by C. G. Hatton
I wasn’t thinking fast enough to work this out. We were surrounded by armed heavies. I couldn’t use the Senson. And I still hadn’t figured out why McGoldrick was betraying his own family and siding with McIntyre and Spearhead. Not that it made much difference.
I took a chance. “You won’t kill her. You need her to get in. And she has to be alive.”
Genie’s eyes flared bright, her chin rising, trying to twist out of his hands. “You need me? Why do you need me?”
McGoldrick wrestled to restrain her.
“Because it’s your DNA, Genie,” I said. The words sounded hollow but I knew I was right by the look on McGoldrick’s face. “It’s your DNA that opens the vault.”
I wasn’t sure I could believe that she didn’t know but the way she was struggling, and the way she stopped when I said it…
“Why?” She fixed her eyes onto mine. “Why would my DNA open the vault?”
McGoldrick shifted his grip on her. “Because you’re a damned clone, that’s why, girl. Why the hell else would you be able to open the family vault that has been encoded with your great-grandmother’s DNA to stop the rest of us getting in there?”
Genie looked as if she’d been hit by a truck.
McGoldrick leered into her ear. “You’re nothing but a skeleton key, Imogen. Useful to have around for spare parts, I’m sure, but Maeve has made a mistake in creating you.” He stared at me, moving the knife up to caress the blade across her cheek. “We need her to be alive, we don’t need her to be intact…”
Genie was trembling, her eyes boring into mine as if she was willing me to do the right thing. Only I didn’t know what the right thing was.
There was an access panel next to the door. Manual override, monitored by the estate’s AI. We were right on the edge of the sphere surrounding Camborne. Even just touching that panel would trigger an alert.
It was tempting to trip it just to be done. I scowled at McGoldrick. “I don’t understand why you need me. You’re family, you could open this door and walk right in.”
McGoldrick shook his head with a sly smile. “Plausible deniability… It’s not me that’s breaking in here. I’m still at the conference centre, didn’t ya know. I have a cast iron alibi.” He drew the knife across Genie’s cheekbone, drawing a thin line of blood. “And you don’t have time to mess around here, boy.”
She was holding herself as still as a statue, that stoic Wintran upbringing front and centre as if they were trained to deal with crap like this.
I couldn’t even begin to imagine what was going through her head. I’d reckoned Kilkenny had encoded the vault to his eldest daughter… not her great-grandmother… shit…
I backed away, ignoring the nausea turning my stomach, and turned to the door, sending to Spearhead a cocky, “Why don’t you just trash the freaking AI and break in yourself?”
It laughed. “Crass, Luka. Why would I ever want to do that?” It sent a caress of tingling pain through my synapses. “You don’t seem to understand. I don’t exist… No, child… don’t you see? This break-in has all the grubby hallmarks of the Thieves’ Guild. And using a terrorist attack on the heart of Winter as cover to kidnap and coerce a daughter of the UM dynasty to do their dirty work… despicable.” It let that hang then whispered, “I don’t just want into this vault, Luka… I want to destroy your precious guild and everyone in it.”
Chapter 24
I glanced back at Genie and McGoldrick.
“Clock’s ticking,” he growled.
I turned back to the door and raised my right hand, letting my fingers hover inches from the panel.
“I need to use the Senson,” I sent to Spearhead. “You going to let me without frying my brain again?”
Nothing discernible happened but it murmured, “You’re shielded. Don’t even think of trying to contact anyone or I’ll do worse than fry your brain.”
I stared at the door. The most infamous tab ever run by the guild, and I had no idea who out of all the guild support we had there on Winter was still alive, no idea if anyone knew where I was or even if I was still alive, and I was within reach of the very system I’d spent so long studying, analysing, raking over to find a way in. I’d run endless sims, calcs, scenarios… I knew I could do it, right up to the DNA barrier. But now I was here, right here, and I didn’t want to. Because I knew as soon as I cracked it and Genie walked in there, we would both get a bullet in the head.
