by C. G. Hatton
I almost fell asleep again except there were loud voices outside, shouts, someone banging on the door.
Latia stood, gesturing me to stay put, Maisie flying down the stairs and both of them reaching the door at the same time.
“No,” Maisie said to whoever was out there. “Whatever you want, it’s no.”
I watched as she planted herself there, next to Latia.
One of them tried to push past. “Where’s the blond kid?”
I got to my feet carefully, my body feeling like it didn’t belong to me, nausea swirling as my head threatened to spin away. It was the first time I’d ever had a really bad concussion and the worst thing was not knowing if it would ever go away. It felt like never.
“Whatever it is,” Latia was saying, calm and firm, “it can wait.”
That didn’t go down well. I’d never before seen them react to her the way they did that night. The voice got low and threatening. “Dayton wants to know what’s going on and that kid was there. Where is he?”
Other kids were running down the stairs by then. They got between me and the door, some of them turning and grinning.
It was exciting for them.
But then there was pushing. Shouting.
I heard Maisie protest, heard her cry out. The little ones started to scream. The high pitched squealing was driving knives into my head. I wanted to curl up in a ball on the floor. But I didn’t want anyone to get hurt. I walked forward instead and managed to say loud enough, “I’m here.”
One of Dayton’s thugs had Maisie by the scruff of the neck. They shoved her away and backed off. Everyone shut up then, glancing back at me like I was mad. Calum was standing on the stairs, up a couple of steps, watching.
Latia stepped aside, shaking her head slightly.
“I didn’t see anything,” I said.
“Yeah,” one of them grumbled, “I’m sure you didn’t. Dayton will be the judge of that.”
They beckoned me forward, pulling out guns to make sure no one else tried anything.
My great-grandmother wasn’t going to take that. “Really?” she said, holding up her hand to make me stop. “Guns? Here? In a room full of children?”
They weren’t going to back down but they glanced at each other and it was one of the others who said, more respectful, “I’m sorry, Ms Cole, but Mr Dayton wants to talk to the boy. He needs to come with us.”
She was determined but there wasn’t much she could do. “There is no need for the guns, gentlemen.”
They looked at me, made a show of putting the weapons away and beckoned again.
I had no choice. I walked forward, feeling the stares on the back of my neck. They grabbed my arm and marched me out.
They kept to the dark streets and even then they were paranoid and kept to the deepest shadows. I could see headlights moving through the city, the Earth military still mobilising, on high alert as if what had happened could trigger the KRM into making a move to take back their territory.
Maybe that’s what Dayton had in mind.
I kept my head down and tried to keep up with them, the impact of each footstep sending spikes of pain shooting through my head.
I was fairly sure that Maisie would be following us but I didn’t look behind in case I gave her away. Dayton’s guys were thugs but they weren’t stupid.
By the time we got down to the tunnels and through to the command bunker, I could hardly see. I sat where they told me to and tried not to throw up.
Dayton wasn’t there but the rest of them were buzzing, hyped that the Imperial forces had lost so many in one swoop. I tried to shut it all out but every time I started to doze off, someone would shake me awake or slap the back of my head.
I could feel Benjie watching me from across the room. He brought me a drink over eventually and asked if I was okay.
I wasn’t but I didn’t say anything.
He pulled out a chair and sat opposite me, leaning forward. “What is it? Concussion?” He looked like he hadn’t slept in three days.
“Something like that,” I said.
“What happened?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t see anything.”
“Didn’t I tell you not to go outside the city? You were out there messing about at the processing plant, weren’t you?”
I just stared at him. I was still feeling flaky as hell.
“Did you get in?” he whispered.
“Yeah.”
He shook his head with a laugh. “I knew you could.” He looked up as Dayton walked in. “Just watch yourself, Luka.”
I took a sip of the water.
Benjie gave my shoulder a squeeze and sloped off back to whatever he’d been doing.
The atmosphere in the room changed as Dayton entered. Subtle. But there was an undercurrent of uncertainty suddenly, as if everyone was on edge, waiting to see what he’d do.
He checked some stuff spread out on the central table then he looked over at me. Right at me and said something I couldn’t hear.
Someone grabbed my arm, pulled me to my feet and pushed me towards him.
They were all watching.
Dayton didn’t even speak to me, just stood there looking down at me.
It was one of the other guys, an older man, who said, “What’s going on out there?”
Meaning at the crash site, with the Earth forces, with whoever it was in that ship. They were assuming it was Wintran, I picked up that much. It felt like the entire future of the rebellion rested on what I said next.
I stared back at them. They’d just threatened my family and I had a splitting headache. I opened my mouth to say maybe it was aliens but I could almost feel Benjie willing me not to be an idiot, almost hear Maisie saying don’t be a smartass.
“What is it?” someone else said.
“I don’t know. I didn’t see anything,” I said. I could still hear an echo in my ears as if my brain hadn’t finished rattling.
