“I won’t talk,” Holly said.
“I know. But static, interference, anything like that… there is no sense in such a risk. Peter will reactivate the radio and tell you as soon as I disarm the target. Count to one hundred.”
The steady green light on Holly’s dashboard turned to a slowly flashing red, indicating a sudden disconnection.
Holly pressed the button to communicate with the Karrier’s control room and report this development to Dimitar, who in turn reported that Grav’s rover had stopped in the expected spot.
Everything so far had gone exactly as Grav laid out prior to leaving, so Holly followed his flippant advice of counting to one hundred. She tapped the screen to retune her radio to Grav’s rover and waited for the light to turn green.
It wouldn’t be long now until Grav successfully disarmed the target guard, leading to Peter doing the same thing shortly afterwards and then using his headset to report that Sakura had been found sneaking around on the surface. That part — the part when Sakura came in — was without doubt the riskiest of all, and Holly planned to be parked near the bunker before it came into action. For now, she was simply waiting for confirmation that the formality of stage one, Grav’s disarming of the first untrained guard, had passed without a hitch.
From there, David Boyce would hopefully leave the bunker to deal with Sakura and his accomplices would hopefully follow suit. Grav had hypothesised that those accomplices, when called to assist Boyce, might first split the hostages into two groups and order some of the coerced tourist guards to keep them in check, with their families’ lives on the line as the high price of disobedience. Grav expected the hostages to be split so that no guard would be pointing a weapon at a group which included his own family, and he expected those guards to reluctantly point their weapons at each other’s families in a desperate attempt to protect their own.
If only David Boyce or his two accomplices would leave to deal with Sakura, rather than all three, Holly wasn’t sure which scenario she would prefer. She felt highly confident of handling Boyce in a one-on-one situation, particularly given the presence of her C-Suit, but she knew that there was always an element of risk involved in walking into an enclosed space to tackle an armed enemy who would hear her entering.
She weighed these hypothetical options up for a while before trying to shake the thoughts aside in favour of the more optimistic idea that Boyce and his accomplices would momentarily leave their positions to deal with the entirely unexpected news that one of their guards had spotted Sakura Otsuka many miles from the Karrier where she was supposed to be. Holly’s main concern about this distraction was whether it would be viewed as enough of a threat to merit so much personal attention, but she ultimately trusted Grav’s judgement.
At the count of 73, her own attention was captured by the communications light on her dashboard turning green.
“All good?” she asked, already breathing a sigh of relief.
“Holly!” Peter Ospanov replied, loudly whispering in a breathy and urgent manner. “The plan is off... they’ve got Grav!”
fifty-six
“What the hell happened?” Holly yelled. “Who got him?”
“The tourist guards!” Peter replied, still whispering but still sounding panicked and desperate. “One of them so far, but he has already called it in. He saw Grav coming, maybe heard his footsteps, then he just spun around and shot him right in the leg. He started shouting into his headset and he took Grav’s weapon. I can’t go out to help him because the guard would call that in too and we don’t want them knowing about the rover.”
“Peter, slow down. How did Grav get shot in the leg? He was supposed to engage his C-Suit!”
“He didn’t wear his suit at all! He said he would have more flexibility to take the guy down by surprise.”
Holly shook her head, more in anger than disbelief. Not wearing an engaged C-Suit was an indefensible oversight which put the entire plan — and hence the lives of everyone on Terradox — in needless and enormous danger. It was so reckless, Holly could hardly believe it was an oversight at all.
“Sakura, can you hear me?” she asked.
“I can.”
“Good. Was there anything in Grav’s manner, right before he went out, that makes you think he might have meant to get caught? Not shot, but caught?”
“I didn’t notice anything strange,” Sakura replied.
“Are you insane?” Peter chimed in. “He will be killed! Why would he walk into that?”