“If you don’t,” Spearhead whispered, “you’ll both get worse than that…”
I wanted to ask it about Kheris, why McGoldrick had been trying to pay Dayton, if Redmon Kilkenny was in on it all…
Genie gave out a soft, stifled cry behind me.
McGoldrick’s voice was harsh. “Time’s up.”
“Stop,” I shouted. “I’ll do it.” I closed my eyes. Gave the Senson a nudge and reached for the AI.
I know I’ve told you this before, but dancing around a powerful AI is like nothing else. Ask Hil to tell you about the Seven sometime. Each of the seven big corporate estates on Winter were run by AIs that were loyal to that corporation. Nothing anywhere near the ‘Seven’, but they were still the best tech money could buy. And the families had a lot of money. I know, I know, officially Winter recognises AI sentience but you know how I feel about that. I don’t give a damn how sentient and emotional they might seem to be, they’re still just soulless machines.
That night the bombs hit the capital city, the UM AI was on high alert, more so because Genie was missing. If anything, that made it easier. I’d run through this procedure so many times, in my head, in sims… it was almost second nature.
I was probably more ruthless than I needed to be because I’d had Spearhead ragging at me, and I still had a headache, and that asshole McGoldrick was holding a knife to his own niece’s neck right behind me.
I ran every deflect I could, manipulated the AI strings and tied it in knots, giving it more than it could handle with power outages, security alerts up on the battlements and overloaded systems throughout the fortress. I think I caused an electrical fire in one tower. I did it fast and I only stumbled when I realised what was going on outside. There were two Thunderclouds in system, Wintran corporate IDs but with trailer tags that were guild, I was sure of it. On the ground, UM militia were fighting an open defensive action against incoming forces that were unidentified, local law enforcement circling in bewildered confusion, as if they didn’t know whether to intervene or not. And that was on the surface. I took a quick glance at the undercity, riots and looting, and drew back, not wanting to go any deeper. And at one point I tried to push a query out to Sienna and got a nasty feedback that left me reeling, blinded, for a second.
“Screw you,” I sent to Spearhead but didn’t try again.
The door mechanism clicked with an ominous echo in the chill quiet around me.
From here on in, we’d be sneaking inside the perimeter of Camborne’s security net. I knew Genie and me were shielded…
“Don’t you worry about anyone else,” Spearhead said inside my head. “Concentrate on getting the girl in there alive. I’m curious to see exactly what you’re capable of now, Luka. I always did know you were special.”
I’d broken its programming at the Academy. I didn’t know how I’d done that and I didn’t know how to get it out of my head then, in the tunnels beneath UM’s fortress.
It laughed. “There’s a lot you don’t know, child. Just get in there.”
I pushed on the door release. The door opened with a hiss of cold air. No alarms. No alert. So far, so good.
Two steps in from the doorway there was a concealed pressure pad. Ten feet from that, a force field. Exactly five feet two inches from that, a cross beam trip wire. And ten feet from that, there was another force field and then another door. Each had to be neutralised, some by remote, some manually by inputting randomised codes with ten second countdowns into isolated panels hidden in the walls behind shielded force fields. I glanced at Genie. None of them c
ould be shut down automatically, even by her. And that process was based on the intel the guild had gathered who knows when or how. There was no guarantee the whole system hadn’t been changed in the recent security alert.
If I got this wrong, it would trigger a lockdown, alerting the AI to send hunter killer drones to intercept any intruders.
Nothing like pressure to heighten the nerves. I breathed, calmed my heart rate, raised my eyes and took a step forward.
Half way along, I stopped. The corridor was dark, lit only by pale spotlights that were coming to life as we moved along it. There should have been nothing in our way for another five feet or so, but…
I raised my eyes, hardly moving, hardly breathing, scanning around the walls, up over the ceiling. There was something wrong. Out of place.
McGoldrick growled from behind me, “What are you doing?”
