Terradox Quadrilogy

by Craig A. Falconer

  This visual confirmation of their location was a welcome source of relief and would allow Holly to deliver the news of her system takeover directly to the underground hostages and their unwilling guards when the time came.

  In the original plan laid out by Dimitar, the first step was to disconnect the specific headsets worn by Boyce and his accomplices. Holly was relieved that the TMC’s security services at least hadn’t been deficient enough to allow Boyce to bring in his own advanced communications equipment, since his dependence on the headsets previously worn by the TMC guards he had ruthlessly killed was the sole reason Holly was able to take such an effective measure. She opted, however, to leave this step until later, deviating from the original plan for the very good reason that it hadn’t been designed on the assumption that Grav would be in Boyce’s custody.

  Now that Grav was being held in the grand house at New Eden, it was absolutely crucial that Holly didn’t do anything which would alert Boyce and his accomplices of her system takeover until a surprise raid could be launched to free Grav. Otherwise, she knew, Boyce would almost certainly react to the realisation that his game was over by killing Grav out of spite and likely by taking his own life to avoid the indignity of capture.

  With that in mind, Holly proceeded straight to step two: informing the unwilling guards currently positioned above ground that she had gained control of Terradox, that David Boyce was now powerless, and that all of their families were safe.

  She accessed the photo-drone system by following the steps laid out on another of Dimitar’s instruction sheets and called up a live image of the area around the Karrier, where a group of coerced guards still stood in a wide circle around the enormous craft as instructed by Boyce. Holly disabled all outgoing communications from their headsets to prevent any of them from contacting Boyce and then proceeded to succinctly deliver the good news. She watched on a small secondary screen as the men around the Karrier reacted by breaking formation and looking at each other as though unsure of what to do next.

  When Holly spoke into the console’s built-in microphone to ask them to lay down their weapons, they all obliged. She then made it clear to the above-ground guards in other areas that returning to New Eden would be extremely dangerous and that they should instead either stay put or walk towards the Karrier, depending on the distance involved.

  Next, she used the bunker’s radio to call the Rusevs in the Karrier and asked Dimitar to gather the weapons from outside and to put them somewhere safe. He appeared outside very quickly and was received by the former guards as a conquering hero. Holly was somewhat surprised to see Dimitar invite the men inside, but there was no harm in it.

  With this step complete, Holly moved on to what was perhaps the most delicate stage: informing the hostages and their coerced guards that Boyce was no longer in control.

  The security camera footage which Holly then successfully called up from inside the underground complex made her consider how helpful it would be to have live images showing Grav’s situation. Unfortunately, the house where he was being held was permanently closed off to tourists and hence contained no internal security cameras. Furthermore, the zonal block on photo-drone access to New Eden prevented any drones from getting close enough—

  That’s it, Holly thought, her line of thinking interrupted by a welcome eureka moment. The zones!

  She quickly navigated to the menu for controlling everything related to the zones, from inter-zonal blending to intra-zone conditions. Crucially, there was an easily accessible option to modify the level of so-called “airspace shielding” between any two chosen zones. The boundaries at each side of New Eden were unsurprisingly the only ones on the map to display an alert that airspace shielding was currently in place. At the touch of a button, Holly removed the shielding.

  If only it was all this easy.

  After a very quick message to the Karrier, sent to tell Dimitar that drones could now access New Eden but to simultaneously ask him not to position any there for the moment in case they were noticed, Holly returned to the plan. She had an idea to use the drones not only to gather important images but also to decisively distract Boyce’s accomplices at a crucial moment… but the time for that would come.

  For now, her focus was on the hostages.

  sixty

  In technical terms, delivering good news via the emergency public address systems inside New Eden’s museum and nursery, where the two groups of hostages were now being held, would be no more difficult than contacting the outdoor guards or removing the airspace shielding.

  What concerned Holly was how the hostages might react to their guards once those guards laid down their weapons. She was already looking at security feeds from both rooms on her console’s upper screens, and she could see that some of the male children were well into their teens and that some of the staff members being held along with the tourists looked quite capable of taking care of themselves. This raised the possibility in her mind that upon hearing that Boyce had fallen, some of the captives might react by seeking to inflict vengeful harm on the men who had been pointing guns at them.

  She didn’t think it would go that way, but then she hadn’t even considered the possibility that Remy Bouchard would react to her presence in the manner he did. She felt sure that the fact she was speaking to them at all would be enough to convince the guards that Boyce truly had lost control of Terradox — something Remy hadn’t been sure would happen if he let Holly pass — but she knew that a deft touch and careful choice of words would be required.

  Before saying anything, Holly disabled the outbound communications ability of the headsets worn by the four armed men guarding their fellow tourists.

