by Lara Morgan
“We’re bringing her now!” One was shouting into his com. “Get it ready. Boss is stable, but she’s on the line.” The gurney flew past and he saw Rosie lying on it, unconscious. Gillian was running behind, her face a mask of fear, and behind her came another operative with another gurney. This one with Alpha on it. He leaned against the wall, going hot then cold all at the same time. Jesus, oh Jesus, God. Rosie. He couldn’t breathe but then he forced himself to get it together. The medibay. That was where they had to be going. He had to follow, make sure she was okay and get her out. All thoughts of going after his dad fled and he crept from the room and followed the operatives down the hall.
It was like resurfacing after being under water. Sounds were muffled, dull, and her vision was dim and blurred. She rose up through layers of darkness into a brighter light. Things becoming sharper, louder, until finally she was squinting against a white glow and the sounds became voices.
“She’ll be fine; luckily for you I know what I’m doing. The burns are superficial and the pulse was weak, all brain tests have come back positive, but I cannot believe you allowed her to become so dehydrated, to leave her in that state. Or that her previous injuries have gone untreated. I’ve gelled the burns from that damn device, but I can only say again how repelled I am by its use.” Rosie recognised the peeved, whining voice – it was the doctor who’d looked after her before. Odd, he was complaining on her behalf.
“Your opinions are noted and dismissed. Notify me when Alpha is recovered and take him to his room. He should not be in here. I’ll be in my office.”
Jebediah. Rosie waited until she was sure the sounds of his footsteps had faded along with the clang and rustle of the doctor ordering Alpha to be removed. Then she opened her eyes.
She was in the medibay. The light was too bright. It hurt and she blinked several times.
“I see you’re with us again.” The doctor appeared suddenly at her side with a handheld scanner. His lips pinched as he watched it monitor her. “Recovering well, no thanks to your stupidity.”
“Gillian?” Rosie’s mouth was parched and her words came out hoarse.
“There.” He jutted a chin to her other side. “I’m repairing her eye. No thanks to Alpha or you,” he mumbled.
Rosie rolled her head on the pillow and saw Gillian’s curling hair dark against the sheets on a bed a few metres away. “Gillian?” she called.
“Be quiet. She’s not conscious. Her eye is recovering. Drink this cell repair.” He shoved a glass of orange-coloured liquid at her. Rosie sat slowly and took the glass and the doctor went back to his bank of holos, muttering under his breath about stupid children and where else he could be.
The drink tasted like chemicals and citrus, but she forced it down, certain this time it wasn’t drugged. The doctor clearly despised her, but the way he’d spoken to Jebediah, she doubted he’d allow anything other than the cell repair in the drink. It worked fast, sending energy back into her limbs and, as she sipped it, she tried to figure out if what Riley told her to do had worked. Had that pulse shot switched her nanos back on to receiving or downloading data?
The door to the medibay opened again and Rosie could hardly believe it when she saw Dalton creep in. His face lit up as he saw her. The doctor turned around and almost fell over in his attempt to get up. “Wait!” He put out a hand, but Dalton was already on him and hit him hard on the side of the head with the butt of a gun. The man crumpled without another sound and Dalton caught him and dragged him towards her.
Rosie got off the bed. “Put him up here,” she whispered.
With a grunt, Dalton hoisted him up. Then he pulled Rosie into a tight hug. “I thought they’d killed you.”
His heart beat fast and hard against her cheek. “Not exactly, I’m okay. The surveillance?”
He pulled a stylus from his pocket. “Dealt with, don’t worry.”
“Where did you get that, and the gun?”
“I knocked out an operative.” His expression shadowed as he glanced briefly at Gillian and Rosie saw the marks on his neck from Jebediah’s hands. “She all right?”
“Yeah, are you?” There was something haunted behind his eyes, a well of pain, and she reached for his hand. “Dalton …” She didn’t know what to say. No one should have to learn what he had about his father.
But he gave her a crooked smile, covering. “Don’t worry about me. No time for it.”
