by Kai O'Connal
The shaft was lit by small maintenance lights embedded in the wall. Keandra was glad to see a ladder next to the lights, stretching up as far as she could see. Paz took the lead, her heavy limbs clanking on the rungs as she scrambled up. They were halfway up to the first floor when Paz stopped, forcing Keandra to halt as well.
“Old man says he got the data, but emergency vehicles showed up.”
“Go to the second floor, and hurry.”
Paz didn’t ask questions, but continued climbing, moving so fast that she quickly outpaced Keandra. By the time they crossed the threshold for the first floor, the elevator roared to life. The motor at the top of the shaft whirred, and the cab climbed toward them.
Keandra moved faster, fueled by adrenaline. Paz was already at the second-floor door and thrust her hand into the seam between the doors. They screeched as she forced her metal fingers through and pulled the doors open. She jumped out of the shaft and onto the second floor, unslinging her gun in midair.
Before Keandra reached the second floor, she heard the doors open beneath her and a couple of firemen discussing their plan of attack as they entered the elevator. Their conversation cut short with a shout.
“Who goes there?” one of the firemen called out as he shined a light up through the open hatch.
The beam danced around the shaft as the firefighters attempted to see anything in the elevator shaft. Keandra swung through the doors with Paz’s help before being spotted. It didn’t seem to matter as the new arrivals noticed the opening to the second floor.
“North stairs,” Keandra commanded.
She took off running in that direction with Paz striding along next to her. When they ran past the open room in the center, Keandra glanced down and spotted the reflection of red flashing lights bouncing off the furniture and walls on the ground floor. Several emergency service personal clustered around the elevator, one halfway in the cab. None looked up in her direction as they fled to the stairwell.
Keandra stopped when they reached the door, taking a moment to catch her breath. She gulped down air, and forced herself to slow down. After a few failed attempts, she transitioned from panting to heavy breathing. She held her breath for a moment and listened. The voices in the lobby reached her, but that was it. Easing the door open, she continued to listen. No sounds of movement or other people talking. It looked like they might be in the clear.
The two women slipped into the stairwell, moving with as much stealth as they could muster. Even when she took slow steps, Paz had a heavy tread each time her metal foot came down on the concrete. As long as no one came into the stairwell, it shouldn’t matter. Keandra reached the edge and leaned over the railing, looking down and then up. Everything appeared abandoned. She climbed down the steps, walking at a steady pace that seemed silent compared to her companion.
The door beneath them burst open with a crash, revealing a firefighter dressed in full flame-resistant gear and wearing a mask shielding his face. Keandra couldn’t tell what metatype the firefighter was, or even if it was a man.
A security officer pushed past the firefighter and looked up, spotting Keandra before she could duck out of sight behind the railing. “They’re in here!”
As soon as the man shouted, Paz turned around and sprinted up the stairs, all attempts at stealth forgotten. Keandra skipped stairs as she climbed, getting to the third floor with as much expediency as possible. She heard the heavy footfalls of boots behind her as more security joined the pursuit.
A loud crash echoed down from the third floor, and as Keandra rounded the last flight of stairs she saw Paz had knocked down the door with a bull rush. Most of it lay on the floor of the hallway, smashed to pieces.
At least the hallway looked empty from here. Keandra ran after Paz, following her as she turned a corner and sprinted toward the rear of the building. As she ran, Paz slung her rifle back over her shoulder and grabbed something from her pouch. She slid to a stop in front of one of the offices, glancing through the doorway, but then continued her sprint down the hall. Keandra didn’t have time to ask what she searched for.
Three doors later, Paz stopped and looked again, this time running into the office. Keandra followed her, slamming the door shut as soon as she was in the room. She moved around the desk and put her feet against the wall to get enough strength to slide it in front of the door. It was a flimsy barricade at best, but better than nothing. Then she moved to join Paz over at the window.
The yard behind the building stretched out in front of them as far as Keandra saw in the limited light available. The warehouse was off to her right, but various pieces of heavy machinery dotted the rest of the field. It took her a moment to realize what Paz searched for, and then she saw it: a crane, situated at the near edge of the field.
“You can’t be serious. That jump is easily twenty meters. Not even you can make that.”
“I know. I was multi-tasking.”
Before Keandra could ask what Paz meant, the crane shifted. Someone was repositioning it so the arm would be closer to the building. It dropped to the height of the third floor and stopped only a few meters outside the window. Paz grinned and kicked the glass, shattering it in a shower of glimmering crystals that caught the bright light from the crane’s cockpit. She took the cord she had been unraveling and handed one end of it to Keandra.
“Just in case.”
With those words, Paz backed up a few steps and took a running leap out the window. She easily crossed the distance, slamming into the arm of the crane with a grunt. She hooked her arms around it and took a moment to swing her body around until she was on the interior of the lattice structure. She fed her end of the cord through the crossed metal supports, wrapping it around her body and feeding it around her arms.
“Jump or swing, your choice!”
Keandra looked down at the cord in her hands and then at the distance to the arm. The jump itself didn’t seem that difficult, but the impact at the end would be the hard part. If it knocked the wind out of Paz, what would it do to her?
