by C. G. Hatton
I moved round the bay to an airlock that was open. I could see the cameras monitoring the bay. The two security guys were huffing and puffing up the loading ramp as they struggled with Peanut’s overloaded crate.
I took a gamble that anyone watching was focused on them and I darted through the airlock into a corridor, instinctively turned right and saw what I was looking for. Maintenance access hatch. There was a maintenance terminal just inside. It wouldn’t give me access to ship’s systems without a pass key and I didn’t have time to hack it, but I didn’t need to, all I needed was the general layout of the ship’s deck plans. They flashed up. A quick glance was all I needed then I split.
I went up and pulled myself into a cable conduit. It was tight but I’d been in worse and I wormed my way along until I reached a junction where there was an access to the ventilation system. No electrobes because there was no AI. Earth would never have an AI on one of their black ops ships. I popped open a grill and squeezed through a hole that was uncomfortably small, scraping skin and drawing blood as I went. It seemed like Lady Luck was dealing me another good card. In another six months time I wouldn’t have been able to get through it at all.
The vent shaft was only slightly wider. No adult could ever have fitted through it. I wriggled as fast as I could, hoping I wasn’t too late. I reached the spot I was after, directly above the comms centre. If it was manned, this all came to an end here but Fate dealt me another ace and the room was empty. I still couldn’t enter though, not yet. I carefully removed the ventilation grill, being careful not to trigger the mesh of laser sensor beams across the opening. The conduit might not have been large enough for an adult to squeeze through but that didn’t mean Earth wasn’t paranoid enough or stupid enough to leave every opening into a secure area unprotected. I got into position. Now it was all down to Peanut.
After what seemed like an age had passed, and with my arms starting to scream and tremble with the strain of the braced position I was holding, the lights flickered off ever so briefly and that was my signal. As we’d planned, Peanut had killed the main power and disrupted the backup from kicking in.
I heard him say, “Go,” over the headset and I moved. It gave me only seconds before the power was back on. I dropped through the small hole. I wish I could say it was impressive, that I performed some amazing feat of acrobatics and flipped to land on my feet with feline-like grace. The truth was that I fell like a bag of rocks, hit a console, bounced off, crashed into a chair and cracked my head for good measure. Everything went hazy for a second then I looked up. The lights were back on, the detection grid was functional again, there was a trickle of blood running into my eye but there were no alarms going off. And there was a secure Imperial Diplomatic Corps communications terminal right in front of me.
I pulled the access key out of my pocket, stuck it into the terminal and watched as it came to life, scrolling numbers and accessing systems so fast it was dizzying.
I don’t know what I was expecting but I was past caring. I just wanted it done. It slowed and started to process a series of protocols. And that’s when it got my attention.
It wasn’t even accessing the garrison’s database. It was all right there on the ship. I watched as it ran through reports and configured accounts. It didn’t take much to add it all up.
“Oh shit,” I whispered, heart sinking and a chill descending so fast I shivered.
Peanut suddenly sounded loud in my ear. I’d forgotten I was even wearing the comms gear. “How’s it going, squirt? I’m pretty much finished here. I’ve tinkered with some stuff and changed out a few parts but these goons are looking over my shoulder. I can bluff them but they’re going to start getting twitchy if I take much longer. How are you doing?”
I didn’t know what to say.
“Luka?”
“Peanut, it’s a ledger.” I grabbed at the terminal, fingers twitching, shoulders trembling. I got it to respond and I got it to do what I wanted. I started to query it, pulling up stats and reports, feeling sick deep inside as I saw what had been going on.
“A ledger?” he said across the connection. “Why would Dayton want you killed over a ledger? That doesn’t make sense, does it?”
“None of it does.” I couldn’t say what was going through my head.
I hesitated.
“What’s wrong?”
“Dayton gave me another key.”
“Put it in.”
I had a really bad feeling, deep inside, tugging at every instinct I had.
Peanut nudged me. “Do it.”
I pulled it out of my pocket and stuck it into the terminal, watching as it engaged and half expecting there to be a bang, a massive boom as the garrison exploded.
It didn’t. The terminal started to scroll through the ledger. Numbers flashed up as it accessed an account and began transferring tens of millions of Imperial credits.
The connection engaged again. “What the hell is it doing?” Peanut said.
“It’s making Dayton rich,” I muttered.
“What?”
“Dayton’s not working for the resistance, he’s working for the Empire.”
Chapter 22
I sat back, watching as the money flowed. “They’ve been paying him. They’ve been paying him to betray us and keep the rebellion as ineffective as hell. That’s why he wanted me. He thought I knew. That’s why he needed me dead.” It caught in my throat as I said it. “So I couldn’t tell anyone. You should see this.”
I pulled up one report after another.
“He’s been working with them the whole time.” I scrolled back and paused the stats. “That offensive two years ago, when they tried to clear us out… we took massive losses, the Imperial forces took nothing.” I scrolled back again. “That time Dayton blew the supply lines to the mines…” I almost laughed, “…it was staged. They knew exactly where and when he was going to attack and had countermeasures in place before he even instigated it. When Dayton attacked the airfield, the trucks they destroyed were obsolete. They were left there for him to destroy. So it could look like a victory.” I sat there staring at it. “The Earth forces didn’t lose anything. It was all staged… It goes right back.”
