Earthbound (The Reach, Book 1)

by Mark R. Healy

  “We should go,” Ursie said, already moving away.

  “The tattoo,” Knile said, the conversation with Ursie momentarily forgotten. “There’s information embedded inside it.”

  “What? Knile, we have to get moving.”

  “Hidden data. Maybe coordinates, or–”

  “Knile, come on!”

  He finally lowered his arm and began to move after her.

  “Sorry, got carried away.”

  They began to run, but Knile couldn’t quite shake the words the child had spoken to him back in Gaslight after she had tagged him with the tattoo.

  It’s the only way out.

  36

  Duran waited and stared at his desk phone, his patience running thin. The inane hold music seeped into his office through the speaker like toxic fumes, driving steel pins into his frayed consciousness. His finger hovered over the mute button, but he couldn’t bring himself to push it. After all, this torturous melody was the only thing keeping his exhaustion at bay. Without it he knew he was likely to slump onto his desk, unconscious.

  Mercifully, the music abruptly stopped and Commissioner Prazor appeared on the screen.

  “What is it, Alec?” he said sharply, wasting no time with niceties. “You look like hell,” he added.

  “I’m sorry. I haven’t slept, sir.”

  “Still on this Oberend thing, are you?”

  “Yes. That’s what I’m calling about.”

  “We’ve been over this, Alec. I’m not giving you more men.”

  “Commissioner, this issue is escalating,” Duran insisted. “Did you hear about the incident in Lux two hours ago?”

  Prazor sighed, exasperated. “You’re not going to try to pin that on Oberend as well, are you?”

  “He was there,” Duran fumed, making a poor attempt at holding back his frustration. “I interviewed three witnesses at the scene who saw Oberend on the premises just before the first shots were fired.” Prazor opened his mouth to interrupt, but Duran kept going. “I also have reason to believe that a drug lord named Alton Wilt is tied up in this somehow. There’s going to be more bodies piling up before these two are done, Commissioner.”

  “The proper investigations are being conducted on the incident in Lux, and if what you say is true–”

  “That’s not good enough!” Duran yelled, thumping his fist on the desk so hard that the phone jumped. “That’ll take days!”

  Prazor bristled at Duran’s tone of voice and took a moment to compose himself. When he spoke, his voice was even and emotionless.

  “Inspector, I’m not authorising any more resources to this manhunt of yours until I have some facts. Cold hard facts. I’m also revoking your dispensation to investigate this issue. Return to your allocated assignments immediately.”

  Duran ground his teeth together. “And if I don’t?”

  “Then you’ll end up back in the slums, but this time you won’t be wearing an Enforcer uniform when you go.”

  The image disappeared and the phone went dark. Duran continued to stare at it as if he might bring the commissioner back by willpower alone, but nothing happened.

  Infuriated, he gathered his things from the desk and got up, then looked back at the phone one more time.

  This might be your last chance.

  He turned his face to the door and considered walking out, but suddenly that fury inside him seemed to burn itself out, and nothing was left but the smouldering ruins of his anger. He sat at the desk and punched in another number.

  The phone rang twice, three times. Four. Then an old man appeared on the screen, adjusting his spectacles and attempting to smooth the tufts of errant grey hair on his balding pate.

  “Hello?” the old man said.

  “Dad?”

  The old man ceased his fussing and peered closer.

  “Alec? Is that you?” he said, disbelieving.

  “Yeah. It’s me.”

  “Well, I… I thought you were gone. I thought you must be–”

  “I’m still here. I’m still around.”

  “What happened to you, Alec? Where have you been?”

  Duran rubbed at his eyebrows, staring down at his desk so that he didn’t have to look the old man in the eyes.

  “I made a lot of mistakes, Dad. A lot of wrong moves.”

  “It happens to us all.”

  “No. Not like this.”

  “Where have you been, Alec? I haven’t heard from you in years.”

  Duran struggled to rein in his emotions. “They sent me away, Dad. They punished me for all the things I did wrong.” He took a deep breath. “I’m sorry, Dad. I didn’t want you to know.”

  “We all stumble, Alec. Every one of us. The mark of a man is not how many times he falls, but how many times he can pick himself up again and carry on.” He lowered the spectacles. “You picked yourself up again, didn’t you, Alec?”

  “Yeah.”

  “That’s why I’ve always been proud of you, son. Your mother, too, before she passed. You have spirit. You don’t give up.”

  “I just thought that–”

  “You have nothing to be ashamed of,” his father said with a note of finality. “No matter what happens, I’ll always be proud to call you my son.”

  Those words melted away a great chunk of the protective barrier Duran had erected around his emotions, and he knew that he had to end the call before he lost it completely.

  “I, uh… I have to go and do something, Dad. I have to go up against some very bad men, and I’m not sure if I’m going to come out the other side of it. Not this time. I just wanted to…”

  He trailed off, and his father smiled sadly. “I suppose there’s no one else who can do this job in your stead?”

  “No. It’s up to me.”

