Fire and Steel

by Gavin Magson

  Miles was beyond impressed with what the duo had been able to put together and grinned at the thought of Boden or his men trapped within one of the exo-suits, should they show their true colours in the slums. He had heard enough horror stories of Boden’s actions over the years to know that even if a tenth of what he’d been told was true then their capacity for violence, if left unchecked, would only be amplified with this much firepower at their disposal. He hoped that there would be no need for the kill switch but would not sleep easy if such a mechanism wasn’t available to him.

  “I’ll leave you to your work, I think it’s imperative that we get out of Seven as quickly as we can, and all my questions aren’t helping progress. If you need anything don’t hesitate to call me over.”

  He left the mother and son team to the exo’s repair, which was definitely beyond his limited maintenance skills. Miles checked over the makeshift door that Jerry had fabricated from three commandeered doors, which had all come from a building on the street behind. It was hastily put together but had done the job so far in stopping any light escaping during the night, and it had not attracted any unwanted attention thus far.

  Satisfied that the door didn’t look like it would come apart anytime soon Miles sat down on the stool vacated by Rex. He pulled up the screen he’d been handed and pressed on the icon that represented the video file Rex had set aside for him.

  The timestamp placed the recording as a little over three hours ago, whilst the sun was setting but there was sufficient light not to rely on thermal imaging. The woman came from the north end of the street, appearing into view on the top right feed as she was five buildings up on the opposite side of the street. She was walking slowly, which was enough to be classed as suspicious activity in the slums.

  Miles couldn’t distinguish much from her, thanks to the poor clarity of the recording, just that she was looking towards the buildings nearest to her. The woman eventually went out of view of the left camera feed, heading south to the opposite end of the street. When she reappeared several minutes later she was now walking on the pavement closest to their building, again that same slow walk as she looked at each building that she passed.

  A couple taps of the screen allowed Miles to place markers on the playback from when she walked the width of their hideout. He played it back several times, focusing on any significant detail of the figure. Her face was partly obscured by the hood of her thick, brown coat, the rest barely distinguishable due to the low light. It took until the fourth time watching the same segment to confirm that she slowed her already leisurely pace whilst staring at the front of the building.

  “Rose, how much longer would it take you to get two more exo’s operational? If nothing else so that they moved, but preferably with the weapons system online.”

  “If we were rushing to get two that could move by user command, an hour, maybe more, but they wouldn’t have a lot of time to charge.”

  “Finish up on that third suit and do what you need to in order to get two more working, if you can’t get the weapons online see if they can be made portable instead.”

  He dismissed the playback and returned the feed back to when the woman last disappeared from view. He advanced through the recording swiftly, flicking his gaze across each of the four video feeds until it confirmed what Rex had said; there was nothing interesting to be observed since.

  Miles used his tablet to bring up a map of Seven, with his location centred in the image. He changed the displayed area to a radius of ten miles and was not surprised to find it devoid of any mercenaries; it would have surprised him if any remained.

  Keeping the screen in his hand Miles put away his tablet and headed upstairs. Rose and Ward watched him go but did not say a word before he entered the rear room.

  “Have you done what I asked of you?” asked Rose.

  “Mam, you know that I don’t like doing that, it makes me feel wrong.”

  “I know, but it’s the only way to know whether we can truly trust these men. Now, have you been reading their minds?”

  “Yes. Jerry thinks of little, other than keeping us all safe in here. Rex has darker thoughts, I don’t always know what to make of them. I think they are memories that he won’t let go, but they muddle with his thoughts constantly. Again, he focuses on our protection, and the money to be made. Miles is worried that these exo-suits, in the wrong hands, will lead to the murder of innocents, and is happy we’ve built a kill switch for him. I don’t believe he has any intentions to harm us, but he does have thoughts about you that I don’t like hearing.”

  “Are these thoughts about harming me?” she asked.

  “No, he doesn’t want to harm you.”

  “I think I understand. Stay out of their heads, for now; I don’t want you to feel bad for doing this.”

  “There was one more thing, mam; before he headed upstairs Miles was worried, he thinks that we are soon to be attacked. He thinks the only way all of us survive is if we can get the other two suits operational quickly.”

  “I gathered as much. We know which suits are in the best condition, we’ll pick the best, get the weapons working, and leave the kill chips until last; I’d rather you and I could defend ourselves. We’ll put them in if there is time later.”

  Rex and Jerry watched the same playback as Miles again and again, all the while as Miles kept glancing out of the spy holes that Jerry had fashioned in the cover over the rooms one and only window. The sector was dark, no lights from the nearby buildings to illuminate the street behind; Miles couldn’t help but feel that an attack could come at any moment.

  “There is something here, she definitely seems more interested in our building than any other in the recording. What stands out to me is the thick coat that she wears. Seven isn’t cold before nightfall, she’d be sweating in something like that.” said Rex.

