by Rod Walker
“It makes sense,” said Charles. “All our quads were out on tours.” His perpetually grim expression hardened further. “It is possible we are the only survivors to make it back.”
“Looks that way,” said Tanner.
“Once we can call my gunship,” said Argent, “we’ll bring them to account.”
“Wait,” said Mr. Royale, pointing at the screen. “Winston, go back. Camera nineteen, I think.”
Tanner frowned but obliged. Camera nineteen showed one of the big convention halls in the hotel. It was the biggest and fanciest convention hall in Outpost Town, which I knew because inevitably one of the cleaning drones broke down while attempting to vacuum the expensive carpets. Right now tables filled the hall, covered with crisp white cloth and glittering plates and silverware. Men and women sat at the tables, eating and drinking, while service drones rolled back and forth with plates of food and drink…
I blinked. “Are they… are they having a party?”
“Yep,” said Tanner, his voice grim. I recognized many of the dignitaries that had descended upon the landing field earlier, attended by their bodyguards. The mood looked jovial, even celebratory.
“Wait a minute,” I said. “They’ve been hunting people for sport all day, and now they’re going to celebrate it?”
“Those who are wealthy enough to exert interplanetary influence,” said Argent, “have traditionally not been unduly burdened with ethics.” But there was a vicious satisfaction in his voice. “This time, we’ve got them red-handed sitting on top of a mountain of evidence. The Ecology Ministry and its corrupt friends are not wriggling away this time.”
“Is that Valier?” I said.
Someone was giving a speech, and as I watched, I was certain that it was Valier.
“Put on the sound,” said Mr. Royale.
Tanner grunted, tapped a few keys, and the voice of Paul Valier, Ecology Minister, came through the computer’s speakers.
The men and women in the convention hall, Valier was saying, should congratulate themselves on their foresight and vision. Humanity already had far too great an impact on the interstellar environment, and it was time to manage and prune that impact. The Ecology Ministry had taken great strides in that direction on New Princeton, and with the project upon Arborea, an even greater step had been taken. By offering the elite live human hunts, the Ecology Ministry could prune the excess human population, preserve the environment of countless planets, rid those planets of political and social retrogressives, and turn a profit all at the same time. It was, Valier announced, the “perfect marriage of forward-thinking government and capitalist enterprise.”
That was met with a round of enthusiastic applause.
Valier announced that the vehicle-based hunts had been completed and that all the renegade quadcopters had been shot down with a minimum of unavoidable casualties, which was how he glossed over the absence of Toulon and Lysokos. That erased any doubt that the rest of the company’s guides and quadcopter pilots had been killed, along with any of Valier’s enemies they had taken out for a tour. Tomorrow the foot-based hunts would begin, where patrons equipped with power armor could hunt the surviving Safari Company employees in designated areas outside of Outpost Town. The hunters were to be congratulated for helping to ensure a sustainable, environmentally sound future for humanity among the stars…
“Forget Most Dangerous Game,” said Mr. Royale. “We’ve entered Masque of the Red Death territory.”
“What?” said Tanner.
“Never mind,” said Mr. Royale.
“Turn that nonsense off,” growled Argent, glaring at the monitor. “I knew he was corrupt, but my God! He sounds as if he believes his own insanity.”
“More to the point, did you hear him?” Tanner’s voice sounded uncharacteristically fearful. He said they’re going to start hunting the surviving employees after the banquet! That gives us… what, an hour? Maybe two?”
“Something like that,” said Tanner. He looked at Argent. “Once we call your friends on the gunship, how fast can they get there.”
Argent let out a hissing breath. “Not fast enough. Three hours, if they push it.”
“That is enough time for a lot of innocent people to die,” said Mr. Royale.
“Then we’ve got to split up and do two things at once,” I said. “Someone’s got to go to the communications room and call the gunship, and someone’s got to rescue the prisoners.”
“Agreed,” said Argent.