“To Rainfall?”
I had a lump in my throat. “Yeah, Dayton told them where we were.”
Where the leaders of the resistance were. It wasn’t by chance that our building, that my family was targeted. It was a surgical strike.
And the whole time the numbers flashed and the cash flowed into Dayton’s account.
It finished and I thought that was going to be it, but then it started to transfer data, lists and names, account numbers, downloading the full details of the ledger from the IDC database onto Dayton’s key. It was a whole list of people on the Empire’s payroll. And not just on Kheris.
“We can’t let him get away with it,” Peanut said through the link.
“No.”
There was a clatter and brief static.
Peanut cursed. “Whatever you have to do,” he sent, “do it fast.”
I heard him yelling at whoever had come in, banging something and complaining loudly that their coupling system was shot as well.
I looked back at the terminal and the data scrolling across it. I’d only got a glance but I knew every line of that ledger, each digit of every account on it, every detail of every transaction. I knew enough to sink Dayton forever. I just had to decide what to do with it. And then I realised something. The key hadn’t just opened the data file, the account it was transferring funds to was an Imperial account. The type that every Imperial citizen is given at birth.
I reached for the terminal.
Peanut yelled to them that he was finished before I was done. My hand was shaking so bad I almost blew it. I hit the last command, pulled out the keys and abandoned the terminal. Peanut told me to run so I ran.
The ship was firing up its engines before we even got back to the workshops.
Peanut shoved me inside. “Wh
at now?”
“We need to get away.” I emptied the box of painkillers, trying to figure out how many more I could take. “I need to go get Maisie and Latia and we need to get out of here.”
He squinted at me. Peanut knew me too well. And he’d never questioned me, never chided me, never doubted me. And right then, he said, “What have you done?” like for the first time, he wasn’t sure.
I looked up at him. “Can you get that courier ready to fly?”
He knew exactly what I was talking about. “You’re not seriously thinking you can fly it?”
“I can fly it. I know I can.”
“Luka, reading a manual and playing kid’s games in a burned out wreck isn’t the same as being able to fly one. Knowing what to do isn’t the same as knowing how to do it.”
“Do you have a better idea?”
He cursed. “How long have I got?”
“Two hours. I’ll get them back here. You get it ready to fly.”
“Two hours?”
I downed the last of the drugs. “Peanut, the resistance are going to realise they can’t take the garrison so they’ll try to take the port. We have to get out of here.”
He looked at me and nodded slowly. “You’re going to take on Dayton?”
“I’m going to get Maisie and Latia. Be ready when we get back.”
He didn’t look convinced.
Getting out of the space port was easier than getting in. Peanut loaded up a truck and drove me out. The soldiers on the gate were pissed off and hassled, the pressing throng getting desperate as the number of rockets hitting the north increased and the gunfire got closer. Peanut showed his papers and drove right through, revving the engine to clear the way. He stopped in a side street next to a load of abandoned vehicles, and leaned through the window as I started trying car door handles. “How are you going to get back in?”
I tried the ignition on a bike. It fired up. “I’ll find a way,” I said and gave him a grin as I climbed onto it. “Just get that ship ready.”
I went through the maze of narrow streets, gunning it back across Main as fast as I could. I didn’t turn on the lights and I didn’t slow as I took the corners, skidding and almost losing it a couple of times, riding around burning barricades and blockades. I was heading away from the trouble, not towards it, so no one was too concerned with me, at least no one shot at me and I made it to the outskirts with less than half an hour to make it out to the tower.
It was a powerful bike, heavier than the dirt bikes I was used to, and it was fast. There’s no way I would have made it otherwise. I rode across the desert, the city in flames behind me, UM vessels filling the sky around the crashed ship ahead of me. They were withdrawing, abandoning it. Gunships were buzzing round it in circles like vultures. They were wrapping up and clearing the vicinity. If they turned on the city, we were done. I opened the throttle and floored it, wheels spinning in the dust as I threw it into turns to avoid boulders and craters on the desert floor. I couldn’t feel my knee. I couldn’t feel anything. I could see the tower up ahead, didn’t waste time checking how long I had left and skidded up in a cloud next to the ramshackle building.
It was dark, only glances of moonlight and occasional searchlight beams shimmering off the broken windows.
I cut the engine and sat there, blinking dust out of my eyes, adrenaline pounding through my chest, almost thinking I’d imagined the whole thing, got the instructions wrong or something, but then Dayton stepped out and stood there looking at me.
I got off the bike and limped forward.
Another figure emerged behind Dayton. Calum, I could recognise him anywhere. He was holding the damn rifle.
They stared at me.
I couldn’t see Maisie or Latia anywhere.
“You made it,” Dayton called out. He held out his hands. “Well done, kid. Now where are my keys?”
“Where’s Maisie?” I yelled back.
“The keys,” he shouted. He turned to Calum and said something.
Calum sloped off. Even in the low light, I could see the smirk on his face.