Dayton stared back like he was having to stay his temper. “You were with the Earth forces,” he said finally, with forced patience. “You were taken into the garrison. What are they planning?”
Comms were down. He had no way of snooping so he was relying on a thirteen year old kid to tell him what was going on. He must have hated that.
I was slouching, not feeling great and not bothering to impress. “I don’t know.”
He glanced to the side and a door opened. Maisie was pushed through, protesting, trying to shrug off the guys to either side who had hold of her arms.
Benjie stood up.
I straightened up.
Dayton turned away from me and regarded Maisie as she was brought before him.
“Welcome to the resistance,” he said.
She started to argue but he got in first.
“You’re a very impressive young lady. Understand this – the situation has changed. The rules have changed. What happened last night is just the start. We need all hands on deck. You’ll be a great asset to us.” He turned away. “Take her for orientation.”
I started to step forward but someone grabbed my shoulders, fingers digging deep.
Maisie looked right at me, jaw set, staring right into my eyes as if she was trying to tell me not to do anything stupid. She didn’t fight them as they led her away.
Dayton looked back at me. “Now. You don’t know what they’re planning?” He leaned down and almost whispered to me. “Go find out.” He narrowed his eyes. “What we do here is dangerous. You want me to make sure she’s safe? You do as I say. Now listen…”
I bit my tongue.
I wanted to argue that she wasn’t old enough but I wasn’t stupid. He could do what he wanted. They had the guns. They could do whatever they wanted. And like he said, everything had changed.
They gave me provisions and medical supplies as if that made it all okay, but somehow that made it worse.
Calum was waiting outside, loitering there just out of sight.
I walked past him without even ackn
owledging that he was there.
He caught up to me, scowling. “What do they want?”
I didn’t stop.
He grabbed my arm and pulled me round. “What do they want you to do?”
I shrugged him off. He moved faster than I could think right then and he pushed me, hard, before I could duck out of the way.
“Where’s Maisie?” he said, aggressive like he thought it was my fault.
I kept on my feet, just about, and squinted at him. It was difficult in the half light of the alley to make out what mood he was really in, if he was worried about her or if he was glad she was gone. I could guess.
“Where do you think?” I said, harsh, not bothering to give him the respect our eldest usually commanded. I’d never respected him before, I wasn’t about to start then.
I could almost see the realisation click inside his brain. His stance changed as he thought through the implications. He squared up to me. Mister Big all of a sudden. “So what do they want you to do?”
There was no harm telling him. He was hardly going to rat me out to the Earth forces. “Break into the comms centre.”
He stared at me for a second then laughed as if he didn’t believe it. Then he laughed harder when he realised I wasn’t kidding. “Don’t be stupid. That’s suicide. There’s no way even you can do that.”
I walked off but I spun on my heels so I was walking backwards and stared him in the eye. “I can. I’ve done it before.”
Chapter 9
He stared at me, open-mouthed, no doubt trying to think of a smartass comment and failing. I spun again and broke into a run, leaving him behind easily.
I went straight to the others. I didn’t go further than the entrance. I threw down the bag of stuff they’d given me, said to the kids on watch, “Maisie’s with them. Calum’s in charge. Tell everyone we need to move,” and I turned to leave. I reckoned Latia would be in there still, taking care of the little ones. I didn’t want to see her and I didn’t want to be there when Calum turned up.
No one stopped me.
I went to Latia’s place, grabbed the pass I’d stashed there, and for some reason I dropped the tiny stun grenade into my pocket too. Then I went from guard post to guard post until I found Charlie. I waited outside until he came out on his own. I stood there in the shadows, swaying slightly because my balance was still shot.
He looked at me like he didn’t believe what he was seeing then he called out, “Luka, what the hell are you doing? Come in here. You okay?”
I almost bolted.
But I looked at him, wanting more than he could ever give me, and I said, “No.”
He took me inside and sat me down. They were still on high alert and I heard them muttering that they’d have their asses chewed out for having me in there, but he told the others to shut up and clear out.
He looked at me, shook his head and pulled two beers from a fridge in the corner. He popped them open, sat and pushed one of the bottles across the table to me.
“Do you need a medic?” he said.
I shook my head.
“What’s going on?”
I took a sip of the beer. It was cold. Bitter. I would rather have had a soda but it seemed churlish to complain.
I didn’t know what to say. I couldn’t exactly fess up that my best friend had been taken by the resistance movement they were fighting to force me to spy on them.
Not when I’d been doing that all along.
Charlie narrowed his eyes. “Did the medics check you out properly before they let you go?”
I shrugged and took another sip of the beer, straight from the bottle the way Charlie did. It was pretty disgusting and it didn’t get any better the more you drank of it.
He leaned forward and put a hand to my forehead, steadied my face for a second, looking into my eyes until I blinked, and seemed satisfied I wasn’t about to keel over.
“What’s going on?” he said again.
Charlie had been there. That night eight years ago.
“Is everyone okay?” he said, trying to get me to say something.
It felt like I’d forgotten how to speak out loud.