No there wasn’t. “Pip got away.” She pulled him towards the orb machine, talking over her shoulder. “I came back because of what you said, about the plans you saw on your dad’s com. It’s really important, the key to everything. I have to get hold of them, upload them to my implant.”
He watched her searching the machine for the temple patches. “What are you doing?”
She unplugged the patches. “These will be the conduit from the com to my implant.”
“I thought it wasn’t working.”
“Long story.” She shoved the patches in her pocket. “Found a way to fix it. And Riley’s back. He’s got a plan, but we’ve got to get that com.”
“It’s in his vault. Wait, Riley’s back?” He shook his head. “I have been missing stuff, but Rosie, that vault is DNA linked. Only my father can open it.”
Great. She faced him. “I know he went back to his room not long ago …”
Dalton looked at the gun in his hand then up at her. “I can do it.”
“Are you sure?”
That haunted expression was back in his eyes. “I’m sure. Come on.”
“Wait, I’ve got to tell Riley.” She went back to the doctor and tugged his stylus out of his pocket and took it to his holos. She pushed it into the controls and swiftly navigated to the com system.
“Won’t it be detected?” Dalton said.
“Probably, but hopefully it will be too late then.” She dialled in and pinged her aunt’s com, messaging her.
Going to get com now from JC safe. Will need extraction asap. Dalton and Gillian too.
“What’s he got planned?” Dalton asked.
“I don’t know,” Rosie detached the stylus, “but hopefully we can get that com by the time he gets here.”
“What about Gillian?” Dalton said.
“We’ll have to come back for her.”
They crept out into the hall and Dalton led the way to his father’s office. The corridors outside the medibay were empty of operatives and Dalton jammed the surveillance with the stylus as they went. It was still early morning, a little after six Rosie guessed, and she was glad for the cell repair drink the doctor had given her or she’d really have been running on empty.
Dalton halted at an iris at the end of the corridor. “This leads into the operatives’ wing,” he whispered. “My father’s office is at the end. If any operatives are around, jamming the surveillance won’t help.”
“Wake up is at five thirty,” Rosie said. “They should be all out.” She wasn’t confident though.
“Ready?” Dalton held up the gun.
Rosie nodded. “Go.”
He shoved in the stylus and opened the iris and they sprinted down the long corridor. High narrow windows let the sunlight in on their left and for a while, they had a clear run. The doors to the operatives’ rooms were shut, and at the end were large double doors that had to be the entrance to Jebediah’s rooms. They were so close, when a door opened behind them and a shout rang out.
“Stop!”
“Run!” Dalton fired a shot at the operative. Rosie raced ahead down the corridor, legs aching. Another door opened as they passed and an operative lunged at them. Dalton shot at the woman and she ducked back in as they sped by, but immediately she was out again and in pursuit. Orders were shouted behind them as the operatives tried to organise themselves. The pounding of their boots was terrifying. Then they were at Jebediah’s rooms and Dalton swiped his hand over the lock release. The doors slid open and they threw themselves through as an operative closed in, her face set and determined. She re
ached for them but the doors closed a millimetre from her fingers and Dalton fired a shot at the lock inside the room, fusing the metal. The stink of burning and a hint of smoke drifted up.
They both turned, panting, to see Jebediah sitting calmly behind a large desk watching them.
“A grand entrance, son, but that won’t keep them out for long,” he said.
“Long enough.” Dalton pointed the gun at his father and the weapon wavered slightly in his grip. “Open the safe.”
CHAPTER 23
Jebediah didn’t move. “The safe?”
“You heard me.” Dalton took several steps closer. “The one behind you there.”
Jebediah cast his eyes over Rosie. “I suppose this is your idea, is it? Pity you didn’t succeed in your supposed suicide bid.”
“I didn’t try to kill myself,” she said quickly. “Dalton, don’t listen to him.”
“Don’t worry, I’m not.” Dalton’s jaw hardened and the gun became steadier. “Open the safe, Father.”
“No.”