She looked down at the three-story fall and swallowed. The door behind her cracked as the security officers slammed their shoulders into it. The desk began to slide across the floor. She heard one of them call for axes to break the door down. She was running out of time.
Keandra quickly tied the cord around her waist. She hoped the knot was right, but the dark side of her humor reminded her she’d find out soon enough. Then she grabbed the slack in front of her and wrapped it around her forearm.
Backing up from the window, she took a few running steps and then leaped into the open air as the wooden door splintered open behind her.
26
Keandra reached out to grab the arm of the crane, but the impact into the metal framework knocked the wind out of her. By the time she recovered and tried to grab onto something, the arm was out of reach and she tipped back toward the ground. Keandra screamed as she began to fall.
Paz didn’t try to grab her, instead pulling up the cord’s slack as fast as her arms could haul it in. Keandra’s scream cut off with a jerk as the cord snapped around her arm and stopped her descent after only a few meters. It bit hard into her arm, but she was safe.
The crane came to life, lowering until Keandra could put her feet on the ground. As soon as she could, she unwrapped the cord from her arm and rubbed at the line dug into her flesh. Paz jumped off the crane and sprinted into the darkness. Keandra followed, assuming the vehicle must be in that direction.
It was only a short run to the SUV, and the passenger door stood open. Keandra climbed in to find Paz was already in the driver’s seat. E-jekt rushed up, wheezing as he got into the backseat and slammed the door behind him. Paz took off, not bothering to turn her lights on until they were back on the road and out of sight of the facility.
Keandra rubbed her arm, which still felt raw. It was tender, but she could rub it lightly without any real pain. Considering the situation she’d just been in, it was a win. Looking down, she
realized she still had the cord tied around her waist, and fumbled with the knot, taking a few tries before she got it undone.
E-jekt had recovered his breath, so she asked. “Did it work?”
He nodded. “As soon as you brought down the connection, the fire alarm sounded. I cracked the datastore and copied everything. The alert triggered, but it couldn’t get out. Until they fix the Matrix access, that alert will be stuck on repeat, trying to deliver the alert.”
“How long do you think that will take?”
“It depends on how thorough you were when you destroyed the access point.”
Paz chuckled and glanced at E-jekt in the rearview mirror. “Let’s just say they’re gonna need a drill to even reach the pile of wires and tech. They might have some flooding problems too.”
E-jekt didn’t share her humor, so Paz shrugged and focused on the road. The ork traced some numbers in the air. Keandra wasn’t sure if he was interfacing with his AR or was just doing it out of habit.
“If we’re talking total destruction, they’ll probably do a complete overhaul. No point in making it a wired connection again, even if they could find someone to install it. I figure if they’ve got the funds, they could have it back up and online within a week. If they have any of the tech on hand for one of their construction projects, less. Maybe three or four days.”
Keandra thought that through. “So we assume three days. We want to make sure we’re going in before they know we’re coming. You said Gildhall might have Yakuza ties—if so, they’ll have it up and running as fast as possible. That gives us tonight to get some rest and recover, tomorrow to plan and supply, and then we drive out to the facility the day after. We can start figuring out what we need tomorrow morning, but for tonight, I think we’d be best served not strategizing. We’ve all been running on fumes for the past few days, and we need to be at our best for what’s coming up.”
Keandra took the silence for assent, unable to see the others’ faces in the darkness. The occasional street lamp flashing by gave her brief glimpses, but it wasn’t enough for a read. Still, if anyone objected, she knew they all felt comfortable enough to voice their concerns.
Instead, she turned her thoughts to crawling into bed, sliding under the covers, and falling asleep. Just the idea brought a smile to her face and made her start to relax. Within twenty minutes, that idea became a reality as she entered their hotel room and collapsed on her bed. She was asleep even before Paz returned from parking the SUV.
When the early morning sun slanted through the window and hit Keandra in the face, she cursed herself and everyone else for not remembering to pull the curtains before they all crashed. She sat on the edge of the bed and examined her arm. The skin was still red and raw, the scrapes forming a spiral pattern that ran down her forearm. If it was a little more even, it could’ve passed for an artistic design.
To make sure no one else suffered the same rude awakening she had, Keandra pulled the curtains shut. Hands out in front of her, she felt her way through the room, sticking to the far wall to make sure she didn’t accidentally kick a bed or Lance’s outstretched legs.
Reaching the bathroom, she closed the door before turning on the lights. While she cleaned up, her mind tumbled over the future and what they were hoping to accomplish. She ran down her list of contacts; was there anyone she could tap who could assist them here? Besides Victoria, she couldn’t think of anyone she trusted who had ties to the California Free State. It pained her to think that even with the extensive network and web she had created, it was mostly useless the moment she left UCAS territory. Then again, she’d never had reason to test if before now.
By the time she re-entered the main room, she saw the curtains had been pulled back, and both E-jekt and Lance were up. The ork sat by the small table, nursing a cup of soykaf she smelled from across the room. It was a little burned, but it still called to her. E-jekt handed her a full mug and she cupped it in both hands, taking a moment to close her eyes and just enjoy the aroma and warmth between her fingers.