I put my elbows on the table and rested my chin down. I wasn’t safe there. But then I wasn’t safe anywhere. None of us were.
“You want to sleep?” Charlie said.
I shook my head.
“C’mon, Luka, buddy, talk to me. You turn up here in the middle of the night… Jesus, I’m gonna get busted back to private if they find you here. What’s going on?”
I shook my head again, hardly moving.
He looked at me, took a swig of beer and reached into his pocket. He took out a pack of cards.
I sat up.
He placed it between us.
Memories surfaced of thunder and lightning, the worst storm I’d ever been caught in, being soaked through to the skin and out after curfew.
“You remember how to play?”
I nodded.
He took out the deck, shuffled and dealt.
We must have played for an hour. Mean queen. Game after game. Until he made me laugh by going all in on a bum hand. I knew how bad it was because I’d been tracking the cards. I didn’t let on but he laughed and tossed his cards onto the table face up.
He looked up at me. “You gonna tell me now what’s wrong?”
I was about to. I swear I was about to spill it all to him. Dayton, Maisie, the codes, all the stuff I’d stolen over the years. Everything. Except someone walked in. Corporal tags on his uniform, a rifle in his arms. He didn’t give me so much as a glance. “We’ve got a problem, Sarge. They want you over in the garrison.”
The comms were still down, they were still having to rely on runners to carry messages.
Charlie nodded to the guy and stood up, turning back to me and pointing. “Stay here. You can bunk down over there. But I mean it. No skipping out. You understand?” He raked the cards into the pack and pushed it across the table. “Keep them.”
And he left.
I should have listened to him but I waited until no one was watching then disappeared, with the deck of cards in my pocket, to follow him.
Usually when I went into the garrison, I just stuck to the main inner complex, sneaking in to the places no one expected anyone to be so they weren’t watching too carefully. And since the incident in the desert, the garrison was way too undermanned, on high alert but not enough bodies to take care of the essentials, never mind any internal checks. They were looking outwards, protecting their perimeters.
But the thing with the comms centre right at its heart was that it was secure, isolated, and it was a sealed unit accessed only through an entrance from the central courtyard with a double sealing airlock, bioscans and auto sentries. Only the command level, way below ground, directly underneath the garrison, deep down with the AI core and the power plant, was more secure.
But I hadn’t just been bragging when I said I’d been in to the comms centre before. I crouched in the shadows. I had a plan. I watched Charlie flash his pass to the guards and walk through then I took off running.
I ran the gauntlet of the rubble, the killing ground, the wall and the outer courtyard again, jumped onto the roof and dropped into the inner complex. I didn’t mess about. I found an empty office, grabbed a terminal and sat under the desk to hack into the system. I was gambling that they wouldn’t have changed the access codes. There was no reason why they would have but I still held my breath as I keyed it in.
There was no alarm. No screaming klaxons, no flashing red alerts.
I took my time then and went meticulously through the protocols to reinitiate the pass. It was complicated but it was one of my favourite tricks when I wanted to get deeper in than the top couple of floors. The pass would be a duplicate. They always cancelled a pass if it was lost and issued a new one with a new code. But I knew how to make it look like an administrative error, two passes active to a single ID at once and an order for immediate recall of the second. Whoever i
t belonged to would be pissed and inconvenienced as well as fined. That was half the fun. I always left the first, original, pass somewhere it could be found. Mind games.
I instigated another of my little power surges to the main grid and had a poke about before I signed out. I couldn’t see anything in there about why comms were down. They were running diagnostics constantly. I read what I could and wrapped up, taking a quick glance at the schematics before I left just to make sure I knew what was what, in case they’d changed anything. It just took a second.
After that, I pulled out, put the terminal into my pocket and headed off into the base.
Knowing what to do and where to go was one thing, doing it was something else. The only route I’d ever figured out into the comms centre was down through the complex and into the substructure of the garrison, climbing into the twisted conduits for the cables, wires, vents and pipes that carried everything needed for life support and comms. It couldn’t be completely isolated otherwise it wouldn’t have been able to function but its security relied on the fact that the substructure was too small for anyone to infiltrate.
Like I said already, I can get into places no one else can. I can squeeze through gaps that would give mice trouble. I’m not claustrophobic. That helps. I’m more flexible than anyone I know. And I’m strong for my build. That’s what growing up on Kheris did for a body that, genetically, was not supposed to be there. All that added up to the fact that I could make my way through pretty much any cramped and crowded space, twisting and contorting.
I crawled through to the main manifold where all the kit split up to go where it needed to go. There used to be a spot where the AI watched. But I’d disabled that years ago and no one had fixed it. The only problem could be electrobes, those tiny organisms that were the by-product of AI activity. Did I tell you how much I hate AIs? On a bad day, if the AI conduits were leaking that badly, I’d given up and climbed out, rather than risk suffocating with the damn things. They could be nasty but I was lucky that night and the concentration of them was light enough to be irritating but not bad enough to hurt.