Now, Blake waited and watched at the corner of the storage unit, gun ready in his hand, the other two close behind him. It was only a short dash across the open ground to the main assembly building, but a pulsating hum warned him to stay in place.
‘Security robot approaching,’ Blake hissed. ‘Stay quiet.’
Vila promptly froze in place.
‘Breathe, Vila,’ Gan reminded him in a whisper.
The hum, and a steady beep, grew louder as the robot approached. Blake crouched low and peeped around the corner of the building. The security robot glided along. Scanners mounted around the multi-sided head allowed it 360 degree vision. Information from Allston’s people was that the robots had no set routine, making their appearances difficult to predict. Vila and Gan had withdrawn to the shallow cover offered by a doorway in the wall of the storage building. Blake rose and hurried to join them, his soft-soled boots making almost no sound. All three pressed themselves back into the doorway as the humming sound grew louder.
Blake turned his head, but his field of vision was limited. He could see the storage unit on the other side of the alley, but only a little of the roadway the stores faced, and of the main assembly building that was their target. As the sound of the robot got closer, he had to fight down the urge to lean forward and look to see where it was. A sideways glance in the other direction showed Gan, waiting patiently, and Vila with his eyes screwed shut.
As the humming grew louder, Blake found that he, too, was holding his breath. He stared at the section of roadway in front, heart pounding in time with the humming. Then – yes – the noise was moving away again. Blake glanced at Gan, seeing his alert, hopeful expression, and quietly let out a long sigh. All three men stayed exactly as they were until the robotic humming faded away altogether.
Again, Blake crept forward and peered round the corner of the building.
‘It’s gone,’ he hissed. ‘Quickly now; we don’t know how long we’ve got till it returns.’
Close together, they sprinted across the open ground to the door of the assembly plant. This wasn’t the main entrance, but the security would be just as good. Gan turned to keep guard as Vila set his box on the ground. Removing the lid, Vila withdrew a slender probe and quickly touched it to the corners of the locking mechanism. Blake noticed that Vila’s hands were steady as he worked, concentration replacing the earlier fear. The cover of the lock popped.
‘Can you get it open?’ Blake asked, assessing the circuitry he could see. He’d been an engineer himself, back on Earth, but locks were not his speciality.
Vila swapped tools. ‘Of course I can open it,’ he replied indignantly.
‘Can you open it quickly?’ Gan asked, still watching along the concrete road.
‘And without setting off an alarm?’ Blake added.
Vila stopped and looked at him. ‘You don’t get to be the best thief in the galaxy by setting off alarms.’
‘Stop bragging and start opening,’ Blake ordered.
‘Stop interrupting.’ Vila was unusually sharp.
Blake mentally conceded the point, and turned to keep watch in the other direction to Gan.
He heard faint electronic noises as Vila worked, then a rustle and clatter. Turning for a quick look, Blake saw Vila removing tools from the top of the box and putting them on the ground, out of his way. Vila rummaged further in the compartments below, seeking something else. Blake stifled a sigh and turned his attention back to sentry duty. A few seconds later there was a sound of satisfaction and Vila rose to resume work on the lock. Another minute passed, silent apart from the quiet hum of Vila’s probes, and soft, coaxing sounds made by the thief as he communed with the lock and his tools. Then, faintly, Blake heard that pulsating hum again.
Gan also heard it, drawing in a little closer. Blake looked over his shoulder at Vila, who was half-smiling to himself as he worked.
‘Vila! The robot’s coming back,’ he hissed.
The half-smile disappeared. Vila quickly moved the probe to another spot on the exposed circuits and studied the display on a hand-held sensor.
‘How long?’ Blake demanded.
‘It should be a couple of minutes,’ Vila replied absently.
The robotic hum, and beeping, were steadily getting louder. Blake glanced across the open road to the spot they’d sheltered in before.
‘We don’t have a couple of minutes!’
Vila turned and listened for a moment, then went back to the lock, the look of concentration fiercer than before.