“But what are we supposed to do with the prisoners, sir?” said Mulger. “There are at least two hundred of them, and Valier has three platoons of EMSOs with him.”
“They can help us fight if we get them weapons,” said Tanner.
“We do that, it’ll be a bloodbath,” said Argent. “We might win, but the EMSOs are better armed and armored, and they’ll have the bodyguards of Valier’s guests to reinforce them.”
“The shuttles,” I said.
They all looked at me.
“Well, Valier didn’t blow up our shuttles, did he?” I said, pointing in the direction of the landing field. “We could load everyone into the shuttles and have them take off. We wouldn’t even have to get them into orbit. Just get everyone into the air and away from Outpost Town, and keep them out of range of the anti-air missiles until the colonel’s men can land and deal with Valier’s men.”
Tanner, Argent, and Charles all shared a look.
“That actually might work, Spraycan,” said Tanner. “Hangar One is pretty close to the landing field.”
“I told you he was a smart kid,” said Mr. Royale.
“There is one problem, though,” said Tanner. “The shuttles don’t have any guns, and a lot of those yachts are armed. Once our shuttles are in the air, how do we keep one of Valier’s cronies from flying after them and shooting them down? Valier’s going to realize that he’s in trouble, and his first reaction will be to kill as many of the witnesses as possible.”
We thought about that for a moment.
“We could turn off the sonic fence…”
“I don’t see how that would help,” said Tanner.
“Don’t forget, the fence’s parameters are configurable. We could program it to broadcast a tromosaur hunting call at maximum volume.”
For the first time in the year that I had known him, Hiram Charles looked genuinely taken aback.
“That is an extremely dangerous idea, Indentured Worker Hammond,” he said. “The range of the speakers upon the sonic fence extends for several miles into the jungle, and there are at least a dozen tromosaur packs moving through that area at any given moment. The hunting call will drive them into a frenzy, and they will swarm into Outpost Town heedless of any danger.”
“That would make for a considerable distraction,” said Argent. “It would certainly keep Valier’s forces occupied.”
“You’re not seriously considering that,” said Mr. Royale.
Tanner shrugged. “Once we’ve got our people in the air, we’ll need to find a way to keep Valier’s pals from shooting us down. If they’re getting chased by a few hundred hungry tromosaurs, that will give them something else to think about.”
“It’ll be a slaughter,” said Argent. “It would also put all of our people who don’t reach the shuttles at risk.”
“I know,” said Tanner. He shook his head. “We’ll save it as a measure of last resort. The shuttles won’t have guns, but we do, and we can shoot out the airlocks and the cargo hatches if any of Valier’s men try to make for the ships.” He gave me a look. “That’s probably safer than calling every tromosaur for twenty kilometers into Outpost Town.”
I shrugged. “It’s just an idea. It’s not my call.”
“It is agreed that our best course of action is to split up,” said Charles. “I suggest one team shall have taking the communications room and contacting the Security Ministry ship as its objective. The second shall dedicate itself to liberating our fellow employees and getting them to the shuttle
s as quickly as possible.”
“Agreed,” said Argent. “I will lead Alpha Team and take the comms. I’ve got the codes to contact the ship, and the men aboard it will follow my orders.”
“I should go with you,” said Tanner, reluctantly. We all knew he wanted to find Kayla, but without the SecMin ship, all he’d likely be able to accomplish would be to die with her. “Since they haven’t disabled my network access, I can probably use the consoles in the communications room.”
“I will accompany you as well,” said Mr. Royale. “As a member of the board, I’m supposed to have access to everything. Even if Valier or one of his lieutenants thought to lock you out, they may have overlooked me.”
“I shall liberate our fellow employees and escort them to the shuttles,” declared Charles. “Indentured Worker Hammond will assist me. We shall formulate a diversion or a similar stratagem,” said Charles.
“Mulger, Thompkins, go with them,” said Argent. “If it comes to a firefight, they’ll need your help.”
“Sir,” said Mulger.
