"You have blueprints?"
"Of course I have blueprints. Even I can't create something without first mapping out how to do it. Of course, I didn't leave them out in the open. I couldn't have just anyone find them. But you should be able to find them just fine. They're back at the facility in my office."
"The Defense Training Facility?"
"Yes."
"The facility that Selene bombed looking for me?'"
"That's the one. You should know that. The facility was evacuated after Selene's little temper tantrum. So you shouldn't be caught. The file is coded, of course, so you'll have to break into it. I'm certain you have all the information you need to do that. And your insignia of course."
The screen started beeping. "What's that?"
"I've set up time limits to deter anyone's ability to track me. I'm afraid our time is up. Go get the plans and you'll be able to fix the device."
The screen turned off suddenly leaving the room in momentary darkness before the lights blinked back on again.
"Dorry," Lena yelled and rubbed her insignia just like before. Nothing happened. "Dorry," she called again. Still silence. Lena shook her head. Thora was right. Dorry had no common sense. She wondered how often or if she could ever contact him again.
She opened a map of the bombed Defense Facility. According to this satellite image, only one section of the facility had been destroyed. She should be able to reach Dorry's office without any complication.
Excitement filled her. She could save Gideon before he turned himself over to the Alliance. Evren could contact Thora and Gideon before they turned themselves over. If she could find him.
She ran to the main cavern.
Evren was sitting at a table beside Remiah discussing the security system.
"Evren," Lena interrupted. "Dorry left us the plans." She could barely control her excitement. Suki and Tarek came to stand behind her. "Dorry left us the plans to fix the nullifier," she said again.
Evren jumped to his feet. "That's great. Where are they?"
"They're in Dorry's office," Lena said.
"In the Defense Training Facility?" Suki asked. "As in, the place where the Priestess trained all of her soldiers and then callously bombed when she found out you were there?"
"Yes, that one. There's no one there now. Dorry told me." Lena felt breathless. "We can fly there and get the plans without much trouble before Gideon turns himself over to the Alliance."
Suki shrugged her shoulders. "Perfect, let's go get them."
"Thora said for everyone to stay put," Remiah said.
Suki rolled her eyes. "I do what I want."
Remiah glared at her. "We did a lot to get those plans for the device that's inside of Gideon. Thora and my father told you to stay here until they got back and I'm not going to let you ruin what we've accomplished so far."
"How would fixing Gideon ruin anything?"
"You don't know that you can fix him. If anything, you'll get captured. Again."
"But there is more that we can do," Lena said. "We have another piece of the puzzle. If we hurry, Gideon won't have to turn himself over to the Alliance."
"Then we'll contact Thora first. For now, we stay put."
"Since when do you get to tell us what to do?" Suki asked.
Dessa stepped up next to Remiah in a show of support. "He gets to tell you what to do because while our father is away he is in charge here."
"Says who?" Suki said.
"Says me," Remiah said. "I'm in charge of the security of the caverns. And people coming and going only increases the likelihood of us dying and you being captured."
"Who says I'm going to get captured?"
"You've done a pretty good job of it so far. The Cimmerians, the city of Monmark. You're a walking target, Lena."
"Enough," Myri interrupted, fist on hips and glaring at everybody. "Fighting like this makes us no better than the Priestess. So stop. No one is leaving anywhere right now."
"But we can help Gid..."
"Lena," Myri interrupted. "You're putting everyone's life in danger with your rash decisions. You need to take a moment and think. Remiah, stop playing leader. You are not the leader here. Thora is the leader here. Evren, see if you can contact Thora. Tell her about the blueprints and let her make the decision on whether to come back or proceed as planned."
Lena wanted to argue more, but Druinn gave her a warning look and shook his head. She huffed. Turning to Suki, the girls left for their room.
Chapter Five
Lena paced her small room. The whole mountain seemed to press down on her. Everything from the artificial light to the ventilation system was too controlled for her. She wanted fresh air on her face and to see the bright reds and purples of the swirling stars. She wanted freedom.
