Breaching one took time, and that was in short supply. The disruption field created a dampening wave function, countering the field effect at a quantum level. In theory, it perfectly canceled out the wave function of the field it was breaching.
In theory.
Since ES fields were a product of quantum field theory, the mathematical description of the field’s quantum state at any given point in time was more of a probability distribution than a precise measurement. The distribution contained all possible measurements of the field at a given point.
In addition, there was another little problem; introducing a temporary field that exactly cancelled out the existing quantum stasis field would destroy the one currently in use. That would permanently disable the loading bay’s airlock, leaving it open to the nearly nonexistent atmosphere outside and rendering the bay unusable. Leaving that as a last resort, he shut the locker and moved over to master control, a small booth in the rear of the bay, offset to one side. Jogging over to it, he powered up the unit. Shockingly, no access code was required. With a mental shrug, Boone flipped off the outer ES field and, using the connection his wire maintained with the shuttle’s Synthetic Intelligence system, ordered it to power up the drives and remotely pilot the ship into the bay.
48: BAIT AND SWITCH
The shuttle settled onto the loading dock’s rails with a soft thump. Boone hopped inside the back of the transport and made his way through the cabin to the cockpit to power down the shuttle. He’d just taken a seat in the pilot’s chair when something smashed into him from behind.
What the —? He jerked around to see his prisoner, once more awake, eyes blazing in anger. She’d managed to move from her seat and had come at him with both fists. He realized it had been a while since he’d checked on her.
“Bastard,” she hissed. “You’ve ruined everything.”
Boone biolocked the rifle and set it carefully aside. He grabbed the modified analgesic cylinder from his pocket and approached her again.
“Time for another dose,” he told her.
She backed away, falling into her seat, and brought her knees to her chest. Boone mistakenly assumed she was shrinking back from him in reaction. He was wrong.
Her legs exploded outward in a vicious kick, her aim perfect. Her foot made contact with his hand and the cylinder went flying.
“If I can’t have what I want then you can’t have what you want,” she hissed viciously. “What you and your friends are doing is illegal. Posse Comitatus.”
He bent to retrieve the analgesic cylinder, brushing aside his irritation.
“Lady,” he ground out, turning to face her, “in case you hadn’t noticed, I’m off duty. Just a civilian trying to stay alive.”
“By drugging me? That’s assault!” Her expression turned smug. “I’ve heard of that drug, you used on me. It’s not reliable. And I still have the codes. Up here.” She tapped her forehead awkwardly with her bound hands.
He didn’t answer her taunt, just slammed the cylinder against her neck and pressed. He frowned down at the thing when she remained upright and noticed that her kick must have dislodged the crowbar. Apparently, that allowed the medical bots inside to revert to their manufacturer’s programming.
“I also have access to the public net now,” she said triumphantly. “You can’t stop me.”
With a growl, Boone whipped the CUSP from the small of his back, thumbed it to its highest setting, and shot her, point blank.
“And stay down,” he muttered.
He pushed past her, dropping to the deck just outside the shuttle. He stopped when an alert popped up on his overlay. Its contents had him wishing he’d shot the woman with something that was a little more permanent.
The lone bomb that had not accepted its disarm code—a bomb that should have been lying in the bottom of the Pelican Ocean—had just armed itself. Its proximity warning was flashing, telling Boone he was in the blast radius, and had thirty minutes to get clear.
Boone would have sworn the woman was giving him honest intel under the influence of the neurotransmitter med-bots, but her words just now made him uneasy. Had she accidentally swapped one of the bombs and not realized it, or had she truly given him misinformation?
Not that it matters, he thought grimly, staring at the proximity warning flashing at him. This warning was clear proof that the bomb Boone had shot down wasn’t the one that had refused its disarming code. That particular one was still attached. And it had just begun a thirty-minute countdown sequence.
