Sean wouldn’t release her hand that he’d grabbed. She looked at him, and then her hand, irritated.
Sean shook his head. “They can. And they will. And you’re assuming the rest of the crew isn’t in on this.”
Maya hesitated. She dropped her tone. “Could we play dumb?”
Sean shook his head, letting her go finally. “Getting through all their levels of security? I don’t think so.”
Maya called through the doorway to Lana. “Hey can you hear me?”
Lana nodded.
Maya explained the situation. “We can’t get you out. It’s not safe. For any of us. Are you hurt? Are any of you hurt?”
Lana shook her head.
“Ok, we know you’re here. We’ve been looking for you. Help is on the way. We know you’re Lana and that is Ainstel. Who is the girl with you?”
Lana glanced over at the girl who was deliberately shying away from the interaction, leaning on the wall, her back to the others.
“Her name is Anne,” Lana said trying to be heard through the glass. Maya could just make out her words.
“Anne,” she repeated. “Who is she? Why is she with you?”
Lana shrugged. “She won’t talk to us. She says she’ll put us in more danger if she tells us.”
Maya nodded. “We can’t deal with this now,” she muttered to Sean. “We need to get out of here and get Molly to extract us all.”
Sean nodded.
Maya wanted to check one more thing. “Are they feeding you? Are you ok?”
Lana nodded.
“Ok,” Maya called through, pressing her face near to the crack in the door, but still allowing Lana to lip read her through the glass too. “We’re going to get help. Don’t let on that we’ve been here. Everything is going to be ok, alright?”
Lana nodded. Brahms had headed over and put a hand on Lana’s shoulder. He nodded his understanding too.
“Stay safe,” Maya instructed. “We’ll be back.”
She tore herself away from the window and together she and Sean made their way out.
As quickly as they could.
Without speaking they moved back down the corridor and out, heading all the way back to level 1 and the common areas for personnel where they were meant to be.
When they arrived, Maya sat down on a sofa and pretended to pick up a magazine. “What the fuck?” she exclaimed under her breath.
Sean sat near her looking around pretending to be people watching. “Yeah,” Sean agreed. “Did you notice the equipment in that room too?”
Maya continued to pretend to read, restricting her body language. “No,” she responded.
Sean looked out across the common area. “Big machinery. Easily our drilling equipment.”
“Uh huh,” she acknowledged. “Wanna send a message to Pieter? I guess we have solved some of the puzzle.”
“Yeah,” Sean concurred. “I’ll do that when I go to my bunk. The only other piece we need to sort out is who these guys are working for.”
Maya frowned, and then pretended the frown was something in the magazine she was looking at. She pulled it closer and pretended to be reading the archaic printed material that some media companies started putting out during some renaissance of twenty years ago. “The only person who must know about that is the boss guy. What did you call him. Max?”
Sean wiped his face with one hand and slid the other arm off the back of the sofa. “Yeah. He’s going to be harder to crack,” he admitted. “Not like you can just start chatting with him over a beer and ask him if he’s ever kidnapped anyone. And he’s unlikely to offer it up.”
Maya nodded discretely. “So what do we do?”
Sean glanced around the common area. “I dunno. Lemme think about it and I’ll let you know.”
He leaned forward, readying to get up. “I’ll ping Pieter. But you need to go get some rest. I’ll be in touch soon. Good job.”
Maya turned the page on the printed material. “You too,” she said quietly.
Sean got up and wandered out of the common area.
Aboard the Flutningsaðili, Level 2
Sean found his way back to his shared quarters. It had been weeks now and still the maze of identical-looking corridors made it difficult for any normal person to navigate around.
Thankfully he’d noticed various numbers placed on corridors or labeling facility points like vents and electrical boxes, and used them to recognize whether or not he was in the right area.
He stepped into the shoe box of the room and paused while the dim lights came up and the door slid closed behind him. His room mate, Tallus, was elsewhere. Probably still working.
He glanced down at the smooth surface of the floor and then his boots, and sat down on the bottom bunk to take them off. Boots were essential around the ship. Apart from everything being hard exposed metal surfaces, most of the walkways and indeed unfurnished corridors were little more than grated grids of metal. Grids that should Paige show up with her high heel shoes on she would rapidly find herself confined to briefing rooms for the entire trip.
