The Iron Admiral: Conspiracy
Page 7
“It would mean war with the ptorix. We have to stop it.”
Hope shone a chink of light into the veil of darkness enveloping her. “How?”
“Well, there are explosives here. You have the skill to destroy their data. I can set explosives to blow up the lab. We can take shardite from the secret warehouse.”
They could, yes. “I can reset the inventory so nobody will know.”
“Yes. I thought you could. We’ll also have to steal a ship to escape.”
“You can fly a ship?”
“Yes. It’s not hard, my love. In fact a ship’s information system does most of the work. But it must
recognize the pilot to obey instructions so I’ll need for you to work out how to do that, how to give me authority to command the ship.”
My love. She’d let that one go by for now. “Where do I find out how to do that?”
“The military InfoDroid,” he said.
“Of course.” She felt better already at the prospect of doing something useful. “When do we move?
How long have I got?”
“We’ll have tomorrow to prepare and tomorrow night we’ll make a move.”
“Where to from here?”
“We’ll head for Chollarc. I have a ship there. Then we can head on to Malmos and get married.”
Her heart jolted. “Married?”
“Yes. I love you.”
The very notion took her breath away. No question, no argument. For Brad Stone, it seemed, one led to the other. “You’ve only known me for five minutes.”
“I fell in love with you the first time I set eyes on you. I feel like I’ve waited for you all my life.”
Oh, buckrats. “Marriage isn’t such a great thing.”
“It’s a public statement, a commitment.”
He couldn’t be serious. But he was. He spoke with absolute certainty. He hadn’t even asked her, as if there could only be one answer. She wasn’t too sure she liked that. She hadn’t even had sex with him. It might be awful. Mightn’t it?
“It’s too soon for me, Brad. Much too sudden. I like you. I like you lots. But marriage?”
I need time to end the last one, her conscious mind screamed. Sean. What about his debt if she
disappeared? No, that should be all right. She’d make sure she finished the system for van Tongeren so he’d get his payment. This way she could leave and let him do whatever he wanted. And so could she.
Love. The very thought stirred up a veritable flock of butterflies in her stomach. She could so easily fall in
love with Brad Stone. But then, she’d thought she was in love with Sean.No, no, back off quickly,
Allysha. Love is for suckers.
Brad’s arm tightened around her. “You’re going to make me wait?”
Maybe she should tell him about Sean. But then, what would he think? That she was cheating? Oh,
buckrats. Whatever she had with Brad, she wanted to keep it. And after all, the most important thing was going to be to stop that virus. Maybe she’d keep Sean to herself for a while, until they were off the planet, at least.
“I’m not ready to talk about marriage, Brad. Not by a long shot. Let’s take one step at a time.”
“Yes, of course. You’re right.” He swallowed. “I’ll… I’ll see you in the control room, this evening.”
“Goodnight, Brad.”
One last hungry stare and he turned and went out the door.
The room felt empty. Call him back; she could still call him back. She took a step, reached out to the door control. No. She turned around and leant her back against the cool metal. She should go to bed,
get some rest.
She felt so stupid, so unutterably naive. Jarrad had seemed so nice. He’d used her. This horrible virus was out there and it was all her fault. Misery rose, a cloying fog in her soul. Her fault. Around her the curved, whitewashed walls of the bedroom mocked her. She’d seen through the whitewash to the reality
underneath. But Jarrad had fooled her, used her up and spat her out. She shook her shoulders, trying to shrug off this feeling of helplessness. She wasn’t helpless. She and Brad would end this. And then… then she’d go home. Or maybe not. Oh, buckrats. Too much to think about, too many choices.
Chapter Thirteen
The day crawled past. Saahren spent a few hours in the staff gymnasium lifting weights, running, using the exercise machines and thinking of Allysha. He showered and spent most of the rest of the time lying on his bed, dreaming of her. He couldn’t get her out of his head. She was beautiful. Soft and warm and
delicious. He remembered her scent, the feel of her in his arms; even if she was sobbing. He toyed with the idea of going to find her, to see what she was doing but it would have been wrong. She’d be in the control room. They couldn’t have talked, anyway. And she would be busy finding out all she could about how to activate a K-400 interstellar cruiser like the one in the mountain’s hangar. A day or so to
Chollarc, pick up his ship and head back to Malmos. One step at a time, she’d said. He’d accept that.
But she would be his wife.
Except she had a problem with Admiral Saahren.Chohzu the Destroyer. She’d been so vehement about
it. He still didn’t know why. Somehow last night hadn’t seemed like the right time. It would have to wait until they were off this planet.
The numbers on the chrono crawled by. With an hour to go before his shift, he went along to the tavern to buy himself some lunch. The same bouncy music played but at least not as loud as in the evenings. The barmaid was deep in flirtation with a miner, whose nose was just about in her cleavage. She dragged
herself away from him to serve Saahren.
“A burger with the lot and a glass of citrose. I’ll be outside.”