{Uh, guys? I think we have a problem…}
When Gabe responded, Boone swiftly brought him up to speed. As he did so, he cast his gaze around the dock, hoping that a solution might jump out at him. And then, one did. His eyes landed on a box labeled ‘atmospheric suits’ with the logo for the ride, the Sudden Death, emblazoned on its sides.
{Can you take the shuttle back out and target the correct one?} Gabe’s question cut in on his thoughts.
Boone dragged his attention back to the conversation as he crossed over to the box and looked inside. He shook his head. {Honestly, that’s no longer a sure bet. Winds have kicked up. I think it’s faster if I do it the hard way.}
By Gabe’s response, Boone could tell the agent expected the worst. {What ‘hard way’?}
Lifting one of the suits from the box, Boone went for levity when he answered. {So… remember what Lieutenant Severance said about no more aerial stunts? Afraid I might have to ask you to belay his order...}
{Stars gone nova, what has your pet corporal done now, Gabe?} Asha’s voice sounded amused, but there was an underlying strain to her tone that told Boone the medic was in the middle of something. Whatever that was, he suspected it wasn’t good.
He held back the reply he wanted to give at her snarked ‘pet’ reference, opting instead for a simple, {There’s an atmospheric suit here. It’s got the logo of that Sudden Death ride on its sleeve. I can use that. I’m sure that access hatch will have tethers, too. This platform wouldn’t pass code without things like that in place. Their safety margins are much greater than the kind I’m used to working with in the Marines.}
{You’ve done this kind of thing before, Corporal?} Gabe asked.
Boone barked a harsh laugh. {Not even close.}
There was a pause. When he returned, Gabe’s voice was calm and smooth. {All right, son. Give me details. Which bomb, how high up, and what’s your plan to get to it?}
Boone took a deep breath. {It’s attached to the cable by the starboard infinity pool. I’m sure the access hatch will have climbing ascenders; that’s S.O.P. for this kind of thing. The grips will lock into place. I’ll be perfectly safe.}
{Or at least as safe as anyone can be with your ass hanging from a cable, twenty-five kilometers above the Pelican Ocean,} Asha cut in, her words dry.
{Or that.} Boone admitted.
{You be sure to tether yourself good to that cable, son. Don’t make me deliver the news to your platoon leader that I lost one of his men to a fall from an amusement park ride.}
Gabe’s threat brought a grin to Boone’s face. It was all too easy to envision his platoon sergeant busting his ass posthumously for getting himself killed.
{Copy that.}
A quick glance over at the transport he’d just brought inside had him changing the subject. {What do you want me to do with the woman? She got a bit unruly, and I had to CUSP her. She’s sleeping it off but could come to at any time.}
{Park security’s riding herd on the prisoners for us. I’ll send someone down there to take her off your hands.} Gabe said.
{Okay, then. Guess I’ll head out.} With a last look back at the shuttle that held his unconscious prisoner, Boone lifted the suit he held in his hands.
At least these are in better shape than that one in the locker…
49: RIVER DANCE
Lazy River
Water slapped the sides of the boat with a soft gurgling sound as its prow moved silently along. Thad bent forward, his P-SCA
R raised and his eyes intent on the heat map his augmented vision provided. Both ahead and behind, trees dipped their leaves toward the river's edge, starlight sifting through their upper branches. High above, Beryl’s orbital space station gleamed softly in the white dwarf’s light.
He’d tracked the woman to a two-story structure up ahead. It encased a water slide park-goers could use to join those swimmers floating along the inner canal. The building was little more than façade, a fanciful art piece used to conceal the slide as it arched over the outer canal where boats passed by on an endless loop.
{Hey, ami, you still got that molar mic on you?} Thad sent to Gabe.
{I do. You need it?} the other man replied.
Thad reached out a hand to the lazy river’s ceramacrete bank, pulling the boat to a stop alongside it. Stepping out and into the underbrush, he released the boat, sending it floating along its way.