He sighed, and started undoing the electromagnetic clasps, one by one. Then he hit his quantum bead with a double tap to hail Pieter. Or Paige. Or whomever was listening.
A moment later the audio connected in his implant.
“Greetings of the night upon you,” came Pieter’s overly exuberant voice.
Sean grunted. “Sounds like you’re bored shitless, Mate.”
Pieter’s voice came back through his ear. “How could you tell?”
Sean grinned to himself. “Practice,” he told him. “So I have news. We’ve located the two kidnapped victims, and found that in fact there are three of them. The two we know about - then a girl called Anne. Also Estarian.”
Pieter sounded like he was scurrying and scuffling on the other end of the line.
Sean tilted his head, listening hard. “You ok mate?”
“Yeah, I…” there was some more scuffling. “It’s ok. I just slipped off my chair. All good now.”
Sean chuckled quietly to himself, not wanting the overly-sensitive computer tech to think he was laughing at him. Or for anyone to overhear him have a conversation with himself.
He pressed on with the intel transfer. “I think we’ve also located the equipment too. In the same section of the ship. ADAM helped Maya get access so he’ll be able to tell you the area.”
Pieter was making active listening sounds and making a note.
“We need a plan,” Sean told him. “We could take the hostages from their holding room… but then we’d have no where to go with them. We’d blow our cover and have no way off the ship.”
Pieter frowned. “Ok. So you’re ready for extraction then?”
Sean was quiet for a moment. “We haven’t found out anything about who is in on this. Who is responsible. At either end of the chain.”
Pieter scratched his head. “I think this conversation suddenly went way above my decision level,” he decided. “Want me to talk to Molly and come back to you?”
Sean scratched at his day old stubble. “Sure. Have a word and maybe ping me in a short while. I’m going to get some rack time and I can probably speak privately for the next few hours.”
“Great,” Pieter responded, his voice sounding relieved. “I’ll give you a click in your implant when we’re ready and you can hit your bead to confirm we can connect.”
Sean stretched his arms out in front of him and leaned forward ready to make a move. “Ok. Sounds good. Talk soon.”
The line went dead.
Sean hauled his cyborg ass to his feet and looked around for his shower gear. Locating it, he grabbed a towel, and slipped on his room shoes which were just about protection enough from the hard grated floor in the corridor and wandered out in the direction of the shower facilities.
Staðall University, Senior Common Room
Molly, Gareth and Von sat around the outside table, their teas and mochas nearly done. The courtyard behind the
Senior Common Room was a little sark-trap which got quite a bit of light at that time in the day. It was also a favorite spot for those who wanted to kick back and chill for a short while between the rigorous studying and marking of papers. Like a place of respite.
Right now it was deserted apart from the three of them, allowing them to talk freely.
“I think we have a way forward,” Molly said, looking up from the financial model they’d been working on.
Gareth nodded his agreement. “Yes. If I can get the trust to agree on this number here,” he said pointing at the spreadsheet, “it all falls into place.” He peered up at Molly. “Leave it with me, he said with a twinkle in his eye. “I’ll get onto that this afternoon as soon as we’re done here.”
Von leaned on the table, smiling satisfied. “I think this is the easiest negotiation I’ve ever been involved in!” she remarked.
Molly grinned. “Kinda straight forward when we’re all after a shared goal.”
“Indeed,” Von commented. “Although, I suspect we’ll face continued resistance from the existing institutions. Unfortunately they’ll likely find this whole concept quite threatening.”
Gareth’s eye saddened a little as he nodded his agreement.
Just then Molly’s holo started buzzing.
It’s Pieter, Oz informed her. It’s important.
“Excuse me, one moment,” she said to her companions. She got up from the table and walked away a few paces amongst the empty tables in the little court yard.
“Hello,” she said, answering her holo.
