A Mercenary in Escrow

by Erik Wecks

  “We can’t open the door out of the cell block because they have those android guards out there. I don’t have control of them, so we’re going to send you out the back door.”

  That sounded promising to Deek. He rubbed some of the sweat from his hands and said, “Good. I like that.”

  “When I say ‘go,’ poke your head out the door for a moment and look left. I’ll give you five seconds of camera-free time. Okay, go.”

  Deek sprinted to the door and looked left. There was nothing but a blank wall.

  “Do you see the air vent?”

  “That little thing? There’s…”

  Wonk interrupted. “Get your head back in, Deek!”

  Deek ducked back into his cell and shut the door as quickly as he could without creating a racket. “Wonk, I’m not sure this is going to work. I mean, it’s small. I’m kinda big, you know? Not Pig big, but big. How long will I have?”

  “About a minute, maybe a little more.”

  Deek shook his head. “Three years of planning, and you want me to squeeze into a bolt-hole smaller than a coffin in a minute? What are you trying to do, kill me? We’re redoing the plan, Wonk. I couldn’t even unscrew it in time.”

  Wonk sounded tired. “While Secure may not be very good at security, Deek, they’re not stupid enough to use screws. It’s magnetically controlled. I should be able to turn it off long enough for you to pull the cover out.”

  Mo’s voice reappeared, speaking with forced calm. “Deek, we aren’t changing the plan. We could just leave you there.”

  “Fine! We’ll do it your way.” Deek didn’t bother to hid his irritation. “I’ll give it my best, but you might just hear the androids smoke me while my butt is hanging out of an air duct way up the wall.”

  Deek heard Mouse snort with suppressed laughter. “It’ll be like Winnie the Pooh and the honey tree with guns.”

  “Real funny, Mo. Real funny.” He looked at the ceiling as if the voices in his head were located there. “So, when do we start?”

  Wonk answered, “Whenever you’re ready, Deek.”

  Deek walked back to the door. “I’m ready.”

  “Okay, on my mark. Three…two…one…Go.”

  Deek sprinted to the end of the corridor and reached up.

  “The magnets should be off starting…now.”

  Deek yanked. Nothing happened. He tried again.

  He was just about to tell Wonk that it wasn’t working when he heard a small click. This time he wedged a fingernail behind either side of the vent and pried it loose.

  Deek leaned the cover against the wall directly under the camera. He stepped back to the vent and pulled himself up for a look. It was going to be tight, and once he was inside, the tube was without handholds for the first five feet. At that point, it ran into something a little wider where he might be able to shuffle along.

  “Thirty seconds, Deek.”

  Deek cursed under his breath.

  He hoisted himself up again and shoved his head and shoulders into the tube. His arms and shoulders jammed, which turned out to be a good thing because if they hadn’t, he would have fallen out. He pushed again and managed to move forward a few inches. As he did so, the ductwork flexed and made a loud, resonant clang. Deek froze, sure that this was the end.

  “Twenty seconds. Hurry it up, Deek!” Wonk’s voice cracked.

  Deek didn’t bother to answer. He was too busy trying to figure out how to propel himself forward with his arms pinned to his sides. He found he was able to get a little purchase by curling his fingers under him and pushing, but that gave him only a few inches at best, and often nothing at all. Deek worked feverishly, trying to wangle his way forward, reminding himself that it was only a few feet until the duct widened.

  “Ten seconds. You’re not going to make it!”

  Deek grunted as he tried to get his hips into the duct. “I told you that in the cell.”

  As Wonk counted each second, Deek held his legs straight out behind him and wiggled forward until his hips were in the ventilation shaft. The ductwork continued its noisy complaints. When Wonk got to zero, Deek hesitated again, waiting for the end.

  His tech complained, “Don’t stop! I said around a minute! I can give you a few more seconds!”

  Deek started wiggling forward again, cursing under his breath. His knees and feet still hung out of the vent.

