened for a second then he pulled away and held Webb at arm’s length, looking into his face. “Do what you have to, lad. Get your revenge for both of us and I hope it’s worth it. But I want no more of that.” He gave him a gentle shake. “Everything that made up him makes up you. Whatever happens, you’re my lad and I won’t have you doubt that. And anyone lays a finger on you again, they’ll have to answer to me.”
Webb swallowed against the choking feeling, but nodded. “Whatever you say, old man.”
“Hey,” Mac pointed in his face. “Less of that ‘old man’ crap. Right, Commodore. Midshipman.” Hugo and Dana looked up from the panel, Dana clearly nettled. “I have a date with a deep-space freighter. Good luck to all of you.”
He moved straight to the hatch and left without looking back.
XIV
Webb stared at the closed hatch in silence for a long time. A million things swirled in his mind like detritus after a hull breach, but none of it obliged him by ordering itself into anything useful. Pain blurred it all together, and he didn’t know which part of himself it came from.
“You ok?”
Dana’s question broke the spell. He took a breath and blinked. She had that pinched look about the mouth he’d figured out was her being worried and trying to hide it. Despite everything, it warmed something in him.
“Oh, I’m peachy,” he said, rubbing at his aching eyes. “Just golden. Hey, Hugo?” Hugo blinked. He’d been staring at the hatch too. “You with us?”
“Yes.”
“You sure?”
Hugo shook his head, still staring blankly. “That was Duran McCullough.”
“Yeah,” Webb said, rubbing his neck. “Ain’t that a kicker?”
Hugo examined him a moment then held out his hand. “What’s on that data thumb?”
Webb passed it over. “Stuff on Ariel’s pad, hopefully. Just do me a favour: if there’s any info on me being related to any more genocidal assholes or dead people who are actually alive, keep it to yourself ok?”
Webb had hoped Hugo would smile but if anything his frown got heavier. Dana took the panel off Hugo and plugged in the thumb.
“It’s schematics of the Storage District,” she said. “Restricted ones.”
Hugo frowned “Restricted?”
“The layouts and security systems in the Storage District aren’t public,” Dana said, eyes widening as she flicked through. “I guess there’s no need for Havenites to know about the colony’s wealth. But it’s all on here. And it looks like Mac’s right: someone’s managed to barter storage and accommodation space for private use in there.”
“Why would the Elders allow that?” Hugo asked, eyes flicking as they took in the data.
“If you bring enough wealth and business to the colony,” Webb said wearily, limping over to look over Dana’s shoulder, “there’s a lot of perks to be gained. Look at Celeste’s apartment.”
Webb only realised he was staring at the hatch again when Hugo put a hand on his shoulder. He started. Hugo didn’t say anything but Webb could, for once, read everything he was thinking in his face.
“My God,” Dana said under her breath, starting them both out of their reverie. “This is it. This warehouse here.” She pointed, grinning. “We’ve found him. We’ve really found him.”
*
“Hugo? Will you say something? You’re making me nervous.”
Hugo didn’t look up as he helped Dana pack everything into a holdall. “We will have to move fast. Are you going to be able to keep up?”
He heard Webb sigh. “Yes. I’ll keep up. Am I allowed to know what’s happening?”
“You know what’s happening,” Dana said, loading a pack onto her back.
“I know we’re going after Ariel. I don’t know what you two seem to be able to know without saying anything to each other. Is that a Service thing or a brother and sister thing?”
“Here,” Hugo said, handing more dust scarves out from the holdall. “We need to keep our faces covered.”
“Hugo,” Webb snapped as he snatched the scarf off him. “Tell me the plan.”
“No plan yet,” Hugo said, not meeting his friend’s look. “For now, we’re just relocating to the Storage District.”
“I still think we should take the mopeds,” Dana muttered.
“Negative,” Hugo responded, hefting his own pack onto his back and checking his knives. “We don’t go above ground unless we have to. Is everything ready?”
“Medkit, weapons, tech, panel, comms,” Dana reeled off, checking her belt and pockets. “All set.”
“Dana, you’re scaring me too,” Webb mumbled as he gingerly wrapped the scarf around his face. Hugo watched the clone’s stiff movements with uncertainty.
“You’re scared of everything,” Dana replied. “Do you need me to take some stuff out of your pack?”
“I’m fine,” Webb said, adjusting the straps but Hugo could tell he was hiding a grimace behind the scarf. “Shall we get going?”
Hugo nodded. “Dana. You have a route?”