  The old man’s smile widened, the corners of his eyes crinkling. “That’s why you’re the best at what you do, son. You were always willing to do what the others weren’t.” He pushed the spectacles back up onto the bridge of his nose. “So you go and do it. You hold your head high to the end.”

  Duran blinked back tears, smiling at the conviction in his father’s voice, the unflinching belief.

  “I will, Dad.”

  “After it’s done, you come and visit me. We’ll have a good long talk, just like old times. Do you think you can do that?”

  “Of course. I’d love to.”

  “Then it’s settled.” The old man smiled again. “So good to hear from you, Alec.”

  “You too, Dad. Bye.”

  Duran disconnected the call and took a deep breath as he fought to bring his emotions under control.

  Then he got moving.

  37

  Ursie saw Knile run his fingers across the 9mm that was jammed into the back of his belt again. The climb up the scaffolding had not been easy, and more than once he had clutched at the weapon during his manoeuvres as if he were afraid that it might be dislodged at any second.

  Now as they clambered onto the safety of the raised walkway, Ursie sat with her arms splayed out behind her, breathing hard.

  “How much further, man?” she said, her chest moving up and down rapidly as she tried to regain her breath.

  “Not far,” Knile said, taking a seat beside her. He crossed his legs and pulled out the holophone again. “Take a quick break while I get some doors prepped for access.”

  “Yeah, I can do that.” She stuck out her lower lip and blew a lock of hair on her forehead. “Feels like we’ve been climbing through these contraptions for days.” She peered over the edge of the walkway, where huge metal cogs rotated languidly as far as she could see, down into the shadowy depths of the Reach’s inner workings.

  Knile checked his watch and frowned. “You’re not far wrong. It’s taken longer than I thought. We’ve got less than an hour before my ride – and your cash – leaves.”

  “Really?” Ursie said, startled. “We’re not going to make it!”

  “We’ll make it. The field generator is in a room no
t far above us, and after that we’ll be at the Atrium itself. Just be cool.”

  Ursie settled back and stared upward as the great machine joints pivoted and spun around her. For the most part they generated a kind of white noise that was devoid of any rhythm or cohesion, but every now and again there were a few thumps and scrapes that ran together and which almost seemed to have a purpose, a harmony, as if they were striving to coordinate their movements into an arrangement but were unable to do so.

  Ursie had heard other noises as they’d ascended through the mechanisms, sounds that were at odds with the steady hum of machinery – things that sounded like half-heard voices, thumps and clatters, scrapes. Whether it was just her imagination or something more, she couldn’t be sure. In any case, Knile had not allowed her to slow her pace. This was the first break they’d taken in several hours, and likely to be their only one for the rest of the journey.

  “Got it,” Knile said finally. “The doors should be ready for us now.”

  “You don’t have another elevator handy, do you?” Ursie said, not bothering to raise her head.

  “I could carry you,” Knile said, and as Ursie jerked her head up in surprise, he winked. “Gotcha.”

  She smiled. “Screw you.”

  “Up we get,” he said, holding out a hand and helping her up. He was about to say something else but stopped. Then he turned and looked down the walkway, where it disappeared into darkness a short distance away.

  “What is it?” Ursie whispered, subconsciously moving in behind him for protection.

  Knile pulled the 9mm from his belt and held it at his side. He didn’t answer, instead remaining still and somehow relaxed at the same time, as if he were just standing on the curb waiting for his bus to arrive. Ursie poked her head out further to see if she could discern anything moving down there, but there was nothing. No movement, no sound.

  “Let’s move,” Knile said finally. He replaced the gun in his belt and began to stride away without another glance down the walkway.

  “Bit jumpy there, huh?” Ursie said, forcing a nervous grin. She was still spooked by his behaviour a moment ago.

  “Yeah.”

  Now that she thought about it, he’d been in an odd mood since the incident in Lux with the woman. It was understandable, she reasoned, after the confession he had made, that his thoughts would be somewhere else. He was dealing with a lot of shit as he ascended the Reach, revisiting many memories he had probably buried. She only hoped that he could keep it together for the rest of the journey.

  “This thing you have to do with the field generator,” she said. “Is it difficult?”

  “If you don’t know what you’re doing, yeah. Luckily I’ve already had a practice run.”

  “But you said something went wrong with it.”

  “It did, and now I’ve learned from my mistake. Just leave that to me.”

  “Yeah, okay. I just–”

  Knile spun and suddenly the 9mm was in his hand again, the dull metal glinting as he pivoted on his heel. In an instant he was facing the direction from which they’d just come, and then the 9mm roared and bucked in his hand. Ursie cried out in surprise, and as the muzzle flash lit the walkway, she saw the figure of a man in a suit who had been creeping through the darkness behind them. He disappeared in the darkness again, but as Knile fired a second time, Ursie could see in the flash that the man had already fallen, and the bullet snapped against a steel girder behind where he had been standing.

  “Holy shit,” Ursie gasped. “How did you–”

  “This is where the shit hits the fan,” Knile said coolly, getting back to his feet and placing the 9mm back in his belt. “They’ll be coming. We have to run.”

  His words proved true almost immediately. There were the sounds of shouts and footsteps echoing from all directions as their pursuers abandoned stealth and began to home in on the location of the gunshots.

