“He said that if Holly killed him we’d all be dead in a week,” Viola chimed in. “And if she didn’t, we’d all still be dead soon.”
Holly nodded. “But whatever else is true and whatever else isn’t, Dante doesn’t think he’s going to die… so whatever is coming, it can’t be a planetary catastrophe.”
Rusev clasped her hands in front of her mouth. “So what’s the implication… that GU forces are about to arrive?”
After a few seconds of pensive silence, Robert snapped.
“Why are we wasting time asking these questions of each other?” he yelled. “None of us know the answers! But he does, and we can get them out of him. Whatever it takes, we can get them. Right, Grav?”
Holly saw that Grav’s eyes were on the ground. She knew that he’d always hated Dante for one reason or another, but he didn’t look too willing for what Robert was suggesting. Holly also knew that Robert hadn’t turned to Grav randomly and that everyone else was no doubt thinking the same thing: when it came down to it, Grav would be the one they all expected to get his hands dirty.
“Robert,” Yury said, very quietly. “Torture is more than a word. Grav has been on the wrong side, so he knows this more than anyone.”
“There are two wrong sides,” Grav said. “And trust me: the side Dante would be on… what happens when you are on that side is easier to forget than what happens when you are on the other.”
Yury nodded. “And real life is not like the movies where the information is always accurate. In real life, the victim will say anything to make you stop. They’ll say whatever they think you want to hear. Sometimes, if they can, they’ll give you information that isn’t just wrong but dangerously wrong.”
“But we only need one specific piece of information,” Robert argued. “A code. And we’ll be able to tell right away whether it’s correct. If it’s not, we’ll ask again. We’ll ask harder.”
Grav looked squarely at Robert. “When I was held, they wanted one specific piece of information: a name. Do you think I gave it to them?” He then lifted his left trouser leg to reveal a horribly disfigured calf muscle with what could only be described as a chunk missing from one side.
The agonised expression on his face after running to the bunker suddenly made sense, Holly thought.
“Dante isn’t you,” Robert said, unbudging in his position. “You would have been willing to die like a man. He is not.”
Grav’s gaze intensified. “And to get what they wanted, my captors were willing to slice off another man’s flesh like kebab meat from a skewer. Tell me, Robert: are you?”
“Everyone shut up!” Bo yelled. “Why don’t we just make an IED and blow the door off like I said yesterday?”
“There could be delicate equipment near the door,” Yury said gently. “It’s a good idea, but we don’t know what’s on the other side and what kind of damage could be done to it.”
Grav broke the group’s semi-circular arrangement by walking to the table and sitting down. He rubbed the top of his head with both hands in an unusually anxious display. “We need to fix the radio,” he said, facing away from the group as though he was talking to himself as much as anyone else. “That has to be the priority: calling for help. For rescue. Dante knows he is caught. Most of the time, when that realisation sets in, it alone is enough.”
No one replied immediately.
Grav stood up and turned back to the others. “Rusev and I are going to the Karrier to try to fix the radio. If he has not broken and coughed up the code by the time we get back, we will reconsider our options. Because even if the radio does work, we are getting inside that bunker and figuring out what the hell is going on here.”
“And what about today?” Robert said. “We’re writing off… what… eight, ten hours?”
“Holly will guard Dante,” Yury answered, reaffirming that he was in charge. “And you will respect Grav’s decision that Dante should be left with his thoughts until tonight.”
Robert threw his hands up in disbelief. “Left to think of more lies? To think of a new plan?”
“Dad,” Viola said, pulling at his arm. “Just do what they say.”
Robert sighed but said no more, which Yury and Grav took as acquiescence.
Yury then called Rusev and Grav in closer to look over his map data and ensure that they knew the best landing site for the rescue Karrier. He told them that if contact with the station could be established today it would mean they could communicate with the rescue Karrier throughout its journey, enabling them to pass on whatever further information they gleaned about the upper atmosphere from Dante or the bunker’s contents in the meantime.
After this brief discussion, Grav announced his intention to use his bedroom in the extension as Dante’s holding cell. He asked Holly if she would mind helping him set it up, since she would be guarding Dante anyway. She agreed, and they both went outside while most of the others watched from the window and Rusev prepared everything she and Grav would need for their trip to the Karrier.
“It is safest if you do not let anyone else inside the room,” Grav said as he and Holly approached Dante. “And whatever you do, do not let him inside your head.”
Dante said nothing as they marched him into the extension and secured him to both Grav’s bed and the dividing wall. But once he was in place, the begging began:
“I’m sorry about the spitting, okay? And Holly, I’m sorry for all of the lies. But Rusev is in on this. I don’t know about anyone else and I don’t know what she’s been saying, but she’s in on everything.”
Grav lifted a roll of silver tape from his pocket and covered Dante’s mouth. “You can hear him out if you really want to, but he has been dreaming up lies and working on this shit for the last hour. I have been with Rusev a lot over the last few days while you have been with him, and I am telling you with certainty: if there was a single crack in her story — if she even had a story — I would have seen it. I will pay extra attention to everything she does today, but I think we both know she is clean.”