  She had a long speech ready, based largely on the agreed upon script but with a few additions following recent developments and discoveries. Planning to deliver it immediately after breaking the news that she had assumed control of the strategically decisive bunker, she ran over it in her mind one last time:

  “We understand that dozens of men have been coerced into acting as unwilling guards for David Boyce, and we understand why they have followed his orders. People will do whatever it takes to protect their families, and we should not and must not hold that against them. If I can specifically address the four men currently tasked with guarding their fellow tourists, two in the museum and two in the nursery: we want to assure you that no one holds your actions against you, and we recognise that you have not physically harmed anyone. I ask you now to lay down your weapons, and I ask those you have been guarding to remain calm and relaxed until someone comes to take you all outside. All Terradox systems are fully in my control, but David Boyce and his two accomplices remain active on the surface. As soon as they are nullified, you will all be freed.”

  For once, however, things went better than expected.

  Having selected the rooms she wished to address, Holly held down the public address button for several seconds. She tapped on the console’s built-in microphone, making enough sound to capture the attention of everyone on both of the upper screens. Her eyes flitted between these screens, taking in the live developments in both the sprawling museum-like hall and the ever-disturbing nursery.

  Satisfied that everyone was listening and that her voice wouldn’t be heard anywhere else, she spoke:

  “This is Holly Wood and I’m talking to you right now to tell you that we have gained control of Terradox and that David Boyce is powerless to do anything about it. I need you all to stay exactly where you are and wait until someone comes to free you, but I want you to know that it’s over.”

  And that, to her delighted surprise, was all it took to unleash an outpouring of joyous relief.

  In each room, a large circle of seated tourists split in every direction as relieved families jumped to their feet. The two guards in each room looked at their respective partners and lowered their weapons, quickly joining the celebrating masses who harboured no evident grudges towards them.

  “I need every single one of
you to stay where you are,” Holly reiterated, realising there was no need for the planned speech but appreciating that the two pairs of guards might wish to switch places and rejoin their own families. “Everyone else’s safety depends on your patience, and there will be severe consequences for anyone who disobeys this order. We will be there to free you within a few hours at most, and please rest assured that a Ferrier will be here to take us all home in no time.”

  Holly couldn’t help but smile as she watched so many people expressing so much happiness. Children bounced around with excitement as though the floor was a trampoline, and she saw tears of joy wherever she looked.

  The smile faded when Holly’s gaze fell upon two particular bouncing children near the front of the group inside the nursery. The joy on the faces of CeCe and DeeDee Bouchard would be short-lived, and Holly’s heartbreak over this fact was exponentially compounded by her near-debilitating feelings of personal responsibility.

  Holly’s head fell into her hands and she spun her chair away from the screens.

  But the spectre of death could not be escaped quite so easily, as Holly found when her gaze rested on the again-forgotten corpse in the centre of the bunker.

  The sight of John Francis, killed for nothing, acted only to harden Holly’s resolve. She threw her hands to her side and rose to her feet.

  Boyce was going to pay for this — she would see to that.

  As Holly glanced mournfully at John’s fallen body, something Grav had said before they left the station echoed in her mind: his prediction that although they would again succeed in toppling a madman before his demented will could be done, this time their victory would come at a high price.

  Holly inhaled deeply, more determined than ever to make sure that this price wouldn’t get any higher. Remy Bouchard and John Francis had fallen, along with an as yet unidentified third tourist who had been killed by Boyce at New Eden, and each of their deaths was its own tragedy.

  The group’s imminent victory had already proven heartbreakingly costly, but there was one thing about this victory that Holly would give everything to ensure:

  Grav was going to live to see it.

  sixty-one

  Holly used the bunker’s radio to relay her success to the Rusevs, who were delighted to hear that everyone underground had received the news and taken it so well. Dimitar reported that the formerly coerced guards he had invited into the Karrier had told him many things about Boyce’s threats and brutality, all of which were consistent with the group’s assumptions.

  “I’ve had an idea to use the photo-drones,” Holly continued, “but I’m going to get Viola to do it from in here because this console allows us to control multiple drones at once and the CamCard doesn’t. I’ll explain why that’s important in a minute when I get Viola in; to save time, you can listen while I tell her.”

  “Understood,” Dimitar said.

  “Before that, can you put me through to Peter and Sakura’s rover? I can’t directly reach their rover or Bo’s from in here. Something to do with the new kind of radio in the rovers, I guess.”

  Dimitar opened a line to Peter and Sakura, allowing Holly to talk to them via the Karrier.

  “I’m sorry about Remy,” Sakura said before Holly could get a word in.

  “Me, too,” Peter added. “Just remember that this is all Boyce’s fault. All of it.”

  “I need you to drive away from New Eden and wait for me,” Holly said. “There’s a multi-terrain touring vehicle here: a TE-500, short for Terradox Explorer. I’m going to use it to fly most of the way out there because it’s much faster than driving, then I’ll drive the last part of the way so I’m not seen or heard. But we need to meet at least one full zone away from New Eden because this vehicle doesn’t have any kind of cloak.”