Gan shifted his weight uneasily. ‘We need to move.’
Blake’s lips narrowed. Other people were depending on them to get into this plant, at this time. If they were going to hide, they needed to move now. He was about to give the order, when another idea occurred to him. Raising his left arm, he opened the teleport bracelet’s communicator.
‘Jenna. Stand by to pick us up at any moment.’
‘Copy that,’ she answered crisply.
‘It’ll be quicker than running,’ he told Gan.
The big man nodded, and turned his head to listen. The robot was much closer now. Blake gave a brief, impatient snort, and pressed the communicator again. ‘Jenna…’
‘Got it!’ Vila exclaimed.
There was a click and the security door began to hiss open.
‘Cancel,’ Blake told Jenna, as Vila slammed the lid of his toolbox and snatched it up.
He’d barely got it off the ground before Blake pushed him through the widening doorway. Vila staggered forward as Blake followed him through, stepping aside to make room for Gan. Blake had found and hit the door-close button even before Gan was completely inside. Grey daylight vanished as the door slid shut behind them. The dreadful, pulsating hum of the security robot was gone, silenced by the strong door between them and it. All Blake could hear now was Vila’s rapid breathing as he recovered.
Blake looked around the starkly lit, utilitarian corridor, getting his bearings.
‘Good work, Vila,’ Gan said. ‘But a little less drama next time, please?’
Vila looked indignant. ‘If I hadn’t been able to open it in time, I’d have said so. I’m a professional. And a coward,’ he added with disarming honesty.
‘A professional coward?’ Gan asked, his eyes sparkling with humour.
Vila nodded. ‘Better a live coward than a dead hero, I always say. I’m always very careful about what I do, which is why I’m so good at it.’
‘If you’re done congratulating yourself, we need to move on.’ Blake said, gesturing with his handgun along the corridor. He took the lead as they moved away, Vila behind him and Gan bringing up the rear.
*
Outside the door, the security robot paused, beeping, as its head swivelled. The scanners recorded unusual tools lying at the foot of the wall under the lock. The robot’s brain noted that the probes hadn’t been there on its last patrol, and flagged the discrepancy to the security monitoring station. That done, it rolled away again, waiting for any new orders.
TWO
After the bright, artificial light on the Liberator, the evening light on Belzanko seemed to Cally even greyer than it really was, as she and Avon materialised on the planet. She looked swiftly around, all six senses alert for danger. They were between a multi-storey vehicle park, and the administration building, just as promised. Cally spotted the door they wanted and sprinted for it, Avon following close behind. A fluid spin put her back against the grey wall, letting her keep watch as Avon holstered his gun and bent to pay attention to the lock.
Cally glanced at him, seeing the intense concentration on his rather severe face. He’d spent part of the previous day in one of the Liberator‘s workshops with Vila in preparation for this raid. Now he was running some hand-held gadget they’d cobbled together over the lock, and frowning at the readout.
‘It would have been much quicker to teleport directly inside,’ Cally complained.
Avon didn’t look up. ‘Allston’s men had to estimat
e co-ordinates from outside the compound. It was risky enough teleporting to open ground on approximate co-ordinates. If we’d tried teleporting directly inside a building without precise co-ordinates, we could have materialised inside a locked room, or even a wall.’ His dark eyes flashed as he glanced at her. ‘I don’t know if it is possible to materialise in the same space as a solid object, but I have no intention of offering myself as a test subject.’
Cally glanced about again. ‘How much longer are we going to have to stand out here in plain sight?’
There was a faint click. Avon straightened, drawing his handgun, and gently pushed the door open. He smiled as he gestured with mock grace. ‘Ladies first.’
His self-assurance nettled Cally, but she tried not to let it show as she slipped past him and into the admin building, her gun at the ready. Avon followed, closing the door quietly. They found themselves in a minor corridor, with a few, anonymous doors at intervals along it, and a staircase immediately on their right. Safety doors at the far end probably led to the main corridor of the building. The working day had finished an hour earlier, so the building would be mostly empty by now. Avon gestured towards the stairs with his gun. Cally nodded, and led the way up.
