Skybreach (The Reach #3)

by Mark R. Healy

  There was a flash in the late afternoon sky outside, and then a distant roaring sound. The entire Atrium seemed to heave, and Jozef fought to remain on his feet. Huge chunks of steel and mortar began to rain down around him, and suddenly the gunfire stopped. The explosions stopped.

  The floor shifted under his feet, and the massive arches of the Stormgates groaned and twisted, and, astonishingly, the blue energy fields inside winked out.

  Jozef felt a surge of exultation. It was done. He had succeeded. He and the other Children had done the impossible.

  He raised his arms and lifted his face, roaring in triumph. “Mother, watch over–”

  The final utterances of his mantra did not pass his lips. A massive wall of flame thundered across the Atrium, a tsunami of heat and turbulent fire that destroyed everything it touched, roasting the screaming Redmen in their metal suits and reducing everyone else, including Jozef himself, to little more than ash.

  34

  Knile grappled at the controls of the RECS, forcing it along the smoke-filled corridor as quickly as he could manage. Manipulating the machine was a steep learning curve, but he was slowly getting the hang of it.

  Still, he wasn’t moving as quickly as he would have liked.

  Just ahead, Duran and his companion, Zoe, were leading the way toward the elevators. Duran had glanced back at him constantly, not through impatience, Knile figured, but rather through mistrust. He could imagine what was going through Duran’s mind – that Knile was simply waiting for the opportunity to double-cross him – which was to be expected. After all, Knile had the advantage. He could use the RECS to crush the two of them as easily as grinding his boot heel on top of a bug.

  Knile, however, had no intention of doing that.

  In reality, he did not hold any great sense of animosity toward Duran. Although the inspector had proven to be a constant pain in the ass over the years, Knile understood that he was simply trying to do his job. He was a hard nut – tenacious, relentless – and he could obviously hold a grudge, but those were not necessarily bad qualities to have.

  The problem was that Duran did not view Knile in the same light.

  It was evident from Duran’s baleful glares that he hated Knile to the core. His passion radiated out from his eyes with such intensity that Knile could almost feel the heat of it every time Duran turned in his direction. Knile had been surprised when Zoe had been able to defuse the situation back at the transit station doors. The way Duran had been looking at him, he would have sworn there was nothing that could have prevented him from pulling that trigger.

  Duran obviously held this Zoe in high regard, to allow himself to be influenced that way.

  Knile had escaped death back there, but he knew that wasn’t the end of it. He suspected that, given the chance, Duran would give in to his hatred and seek to destroy him at a later time, perhaps when Zoe was occupied elsewhere.

  After all, Duran seemed to have convinced himself that Knile was some kind of arch villain. Had he seriously considered the notion that Knile was working with Children of Earth? The idea was laughable, and yet Duran had thought it to be true.

  He’s trying to give himself more reasons to kill me, Knile thought. It’s a way to justify his crusade.

  Knile didn’t want to kill Alec Duran, but if it came down to a matter of survival, he knew that he might have to do just that.

  “Elevators just ahead,” Zoe called over her shoulder.

  “Take the next left,” Knile said. He heard his own voice amplified and projected through the external speaker on the RECS, an unusual sensation.

  A rearview video feed was projected onto the interior of the RECS, and Knile could see Roman and Remus lumbering along not far behind.

  “How’re you doing back there?” he said.

  Roman manipulated the claw on the RECS into a makeshift ‘thumbs up’ gesture.

  “All good.”

  Damn. Roman’s making me look like an amateur.

  They headed around to the left, then the elevators came into view a short distance further along. Knile had thought that reaching them safely would somehow lift his spirits, but instead his heart sank.

  They all came to a stop before the elevators and stared in dismay.

  There were perhaps thirty sets of doors lined out before them, an ample selection. However, from each and every one poured thick black smoke. As Knile watched he saw angry red tongues of flame slip through the cracks in the doors nearest to them, scorching the metal. He could also smell burning plastic and rubber even from inside the RECS.

  “What the fuck happened?” Duran said.

  “Doesn’t matter,” Zoe said. “We’re not going anywhere in these.” She turned back to Knile. “Any ideas?”

  “Let’s check the next elevator bay,” Knile suggested. “Hopefully the ones further to the north haven’t been trashed.”

  They got moving again, making their way past the array of smoking doors and heading along the corridor that led to the next bay. Roman increased his pace and moved his RECS alongside Knile.

