by Michael Rose
“All right, Rick,” said Brain over his earpiece. “We’ve drawn their attention. Get ready for the fireworks.”
Sullivan glanced at the monitor that was feeding them an image from a camera mounted in one of the trucks. From the towers on the corners of the compound’s wall, men could be seen training large-caliber guns on the trucks.
“Now!” Brain yelled. A missile streamed from Brain’s position and struck one of the guard towers. An explosion shook the camera, and once it stabilized, Sullivan could see the guard tower in ruins. The next moment, the camera went dead, apparently hit by the barrage of lead being fired from the second tower.
“Let’s go!” said Sullivan to the ship’s pilot.
The ship lifted off and quickly covered the kilometer and a half to the compound. As it descended, the pilot lowered the cargo door. Six meters off the ground, Sullivan looked out and saw that the men in the guard tower were turning their gun toward the ship. As the ship continued to descend, Sullivan raised his energy rifle and fired off three quick rounds, destroying the big mounted gun and killing one of the men.
The ship landed hard, and as soon as Sullivan turned his attention to the ground, more men began streaming from the building. As he started firing at Zednik’s men, the Bureau agents took their places beside him.
Sullivan paused to load another energy clip into his rifle. “Get the gate open!” he yelled to Brain’s men as he knocked the clip home. He raised his rifle again to cover the men as they sprinted out from behind the barricades that had been set up in the ship’s cargo hold. Despite the covering fire, two of them went down as soon as they cleared the enclosed protection of the ship.
The third made it around the side of the ship and disappeared from view.
“He’s not going to make it,” said Allen as he ducked behind the barrier to reload.
“Ives, check on him,” said Sullivan.
Ives backed away from the barrier and entered the cockpit to look out the front of the ship, toward the compound’s gate. He returned a moment later. “He didn’t make it. I can see him lying on the ground in front of the gate’s access panel.”
Sullivan turned his attention back to the building. The fire had subsided. Six of Zednik’s men lay dead or dying, and the rest had taken cover back inside the house.
“All right,” he said. “Allen and Ives, you come with me. Wagner, keep up your fire on that doorway. Watch the windows, too.”
On Sullivan’s signal, the three men leapt over the barrier and scrambled around the side of the ship, firing blindly behind them as they went. They made it to the front of the ship and took cover underneath the overhanging nose of the cockpit. Sullivan scanned the area between him and the compound’s gate. None of Zednik’s men were present. He took a step toward the gate’s access panel but was sent scrambling back to the cover of the ship as three solid rounds hit the concrete in front of him. A fourth round chased him back into cover and grazed the top of his shoulder.
Sullivan brought his hand up to the wound and peeked out from under the ship. The second man in the guard tower was still in the fight. With the big gun destroyed, he was armed only with a handgun. That was fortunate. At this distance, his aim wasn’t likely to be accurate. Sullivan brought his energy rifle up, took three long strides out from under the cover and returned fire. Two shots hit the thick wall of the guard tower, gouging out chunks of concrete. The man briefly raised his head above the wall, but it was enough for Sullivan. A single shot found the man’s head and carved a smooth gouge across the top of his skull.
Sullivan took another few steps toward the access panel but checked his progress. Going to the panel would expose him to fire from the house.
“I need more cover!” he yelled back to Allen.
Allen and Ives went around to the side of the ship and laid down fire as Sullivan sprinted to the panel. He typed in the code that Hans had revealed to him. To his relief, it was the right code. The gate slowly parted in the middle, and the two halves swung inward. Outside, Sullivan could see one of Brain’s trucks in flames. The other had survived the firefight intact.
As the gate opened, Brain’s men streamed through it and into the compound. They ran past Sullivan and toward the building. After a minute of intense fighting, the sound of the gunfire subsided.
“They’ve all moved away from the doors and windows,” said Allen as Sullivan came up to stand beside him.
“All right,” said Sullivan to Ives, Allen and the other men around him. “With me.”