Dana tapped her temple. “All up here. It will take us the best part of a shift to get through avoiding inhabited and active areas.”
“I trust you,” Hugo said, earning raised eyebrows from both of them. “Lead the way.”
Dana’s surprise melted into a look of suspicion but her glance at Webb only produced a shrug
from the younger man. Then she nodded and headed for the hatch.
Hugo took up the rear. As he shut the hatch on their dusty, cramped hiding space he’d never felt gladder to leave something behind. With the buzzing of the cables gone and his blood moving as they marched along the passage, his mind felt balanced. Even the contorted muddle that was Mac’s revelations didn’t penetrate. He felt like he was sailing on top of it, with a clear heading and control of the vessel. At last.
Finally, he had a plan. He knew the others were not going to like it. But he told himself that didn’t matter.
This was going to end his way, and soon.
*
“Oh good. Another dirty, rusty hole.”
“I want a weapons check, a tech check and everyone to eat,” Hugo said, ignoring Webb’s complaints. He could tell his friend was in pain. The slog through the betweenways had taken even longer than they’d expected. Webb had kept up for the most part but it had cost him. Dana had insisted they stop every few hours. The last time she had checked his bandaging the bleeding had started again.
When they finally called a complete stop and Dana was arguing with Webb and making him change his dressings, Hugo went through their packs and started to lay everything out.
“Why this place?” Dana said, looking up at the towering chimneys that dominated the space they were in, disappearing somewhere in the dark above them. They were silent and cold, rusted through in parts, but still felt like a solid presence in the otherwise empty chamber. “We’re still ages away from the Storage District.”
“This is outside the District’s surveillance nets,” Hugo repeated. “And it’s the first place we’ve found where the door locks.”
Dana glanced doubtfully at the heavy metal door with its rusted lock-wheel. “It might have locked once. It doesn’t look like it will now.”
Hugo left the tech spread on the floor and went to the hatch. His heart pounded and he hoped his guilt didn’t show on his face. It locked with a fierce spin of its wheel, confirming to Hugo that neither his sister nor Webb in his injured state would manage it on their own.
“It locks,” he said, managing to keep his voice steady, then went back to their equipment. Webb was drinking a protein shake and watching him but Hugo kept his eyes on his work. They finished the checks in silence and then Dana handed out Nutripaks and water. Hugo put his water bottle aside unopened.
“Are we going to make a plan, then?” Webb said as he tried to make himself comfortable against the wall. “I’m willing to bet Nod that that son of a bitch knows we’re coming by now. He’ll be prepared.”
“Soon,” Hugo said, packing the last of the gear away. “Rest first.”
The sounds of them swallowing water filled the echoing silence for a moment. Both Dana and Webb were looking tired, gazing at nothing. Hugo concentrated on his tech check rather than wonder what they were thinking.
“You know where I’d like to go when all this is over?” Webb murmured after a time, staring at his Nutripak.
“Where?”
“To the Highlands.”
Dana wrinkled her nose. “What, the Academy?”
“No,” Webb said with a yawn. “Mac had a cottage there, right on the loch shore. I’d like to go back.”
“Why?”
Webb frowned. “I don’t know. It was… peaceful.”
Dana looked sceptical and took a bite of her food. “If you say so.”
“It was,” Webb insisted. “You don’t get these things if you’re born on Earth. But just the water and trees and…I don’t know. It felt like an escape.”
“I know what you mean,” Hugo said quietly. “There’s a lake outside Sydney. It used to be a reservoir but it’s been landscaped and is now in a protected area. No buildings. When you’re there it’s like…” He closed his eyes saw himself there, walking along the sand with Harvey, the wind tugging at her curls and the breeze flushing her cheeks. “It’s like the rest of the Orbit doesn’t matter. You’re in your own world.”
“Sounds great,” Webb said.
“You two are weird,” Dana grumbled. “Earth’s a dump.”
“Enough talk,” Hugo insisted. “Sleep.”
Webb yawned in answer and Dana’s eyes, too, were heavy, though she shook herself and pulled out the computer panel. Hugo took it off her and put it in his pack.
“I want to go over the entries and exits again,” she moaned.
“Tomorrow,” Hugo said, zipping up the pack. Dana glared, but tiredness robbed the look of any power. “Go to sleep,” he insisted.
His sister yawned, finished off her water then nodded, defeated. She pulled out the three blankets they’d brought with them and curled up in one of them. Webb was already asleep, propped up against the wall. Hugo shuffled over and covered him in a blanket then shut off the lighting pole.
