by C. G. Hatton
I shrugged, wanting to scream, run away, hit the wall, anything but stand there so numb.
“Did you take something? Come on, Luka, think.”
“I took a load of crap. I didn’t even look at it…” I stared at Benjie. My chest felt heavy. “I gave it all to Peanut.”
His stance changed. He straightened and looked at me. “You really don’t know what it is, do you?”
If it was possible, I felt even more cold. I trusted him. If I’d lost Benjie, I was done. If Benjie was digging to find out what I knew, if I knew Dayton’s secret, then I could have just signed my own death warrant, right there. I almost backpedalled, but I bit my tongue and stared back at him.
He punched me in the arm. “Jesus, Luka, don’t look at me like I’m the bad guy here. Where is it?”
“I gave it to Peanut,” I said quietly, feeling bad that I could have doubted him.
“He didn’t have it. He said you’d know where it was, somewhere safe. Where would that be?”
I didn’t know what to say. My heart was racing. I was trying to think, trying to work out what I should and shouldn’t have done, who I could and couldn’t trust, what might lead to what and why. Latia had taught me how to play chess when I was six and it was like trying to figure out ten moves ahead.
If Benjie had dared tell me to trust him right then, I think I would have kicked him in the shin and made a run for it.
As it was, he leaned in close and took hold of my shoulder again. “Luka, listen to me. I don’t like what Dayton is doing. I don’t like that he’s using Calum and I don’t like that he’s holding Latia. If he’s screwing us over, I want to take him down.”
There was gunfire echoing from the far end of the street.
Latia had also taught me to always use my instincts. The knots in my stomach were tightening but I nodded.
I’d given the stuff from the comms centre to Peanut in Calum’s dingy basement. There was no way Peanut would call that safe.
“Our old block,” I said. “That’s where he’d have left it if he wanted it safe. Why didn’t he just tell you what it was?”
“You know what Peanut is like. And he didn’t have much of a chance to. C’mon, we need to go and find this thing before Dayton does.”
“Wait, Benjie, I need to get Latia. They’ve offered us a way out.”
He grabbed the front of my shirt and pulled me close, leaning down and speaking quietly and intently. “Luka, listen to me. Dayton’s got people searching everywhere for you. Didn’t you hear what I said – he wants you dead. We need to find out what the hell he’s hiding.” He let me go then did a double take. “They’ve offered you a way out? They? The Empire? Bloody hell, Luka, don’t even…” He cursed, shoved me to turn me around and I felt the weight of the rifle drop over my shoulders followed by an oversized combat helmet planted on my head. “Whatever you do, don’t say that to anyone else. Can you walk without the crutches?”
I didn’t think I could.
He swore. “Just follow my lead, okay?”
We made our way back to our old block, stopping a couple of times when he told me to stay back and keep out of the way so he could clear it with people, and a couple of other times at corners to warm ourselves at braziers and swap small talk.
I kept quiet and let Benjie do the talking. He sideswiped me a couple of times in front of Dayton’s guys, let them see who was in charge, kept up the act of being the big guy resistance fighter. He didn’t give them a chance to look too closely at me, saying stuff like, “These damned kids, who woulda thought they’d be so useful?”
They let us through, his mind games worked. On me more than them, I realised afterwards. It’s weird what you can make people think and feel if you know what you want more confidently than they do. Benjie taught me something that night. I wish I’d got the chance to thank him properly.
Our old building was dark and quiet. I struggled up the stairs, half hoping Benjie would give me a hand but I guess he had problems of his own to deal with. He took the rifle and helmet back at least. Even without the weight of those, I was bent over double by the time we reached the top and he just looked at me and muttered, “Shit,” under his breath, like that summarised everything we’d gone through just to get there.
I felt cold. It was the first time I really stood there and thought and I just felt cold. More than numb. That had been and gone. I felt cold. Like I didn’t care but it was a burning cold, like I could spark and ignite at any minute given the right catalyst. It felt powerful. Ominous.
I knew Benjie was feeling it too.
We stood there, staring at each other, and laughed.
“You’re insane,” Benjie said.
I threw back the hood and stood there, my face covered with war paint, regarding him with defiance even though I could barely stand up straight. “I haven’t betrayed anyone.”
He regarded me with all seriousness and said, “I know.”
I had no idea where Peanut could have hidden the stuff. Knowing him, he’d have left a sign. Benjie knew the system of chalk marks and sigils we used as well as I did and we both searched but there was nothing.
“Peanut knows you,” Benjie said finally. “Where would he have put it so you could find it?”
The last time I’d been with Peanut, we were on the roof. He’d banged twice on the vent up there and I’d thought he was just being dramatic like Peanut always was.
I looked at Benjie. He was looking at me like he knew I knew and he didn’t know what else to say to make me trust him. I didn’t know if I could or not but I didn’t have much choice. “The roof,” I said. “It’s on the roof.”
We climbed up there and stopped, staring. I hadn’t had such a good view of the crash site since the last time we were up there.
“Holy shit,” Benjie said. “They’ve got in.”
UM had the whole crashed ship lit up in floodlights, gunships buzzing overhead, troops in powered armour clambering over it. We could hear a faint clanging clamour and buzz of heavy lifting, winching and cutting gear.
