by Patty Jansen
Melati followed him and Desi’s bobbing back, turned another corner into an even narrower service alley. This one was a dead end, but metal rungs on the back wall led to a panel in the ceiling.
Ari climbed up and pushed aside a ceiling panel. His feet vanished, and then he poked his head and arms out to help Melati climb up.
Jao, Troy, Elko followed and last came Desi who shifted the cover shut.
They sat silent in pitch darkness, listening. Melati did her best to control her breathing. She couldn’t see anything except Jao’s outline backlit by a couple of LED lights on a panel behind him. It was so cold in here that her breath steamed.
A faint sound of footsteps came from the corridor.
Jao held up three fingers. Three people.
The footsteps became louder and then more distant and faded into the background noise of the station.
“Who are they?” Desi whispered. “They were in enforcer uniform.”
Melati knew. “There’s some people walking around pretending to be enforcers but they’re not.”
“Exactly,” Troy said.
Melati’s eyes had become used to the low light, and the faint outlines of rigged wiring, tubes and pipes had resolved from the darkness.
Elko got his feet and when he straightened, hit his head on a rack of wiring suspended from the ceiling. The clang reverberated through the walls. “Ow.”
Desi hissed, “Shhhh.”
“Clumsy oaf.” That was Jao.
They stood silent and listened, but all Melati heard was the beating of her own heart.
Jao said, “Come on, little guy. It seems you know where we’re going, how about we go ahead?”
In the darkness, two gilt-edged figures moved.
Someone close to Melati—probably Troy—snorted. He was getting up, too. “Jas is our brother, not his. Maybe I should remind him that without our support, he doesn’t have one skerrick of authority to poke around here.”
“We follow them,” Desi said. “I don’t care who you think is in charge. But I want no more fucking noise, understand?”
Troy breathed out forcefully through his nose.
They started moving. Troy first, then Melati followed by Desi and Elko.
Like most maintenance tunnels Melati had seen, this one had a suspended walkway in the centre while the walls, floor and ceiling were covered in pipes and cords, all of them wrapped in insulating foil. The small pool of light from Desi’s pocket comm showed up the colours of the foil, which indicated what the leads or pipes were for and where they went.
The walkway was made of metal, and however hard Melati tried, her footfalls sounded loud. Several times, Desi hissed commands about sounding like a bunch of elephants. Whatever elephants were.
Melati really wanted to arrive wherever they were going. Freezing air bit through her thin clothes. Whenever they came past a control panel, the little lights showed her breath fogging in the air. She deeply regretted getting changed before leaving the base. If only she’d kept her uniform on, she would have been so much better dressed for this.
Several times, Desi whispered a hissed command to stop. Then they would stand and listen to the usual station sounds. In the distance there was a thump of music and the sound of many voices. That probably came from the party in the hall. But Melati was shivering too much to care.
They went up a ladder with rungs so cold that Melati thought the skin from her hands would freeze onto the metal. Then down again and along another long passage. She didn’t know if it was real or not, but the air seemed stale here. The cloying smell of beginning decay was probably her imagination, but she smelled it nevertheless.
A woman yelled close by, and this was followed by fast footsteps and the voice of a child in Neo-Korean.
In the passage ahead, a door opened, letting in a flood of light. Two silhouettes entered the opening: Jao and Ari, gesturing for the others to hurry up.
Melati ran after Troy—into a wall of heat, and a stench that made her gag. By God, it was hot in here.
They had come out in a dimly-lit and abandoned control room. The BC block used to house the docking area’s controls, but long ago, StatOp had removed banks of control panels from the walls and the ones that still remained had collected a thick cover of dust, underneath which dead screens looked like zombified eyes.
Against the far wall stood a pile of boxes and, behind that, the wall carried an assortment of high-voltage warnings. The outer ring’s umbilicals went through this part of the station, from the tether configuration on the outer ring into the spoke that led to the reactor which sat in the centre of the station. The telltale low hum told Melati that the reactor was on and feeding power through the lines behind that wall. It was one of the reasons StatOp didn’t want to house people here permanently.
Ari motioned her to be quiet, so she went to stand next to him while her face still tingled from the cold in the passage and her nose got used to the smell of disuse and waste. Yes, this was the BC block all right.
They housed the refugees in here? Seriously?
The sound of voices drifted from somewhere on the floor above.
Desi went to the closed door and listened.
Ari stood gazing at the pile of boxes and bags, raising his eyebrows. Something in his expression made Melati look as well. And she recognised the print on one of the boxes.
Uncle’s flour.
Not just that, but oil, kitchen supplies and cleaners from a lot of other rumaks. Plus paint and other supplies from other businesses of JeJe.
So this was their solution to the “storage problem”.
Jao was taking pictures. There were labels on the boxes for what looked like engine parts, rolls of electrical wire and other supplies that looked like they came straight out of station stores. Jao put on gloves and used a piece of metal to prise one of the lids open. Inside were many plasti-cans with Korean print on them.
“What’s in here?” he asked.
“Come on, we got more important things to do,” Desi whispered. She was still at the door, fiddling with the setting on her gun.
