by F Stephan
“What now?” asked one guard. “We can’t continue crawling under the bushes. We need to cover some distance before daybreak.”
“I’d suggest still one klick of careful walking in case they have other detectors. Then, we rush to the river.” Over the last few days, Lelal had found her place in the group of professional soldiers, earning their respect. Not for the first time, her calm proposal stopped the debate.
Alexieva began her careful checks while the guards positioned themselves on the flanks. They moved slowly and within an hour they had crossed the invisible threshold they had agreed on and were rushing toward the river. The time in orbit hadn’t help Tasha stay fit enough to keep the rhythm, and she had to use a little of her nanites to keep up with the others, though she was careful not to spend too much energy. They continued rushing ahead, looking for an old fallen tree or a woodcutter’s camp. There had a lot of those before the region was abandoned to the tigroids.
By midday, they had found none, and all of them were now struggling.
Tasha called a halt. “We can’t continue like this.”
“The river has shifted course. We need to change the plan and fell saplings.” Alexieva activated their plan B with those simple words.
Tasha felt uncomfortable. Trees falling would set off motion sensors from a great distance. “OK, we rest for an hour and choose our trees. Once we begin, we don’t stop until we push the raft into the river.” She hoped that would be enough.
Lelal and Andrei quickly took the ropes they had prepared to assemble the raft, while Alexieva prepared their wetsuits. The river would be cold, and they wouldn’t have time to build a full raft, just a small structure to hold onto while swimming. The structure would carry all their gear to their destination, but not them. This would reduce their visibility, which would be beneficial.
Next, they began cutting the trees they had chosen and assembling them into two rafts, spreading their equipment and therefore the risk of loss. In the distance, motors roared, breaking the silence, and they pushed their rafts on the river. Sounds of their pursuers began echoing around them.
“At that speed, they’ll find us before we reach the landing point,” whispered Tasha to Lelal.
Lelal remained strangely cool under the pressure. “They will have a few detours before they reach us. It will gain us some time. Now, Pilot, focus on your plan. If you can, this is the time to reach out to the tigroids. I’ll check on you.”
Tasha locked her arms around the flimsy wooden structure and closed her eyes. She began projecting her nanites around her, a tiny fog of nanobots, searching for tigroids. Find them, and then I’ll contact them. Her plan seemed so frail now. Or, we die. Wilfried, I should have said goodbye.
Josh
European Confederation, Marseille, April 4, 2141
A first tremor, then a second, shook the submarine. Instantly, Josh abandoned his meditation and opened his eyes, then gathered his gear. In his experience, a submarine never shook repeatedly. He had just finished donning his combat gear when the door opened abruptly.
“Come,” said a burly man, tall and bent in the small gangway.
Josh ran behind him, up two floors, past closed doors, hearing footsteps in the adjoining metal corridors. Two times, he nearly lost his footing while the submarine shook again and lurched upward. They are dropping cargo, and fast. At last he reached the forward section and entered a room crammed with torpedoes.
A man was waiting for him, pointing to a diving suit laid out on the floor. “You, grab this and get ready. Launch tube in two minutes.” Josh had been through the evac procedure in his time in the army and wasn’t looking forward to it. He felt the boat sinking again, fast.
“What’s happening? What should I expect up there?”
“We don’t know. We received no information at all. But they have just lit up the old Mediterranean sonar network.”
Josh gasped. The network had been built to detect all crafts moving from Africa to Europe as an effort to control the tide of refugees in the middle of the previous century. It had lain dormant since then, too costly to operate, split between different entities of the European Confederacy. Only one entity could get its activation without raising alerts. The CPC is onto us.
The crewman nodded slowly, handing him his rebreather. “We will launch you with an escape inflatable. Leave all metal with us. They will look for it.”
Josh didn’t waste time, showing his briefcase. “I need to take this with me.”
“Do what you must. We have a small camouflage box. See if it fits. Thirty seconds. Don’t forget your decompression procedure.”
Josh grabbed the box and forced the briefcase inside.
“Go now.”
He entered the wet tube, rebreather in his mouth, briefcase in one hand, inflatable in the other.
“We were close to the coast of Provence. You will emerge less than ten klicks from the shore. Try to stay underwater until night.”
What time is it? Josh had lost track of time during his trip.
The airlock closed behind him and he felt water rising in the dark tube. Panic swelled in him and he clenched his teeth, forcing himself to remain calm. Then the forward door opened, and he felt the water projecting him upward.
The sea was dark around him. We’re far down. I’ve been deep under for ten days. I need decompression time. One hour at this depth and then I’ll move upward. He had no watch, no way to measure how deep he was. Only the certainty that if he went directly for the surface, he would die.
He used ropes to attach his few precious possessions to himself, then folded his arms. Ten minutes later, a deafening wave blew past him. The submarine. They sank it. What’s happening? No offensive action of that scale had been led by the CPC in ages. Anxiety gnawed at him, but he forced himself to remain down. After an eternity, he rose slowly, to where the light filled the sea. He would reach the surface soon, so he prepared himself. He could now see the empty ocean around him. He set up a watch, turning slowly.