Holly nodded firmly. “I know.”
“Good. Well, I should go. I know this cannot be easy for you. Be strong, Hollywood.”
“Wait,” she called after him.
He stopped midway to the door. “Yes?”
“Once you get power back to the control room in the Karrier, check the cameras. He went inside first when we found it, so he could have done something to the radio or the power.”
“Good thinking.”
Holly tried not to beat herself up for having allowed Dante to enter the Karrier alone, out of her sight. She’d had Viola to look after, and there had been no telling whether the vault containing the virus samples would still be intact. She remembered thinking that he’d taken too long to confirm it was safe, but, like the other clues, this only seemed decisively relevant in hindsight.
“If things go well at the Karrier, we will not be straight back,” Grav said, pausing at the doorway. “Hopefully we will be talking to the station. If you need a break as the day goes on, I am sure Spaceman would be willing to take over for a while. Maybe even Viola. But not Robert; too emotional.”
“I’ll be okay. Good luck with the radio.”
Grav raised his eyebrows before turning again to leave. “Fingers crossed, Hollywood…”
fifty-one
With Dante restrained beyond any hope of breaking free, Holly spent most of the morning and early afternoon guarding him without actually watching him. It was difficult to see him like that, whatever he had done.
Viola entered the extension some time in the afternoon with a glass of nutrition powder for Holly and one for Dante. She explained to Holly that this was at Yury’s request; the old man had predicted that Dante would reject the offering but insisted it was always good practice for guards to present themselves as humane.
Dante rejected the drink, as expected. Holly had removed the tape from his mouth hours earlier after impressing upon him that she would put it back as soon
as he spoke. He hadn’t said a word since then, but Viola’s presence and the fact that Holly addressed him directly about the drink emboldened him to speak.
“There’s something you need to know about this planet,” he said.
“Mouth shut,” Holly ordered.
“It’s not a real planet, anyway,” Viola said.
Dante focused on Viola. “Fine: romosphere. There’s something you need to know about this romosphere.”
The girl pressed impatiently: “What’s a romosphere?”
“One of these,” Dante emphasised. “Basically an embryonic romotech structure with a self-contained artificial atmosphere. Roger has test sites on Earth, but this one happens to be in space. Anyway, listen to me, because that’s not the point. The point is that this romosphere is on a collision course with Earth. We are on a collision course with Earth! I came here to divert—”
“You’ve been inside the bunker how many times?” Holly asked rhetorically. “Once on day one, again when you got the antidote for Bo, and again last night. If you weren’t talking out of your ass and you actually did have to do something important, you would have done it by now. And if Earth was at stake, why the hell would Morrison stake everything on you?”
Dante shrugged and laughed defensively; lying, again, so obviously that it was almost pitiful. He abandoned this particular lie even more quickly than any of the others. “Oh well. Whatever happens, you’re going down with me. At least I have that.”
She said nothing.
“It’s not that I hate you, Holly. I don’t. In fact, here’s something that’s true. Take it or leave it: at first, I told Roger I wasn’t grounding any Karrier if you were on board. I didn’t want you to get hurt. But then he showed me what you did to Gianfranco and, you know… I changed my mind. But that’s the whole thing: seeing that footage didn’t make this personal, it made it not personal. Before that, I wouldn’t have consciously done anything that might have hurt you. But now? You’re collateral damage, just like the rest.”
Holly shook her head, getting involved in a heated discussion exactly as Grav had warned her not to. “You expect me to believe that? After everything we’ve—”
“Listen to me, Ivy,” Dante interrupted, derisively adding barbed emphasis to the name. “As hard as this might be for you to believe, not everything is about you.”
Holly re-taped Dante’s mouth and encouraged Viola to return to the lander.
Alone again with the traitor, this time Holly did watch him. She stared at him until his features became a blur and long after he grew uncomfortable and turned his own gaze to the floor.
After however long it had been, Holly’s hollow concentration was broken by another arrival: Robert’s.
“Everything okay?” he asked.
Holly nodded, blinking several times having looked at the same thing for far too long. “He was blabbering more lies so I had to tape his mouth again.”
“Viola told me,” Robert said. “Anyway, I know no one really wants me to be in here, but can I ask him one question?”
Holly held a hand towards Dante, palm up, inviting Robert forward.
Robert ripped the tape from Dante’s mouth with a sudden yank.
Dante grimaced but made no sound beyond a sharp intake of breath.
“What’s the code?” Robert demanded.
It was a good question — the question, really — but Holly was nonetheless surprised to hear it stated so plainly.
Dante looked at the ground.
“Look at me,” Robert yelled. Dante did. “What’s the fucking code, you cretinous mercenary?”
Dante grinned. “I’ve been thinking something since I met you. You’re Robert and your wife is — oops, was — Olivia, right? So Robert and Olivia had two kids, and they decided to call them Robert junior and Viola. Here’s what I’ve been thinking: what kind of narcissists name their children after themselves?”