“Hold that thought,” Holly said, reacting to a flashing light on her dashboard. She pressed a button to communicate with the others in the Karrier’s control room, mere metres away. “What do you see?” she asked them.
Dimitar replied: “Grav is down, that’s what I see! He walked right up to the guard, no suit, no weapon drawn, and—”
“I know, Peter told me. Is there any movement at the bunker?” Holly butted in, more interested in what she didn’t already know.
There was a slight delay while Dimitar switched between feeds on the CamCard. “Boyce is leaving!” he reported, his voice instantly chipper. “Grav getting caught was obviously a big enough distraction to… Wait a second. You don’t think he deliberately went off-script, do you?”
“I’ll be there in a minute,” Holly said. She then pressed the button to communicate with Peter and Sakura once more. “Peter, switch your comms to the Karrier; I’m going back to the control room for a few minutes to look at the latest images and try to work something out for how we’ll recover Grav once I’ve been to the bunker. In the meantime, start driving towards New Eden. And for God’s sake, whatever you do… don’t get caught.”
Unsurprisingly, the general mood in the Karrier was low when Holly walked back into the control room. Shock and disbelief were etched on the faces around her, with defeatism creeping onto Robert’s in particular.
Dimitar was already talking to Peter, having the same argument over whether Grav had meant to get caught that Holly and Peter had briefly begun a few minutes earlier.
“He’ll be killed!” Peter repeated.
“Not right away,” Dimitar said. “I know you and Grav are close, Peter, but Holly and I have known him for longer than you have. He clearly believed that his presence would draw Boyce out of the bunker and he clearly believes that he can stay alive long enough for Holly to get in there and get this done.”
“Then what?” Peter asked, still unable to believe their theory. “Once Holly has control of the bunker, do you expect Boyce to just hand him over? You really think Grav would believe he could pull something like this and live to see the resulting victory?”
“I’ve known him for longer than any of you,” Ekaterina Rusev interjected, “and one thing I can tell you is that when the stakes are this high, Goran Vuletic would rather die for victory than live to see defeat. In my eyes, he has thrown himself onto a grenade in the hope that it’s a dud. We have a job to do; and the sooner we do it, the sooner we can try to pull him to safety before that grenade explodes.”
Peter didn’t respond directly to that. “Well,” he said, “we are heading for New Eden like Holly asked. Holly, you should be finished in the bunker before we get there. When I arrive, I am going in and I am doing whatever it takes to get him out. Alive or dead, Boyce is going down. Why are you not already heading for the bunker?”
“We need to make sure Boyce isn’t coming here,” Holly said. “All we’ve seen for sure is that he’s raised the two multi-terrain touring vehicles from the bunker and that he’s about to take off in one of them. If he comes here to do a headcount or for any other reason, I have to be here to deal with him.”
Peter didn’t argue with that and admitted that he hadn’t considered the possibility of Boyce travelling to the Karrier.
But within minutes, the high-speed TE-500 touring vehicle flown by David Boyce had travelled far beyond the Karrier and touched down next to Grav and the armed guard who had spotted him. Dimitar had already position
ed a drone and zoomed in as far as he could while keeping the drone at a safe altitude, and this provided crystal clear live images as Boyce stepped out of the TE-500 to confront Grav.
Even without audio it was easy to understand the nature of the one-way conversation which followed, with Boyce gesturing wildly and Grav refusing to say a word even with one gun pressed against his temple and another trained on his chest.
Beyond reasonable doubt, Holly now knew that Grav was playing a game; if he had wanted to disarm the unfocused Boyce and turn the gun on him to force the inexperienced tourist guard into dropping his own weapon, he could have done it with his eyes shut.
But the fact that Grav was in a situation of his own design didn’t settle Holly’s mind in the slightest. The nature of Boyce’s reaction and ongoing behaviour was far from guaranteed, however confident Grav might have been. The nature of the interrogation which was bound to follow, on the other hand, was only too guaranteed. It angered her that Grav hadn’t at least given her a heads up that he was going to do this, although she understood that he had almost certainly kept the idea to himself because he knew what she would have said about it.
