Titan's Son: (Children of Titan Book 2)

by Rhett C. Bruno

  “What is?” I said. “What’s going on?”

  “They pushed too far,” Hayes said. “Whatever happened with those collectors down there, Luxarn Pervenio’s lost his mind.”

  “Focus!” Rin snapped, startling the three of us. “This is what you wanted, Kale, and now whatever’s happening on Titan has cleared our path. All that’s left here are men too green to stop this. There is no time to waste. Rylah is inside the surveillance systems watching over us.”

  “Can she see Cora?” I asked excitedly. “Can she see the others?”

  “Everything in the detention block is on a local server. Accessing it right now would be too risky, but logs say no prisoners have been released since the Piccolo’s crew was taken in.”

  I nodded earnestly.

  Rin gave my shoulder a reassuring shake. “We’ll get to them soon enough,” she said. “Now, when I say ‘move,’ or ‘turn,’ or anything, follow me exactly. The detention block is only accessible by tram, so we need an officer. Follow me.”

  “Where—” Hayes began, but Rin stared daggers in his direction to shut him up. “Follow.”

  She set off in a hurry again, and it took every ounce of my energy to keep up. It was impossible not to notice the newsfeeds reporting on the situation inside of every venue we passed. Earthers who managed to pry their attention off the screens scrutinized us, along with all the other Ringers arriving at the station after the recall from Saturn. The few security officers posted about stood at attention, trying their best to appear calm. I could see clearly that they weren’t. With so many on Titan, they were the worst of what Pervenio had to offer. Something contorted their features. Something drew their hands toward the grips of their weapons.

  Fear.

  Rin spotted the most panicked of them and led us toward him. The young Earther stood alone outside the gate of an empty hangar with no departure scheduled. His hair was matted to his forehead as he perspired uncontrollably. His gaze danced nervously from side to side.

  “Stop,” Rin said to us, glancing down at her hand-terminal, where Rylah provided directions. We listened. “Wait. Surveillance will be cut in five...” She finished counting down and then approached the officer.

  His shoulders rose and fell with each of his nervous breaths. As Rin got closer to him, I realized what she’d meant when she’d said we needed an officer. She was going to take him down— an Earther, wearing armor that likely augmented his strength and a weighted boiler suit underneath. Not to mention that while we were now unarmed, he had a pulse-rifle on his back, a shock-baton dangling from one hip, and a sidearm holstered on the other that wasn’t snapped in, enabling him to draw it hastily.

  I had no time to stop her.

  “Sir, can you help me with something?” she addressed him, utilizing the sort of gentle, unassuming voice I wouldn’t have imagined could stem from her mouth. As she spoke, she allowed her sanitary mask to drop.

  When the Earther noticed her grisly scars, he froze, giving her the opening to slide to his flank, snatch his sidearm, and aim it at him. Her back faced the corridor, and with the three of us behind, anyone passing by would just assume we were all having a conversation.

  His arms rose slowly. She pressed the pulse-pistol firmly against his chest plate with one hand. With the other, she switched off the Pervenio com-link built into the neck area of his armor.

  “Arms at your side,” she growled. “Eyes on me. Understand?”

  He managed a nod.

  “What’s your name?” she asked.

  “Vi… Vick,” he stuttered.

  “You have a clan-family, Vick?”

  “I… uh… Yes. Amissum.”

  “Well, the four of us are the ones who took down the Piccolo. I’m sure you’ve seen the recording.” She typed something into her hand-terminal with one hand and then read information off the screen. “The Amissum clan-family holds their main residence just outside of New London, factory workers. If you don’t do exactly what I ask, I’ll make you watch as we do the same thing we did on the Piccolo to every single member of your family, and then you’ll go out last.”

  His eyes bulged. They wandered toward Hayes, Gareth, and me, but Rin lifted the gun and aimed it right under his chin.

  “Eyes on me,” she said.

  Vick obeyed. Sweat poured down his forehead. He looked like the crew of the Piccolo had when we were locked in the harvesting bay, awaiting our inevitable doom.

