by C. G. Hatton
NG rubbed his eyes. “We don’t know where she is,” he said. He hadn’t had much time to find out anything before coming in here but that was one thing he had prioritised. “Legal have been backtracking over her records and every log she ever filed with us. We can’t find any trace of her original screening. Right now, we don’t know how she was recruited into the guild, or by whom. I’m working on it. I’ll have to interview all the field operatives and extraction agents personally, in fact every person with duties outside the confines of the Alsatia. Someone managed to plant an agent in our midst and I want to know how.”
“Wibowski?”
“Was clean. We have data on him and it’s immaculate. He was turned somewhere along the line.”
“And the ship?”
“We don’t know. Genoa’s history appears to be clean but we can’t deny that she actively and aggressively worked against us. Science are trying to figure out how someone could have reached her without setting off alarms. I should have realised we were vulnerable.”
The Man swirled a hand over the jug sending the rising vapours dancing. “Investigate by all means and adapt if necessary, but do not dwell and fret, NG. Your efforts are concentrated rightly on progress. Paranoia is an insidious disease that I will not allow to infiltrate this guild. We are playing with high stakes. It is inevitable that there will be some who see the superiority of our guild with envious eyes and seek to attack us.”
•
He hit the water and plunged below the surface as it erupted in flames. The icy shock of the freezing water almost drove the air from his lungs and it pierced the wound in his side with a ferocious sting. He fought disorientating confusion and kicked down, bumping against the wall and feeling along it until he swam up against an edge. The wall gave way to an opening and he swam forward for what felt like an age, chest beginning to burn and the weakness in his side sapping his energy.
He headed up and felt a pang of panic as his outstretched hand hit a ceiling above him, the tunnel completely flooded and no chance of air. He kicked forward again, slowing and with no idea of how far the tunnel stretched. Flashes of light stabbed behind his eyes and he started to sink, kicks getting weaker, when he felt a swirling current grab him and he was swept sideways.
The flooded stream was flowing fast, eddies and currents tumbling him through a dark tunnel. Hil made the surface and gasped in a breath, trying to keep his head above the turbulent surface of the water as it carried him along.
Martha’s plan sucked worse than his. He tried calling through the connection but there was nothing.
It was dark and the swirling current battered him up against rocky outcroppings, a couple of times with the sickening snap of ribs breaking. There was nothing he could hang onto and each time he was swept away again, bobbing beneath the surface.
The effort to get back up to breathe was getting harder and harder until he was suddenly hit by a wall of freezing cold air and he was freefalling down, water splashing and spraying around him. He curled into a ball and closed his eyes, giving in to the fall, the way they’d been trained. Shit happens and if this was it, this was it.
It lasted forever and he zoned out every hurt, every ache, every twinge of panic and simply fell. The impact when it happened was a shocking splash into deep water that was even colder.
He sank, his entire body shutting down, until something sparked and that stubborn survival instinct kicked in, sending him fighting his way to the surface.
Breaking through, he shook his head and opened his eyes, blinking away the sting of the water. It was dark, but the dark of night outside not the pitch black of the tunnels, and the current was still strong. The stabbing pain in his side was either so hot it was cold, or so cold it was hot, he couldn’t tell but it hurt like hell.
He let the river carry him away from the side of a ravine that was emanating rumbles and distant echoes of deep explosions from inside the complex and as soon as he felt the flow of water begin to slow, he kicked out and swam for the riverbank.
Dark shadows loomed up ahead and after a couple of bumps and scrapes, he managed to grab hold of a branch and pull himself up onto the muddy slope, spluttering and coughing up river water.
Whatever drugs Martha had given him were spent and he lay half in, half out of the water for a while, just breathing quietly, shallow breaths against the pain in his ribs, eyes closed, cheek nestled in the cool mud. Dying wasn’t high on his list of things to do, but it was hard to bring any semblance of a plan to mind.
The voice that reached out to him was soft, far softer than Martha ever was. “Hil, honey, I know you’re hurting but I really need you to start moving, hon.”
Skye hadn’t been with him for a long time, so he ignored the absurd notion that she was speaking to him as delirium. It was nice to hear her voice though even if she was a delusion.
“Hil, hon, you need to wake up.”
He blinked.
“Hil, I’m coming in to get you but you have to move. There’s a clearing a hundred and fifty metres east. You have to get there, I’m not going to be able to wait. Do you understand?”
His eyes were too heavy to keep open.
“Hil, I’m not going to let you die on me! I’m coming in and I’m coming in hot so you had better haul butt and get to that clearing, do you hear me?”
“Skye, what are you doing here?” he mumbled to humour his delusions.
“Hil, you’ve got a gun ship bearing down on your position,” she yelled through the connection, “and I have three fighters on my tail. Just stand up and move or I am going to be so pissed at you.”
This felt familiar somehow. “Skye?”
“Hil, just move!”
He pulled himself out of the water and tried to stand but his feet were so numb he couldn’t feel them. He crawled up the bank, every movement sending shooting pains through his side, every breath catching in his chest.
“Skye, I don’t know which way is east,” he said on the verge of giving up or throwing up, he wasn’t sure which would be worse.