It was Pieter’s voice. He sounded anxious. “Molly. It’s Pieter. I’ve just had word from Sean. They’ve found the scientists. We could do with some direction on next steps. They’re not in immediate danger but-”
Molly interrupted. “I understand. I’ll be on my way right away. You can fill me in in the pod. Gimme a couple of minutes and I’ll call you back.”
Pieter’s voice sounded a little less strained when he heard that. “Ok great. I’ll standby.”
Moments later Molly had excused herself from her new friends, and was striding out into the quad to rendez-vous with her pod which whipped down with speed. She hopped in, and then the pod disappeared up beyond the stratosphere.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Gaitune-67, Hangar Deck
Molly hopped out of her pod as soon as the door was open enough, and half walked, half ran across the hangar deck towards the upstairs conference room where Pieter was set up.
Is Joel on his way?
Already there.
And Paige.
On her way in.
Moments later Molly burst into the room to find Joel and Pieter sitting in front of the telemetry screens.
“Everything ok?” she asked.
Joel nodded.
Pieter twisted round in his seat, his hair a little more unkempt than usual. “They’re ok. Not in any danger. They’ve found the hostages and now we need to decide what to do next,” he said recapping the conversation they’d had in her pod ride back, making sure everyone was on the same page.
Paige appeared in the doorway and silently headed in and took a seat on the other side of the conference table.
“Ok,” Molly said, composing herself. “Let’s see if we can connect with Sean then.”
Pieter sent a click, and received two clicks back. He connected the audio. “We’re live with Sean’s implant.”
Molly had found a seat and sat down. “Sean?” she said.
Sean’s half-asleep voice grated onto the call. “Yeah,” he mustered.
Molly’s manner was serious and businesslike. “I understand you have the hostages and the kit, but no intel on who is behind it?”
Sean’s voice was a little muffled. “Yeah. We think the head guy on the ship is involved. Max Pike. Only coz we saw him visiting the hostages. But beyond that we’ve no idea.”
Molly frowned. “What condition are the hostages in?” she asked.
Sean sighed a little. “They seem ok, considering. At least physically. Though I don’t know how well they’re being treated. They didn’t look like they were being abused other than being locked up in a tiny room.”
Molly bobbed her head. “Any leads that we can chase down that may help?”
Sean was quiet for a moment. “I suppose you could look into Pike. Max Pike. And any communications he’s been having. He may have been in touch with either the client or someone involved even while we’ve been on board.”
Molly nodded. “Sure. Anything else out of the ordinary?”
“Erm. Only that Brock seems to be working harder than he ever has before.”
Paige glanced up at them. “He’s in the kitchens, isn’t he?”
Sean must have heard her. “Yeah. I think he’s pissed about all the long hours and manual work he’s having to do.”
Paige’s eyes drooped in sympathy for him.
Molly tried to keep them on track. “So are you ready for us to extract?”
“I’m not sure,” Sean confessed. “I mean, we’ve only completed half of the mission. We’ve located the hostages, but we still need to find a way to get them out safely. Even if you extracted us, there will be resistance here. They have several armed security personnel. They could kill anyone… us, the hostages, anyone who boards.”
Molly wiped her face with her hands. “Will more time help?”
Sean paused again. “I think probably yes. At the very least we can find a way to get us all to a safe place. And then even try and find out a bit more about who might be behind this.
Molly pursed her lips and nodded. “Ok. Well we’ll do some digging into this Max fella and see if we can turn up anything from this end. Continue with the regular check ins, and we’ll reevaluate in a few days.”
Sean’s voice was still muffled. “Ok sure,” he said, half whispering. “It’s a deal.”
Molly had cocked her head. “Sean?” she asked. “Are you ok?”
Sean sounded puzzled. “Yeah… why?”
“Your voice sounds different.”
Sean paused for a second, and then there sounded like a ruffling on his end. “Oh, I’m doing a head stand while I’m talking to you.”
Joel slapped his hand over his mouth.
Pieter closed his eyes, tightly, screwing up his face, laughing silently and trying to keep it together.
Molly remained expressionless. “Sean? Whatever for?”
His voice sounded like he was straining now. “It helps with the shitty antigrav on these things. Keeps the circulation in the brain working.”
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