  He had managed to get it down to just his boots when Wonk felt he had pressed his luck enough and let go of the camera. Deek held still until Wonk told him his boots weren’t in the frame. He breathed a sigh and continued forward. “You do understand that this isn’t exactly quiet. If there’s anyone who cares to listen, I sound like a herd of buffalo running through a cymbal factory.”

  Mo answered, “What’s new, Deek?”

  Deek chuckled to himself. “Fair enough, Mo. Which way am I supposed to go?”

  Wonk answered, “To the right. It’s not far. We want the grate right after you cross through the bulkhead.”

  “Huh, never thought about that, Wonk. I guess the ventilation system would have to have bulkheads or the whole station would depressurize if one compartment blew.”

  “That’s the idea, Deek.”

  “Things you never see in the movies.”

  Walking on Air

  It took Deek another excruciatingly loud thirty minutes to get to the exit he wanted. The whole time, he was waiting for somebody to shoot him from below, but so far, according to Wonk, there was no sign that anyone knew he had escaped. “The detention cells are in a pretty isolated place on the station. If we went the regular route, you would have a bit of a hike to get to the vault for the contract, but fortunately, we have a shortcut.”

  Eventually, Deek dropped into a maintenance storage room. Boxes and parts lined the walls. He crouched as he crept to the door, then cautiously opened it. Seeing that both directions of the pipe-filled maintenance corridor appeared empty, he stepped out. “Which way?”

  “Left,” said Wonk. “Go through the door at the end of the hall.”

  Deek crept out onto a balcony overlooking a cavity that ran from the top to the bottom of the relatively small station. It was only nine decks, but looking down from the top into the dark middle, Deek still felt it to be a long fall.

  “Okay, I need you to take the service walkway out to the lifts in the center.”

  Deek looked out at the spine of the station some fifty feet away. “What walkway?”

  “What do you mean? The catwalk that goes from your location out to the spine so they can service the lifts.”

  “Uh, yeah. That doesn’t exist. Take a look.” Deek ran his eye back and forth from the spine to the balcony on which he stood.

  Wonk lost his cool. With every word, Deek could hear him pounding on something. “Shit, shit, shit! Why aren’t these plans right?”

  With more than a little schadenfreude, Deek murmured, “I know how you feel.”

  Mouse spoke up. “Hey, Deek. Do you think you could walk that spoke?”

  Deek looked around and found there was a steel I beam that ran from the platform to the central hub in the middle of the station.

  “Yeah, I suppose, not that I’m thrilled about it.”

  “You’ve done things a lot more dangerous than this.”

  Deek stared down the ten-story drop. “Agreed. The difference is that the things I do usually keep me so busy I don’t notice how stupid they are. Just looking over the edge here makes my toes curl.”

  “Yeah. Mine, too,” Mouse answered.

  Deek swallowed and stepped back. “Not that I’m unwilling to do this, but you got a workaround for me, Wonk?”

  “Yeah, you can leave the maintenance areas and try to sprint by the three android guards blocking the exit from the holding-cell area. Then you can try to cross back into the main hub before the overlord catches on and shuts you in some hallway somewhere.”

  Deek took a deep breath, stepped forward, and climbed over onto the beam. “Understood, Won
k.”

  He knew it would only be worse if he gave himself too much time to think. So he pressed ahead, trying not to focus on the drop.

  He let go of the railing, stared fixedly at the hub, and started taking slow, nervous steps without looking at his feet. “Mo, distract me. I don’t want to think about how far… Never mind, just distract me.”

  “Um, okay.”

  Deek took a few more steps.

  “Did you like it when I kissed you?”

  Deek’s foot missed the I beam. He stumbled forward and ended up hugging the girder, adrenaline making him acutely aware of the beam’s cool exterior.

  Touché, Mo, thought Deek.

  “Deek! You okay?”

  Deek didn’t answer right away. He breathed deeply, eyes closed, clutching the beam. “That’s too distracting, Mo.”

  “Sorry. I’m just glad you didn’t fall.”

  “There’s still time for that.”