I ignored him, connected by remote and nudged into the AI domain. There was a fine mesh of sensors. That was new. Nothing substantial. Almost ephemeral. The slightest change in air pressure moving through it would trigger an alert to the AI, no matter what the hell else it was dealing with. Holy shit. I’d never seen anything like it.
I didn’t know how to bypass it.
It didn’t just trigger an alert or a lockdown.
If someone crossed this boundary without the right clearance, the whole corridor was primed to fill with lethal levels of radiation. Like, if they were breached they didn’t care about capturing any intruders alive.
That was different than it had been.
Whatever was in that vault, they didn’t want anyone getting anywhere near it.
“Don’t think about trying anything stupid, kid,” McGoldrick warned.
I kept my hand down by my side and gave a barely perceptible gesture to wait without turning.
There had to be a way.
Spearhead knew I was bypassing the AI to connect with the security system, I had to in order to neutralise the traps… I could manipulate the AI strings so the AI had no idea what I was doing… what Spearhead didn’t know was that I could also encode a message, sending it deep into the heart of the estate’s AI core system. I always said, after Charlie, that I never trusted an AI again… I didn’t. I just had to hope this one was loyal to Genie. I closed my eyes, took a chance and sold my soul.
The rest of the traps were easy. We made it to the door at the far end and walked out into an open airy anteroom, a wide open space of white walls and bright lights.
We were inside Camborne.
The vault entrance was a huge gleaming steel door at the far end.
I turned slowly to raise my eyes to McGoldrick. “It has to be Imogen that initiates the opening sequence.”
He scowled but shoved Genie forwards, drawing a gun and snapping it up to point at us, his buddies doing the same. “I’m serious, kid, don’t try anything. There’s no way out of this.”
If he’d known what was waiting for him outside, he’d have known there was no way out for him either.
She walked up next to me, tense, determination fixed. “What do I do?”
We walked forwards together. “Touch the panel.”
She raised her hand to the sheer metal plate in the centre of the door. It shimmered as her skin touched it, the surface seeming to liquify as she pushed her hand into it, blue beams scanning across her fingers.
The door opened, revealing a long, wide corridor, black and white chequered tiles gleaming on the floor, rich wooden panels, age-old tapestries and paintings hanging on the walls.
No klaxons sounded. No emergency shutdown procedures initiated. No killer drones appeared.
Either it had worked or the AI had been humouring me and was biding its time before it knocked me on my ass.
Right then I didn’t know and I didn’t care. I just wanted to get Genie away from McGoldrick.
“Is that it?” the asshole demanded.
I shook my head. “No, that’s just the start. I need Imogen to come with me. She has to be in there or the far door won’t open.”
“We all go.”
“Okay, but we go first.” My heart was thumping. He started to refuse but I shut him down. “Genie needs to deactivate the internal security system,” I lied. “You want in, you let us do what we need to do.” I moved between him and Genie. “Or don’t. I don’t care.”
Like I said, I’ve played chicken with the best of them.
He didn’t have much choice.
“Just get the hell in there.”
I turned, my arm on Genie’s back, shielding her, and nudged her forwards. We walked through the first door, footsteps soft on the polished marble, and entered the approach.
And two steps in, I triggered the trap I’d set.
The blast door began to close.
McGoldrick shouted, swearing, and started firing as I bundled Genie out of the way and up against the wall, shots ricocheting around us.
The door slammed shut.
We were in the vault.
Trapped and surrounded, but we were in.
I let go of her and stepped back, awkward, shivering as the adrenaline spiked, half expecting an emergency lockdown to initiate and flood the place with gas, or Spearhead to flatten me.
It didn’t.
Genie had a trickle of blood streaming down her cheek, a hollow stare in her eyes and that haunted look of betrayal that I knew so well.
I was breathing heavily, as if I’d sprinted a 10k, leaning over finally and close to folding into a heap. This was about as far as my plan went.