Suki sat on the top bunk cleaning her fingernails with a sharp point that came from the end of one of her prosthetic fingers.
The scraping sound wound Lena's nerves even tighter. She glared at Suki.
Suki rolled her eyes and started examining all the tools inside her arm.
Lena plopped on the couch and watched as Suki pulled out each tool. Knives, a small gun, some tiny picks with electrodes in them that looked like they'd be good for picking locks or getting into control panels and other tools that Lena didn't know the names for.
Suki took a large breath and blew the hair out of her eyes in frustration. She closed all her tools and looked up at the ceiling while tapping her fingers on the hard edge of her bed.
The sound crawled under Lena's skin and the more she tried to block it out, the louder and more annoying it became. Lena bit her lower lip and started tapping her foot trying to drown out Suki's sound.
The louder she tapped, the harder Suki pounded her fingers. Lena glared at Suki.
Suki opened her hand and pulled out a drill. She pressed it against the rock wall and started drilling. The noise drowned out anything else.
"Hey!" Birdee shouted from the doorway.
Suki jumped and turned off her drill.
"Birdee," Lena said.
"Thank the stars you're here," Suki said. "Lena is driving me crazy."
"It's me that had to listen to that unrelenting drilling," Lena accused.
Suki rolled her eyes.
"I jus' heard 'bout Gideon," Birdee said, gliding inside their room.
"How's that chair working out for you?" Suki asked.
"It's annoyin'. I'd rather be walkin'. But I didn' come here to talk about the chair."
Suki hopped down from her bunk and pulled a chair from the table so they sat in a circle.
"They're not righ' ya know," Birdee said. "Ya shouldn' wait to go get the plans to the nullifier."
"We don't want to wait," Lena said. "But apparently we're on lockdown."
"Gideon helped save me. Now, he's in danger. The longer you wait to fix the device the more likely he'll be to get activated."
Suki and Lena looked at each other. "What are you suggesting, Birdee?" Suki asked.
"Ya should go. Tonight. I'd come with ya if I knew I wouldn' slow ya down."
"Right. Just that easy. How are we going to get out of the hangar? Remiah has the whole place on lockdown," Lena said.
Birdee smiled. "I convinced Evren to help ya."
"What in the world could you do to convince Evren?" Suki asked.
"Took a piece out of yer book and found information about him that he didn' want to get out."
Suki raised her eyebrows. "Blackmail? What could you blackmail him with?"
"I know how he broke into the Interplanetary Military System without gettin' caught," Birdee said.
"Evren's a genius. He can break into anything. You can't blackmail his intellect. He just knew how the program worked," Suki said.
"And that's were the blackmail comes in," Birdee said with a grin.
"What!" Lena and Suki said at the same time.
"He didn't do it on his own?" Suki’s jaw hung open and her wide eyes demanded that Birdee keep talking.
"What the stars," Suki said.
Lena didn't know if Suki was impressed or furious. Probably a bit of both.
"Well, I gotta keep my mouth closed on the details. But, when I brought up the fact that Tern and I knew, he seemed pretty nervous about it. Not to mention Tern is bigger than him and can be very intimidatin'. Combined, it made him nervous enough that he agreed to help with anything ya need. Pretty funny considerin' I'd have no clue how ta contact the Alliance."
Suki grinned. "You're brilliant."
"I suggest ya go now," Birdee said. "Before it gets light. Tern is keeping the others distracted fer a few minutes so ya can sneak out."
Lena jumped to her feet and gave Birdee a huge hug.
"Let's go," Suki said.
They ran towards the elevator to the hangar. When the doors opened, Tarek was standing inside with a smirk on his face.
"I was wondering how long it would take for you two to decide you weren't going to be held against your will," he said.
"What are you talking about, Tarek," Suki said. "We'd never go against what we are told.”