  “Agreed. Rose and Ward are busy getting two more suits ready for use, which would leave three combat ready exo’s for each of us and them two that would allow for quicker travel. If it comes to it I don’t think we should try and defend this place, not for the sake of recovering, at best, three more suits. I’d rather we fight our way out, torch whatever parts are left behind, and head for the border gate of Six. Any other thoughts on that?” asked Miles.

  “What do we do if this is a horrid coincidence and there is no attack tonight, giving Rose enough time to bring a sixth exo online?” asked Jerry.

  “Good question. I think everything we have to leave behind will need to either be boobytrapped or destroyed. We brought enough explosives to make sure that all the suits could be reduced to nothing more than scrap, so let’s make good use of them. Rex, could you go set the explosives for me? I don’t want to leave it until the last second.”

  “Will do. What do I tell Rose?”

  “The truth. Don’t take your time disguising the trap, get those explosives set out quickly, then make them pretty. Make sure to wire up a remote detonator, in case we can’t wait for someone to trigger the trap.”

  Jerry continued to study the screen as Rex’s footsteps got ever quieter, soon replaced by the murmurs of voices downstairs.

  “This is not an easy building to defend, we both know that. If we fight our way out of here in five exo’s how far could we get before the charge dies on some of them?”

  Miles considered the question, trying to remember what little he had been told about the suits when they had been used in suppressing resistance off world. He had never seen them pitted against Believer soldiers, yet they were great at mowing down civilians armed with pistols and single action rifles.

  “Rose said there’d be little time to charge the last two suits, so the best I can do is try and estimate the charge it’d take to get out of the Sector. I would guess that she’d need enough time to get the batteries to at least thirty percent to guarantee enough to reach Six, that would be assuming they are comparable to the combat suits I’ve seen in the field. I’ll go talk to Rose to get her opinion on how long they n
eed to charge the batteries; I just hope it’s shorter than I expect. Keep an eye on the camera feeds, any sign of something suspicious you come straight to me.”

  “Will do.”

  Miles disappeared from sight and, now alone, Jerry sat on the floor, his back to the exterior wall whilst he watched the four feeds for anything out of the ordinary. The shades of blue on display played with his eyes, as there was no yellow, orange, or red to signify organic life. He stayed like that for a long time, relieved when small animals scurried past to break the monotony, whilst listening to the indistinguishable murmurs of voices coming from downstairs and the occasional clang of metal on metal. From the noise he could only guess that everyone was busy trying to prepare for a rapid escape.

  Thump. It was so quiet that Jerry wasn’t sure if he imagined the noise, and he stilled his breathing. The noise from downstairs was faint, whatever conversation going on kept quiet. Jerry listened as he heard the faintest noises come from above, the stressing of the roof as something shifted its weight forward, ever so slowly.

  He stood, breathing shallow and silent, heart beat making it hard to distinguish the noise. Jerry walked forward carefully, until he was confident he stood under the source of the noise. He moved when it moved, following it as it headed towards the access hatch set within the rooms ceiling.

  Jerry pulled out his tablet, sending two words to Miles’ tablet – On roof! As the noise ceased Jerry stowed away the tablet and drew his knife, doing so slowly and carefully. With his free hand he grabbed the top rung of the short ladder that lead to the access hatch and readied himself.

  With the faintest of creaks from its hinge the hatch was lifted. Apart from the protestations of the hinge Jerry could not distinguish any sounds coming from above, as if the whole sector has fallen silent whilst the person, or persons, tried to gain entry to the building.

  Jerry waited patiently, his breathing even, silent. The only light coming into the room came through the open doorway, filtering from the ground floor. Anyone looking in from the hatch would be directly above him, which meant Jerry’s body was out of sight for the time being.

  The hatch opened fully, being lowered carefully so that it did not make a noise when it rested on the roof. A movement caught Jerry’s eye as a fragment of mirrored glass was lowered down, a hand holding onto the topmost part of the diamond shaped glass.

  Jerry pulled himself up with the ladder, his other arm coming up swiftly to jab the knife into the chest of a startled man. Whilst sinking his knife into the soft flesh between ribs Jerry spotted a second figure, a step or two behind the crouched man that he had skewered. Jerry could do little but release the knife and let the body topple through the hatch, moving out of the way before it hit the floor loudly.

  Jerry reached behind to grab the shotgun strapped to his back, releasing the sling whilst swivelling it around his body.

  It was difficult to steady his breathing, but Jerry could do little about his racing heart. He listened as best he could, but no noise came from above him. Several loud, quick footsteps on the stairs preceded Rex’s arrival, who stopped in the hallway when he caught sight of the body beside Jerry.

  “How many?” came Rex’s only words.

  Jerry released his grip on to ladder to signal to the man that there was at least one more person on the roof, possibly more. He could hear the wheezing, laboured last breaths of the man crumpled in a heap on the floor, but nothing else.

  “Pass me a mine.” whispered Jerry.

  Rex looked down at the dying figure and back at Jerry, realising what he intended to do. He pulled out one of the pressure sensitive mines from his pack and signalled for Jerry to cover him.