Dalton’s breath was audibly loud. “I will do it. You don’t have to be alive for me to use your DNA.”
“No, son, you won’t.” Jebediah’s voice was smooth, overconfident and Rosie felt terribly sad for Dalton.
“After all you’ve done, you shouldn’t be so sure,” she said. “Don’t make him do it, open the safe.”
“This is not your concern, girl. Please be quiet.” Jebediah’s gaze didn’t move from Dalton but Rosie saw the shift in her friend; the muscle that flickered along his jaw.
Slowly, as if in a trance, Dalton walked around the desk and now Rosie’s could see his eyes, the bright light of fury in them, the fear. “Open it,” he all but whispered.
“I will not,” Jebediah said, and the gun in Dalton’s hand shook.
“Fine.” He fired. The pulse hit Jebediah in the shoulder, flipping him backwards from his chair. He didn’t cry out.
Rosie rushed around the desk. Jebediah was still conscious, shuddering and glowering at Dalton in anger.
“Not so weak then, son.” He forced the words out.
Dalton didn’t answer. His face pale. He handed the gun to Rosie and grabbed his father’s arm on the side he’d wounded him, dragging him upright. Jebediah grunted and had to follow, stumbling to his knees then feet. He didn’t resist any more as Dalton took his hand and pressed his thumb to the DNA pad on the safe.
It opened and he shoved his father back and into the chair.
“Keep the gun on him,” he said to Rosie, then reached into the safe and brought out a slim silver com.
“Here.” He handed it to her and took back the gun, pointing it at his father. “The pass code to activate it is 25, 11, 2503. You remember, Dad, don’t you? Chris’s death date.”
Jebediah didn’t answer and Dalton’s expression turned to disgust. He asked Rosie, “How long will it take?”
“I don’t know, not long.” Tense, she took the com away and sat in a chair facing the desk. She pulled the temple patches from her pockets and attached them carefully to her skin, then picked up the com. Here goes nothing. She flicked it on and tapped in the code, watching it light up. Then, taking a deep breath, she pushed the patch responder into the com’s base point.
At first nothing happened, and she was about to despair when she felt the implant stir, the heaviness of it. She heard a low-pitched buzz and then gasped as a stream of numbers covered her vision. The base code of information from the com. It was like a flow of white light, a waterfall of it, tumbling across her sight. It took barely more than a minute and was gone, but the feeling of the implant was not. She opened her eyes and detached the patches, calming her breathing.
“I got it.” She couldn’t believe it had worked.
“Okay, give the com to me.” Dalton held out his hand. He was expressionless as Rosie put it in his palm. Jebediah was breathing heavily, clutching his arm. He watched as Dalton put the com on the desk and fired three pulse shots at it, until it was nothing but a black smoking mess of metal.
“It won’t make a difference,” Jebediah said. “It’s already done. Dark Star is finished, son. And thanks to Miss Black I have the codes to wake it up. It’s online, I’ve already started configuring the satellites to release the MalX. In six hours the world will be a very different place. You’re too late. You’ll never get up there in time.”
God, no. Rosie saw her own fear reflected in Dalton’s eyes. Was Jebediah telling the truth? Before she could ask more though, something hard hit the other side of the doors, making them shudder and creak. They heard raised voices.
“Sounds like the reinforcements have arrived.” Jebediah coughed. “Alpha must be awake.”
Dalton ignored him. “There’s no other way out of here. How long do we need to hold against them?” he said to Rosie.
“I don’t know.” The doors shuddered again. Dalton took in the single weapon in his hand then scanned the room.
“I don’t have any more guns in here, son, if that’s what you’re thinking,” Jebediah said.
“Shut up.” Dalton’s jaw clenched. “Can you contact them, Rosie?”
“I don’t–”
A sudden barrage of fire outside the door made her stop. That couldn’t be operatives. Rosie and Dalton ran closer, listening. It couldn’t be Riley either; there was no way he could have got here and inside so quickly. The doors shuddered again, harder this time, almost bending in their frame.