They moved up to the side of the building and hugged the wall. Sullivan went in first and cleared the entryway. As he went in, he kept his attention on the far end of the room where a hallway led to some more rooms. Once they knew it was clear, the others came in behind him. To the left of the hallway, a staircase led up to the second story.
“Ives, hold here. Allen, clear those rooms,” said Sullivan, indicating the hallway. “I’ll take the stairs.”
“Wait,” said Ives.
Sullivan turned to look behind him.
Ives shook his head. “Allen isn’t with us.”
“Where is he?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t seen him since we came into the building.”
Sullivan glanced at the faces around him. “All right. Ives, take that hallway. I’ll hold here until you give me the all-clear.”
Ives and two men took to the hallway. They cleared first one room, then a second. At the third, Sullivan heard gunfire. He turned his attention from the stairway and toward the hall. Ives and one man emerged from the room.
“He killed one of Brain’s men, but I got him.”
“Who? Zednik?”
“No. It was the man who killed Takemitsu. The assassin.”
“Younger,” said Sullivan. He was glad to know that that dangerous man was out of the equation.
“Hold here, Ives. I’m taking the second story.”
Sullivan and three of Brain’s men made their way up the stairs. He cleared first one room, then another. Three more rooms also showed themselves to be unoccupied. The compound was clear.
Sullivan sat down on the bed of the last room. There was a familiar scent. He took up the pillow from the bed and held it to his nose. Kate. She had been here.
“Search the entire house,” he said to Brain’s men. Look for any hidden rooms or passageways. Tear the place apart.”
Sullivan went back downstairs as Brain’s men searched. Ives stood in the entryway.
“Did you find Allen?” Sullivan asked as he came down.
Ives said nothing. Sullivan approached him and put his hand on the agent’s shoulder. “Where’s Allen?”
A tear dripped from Ives’s chin. “When we came in, he glanced back at the ship. He was looking for Wagner.”
Sullivan squeezed Ives’s shoulder then moved past him and out the door. Behind the barricade in the ship’s cargo hold, he could see Allen’s head and shoulders. He was kneeling, his head bowed.
Sullivan stepped into the hold and put his hand on the top of the barricade. Liz Wagner lay on the floor behind it, blood pooling beneath her from a gunshot wound in the side of her neck.
Allen looked up at Sullivan. “Did you get him? Did you get Zednik?”
Sullivan turned away. “He got away somehow.”
“And Kate?”
“She’s gone, too.”
Allen turned back to Wagner’s body. “Then it was for nothing. All this was for nothing.”
“I’m so sorry, Frank.”
“Don’t. Just go, Sullivan. I can’t look at you right now.”
Sullivan opened his mouth to say something else but thought better of it. He turned back toward the building and went inside.
THEY WERE MOVING fast. Kate couldn’t see anything from her position inside the trunk, but based on the sound of other vehicles nearby, she suspected they were heading back into the city, not away from it.
Abraham Emerson had come to her when the shooting had begun. He’d led h
er down to the first floor while Zednik’s men were distracted by the attack, taken her into the pantry of the kitchen, lifted a trapdoor and taken her down a spiral staircase to a tunnel.
Abraham had clicked on a flashlight and had turned to reassure Kate when his face went pale. The next moment, Kate had heard a voice behind her.
“Thank you, Mr. Emerson, for seeing Kate to safety. She’s worth nothing to me dead.”
“Yes, Mr. Zednik,” Abraham had said. Zednik had grabbed Kate by the arm and led them down the tunnel and to a garage that was hidden in a rock outcropping in the desert.
Zednik had put Kate in the trunk before she heard two doors close. She hoped that meant that Abraham was still with them. She hoped he could do something to stop Zednik.
KATE HEARD THE rumbling of a large door being opened. The car moved forward, stopped and the engine was cut. After a few minutes, the trunk opened. Two men grabbed Kate, pulled her through the warehouse and to a waiting freight ship. She was taken on board and locked inside one of the cabins. After briefly banging on the door and yelling, she turned to survey her next prison cell. Abraham Emerson was lying on one of the bunks, holding a blood-stained towel to his head.