“Thanks. You know me well, my friend. I’m heading down to one of the conference rooms to call Victoria. I think I might be able to convince her to connect with one of her contacts, someone who could get us more information. If Paz gets up, start looking at the schematics and seeing what you can find as far as weak points and escape routes. You know the drill.”
Keandra headed to the hotel lobby, passing a few other guests on the way. The ground floor contained several conference rooms, ranging from a single table to a full conference hall with thirty chairs around a long table. The receptionist handed her a key card and pointed her to one of the unoccupied smaller rooms. Most of the rooms were empty at this hour; only one other was occupied, its glass frosted over to block views of the interior.
As soon as she closed the door, the window facing the hall shimmered and frosted over too, blocking the view in both directions. She pulled out her commlink, remotely connecting to the hub in the center of the table, and called Victoria. When the woman answered, her avatar appeared.
“Keandra, my dear, how are you doing? I trust you reached your destination without incident?”
“Yes, I did. Thank you very much for your help with everything. We wouldn’t have been able to make it if it weren’t for your assistance.”
The avatar spread its hands and offered a bow. The motion looked forced, and completely inappropriate for Victoria. But that was what happened when the meeting software tried to dynamically animate an avatar based solely on a person’s voice input. Keandra wondered if there was an etiquette setting somewhere that would change its behavioral responses.
“It was nothing. You’ve been one of my favorite clients over the years. I hope you’ll continue to be, and won’t let something as small as a national border or two negatively impact our relationship.”
“Of course not. That’s actually why I’m reaching out to you now. I was wondering if you might be willing to put me in touch with your contact who dug up that information the last time we talked. I was hoping I might be able to get more details from him. It deals with that big potential threat we talked about.”
There was silence on the line for a moment; the avatar stood with her hands clasped together in front of her stomach. She tilted her head from one side to the other, a smile on her unchanging face. It was a little unnerving and made Keandra uncomfortable, even more so than the silence.
“I ask you this as a confidante and not simply as one of my clients: is the threat you proposed real?”
“Very—I wouldn’t have left if it wasn’t. We have a plan; we just need some help.”
That may have been a bit of a stretch of the truth, but it wasn’t a complete falsehood. Overall, they had a plan, and the first parts of it had been completed. It was only the last part they hadn’t figured out yet.
“I’ll arrange a meeting. I’ll tell him you’re there to pick up a package for me. He’s a very private person, and I don’t think he would otherwise agree. I’ll warn him you might have questions, but be gentle. He can be a bit skittish.”
“Thanks, Victoria. What do I owe you?”
“Get through this alive and bring me my package, and we’ll call it even. I’ll message you the details once it’s arranged.”
Keandra terminated the connection, glad to be rid of the generic avatar using Victoria’s appearance. That had gone better than she’d hoped for, especially if the only price she had to pay was delivering a package. Of course, it meant she’d need to find a way to smuggle herself back into Seattle, but that was a problem to tackle after they dealt with the threat to Hestaby. That also assumed they survived the assault on the weapons facility.
She returned to the room to find her companions gathered around a line-drawing display of what she could only guess was the facility. Paz and Lance sat on opposite beds, and E-jekt was in the same seat as when she’d left earlier.
The facility looked impressive, even in skeleton form. There was only one entrance,
and Keandra knew it would be heavily guarded. The small building connected to a stairwell that would lead them to an expansive first floor containing small offices, large labs, two big chambers that looked like hangars, and access to an elevator. The elevator accessed nine subterranean floors of similarly laid out levels. A few of the rooms, such as some that looked like they could be hangars or firing ranges, spanned multiple floors.
“Tell me you have good news.”
E-jekt shook his head with a frown. “Not really. Unless they’ve changed the layout of the facility, there’s only one entrance and exit point. Any other way in would involve digging through an unknown amount of dirt and then trying to break through the walls. Not quiet, not fast, and something we’re not equipped for.”
“Any notes on the security?”
“They left most of that information out of the plans, unless it was something that needed to be hardwired into the system. So we have almost no information about cameras or turrets or the like. Those could have easily been added later, and probably were, since the original construction.”
Keandra walked through the display; it shimmered briefly as she passed through before returning to normal. She flopped down on the bed next to Paz and stared at the wire model while E-jekt continued giving the less-than-pleasant news.
“What we do know is that they have an alarm hardwired into a steel door that can cover the entire entrance stairway. I’m guessing that’s rigged to an alarm of some kind. That means if there’s a threat, they can seal it, and nothing gets in or out unless it can either open the door or cut through twenty centimeters of solid steel.”
“Great. So we have to be quiet getting in.” When she said that, Keandra turned to glance at Paz out of the corner of her eye. The dwarf shrugged in response. This was getting better by the second. If the stakes weren’t so high, Keandra would have seriously considered bailing on the whole run. But any time that thought crossed her mind, she envisioned what Mr. Johnson would do if he had such a weapon at his fingertips.