“Keep going the way you are,” she replied after a moment, “that’ll do. But you have to speed up, honey.”
He rested his head on his arms, took a breath and staggered to his feet. Clamping a hand around the soggy dressing on his side made it hurt more, taking his hand away made it hurt more than that so he opted for hurt he could control and hugged himself tightly, trying to will a bit of warmth into himself.
Each step was agony but bit by bit he moved away from the river, stumbling every time he stood on a loose rock or fallen branch.
“You’re almost there, hon,” Skye urged constantly.
He could hear a deep droning but glancing around he could only see distant lights up at the cliff top and ahead there was only darkness. The temptation to lie down was overwhelming but each time he faltered, Skye was there gently nudging him to take another step, one foot in front of the other, reminding him how warm and comfortable he’d be once they met up.
He concentrated on that thought and banished everything else until the droning behind got louder and a dark shadow appeared above the tree line ahead. He looked back and saw a set of search lights scanning over the landscape, some way back but catching up. The pain in his side was almost unbearable.
“Skye?” he gasped.
“Almost there, Hil.”
He broke through into the clearing at the same that she landed with a roar, flames flaring into the undergrowth. The ramp dropped and he limped across the open area, expecting a gun ship to open up at any minute, staggered on board and made it to the bridge. Skye had the heating on full, and midway through fumbling to buckle in to his seat, she took off, accelerating hard enough for Hil to feel the effects as the artificial gravity struggled to compensate. He closed his eyes and passed out.
Respite was brief and he was jarred awake as she tilted hard up, leaving the surface and going for orbit. She pulled a couple of manoeuvres that were so extreme he was almost thrown from the chair as the AG gave
up even the attempt of trying to keep up with the frantic changes in direction.
“Buckle up, honey,” she warned, “this isn’t going to get any easier.”
He tried to grab the ends of the harness but his coordination was shot and he only managed to get one end. He’d forgotten how fast Skye could be.
She levelled suddenly and accelerated hard again, then braking and falling so fast the seat dropped out from under him. He caught up with a bump that sent a spike of pain shooting through his side, grabbed the harness and buckled in, eyes watering and a string of obscenities on the tip of his tongue. He bit them back because he was angry at Anya and the corporation, Kase and Genoa and Earth and everyone else in the universe, but not Skye and he wasn’t going to hit her with the brunt of it.
She tipped again, almost vertical and picked up speed.
It felt surreal. She wasn’t supposed to be here. Hil started to shiver uncontrollably.
“Skye, what the hell are you doing here?” he muttered.
She was quiet.
“Martha was right behind me – did you see her down there?”
There was an awkward silence.
“Skye, how much do you know?” he said, suddenly wondering how the hell she’d found him. “Thank you for the rescue and everything but how did you know I was here?”
Hil trusted Skye implicitly, there was no doubt there but he had no idea how much of all this she might know.
“LC gave me your memory modules,” he said, knowing he was distracting her and feeling the pull from another bone-crunching reorientation. “I know what happened at the lab.”
She still didn’t say anything.
“We were set up. Mendhel’s daughter set us all up and Kase gave us to them. Do you know all this?”
She wasn’t giving him anything on any of the display screens but it felt like they were going for orbit. A deep unease fought all the aches for his attention.
“Skye?”
“Quinn sent me out after you, Hil,” she said finally. “I don’t understand everything but I know you spent time with Pen and I know you shut Genoa down with a massive disruptor. And I know you gave yourself up to Earth to provoke them into that attack down there. And right now I’m trying to shake off three Earth fighters that are trying to catch up to us.”
There was something in her tone that was unsettling him.
She veered violently with no warning. Hil bit down a groan and tried not to pass out again. The baggy clothes were drying in the heat of the bridge but the damp patch on his side was seeping a chill through to his bones.
“Skye?” he said quietly.
She didn’t reply but another voice that he wasn’t expecting crept into his head.
“Zachary, what are you doing? Zach? Are you trying to leave without me?”
Oh crap.
He gave Skye access to the conversation, maintaining a private connection with Skye herself.
“Zachary, you hurt me. You had no right to do that.”
Skye was quiet still but he knew she could hear Genoa and it finally struck him what may be wrong.
“Skye,” he sent privately. “Genoa was working with the traitors. She was selling me out the whole time. She betrayed the guild. I had no choice doing what I did. I know how it looks, but…”
“She did what?” Skye interrupted and started flashing information up on the screens for him, pulling out of a steep dive and ramping up the acceleration again.
Genoa’s voice whispered to him again. “I am going to find you, Zach.”
“Genoa, you’re finished,” he said, too tired to argue with a crazy ship that had almost got him killed. “The whole thing is done and finished, can’t you see that? Haven’t you noticed what is happening down there?”
“She was working with Kase,” he sent to Skye, switching to private. “I shut her down because she would have given away everything I was trying to do. Going to Pen’s should have been the safest place in the galaxy but she led them there to me…”
He trailed off and leaned forward to squint at the image she was showing him on the main display.