Without warning, Robert raised his fist and slammed it into Dante’s thigh. An odd place for a punch, Holly thought, but Dante’s desperate scream told her that Robert had delivered it with some serious force.
Robert lifted his fist, dropping something to the ground as he did so: a huge thorn. As Robert’s eyes remained focused on Dante, now writhing in agony, Holly belatedly noticed that Robert was wearing a glove and holding a thick cloth in his right hand.
Dante’s legs began to shake. His back spasmed.
“What did you do?” Holly yelled, panicking at the sight.
“Sped things up,” Robert said distantly. “The antidote is obviously in the bunker, so if he wants it…”
“Two eight two,” Dante stammered, fighting what looked like the start of some serious convulsions. “Eight zero two.”
“Two eight two, eight zero two?” Robert said. “Six digits? Two eight two, eight zero two?”
“Y-y-yess. Yes. Yessss!”
Robert turned to Holly. “Go!”
Holly hesitated. “Two eight two, eight zero two.”
“Right. Go!”
She looked back at Robert. “Don’t kill him,” she begged. “Please.”
“On my children’s lives,” Robert promised. “Just go to the bunker, open the door, get the antidote, leave the door jammed open and come back. Okay?”
Holly nodded, having no time to wonder how things had changed so quickly that she was now taking orders from Robert Harrington.
She ran to the lander, knowing that she had to tell Yury where she was going in case she ran in to any problems, and explained as quickly as she could without even fully climbing the ladder: “Don’t ask any questions, but we have the code. Robert is watching him and I’m going to test it.”
“Excellent,” Yury called. “Go, go! And Viola, you too. No one is going inside that bunker alone.”
“What about me?” Bo asked. “I found that bunker!”
“Hurry up then,” Holly said. An extra pair of eyes looking for the antidote couldn’t hurt, and Bo certainly had a keen inquisitive streak.
He jumped down the last several rungs of the ladder and ran outside before Viola was even in Holly’s sight.
The girl soon followed. “How did you get the code?” she asked.
“We’ll get there quicker if we don’t talk,” Holly said, speaking between deep breaths.
Viola got the message.
“I can’t run as fast as you two,” Bo called, his voice weak.
Holly looked back and saw that he was a ridiculous distance away given how little time they’d been moving. She backtracked towards him, picked him up like a toddler and set off again.
“So how did you get the code?” Bo asked, speaking directly into Holly’s ear.
“I’ll tell you later,” she lied. There was no way she would; Bo didn’t need to know what his father had done. When it came time to explain why she was bringing an antidote back from the bunker, Holly would take the dubious credit for inflicting Dante with the injury.
Bo shrugged in exaggerated frustration. “Fine. But can I at least type the code on the keypad when we get there?”
This question caught Holly off guard, causing her to laugh slightly despite the gravity and urgency of their current situation.
“Sure thing,” she said. “You can type the code.”
fifty-two
Holly said the code out loud several times during the short but tiring run to the bunker, knowing it was safer to have it in Bo’s head as well as her own in case her brain froze at the crucial moment.
She wasn’t counting any chickens just yet, but Dante hadn’t previously given any fake codes and she couldn’t see any angle where he would gain something from sending her on a wild goose chase. Even had he not been writhing in agony when he shouted the digits into the extension’s muggy air, Holly would have been very confident in the code’s veracity.
At the bunker’s door, where Viola stood waiting with an expression of undisguised impatience, Holly held Bo high enough to reach the buttons.
He typed i
n the code: 2 8 2 8 0 2.
Immediately, the door clicked. Holly pushed it, suddenly light, and it swung open.
“Stay right here for a second,” Holly ordered. Neither of the children protested.
She grabbed a wheeled chair from just inside the bunker without looking around and used it to jam the door open. Holly had been inside enough buildings with security systems which required different codes for entry and exit to fall victim to such an amateur oversight.
“Okay,” she said. “It’s safe.”
And safe it was: there was no poison gas or other booby traps, as others in the group had openly considered, and nothing else to cause alarm.
The bunker’s interior could be best summed up as functional. It truly was a bunker, with cold concrete-like walls and flooring which were at odds with its clinical metallic exterior. It was far more spacious than the doorway suggested, opening into a rectangular shape which was almost as long as the lander was wide.
A long control console dominated the wall opposite the door.
“I’ve never been inside a submarine,” Viola said, “but I’ve seen pictures.”
Though Viola didn’t really complete her thought, Holly knew what she meant. The control console did evoke a vintage submarine’s, with its countless dials and displays. Everything was blank, but the overhead light which automatically flickered to life when the door swung open proved that the bunker had functioning power.
The wall perpendicular to the door and control console contained nothing but an extremely large map. It wasn’t Earth and the near-total absence of water suggested that it was the planet — or romosphere, as Dante called it — that they were currently stranded on. Holly glanced at the map; the glance was brief, but long enough to see that the map was divided into grid-like zones with a seemingly random two-digit alphanumeric code printed in each. Holly asked Viola to take the map down and either roll or fold it until it was small enough to carry back for Yury to look over.
Terradox Quadrilogy Page 23