“Oh my god!” Kate moved to him and knelt beside him. “Abraham, are you all right?”
Abraham smiled beneath the towel. “I’ve been better, but it’s a slight wound. I believe it’s already stopped bleeding.”
“Why are you in here?”
“I suppose Mr. Zednik has begun to question my loyalty.”
Kate shook her head. “This is my fault. I got you into this.”
“No, Miss Alexander. I chose to try and help you escape. I chose to do what was right. There is no apology needed.”
Kate lifted the towel from his head and looked at the wound. “You’re right, it has stopped bleeding.” She took the towel to the sink and wet it. She returned to his side and began wiping away the dried blood.
Outside the cabin, they could hear the tell-tale signs of a ship being prepared for liftoff. The cargo hold door was being raised, and the engines were beginning to whine as they powered up. A few moments later, they felt the ship rise and accelerate. Kate stumbled as the artificial gravity was engaged. The ship increased its speed then all was still and quiet. Kate knew they had jumped into hyperspace. After a few minutes, Abilene—and Rick—would be more than a billion kilometers away.
19
ONCE WORD GOT out that Zednik’s safe house had been taken down and the man himself failed to reappear, it wasn’t long before the rest of his operation fell apart. Eugene Brain benefitted greatly from the attack. He’d not only taken down Zednik but also had the Bureau in his pocket, or so he’d allowed people to believe.
Allen didn’t mind. If he ever had to come back to Abilene, he wanted someone around who owed him favors. Sullivan posed another problem. The deal had been that Sullivan would turn himself in if Allen helped him rescue Kate. But Zednik still had Kate; the rescue hadn’t been a success. And Liz Wagner and John Takemitsu were dead. Allen would return to Earth a failure and with the bodies of two dead agents… two dead friends.
As he sat in the hotel room, he realized that he had yet to properly mourn. So much had been happening; there were so many things that still had to be done. There would months ahead, years, to mourn Liz. Rick Sullivan was his immediate concern.
Allen heard a knock on the door. He got up and opened it to find Sullivan standing in the hall. Allen hadn’t seen him since the raid. Sullivan had quietly slipped away and, from what Allen had heard, had been busy helping Brain dismantle Zednik’s operation and trying to find information about Kate.
The two men looked at each other for a long time before Allen finally spoke. “You come to surrender?”
Sullivan pursed his lips. “Can I come in?”
Allen stepped aside and allowed him to pass. Sullivan took a seat by the window. He noticed the bottle of Dacian whiskey empty on the table. He pulled the curtain back and gazed out into the street.
“You didn’t answer my question,” said Allen, taking the seat opposite.
“I’m sorry about Liz.”
“It’s… please don’t. If I’m going to talk to someone about it, it’s not going to be you, all right?”
“Why not me? I’m responsible. It was my plan that got her….”
“Stop talking now!” Allen stood up from the chair and began pacing the room. Sullivan closed his mouth and turned his attention back to the street.
Allen took a few deep breaths, returned to the table and retook his seat. “Rick, it’s not your fault. Both Liz and I agreed to the plan, we knew the risks. I only wish we could have found Kate.”
Sullivan cleared his throat. “Along those lines, Brain has received news that Zednik took off in one of his ships shortly after our raid on his compound. He probably took Kate with him.”
“I don’t suppose he submitted a flight plan.”
“No. But he’s a well-known man. He’ll turn up eventually. I’m going to start on Damaris. It’s closer to Silvanus but still a non-SA planet. If Zednik wants money from Kate’s father, it makes sense that he’d go where he can get it quickly but still avoid the reach of the Bureau.”
“So you’re not turning yourself in?”
“I can’t, Frank. Not while Kate is still out there.”
Allen rapped on the table with his fingers. “I have an obligation.” As soon as he said it, he realized how uncommitted he sounded.