“You ruined everything, Zach,” Genoa said. “You’ve no idea how much damage you’ve caused by running to Earth. You really are more stupid than you look. How does Skye put up with you? How is she going to feel knowing how you violated me? How does she know you won’t do that to her, Zach? She’ll never trust you again.”
The screen was showing real time footage of an outside view, close up, a ship that looked a lot like Genoa, undocking from the orbital.
“She’s right there,” Skye said, sounding angry now, more like the ship he knew. “And she doesn’t know I’m here.”
“She’s talking to me, why can’t she see you?”
“Quinn didn’t give me time to get completely fixed but he did make sure I had full stealth up and running, and upgraded. She’ll know you’re onboard a ship but all she’ll be seeing is the vague haze of a disruption field and the disturbance we’re causing ripping through the atmosphere at this speed. That’s how the fighters are tracking us – once we’re in orbit I’ll lose them.”
She paused and changed course again, the motion making his stomach cringe.
“How can she ever trust you again?” Genoa said, spite dripping from every word.
Skye broke through into orbit and their flight eased into a steady drifting as she circled the station. He felt himself relaxing muscles he hadn’t realised were so tense.
“Hil,” Skye said, “what you did to her is impossible for me to understand but what she did, my god. I wish I’d been there for you. I’m sorry.”
He didn’t know what to say. The psyche of any AI was tremendously complex and he’d known exactly what he was doing to Genoa when he shut her down. How Skye would react hadn’t even crossed his mind. But how she was reacting now on hearing that one of her own had betrayed them was fitting and if she had weapons, he’d join her in hitting the fire button without a second thought.
“Zachary, you’re not going to get away.”
He ignored her and said, “Skye, I’d never do that to you – you do know that, don’t you?”
She was quiet again, but more charts and screens flashed up.
“Skye?”
She was easing round to intercept Genoa’s flight path, the two ships on headings that would put them nose to nose.
“Honey, this whole situation has been hard on us all. I’ve missed you and it’s been hard knowing what you’ve been going through and not being there for you. If I’d known what she was doing…”
Hil looked at the screens. There were two huge Earth destroyers maintaining orbit either side of the station.
Skye began to power down. “Hil, I’m going to sit here and drift for a while until they get bored trying to scan for us. If I warm up for jump now they’ll be all over us like a rash before we can get away. Go and see to that injury, hon. And tell me what happened down there.”
“Kase is dead,” he said, easing himself up and limping to his cabin. “Martha killed him. I don’t know who she’s working for but it’s not the guild and it’s not Zang. She saved my life. She got me out of there.”
He stripped off and pulled on soft dry trousers. He didn’t bother with boots because his feet were too sore. He held a towel against his side without looking at the wound too closely and rummaged through their first aid kit, looking for anything that looked like the patches Martha had used.
“So is Genoa the only traitor left?” Skye said, a chill in her tone.
“I suppose so,” he said. “The only one I know for definite. I don’t know where NG is in all this. I think he’s been talking to Earth, someone said something, but I don’t know…”
She interrupted again, “Hil, hon, NG is the guild. Whatever he’s done, it will have been for your own good, don’t ever think otherwise. Genoa on the other hand…”
Hil found a trauma patch and took some painkillers, grabbed a shirt and limped back to the bridge. He sat
and carefully pulled the towel away, stuck the clean patch in place and shrugged into the shirt, feeling sore in too many other places to care too much about anything other than sitting still for a while.
The view of Genoa still filled the main display. “I should have guessed,” Genoa hissed in his ear.
The target warning light flashed. She’d tagged them with her missile system.
“Skye,” he said, “what’s going on?”
“I just told her I’m here. She’s coming out to us. She can’t afford to let us get away, Hil. She’s going to come right to us.”
“And we’re going to do what?”
“We’re not going to do anything. Sit back and watch.”
The angle switched to a view of the orbital and the two destroyers flanking it.
“She’ll run,” Hil said.
“She can’t see them. Thanks to Quinn, my upgraded stealth capacity extends beyond my own hull. Right now I’m blanket filtering Genoa’s sensors. She’s seeing only what I want her to see.”
He’d never heard her sound so vicious.
Genoa was still sniping at him, “Zach, you’re not going to get away with this. You don’t know how far this goes, who is involved. We will find LC.”
Skye cut in before he could say anything. “Yeah,” she said. “Whatever you say. Goodbye Genoa.”
Hil opened his mouth to comment and shut it fast, flinching away, the screen in front of him blossoming with brilliant light and Skye rocking slightly from the blast in front of them as Genoa’s hull exploded into billions of fragments that billowed out into space.
“Holy shit,” Hil said, “don’t tell me you’ve got weapons now.”
Skye laughed and there was an edge there he’d not heard in her before.
“It was the destroyer. They sent warning messages but somehow she didn’t get to hear them or see the missiles they threw at her when she didn’t respond and return to dock like they wanted.”
Holy crap. It was shocking. But the painkillers were kicking in and his side was happily numb again. He almost felt like he could relax, like he was back in his comfort zone. Like it really was all done and finished, except, he thought with a sinking feeling, going back to the guild wasn’t something he was eager to do and if he did go back, Mendhel wouldn’t be there and nothing would ever be the same again.