  “Please, don’t shoot,” he said. “What…What do you want?”

  “I need you to get us onto the tram to the station’s detention block,” Rin said. “Pretend we’re detainees en route for questioning for contraband discovered in our belongings.”

  “What contraband?” Vick asked.

  “You’ll see. No more questions. Will you help, or do I have to find another officer?” She pushed the barrel of the pistol into the upper part of Vick's neck so hard that he gagged.

  “I’ll do it!” he yelped. “Just don’t hurt anyone.”

  “That’s all up to you. Now remove your rifle. Slowly.”

  Vick reached onto his back, detached his pulse-rifle, and carefully brought it around in front of him, fingers stretched away from the trigger. Rin grabbed it and handed it to Gareth, who emptied its magazine into our supply bag. She then shoved it back into the officer’s gut before taking his shock-baton and smashing the switch used to ignite it against the wall, breaking it.

  “There we go,” Rin said. “Now walk. Gareth, stay on him.”

  Gareth took the pistol and fell in directly behind the officer as he started moving. He kept it inside the supply bag, pressed firmly against Vick’s back. Rin was behind them, head down and focused on her hand-terminal. I was behind her, as anxious as Vick that we were going to be spotted and mowed down. I could feel Hayes’s rapid breaths on the back of my neck.

  “Trust her,” he whispered into my ear.

  TWENTY-TWO

  The security tram station wasn’t far. Vick led us toward two officers posted outside the entry, ammo-less pulse-rifle in his hands. Rin typed something into her hand-terminal, and then we all pretended that our wrists were cuffed as she’d instructed earlier.

  “Rylah’s now got control of the scanners and cameras inside,” she relayed to us. Then she leaned over Gareth’s shoulder and whispered to Vick, “Take us in. Act poised.”

  “Bringing them in for questioning,” Vick said to the officers as we passed them, his voice shaking only a little. They were too focused on a newsfeed about what was happening down on Titan to notice or even offer him more than a nod of acknowledgment.

  Inside, a scanner was planted in front of the tram-line spouting up through the ceiling. A sleek, vertically oriented car waited on the rail. A listless female officer sat in a booth beside the scanner, chin resting in her palm.

  “Bringing them in for questioning,” Vick said to her. This time, his voice cracked from nerves.

  “For what?” she droned.

  He took a deep breath. “Found illegal contraband in one of their bags.”

  Gareth removed the pistol, gave Vick the bag, careful to angle his weapon hand so that it remained aimed at the officer’s hip, unseen. Vick placed the bag on her desk. She peeked through the top, and no doubt saw a pile of bullets sitting on top of ration bars. Her jaded expression barely shifted.

  “Thought they could get this through security, eh?” she asked. She shook her head and sighed. “Damn, Ringers. You call it in yet?”

  Vick stammered and looked from side to side. Gareth nudged him.

  “Uh, yeah,” he answered.

  The woman typed into her computer and read something on the screen. “All right, I see the report right here,” she said. “Ring Skipper staff caught smuggling ammo.” It didn’t take me long to realize one had already somehow been forged by Rylah.

  “They’re unarmed, so they’re probably only trying to sell it,” Vick said. “No need for alarm, but the director wants them interrogated nonetheles
s. You know, considering what’s going on.”

  “I hear you. I’ll just need to register your officer ID, and then you can take the Ringers along through the scanner.”

  Vick dug his hand into a pouch along his belt. He stepped toward the desk, leaving Gareth a few feet behind him. One whisper to the woman and we’d all be compromised. I wasn’t sure what would happen then, but I could imagine. The mute Ringer’s finger threaded the trigger of his pistol, ready to fire.

  Vick wisely took Rin’s threats seriously. He handed over his ID chip and waited without a word for it to clear. The woman was too disinterested to question the sweat glistening on his forehead. She returned the ID and our supply bag to him before ushering him along.

  “All right,” Vick turned to us and said, swallowing. “Let’s go. In the car, Ringers.”