“Just a few pictures so we can show Cocaro the kind of mess in this place.”
Melati glanced at Troy, whose face showed dark shades of thunder. Yes, there would be trouble from this expedition, and it was probably why Jao had come.
Troy was going to say something, but at that moment, there was a noise from the other side of the door.
Everyone froze.
“What was that?” Elko mouthed.
Desi raised her gun.
A long time passed in complete silence.
Then there were footsteps, and the sound of something being dragged over the floor. Two men spoke to each other. Melati didn’t understand them, and had no idea what language they spoke.
Another voice said in Standard, “Cooperate with us, and we’ll forget about this incident.”
“I don’t believe you anymore.” This man’s voice cracked. “You’ve been telling us nothing but lies since coming here.” The voice sounded young, and also accented, like a barang-barang.
“Then we have no choice, do you understand?”
There was a thunk of something being dropped on the floor and footsteps left again.
Melati met Ari’s eyes.
He whispered, “That sounded like Budiman.” Harto’s youngest son.
“You’re sure this is the place?” Desi asked.
“I think so,” Jao said.
Troy nodded.
Jao studied his pocket comm. “It registers eight people inside the apartment.”
Elko said, “There are only six of us.” He looked at Melati and Ari as if wanting to say and two are useless.
“We might not get better odds,” Desi said. “Surely when word gets around that we’ve been to the hotel, they’ll get nervous. I’m going to go in.”
Chapter 26
* * *
DESI REACHED FOR her belt, unclipped a second gun and held it, barrel in her hand,
out to Melati. It was a CX stunner of the type Troy also had, serviceable and well-used.
Melati took the weapon gingerly by the grip. Every ISF employee was required to train with weapons and she knew how to handle it, but damn, it was heavy. Her uniform belt would have a loop to hold a weapon, but she wasn’t in uniform. What was she supposed to do with this thing dressed in her sari?
She held it by her side, pointing at the floor. Ari watched with wide eyes.
Jao and Desi took up position on either side of the door. Jao held a laser burner, and Desi held her gun. At her sign, Jao zapped through the lock. The door slid open and a bright beam of dust-clouded light slanted in. Jao and Desi went through.
Melati followed Elko out, squinting against the sudden light. They had come out in a second storage room where many more boxes stood, wrapped in blue plastic. The only other exit from the room was a door on the opposite side, which offered a view of a dirty but otherwise featureless wall. The air smelled of food, rumak food to be precise. Men were talking somewhere in the apartment.
One of them said something in a surprised tone, and this was followed by the sound of footsteps.
Troy grabbed Melati and drew her with him against the wall immediately to the right of the door.
The next moment, the person entered the room. Melati saw only a brief glimpse of a figure in black before Jao brought down the barrel of the laser cutter on his head. He wobbled for a moment, eyes wide, and went down with a dull thunk, landing flat on his belly. The man was a hypertech not wearing the headgear—barang-barang, but not someone Melati recognised.
“Hey, what was that?” someone else said in B3 in the corridor.
There were more footsteps and a second person came in. “Ali, what are you—hmmmm!”
His words were cut short by Jao’s hand dragging him into the corner.
This young man also didn’t wear a head covering, and Melati recognised him from when he used to have a job working in Li Wei’s shop. His eyes widened when he saw Melati.
She put her finger to her lips. She mouthed, “We won’t harm you.” But she wasn’t sure he understood.
The first man they’d heard said in accented Standard, “Ali, come here. I’ve found it.” A chair scraped back.
The sound of footsteps came closer.
Desi jumped into the door opening with her gun raised and fired once. The room lit up with a bright sizzling arc that crackled so loud the air vibrated with it.
Melati ducked and tried to shield her eyes with her elbow because she was still holding the gun. Too late. The flash blinded her.
Voices yelled elsewhere and people came running. It sounded like a lot more than eight, as Jao had said.
Another flash. Troy left her side and also went into the corridor, followed by Elko. There were shouts and thumps against the wall from people fighting. The light in the room had gone out and there was so much smoke that the light from the corridor barely reached into the room. The air stank of burnt plastic.
She whispered, “Ari?” She couldn’t see him anywhere, all she saw were purple spots. Her ears still rang from the crackle of Desi’s shot. She didn’t know where Jao or Desi were. She couldn’t see Troy or Elko, or Ari. The youth from Li Wei’s shop appeared to have left the room.
Two more shots were fired in the corridor. Melati hid behind the doorway, clutching the grip of the stunner. Whoever was fighting in there had serious weapons. If someone came in, the best use for her stunner was probably to hit him over the head with it.
Something moved in the dark corner of the room.
Melati gasped and raised the stunner. “Hands up!”
“Hey, it’s only me.”
Ari.
She breathed out tension. “Damn, you gave me a fright. What’s happening?”
“I don’t know. When everyone’s got guns, I’m staying out of the way.” His voice sounded small and frightened.
It had gone quiet in the corridor, and the only sound was that of heavy, booted footsteps.
“Who’s that?” Ari whispered.