I sagged. I didn’t know how much more stuffing could get knocked out of me. “Do you think they’ll turn on the colony when they’re done with the ship?” I said.
We both looked sideways, along the walls, to where the Imperial troops were stationed, watching, looking so much smaller, uncertain which way to even point their guns.
“I don’t know,” Benjie said. “Shit, Luka, is that what you’re thinking? That the Wintrans are going to…?” He cut off what he was going to say, shaking his head.
I couldn’t tell if he felt sorry for me or was pissed at me.
I shrugged. I had a lump in my throat. “Is Dayton working with them?”
He shook his head again and looked around. “Where do you reckon this stuff is?” He sounded tired.
I limped towards the vent and reached my hand into it, feeling around. There was something stuck in there with tape. I peeled it off and pulled it out. I knew from the shape and the weight of it that it was the tiny slick little access key I’d lifted from the IDC guy in black fatigues.
“We need to find out what’s on this,” I said, looking up.
Benjie had his rifle in his hands, casual but his finger on the trigger. “Shit,” he said as if he’d been thinking that I’d been fooling around and now he could see it, he knew this was real. “Come on. I know someone who can help us.”
We went back through the streets towards the fighting. I had the key stuffed deep inside my pocket, limping along but as hyped as I’ve ever been. Like I said, it’s awesome what adrenaline can do for you. I could hardly feel the stabbing pain in my knee any more.
I kept my head down, hood up, but I was watching every angle ahead, listening to every sound from behind. No one came near us.
They had stockpiles of crates at every corner, vehicles offloading weapons, rocket launchers, heavy machine guns. I gawped at it all. There was no way they’d take down the garrison but they were going to have a damn go
od try. It should have been exciting, exhilarating, but it felt wrong. It all felt wrong and I had no idea why.
I limped after Benjie, becoming slowly aware of a deep rumbling behind us, the ground trembling. I turned. He grabbed my shoulder and steered me towards an alleyway. I resisted, twisting around, looking behind us. I wanted to see what it was.
A chill dread was twisting in my stomach. Even in the darkness, I knew what it was before it appeared, a massive hulking shape, filling the street, three stories high, even bigger than a DZ. It was trundling on huge tracks, making the ground shake. They must have hacked its AI. It was surrounded by KRM fighters who were leading it like it was a lumbering prisoner of war.
Benjie pulled me close and slapped his hand against my back. “We’re going to take down the garrison and you gave us the way in, squirt. We’re going to break down their damn walls with their own damn robot.”
He pushed me ahead of him into the narrow alley. The KRM didn’t have any heavy weapons, no tanks or artillery, but I’d given them the perfect means to breach the walls. I glanced back. It was bristling with crushing rams and mining lasers and could blast its way through a mountain. It wasn’t built for combat, and as long as the garrison’s automated defences held, it shouldn’t be able to get near but if the resistance could take out the weapons platforms, it would make short work of the walls. I felt sick. Benjie laughed and nudged me forward.
He led me through the alley and into the old market square. People were huddled around braziers, flickering lights dancing in the dark interiors of at least half the empty shops. They saw us but they didn’t approach. Benjie walked with purpose, casual but confident, and I was just a brazen kid trooping along after him. He headed down another alleyway and my heart rate increased a notch, if that was possible.
Benjie stopped, glanced back at me and stepped aside. “After you,” he breathed and gestured towards a doorway, door half ajar, a faint glow of light coming from inside.
Every instinct was screaming at me to run but I wasn’t about to ditch out then, not after everything that had happened. I nodded and went past, took a deep breath and stepped inside. Benjie was right behind me. I almost hesitated. There was a tug at my hood as it was pulled down and a nudge in my back that sent me stumbling forwards.
I caught my balance, a curse on the tip of my tongue, but I looked up and saw Dayton sitting there, facing the door, looking right at me, gun in hand, Maisie sitting bolt upright in a chair next to him, a rag tied around her mouth, wrists taped together, and my entire world spun on its heels.
So much for my amazing intuition.
Chapter 20
Dayton was perched on a desk, looking more like an underworld criminal boss than a resistance leader. Maybe that’s what he had been the whole time.
Benjie pushed me forwards again.
I shrugged him off with a glare. He closed the door behind him and stood to one side.
I stood there, frozen like a total idiot, looking from him to Dayton.
Dayton stood, raising the gun and shaking his head with some kind of twisted wry smile like he was amazed I could be so stupid.
I was amazed I could have been so stupid.
“He’s got it,” Benjie said, even sounding different. “He doesn’t know what’s on it. I told you I could get him for you.” He grinned at me. “Hey, nothing personal, squirt, it’s just business.”
I took a step back, not sure I’d heard right. Benjie was looking to Dayton for approval, nothing left of the kid I’d looked up to, admired, freaking wanted to be most of my life. It suddenly dawned on me with a sickening clarity that Maisie had been right all along. Benjie had used me, he’d always used me, as he’d got older and more cautious he’d sent me into places that were too risky for him… “giving you the benefit of my experience,” and, “helping you get better,” he’d said. Ironically, that’s exactly what had happened, but I realised then, it wasn’t out of any sense of brotherhood or caring for my benefit but always to further his own ends. I felt sick when I thought how it was him who’d sent us out to the processing plant, how I’d disabled the security system, just so they could get in there?