  Deek got to his knees and started to shuffle forward. The idea of standing made him nauseous. He couldn’t tell how long it took him to get to the hub. Each second seemed to last a year. When he finally arrived, he climbed over the railing and lay down on his stomach, hugging the grated walkway. He stayed still until his heart rate returned to a reasonable BPM.

  Mo piped up, her voice tinged with perverse satisfaction. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

  Shafted

  “So now what?” Deek huddled on top of the elevator.

  Wonk answered sarcastically, “I don’t know, Deek. We’re behind schedule, and my plans are bad. You were supposed to climb down the elevator shaft on the ladder, but it doesn’t seem to be there either.”

  “Wait. Your plan had me climbing down a ten-story ladder?”

  There was silence for a second. “Uh, yeah…and making sure you fit inside this little tiny gap in the wall so the elevator didn’t run you down. Probably not such a good plan, eh, Deek?”

  “What do you say we just wing it?”

  Mo answered, “Isn’t that what we’re already doing?”

  Deek grunted quietly in reply and took a look around. He stopped and frowned. “Wonk? There’s a hatch in the top of this elevator. I think I could get inside. Would that be a good thing?”

  “I’m not sure. The hatch isn’t on the plans, either. You would think there would be a camera inside. I don’t have full access to the security protocols, so I can’t tell for sure.”

  Deek was desperately wishing he either had his tool kit or had looked around the maintenance storage room. It would be great to have some tools. He was out of options. “We’re going to have to risk it.”

  Mo sounded a little scared. “Careful, Deek. If the station overlord figures out you’re up there, we’ll be in trouble.”

  “Yeah, I guess so, but there’s not much I can do about it.”

  He undid the pins holding the trapdoor in place and gently pulled it open. Slowly, he stuck his face into the opening, down to the bridge of his nose. He checked the corners for cameras and breathed a sigh of relief. “We’re in luck.” He had just started to swing down into the car when the elevator lurched as the doors opened and a sleepy guard stepped in without looking up. The guard was armed with a zap stick and a force pistol. He seemed distracted by whatever was on the tablet in his hand and the music blasting from his ears.

  Deek froze, hands gripping the edge of the hatch. His head and shoulders were already hanging into the car. Keeping his eye on the guard, he slowly started to work his way back. The guard looked over and pressed the bottom button, and the elevator lurched into motion, plummeting through the station.

  The guard scratched the back of his head, and something made him jump. He turned around, but there was nothing to see. Deek was already shutting the last inch of the ceiling hatch.

  A loud exhalation of breath on the other end of the com told him that his crew shared his terror. Mo whispered, “Holy fuck, that was close.”

  Just as Deek was about to seal the hatch, Wonk interrupted. “Don’t latch it, Deek. I think he’s heading to the vault.”

  Deek gave an exaggerated nod.

  Wonk grumbled, “At least that’s where document storage is supposed to be. This is going to go much easier if you follow him out of the elevator. There should be a bend in the hall just before security for entering storage.”

  Deek whispered so quietly that he could barely hear himself, “So, if you can’t control the security cameras, then how do you plan to get me into storage?”

  “I can’t see the cameras, but I think… I’m pretty sure that we can spoof them and get you through security to the vault. My buddy inserted a bit of code into the overlord which will have the cameras repeat the last two minutes before jumping forward to the present. I should be able to activate the code through food processing’s access to the overlord. That ought to be long enough to get you through security and into the room.”

  “So won’t they know something’s wrong?”

  “Probably when they look back at the tapes. Until then, it should be pretty invisible.”

  The elevator bounced a little as it touched down at the bottom of the station. Deek poked his head back into the elevator as the doors opened.

  “Spoofing the cameras now. You’ve got two minutes.”

  As the guard stepped out of the lift, Deek silently flipped down behind him. For a second, he hung there. Deek winced when his landing made more noise than he wanted. He felt sure that the guard was going to turn around, until he remembered the music coming from the guard’s ears.