It was reckless, it was dangerous, it was short-sighted, and it was unspeakably audacious.
But so far, it was working.
The live footage then showed Grav’s mouth moving, followed by Boyce’s head scanning the surrounding area in every direction. Boyce then pressed a finger against his headset and spoke. Within seconds, he handcuffed Grav — another perfect opportunity for Grav to turn the tables had he wished to — then bundled him into the back of the touring vehicle to be watched at gunpoint by the tourist guard who received several pats on the back for his good work.
“Grav said he wasn’t alone,” Dimitar said. “Any money says that’s what he told Boyce. That way Boyce is more concerned with who else is on the surface than he is with who is in the Karrier. He’s more concerned with who else is sneaking around than he is with the hostages. Grav’s trying to make Boyce fear for his own safety. This is his move to flush out the accomplices — to flush out the only two trained enemies we have and the only guards who are loyal to Boyce.”
“And you still think he’s going to New Eden?” Peter asked over the radio.
“Nowhere else makes sense,” Holly said. “Keep going in that direction and I’ll get to the bunker and follow the original plan. I’ll cut off his accomplices’ comms and if this does flush them out, I’ll tell the hostages via the public address system that we’re in charge and everything is done. The most important thing I’ll do is tell the unwilling tourist guards the same thing, so that they stand down or even help us out. Those guys are all armed, so that’s going to be a significant turnabout.”
“Uh, guys,” Bo said. “Speaking of the unwilling guards…”
Bo pointed to a live map on one of the Karrier’s many information screens. Set up by Ekaterina Rusev minutes after landing, this particular map tracked the movements of each tourist guard by the minuscule interference from their individual security headsets.
“Oh, shit,” Dimitar said.
“What is happening?” Peter asked, frustratedly unable to see what they were reacting to.
“Well,” Dimitar sighed, “apart from Remy Bouchard at the bunker, every single tourist guard within a three-mile radius of the Karrier has left his post and started walking towards us. We are being surrounded.”
fifty-seven
“Containment,” Peter replied, calmer than the others in the face of the Karrier being surrounded by Boyce’s makeshift squadron of coerced guards. “He is changing his guard strategy; instead of spreading resources thin, he is focusing on the Karrier to make sure no one else gets out.”
“I have to go,” Holly announced. “I have to get out of here before they’re all too close. It’s now or never.”
“Literally now or never,” Viola agreed. “But if they’re coming here… if they look inside, they’re going to know you’re gone. So shouldn’t we all go? We would be in trouble, anyway.”
“The VUVs only sit four,” Bo said. “Three by design, four at a push. Five, not really. Six? No way. We can’t all go.”
“Okay,” Ekaterina Rusev said, decisively gathering everyone’s attention with a single authoritative word. “You four go. Dimitar and I will stay here. I don’t believe any of them will board the Karrier, and someone has to stay here in case Boyce chooses to communicate with us. But listen carefully… and Peter, this is for you, too: if neither Dimitar nor I respond to an initial call, do not communicate with the Karrier any further. Communicate with each other’s rovers but not with the Karrier unless you know for sure that we are on the other end of the line.”
“Understood,” Peter said. Holly and the Harringtons nodded.
Dimitar handed Holly two physical copies of every code and instruction she might need, all of which they had thoroughly discussed during the journey to Terradox. Everything was well laid out and the concise information included every necessary button press along with simple diagrams and large-print warnings of potential stumbling blocks. These instructions had been compiled carefully by Dimitar with assistance from TMC personnel, and he handed a third copy to Robert for safe keeping.
“Be safe,” Dimitar said to the Harringtons. He then shook Holly’s hand and wished her luck.