Dayton stepped forward, beckoning with his hand. “The keys.”
I shook my head slowly. “I know what you’ve been doing.”
“Kid, you have no idea what I’m doing. Now hand over the keys and scram.”
I took a step forward. “I do know.”
He did a double take, screwed up his face and glared at me. “What?” He walked at me, towering over me, close up, grabbing my shirt and shoving me in the chest. “You know nothing, boy. Where are my keys?”
I twisted away and backed off, keeping my left hand behind my back.
“I’ve seen all the records,” I said. “I know what you’ve been doing.”
I blurted it all out, faster and faster, backing away from him and spilling everything I knew about the betrayals, the attacks, the set ups.
The look on his face got even darker, that muscle ticking in the side of his jaw. He was keeping pace with me, one step at a time.
“I know about Rainfall,” I said, keeping my chin up and my weight mostly on my right leg. “I know you sold us out.” I felt so cold, even saying it out loud didn’t spark any of the emotion I’d always been hit with even thinking of that night. “You told them where we’d be, exactly where we were, Dayton. You told them where to drop those bombs.”
I took another step back, glancing aside as a moving cloud of dust caught my eye. There was a vehicle approaching from the foothills, not the city. No lights but it was moving fast. And it was coming straight for us.
“Who the hell are they?” I said, incredulous, full flow. “You selling us out to UM now as well?”
Dayton laughed. “You don’t know anything, kid. Now hand over the keys.”
For all I knew, Calum could have had me in the sights of his rifle. They didn’t need me alive. I backed off again, shaking my head, as the Wintran vehicle pulled up, engine purring. It was a jeep, flash corporate militia, fully armoured, glistening in the moonlight. I’d never seen a car that new and shiny, never been so close to that much money before.
The suit that stepped out was just as flash. The two bodyguards with him were wearing night vision goggles, stubby automatic rifles cradled in their arms. The main man walked forward.
Dayton suddenly looked really small.
“I trust you have the intel,” the UM suit said, clipped words, but loud and clear.
I felt even smaller.
“Yes, I have,” Dayton growled, “or at least I will as soon as I get it off this little shit.”
“Are you telling me the child has it? Perhaps I should be dealing with him.”
I might have laughed. That didn’t go down well.
The suit looked at me. “Do you have it?”
The keys were weighing heavy in my pocket but I shook my head.
“Then we don’t have a deal.” He turned to walk away.
“Wait,” Dayton said. His voice was shaking. “You have to take me with you. I can pay. Whatever you want.” He didn’t exactly drop to his knees to beg but he might as well have done. “I have money. You have to take me. They’ll kill me if you leave me here.”
The suit didn’t even look back. “We have no need of money, Mr Dayton. Good luck with your rebellion.”
He got into the jeep, the heavies with the guns got in behind him and they drove off.
Dayton was left standing staring after them, mouth open. He turned on me. “You little shit. You little Imperial bastard.”
I grinned at him. “I transferred your millions,” I said.
Dayton frowned. “I know. You think I’m stupid? That’s what you were supposed to do. Who needs the damned Wintrans, anyway?”
“I transferred them to Maisie,” I said quickly.
He stopped. “What?”
“All of it,” I said. “Everything from your account, I transferred it to her.”
Dayton stared at me open mouthed.
“Everything,” I said. “
All of it.”
He grabbed at the holster.
I brought round my left hand and levelled his own gun at him. “Looking for this?”
He glowered at me.
I was holding the gun in two hands, looking down the barrel at him, and all the hurt, all the pain and intensity of every loss I’d ever felt focused into sharp clarity. I wanted to kill him for what he’d done to Maisie, to Latia, to Freddie, to Charlie, even Calum. I wanted him to die for what he’d done to us eight years ago on the night of Rainfall, and I wanted him to die knowing that he’d failed. That ultimately, he’d failed.
I wanted it to end.
I pulled the trigger.
The hammer fell with a hollow click. Misfire.
Dayton bellowed and ran at me.
I threw the gun at him and dodged, not well, the painkillers were wearing off and my knee was starting to scream at me again.
He caught me with a sideways backhanded blow and sent me sprawling. He reached behind his back and pulled out another gun.
I lay there, staring at him, staring at this son of a bitch who had sold us out, as he pointed the gun at me, and I laughed. “You’ve lost, Dayton,” I said. “I took all your money and, you know what? The whole resistance will find out that you’ve been betraying them.”
It wasn’t the smartest thing I’ve ever done but I didn’t care. Dayton’s face was stone as he stepped forward. He steadied his aim and pulled the trigger.
Chapter 23
There was a sharp crack. And another. I recoiled, jerked backwards, but it wasn’t me that was hit. Dayton’s bullet went wide, kicked into the dust beside me.
He staggered backwards, blood blossoming out across his chest. He tried to say something but he was choking, red spilling from his mouth. He crumpled and fell to the dirt.
I staggered to my feet and turned.
Calum emerged from the shadow of the building, a rifle held steady in his arms. He walked forward, stare not leaving Dayton’s prone form, lying there on the ground, bleeding red into the dust.