"I know you're leaving to get the blueprints and I'm going with you," he said.
Suki smiled "Can't live without me already?" she asked with a wink.
Lena had to bite her lip. Tarek didn't seem phased by her comment but he did focus his eyes on Lena instead of Suki.
"I told Gideon I'd look out for you two. I'm going with you. Plus, I know how to fly the plane that's in the hangar."
Suki smiled. "I wouldn't have suggested otherwise," she said stepping forward and brushing shoulders with him.
Lena pressed the button to the hangar.
Evren was already there working with the security system.
Suki gave him a look that caused him to shrink a little.
"Birdee told you?" he asked.
"Enough that you're going to have to explain yourself," Suki said. "But, for now, I'm trusting you."
"Of course you can trust me still," he said. "Take that plane there. Everything is ready to go."
They climbed into the plane. It was small, just a pilot and co-pilot seat.
Lena let Suki sit next to Tarek in the co-pilot seat while she climbed over them to reach a crate in the cargo space behind them.
Tarek started the engines and turned on the cloaking device. He flew them into the slot canyon that hid their exit.
The rocks were sheer cliffs. Lena realized now why all the crafts in the hangar were so small. Anything of substantial size would be too hard to fit into the exit. She glanced through the front window. Seeing the stars, she felt a moment of peace.
"You know where we're going?" Lena asked.
"I know the general location of the Defense Facility." He turned out of the canyon and Lena could see the huge lake below them. The stars and moonlight reflected off its surface.
The lake was huge. Lena hadn't ever really been over the top of it like this and it didn't take nearly as long to cross it as she thought it would. Once past the lake, they flew over tree covered hills. She saw where the forest stopped and recognized the clearing that the facility sat in.
"We don't know what kind of security system they have right now," Tarek said, as he flew over the darkened outline of the building.
"Dorry told me it was abandoned. We shouldn't have any problems," Lena said.
Tarek put the plane down in the open grass on the edge of the forest.
In the darkness, they couldn't see much. Just shadows of where the building was. The brightness of the stars above them gave them at least enough light that they could see the outline of where the building stood.
"Let's hurry. I don't know how much time we have before Gideon turns himself over to the Alliance," Lena said.
The three of them crouched as they ran across the open field.
***
They walked through the bombed section on the outer wall surrounding the campus. Circles inside circles. That's how the Priestess set up everything. The Training grounds were slightly muddy and as Lena walked across the ground, she felt the mud catch her shoes.
Lena surveyed the damage. It looked like the Priestess had come and taken a huge chunk out of one part of the building but the rest of the structure was surprisingly intact. It reminded her of the citadel in Everleigh. One well placed hit. Enough to scare everyone into panic. She she looked at the outline of the center tower. That's where she stood when she realized it was Selene who was the Priestess. Gideon's mother. It felt like an eternity ago that she was here. But it hadn't been that long at all. When she was last here, everything was dying. Now the earth around here was beginning to wake up.
No alarms went off and the grounds were eerily silent in the darkness.
"Come on," Lena said. She led them past the bombed portion of the building. Moving towards the far side of the building, she opened a side door with her insignia. It was a door probably no one would realize was there. But Lena knew it by heart. It was a servants' entrance. She used it every day for one thing or another. It took her to the servants' hall. A hallway she was just as familiar with as anything else around here. As she stepped in through the door, lights automatically turned on. The place looked a little dusty but hadn't seemed to be affected by the bombing.
"You lived here?" Suki said following her into the hallway.
Tarek walked behind, his head constantly moving from side to side. There was no sound coming from anywhere. "Be on guard," he said. "You can't be sure that we're alone.
Lena led them around the circular halls and took a deep breath as they descended into what she and Dorry affectionately called the dungeon. With the destroyed walls above, Lena half expected the office to have fallen into the jumble of servers and tubes below it. But it was still suspended in the middle of the room where she'd last seen it. She scanned her insignia over the control panel that unlocked his office before leading them across the bridge.