He chose a table under a tree. Another hour. He glanced around at the sound of a girl’s giggle and
turned away again. That blond fellow had one of the girls virtually crawling all over him. He was
certainly
a hit with the women, that one.
The barmaid brought him his food. He paid her, adding a generous tip. She fluttered her lashes at him.
“I’m free in a couple of hours.”
“I’m not.”
He bit into the burger and she flounced away with a disappointed pout. Food finished, he returned to his quarters, put on his uniform and went off to the mine.
Allysha was still at her desk in the control room when he arrived. His heart surged at the sight of her but he made himself ignore her and listen to Bakram’s hand-over. They’d caught one of the deep miners
trying to steal some altari stone dust. Nothing else had happened. Bakram wished him a good afternoon and headed off.
“Hello, Brad. How are you?”
The voice in his head almost startled him. Allysha. How had she obtained the access code for his
implant? He looked at her through the partition, at the slight curve of her lips, the sparkle in her green eyes. Silly question. She was incredible; absolutely incredible.
He concentrated, activating the reply.“Does this work both ways?” He thought the words.
“Of course. But only if we’re near each other. I thought it might be useful.”
“It certainly is.”
“Have you done your homework on the K-400?”
“Uh-huh. I’m ready to go on that. Have you picked an explosive?”
“No. We’ll have to do that together. Can you ‘disappear’ me at twenty-five hundred?”
“Sure. Meet you in the store room.”She rose to her feet.
“I love you.”
She hesitated. Would she say it? I love you, too?
“See you soon.”
And she was gone, out through the door into the tunnel. He sighed, a tingle of disappointment in his
heart. But this was meant to be, it had to be. It was as if destiny had organized for his idiotic sacking just so he could be here to meet her. His mother wou
ld have agreed with that hypothesis, even if she
wouldn’t approve of him marrying an outsider. Well, that was too bad.
He set off on his first routine check of the mine, down to the gate, around to the hangar to check the K-400 was still there, where he exchanged a few casual words with the guard. He strolled past the
medical center where he nodded to the attendant. Then back to the control room.
Time dragged, as it always did when you watched the clock. At last the minutes ticked around toward
twenty-five hundred. He headed for the store room, walking at his normal pace. The tunnels were empty, as they always were at this time of night. She was there, waiting, just inside the infra-red barrier. She smiled, a taut lifting of the lips, when he came in.
“Hello. Nervous?”he said the words in his head.
She nodded.“Yes. But I’m ready.”
He dropped the infra-red barrier for the time it took to pass behind the counter and went to the secret warehouse for the explosives. He pulled down the carton and took out two packs of shardite and
detonators, enough to blow the room to smithereens but not bring down the mountain, and slipped the
blocks into his pockets.
She had her oblong device—she called it her techpack—in her hand. “Give me a sec to adjust the
inventory.” She raised her head. “Done.”
“Now for the medical research center.”
She followed behind him, back to the main drive, along to the medical center and into the laboratory.
“Copy some of the data off the system so we have the evidence and then destroy it all.” He’d made it an order, damn it. “Please.”
While she worked on the computers he pulled the two shardite charges out of his pockets. Where best
to place them? One on top of the benches to cause maximum damage. He molded the material around
the fixtures and attached the detonator. And another here. Allysha had disappeared, he guessed into the foyer. He opened all the cupboard doors, switched off the climate conditioning and set the second
charge.
A screeching howl from the room with the cages froze the blood in his veins. He leapt to his feet, heart racing.
Allysha charged toward him, eyes wide, mouth open. “A kartek.”
She tried to slam the door behind her but a heavy, clawed foot stopped the movement. A hooked talon,
long as a saber, appeared in the gap above her head.
Chapter Fourteen
Saahren grabbed her arm and flung her behind him as the beast smashed the door aside. He pulled out
his pistol, flicked the power to maximum and fired a beam at the kartek’s muzzle. It howled, a
high-pitched shriek that jangled his nerves.
“Go for the door, Allysha.”
He heard the soft swish as the door slid aside behind him. The kartek advanced on two powerful hind
legs, claws clicking on the tiled floor. Eyes like lamps fixed on him, red and resentful. Its breath stank like
rotting meat, hissing between the needle-like teeth in a jutting jaw. Saahren backed away, the Emson held in both hands. The best he could do was to delay the creature for long enough to get out and lock the door.
“Nearly there,” Allysha said. “Two more steps.”
“Be ready to close it as soon as I’m through.”
The beast lunged, striking down with terrifying speed. He dodged, heart pounding, and fired a long
stream at the kartek’s eye. It screamed in agony, thrashing its head from side to side. He dived through the exit, rolled and kept firing at the kartek through the dwindling gap until the door thunked closed.
He sagged, panting. How long had it been since he’d last done any hand-to-hand fighting? The trapped
beast howled its pain and outrage amidst muffled crunching and smashing. It must be tearing the place apart. He’d hardly need the explosives.
Allysha knelt beside him, a hand on his shoulder.
“Are you all right?”
