by C. G. Hatton
I couldn’t breathe for a second.
“Nice trick with the blast door, but don’t think you can get away from me that easily…”
Spearhead.
I backed away and sank down to sit, back against the wall, the heat in my ribs throbbing in a way that you don’t ever want to feel. I needed to figure a way out. I didn’t give a damn about the amulet anymore.
Genie spun and pierced me with a look. “Is that it?”
I didn’t care.
I closed my eyes.
Genie was saying something about her great-grandmother. I couldn’t make out what.
“Don’t get too comfortable there, Luka,” Spearhead whispered, “you still have work to do. There’s a small box… black, silver markings. Find it.”
“There’s nothing like that in here.”
“Find it. You have ten minutes before I lose my patience and shut down the ventilation system.”
I would have laughed but my chest was hurting. “You do that, you kill us. And you get nothing.”
“I get to kill you, that would be enough.”
For a machine it sounded damned sadistic.
“Ten minutes. Find the box and bring it out.”
I breathed through the spike it sent into my head, and jerked as Genie spoke again, right into my ear. “All this is not over an amulet. What are they looking for? There has to be something in here.”
I blinked at her, squinting, breathing ragged.
“Come on, Fe, or whatever your name is, you got us in, help me.”
I muttered, “They’re after a box, black and silver.”
She didn’t ask how I knew but she pulled a face. “There’s nothing like that in here.”
“It has to be somewhere. Give me a minute.”
I closed my eyes and I went deeper into the system. Much deeper.
They were hiding something. I tried every trick I had and I couldn’t see it. I knew AI controlled security systems. I’d broken the best of them. There had to be something…
I took care not to let the AI see what I was doing, burned my fingers twice, almost tripped a FailSafe and backed away.
I wasn’t about to be beaten.
Not this close.
It was possibly the worst thing to do but I fumbled an injector out of my pocket, not giving too much attention to which one I pulled out, and pressed it against my neck, feeling a hit like nothing I’d ever experienced as it flooded into my bloodstream.
Burning heat engulfed every inch of my being.
I breathed through it. Invincible.
Time was different.
The back of my neck was prickling.
I raised my eyes to see Genie watching. Closed them to see the AI strings encircling us, the AI domain cold and clinical, every strand spinning, lines firing in every direction.
No one messes with the Thieves’ Guild. Spearhead had played us, used me. I didn’t know if Hil was even still alive, or if Spearhead had lured him into a different trap. I didn’t care what was in this vault anymore. I wanted to get Genie to safety. That was it.
I nudged.
And the strings rotated.
There was a void space the AI wasn’t covering. I could see it, laid out in front of me as the pattern slotted into place.
There was an inner vault. Off the grid. Invisible to the system.
Secret access, again encoded to Genie’s DNA. Her great-grandmother’s DNA. But this time it wasn’t connected to the estate or the AI, it was discrete, stand alone, independent of the security system.
That hadn’t been in the guild briefing.
“Well done,” Spearhead murmured.
I could see the lines of energy leading to the panel hidden behind a forcefield with optical obfuscation. Smoke and mirrors.
I backed away, about to pull out and tell Genie when the back of my neck prickled. It didn’t feel right. I circled around it, taking care not to trigger a tripwire, and I saw it. The inner vault wasn’t just hidden, it was protected by a trap. Whatever they were protecting, these people were taking paranoia to a whole new level.
I opened my eyes, breath catching as I dropped back into the real world.
Genie was sitting cross-legged right in front of me, staring at me intently.
I bit my lip and said quietly, “There’s a hidden inner vault.”
She didn’t move. “Thieves’ Guild.”
I wasn’t sure if it was a question or a statement.
“I know my mother gave you her blessing to see me so long as we kept it secret,” she said, her voice strangely calm, her eyes boring into mine. “She wants connections, across the line leverage, deals… I could deal with the Thieves’ Guild… secrecy is your thing, isn’t it?”
I didn’t understand what had changed. I hadn’t been in the system long enough that the drugs were wearing off. I could feel my heart fluttering.
Genie smiled and leaned forward. “Let’s find out what’s in my great-grandmother’s secret vault, shall we?”
The panel was on a smooth section of wall, nothing giving away the fact there was a door there. I showed Genie where to put her hand and watched her fingers sink into the wall, the white surface flashing with blue beams as she touched it.
Part of the wall next to us shimmered and vanished.
She went to step inside but I caught her arm. “Wait.” I could hardly hear myself speak past the drumming buzz inside my ears. “There’s a trap inside. I can’t go in. And there’s no way I can disable it. And if your profile doesn’t match exactly, you’ll trigger it.”
She eyed me with suspicion. “Trigger what?”
“Not just a lockdown.”
She was smart enough to know what that could mean but she just raised her chin. “Guess we’ll find out if I really am a perfect clone then.” She couldn’t have said it with any more bitterness. ‘Let me go find this box that is so important.” She turned and took hold of the front of my shirt, pulling me close. “But first you have to tell me your name. Your real name.”
I couldn’t say it.