He waited until both his companions had been breathing steadily and evenly for a several minutes before slipping out and locking the hatch behind him.
*
He didn’t let himself think about how easy it was to set the guilt aside as he scurried through the betweenways, guided by directions he’d loaded into his wrist panel. Maybe that was because he didn’t feel very guilty. Webb was hurt and Dana was too impulsive. He was better on his own.
It was well over an hour’s scramble from where he’d left his companions to the Storage District. He rounded a corner and a breeze was gusting from somewhere and the passage, though dusty, was lit with the sound of voices not far away. He knew he should waste no time, but he still stood staring up at the vent he knew would take him into the District for far more time than was sensible.
He tried to decide if he was scared. But that wasn’t it. It wasn’t fear of facing Ariel and his stronghold alone. It wasn’t about getting hurt or not knowing what he would do when he was finally looking this man in the face. Those things didn’t scare him.
But there was something else under all that. And with a start he realised what it was. It was the thought that even if he found Ariel, took him down and managed to smuggle him out of his stronghold, past the blockade and back to the Orbit to stand trial…what he succeeded in all that but Harvey still looked at him with empty eyes?
Mac’s words came back to him again.
…you can’t understand what it is like to know that everything you cared about has been tortured and destroyed because of you…this is something I can do…the only thing I can do.
Hugo closed his eyes and shook his head. His eyes prickled. We swiped at them with his sleeve then strapped on his hand-grips, clenching his teeth together and taking deep breaths through his nose.
This was something he could do. So he'd do it.
He focused on that thought, glanced about one more time to make sure he was alone, then touched the grips to the metal wall and felt them take hold. He climbed up to the vent, levering off the grid with a multitool and crawled into the narrow space, leaving the grid swinging behind him.
The air vent, like so many others he remembered crawling down during his missions for the Zero, was dark, cold and cramped. He felt his way along. When it started to climb, he knew he was heading the right way.
Finally, it lightened and he reached a junction with another grid that looked down over an empty yard, walled in on all sides by tall concrete. He unscrewed the grid and took a full five minutes checking there was no one around and that none of the area’s cameras were anywhere in line of sight before shuffling out feet-first and dropping to the ground.
He scanned around. Ahead was the wall of a featureless building. Behind him and on eachside were the District's high boundary walls. In the distance he could just make out the blinking tops of the Planning District towers.
Hugo couldn’t help but feel the vent had been a little too conveniently placed. But then, looking around at the rest of the fortifications, he figured that whatever these Havenites were worried about keeping out, it probably wasn’t one man and his multitool.
He took another
check of his position on his wrist panel then ran across the yard and around the side of the building, heading deeper into the District. He kept away from the broader avenues that ran between the clusters of windowless buildings, but the further he went the more unsettled he became. It was like whenever he thought he had his head round this colony, he discovered a new place or turned another corner and he was right back to feeling lost and disorientated. The buildings were all large but in a dizzying array of shapes. Some towered up into the shadows, some seemed to sprawl for blocks. The access avenues between them converged on wide squares. Innumerable lifters, from little hand-carts to the industrial-sized cranes, were parked up and stored in many of these open spaces, but there was barely a soul around.
Many of the buildings had huge rolling doors, all closed, all locked. Some had platforms and doors on other levels high above his head with walkways between them, supported on metal and concrete pillars that split the colony’s dull green light into green bars flung across the miles of empty accessways. He occasionally heard voices, engines or machinery in the distance and the throb that was the constant sound of distant yards and refineries, but he only had to duck out of sight of a real person once. The cameras and motion sensors were concentrated around the boundaries and avenues so even they were easy to avoid.
The few noises faded as he approached the cluster of buildings that Mac had highlighted as those that had been bargained off the Elders. If anything, it was even more spartan than the rest of the district. Most of the doors had been bricked up or welded shut. There were no lifters in sight, though he did see parked mopeds and a couple of old but serviceable flyers. Floodlights had been installed and washed everything painfully bright after the gloom of the rest of the District. The black eyes of camera clusters dotted most corners and walls.
He sunk into the shadows of a blocked doorway when he heard voices. Two men, big enough to be Enforcers, though they weren’t in the ubiquitous dark coveralls of the colony’s official security, came round a corner. One had burn scars twisting up one side his face. The other walked with a heavy limp. They were talking but they were watchful, checking between the buildings and looking over the square.
Haven (The Orbit Series Book 2) Page 26