“Get back!” Rosie pulled Dalton away as the left door burst open, the plaswood cracking into splinters that flew across the room.
Sulawayo strode in, an enormous blaster in her hand. “Glad to see you’re not dead, Rosie. Pity you aren’t,” she said to Jebediah. He glared at her.
Behind Sulawayo, Gillian was firing pulse blasts down the hall at an operative who fell to the floor.
“Come on,” Sulawayo cocked her head back. “No time for explanations. Follow me.” She levelled her gun as if to shoot Jebediah, but Dalton grabbed her arm.
“No.”
“You’re sure?”
Dalton hesitated. “If he’s dead, he can’t answer for what he’s done.” Sulawayo considered that then lowered the gun. “Hope you’re certain,” she said, and led them out at a run.
Four operatives were down, either dead, or badly stunned. Rosie ran beside Gillian, Dalton behind. “How did you find us?” she said.
“Woke up as you and Dalton were leaving.” Gillian was watching every room as they passed. “Saw him, figured where you might head to. Got no idea how Sulawayo got back in, but right now, I’m not arguing.”
They reached the iris they’d come through and Sulawayo swiped it open then blasted it closed behind them, sealing the lock. They ran back past the closed offices and medibay.
“Don’t know what you’ve done kid, but the whole place here is mobilising,” Sulawayo said as she ran. “It’s the only reason we’re not covered in operatives right now.”
The message she’d sent to her aunt, Rosie realised, it must have been discovered. “Riley’s on his way,” Rosie said.
“I know.” Sulawayo paused at a corner. “I’ve been in touch. Got Nerita waiting in the sky in the Mariner. You get the plans?”
She had been talking to Riley. “They’re uploaded,” Rosie said.
“Good, hopefully he won’t be too long; defence capabilities here are not exactly low.” She noticed something over their shoulders. “Duck!”
They all hit the floor as she fired a barrage over their heads. Three operatives leaped through a doorway for cover.
“Move it!” Sulawayo shouted and led them further along the corridor and into a room. She slammed the door shut, standing her back against the wall as Dalton shot the lock.
“Better hole up here for a bit.” Sulawayo checked the charge on her gun.
They were in a small nondescript office, maybe a low-ranking operative’s. Desk, cupboards, holo bench. No windows, no other access at least. Except the roof. “Ye
s, that is where they’ll come when they do,” Sulawayo said. “But hopefully, they’re distracted.”
A blast that shuddered the door made a liar of her.
“We need a barricade.” Dalton picked up the desk and pushed it against the door and Rosie and Gillian helped, grabbing the cupboard and jamming it against the desk. It wasn’t the best.
“How far to the closest way out of the Enclave?” Dalton said.
“Side door, down the hall, before the cells.” Sulawayo’s concentration was fixed, listening to the operatives outside.
Time ticked away and nothing happened. Rosie was so tense, her shoulders felt like rock. Then there was a sudden smashing against the door.
“They’re trapped in there.” She heard an operative say. “No way out. Tell Alpha.”
They all waited. There was silence. Sulawayo swore.
“We can’t wait for them to bring him back,” she said. “We should–”
“Wait, you hear that?” Gillian had her head cocked to the side. “Listen.”
They all went very still. Rosie heard nothing, then, distantly there was a sound like machinery, a rumble like a ship launching a long way off.
Out in the hall someone started shouting, and pounded past the door.
Doors slammed open and closed and they clearly heard an operative speak. “Two on guard, the rest of you with me. Defence points.”
The deep rumble was louder.
“It sounds like thunder,” Gillian said.
“It’s not thunder.” Sulawayo’s eyes gleamed. “Move that barricade. I think Riley’s arriving.”
What the hell? Was he driving a ship? Rosie helped shift the desk and cupboard back, then Sulawayo positioned herself at the door and nodded at Dalton to open it.
He swiped it open and she fired fast and hard. The operative outside the door went down immediately, but the other bolted left. Sulawayo stepped out and shot him as well.