Another indeterminate amount of time passed, then he began moving toward the surface. He didn’t know where he was, but there was no sense in going in any other direction. Suddenly, he detected a large boat moving in his direction. Rescue? Not likely. He drifted off his original path to limit the risk of detection until the boat stopped above him and five figures jumped into the water. His heart sank when he saw the combat divers closing around him, positioning themselves in a pincer. They weren’t in a hurry. He was trapped and they all knew it.
At last, a familiar figure beamed at him over the rail.
“We have been looking for you for a long time,” said Chief Iakoubi in a pleasant voice. “We believe you have something that belongs to us. Why don’t you come aboard for a little chat?”
Josh felt the cold steel of a hunting spear at his back. He smiled in response.
Tasha
Siberia, April 4, 2141
The sounds of pursuit grew louder by the minute. Two armored cars followed them on each side of the river. Fortunately, trees and rock outcrops forced them back and hindered their targeting.
“Still an hour before we have to leave the river for the bunker,” Alexieva shouted over the tumult. “It’s now or never, Pilot.”
Twice, Tasha had sensed tigroids with her nanites, but within moments she had lost the fleeting contact. The beasts were agitated, probably disturbed by the invasion of their territory.
Lelal reached to the pockets sewn into the arms of her suit and took out a small tablet. “Pilot. Energy bars. You need them if you want to continue using the nanites.”
Tasha swallowed it quickly. Nanites fed on her own energy, and the little buggers were always hungry.
She focused once more, gripping the raft tight and sending her nanites forward.
Pass the next turn of the river. Nothing. Up to the bank. Not a soul. Back down the river. Still no one.
Gunfire erupted from somewhere far to the left. Can I reach there? Rise, my eyes. The na
nites shot upward, giving her an idea of the location of the fight. Ten klicks. Too far. Go back. Closer.
On a rock outcrop overlooking the river, she saw a big male sitting on its haunches and monitoring the situation. There. She projected her full attention to him. “Help us. We need you. Help us.”
The two armored cars appeared again on the banks, their occupants shouting at them. Bullets ricocheted on the raft. Tasha felt the cold of the water over her head. She gasped for air, feeling a hand holding her down. Breathe.
Frustration and fear swelled in her, burning her with anger. The water was killing her, and the beast didn’t listen. She wanted to lash out at it and destroy it. Instead, she tried a last approach. She sent an image of Sacha, Boris’s daughter, the most recent she had found, filling it with all the details she had found on the girl. “Ask her. She has called us.”
Tasha broke the surface again, air rushing into her lungs. The second armored car was now on the bank, closing in on them. Again, Lelal pushed her under the icy water. She increased her concentration, sending all she had toward the great beast. “Contact her. We are here to help.”
Josh
European Confederacy, Marseille, April 4, 2141
“They won’t let you get your computer back. They will destroy us.” Josh struggled with his bonds. “You do not understand how powerful they are.”
The boat was speeding toward the shore. For once, Josh was close to panicking. Facing him, the weasel-faced Chief seemed calm. “Tell me more about your employers. We can’t protect you if you don’t help us. We are all in this together.”
“You understand them. My employers. Airstrike. Missiles. They will do anything. The minute we are airborne, they will shoot us down.”
“Tell me more. Who are they? Where are they located?” The Chief typed quick words on a keypad attached to her arm. Josh strained to see but couldn’t guess what she was writing.
“I don’t know.”
Fear gripped his heart. Someone had to have been watching over him, and would send an operative – just like him – to terminate him. He had fought too hard to die here and now.
“Somewhere in Central Europe, but I was always asleep when I went there. Chief, you can’t protect me from them. They can reach anywhere in this world. If I talk, I’m dead.” Amidst his panic, Josh searched for ways out. He had to find options if he was to survive.
The shore was now in sight. On it, he saw three small armored flying cars. Very few of those monsters, the best armored vehicles designed on Earth, had been produced. They used so much energy that no one could afford them. Except for the United Organization and the CPC.
“Chief, that’s not enough. They will be shot down.”
She looked at him, then went back to her small screen and keypad.
The boat reached the shore, and two police guards in exoskeletons carried Josh to the car. All his fighting came to nothing, except when the guard slammed him inside the car, banging his head on the door.
The Chief followed him more slowly. Josh felt hands grabbing him and extracting him again to a bunker below where the car had been parked. Former migrant surveillance. The Chief dropped to his side with a loud clank. As soon as they were in, lying on the cold dusty concrete, the vehicles above took off with a loud rumble that reverberated all around them. They separated and flew away in three different directions.
“One is going to Geneva, through the Alps. One will fly over the Rhone valley. And the last will go through Italy,” the Chief explained quietly. “We’ll wait here a while before we leave.”
“You think… my employees will attack?”
“You told me so yourself, boy. They will. Those vehicles are the best we have, and the Geneva compound can withstand a nuclear blast, if it comes to it.” She sighed.
That could work. She could make it. “Which route are we taking?”
