Lasers, Lies and Money

by Alex Kings

  Olivia squatted beside him, watching. Most of the tricks she did know, she'd learned by watching others. And she wasn't about to let this opportunity pass her by.

  Mero searched through the various options the screen offered, finally finding an option labelled Repair & Technical. The computer returned an authorisation needed screen. Mero held up the keycard to the computer terminal.

  The computer accepted it.

  Mero gestured through the screens a few times, looking at options. At last he came to it:

  Summon Independent Maintenance Vehicle.

  He tapped it, then went through various options. No repair crew, ready to board.

  A little map of the magtube came up. “Well,” said Mero, grinning, “where do you want to get on?”

  *

  “No, sir. No sign of them yet,” said the operator. “Also, I've got another four staff cards reported missing. I'm tracking their activity now.”

  “Damnit!” hissed Egliante down the phone. “Everyone in security has their description. I've got people doing bag searches with no luck. I'm out here looking myself! And what have we found? They keep stealing our keycards! What the hell am I paying you for, huh? You'd better fucking tell me, because if we haven't got them in the cells by tomorrow I'm gonna go looking for a replacement. And you're top of the list, my man!”

  “Sir, you yourself have ensured there is no way out of this compound. Because of your foresight, we will catch them. It is simply a matter of time,” said the operator.

  “We'd better,” muttered Egliante. “After this, I won't even call the interrogator in. No fancy tech. I'll get the truth out of them with my own two fists and a piece of broken glass just like the old days.” He paused and swallowed loudly enough to be heard over the comms. “Have you ever punched someone so hard you felt their cheekbones break under your knuckles?”

  “No, sir.”

  “You should. It's good for the soul. Very … therapeutic.”

  I shall keep that in mind and tell you as soon as I have an update.”

  “Good man.” Egliante killed the signal.

  The operator went back to the computer and started searching the computer logs. He was one of Egliante's most trusted advisors, on a level with the bodyguards. He was as competent at handling Egliante's temper as he was at tracking everything. And he knew it.

  But right now, he had no idea how to proceed.

  He scanned the computer feed again, idly scanning other technical logs with a side screen.

  That was odd.

  According to the screen, there was a technical fault with the magtube. But there was no information about what type.

  Curiosity piqued, the operator looked into it.

  A technical fault had been registered because a maintenance car had been called out. The card used to call it hadn't been listed as stolen … but it could easily be that its owner simply hadn't noticed yet.

  The operator called Egliante.

  “What is it now?” snapped Egliante.

  “Sir, I have some good news and some bad news. The bad news is that the compound isn't completely impenetrable after all, and that they're about to try escape. The good news is that I know exactly where to head them off.”

  Chapter 28: Tap Your Foot

  “The staff station,” said Eloise. “It's still unguarded. Chances are we'll have to deal with someone, though.”

  They walked in a diffuse group within view of the magtube, but fifty or so metres away from it. Most people were watching the opera, though there were still plenty milling about here and there.

  “Easy enough,” said Mero.

  “No killing unless you have to.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “Anyway, we're likely to attract attention. As soon as we're inside, you need to look for the network transceiver. All of you. As soon as you find it, rip it out. The first thing they'll try is to override our control from outside.”

  “Got it,” said Olivia.

  “A creative, daring escape!” Rayne said. “The perfect end to a theft. You certainly are professionals.”

  “Rayne?”

  “Yes, Ikki, my dear?”

  “Aren't we going out the same way we came in?”

  “Indeed we are.”

  “Then in what way is this daring escape creative?”

  Rayne paused for a moment and thought. “Well, you see, in most daring heists, the thieves leave by a different route from the one they entered by. But we are going to leave by magtube, exactly the same way we arrived! This is a unique way of doing heists, and is therefore by definition creative!”

  Olivia smiled. “Thank you,” she said.

  “By the Ancestral Abyss,” Mero said in a barely audible growl.

  The staff station came into view from behind the trees and staff facilities.

  “How long?” said Eloise.

  “It should be here in … just over a minute,” said Mero.

  Eloise nodded and held up her hand, signalling them to stop. “Tell us when it's thirty seconds. We go then.”

  *

  Scrimshaw crouched behind one of the steel barriers surrounding the staff station, pistol held firmly. Beside him, three other humans waited in similar positions. Two had pistols. One, as backup, had a submachine gun. It had taken his team less than a minute to get here after callout. Mr. Egliante would have expected nothing less.

  One of the station's normal guards stood beside him, out of cover and trying to look ordinary.

  “Are they in sight?” Scrimshaw asked.

  “No, sir,” said the guard, shifting his weight nervously from one leg to the other.

  “Stop fidgeting like that,” Scrimshaw said softly. “You'll give us away.”

  “Yes, sir.” The guard went still. Even so, his posture was filled with tension. He wasn't looking directly at Scrimshaw.

  “It'll be easy,” said Scrimshaw. “They walk over here, we shoot them. Done.”

  It wasn't quite that easy. Aim for the legs, he reminded himself. Mr. Egliante wanted them alive and ready to be interrogated.

  “I think I see them,” said the guard.

  “Well?”