“Let’s move,” said Tanner. We took a moment to synchronize our earpieces, making sure we could talk to each other, and then Tanner, Argent, and Mr. Royale headed out. I figured they would probably be all right. Tanner knew Outpost Town like the back of his hand, and Argent had survived any number of fights. I wouldn’t have expected Mr. Royale to survive the jungle, but he had. I wasn’t so sure about our little team’s prospects.
“We need to devise a distraction,” said Charles. “Something that will draw away the ministry soldiers from Hangar One.”
No one had any bright ideas.
“Why does Tanner always call you Spraycan?” said Mulger.
“I kind of defaced an official portrait of Paul Valier. That’s how I ended up here.”
Thompkins guffawed.
“Seems a little harsh,” said Mulger. “Sending you to this death trap of a planet for petty vandalism. Why not just have you clean off the portrait?”
I blinked. Something in Mulger’s words made me think of something.
“Hey,” I said. “I think I just had an idea.”
“I hope it is a good one,” said Mulger. “There are at least six EMSO men guarding the prisoners. I don’t want to have to fight them all myself.”
“Mind if I have a look?” I said, gesturing at the computer.
Thompkins grunted and stepped to the side. I started typing, Charles looking over my shoulder. I didn’t actually know how to use the security cameras, but I had seen Tanner do it enough times, and the system wasn’t that complicated.
After a moment, I found what I wanted, and I grinned.
“There,” I said, pointing at the screen. “Right there.”
“It’s a prefab building near Hangar One,” said Mulger. “Looks like a barracks.”
“It is a low-cost motel for the crews of visiting ships,” said Charles. “The Safari Company uses it to provide low-cost, short-term accommodations for them. I fail to see how is useful to our present difficulties, Indentured Worker Hammond.”
“It is useful,” I said, “because I spent a lot of time fixing those stupid cleaning drones, and the drones are stored at the motel. Which is currently unguarded.”
Charles blinked at me, and then he nodded in approval.
It didn’t take long to raid the motel and load up on the equipment that we needed. The motel was unguarded, though it faced Hangar One, and everyone inside the hangar would be able to see the front doors of the motel without any difficulty. Fortunately, we circled around to the back and entered through the service entrance by the kitchen and the laundry rooms.
That was just as well because the kitchen and the laundry rooms held what I needed.
“What are those things?” said Mulger, blinking.
Row after row of industrial-grade cleaning drones filled the kitchen and the laundry rooms, silent and motionless. They looked like heavy cylinders squatting upon wheeled treads, each one standing about four feet tall. Various manipulator arms and sprayers jutted from the cylinders, and a row of chemical tanks encircled the base of the cylinders, holding the various cleaners and solvents the drones used in their tasks.
“Cleaning drones,” I said.
Thompkins grunted. “Robot janitors, basically.”
“Yes,” I said.
“What are they doing here?” said Mulger.
“Well,” I said, squeezing through one of the laundry rooms to a supply cabinet, “they were all defective. Or they were sabotaged. Tanner and Mr. Royale thought a faction inside EcoMin wanted the company to fail, so we had all sorts of equipment troubles and mechanical breakdowns.” I paused as a thought struck me. “Though considering how Valier’s gone nuts and was planning to hunt people for sport, it makes sense that some of his underlings would oppose his plans. Suppose I should take back all the mean things I said about them.”
“Don’t do anything rash,” said Mulger in a dry voice. “So what do we need these things for?”
“That was my last major project before Valier showed up for the grand opening,” I said. I rooted around in the cabinet for a moment, scowling, and then I found where I had put it. I drew out a computer tablet, a big, thick, clunky ruggedized device designed to operate in HVAC rooms and other dirty, grimy places. “I had to fix all fifty of these stupid things, so I still have root access for their operating systems.”
“Which means you can make them do whatever you want,” said Mulger, comprehension dawning on his face.
“Yeah,” I said. “Tanner said he wanted a distraction, so here it is.”