Holly’s farewell to Ekaterina Rusev took slightly longer, with the Venus station’s universally respected matriarch offering a parting message:
“Remember, Holly: neither of us have survived everything we’ve survived only to die today. Neither of us survived everything Morrison threw at us only to go down to someone like Boyce.”
As soon as the Harringtons were all suited up at Holly’s insistence, Bo positioned the VUV — the work of his young life so far — for its deployment to the surface.
The magnetic overhead claw attached to the rover’s roof and slowly lowered it through the hatch, the claw shielded by a rudimentary cloak which Holly was glad the incoming guards weren’t yet close enough to put to the test.
Bo drove quickly with no regard for the passing guards, all of whom were approaching the Karrier from their previous outposts. One of these coerced tourist guards in particular passed remarkably close to the rover, but all Bo did was slow slightly to avoid kicking up any noticeable dust. He displayed a faith in the invisibility and quietness of his rover that at times frightened Holly, but her discomfort was nothing compared to Viola’s.
Bo warned Viola to close her eyes before the closest passing, knowing that an involuntary squeal wasn’t out of the question given how she had reacted to his much safer passage through a gap between two guards a few minutes earlier. In the end, Robert had to silence their argument before it got too loud as Bo insisted that speed was of the essence and they couldn’t afford to slow down while Viola retorted that Bo was being stupidly brash and that, above all else, they couldn’t afford to get caught.
Fortunately, the hairiest moment of the drive was the last difficult one; after that, the only few guards who passed by the aptly named Visually Undetectable Vehicle did so at a very safe distance.
Before long, Bo parked the rover with Remy Bouchard’s back in plain sight at the top of the familiar stairway which led to the bunker. Holly, who wore no EVA suit, looked out at the area. She saw the entrance to Yury Gardev’s still unopened Memorial Garden — the initial reason for her trip to Terradox — and just in front of it she saw the horrific spectacle of a pile of dead guards.
Those guards, the loyal TMC employees killed by David Boyce’s treacherous infiltrators, had been stripped of their outer uniforms and stripped of their weapons, but upon catching sight of them Holly vowed that they would not be stripped of their dignity; she would see to it that they each received a proper burial and that each was honoured for their honest service with some kind of physical memorial on both Terradox and Earth.
But most importantly, she vowed that those guards who had risked their lives to protect Terradox and
its visitors would not die for nothing.
“I’m coming outside with you,” Viola said, reacting to Holly’s shuffling movement towards the door. “After what happened to Grav, no one should be alone out here for a split second.”
“This is different; he knows me,” Holly insisted.
Viola firmly held Holly’s gaze. “He’s also been told that his wife and kids will be killed if he disobeys Boyce’s orders. I’ll lie low — literally, I’ll lie on the ground right outside the rover — and I’ll only stand up if you ask me to or if he makes a move.”
“Viola…” Robert began. He didn’t know what to say next.
“Dad, I’m just going to go outside with Holly and lie down. I won’t be any closer than you and I’ll be right beside the door. It’s just in case she needs me quickly. The few seconds it would take me to get out could be the difference between life and death.”
“For you, too!” Robert replied. “You’re putting yourself at risk.”
“Seriously though, Dad…” Bo butted in, “if it gets to the point that this guy turns on Holly and kills her, we’re all dead. It makes sense to have someone watching her back and able to respond before it goes that far. If you would prefer me to take the risk, I’ll do it. Or if you want to take the risk, you can do it.”
“I really don’t need anyone,” Holly said, keen to save Robert from such a choice. “But if it would make you all feel better for someone to ‘have my back’, even though I seriously don’t need it because I seriously do know this guy well, it’s one hundred per cent Viola. In terms of speed, both physical speed and reaction time, it has to be.”
“Did you even bring a second weapon?” Robert asked Holly, sounding more like a man who had compromised than one who had conceded.
Bo opened a compartment at the front of the rover to reveal four firearms. “Grav insisted on it.”
Viola picked one of them out.
Terradox Quadrilogy Page 57