  “Five people are coming this way. Two humans, three Petaurs.”

  Five? He'd been told to look out for three.

  “There's a girl wearing a weird dress and a woman in a staff uniform. Two of the Petaurs are wearing human coats.”

  Scrimshaw's hands tightened around his pistol. Were these the right people? They fit some of the description – staff and guests, humans and Petaurs working together. Egliante wouldn't be at all happy if some of his innocent guests got shot. It would hurt his reputation. But he would be still less pleased if the thieves escaped.

  “How close are they?” he asked.

  “Thirty metres. They're definitely coming this way. They don't seem to be armed.”

  Scrimshaw took the safety off his pistol. “Tap your foot when they're six metres away.”

  *

  Olivia felt a chill as they walked across the grass towards the staff station. Behind her she could hear the muffled caterwauling of the opera tent. Her eyes flicked across the garden, half expecting Egliante to appear from nowhere.

  She was counting down the seconds in her head. Twenty.

  “And so,” Ikki was saying, “when we have our party, we should have one giant cake with six layers, one for each species!”

  “A fantastic notion, my dear Ikki!”

  Up ahead, the staff station sat squat and ugly beside the magtube. Its steel barriers glinted red in the eternal sunset. One of the guards had noticed their approach and was watching them expectantly.

  The plan was simple enough. Walk up to the station. When the guard told them to leave, knock him and his friend out.

  Ten seconds.

  Nearly there. No one had stopped them yet.

  Mero's ears swivelled like radar dishes. His nose twitched. “Wait,” he said, holding up an arm.

  “What?” said Elois
e.

  “Get down!” shouted Mero. A moment later, Olivia saw three shapes rising from behind the steel barrier.

  Chapter 29: He's Going to Shoot Us

  The world seemed to slow. Olivia saw the pistols glinting in the attacker's hands as they stood. She saw a muzzle, a dark hole, moving to aim at them.

  Her first thought was, rather stupidly, He's going to shoot us.

  Her second thought was better, but no more helpful: There's no cover. He's going to shoot us and there's no cover.

  And before she got further, there was motion either side of her.

  Mero had the quickest reaction time. In the course of a second, he had taken his bolt pistol out, fired its last remaining shot, and hurled it at them. Bounding forwards on fours, close to the ground, he ripped the leather coat off.

  Eloise was in action a moment later, sprinting in a zigzag pattern to avoid being a target, she covered the last few metres to the station.

  At the same time, three gunshots rang out within a second of each other. In the distance, guests screamed. Olivia found herself already running to the side, unsure of what to do. She had no idea who or what had been hit. She caught a flash of movement behind her as Ikki and Rayne tried to escape too.

  When she next looked up, Mero was at the steel barrier. He threw his coat as he leapt over it. The coat entangled one attacker; Mero landed beside another.

  Someone else stood. This one had an assault rifle. He trained it on Mero, without worrying that he could easily hit his colleague at this distance..

  Eloise came up behind him, jabbing him in the kidney with one hand and pulling the assault rifle up with the other. It flashed and chattered loudly, firing into the ceiling. Its wielder fell to his knees as Eloise pulled the gun from his grasp.

  Another shot rang out. Eloise stumbled back, dropping the assault rifle.

  Olivia reached the station as Mero grabbed a pistol from one of the dead attackers and shot another at point blank.

  Another was about to shoot him. Acting on instinct, Olivia rushed forward and brought her foot down as hard as she could on the back of the attacker's leg.

  He barely stumbled, before turning and smacking her in the temple with the butt of his pistol. Pain flared; her vision wavered. She fell against the barrier. Then there was another shot, and he collapsed.

  Almost unnoticed, the maintenance car rolled up to the station.

  Olivia's head was still pounding, but she was awake. She looked around. The attackers were all dead. Their bodies lay on the floor. She could see the station's original guards running away across the garden.

  Eloise was leaning heavily against the steel barrier, panting heavily. One hand clutched her belly. The maroon velvet dark with blood.

  Across the garden, guests were still screaming. People were running in all direction. Ikki and Rayne bounded into the station, then froze.

  “Oh,” said Rayne.

  “Oh, my,” said Ikki.

  They fell silent.

  Olivia ran to Eloise. “Are you alright?” What a stupid question, she thought as soon as she'd asked it.

  Eloise was grimacing, her blonde curls spilling out from under her hat to cover her face. “Not so much,” she said in a strained voice, falling to her knees. “Can we get out of here now?”

  “Yes, yes, of course.” Olivia was about to help her, then she noticed something.

  The maintenance car had stopped and formed a seal, but the magtube doors hadn't opened.

  “Get down, you idiots!” snapped Mero, already in cover behind a steel barrier. “They're coming.”

  Most of the guests had scattered. But from across the garden, Olivia could see people dressed in black running towards them.

  Chapter 30: Maintenance Car

  A gunshot sounded, loud and sharp against a background of distant screaming, and sparks leapt off the magtube wall. Olivia dropped to the ground. Her heart was racing. This was it, wasn't it?

  “Olivia, snap out of it!” Mero said. “I'll deal with this problem, you deal with that one.” He pointed at the door with his thumb.

  “Right, right,” said Olivia.