Melati shook her head, putting her finger to her lips, clutching the grip on the stunner with the other hand while holding it half-raised. Her finger slid over the ridged metal surface of the trigger, waiting for the person in the hallway to come in.
Where was everyone else?
Then a voice a bit further off said, “I think we got all of them.” That was Desi.
Melati let her breath go.
Closer by, Jao said, “You can come out, it’s safe.”
Phew, it had only been Jao.
Melati and Ari were about to leave the dark room when there was a sound behind them.
Ari yelled, “Watch it!”
The back door—the one that they’d just used to come into the room—opened. Ari flung himself to the floor.
In one movement, Melati swung around, raised and fired the stunner. A sizzling arc of light shot through the room, blinding her a second time.
A man cried out. Something heavy hit the floor.
Jao and Troy ran in, lighting the room with the screens of their pocket comms.
Melati sank against the wall, panting. The stench of ozone and plastic rose up around her, making her feel sick. Heat radiated from the barrel of the weapon up her hand. Did that always happen? She didn’t remember from her practice sessions, when she had been made to wear gloves.
Ari’s voice drifted through the roaring of blood in her ears. “Wow, cousin, that was some shot.”
“Indeed,” Jao said. “Good work.”
He and Troy stood over the prone form of a black-clad man.
Melati steeled herself and went for a look. Just a stunner didn’t do much damage, right?
The man was tall and broader than most barang-barang. One of Harto’s sons? God.
He’d fallen on his back. The front of his black outfit had been singed and one side of the hypertech facemask had melted, but otherwise there was not much visible damage.
But his chest didn’t move.
She stammered, “Is he—”
“You hit him square in the chest.” Which was no answer at all, but she understood the answer, and had known this before she asked.
“But it’s only a stunner.” She felt like dropping the weapon. That’s why it was so hot—because it had been modified and was deadly.
“A very powerful stunner.” Jao confirmed. He used his laser to cut through the victim’s facemask straps. Melati felt sick. Did this mean she’d killed someone? A hypertech, who was likely to be one of her own people?
Jao lifted the mask and unwound the black head covering, while talking to someone listening on the other end of his comm. “. . . we have a victim here, tall, heavy-set, olive skin . . . no, I don’t think so . . . He seems too big for that . . .”
Melati looked on, raising her hand to her mouth. The man was not only tall for a barang-barang, but more heavy-set with fleshy jowls that merged with his neck. He had short and spiky black hair.
Desi took photographs of his face. “You know him?” she asked Melati.
“Never seen him before. What does the face recognition say?”
“Hang on.” Desi punched the screen. Waited. She frowned. “What the. . . ?”
Jao stopped talking on his comm and glanced at her screen. “Unknown?”
“That’s what it says.”
“Just a moment.” He put the comm back to his ear. “I’ll get back to you.” And then to Desi, “I’ll have a crack at this. If he’s a local, he’ll have left a trail. If he’s not, he should be in the system with a log entry as soon as he came into the station.”
“That won’t be any good if he doesn’t have a chip,” Desi said.
Jao met her eyes silently.
“I don’t think he’s a local,” Melati said. “He doesn’t look like a local. I’ve never seen anyone like this before.” Someone as solidly built as this would stand out.
Jao continued punching on his comm.
Melati
asked, “Has anyone found Jas Grimshaw yet?”
Desi said, “The brothers are looking for him. Why don’t you three go and find them? I’ll deal with this character here.”
Melati left the room with Jao and Ari. In the corridor lay three people, one in a large pool of blood, a second with his neck at an odd angle. The third lay on his stomach, and Melati couldn’t see any damage to him. All three were in black, wore face masks and two of them were small enough to be barang-barang.
She stepped over arms and legs in detached fashion, taking note of the victim’s weapons, and trying to justify her actions to herself. They were armed, right? And dangerous, so it was not as if her group could have come here peacefully and asked to be let in. But reasoning failed to dispel the black feeling inside her.
Because of her, some of her kinsfolk were dead. Maybe even Harto’s sons. It didn’t matter that they’d been hypertechs; it mattered that they were barang-barang, and they were all family.
There were more bodies further down the passage. She didn’t want to know who they were. She wanted no further part in this killing.
Jao picked something up from the floor and showed it to her: a sleek weapon, the barrel about the length of his hand. It was short and unusually thin. The front of the handgrip—moulded to fit fingers—had a couple of black buttons.
Ari looked over his shoulder. “What sort of gun is that?” His eyes were wide and his face unusually pale.
“It looks like second-grade New Hyderabad produce,” Jao said. “Looks flash, but is pretty crap.”
“These are the weapons that were smuggled,” Melati said.
Jao stuck the gun in his belt looking at Ari as if he knew something about this smuggling ring.
“I know nothing about that,” Ari said.
“The same kind of nothing you knew about the scientist in hiding?” Jao’s voice sounded mocking.
“I’m telling the truth!”
“Yeah—right.” Jao kept walking.
Ari rolled his eyes at Melati. “Why does everyone blame me for everything? You know what happened. I was only trying to protect Rina.”