She didn’t move, just looked at me with that unfocused stare of disbelief. I couldn’t blame her, she’d just been hit by one helluva double whammy. I felt even more crap for having lied to her.
I straightened and returned the stare, blurting out quietly, “You were never just a mark.” My voice broke just saying it.
She stared at me, unblinking, and breathed, “You’re really Thieves’ Guild…?”
Don’t ever tell anyone you are guild…
I couldn’t lie. But I couldn’t say it outright. I gave her a hint of a nod, heart in my throat.
She took a step forward, still piercing me with those eyes. “I knew you were different…”
The entire Wintran alliance was fighting each other outside, and none of it mattered.
“You didn’t break into Blackstone’s office to steal a medal, did you?”
I couldn’t breathe. I gave her a slight shake of the head.
Mendhel and NG were going to crucify me.
“So what did you come here to steal?”
It stuck in my throat. I’d obsessed over getting it and now I was here, so close, I hated it. “An amulet.”
It sounded ridiculous.
Hollow.
She gave a small laugh. “An amulet? All this is over an amulet?” She shook her head, incredulous, then turned away, looking up the corridor we were trapped in before spinning her attention back to me. “I’m damned sure my dear uncle didn’t just threaten to kill me over an amulet.” She was close to shaking, holding in her emotions like the Wintran corporate-bred child she was. Impressive considering she’d just been told she was a clone, a ‘useful spare’. Christ.
I was standing there like a love-struck idiot. I swallowed, awkwardly. “No. It has to be something else. McGoldrick was arguing with your father that he should give it up. Your father refused.”
From the look she gave me I wasn’t sure if she thought I was lying or she thought her father wouldn’t stand up to her uncle. Either way, she frowned, and turned, curiosity now burning behind her eyes. “Did you know I was the key? That I can open this vault? When you came to Westings, did you know?”
“No.” It was an easy answer.
She was still looking at me with suspicion but she seemed to accept it, eyeing me with determination. “I take it Parish is Thieves’ Guild as well?”
I should have laughed, denied it, said it was all a load of rubbish, but I couldn’t, I couldn’t lie, n
ot to her, and just said under my breath, “Don’t ask me that.” It was as bad as confirming it.
She gave me a knowing look before walking away towards the far door. “So what is it that they’re all after? What’s in there? And how do I get in? What do I do?”
“Same again,” I muttered and watched as she pressed her hand against the shimmering fluid surface.
“Well, who would have guessed…?” she said airily, damning in the way she said it, as the far door opened with a hiss of clean, faintly scented air. She looked back at me with hooded eyes. “Let’s go see what my family is hiding, shall we?”
Chapter 25
We walked out into a vast open hall, soft lights flickering on as we moved, ornate columns stretching from floor to ceiling in amongst glass cases that were tastefully and subtly housing artefacts, art, exquisite pieces of jewellery and ceramics. Wooden cabinets and cases lined each side of the room, the centre space filled with glass-topped tables displaying exhibits arrayed on deep blue satin just beneath their gleaming surfaces. The walls were adorned with more tapestries and framed paintings high up, all lit by gentle spotlights. There was a scent of fresh flowers in the air that was the perfect room temperature. For an underground bunker, it was extremely pleasant.
Genie glanced back at the door as it sealed behind us. “Are you sure he can’t get in?”
“Positive.” We couldn’t get out, but I didn’t say that. “Have you been in here before?”
“No.” She wandered off, peering into the display cases. “I didn’t even know this place existed. So which one is your amulet?”
My amulet…
I hadn’t seen an image of it, no one had, but I had a description seared into my memory. Black metal, a twisted elaborate design with inset precious jewels.
It didn’t take long to find it. It was unmistakable. On a display stand, hanging on a delicate black metal chain.
I stared at it.
The gems were glinting.
I didn’t want it. Not like this.
The whisper that cut through my mind was harsh. “That’s not why you’re here.”
