Grimshaw helped a Marine hoist a comrade missing a leg onto the platform. They pressed into the hallways leading out of the sublines and turned a sharp corner. The buzzing echoed off the walls behind them.
“This tunnel opens into another junction,” Briggs said. “Damn signal’s all over the place. I can’t tell if the lab maintenance doors are open. I’ll go get a visual.”
Grimshaw considered the narrow tunnel they had exited. “We could hold them here if we had to.”
“My thoughts exactly, Commander,” Wallace said. “Set the charges before those Chits catch up.”
Two Marines obeyed instantly and started setting charges while everyone else watched from the junction. Grimshaw drew up alongside Wallace and aimed his gun into the narrow opening.
A moment later the Marines joined them, followed by an ever-growing sound of fluttering Chits.
“Door’s jammed shut, but I found a comms relay,” Briggs said as he returned. “I’ve hooked into the system. I’ll try to get the labs on the line.”
“I don’t suppose we can blow a hole in it?” Wallace eyed the hallways where the Marines had set the explosives.
“It’s reinforced,” Lopez said. “Our charges will barely put a dent in the door, but they’ll collapse that tunnel. We’ll hold them in there and blow the walls when things get too hot. We could drop the tunnel now, but we may as well get a few of them while we’re at it, slow ‘em down.”
Shadows flickered in the hallway.
“Wait until you can see them,” Wallace ordered. “Make your ammo count.”
As if in answer, a buzzer swarm appeared in the corridor. All guns roared, cutting them back.
Grimshaw turned to his Comms Officer. “Hurry up and get someone in the labs on that line, Briggs!”
32
Double Or Nothing
Randai opened his eyes and was surprised to find himself still peering through the sniper rifle’s scope. The figures on the opposite platform had heard the shot and were scrambling for safety.
Cho no longer held a gun against his head, and Randai turned to find the young Shanti hunched over, holding a bloodied hand. His blaster lay on the metal grid in front of him. The kid reached for the weapon, and three more shots rang out, forcing him to retreat. He quickly glanced back at Randai before leaping into a garbage chute next to the shaft entrance, his glowing eyes vanishing into the blackness.
Randai looked around to see where the gunfire had come from but couldn’t see a shooter. Suddenly, movement caught his eye as something stepped out of the shadows. A haze flowed in mid-air like a phantom.
Stealth gear.
At full power, Randai’s TEK’s dark-drive could meld with shadows. However, he could barely see the shooter in broad daylight, the ghostly shimmer the only sign that someone was there. The Tal’ri had stealth technology on their ships, but a TEK with a phantom-drive was unheard of. The shimmer fluttered violently and faded, gradually revealing a man in sleek, black armor. The warrior stood inches taller than Randai, his features obscured by a blacked-out visor.
“Who the hell are you?”
“A friend of a friend.” The synthetic voice crackled from the black mask like a robot.
“What the hell are you talking about?” Randai needed to get off the platform before SenSec arrived. “I have no friends.” He made for an exit, but the black TEK moved in a blur, blocking his way.
“A drop of rain in a bucket,” the metallic voice said. “A bucket in a vast sea.”
Randai rolled his eyes as he tried to step around the figure. “No riddles.”
“You’re no fun.” The black-clad warrior crackled, blocking his path again.
“You—”
The air fluttered, and the man’s visor stopped an inch from Randai’s face. “If you want information, you’ll have to work for it.” He pushed hard and sent Randai stumbling back.
Randai dropped his rifle and caught a pipe, almost plunging over the edge to the streets far below. “Who the fuck are you?”
“Or have you forgotten what work feels like, slumming it up like a dog?” The man’s clangorous voice grated in Randai’s ear.
Who the fuck is this guy? Randai drew his Tesira 400 blaster and fired a shot.
The black TEK moved so fast he could hardly get a lock. The stranger went on the offensive and launched at Randai in a blur. He tried to dodge out of the way, but the attacker got him in a choke hold and lifted him off the ground by the neck. Actuators whined as the black figure threw him toward the tunnel. Randai crashed to the ground, his blaster spinning across the gridded floor panels.
He eyed the maintenance shaft.
“That’s it, run back to the Underways. Be a White Dragons dog. Did you really think that could last? Mr. Darcy had ordered Cho to kill you as soon as you’d taken out Minister Straiya. How could you have gotten so sloppy?”
“How do you know so much?” Randai sprang to his feet and charged.
The black suit dodged him with unbelievable ease. “You haven’t worked for it yet.”
The attacker got up in Randai’s face again, but this time he got a hold of the TEK’s arm before it could grapple him.
“Now that’s what I’m talking about. I don’t want any of this Randai Kahn shit. Give me Archagent Taza Arkona!” His second hand snapped out, and Randai grabbed that too, his TEK’s servos creaking under the force.
“Tell me your name,” Randai demanded through gritted teeth.
“You’ll have to beat it out of me.” The man pulled away and rushed at him again.
To Randai’s surprise, he thwarted several of the figure’s blows.
The black TEK swiped his feet, and he crashed on his back. “Or maybe I’ll just have to tell you, after all. I knew you lost your touch, Taza, but I’m still disappointed.”
