Within the Water

by Kelly Fallows

  ‘Yes, you’d think that, knowing of the constant surveillance that the Republic enforces, they themselves would be more careful,’ Nathan agreed absently, concentrating more on working out how this new development fitted in with their plans.

  ‘Fahlen’s losing his touch if he thinks they are the only ones doing the watching. Do you reckon he's found the bugs in his office yet?’ she asked smugly.

  ‘Ha! He’s too busy being superior to realise that some people aren’t as stupid as they appear. That’s Fahlen’s trouble: he doesn’t appreciate the finer arts of subterfuge.’

  ‘True, I had thought that this was too risky. Between falsifying the orders and then this; the danger of being caught was too high. But Fahlen’s oblivious!’ Rose crowed.

  ‘Too risky, Rose?’ Nathan commented, his tone terrifyingly even.

  ‘You knew how I felt about this whole plan years ago when we started it,’ Rose shot back, knowing that this was a time she could push back.

  Nathan grinned, ‘Glad to see I haven’t scared that backbone out of you yet, Rose, my dear.’

  ‘Hmph, you should be so lucky.’

  ‘Besides, I thought it was what they did to the Jacksons that suddenly made you so squeamish of any plan involving the disks.’

  ‘High risk, low gain, Nathan – that’s what I didn’t like about it,’ Rose countered.

  ‘Low gain! Ha! How do you not understand the power this will give us?’ Nathan asked his second incredulously.

  ‘Power? Really, Nathan, having those disks is hardly going to give us power. The power lies in exposing the Republic for what it is and we’re hardly going to do that. How could we operate without it?’

  ‘Too narrow a focus, Rose,’ Nathan chided. ‘Look at the landscape: from Carrington's point of view, we go public, and he’ll have rebellion and revolt on two fronts. It won’t take those two fronts long to unite and his will be the head that’s offered to pacify the masses. Meanwhile, we sit back and profit from all the turmoil and upheaval, being just as wronged as the masses. The Republic will soon be replaced by another, and that incarnation will fester and grow just as corrupt as this one, and we will continue on as usual. He has a damn sight more to lose than we do.’

  ‘So that’s how you are going to sell it to him; I did wonder,’ Rose commented lightly once Nathan had finished.

  ‘Do you like it? I thought it was rather good myself and with just enough truth to make it work,’ Nathan told her smugly.

  ‘Do you not think he’ll notice the fact you left out that we'd be ruined for decades before we could continue on as usual? Never mind that an exact reincarnation of the current Republic will never happen.’

  ‘He’ll be too concerned about his own neck being stretched to worry about minor details like that.’

  ‘Fear is a great motivator, eh?’ Rose said with a smirk.

  ‘Exactly so. Which is why I’m so curious as to what Fahlen is up to. He knows as well as we do just how great a motivator fear is and he just put the frighteners on Carrington. But the question is why?’

  ‘And why the idea of Daniels still being alive and kicking is enough to scare him? Surely there isn’t anything we’ve overlooked here? It’s only through the disks that Daniels can harm Carrington, or maybe that’s it – he knows what kind of man Daniels is and that, coupled with the fact he’s got the disks…’ Rose trailed off; there was something about it that just didn’t fit right.

  ‘And there’s no possible advantage for Fahlen to gain here. He needs Carrington at his best, and even if the disks are made public there’s no way Fahlen can spin it so he comes out clean,’ Nathan added.

  ‘I suppose we’ll just have to keep a close eye on both of them and see what comes of their little chat.’

  ‘No. I don’t want any more tangents ruining this. Put the Saint on it,’ Nathan decided.

  ‘Another task?’

  ‘Well, that’s what fighting so hard to be our best asset does for you,’ Nathan told her; the Saint’s displeasure at the extra workload really wasn’t high on his list of priorities.

  ‘Yes Nathan.’ Rose took his words as a dismissal and set to work on contacting their asset.

  ‘And find out what’s happening with Hans and Marius!’ Nathan called after her. ‘One of them must have him by now. This whole thing is becoming far too protracted,’ Nathan practically growled. Fahlen’s little mind games and scheming were wearing on his already thin patience. Fahlen was up to something, but Nathan just couldn’t quite see what and he hated being in the dark.