  Ursie ran, just like Knile had suggested. “Shit, Knile. What have you done?”

  He loped along beside her. “I guess I just poked a stick in the hornets’ nest. Down this way!” He pointed and they ran along another platform. Ursie looked over her shoulder to see if there was anyone behind them, and she stumbled roughly against Knile and almost tripped.

  “Sorry,” she gasped.

  “Watch where you’re going, kid!”

  She slowed and dropped a hand into her satchel. “Okay.”

  Knile glanced at her. “Did you lose something?”

  “No,” she said, taking her hand out again. “All good.”

  The footsteps behind them were getting louder. Ursie saw a figure flash underneath one of the spotlights on an adjacent platform not far away.

  “We’ll need to take a shortcut. Through here!” Knile barked.

  They ran under an arched mechanism that was festooned with grimy hoses the colour of mustard and which stank of sulphur. It belched a cloud of gas from a valve on its side as they passed through.

  The walkway ended just beyond, and Knile began to clamber over the railing. Ursie looked over the edge and felt that familiar surge of vertigo.

  “What are you doing?” she said.

  “Shortcut,” Knile said, and then he bounded across the gap and caught the railing of another walkway on the other side. “Sorry, kid. I didn’t intend to bring you this way, but we don’t have a choice now.”

  Ursie shook her head. “I can’t make that jump, Knile.”

  “You have to,” Knile urged. He leaned out across the gap and extended his hand. “This is the only way to get to the field generator.”

  Ursie edged forward and looked down into the void, seeing more of those massive cogs turning far below.

  “No fucking way,” she said, shaking her head.

  The footsteps were getting louder.

  “Ursie,” Knile growled, “this is no time to–”

  “Knile, I can’t make this damn jump! I’m exhausted and I just can’t do it!”

  He looked about desperately, then swung himself over the railing and onto the other walkway. He began to tap on his holophone desperately.

  “All right, we can still do this,” he said. “Leave the field generator to me. You head to the end of that ramp,” he said, pointing to a platform that ran perpendicular to the one upon which she stood. “Take a left and then go up the ladder. If you follow it all the way to the top you’ll find a room for the air intake, and inside that a door marked with a yellow ‘G’. I’ll set it to unlock. Take it and find your way up to the Atrium from there.”

  “What about you?” she said, breathless.

  “I’ll lead them off. I know my way around here better than they do. After I’ve buzzed the field generator, I’ll meet you at the Atrium.”

  “But–”

  “Just go, Ursie. Go now!”

  Without waiting for a response, he turned and began to run, and Ursie realised she had no choice but to do the same.

  Alton’s shoes pounded on the walkway. Ahead, Tucker was hunched over one of Geisler’s former men, a guy called Harris, who was lying prone on the chequer plate walkway.

  “What happened?” Alton demanded.

  “Harris spotted the mark and called it in,” Tucker said. “He was told to hold position and wait, but it looks like he went ahead anyway. Probably trying to get a bigger slice of the pie.”

  “Dead?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Then let’s move. Which way?”

  Tucker got up. “This way.”

  They ran side by side along the walkway, and Alton scanned around for any signs of their quarry.

  “Where are the others?”

  “Two made it here before me. They’ve gone on ahead in search of Oberend. There are a few more in the lower levels. They’re on their way.”

  They came to the hose mechanism and proceeded beneath it. Jordan stood on the next walkway, having just jumped the gap.

  “We think he went down here, Mr. Wilt.”

  Alton climbed over the
rails and wasted no time in springing nimbly across. As he climbed over the rail on the other side he noticed furtive movement some distance above, in the opposite direction to where Oberend was suspected of heading.

  “Tucker,” he said, pointing. “There’s something moving over there. Check it out, just in case he’s managed to fool us again.”

  “Will do, boss.”

  You’re running out of places in which to hide, Knile, Alton thought with grim satisfaction as he began to stride out down the platform again. What are you going to do when there’s nowhere left to run?

  Duran was in the elevator when he got the call. He lifted the holophone from his belt and answered.

  “Duran here.”

  “Inspector,” Parnell said, appearing on the other end of the video call. “You still looking for that guy? Knile Oberend?”

  “You bet. What have you got for me?”

  “We just had reports of disturbances up on Level Two-Four-Five and Two-Four-Seven earlier this afternoon. Up in the Plant Rooms.”

  “What happened?”

  “We’ve had maintenance staff lodge complaints about doors being smashed open up there. One of the welding crew said he was accosted by three men with guns. Does that sound like who you’re after?”

  “No, but it sounds like someone else I’m looking for. Do you have eyes in there?”

  “In the Plant Rooms? A few, but they aren’t actively monitored, surprise surprise.”

  “What about the field generator?”

  “Oh yeah, that’s one place that gets some serious security. There’s guards, the doors are secured, and there’s cameras all over the place.”

  “It won’t stop Oberend.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because he’s gotten around those things before. He’ll do it again.”

  Parnell shrugged. “If you say so. Anyhow, Duran, I’ve gotta go. Hope that helps.”