  Deek made it out the elevator doors just as they started to close. He was only a few feet behind the guard, who was nonchalantly walking down the corridor. A short way down, there was an intersection that led left to where the vault was supposed to be. Straight ahead, the corridor continued around the curve of the station to a small air lock used for transporting documents.

  “Deek, be careful! We can’t commit any crimes before we get you off the station.” Mouse talked a little faster as her anxiety rose.

  Confused, Deek thought, What the hell is she talking about? Getting out of my cell was technically a crime. They were going to steal documents, weren’t they? Without thinking, he rolled his eyes.

  Mo let out a little nervous chuckle. “Sorry, Deek, that’s not what I meant. I meant try not to hurt anyone. The way I figure it, Secure won’t look kindly on us if we hurt a bunch of people while trying to destroy our contract. We’d just end up replacing Tsunomo with a new enemy. It’ll be embarrassing enough for Secure if you manage to escape.”

  Still in a crouched position just outside the elevator, Deek scrutinized the guard, looking for those subtle clues that would show him the man was about to turn around. So I’m supposed to do this without hurting anyone while they’re carrying sidearms? This is just more fun by the minute!

  Once the guard disappeared around the corner toward the vault, Deek crept quietly up to the intersection and waited, not daring to peek, his body ready to spring at any speck of activity. Seconds later, he heard the metallic scraping of a huge door opening. He waited, breath held. When he heard it squeal shut, he made his move.

  The entrance to the vault sat empty. In front of him a gleaming steel door set in a huge black frame blocked his way forward. It all appeared impossibly thick and weighty. Deek glanced nervously at the camera in the corner, and then around the alcove. Seeing the access controls, he relaxed a little and stood up. Stepping to his left he said, “So how am I supposed to get into this thing? There’s a DNA scanner and a handprint recognizer.”

  “There’s what?”

  “There’s a DNA scanner and a handprint recognizer at the door.”

  “It’s a full handprint?”

  “Yes.”

  “Look around. Isn’t there an eye scanner?”

  “No.”

  Deek could hear Wonk cursing under his breath.

  Getting a little frustrated, he said sarcastically, “So how is that plan holding up?”
>
  Mo’s voice turned to acid. “Still better than your idea of two shitty plans at the same time.”

  “So what are we going to do, Captain Mo?”

  Mo didn’t respond to Deek’s dig. Instead she said, “Screw the document. I think we’re going to have to get you out of there. Get back around the corner before the guard comes out and sees you.”

  Deek was just opening his mouth to argue about abandoning the contract when the huge steel vault doors groaned and started to open at a rapid clip, sliding to the side.

  Deek bolted into the corner by the opening door, but he knew that he had been too slow. The guard must have seen him.

  But the oblivious guard walked placidly away from Deek, still absorbed by his tablet.

  Before the doors closed, Deek ducked into the vault.

  Mo said quietly, “On second thought, let’s get that contract.”

  Contracts

  Before he entered the room, Deek had a notion that the vault would be similar to a bank vault, thick walls and bright lights. This was something completely different. The room was vast. Shelf after shelf held box after box. The room was so vast that from his position standing near the door, he could barely see the far side and both ends were hidden by the curve of the station.

  “So what’s the plan from here?”

  “The vault has a robotic retrieval system, but we don’t have access to it. The cases seem to be filed by year and then a case number. The contract we are looking to find is 52-08877. Are there labels on the rows?”

  Deek was already moving to check the row numbers. In the end, it took him ten minutes to find the shelf and box that he wanted. By that time, he was far from the entrance. The box he wanted was all the way up near the ceiling. At the far end of the row there was a rolling ladder, but Deek figured that it would be quieter to just climb. In just a few seconds, he reached the top of the twenty-foot-high shelving unit and scrambled onto the boxes sitting on the top.

  Resting on his hands and knees, he opened the box. Deek was tempted to pull out a random contract and read it. The information in any one of these would be extremely useful. His first instinct was to grab the whole box and sort it later. That idea evaporated as soon as he tried to lift out the box he wanted. Who knew that paper would be so heavy? he thought.