“I think we can use that,” said Mulger. “Where did you learn to fix cleaning drones?”
I shrugged. “They are a lot less complicated than my Uncle Morgan’s autonomous tractors.”
Mulger, Thompkins, and Charles launched into a brief tactical discussion while I unlocked the tablet and started entering commands. Fortunately, the tablet’s operating system included a wildcard function so I could control all fifty of the cleaning drones at once, rather than activating them each one individually, and soon the laundry room was filled with the dull whine of the drones’ motors firing up.
“Ready?” said Mulger once he and Charles had decided upon a plan.
“I think so,” I said, squinting at the tablet. “Let’s see…”
I tapped in a command, and suddenly, every single one of the cleaning drones came to life, turning right and lifting their scrubbing arms.
All of them could talk using a synthetic speech engine, and they had voice recognition that permitted them to respond to voice commands. In addition to the synthetic speech, they also had a bunch of preprogrammed responses recorded by some big-name actress back on New Princeton.
“Good morning!” said all fifty of the cleaning drones in cheery unison. “I am looking forward to helping you lead a cleaner, happier life this morning! How can we achieve greater well-being today?”
Thompkins swore. “They sound like my ex-wife. An army of them.”
I suddenly had a vision of fifty drones speaking in the voice of Theresa Graff, and I shuddered. It was just as well that we had broken up after she had gotten me arrested.
“Let’s move,” said Mulger, taking the safety off his Avenger.
I sent another command to my little drone army, and they turned on their treads and started making their way to the motel’s lobby. Mulger, Thompkins, Charles and I headed for the stairs as the drones rolled past us.
Static crackled in my earpiece, followed by Tanner’s voice. “Charles? How are you doing?”
“The plan proceeds,” said Charles, tapping his ear. “Indentured Worker Hammond has taken control of the cleaning drones, and we are moving into position. You?”
“We’re in the administrative building, moving through the service hallways,” said Tanner. “The place is moderately guarded, but they’re not on alert. It looks like most of Valier’s men are in the security center and the convention hall, but there ar
e only two guarding the communication room. I think we should coordinate our attacks. Soon as we move, they’ll start calling for help, and the more confusion we can sow about where we’re hitting them, the better.”
“Agreed,” said Charles. “There are pilots among the prisoners, and that will expedite getting them to safety aboard the shuttles.”
“Kayla’s rated on one of the shuttles,” said Tanner as we walked into the motel’s second-floor lounge. He spoke as if he was utterly certain that she was still alive. Maybe that was how he had kept himself going through the whole disaster. “She can fly one of them.”
“Good enough,” said Mulger.
Argent’s voice came into the conversation. “Listen. Do not hesitate to shoot to kill any of the EMSOs, or any of the armed bodyguards. Everything we will do here today is quite clearly a matter of self-defense and I have already recorded an official statement to that effect.”
In other words, we had a literal license to kill. But it didn’t make me feel dangerous. It made me feel scared enough to wet myself. “What about the guests?” I said.
“It’s your call,” said Argent. “When in doubt, take them out.”
Charles, Mulger, and Thompkins set up in the lounge, cracking the windows open and taking position. From up here we had an excellent view of the doors of Hangar One, including the hundreds of prisoners secured there. I spotted eight EMSOs standing guard, but none of them saw us. There were only eight of them, and with over three hundred prisoners to watch, their attention was on the prisoners. Which made sense, as a mass rush of the prisoners might overwhelm them. On the other hand, the guards had military-grade automatic weapons, so they could mow down a lot of prisoners before they were overrun.
“Indentured Worker Hammond,” said Charles. “Status of drones?”
“Getting there,” I said, keying the EMSO soldiers and their locations into the tablet. It really wasn’t that different than programming Uncle Morgan’s autonomous tractors. The drones could be set to clean different locations, so I configured the empty space outside Hangar One as a banquet hall, and the individual soldiers as tables in that banquet hall.