  Vick passed through the scanner first and strapped into one of the car’s horizontal seats. Gareth went next, pistol and all, and strolled through without setting off even a chirp of an alarm. More of Rylah’s handiwork, apparently. The rest of us followed, and before I knew it, we shot up through the core of Pervenio Station, toward the detention block of its security headquarters.

  The car was organized so that we all lay in a circle with our feet aimed toward the center. Rock-strewn walls raced by through vertical viewports behind us.

  “The detention block itself will be lightly defended, but it’s connected to the main security headquarters,” Rin said, still staring at her hand-terminal. “Even with what’s happening on Titan, there will be a ton of officers only a short run away.”

  “Can Rylah lock them out?” I asked.

  “Good question,” Hayes added. “I’d rather not wind up in a cell myself.”

  “You’re all insane,” Vick muttered. “You’ll be killed in seconds.”

  “Quiet,” Rin snapped. Gareth nudged his pistol against the officer’s temple to enforce the order.

  “As soon as we arrive, Rylah’s going to lock down the block, shut off the emergency alarms, and freeze surveillance feeds,” Rin explained. “Fooling scanners and a camera here and there is easy, but once she does that, the researchers analyzing Kale’s hand-terminal will become aware of her infiltration and cut her out.”

  “How long do we have, then?” Hayes asked.

  “They’ll be blind for about five minutes. Enough time to grab the prisoners and get into these tunnels. According to Rylah, they’re listed as being held in row C, but with all surveillance feeds down, we’ll have to find the exact cells ourselves.”

  Our car suddenly flipped 180 degrees to realign us with the station’s rotation. I withheld the contents of my stomach.

  “What about any guards?” I said, holding my gut.

  Rin grabbed the pulse-rifle from Vick and removed the empty clip. Our bag floated from the car’s spin, and she snatched it out of the air, then refilled the clip with the loose bullets.

  “We do what we have to,” she said. “They aren’t expecting us, so we’ll have the jump.”

  “What happened to sneaking in?” I said.

  “What do you think we’re doing?”

  “Yeah, but I didn’t think—”

  “Wake up, Kale,” she interrupted, using the same harsh tone she had with Vick. “You wanted into Pervenio Station, and you did your part. Now let us do ours. This isn’t like robbing some shop in the Darien Uppers.”

  My head sank, and I didn’t dare respond. Maybe I was going to be their leader one day—whatever that meant—but I wasn’t yet. She made sure everybody knew that, and I knew that I’d have to trust her if I had any hope of freeing Cora and the others. Whatever it took.

  “It’s either them or us,” Hayes said. “Get used to it.”

  “I’m trying,” I replied. I looked back up to see Vick staring at me, probably realizing that I was the weak link. All I could do was hope he didn’t try anything that would challenge Rin to keep her word.

  She sighed in frustration. “You escort us in and then hop back on here and get as far as you can,” she said to Vick. “Understand?”

  He nodded, eyes still fixed on me as if he could read the lines of concern riddling my face. I thought about thanking Rin for showing mercy, but the tram began to decelerate.

  “Good,” Rin said. “Everyone ready? Stick tight. We get out of this together, or not at all.”

  The tram screeched to a halt at a tubular platform, where Gareth left our supply bag. Vick led us into a long corridor, or at least it felt like one to me. The detention block reminded me of the Q-Zone waiting room. White and chrome everywhere, with bright lights that made me dizzy. I could hear our footsteps echoing as we approached the main lobby and the group of three officers operating the area. They matched the thumping of my heart.

  “Walk faster,” Rin told Vick. “Eyes forward.”

  Vick was unarmed except for the broken shock-baton at his hip. Gareth remained directly behind him with the pistol and Rin behind him, concealing the pulse-rifle. Hayes and I took up the rear, unarmed. Four Ringers in staff uniforms marching upon one of the most secure detention centers in the solar system.

  Nobody had ever gotten as far as we were, because nobody’d ever bothered trying. There was no reason to. Hundreds of meters of rock surrounded us on one side, and the great vacuum on the other. Only one way in or out without passing through the security headquarters itself, and usually, enough officers at any given time to fill a troop transport. Except for that very moment, when most of them had been dispatched to Titan to handle an unprecedented situation.