Tarek tightened his hand on his holster as their feet clanked across the slats.
The combination of the echoing footsteps and Tarek's tenseness, caused Lena's anxiety to increase. She entered Dorry's office and looked at the workbenches that lined three of the walls. Several hologram machines and different kinds of computers lay scattered in various places. He was so disorganized, but at the same time, Lena was sure he knew where everything was in the office.
A banging from the entrance caused the three of them to jump.
"What was that?" asked Suki. As soon as she said it lights flashed and the office doors closed and locked around them. Alarms blared. "What did you do?"
Tarek pushed against the door. When it didn't budge he slammed his shoulder into it. When that didn't work, he pulled out his handgun and aimed it at the door. "We're not alone, Lena. Hurry and find what you need."
Lena turned to the hologram that she often saw Dorry using. She wasn't sure what she was supposed to be looking for. As soon as she turned it on, it immediately asked for a password. She scanned her insignia and the screen opened. She scrolled through them hoping something would catch her eye. There was one with her name on it. She opened it up. It looked like the files had been corrupted.
"Someone has messed with Dorry's files," Lena said.
She opened more of them. They were all incomplete, and not opening correctly.
"Dorry, I need your help," Lena called anxiously as she rubbed her insignia.
Dorry's head appeared on one of the holograms. He looked at Suki and Tarek pounding against the door. He frowned and turned his attention to Lena. "My, what has happened here?" Dorry asked. He looked like a floating head.
"We're locked in," Lena yelled over the noise.
Dorry's floating head was studying everything. "This is not how I left my office. Someone has tampered with it. Angel dear, you won't be able to open the doors from this side. It's meant to catch intruders."
"I'm not an intruder," Lena said. "I used my insignia
to get in."
"Someone else must have set a secondary trigger," Dorry said. "How perplexing." He slowly started to look at the room around them.
"Dorry," Lena yelled. "Focus. We need the plans and a way out of here."
"Oh dear, someone seems to be coming your way," Dorry said, looking through the glass at the entrance to the dungeon. "Lena, we're running out of time. I can only leave communication open for a short while. My plans aren't on a computer. They're in that box of pieces over there." He nodded his head towards the box. Then the hologram disappeared.
The clanging of feet on the bridge leading to the office confirmed Dorry's warning.
Lena's heart skipped a beat as she saw Lucius with his bright red hair and permanent scowl running across the bridge.
"Oh, no," Suki said. "This could be bad."
"Suki, you have a tool that will get this door open. Use it," Tarek ordered. "Lena, find the plans.”
Lena turned to the box Dorry had indicated. It was full of all kinds of wires, gold and silver pieces, and different electronic parts. She recognized a lot of them from her time fixing the bots around this place. She sifted through them until she found a little black square with her name on it. Angel.
"I think I got it," she said over the blaring alarms.
Tarek and Suki were at the door. Suki was using a laser from her prosthetic to cut an opening through the glass.
Lucius stood in front of the locked doors and stared at Tarek and Suki.
Suki pushed against a fist sized chunk of glass. It landed at Lucius's feet on the other side.
"Lucius, what did you do?" Lena yelled, coming to stand next to Suki and Tarek who had given up their attempts at the door.
"I triggered an alarm. The Defenses are coming for you and I'm going to finally get the credit for turning you over to the Priestess."
Lena,Tarek and Suki shared a worried glance.
"Let us out," Suki said.
"My loyalties are negotiable. What did you come here for?" Lucius asked. "Then I'll decide if I'm going to help you or not."
"We'll take you with us," Lena yelled. "The Defenses are going to take you away too. If they capture you, you'll be tortured right along side us.”
"I will be on the Priestess' court. I will be the one torturing you. Plus I don't like this one," he said looking at Suki.
The Mir Chronicles- The Complete Series Page 49