The black figure stood over Randai, and its helmet shifting like liquid. The armor around the man’s torso parted and folded into the TEK’s back, revealing a female form.
Randai’s chin pressed into his TEK’s collar. “You’re a woman?”
“Last time I checked.” The black armor on her limbs melted away, and her helmet finally retracted.
“It can’t be...” A thousand words crashed through Randai’s mind at once and he struggled to pick out the ones he needed. “You mean, all this time?”
Doctor Kira brushed stray hairs out of her eyes. “Someone had to watch over your ass down there.”
“How, I mean what…” His voice trailed off.
“It’s a long story. But we need to get out of here before SenSec or the SIA arrive. Things up here have gotten messier than we expected.” She looked out over Sentinel City. “Getting caught won’t end well for either of us.”
“Who’s we? Actually, never mind that,” Randai said, climbing onto unsteady legs. “Why did you attack me?”
“For various reasons.” Kira smiled. “It’s a little too complicated to explain right now. Master Wu told me that you bested him in one-on-one combat. I must say, that’s hard to believe.”
Randai almost jumped at mention of the name. “You know Wu?” The situation was growing more unbelievable by the second.
“Who do you think sent me?” She retrieved his rifle and handed it to him. “So, is it true?”
“Is what true?” Randai stowed the weapon, his mind still reeling from the whole affair. Wu entering the equation brought back a flood of unsavory emotions.
“Is it true that you defeated him in combat?”
“That was a long time ago, Kira.” Randai looked down at himself. “I may have let myself go since then.”
Kira looked him up and down, her expression saying that she agreed. “My real name’s Zora, by the way.” She extended her hand, and they shook as though meeting for the first time. “So, what do I call you? Taza or this Randai character you’ve cooked up?”
Randai fumbled with his words and produced a series of unintelligible noises. He’d never spoken to anyone about his past let alone his
real name, yet Doctor Kira…Zora rather…had known everything all along. “Why did Wu send you? I didn’t think I’d ever hear from him again.”
“It’s uncertain whether either of us will ever meet him again in person. But as you know, Taza, things change.”
He looked into her eyes, still unable to believe it was really her. “None of this makes any sense.”
“Remember the gifts Master Wu left you before you parted ways?”
Randai thought about the item Mr. Darcy had taken. “The artifact?”
“I guess you could call it that.” She scratched her head. “But it’s more of a key.”
“A key? Well, it doesn’t matter…” He looked to one side. “I was supposed to look after it, but Darcy has it now.”
“I know,” she said. “I’ve been keeping an eye on you, remember?”
“It explains why I kept feeling like someone was following me everywhere. I thought the chip reinstall was screwing with my head.”
“By now, you should know never to ignore your gut.”
That struck a little too close to home for Randai’s liking. He suddenly recalled the coincidental fortune cookie at the clinic. “Did you send me that message after treating my stab wound?”
She nodded. “Master Wu said you’d need a nudge in the right direction.”
“Why—” Distant sirens cut him off.
“We need to get out of here,” Zora said urgently. “Follow me.”
She redeployed her TEK and disappeared into the nearest shaft.
Randai had no choice but to hastily collect the rest of his things and follow. As he ran, his mind flailed like a fish out of water, fighting for air. As hard as his brain tried, it failed to reconcile what had just happened.
Randai read his SIG. They had been in the tunnel network for over an hour, and he was beginning to wonder if they were lost. Most of the journey had been made in silence as he attempted to process recent events. It felt like everything he had ever known was a lie. He held the jigsaw pieces in his hands, but they didn’t fit together, no matter how hard he tried.
“I still can’t believe this is real.” The woman he was walking with looked like Kira, but she had always been someone else entirely. “To think you’ve been playing me the entire time.”
“Playing you?” Zora grunted with disgust. “I’ve been watching your self-pitying, hairy ass for over seven years. Have you any idea how hard it was to watch the mighty Archagent Arkona become nothing more than a groveling, sorry-excuse for a human being?” She gestured to him. “The fabled Ghost faded to a mere wisp of his former self.”
His gut twisted again when she mentioned his old alias. “It’s all been a lie,” he muttered under his breath. “All of it.”
“Hardly a profound statement,” she said as a matter of fact. “When one looks just beneath the surface, one always finds that truth is an illusion.”
“I don’t even know where Mr. Darcy is keeping the artifact…or key…or whatever the hell it is. I thought it might be at The Raven’s Wings, but I didn’t see it among his collection when I was there the other day.”
“I know where it is. I’ll send you the location. It’s at a White Dragons stronghold, and you need to go get it.”
“You expect me to infiltrate a White Dragons stronghold on my own?”
Zora’s SIG bleeped, and she frowned. “Dammit, we’re out of time here. You won’t be on your own,” she said quickly, removing a data crystal from her SIG and offering it to him. “Everything you need to know is on here. You’ll find directions to the stronghold…instructions on how to get in. Follow those instructions word for word, and everything will fall into place. I promise.”
“Forgive me for not believing you,” he said angrily.
“Oh, you believe me alright…ah, almost forgot.” She threw him a small field pack, and he just about caught it between his fingers. “A few goodies in there to help you out.”