  Half-a-century since the Great Reunion, and there had never been a day before when the sum of Pervenio’s might was required. We were indebted to the Collectors who’d apparently stumbled upon the Children of Titan’s secret hideout and caused all of it.

  We stepped into the lobby after what seemed like forever. The three officers inside stood behind a desk, eyes glued to a small view-screen. It faced away from us, but I could hear that whoever was on the newsfeed was discussing the Q-Zone invasion. Word about violent protests in the Lowers were starting to trickle through.

  “What do you have here?” one of the officers asked as we approached the desk.

  “Four Ringers off the Ring Skipper,” Vick replied. “They were caught—”

  He was cut off when the lights suddenly dimmed, the result of Rylah initiating a power surge. Gareth jumped forward and shot one of the officers in the throat. Another reached for his pistol, but Rin unloaded into his chest before he could get to it. The third officer ducked down behind the desk and fired blindly. I dived to the floor.

  “Intruders in the detention block!” the officer shouted. “I repeat, intruders in the detention block! They’re armed!”

  I scrambled across the floor, spurred on by pure adrenaline. Gunshots resonated along the unadorned walls. It was deafening. I rolled over and saw Rin creeping around one side of the desk and Gareth the other. The latter fired, earning the officer’s attention, and then Rin popped around the corner.

  “Nobody can hear you,” she said before putting a bullet between the officer’s eyes. I stared as the blood leaked out across the glossy floor.

  “Kale, watch out!” Hayes groaned.

  Sometime during the firefight, Vick made the mistake I’d hoped he wouldn’t. The pistol of the first officer Rin shot had skidded across the floor right into his hands. Hayes lay on the floor with a bloody lip after being punched by him. Before I could do anything about it, Vick grasped my slender Ringer body by the collar, heaved me to my feet, and held me at gunpoint.

  “Nobody move or I’ll blow his head off!” he shrieked. His strong arm wrapped my throat so tight, I gagged. I pawed at it, but the layer of sweat on both it and my hands made it too slippery.

  Rin and Gareth took aim at him. I’d seen her angry plenty, but her eyes had never smoldered with the intensity that they did then.

  “Drop him!” she snarled.

  “You Ringers think you can just do whatever you want,
” Vick said. “You can’t!”

  “Gareth?”

  He couldn’t reply, but the muzzle of his pulse-pistol flashed. The bullet grazed my cheek before blasting through Vick’s skull. As he toppled backward, I slipped from his grasp, angling myself away from his weapon.

  Rin ran over, caught me, and helped me to my feet. “Are you all right?” she questioned.

  I reached for my face, not sure if it was still there until I felt only a shallow scratch along my cheek. “I’m fine…” I panted. “Did Gareth just…”

  Gareth’s firearm remained aimed, hands steady as a surgeon’s, one eye closed.

  “Best shot on the Ring,” Rin said.

  I released a mouthful of air and glanced down at Vick’s still-twitching arm. “Thanks,” I said.

  Gareth nodded and then retrieved two loose rifles. He kept one for himself and brought the other to Hayes, who was struggling to get to his feet.

  “Hayes, you okay?” Rin asked.

  “Wonderful,” he groused, rubbing his cut lip.

  Rin checked her hand-terminal. “Area is secure,” she said. “Just have to help open the cells.” She rushed behind the desk and stopped at the console there. Her fingers flew across the keys while her gaze darted between the screen and her hand-terminal. “There we go. Thank you, Rylah.”

  Three corridors branched off the lobby in addition to the one we’d arrived from. The doors into two of them slammed shut. Heavy footsteps echoed down the one remaining open hallway.

  “Everyone down!” Rin whispered. She vaulted over the desk and ducked behind it. I scampered over Vick’s body, struggling not to gasp as I caught a glimpse of the gruesome hole in the center of his face. Hayes and Gareth joined us.

  “Wait,” Rin said.

  The footsteps grew louder. I heard two officers conferring, obviously having heard our disturbance.