But she pressed a soft kiss to my lips and murmured, “If we’re to forge an alliance, thief-boy, I should know your real name…”
It felt like I was selling my soul for the second time, but if anyone was going to own it, I’d rather it was her… “Luka.”
She smiled and turned, letting her hand trail against mine as she stepped through.
I didn’t realise I was holding my breath until she called back, her voice echoing, “So what happens if you come in here?”
“Let’s not find out. What’s in there?” I didn’t care about the amulet, I really didn’t. I wanted to know what was so valuable that McGoldrick and McIntyre and Spearhead would attack the heart of Winter. I wanted to know what was so valuable that so many people had to die for it.
“Crates,” she shouted back. “Cabinets. Looks like…”
Her words trailed away.
“Genie…?”
I leaned my head against the wall next to the doorway. There was no way out. I couldn’t see a way out. Whatever she found in there.
Genie called out, sounding deep inside, “You wouldn’t believe some of this stuff…”
Even having two guild Thunderclouds in system… They could hardly come haring in guns blazing. Not without starting an outright war. Presumably they were here in case wider hostilities did kick off.
I circled back round the whole system.
There was no way out of this vault except the way we’d come in.
Spearhead pressed against my mind. “You have five minutes to walk back out through that door with the box.”
If we were going to walk out, I wanted to make damn sure McGoldrick and his cronies weren’t there. If Sienna was at Camborne, she’d be looking for us. The TCs would be looking for us. There had to be a way to get a signal to them.
Spearhead laughed. “If you think the Thieves’ Guild is going to come to your rescue, you are sorely mistaken, Luka. They’re all d
ead. All your little rescue crew are already dead.”
I didn’t believe it.
I knew every plan I’d devised for getting in and out of here. I always thought I’d be alone. Running solo. Sneak in, sneak out.
Wasn’t going to happen like that now.
This was Genie’s home. She shouldn’t be unsafe here.
“Don’t,” Spearhead warned.
I yelled Genie to hurry up, spun my plan upside down and took the biggest gamble of my life. I triggered the alert with Camborne’s AI so fast Spearhead couldn’t do a thing about it. Full on intruder alarm, right in their secure vault.
In an instant, a klaxon screamed. The lights turned red, flashing in time with the warning siren.
Genie appeared at the doorway, eyes wide.
“It was me,” I said quickly, “I did it.” I could hardly breathe. I was starting to think I might have made a bad mistake taking that last ampoule. I couldn’t slow my heart rate. Nothing I tried was making a dent, and the roaring beat of drums in my ears was getting louder.
“Why?”
I pressed a finger to my lips, counting inside my head.
If it was going to kill us, it would have done it by now.
“I will make you regret this,” Spearhead murmured.
It was too late.
A spark of pain flared into the Senson.
I ignored it and beckoned to Genie to come out. “Did you find the box?”
She held it up. The silver markings glinted in the spotlights, nothing I recognised, nothing that meant anything. It could have been in code, it could have been alien for all I knew.
“What’s going on?”
“It knows you’re here. Your AI knows you’re here. It’s protecting you.” I couldn’t believe I was putting so much trust into an AI. It had known we were down here since the tunnel, since I’d managed to get a coded message through to it, offering it a deal, without Spearhead seeing what I was doing.
It didn’t know that I’d found the inner vault.
She was looking at the box. “We give this to my uncle,” she said, “and we’re out of here, yes?”
I didn’t know if it would be that simple but I shrugged. “Come on, we need to go.” I caught her hand and turned, moving as fast as I could manage through the main hall to the door out, not even looking at the amulet as I passed it. It could stay there.
Genie tugged on my hand. “Wait a minute.”
She let go and vanished back into the main vault.
I leaned against the doorframe, expecting Spearhead to zap me again. I cast around for a second, looking for it, goading it to butt in, trying to figure out if it was listening, but nothing. The Senson was inactive again, blocked or fried. It felt like I’d imagined it all. I almost closed my eyes but managed to stand up straight as Genie ran up behind me. “Are we going?”
I nodded. This was starting to feel like it might work. That we might make it out.
“Are you okay?” My voice caught again. I knew she wasn’t.
She looked me in the eye, moving close. “Ask me that later.” She lifted her hand to the panel. “Same again?”
I nodded. “Stay close. It’s not just your uncle that’s after this.”
She gave me a dark look, released the door lock and stood unflinching as it opened.
The long corridor of the antechamber was clear.
We ran to the far door and stopped, looking at each other.
I nodded to her and she opened it, chin up, defiant, as if expecting to be confronted. We were but not by guns.
There was a drone right there, taking down the last guy as the door opened, the rest of the armed heavies already sprawled on the floor.
It spun to face us in a whirl of motors and actuators, humming, weapons rotating to aim right at us.
Sounds of gunfire were echoing down from above. Shouts. The alarm blaring even louder out here.
Genie squeezed my hand, unflinching, as the drone moved closer, homing in on us, hovering at head height, its red laser targeting beams flickering over us, an arc of fine blue beams firing out to scan us.