  “We will wait at the far side of the adjoining zone,” Peter said. “Be quick, Holly… Grav is in there.”

  After completing this call, Holly ran outside and called for Viola to come down.

  “I need you to control the photo-drones,” she explained, trying to distract Viola from the corpse in the middle of the bunker. “The control panel is already on the screen, see? It’s all very straightforward. What I want you to do first is make these two drones above the beach crash into the sand. See this slider right here? You need to select the drones you want to control then drop this slider as far as you can — very quickly — then dismiss the warning message, then drop the slider even further. Got that?”

  “Uh…” Viola said as her finger danced above the touchscreen. “Here?”

  “That one and the other one. Then slide…”

  Viola did as Holly asked, sending both of the chosen drones crashing suddenly into the white sands of Terradox’s isolated beach.

  “So I’m guessing there’s a reason for this?” Viola said.

  Holly smiled slightly for the first time in too long. “When I get to the big house and stop moving for ten seconds — which you’ll be able to see — you’re going to make a photo-drone crash into the ground right outside the house. I need you to do it on the opposite side of the house from the window you smashed. Remember that?”

  It was Viola’s turn to break into a smile. “Sure do. But why?”

  Holly pointed to the screen showing a live feed of the grand house captured by a high-altitude photo-drone, with Boyce’s accomplices standing guard at the entrance. “We need to get these two guys out of the way so we can get into the house without Boyce knowing. If he knows we’re coming before we smash into the room where he’s holding Grav, things won’t go well. When a drone crashes, one of those guys will check it out. If they don’t, crash another one and keep doing it, closer and closer to them, until they finally check one out. And as soon as they do check one out, that’s when you’re going to crash all of the others at once. I’ve already instructed every unused photo-drone to hover at high altitude over New Eden, and they’ll arrive there long before I do. Got that?”

  The possibility of using zonal weather manipulation to distract Boyce’s accomplices had previously crossed Holly’s mind — the idea of literally making it rain, rather than making photo-drones rain down from the sky above New Eden — but in the end she considered such a major atmospheric intervention to be an unnecessary risk. Falling drones could conceivably be viewed as the result of an isolated operational malfunction, she reasoned, while a change in the perennially pleasant New Eden weather would more likely alert Boyce and his accomplices that someone from her group had breached the bunker and taken control.

  “So…” Viola said. “You want me to crash single drones until the guards get distracted by one — or until one of the guards gets distracted, at least — and then crash them all. Is that right?”

  “Exactly,” Holly said. “One more thing… on this screen, I have everything ready for you to disable their headsets a few seconds before you crash all of the drones. It’s just this one single button, but you have to make sure you don’t press it too early or too late. Too early isn’t a problem unless you press it way too early, like before the first drone crashes, but we really don’t want you to press it too late. Even if Boyce hears the drones crashing down outside and quickly notices that he can’t hear his men, he won’t totally assume that we did it. Because we could only do something like that from inside this bunker, and he’d expect us to do something way more impactful and decisive if we had access to the whole system.”

  Viola paid attention to every detail on both of the desk-level touchscreens. “So you want me to crash single drones until the guards get distracted, then disable their headsets on this screen, then crash the other drones. Got it.”

  Holly nodded. “Good. Don’t worry too much; this doesn’t necessarily kill us if it doesn’t work, it just makes things a hell of a lot easier if it does.”

  Viola wore a determined expression. “I can do it.”

  “I know,” Holly said. “You’ve never let me down. I’ll see you soon.”

  Viola hugged Holly tightly.
“Thanks for saving me.”

  “When?” Holly replied reflexively.

  “Uh, ten minutes ago. Remy wasn’t thinking straight, and if you’d taken the chance of doing something less decisive to try to get him off of me…”

  Despite how obvious it sounded, Holly hadn’t considered this; Remy's death at her hand had been so firm an emotional gut-punch that saving Viola’s life from an unpredictable armed man had felt more like a side-effect than a crucially successful achievement. Both Holly’s prior confidence and Robert’s reaction when events unfolded — the opposite of grateful — had no doubt exacerbated this absence of balanced perspective.

  “Don’t mention it,” Holly said, though she was glad Viola had. “I’m sorry I put you in that position.”

  On her way to the door, Holly pressed the button to raise the bunker’s rover platform to the surface. Although this elevator platform was familiar from her previous stay on Terradox, the rovers it contained were thankfully far superior. David Boyce had already flown one of these large multi-terrain touring vehicles to New Eden, and Holly was about to fly the other one most of the way before driving a little further and then meeting Peter and Sakura a short but safe distance from their ultimate destination.

  Holly then walked briskly up the stairway, mentally preparing herself for the sight of Remy. But no amount of preparation made it any easier when his body came into view once more.

  It’s nothing personal, he had said. The words hadn’t left Holly since. If it wasn’t so personal it wouldn’t have been so difficult; that was the whole point. She paused beside him for a second and bowed her head.