Benjie spoke again, rubbing his hands together. “Okay, Dayton, I’ve kept my end of the bargain, now where’s my payment?”
Dayton nodded, slow and deliberate. “Well done, Benjamin,” he said. “You’ve earned exactly what’s coming to you.” And he switched aim so fast I almost missed the look on Benjie’s face as he realised what was happening. The silenced bullet was in the air before he could open his mouth to object.
It hit.
He dropped without a sound.
I didn’t understand at first why Dayton didn’t shoot me too and I was half a heartbeat from turning and running except Maisie was still staring at me, something almost like an apology in her eyes.
Benjie’s rifle was on the floor. I reckoned I could reach it. I shifted my weight slightly. I didn’t want my knee to give out.
Dayton laughed. “Don’t do it, kid. Come on, look at what we have here. That key you have? You’re going to do a job for me. You’ve caused me quite a problem stealing that so I’d like you to take it back. Right now. Or I will kill your little girlfriend here and then I will kill your grandmother, slowly.”
I must have scowled because he smiled and added, “I’ll bet an old girl like that won’t last too long though, hey? Do we have an understanding here?”
Another booming clamour reverberated in from the darkness where UM were tearing apart the crashed ship that had started all this. I used to think too much, about what had caused this, what had caused that, what if I had done something, what if I hadn’t. In the end, you just get numb and stop caring.
I held up the tiny device.
Maisie was still staring at me.
“What is it?” I said.
My mind was running riot. Trojan or worm virus, I reckoned, something to screw up the base so they could attack it. But I’d stolen it from an Earth guy. He’d had IDC insignia on his uniform but he could have been anyone. He could have been a UM plant or some guy Dayton had brought in. I couldn’t believe I’d been so naïve and so stupid as to pick his pocket when I had no idea who he was. If Charlie hadn’t spotted me as I was running away from the garrison, I wouldn’t even have been in there to run into him.
Dayton leaned back casually against the desk, the gun resting against his thigh, that smug smirk still on his face. “You don’t need to know what it is.”
“The guy I stole this from, was he UM?”
He laughed again. “You’re not as smart as you think, kid. Now, you want what’s left of your little family to survive this, then you are going to take that key back to the garrison and find a way to get it into a secure terminal. Do you understand?”
I shook my head. “That’s impossible.”
Dayton was looking at me as if he was reading my soul. “You’re telling me you can’t do it?”
He might as well have called me out on a dare and waved a red rag. He glanced at Maisie as if to remind me what was at stake. I had no choice anyway. He was threatening the two people who mattered the most to me in my entire world. The only people I cared about that I had left.
I stared back at him. “I can’t hack a secure terminal without the AI triggering an alarm.”
“Kid, I’m not telling you to hack it,” he said, looking at me as if I was really slow. “Find a way in then just get that access key to a secure terminal inside the garrison.”
“Then what?”
He tossed across another key.
“Use this. Just get it in there. It’ll do what it has to once it’s connected.”
“I’ll need help,” I said without thinking. “There are two security protocols you have to bust to get in. You need to nullify two nodes to get access. I can’t get them both at the same time. They’re in different areas of the garrison. Give me Maisie and we’ll get in there and fix it. And then you let us go and you let Latia go.”
; “You’re not in any position to negotiate, kid,” he said. He must have picked up on the desperation in my voice and he called my bluff. “Find a way in. You have six hours.” He walked forward and retrieved Benjie’s rifle without turning his back on me. I don’t know what he thought I might do. “And trust me,” he added, “you talk to anyone, tamper with it, or try anything, I will know, and I can make life really unpleasant for little Maisie here and grandma. You understand?” He looked at me with disdain. “You know the telecoms tower out by the ore plant? You want to see them alive again, then do what I’ve said and meet me there with those keys. In six hours. Now go. Scram. Don’t let these lovely ladies down now.”
I looked at Maisie.
She must have felt that I was about to do something stupid because she shook her head ever so slightly, eyes wide.
“Can I at least say goodbye?” I asked, belligerently.
Dayton waved the gun at me casually. “Sure, kid, it’s your time that’s wasting.”
I walked over to Maisie, gently pulled the rag away from her mouth and leaned in. She didn’t speak, just looked at me with fear and pleading in her eyes and shook her head again.
I whispered quietly, “Don’t worry, it’s going to be okay. I’m going to get us out of here. All of us.” I kissed her then and before Dayton could react, I snapped Charlie’s band off my wrist and on to Maisie’s.
Dayton jumped up and shouted, pointing the gun at me but I knew he wouldn’t shoot.
I spun and stared him down. He needed me and we both knew it. What he didn’t need was Maisie and as soon as I walked out of the door chances were that he’d put a bullet in her head.
“What the hell is that?” he said.
“Life signs monitor,” I said, cocky as hell. “Live feed tracking system. It’s one I stole and we’ve hacked it so we can monitor it.”