On the first floor, they ventured out into the central corridor.
‘Which way?’ Cally whispered
Avon looked up and down at the numbered doors, frustrated.
‘I wasn’t issued with a map either,’ he hissed.
He moved to the nearest door, stood with his ear close to it and listened. Cally raised an eyebrow in silent inquiry.
Avon shook his head. ‘Empty.’ He glanced down the corridor at the other doors, then back at Cally. ‘Can you… sense the presence of other people?’ He studied her with the curiosity of a scientist.
‘Not really,’ Cally answered, rather reluctantly. She didn’t care to discuss her abilities with Earth humans: most were rather afraid, worried that she was reading their thoughts; others looked at her as some kind of specimen, as Avon was doing. ‘Humans can receive my thoughts,’ she explained, knowing that if she refused any information, he would simply persist with questions. ‘But you can’t broadcast anything. I can sometimes pick up vague emotion, but rarely from strangers. My abilities are stronger with people I know.’
Avon nodded. Cally could see that he wanted to know more, but the pressure of the mission came first.
‘We’ll just have to keep trying doors,’ he said.
They moved along to the next one. Cally pressed against it, listening, and stretching out with her mind in case she did pick up something. She felt and heard nothing though, and was just relaxing when she got a brief impression of intention from a little further along the corridor. Acting instantly on her feelings, Cally opened the door and slid through, drawing Avon after herself. He hastily and quietly closed the door and they stood in silence as the lights automatically flickered on in the empty office. There was the click of a door being closed, and footsteps, barely audible through cheerful whistling. The slightly off-key melody came level with their door, then faded as the whistler passed and walked away.
When the sound had faded, Avon went to investigate the desks. Cally remained by the door, her gun in her hand, as he studied the computer workstations. At the third desk he looked up, a genuine smile transforming his saturnine face.
‘As I hoped, someone didn’t shut down their terminal properly when they left for the day.’ He holstered his gun and sat down, bringing the workstation online again.
‘Can you get the technical data from there?’ Cally asked. ‘I thought we needed the main computer centre.’
‘We do.’ Avon’s eyes were fixed on the screen. ‘But I should be able to find a map or something on here that will tell us where the computer room is.’
He applied himself to the workstation, his fingers agile on the keys. Cally stayed at the door, senses alert, but there seemed to be no danger. A sound drew her attention back to Avon; he appeared to be studying the screen steadily. Cally moved round to join him, peering over his shoulder at the schematic displayed. It wasn’t a regular map, but a maintenance diagram, showing the layout of ducts, cabling and pipes throughout the building.
‘We’re supposed to be finding the computer centre,’ Cally reminded him tartly.
Avon flashed an amused look at her. ‘Your wish is my command.’ He gestured at the screen. ‘It’s that room.’
‘How can you tell?’ The space he’d indicated was one of the larger ones, but Cally couldn’t see anything to indicate its function.
‘Look at the infrastructure that supplies it.’ Avon’s finger traced different sets of lines. ‘A lot of electrical cabling, and a separate, back-up system powered by a local generator. Extra air ducts and fans to keep all that electrical equipment from overheating, and high-capacity data cables, all heavily shielded. Numerous power points and data ports throughout the room.’
‘Where is it?’ Cally asked practically.
‘Up one floor and at the south end of the main corridor.’
‘Then let’s go.’ Cally barely gave Avon time to shut down the terminal and join her, before she opened the office door and led the way out.
Avon’s detective work was correct. They very soon found themselves in front of a door with a Computer Room sign. Unfortunately, it also sported a bright sign warning Restricted Area – Authorised Personnel Only. Once again, Cally stood watch as Avon examined the lock. She waited in tense silence for a minute, before looking to see how he was getting on.
‘Vila would have had that open by now,’ she remarked lightly.