  Rex armed the mine in his hands, setting it to not detonate for fifteen seconds before stowing it under the man’s chest. If the man realised what was going on he did not show any signs of it, the pooling blood beneath him and shallow breathing suggested he was not long for the world. Rex lifted the body such that he could grip the knifes hilt and pulled it free of his chest, lowering the man back onto the armed mine.

  Rex quickly exited the room, Jerry backing slowly towards the door with his shotgun trained on the hatch. Jerry had not spotted any movement, and suspected that whoever was on the roof may have already fled, but the trap had already been set.

  When they had both cleared the room Rex shut the door behind them. They did not have any materials close to hand to block the door, as it opened inwards, which left Jerry with no choice but to move into the front room and keep his shotgun trained on the metal door.

  “Do you think whoever is on the roof will fall for the trap?” asked Rex as he joined Jerry.

  “I don’t know, my money would be on them having the sense to get away from here. Did Miles get my message?”

  “He did. He is helping Rose and Ward with the final exo, but there’s a problem; the two exo’s for Rose and her son haven’t been on charge long enough to reach Six from here.”

  “Go see how long they need, I’ll watch the door.”

  Rex placed his hand on Jerry’s left shoulder and gave it a reassuring squeeze before heading for the staircase. He took the steps two at a time, quickly making his way down to the makeshift workshop.

  “Has Jerry found out what that noise was?” asked Miles.

  “Two would be attackers, perhaps more. One of them is bleeding out on the back rooms floor, with a pressure mine underneath him waiting for someone to try and move his body. Jerry has the door covered, should someone evade our trap but still try to sneak in. He sent me down here to check how long they needed to charge the exo’s.” Rex jerked his head towards Rose and Ward, who were fixated on the stripped-down suit on the table.

  “Good thinking with the mine, but it’s a one-time weapon, so I’ll need you and Jerry to sweep the room if it is triggered. As for the exo’s, I think they’ll have the final one operational in a quarter hour, but it’ll take a little longer to juice them up enough. Watch the first floor with Jerry and keep an eye on the screen; we don’t know if this is a diversion for another breach location.”

  Rex nodded at Miles and collected his rifle from next to the table, before heading back up the stairs to stand besides Jerry.

  “Rose needs over a quarter of an hour, so we’d best get comfortable. Can you pass me the screen?” asked Rex.

  Jerry kept one hand on the shotguns trigger, whilst his other searched through each of his pockets for the screen. It took until a second search to realise his mistake.

  “I don’t have it, I must have left it in the back room. Shit!”

  “Do you think we should go back in there?”

  “We could try to get eyes on the inside, and then-” Jerry’s words were lost by the explosion that rocked the room in front of them. Neither man anticipated hearing the second, quieter explosion from downstairs.

  Chapter 22

  Aiko was painfully aware that she was still awake, several hours after she had returned from her last meeting of the day. Her head ached something fierce and it was a struggle to keep her eyes open.

  She had spent part of her evening pouring over several reports that had been left with her by Rine, but once those had been assessed she had made some food and showered before calling it a night. That was five hours ago.

  Arnold had messaged her to say that the Snooper had been retrieved that evening, and that it should be dropped off to him shortly. She had replied to ask he contact her immediately. No matter what she did Aiko could not think of anything but the audio file she would spend all her free time combing through for any mention of Ajax. She was forcing herself to remain awake, impatiently waiting for the moment Arnold messaged to say the Snooper had been left with him.

  Her tablet began vibrating across her bedside table and Aiko snatched at it so quickly her knuckles rattled across the metal surface.

  “Aiko, that was far quicker than I expected you’d answer; were you already awake?” Rine’s voice carried the smallest amount of concern, though not
enough to fool Aiko.

  “Needed to pee, must just be a coincidence. What is it that you need?”

  “I thought that it would be best to inform you that Boden Shaw has arrived, along with his two hundred men. I’ve sent his men to Six, they are probably already fortifying the tower block I set them up in as we speak. Boden is staying with me tonight, so that we can both better brief him tomorrow, or should I say today. I’ll need you to bring the latest reports on Seven to my office first thing. Could you send across that timeline of skirmishes model you made? Boden seemed very interested in seeing it when I mentioned what you had created. I’ll need you to come in and setup your equipment in the morning for the complete display.”

  “Certainly, Rine, I’ll transfer it across to you in a few moments. I’ll send it with biometric encryption; we don’t want any chance of a leak this time.”

  “Thank you, Aiko. I won’t be able to show him the model proper tonight, so if you are willing to you’ll have a chance to dazzle him with the full demonstration tomorrow. If not, I am sure I’ll be able to operate it. Try to rest up before the morning and I’ll see you in the offices.”

  Aiko put down her tablet once the call ended and whispered the command that would begin illuminating her room. She did not wait for the lights to finish increasing their output before pulling up the metal arm beside her bed and inserting her tablet into it.

  The projection that burst into life before her showed the last file she had been reading over, which was the weekly accounts of the slaughterhouse in Four. She had almost finished altering the figures to cover for some of the beyond legal revenue streams before hunger had called her away.