{I’m thinking about engaging our kidnapper in a little psyops. Mess with her head a bit. You know, maybe throw a little of that NCIC magic at her. You in?}
There was a mystified silence from Gabe’s end. {NCIC—? I’m not sure I want to know what it is you think I do for a living…}
{C’mon, hoss. Don’t tell me you don’t profile people when you investigate a crime.}
{Thad, she’s not going to give herself up, if that’s what you’re asking.} Gabe’s tone was dust-dry, as droll as Thad had ever heard it.
{Just get inside her mind a little, rattle her a bit. That’s all I’m asking. Distract her while I sneak up on her.}
{Would it help to have a direct line to her hostage?} Asha interjected. {Turns out she took Reid’s eldest son. His wife says the kid’s got a good head on his shoulders, though he’s understandably upset. He thinks she killed his dad.}
Thad considered that offer as he slipped from tree to tree, the dark shadow of a castle, complete with crenellated towers looming tall as he neared.
{Your call, cher. You’re with the mother. How’re you reading the situation?} He altered his heading, circling around the structure, looking for a way in that didn’t involve a water entry.
{Earlier, I would have been fifty-fifty, but now that Reid’s stabilized, well… she is, too. If that makes any sense. I say yeah, let her connect you two.}
Thad sent her a mental nod and continued his recon. He spied a door inset into the far wall. Upon closer inspection, he saw that it was a lift. He dismissed that as a possibility; the minute he called for the car, she’d hear it moving.
A ping sounded over his wire, and he accepted it. Asha gave him a quick introduction to Chase Reid, and then backed out of the connection.
{How you holding up, hoss?} he asked the teen.
{Better, now that Specialist Thacker told me my dad’s going to live,} the boy replied. {Do you want me to talk to her, try to distract her?}
{Nope, got that covered already. What I need you to do is remain compliant. Don’t do anything to spook her,} he ordered, {or alert her to the fact we’re having ourselves a little chat.}
Chase sent a mental nod. {I can do that.}
{Good. Now, I want you to be very careful to not react to what I’m about to tell you, okay?} At Chase’s nod, Thad continued. {I’m right outside this building. What I need to know from you is if you think she’s aware of that. Has she said anything to suggest she knows I’m closing in on her?}
The boy hummed. {Well, yeah, but nothing specific.}
{Which direction is she looking right now?} he asked.
There was a pause. {Uhm, she’s looking down at the water, and out the open hole where the boats pass through.}
Thad crouched down beside the base of the building. {Which direction? Where they enter or where they leave?}
{Where they enter.}
He nodded. Good. He could work with that. He looked over at the massive weeping willow that had been strategically planted along the banks, right where its branches rained leaves down upon the entrance. It had one main branch strong enough to hold Thad that extended out over the water.
{Uhm, now she’s getting agitated. Looks like she’s talking to someone…}
Thad ghosted over to the base of the tree, his P-SCAR centered on the building as he went. He rounded the trunk and stopped when it concealed him from view.
{Listen up, Chase. I’m setting up a coordinate system. Boats entering is north. As you face that direction, to your left is west, to your right is east. Boats leaving, that’s south.}
Thad spit out the words, rapid-fire as he began to climb. If Gabe was already doing his NCIC thing, then Thad was on the clock.
{Okay, kid, you’re going to give me a running commentary, starting now. I need to know which direction she’s facing at all times. Go.}
Chase began to sound off. {North, now east. No, north. A little east again…}
With Gabe as his distraction and Chase as his inside man, Thad stretched out prone along the branch, inching his way carefully forward, doing his best to test its strength as he went, and doing a significant amount of praying that it would hold.
50: TICKING TIME BOMB
Sky park grounds
Boone’s feet pounded the pavement as he raced through the emptied park, the sound of his boots slapping against ceramacrete loud against the humming backdrop of the platform. His destination was another half kilometer away, but he could see the infinity pool in the distance. Its surface was glasslike, gleaming under the light reflecting off the spaceport that hung overhead.