  The Petaur couple were crouched by the other barrier.

  “Rayne?”

  “Yes, Ikki, my dear?”

  “I'm scared.”

  “So am I, Ikki my dear, but a true thief laughs in the face of fear.”

  Ikki tried giggling.

  Eloise picked up a pistol from the floor with her free hand, and fumbled with it for a moment, before dropping it. “Damnit,” she said in a weak voice. The handle was already wet with blood. She tried again.

  Meanwhile, Mero wrestled the assault rifle from the hands of a corpse. “Now this is more like it,” he said with a grin spreading across his face. He fumbled with it for a moment, joy turning to frustration, muttering quickly, “Stupid humans with their fat, clumsy fingers.”

  Even so, he had it in a fraction of a second. He looked over the barrier for a second, ears flat against his head, then lifted the rifle and fired. This close, the roar was deafening.

  “Ikki, Rayne, come over here,” said Olivia. “I need your help.” She crawled over to the magtube doors, tying to stay below cover. More bullets sparked off the tube over her head.

  The Petaur couple scrambled over.

  “Can you get your claws in there?” Olivia asked, pointing at the seam between the doors.

  They tried together, pushing their claws into the seam. It was too small.

  “Ow,” squeaked Ikki, rubbing her fingers.

  “I fear we are of no use,” said Rayne.

  Mero was hurriedly reloading the assault rifle. “Any time now would be great!” he snarled at them, then leaned over the barrier to shoot again.

  Olivia stared at the doors. Normally, they were locked by the difference in pressure. But with a seal on the other side, it should be possible to force them open. Somehow.

  A thunderous boom jolted out of her line of thought. One of the steel barriers was dented, as if it had been punched by immense force.

  “Oh shit,” muttered Mero. “They've got a Varanid. Hurry! I can't hold them off for long.”

  Olivia pressed her palms flat against one of the doors. She told Ikki and Rayne to do the same on the other door. Petaurs were physically weaker than humans, but two of them together should be enough. “Now pull!” she said.

  She pulled as hard as she could. She could feel the sweat on her palms, the cold sapphiroid beneath. For a second, nothing happened. Then the doors began to slide open. They moved less than an inch, but that was enough for her to get her fingers into the gap.

  Ikki and Rayne pulled from the other side, and the three of them pulled together. The doors moved achingly slowly with a pathetic whine.

  There was another gigantic bang, and the steel barrier burst open, blooming into a flower of torn metal where the Varanid's weapon had punctured it. The bullet – more like a shell than a bullet – was stopped by the sapphiroid of the magtube, and fell in a crumpled lump behind Rayne. It was as big as Olivia's fist.

  The door opened the rest of the way. “Okay!” shouted Olivia. She waved Ikki and Rayne inside, then went to help Eloise.

  Mero was still firing the assault rifle. All his attention was concentrated on the Varanid. “Watch out!” he said.

  “What?” said Olivia.

  The sound of footsteps sounded faintly between the gunfire. Someone was nearly on top of them. Olivia had just enough time to grab the pistol beside Eloise when a man dressed in black came running around the barrier.

  It was more luck than anything. She had the pistol pointed in the right direction, whereas he was aiming high, focussed on Mero.

  Olivia fired.

  The man stumbled back.

  Olivia fired twice more, and he collapsed.

  She turned the safety on, then dragged Eloise across the platform. As they passed the maintenance car, she saw the Varanid nearly at the station, holding up an arm to ward off the assault ri
fle fire.

  Mero dropped the rifle and swung about. He leapt and glided through the doors right over Olivia and Eloise, bounced off the wall, and jumped to the control panel.

  Olivia watched as the Varanid tore through the steel barrier and came right at her, its giant handgun aimed at her.

  The doors closed with a hiss, and a sudden acceleration tugged her to the side as the maintenance car began to reverse. “Oops,” said Mero. The car changed direction suddenly. As they passed the station again, Olivia caught a glimpse of the Varanid trying to smash the magtube, without success. And then they were away, hurtling down the tube.

  Chapter 31: Doing Maintenance

  Olivia sat back, breathing heavily. Images of the man in the black combat gear collapsing flashed through her mind. She realised she was still clutching the pistol. She dropped it. Its bloodied handle had stained her palm red.

  “Oh, God,” she whispered to herself. “I actually killed someone.”

  She pushed the thought out of her mind and looked around.

  The maintenance car was small, maybe ten metres long. The front had a control panel with a large, flat window. The other end had a computer terminal and several storage spaces. There was a hatch in the middle of the floor, and another in the ceiling. A circular window set into the floor gave a direct view of the tracks and a glimpse of some complex equipment below the car.

  It was much louder than the trains had been, and looking out the window, she could see why. Instead of using the maglev tracks, it roared down the tube on fat rubber tyres sticking out in front of and behind the chassis.

  Ikki and Rayne was hanging from the ceiling, investigating a box. “Ooh! Ooh! I think this is the network transceiver,” said Ikki.

  “Why's that, my dear?” said Rayne.

  “It has the words network transceiver written on it!” said Ikki. She clawed at something in the box, then dropped a tangle of wires onto the floor.