“Another one. Now, you are Josh Drelin, aren’t you?”
There was no need to answer that question. She had to have his file by now.
“Nicaragua? The biovirus should have killed you years ago. I had friends who went there. An awful death.” She looked sad, her eyes lost as she remembered that war.
Awful – what an understatement. Then Josh remembered. She had been there, had led the police force who had investigated the use of the virus. She had tracked every single one of those who had released it. She knew.
“Why don’t you tell you how managed this?” the Chief said.
“I survived. But now I am dead if I go anywhere on this planet. Even you, Chief, can’t protect me from my employers.”
“Well, you know what? If you talk well enough, I might send you to the stars, where they can’t reach you. A survivor like you. That might interest you.” Her words were cold and calculated.
The Federation. They couldn’t reach me there. Josh saw a sudden light amid his panic. His employers couldn’t reach him beyond Earth.
“Do I have your word, as the Chief? Off-planet? Off-system?”
She was one of the most hated police officers in recent history, but her deals were legendary. She would keep her word, whatever it took.
She nodded, her eyes locked on his. Something collapsed within him. He had been on the run since the wars, fighting to stay alive, signing all the deals he could to keep walking for another day. His current employers would kill him on sight now that he had spent time with the Chief. They won’t take any risks with me.
He began talking. He may have been drugged when he had been carried to the base, but he had accumulated a lot more information than they thought he could have. Time to see how much life it would buy him. Some information he would give now, some later, from a safer place.
Wilfried
Space station Acheron, April 4, 2141
Wilfried felt hopeless, locked away in the station. The action was coming to a head on the ground, yet he could do nothing, thousands of klicks away. He was in the cupola, watching the planet below him. We are so far away. I know what’s happening only when ground control lets me know.
“Stop brooding. The Chief wants to talk to you.” Reiner’s head disappeared from the trapdoor where it had appeared for an instant.
Shaking himself alert, Wilfried followed him to his office next to the bridge.
He opened the communication, a slow process given the encryption required, until Chief Iakoubi sprang to life, wearing combat gear, talking through her headset.
“We have found your computer. We are bringing it as fast as we can to the Geneva compound. We fear a counter-attack and have divided our forces among three armored transports. I’ll tell you more when we get there.”
“You think whoever stole it will attack to prevent us from getting it back?” This gift they had received from Adheek had now become a key component for the station, one they could not hope to replace in decades. Without it, the station would remain crippled, barely working.
“This is very likely. Talk to you soon.” With that, the communication cut out, leaving Wilfried bewildered. Why call me before Geneva? She knows someone is eavesdropping on us.
And then, he knew why.
He rushed to the bridge, where Andrew had been standing guard for him.
“I need you to track three transports heading to Geneva. Can you do it?”
Andrew’s hand flashed over his keyboard and images popped up in the bridge, grainy and lacking detail. “I can target all our telescopes toward Earth, but we lack resolution for this type of pursuit.” The station had been equipped to look at the stars and watch for spaceships, rather than being trained on Earth.
“Can we hack into closer observation satellites? Things in graveyard orbit?”
“We used to. I haven’t tried in a while.” Andrew turned to his keyboard again, fumbling with it for a few minutes before turning back. “It doesn’t work. I didn’t check, since we don’t use those feeds usually.”
“Can you fix it? I need them now,” Wilfried said.
Andrew hesitated
for a long moment. “Do you remember the day of the explosion? The one that killed Nateiev? He had been resetting one of our communication arrays that day. With him gone, no one has been checking on the relays. But maybe he made a mistake.” He rose to his feet. “I’m going out. We checked the area of the explosion, but the arrays were farther away. Maybe there’s a glitch.”
Wilfried was now back at his desk, calling up his monitoring screen. “I’ll ask Kimi to come with you. No one goes outside alone. We need those feeds today.” He began typing a signal to the moon, informing Jeanne what was happening. She had taught him Morse code and how to use one of the station’s lasers to light a receptor on the moon. No one would eavesdrop on this message.
The crew buzzed around him, focused on the task at hand. At last, they were working as a single entity. All this blood to get them to this stage.
Boris
Siberia, April 4, 2141
“Papa, the tigroids are restless. Something is disturbing them.”
Boris was awakened from his restless sleep in the bunker by his daughter touching his hands lightly. He always spent nights in the chair beside her bed, red-eyed from the long hours watching over her. She disappeared behind a screen to change clothes and don her military uniform while he tried to rouse himself from his slumber.
“Why are you…?”
“You’ll need me. I’m better. I swear I am. Someone has entered our grounds. The tigroids have already dealt with one group. More are coming.”
“They have already dealt with invaders in the past. Why move out now?”
“Something strange. A feeling.”
Boris didn’t understand how they communicated, but he trusted his daughter on this matter. He began to move when she halted.
“A woman is coming. Blond, beautiful, in a military uniform. She is with guards on rafts in the river. And she is talking with the tigroids. Asking for their help.” Sacha turned to look at her father. “She says she’s here for me.”