Sullivan shook his head. “No, Frank. The only obligation you have now is to Liz. Get her home to her family.” He stood, walked to the door and opened it.
“I could stop you, Rick. I could take you by force.”
“Yes, you could. So long, Frank.”
Allen shook his head. “So long, Rick.” He watched as Sullivan stepped out and closed the door behind him.
Yes, he could have tried to stop him. He could have drawn his gun and ordered the man to surrender. But he didn’t want to. Sullivan was out for blood, and by tracking down Zednik and rescuing Kate, he would also avenge Liz.
Allen turned to the window. Below, he could see Sullivan jog across the street and disappear into an alleyway. There was only one way this would end. Either Sullivan would kill Zednik or Zednik would kill Sullivan. Allen’s money was on Sullivan. Zednik had put a lot of effort into protecting himself, ensuring that whatever happened to his operations or his men, he’d remain unscathed. But that meant he didn’t know how to survive without his people around to look after him. For years, Zednik had played god on Abilene. But now everything had changed. Now the Devil was on his trail.
BOOK TWO
A CITY WITHOUT
WALLS
I:
PROMISES
1
TRENTON WAS A miserable place. So miserable that not even the corporate mining interests would touch it. They had touched it at one time, briefly, just long enough to build a habitation and mining complex that covered twelve square kilometers. And they had touched it just long enough to let two thousand men and women die when Trenton’s highly unstable tectonic plates shifted, destroying a quarter of that complex as the planet’s surface split apart and lava flowed up through the fissures and into the streets.
They could send automated machines, steel behemoths that could mine and process fifteen tons of rock per hour, but their accountants had convinced them that it wasn’t worth the risk. The loss of a dozen machines would break any mining interest. The loss of two thousand people had been quite a bit less costly. No, there were other worlds to exploit. It was best not to risk it.
Because of this, all this and a dozen other reasons, Harvey cursed under his breath when he saw the tracking data on the stolen freighter. It had left Damaris after Richard Sullivan had stolen it and, presumably, killed its owner, a freight runner named Oscar Jones. Then the ship had disappeared. It was only a matter of time before it would turn up again, though. Harvey had been waiting ever since, waiting for a probe or any ot
her passing ship to pick up the freighter’s identification signal. It was finally detected by a private ship that had done a fly-by over Trenton. They were sight-seeing, looking at the impressive lava flows, but when their ship flew within range of the freighter, it had silently logged the ID signal, as was routine, then uploaded that information to Damaris’s planetary database upon its return.
Harvey had flagged the ID signal, and when the freighter’s location finally reached him, he was ready to go within six hours. He didn’t know what Sullivan was doing on that god-forsaken world, but he hoped he’d still be doing it long enough for Harvey to find him.
Harvey had cursed again when he and Ross arrived at Trenton. He’d never been there before, but the sight was overwhelming. It was a Mars-sized rock covered in a thick atmosphere. It had boasted life a million years ago, but the tectonic shifts, the eruptions and the continent-wide lava flows had killed off all but the simplest of microbes. It was technically a moon, not a planet, orbiting a gas giant that shared the same sun as Damaris. Sullivan had not gone far. It was clear he wanted to keep close to Damaris for some reason. Harvey didn’t much care why.
As Harvey’s ship dipped below the cloud layer and the forbidding surface came into view, a notice popped up on the screen in front of him. The freighter’s ID signal had been detected. Sullivan was still here, or at least the ship was.
Harvey programmed the ship to touch down near the freighter. “All right,” he said, turning to Ross. “You ready for this?”
Ross, in response, tapped the firearm at his side and smiled.
“Good.” Harvey checked his own gear. “But if we’re lucky, he’ll already be dead. It would mean no bounty, but I have a bad feeling about this one.”
Rebreathers weren’t absolutely necessary on Trenton, but Harvey and Ross wore them anyway. Keeping clean air in their lungs would help them if they had to confront Sullivan.