To its left, behind a long, narrow tiki hut filled with park visitors was a small maintenance shed. Thrusting through the shed’s roof was an access tunnel that stretched up to meet the sky park’s ES field.
That was his destination.
He ground to a halt just in front of the door, and it popped open for him, programmed to accept his ID token, courtesy of the advance work Gabe had done with the office staff. Sending the special agent a mental thank you, Boone stepped inside.
The shed smelled of sweat and grease, and boasted a small workbench that was surprisingly tidy. Beside the bench, hung on pegs along the far wall, were cables, tethers, wire clippers, and other assorted tools. What he didn’t see were the ascenders he’d been banking on finding. Without them, climbing that cable would be a virtually impossible task.
Willing himself to stop and approach the problem with calm and logic, Boone methodically began searching through the shed, working his way from left to right. The fourth drawer he opened had what he sought.
Unslinging the sniper rifle and setting it aside, he stripped out of his tactical vest and unfolded the atmo suit. He’d had the suit perform a systems’ check before he left the dock and had even brought a spare along with him, just in case.
On a deep breath, he slipped into the suit, trying not to consider the differences between one of civilian make and the kind his platoon used while on missions in the black.
Sealing the suit, he had it sync with his wire and perform one last systems’ check. When everything came back green, he grabbed the tether and a pair of ascenders and approached the tunnel.
“Whose brilliant idea was this anyway, Brady?” he muttered to himself under his breath. “How many times has Ramirez told you never to volunteer for anything?”
Gritting his teeth, he began to climb. At the hatch, he pulled his hood over his head, confirmed a positive seal, took a few breaths of stale suit air, and then triggered the hatch open.
A carbyne ring was welded to the hatch’s frame; it was to this that he affixed one end of the tether. The other, he connected to his suit. Refusing to look down, he clamped the ascenders around the cable and began to climb.
* * *
A slight breeze from the platform’s air circulation stirred the branches that cascaded over Thad, concealing him from the woman inside. Gabe had informed him moments ago that the woman’s name was Petra.
From the heat map on Thad’s overlay, whatever the NCIC agent was saying had wound the woman up good and tight. She kept her
hand wrapped around Chase’s bicep, but her movements were jerky and tension-filled, the barrel of her pistol swinging from ‘north’ to ‘east’ to ‘north’ again in spasmodic, erratic motions.
{Ease up on her a bit there, hoss,} he sent to Gabe. On another channel, Chase continued the litany, chanting, {East, now south. East, north, east…}
Thad pulled the rock he’d pocketed, wound his arm, and let the thing fly. As expected, when the thing connected with the side of the building, she whirled to face it.
Thad had his P-SCAR up to his eye before she’d completed her turn. {Lean back and look away,} he sent to Chase…just before he pulled the trigger.
The first two shots hit center mass, and then the barrel of Thad’s rifle lifted, the third shot piercing Petra Cooke through the throat. As she fell to the ground, Thad called out to Chase, {Get back!}. He dropped from the tree and raced forward, his weapon sighted in on her slumped form.
He slipped through the opening and closed quickly, kicking her pistol away from her reach. With a quick look over at the kid, he asked, “You okay, hoss?”
Chase nodded, but even through the ghostly phosphor of Thad’s night vision, the kid looked pale. He was gulping air and swallowing convulsively.
“Deep breaths,” Thad advised, his attention back on the woman he’d shot. “Put your hands on your knees and bend down. Deep breaths. You’re okay. Your dad’s okay. It’s all over.”
51: LEFT SWINGING
Searcy Support Cable Three
The climb to reach the bomb took a precious ten minutes. Once there, Boone tried yet again to override the device, but it refused to accept the command string. Afraid to mess with it too much longer, he pulled a plasma cutter from the tactical vest he’d donned over the suit and, one by one, severed the crawler’s limbs.
Sudden Death (A Military Sci Fi Thriller) (The Biogenesis War Files) Page 21