  Chapter Seventeen

  ‘How do you want to head in?’ Sophie asked in subdued tones into the quiet of the control room. The Coelacanth herself was hushed; all the bustle of repairs and preparations was completed, and the stillness that remained was eerie. Or at least that’s how the more superstitious among the crew were feeling. Daniels couldn’t deny that there was an ominous quality to the air, but perhaps that was his history with this place talking. Pulling himself out of these thoughts, he turned to his pilot, who was the only other member of his crew on duty.

  ‘Leisurely,’ he answered her.

  Sophie raised an eyebrow at that.

  ‘We don’t want to raise any suspicions or get noticed too soon. We’ve got to behave like we belong here.’

  ‘Sure. Any particular berth you want?’ Sophie asked as they began their approach to the tangled mass that was Abantos. ‘Or want to avoid?’ she added as an afterthought; neither Ben nor Duncan had said much on what had happened to them here before, but everyone knew it was something big.

  ‘Keep to the north,’ Ben told her after a lengthy pause. ‘Bay forty-seven, if possible.’

  ‘Forty-seven?’

  ‘Used to have a… friend there. Let me know when we get close enough to call in under the radar.’

  ‘Aye Cap,’ Sophie acknowledged the order and settled back into the silence.

  ***

  Daniels watched the steadily growing mass of metal frames, tunnels and tubes grow into the recognisable form of Abantos. Abantos had once been a flourishing colony, or so they were told. Sitting further to the east than Production City or the cities now known as the Colonies, it was filled with the skilled artisans; and once called Vinci. From there, came all that was beautiful in the Republic – the spartan existence that had first been carved out within the water suddenly became too little. Survival after the first generation wasn’t enough anymore. The new generation didn’t remember the horrors of the Land War, but only saw the horrors of living to survive. Tales of how life on the Land had been had woven magical, romantic pictures of lives of idle luxury, with poetry and music flowing all around, rooms draped in silks and furs, and all manner of indulgent things. The food they spoke of was beyond compare and made the plain, simple fare that was easily grown in the hydroponics bays of the Wettle cities seem dull and tasteless. Ideas of freedoms and constitutional rights to have these things brought on a wave of near revolution, led by the new generation. A little education proved a damning thing for the government, and they could do nothing but capitulate. New Wettle cities were to be constructed to accommodate this new wave of artisans; suddenly there was demand for skills and crafts that had long been left behind, and a race to pass this knowledge along before it died out completely. And so Vinci was born and thrived.

  But like all good things that are allowed to grow untamed and unimpeded, it became the worst of them all. As is true with much of the Republic’s history, no one really knows how it started: was it the drugs, the weapons, the gangs or the brothels that started the decline? It could have been any of them. The truth is that it was probably all of them, coupled with disinterest from a government that was too far away to worry about the day-to-day activities of a few reckless artisans, who no longer clamoured for revolution at their door. And when one man gets away with murder, well, the next man is going to be
less reticent about making his point the same way. It is said that by the time the chancellor got involved, the body count was in the hundreds and the Abanitians had already installed themselves as their own rulers. Of course, they were only one of the gangs that took up residence and battle in the city. Being the largest and the first, however, meant that their name was taken as the new name for Vinci: Abantos. It was a name that started out in hushed whispers, as a mockery of the Abanitians by the good citizens who waited for the Republic’s forces to save them, crush the Abanitians into the sea and return their city to them. But they waited in vain. No troopers came to beat back the gangs and return the city to its former, if brief, glory. The name, like so many, became a self-fulfilling prophecy until Vinci truly was the Abanitians’ in every way. Abantos became synonymous with the dregs of society and all manner of horrors that awaited any man foolish enough to deviate from the Republic’s path.

  ***

  ‘Captain.’ Sophie’s voice broke into Daniels' bleak thoughts about the dead city that lay before them in all its twisted glory. ‘We’re in range.’

  ‘Send out a communiqué on frequency one three seven,’ Daniels instructed.

  ‘Saying what exactly?’ Sophie asked when no message was forthcoming.