He regarded her with suspicion.
“Don’t worry. It isn’t a trick.” They arrived at a fork in the tunnel. “This is where we part ways. At least for now.”
Everything was happening so fast Randai’s head still spun. “Where are you going?”
“I have to tie up a few loose ends.” She pointed to the tunnel on the right. “Walk that way about half a mile until you come to another fork and take a right there too. The tunnel will take you to an old maintenance elevator. The elevator will take you down to a Bometown sewage line.”
“Bometown?”
“Read the data crystal. It’ll explain everything.” She smirked. “When you exit the sewer, you’ll find an old ground vehicle. It’s already synchronized to your SIG. Use it to follow the instructions on the crystal.”
She leaned in and kissed his cheek before he could react. By the time Randai got his mouth to work, Zora was off down a side-tunnel. Within seconds, she disappeared around a bend.
Randai felt where her lips had touched his skin. Kira had done that from time to time, and he never knew what to make of it.
He felt a strong tug…the temptation to deal with recent developments the way he’d dealt with everything in the past seven years: ignoring it all until it went away. However, he suspected that tactic wasn’t going to work this time. Sitting in a maintenance shaft, immobilized by fear and indecisiveness, wasn’t going to magically make all his problems disappear. Unlike before, however, part of him didn’t want the problems to go away. Somewhere under the stormy waves crashing through his head, an old curiosity beckoned. He continued through the darkness, loading the data crystal into his SIG.
Time to get some bloody answers.
33
Xerocorp Labs
Clio silently hacked an office wall terminal via her SIG as Nakamura and the others watched her back. Captain Kobol and his three Marines had placed themselves in strategic positions in case of a threat. Several office doors led deeper into the complex. Since the main lab’s shields had been taken down temporarily, there was no telling what lurked in the corridors.
The gunfire inside had died down by the time they’d reached the terminal, but Captain Kobol refused to rush forward without intel. He wanted the surveillance systems deactivated before proceeding any further in case they were being watched.
“How are we doing?” Kobol asked over the vox.
“It looks like most of the lab’s systems are already down, including surveillance. There’s no way to bring it back online from here.” Clio paused awkwardly. “Sorry.”
“At least we know we aren’t being observed,” he said.
Clio sighed. “Not sure anyone has time to watch us anyway with those Chits attacking.”
“I don’t think it’s Chits,” Kobol said. “That gunfire we heard came from Confederation and Xerocorp security weapons.”
“You think they’re fighting each other?”
The Captain took some time thinking it over. “It’s possible, but we’ll know for sure soon enough. Best we prepare for the worst. Sanchez, take point with Nakamura.”
They slowly made their way through the building until they reached the hall outside the primary control room where the gunfire had registered.
“I’m getting a dozen thermal signatures.” Nakamura’s scanners were powerful enough to penetrate the lab’s thickened walls. “Four on the right are pointing guns at eight against the wall on the far left. Three bodies on the floor are going cold. It’s too late for them.”
Kobol swore. “Sounds like someone’s holding prisoners. What the hell could they hope to achieve?”
“I’ll integrate my sonic amplifier with the vox, see if we can listen in.” Nakamura leaned against a partition as he operated his SIG.
The signal cracked and throbbed but finally stabilized. “…ten seconds to tell me what Boris did before I kill another one of you fuckers.”
A woman cried out in terror.
“We already told you, Victor,” a man’s voice quivered. “Boris did whatever he did alone. We had n
othing to do with it. I swear!”
A shot rang out. Clio held her breath, waiting for Nakamura or Kobol to give an order. Aegis Nakamura signaled that no one else had been hit. The shot was a warning.
“One of you had to see what he was up to,” Victor pushed.
“He muttered something about you not opening the door for those Marines,” the frightened male voice said. “That’s all I know!”
“Is that what he did?” Victor sounded desperate. “Did he open the door?”
“I don’t know,” the quivering man replied.
“He better not have!” Victor growled.
“You already let the invaders kill all those civilians,” a woman cried out.
“I did what I had to do. Now shut your ugly fucking face unless you want to join them,” Victor shouted. “You, over there. Since you can’t get the cameras back up, you can go check out the doors. Make sure no one came through.”
“But what—”
Another shot rang out. “Now!”
“Jesus, I’m going. I’m going.”
Captain Kobol crouched by the door and signaled for the gunners inside to be taken down using any means necessary.
Clio kneeled behind the Marines, blaster at the ready.
Nakamura leaned against the wall on the other side of the door and signaled for everyone to get ready.
The door hissed open.
Nakamura grabbed the guard with only one arm and pulled him into the hallway. The Aegis disarmed and neutralized him so fast, it seemed to happen in a single movement. By the time Nakamura set the guard down, Kobol and his Marines had already stormed the control room, gunfire cracking. When Clio and Nakamura joined them, only one armed threat remained standing.
A lanky scientist with a black goatee stood alone on the right side of the room, Marine rifles aimed at him. A security badge, identifying him as Victor Stanislavski, hung from his white coat’s breast-pocket. He held a blaster, frantically pointing it from one Marine to another.
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