We stood there, frozen to the spot.
Genie lived here. It had to know her.
Me?
I’d faced down a hunter killer drone before, and I’d been lucky that time. This time? I was banking on the estate AI letting both of us go, trusting that it would tag us as friendlies, me included and not just Genie.
It turned its aim to me.
For a heartbeat I thought I’d screwed up and this was it.
Genie breathed, “No,” next to me, inching ahead.
I wasn’t about to hide behind her and started to move but it spun as if it had a new target and shot away.
We were left in silence, sounds of gunfire and conflict floating down from above, sirens still screaming.
I didn’t know if Spearhead had just backed off or had gone but it didn’t seem to be interfering.
Genie looked at me, steadfastly avoiding looking at the bodies on the floor. “What now?”
The entire fortress was overrun by McIntyre’s militia. Everyone hunting for us.
“We need to get to the battlements,” I said. That was all I could think. Get out into the open. After that? I wanted to tell her everything would be okay but I couldn’t. How could I?
We made it up two levels into the main fortress before I had to stop, struggling to breathe, doubled over and coughing, blood spattering onto my arm as I tried to hide it. Genie rubbed my back, leaning close to whisper in my ear, “Don’t flake out on me now, I want my alliance. I want you to be my secret, Luka. I’m not even going to tell my mother who you really are…”
It was probably too late for that.
No one messes with the Thieves’ Guild… problem was, someone had and we’d been caught out.
I wiped my mouth and muttered to Genie, “We need to go,” tempted to go for another vial but my heart was still racing from the last one.
I stood up and squinted down the dark hallway ahead of us. Figures were moving, armed figures, rifles up, beams scanning in the flashing lights of the emergency lockdown. I held her back and we waited.
She had the black band on her forearm. We were invisible to trackers, but if someone saw us…
She leaned into me and whispered, “Are you okay?”
That was one helluva question.
I gave her a vague nod, no idea how to respond.
“Good,” she murmured. “Then let’s get the hell out of here so I can go talk to my great-grandmother and find out what the hell I am supposed to do with my life.”
One more level up and we had to stop again. I almost told her to go ahead without me but something prickled at my mind, a shadow where it shouldn’t be, and I was backtracking, pulling her with me, when Con McGoldrick stepped out in front of us, gun up.
I moved in front of Genie, ice cold inside. I should have been more damned smart than that. I hadn’t even thought to check the bodies. McGoldrick was family. The drone would have known he was family.
He smirked and gave a slight wave of the gun.
Genie was holding the box. I had no doubt that he’d shoot us both to get it.
Two soldiers in black fatigues moved in behind us, rifles up.
We were trapped and there was no way out.
Chapter 26
McGoldrick stepped forward. “Well done, children. Now hand that over and no one needs to get hurt.”
I almost expected McIntyre to appear next to him.
Genie moved to confront him before I could stop her. “This?” She held up the box. “What is it? What could possibly be so important that you could betray us like this, uncle?” She couldn’t have made the words more cutting.
He shrugged, waving the gun again, his aim switching to me as he levelled it. “Hand it over, Imogen, or your little friend there is going to become an unfortunate casualty in this terrible incident. How sad will that be?”
I was too far away to take him down.
McGoldrick took another step forward and said again, “Hand it over, Imogen,” his voice lowering as if he was done playing games.
“What is it?” she demanded. “What could be so important that it’s worth all this?”
“You have no idea, girl…” His eyes darkened, casting towards mine, his finger twitching.
I started to move as she did, as she stepped in front of me.
McGoldrick lurched towards her, grabbing her arm and trying to wrestle the box from her, still holding the gun, cursing. He struck her, hard, in the temple and shoved her away, taking the box as her grip failed.
I ran at him.
And in that way that it does, time slowed.
I grabbed for the box, twisting and elbowing him aside.
He staggered and brought the gun round to strike me in the head.
Time froze.
I was falling before I could grasp what was happening.
Loud cracks of gunfire sounded overhead.
I braced, expecting a shot in the head but the gunfire stopped, the sound of bodies falling, thudding, sounding a million miles away.
I hit the floor and rolled, looking up and squinting at Parish as she stood there, eyes dark, gun up, a blood-soaked bandage around her hand, blood drying in streaks down her face.
She was alive. I had a surge of adrenaline, a sudden hope in the pounding of my chest that we could all get out of this alive.
Con McGoldrick was sprawled unmoving. The soldiers behind us were on the floor.
Genie was backing away, an expression on her face that was impossible to read.
“Get the box,” Parish ordered, her voice even more rough but with a cold edge that made me hesitate. “Felix, get the box.”
I scrambled forwards and grabbed it, tucking it into my jacket, beneath the strapping immobilising my left arm. For a small object it was damned heavy, like an AI memory module, way more heavy than you’d think it should be, but this was different, it almost felt alive, like it was humming.
“Good,” Parish said. “Now let’s get out of here.”
Getting to my feet was harder than it should have been. I closed my eyes for a second, swaying.
I looked around for Genie and moved towards her to take her hand.