  ‘Saying… three five, four seven four, nine one eight… just repeat that,’ Daniels told her; his words weighed down by a meaning she couldn’t decipher.

  ‘Aye Cap.’

  The crackling of the radio into the silence that had once again taken over the control room made Sophie start in her seat, waiting for the message.

  ‘Three five, four seven four, nine one eight message received. Watch your head. Out.’

  Sophie turned to her captain to make sense of the message, but Daniels was still as impassive as the metal that surrounded him. ‘Ben?’

  ‘You heard him, Soph, watch your head as you go in,’ Ben told her with no inflection. ‘I’ll wake the others,’ he informed her before walking out.

  ***

  ‘We here?’

  Sophie snorted at Ash's juvenile question as the crew assembled in the control room. ‘No, we just thought you might like the pretty view,’ she sniped.

  ‘One last vision of the great blue to take with you into hell, you mean,’ Blue’s disembodied voice crackled over the comm.

  ‘Hardly a helpful thought,’ Duncan commented lightly.

  ‘Simon, Ash get down to weapons con. We need to be ready to shoot our way out of here,’ Ben’s order cut across the idle chatter.

  ‘Aye Cap,’ Simon acknowledged as they both left the control room.

  ‘Don’t suppose you fancy filling us all in on why we just might be needing to do that,’ Blue asked, his tone light and mockingly jovial.

  ‘The place is full of thieves and murderers. Why do you reckon, Blue?’ Ben smirked, careful to turn away from Zhe when she flinched at that particular smirk – too much death in it.

  ‘Hmph. Let’s just hope that none of them are gunning for us, specifically,’ Blue retorted, as Duncan shot a heavy look at his captain, safe in the control room from Blue’s knowing gaze.

  ‘Any movement out there, Soph?’ Ben asked, turning his back on both Duncan and Zhe as neither of them seemed to appreciate his methods, but he still couldn’t shift the weight of Duncan’s knowing look from his back.

  ‘All’s quiet,’ Sophie replied as she took the Coelacanth deeper into Abantos, through some less-than-welcoming arches and tunnels before coming out into clearer water in front of bays forty-one through fifty.

  For a few minutes just sitting there, it didn’t look like anything would happen, but, slowly, the gates to bay forty-seven began to open outwards towards them, like arms slowly extending to welcome them into their bosom.

  ‘Looks like we can stand down on the weapons front,’ Ben called into the comm. ‘Well, the onboard ones at any rate,’ he muttered, the last part more to himself, as they glided into the bay, fighting not to look at the images from the stern cameras on the monitors as the bay gates closed behind them and the lock engaged.

  ‘Well, we’re now locked into a nice metal cage,’ Blue commented belligerently.

  ‘Wonderful. Thought we were supposed to be avoiding entrapment, cages and the like,’ Ash chimed in as he and Simon returned to the control room.

  ‘Blue is being melodramatic and metaphorical,’ Ben explained dryly.

  ‘Didn’t know the old boy had it in him,’ Simon jibed.

  ‘Less of the “old” mate or you’ll be speaking out the other side of your head.’

  ‘Charming fellow today, isn’t he?’ Simon responded lightly.

  ‘Try not to tear the Coelacanth apart while I’m gone.’ Ben sighed, deciding to leave them to their bickering.

  ‘Gone?’ Sophie pulled up sharply.

  ‘Just to check in with… our host is all, Soph. I’ll be back to collect you lot before I venture any further into the city.’ Ben reassured her. ‘Dunc?’

  ‘Right behind you.’

  ‘Good. The rest of you get yourselves armed and ready to leave; we’re scouting first so don’t weigh yourselves down. Soph try and see what access you can gain; I don’t reckon they’ll have a mainframe, but see what you can do, and be quiet about it – no tripping any alarms,’ Ben instructed as he and Duncan moved to leave. ‘Oh, and a map would be handy,’ he added to the list, throwing a grin over his shoulder carelessly and managing to disappear before Sophie could work herself up into a rant over that one.

  ‘A map would be handy?’ Duncan repeated almost in disbelief. ‘You really do enjoy living dangerously,’ he joked. ‘First you throw her skills into doubt with the “no tripping any alarms”, then you ask her to get you a map. As if she didn’t already think this was a bad idea!’