Avon didn’t answer, but his shoulders tensed. Cally hid a grin and turned her attentions back to their surroundings.
It took another minute and a half, but Avon got the lock open without setting off any alarms. They entered the computer centre cautiously. There was no-one still at work. Avon holstered his gun and made straight for the rows of consoles. Cally prowled around the room as he made his selection and sat down. He produced a fabric bundle from his jacket and unrolled it, displaying the tools neatly arrayed in their pockets. There was a look of calm satisfaction on his face as he selected a probe and settled down to work. It was different to how he looked when he was investigating the mysteries of the Liberator‘s technology. That was a scientific challenge to grasp an alien technology, which kept him fascinated and frustrated in about equal measure from what Cally could tell. This task, involving human computers, was his speciality, and he was supremely confident in his skill.
Cally watched for a moment as he began the puzzle of hacking into the computer. Satisfied that all was well so far, she sent a silent, undetectable message to Blake.
We are safely in the computer centre. Avon is looking for technical data now.
She felt him receive the message, and got a vague impression of satisfaction from him. Cally stifled a sigh; she missed the warm communion of mind-talk on Auron. Life among humans was so silent. She swung the tube of explosives from her shoulder and began looking for the best places to plant them.
*
The demonstration outside President Greerson’s residence was an unusually rowdy one, bordering on violence, but it would make no difference. Captain Gratex watched the live newsfeed a few moments longer, then turned her attention back to the screens she was meant to be watching. Gratex liked to imagine that the main office of Security at Belspin Industries was like the flight deck of a space liner, and that she was the captain in control of the ship. She had never been on a space liner, let alone in the cockpit of one, but surely they also had banks of screens and monitoring stations. Pilots wore uniforms too, she was sure, though possibly more flattering ones. Off-duty, Gratex liked to dress up and look stylish. On duty, she sometimes whiled away long, quiet shifts by mentally redesigning her security uniform into something more attractive.
She prided herself on being professional, though, so before she started to daydream, she checked the monitors and status displays arrayed b
efore her. A blinking red light instantly caught her attention, bringing that immediate little jolt of adrenalin that came with an alert. It was a flag from one of the patrolling security robots, indicating a non-specific discrepancy in its surroundings. Gratex quickly brought the flagged image onscreen and studied it. A quick check of the robot’s ID code confirmed her guess that she was looking at one of the east side doors to the main assembly building. It took her a moment to spot the tools on the ground by the door. Even at full zoom, she couldn’t quite make out what they were – some kind of electronic repair kit, she guessed – but there was no good reason for them to be just there.
A call to maintenance told her that no work had been done just there today. Gratex sat back in her chair and thought. She called up scans from the last robot to patrol that point: there were no tools in sight. Someone had been there in the scant minutes between robot patrols. Gratex made another call, this time to the security checkpoint at the front gate. No-one had left the site in the last few minutes, so it seemed unlikely that the tools had been dropped by an assembly worker leaving late at the end of the day shift.
Puzzled, Gratex gently swung her chair back and forth as she thought. Her eye was caught by the footage from the protests. Some of her security team had been drafted in and she could see them on the screen, moving in formation to press demonstrators away from the Official Residence. It meant that there were few guards left at Belspin, but then the plant was a high-security facility and it was unlikely that any terrorists or protestors would be able to actually get inside in the first place. But those tools suggested that someone had been at the assembly plant door.
Suspicion hit Gratex like a jolt of electricity. What if that futile demonstration was nothing more than a diversion? She still couldn’t see how an outsider had managed to get into Belspin unnoticed, but with most of her staff attending the protest, the plant was vulnerable to attack. Gratex bit on her lower lip, looking again at the image of those tools lying by the door. They seemed very little to base a theory on, but Gratex decided to go with her gut instinct. After all, better a false alarm than no alarm. With her mind made up, she contacted the security room and ordered a half-squadron to investigate the second east door of the assembly plant.
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