He pulled himself upright and stared at her. She was disheveled, frightened but unmarked. He pulled her into his arms and hugged her, his hands sliding over her back, squeezing. If that thing had reached her, if that talon had stabbed her… She’d put herself in danger. Idiot. Beautiful, adorable idiot.
He held her at arms length, staring down at her. “What in blazes possessed you to let that thing in?”
Her eyebrows rose. Then she frowned. “I went to see those cages they kept the ptorix in. I heard
scratching against the far door and I thought there might have been ptorix through there. So I opened it.”
She was angry, irritated. He sighed, shaking his head. He’d messed it up again. This woman thing wasn’t part of his job description.
“You frightened me, Allysha. You have no idea how much. If anything had happened to you I would
never have forgiven myself.”
“I wasn’t too thrilled myself.” The anger had evaporated. Now she stood, eyes downcast as if
embarrassed. She probably was.
“How did it get here?” he said. “Was that a holding pen for a kartek or a passage outside?”
She brought up the mountain graphic and enlarged the medical area. “A passage outside.”
“Yes, I thought so. That’s how they disposed of the bodies.”
She shuddered.
He put an arm around her. “Come on. We have a K-400 to steal.”
****
Allysha’s heart still danced a tango in her chest. She hadn’t planned on meeting the wildlife on this
planet. Yet another reason to get the hell out of here. Brad blasted the locks on the door marked ‘No admission’ before they left the medical center. Fair enough, too. She’d hate for anybody to walk in on a kartek.
She made a show of getting out her techpack and sent the command to the security system to fix Brad
as being in the control room. She’d already set her own location as her room. Brad checked his tablet, intact on his belt despite his dive and roll through the door, nodded and stepped out into a dark tunnel.
“Time to blow the lab,” he said.
She sent the command to trigger the detonators. A dull whump and then the sounds of breaking glass,
rumbles, clatters, crashes that quickly dwindled into silence.
He turned on his torch. She took it from his hand and turned the beam down to a glow. “It’s enough for me to see,” she said.
“How?” Amazement colored his tone.
“My eyes were modified when I was a baby so I could see the same frequencies as the Tors. Come
on.”
She led the way through the tunnels to the store room and into the secret warehouse, walking between
tall rows of shelves
“Anything new here?”he asked via his implant.
“Not that I can see.”
She stopped at a wide, high doorway.
“The hangar’s through here.”
They slipped through a personnel door set in the larger door into an enormous open space, sparsely lit.
New surfaces, pale and smooth, stood out against the darker unworked rock where rock cutters had
done their work. This had been a natural cave, shaped and widened for its purpose. Prefab buildings
lined a wall, offices and storage space. Only the guardroom glowed with light, a beacon in the dimness.
The K-400 cruiser, its wings withdrawn into the fuselage, stood to one side. Sleds and maintenance
vehicles were parked in orderly lines. Piles of neatly stacked crates occupied a corner.
“I’ll take the lead,”he said.
She stood aside for him. The pistol in his hand, he sidled along the wall toward the pre-fabs, squeezing past the fronts of the line of vehicles parked side by side.
Bright light blinded her.
She stopped, pulse pounding, as her eyes fought to adjust. Shit. They’d turned on t
he main lights. Brad grabbed her hand and ducked under the closest sled’s nose. It wasn’t much, but the shadows were
deep.
A motor engaged. Nerves jangling, she peered around the sled. The massive door that sealed the cavern from the jungle rose steadily into the rock. Something huge and dark and noisy appeared in the bay
entrance. Fear rippled up her body. And subsided as her brain registered a ship, maneuvering through the opening. A small freighter, snub-nosed and ugly, landed gently on the rock floor not twenty meters from where they hid. She narrowed her eyes against the cloud of fine dust raised by its thrusters.
As the engines shut down and the craft settled, the cargo door opened and a ramp slid down. Men
emerged from the tunnel that led to the main drive.
“Move it, you fellows,” a voice she didn’t recognize said. “The sooner you get that cargo off, the sooner you can go back to bed.”
The men slouched toward the row of sleds where she and Brad hid. Uh-oh. If they needed more than
two or three sleds, she and Brad were in trouble.
“Don’t move, whatever you do,”Brad said.
She hadn’t been intending to. But then again, they could probably hear the thundering of her heart.
The first sled from the end of the line moved off.
“I hate these unexpected arrivals,” somebody grumbled. “I was dead asleep.”
The next sled’s engine started.
“Aah. Just think of the money,” a man replied.
The sled slid away, maneuvered around and headed for the freighter.
The pilot climbed down from the cockpit and walked toward the main tunnel to meet two new arrivals.
Allysha stifled the groan. Oh, buckrats. Van Tongeren and Sean.
“Do you know who he is? The blond one?”
“His name’s O’Reilly.”That was true, after all. And she’d tell him the rest later.
The three men stopped four meters away. Beyond them, the ground crew shifted cartons and crates out
of the freighter and added them to the existing piles.
“Good trip?” van Tongeren said. He’d raised his voice to be heard above the bangs and crashes and the whine of the sled motors.