  ‘Ah, she’ll live,’ Ben responded with a grin.

  ‘So…’ Duncan started before checking over his shoulder. ‘Our host?’ he asked once he was certain that no one else could hear them.

  ‘Yeah, let’s hope he’s still a friend,’ Ben answered, losing all trace of his jocular demeanour.

  ‘Well, you knew him best; me, I’d barely recognise him.’

  ‘True, but what I’m hoping you will recognise is more of Abantos. You spent more time running about it than me.’

  ‘Don’t remind me,’ Duncan replied dryly as they reached the port-beam hatch.

  ‘Well, let’s see if Blue’s work has paid off,’ Ben commented as he punched in the code and waited for the hatch seal to release, which, after some rather ominous creaking, it did.

  Duncan let out a breath he hadn’t even realised he’d been holding.

  ‘Don’t tell me you’re now doubting Blue’s skills,’ Ben commented slyly.

  Duncan shook his head. ‘I swear it’s this place,’ Duncan told him as they cautiously pulled the hatch open. ‘Just docking here and I’m waiting for the next disaster, then the next bit of bad luck…’

  ‘Well, try not to look too hard for it, will you?’ Ben commented. ‘We have enough following us around without you actively trying to seek it out.’

  ‘Aye Cap,’ Duncan responded half-heartedly, as he braced himself to follow Ben out of the Coelacanth into the dock access tunnel.

  Upon exiting the tunnel into the dock, Duncan began to wonder what he was bracing himself for. The dock looked as all docks do.

  ‘Well, are you going to shut the hatch or am I paying to aerate your boat as well?’ a voice demanded from the doorway.

  ‘Well, if you’re offering…’

  ‘Hmph, I’m not,’ came the short reply

  ‘There’s nothing like a friendly response, eh Cap?’ Duncan hedged, trying to judge the situation; the lack of a warm welcome making him edge towards the “we need to get out of here fast” plan rather than the “let’s stay and swap stories” plan.

  ‘Shut t
he hatch, Dunc.’ But it seemed that Ben was seeing something here that he wasn’t.

  ‘Right, Cap,’ Duncan muttered, re-engaging the lock, and sealing the crew in and them out.

  ‘It’s the friendliest response you’ll get here, unless you count a hail of bullets,’ their host commented.

  ‘Well, I, for one, am mighty glad that you decided against the hail of bullets,’ Ben said casually, although he made no move to venture further into the dock.

  ‘You haven’t died of lead poisoning yet, so I don’t see why it’d work now. Although death by stupidity is looking highly likely.’

  ‘I never claimed to be intelligent,’ Ben countered.

  ‘Obviously. And, as much as I’m enjoying this oh-so-charming, nonthreatening banter you’ve got us playing, I know just how dangerous you can be, so let’s cut to the reason you’re actually here and how likely I am to survive it.’

  Ben nodded. ‘We need to stop by an old friend of one of my crew. Got a job for her.’

  ‘You’re willing to risk everyone’s life, including mine, for a job offer?’

  ‘Yep.’

  ‘And you expect me to believe that?’

  ‘No,’ Ben told him simply, ‘but I do remember you not wanting to be involved in anything. So, I’m giving you the opportunity to not be.’

  ‘A little tricky when your boat is in my dock.’

  ‘I didn’t say it was perfect, but, believe me when I tell you, you really don’t want to know.’

  ‘Just out of curiosity, did you know that Minister Devonport survived?’ he asked with no inflection in his voice, watching closely for their response to that little tit-bit of information.

  ‘Devonport? What the hell has he got to do with this?’ Duncan asked.

  But it was Ben’s silence that gave him the answer he was looking for.

  ‘So, this is about those disks.’

  ‘You don’t want to be involved,’ Ben reiterated.

  ‘You know it was the strangest whisperings that went out just a few days ago. Whisperings about ministers and pirates and mercenaries, old Hans splits out of here with a grin five-fathoms wide and then “three five, four seven four, nine one eight” comes on the radio.’ He shook his head. ‘And now here we are.’