Lost Souls (Only the Inevitable Book 3)
Page 15
“Shouldn’t I be here to help in case people do come? You need to carry all the equipment away.” Seth waved at the wires and generator and cameras. “We can’t afford to lose it or replace it. What if you have to get away in a hurry?”
“We’ll risk it. Go home, Seth. I mean it. I’ll call Saikee and Mother, and if they haven’t seen you in a few minutes, I’ll come looking for you.” Met pushed Seth towards the back door. Seth fought him the entire way. After Met closed the door and blocked it, he could see Seth loitering out back. Met walked away from the window for a few minutes. When he returned, Seth was gone.
Good. Met didn’t think anyone would come chasing after them tonight, but he wasn’t going to risk Seth. While Intu and Volk checked all their equipment, Met wandered into the rest of the restaurant. Not much remained; considering how easy Intu broke down the door, others had probably been through here, looting. Other than a broken chair and lots of dust and glass, Met saw nothing useful. Even most of the wiring had been taken out of the walls and ceilings; that was why Intu and Volk needed the generator and their wires. The abandoned office building they usually used was in a similar state.
Met ducked out back again into the alley. At the other end, he found a shopping cart. The wheels tried to turn outward and squeaked loudly, but Met brought it into the restaurant. They could use it to take the equipment back with them. He didn’t expect to have to leave in a hurry, but he didn’t want to risk it either.
When he called Saikee, she was eating with Seth, Musha, and Odi. “You’re doing it tonight?” she asked, voice shaking. He couldn’t see her face. The video on his com pad didn’t work most of the time.
“We’re doing a test run tonight. We’ll be fine, Saikee, don’t worry.”
“I’m not worried,” she lied. She wasn’t a good liar; her voice always shook.
Met wished he could see her. “Hey, don’t worry about us. We’ll be fine. We’ll do a hack on the stream, and no one will be able to trace us. We’re planning to leave the restaurant as soon as the hack goes through. Even if someone does come looking, we’ll be long gone. There’s nothing to worry about.”
“Yeah,” she said. “If you aren’t home tomorrow morning, I’m coming to look for you. Understand?”
Met closed his eyes. Seth had probably told her where the restaurant was. He didn’t want Saikee near here, especially if people came looking for them. “Okay,” he said. Now he had extra motivation to finish here quickly and successfully.
Around midnight, they found a show on channel 268 which probably no one watched, an infomercial about cleaning supplies. “We’re doing them a favor,” Volk said as he typed rapidly. “Right. The video is ready, and everything should be in place. Are we doing this?”
Intu turned to Met, waiting. Met took a deep breath. This was it. This was the moment he passed from just protesting and complaining about the law into actually breaking it. This was a little thing, but he didn’t know where it might end. If he was willing to hack a video stream now, he could be doing far worse in a few years. That thought made him grimace. Even in his dark thoughts, he didn’t expect Bantong to improve. “Do it,” he said.
Volk nodded. “It will take a minute or so.” He hit one last thing then leaned back. They all stated at Intu’s com pad, which showed the infomercial. After a few seconds of waiting and watching the women happily push a carpet cleaner, Volk said, “We’ve probably tripled their audience. They’ll be suspicious just for that. Can we leave as soon as the message is done?”
“Yes,” Intu said.
The show blinked, a squiggly line passing over the woman as she demonstrated how easy her carpet cleaner was to store. Met held his breath. What that it? Had their hack failed? Then another line streaked across the image, and the woman silenced mid-sentence. Their video appeared moments later. The three of them clutched at one another as the message appeared. It wasn’t a high quality video, Met thought. It didn’t even have audio. It played though, and that was the important thing.
As soon as the message ended, the woman appeared again, re-assembling her carpet cleaner, talking as if she had never been interrupted. “It worked!” Intu hopped into the chair, clutching his com pad close. “It really worked! Now let’s get out of here!”
They disassembled everything far faster than they had put it up. They didn’t even roll up the wires, instead just tossing them loose into the shopping cart. Met’s heart pounded as they worked. How long would it take to trace a hack? What if there were Sword Priests outside the restaurant already, waiting to arrest them? Sword Priests wouldn’t bother with a minor crime like this, he told himself, but when headlights flashed past the street outside, he twitched hard.
As fast as they worked, it felt like it took forever. Finally they had all the equipment packed away. Met and Intu pushed the shopping cart out while Volk held the back door open. Then they hurried down the street and back to the abandoned office building.
Only when they were safely inside the office building did Met allow himself to breathe easy. “We did it,” he murmured, leaning against the side of the shopping cart.
“That was easy!” Intu laughed and slapped first Met on the shoulder, then Volk. “We should have done this months ago!”
Volk took the generator out of the shopping cart to carry it upstairs. The elevator in the abandoned building no longer worked, so they had to use the stairs. “It will be trickier with the final in two days. The stream will be much more secure. People will watch it closely, too. We might want to find another place to use, since we don’t want to lose this place.”
“I’ll see what I can find,” Met said. There were any number of empty buildings in Jigok. It wouldn’t be hard to find something. They carried the equipment inside, and Met hid the shopping cart inside too; they could use it again next time. Because there would be a next time, and, if they hadn’t been caught, a time after that.
Met was tired of being ignored. Bantong would hear his voice, no matter what it took. He didn’t care about breaking the law, not anymore. Playing by the rules, he stayed poor and forgotten. Soon all of Bantong would have to listen to him. His name would rally travelers everywhere together, and his family would have enough money to get by.
It didn’t matter if he got caught, so long as his family was happy. He would pay any price for that. Met smiled as he, Intu, and Volk headed home from the office building. He had a mission now, a purpose, a reason to fight. He would not stop till he had what he wanted or until Bantong silenced him by force. If he feared it would be the latter, he could ignore it for now. He wasn’t afraid, not anymore.
Glossary
Atlantis: An allied world, used to be a Bantonan world. Vodyanois live there.
Avon: A district in Pardis, where the Beloved Priests live and work.
Bantonan Worlds: A number of worlds closely tied to Bantong. They have the same currencies, government, beliefs. Most Bantonan worlds are connected to Bantong by permanent gateways.
Bantong: The center world.
Gateways: A predictable, stable wormhole that connects one location to another, usually one world to another. Sometimes they only stay open for a time but others are permanent. Only blue gateways are safe.
Jod: A district in Pardis, where the Law Priests live and work.
Kumarkan: A district in Pardis, where the Lost Priests live and work.
Lilipan: A Bantonan world. Conal’s home world.
Pardis: The capital and largest city on Bantong, where Castle Eternal and the six priest districts are.
Shamla: A district in Pardis, where the Passion Priests live and work.
Takam: A country on Bantong, Niam’s home.
Tikal: An allied world. Yetis live there.
Thul: A district in Pardis, where the Heart Priests live and work.
Valal: A district in Pardis, where the Sword Priests live and work.
Vele: A Bantonan world, Anur’s home world.
Afterward
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ook, please visit my website, neriggs.com. You can find my other works there, as well as free fiction and my newsletter.
Books by N E Riggs:
Shadows of an Empire:
0: Swift as the Wind
1: Tomb of the Moon
2: Bloody Fire
3: Into the Light
4: Twisted Minds
5: Caged Earth
6: Whispers in the Wood
Only the Inevitable:
1: The Center of the Universe
2: Life Across the Cosmos
3: Lost Souls
4: Second Chances
5: Falling Time