  “Did you get through to Talia or Team Omega?” Roman said.

  “No, there was just static on the line last time I tried,” Knile said.

  “So we don’t even know if they’re still alive.”

  “Probably just some relays knocked out,” Knile said, trying to sound calm even though he was wondering the same thing. After the massive explosion from earlier, the loss of comms to the others in Skybreach was an unsettling development. The condition of the elevators wasn’t particularly reassuring either.

  Piecing all of those facts together, Knile couldn’t see any kind of positive outcome. He wondered if this whole exercise of trying to find a working elevator was perhaps a moot endeavour.

  Had the game been lost already?

  He decided he couldn’t think that way. They had to press on and find a way up to the Atrium. In the meantime, they could only hope that the other members of Skybreach had survived.

  In a matter of minutes they reached the next elevator bay, which was in a similar state to the first. Smoke spewed from the elevators, clogging the air with stinking murk. There were people gathered here, citizens with tools and hastily gathered belongings trying desperately to force the elevator doors open. At the sight of the RECS thundering toward them they turned and fled into the depths of the Reach.

  “Keep going,” Knile said without slowing down. “Next bay.”

  Duran turned to glare at him again with disdain. Even though he said nothing, Knile could decipher his thoughts easily enough.

  This is a waste of time, Knile. We’re getting nowhere fast.

  Knile ignored him and they proceeded on. He considered suggesting that they head back to the transit tunnels and cut across to the other side of the Reach, but there was no real justification for it. For all he knew, all of the elevators were toast. At least by moving sequentially across the bays they could rule them out one by one, rather than choosing random locations and hoping they got lucky.

  Several minutes later, they came to the next bay. Things looked decidedly better here. No black smoke, no acrid taint of burning plastic and rubber.

  However, that was where the good news ended.

  People were everywhere, hundreds of them spread out across the waiting area like flies on a day-old carcass. Many were arguing or calling out to each other, whilst others bashed away at the elevator doors as they tried to force them open. Knile saw a team of men and women lowering a thick rope down one of the open shafts, while others seemed be cobbling together some kind of makeshift harness.

  “Well, this is a right pretty mess,” Remus said.

  “It’s a mass exodus,” Duran said. “They’ve seen enough.”

  “Who can blame them?” Knile said. “The Reach is falling apart around them.”

  Zoe stopped and looked around. “So what now?”

  “Let me try Talia again,” Knile said, even though he knew it was probably a lost cause. “We aren’t
going anywhere if we don’t get the elevators unlocked.”

  Knile worked his arms inside the cramped confines of the RECS cockpit, hitting the redial button on his holophone. He waited, expecting no answer. Instead of static, however, he now heard a dial tone. That was progress, but it didn’t–

  There was an abrupt scratching sound, and then Talia’s voice flooded the compartment.

  “Knile?”

  “Talia! Damn, it’s good to hear you. Are you okay?”

  “Yeah, we’re okay. How about you? Is Roman there with you?”

  “All present and accounted for. Where are you?”

  “We made it to the roof. I’m looking at the railcar right now.”

  “Is Team Omega there? Have you heard from Iris?”

  “No, nothing. We’ve lost contact with them.”

  “What the hell happened?”

  “We don’t know for sure. There was an explosion, and the whole place shook like it was going to fall apart. The Wire made a horrible screaming sound. I thought for sure it was going to snap, but somehow it held. Now there’s smoke out to the west, but we can’t see the damage from up here.”

  “Is Aksel there? We need an elevator unlocked. Can he still do that?”

  There was a pause. “Yeah, he’s here. He said he’s back on the Consortium network. Give me the details and I’ll pass it on.”

  Knile looked around at all those who had gathered before the elevators. He couldn’t imagine the pandemonium that would ensue should one of these elevators suddenly come to life. No one seemed to have noticed the approach of the RECS amid the din, but he had doubts they would be able to intimidate this many people even with the machines in their possession.

  “There’s a problem,” Knile said. “We’ve got a lot of company here. People are swarming in like there’s a free lunch.”

  “We had the same problem when we hit the elevators. Tell me the bay you’re at and I’ll get Aksel to light a few up. That should thin out the crowd.”

  “Okay. It’s Bay Five.”

  Knile heard her speaking to someone else for a few moments, then she returned.

  “Knile, you have to hurry. It sounds like the Redmen are trying to bring reinforcements through from below. You have to get here before they arrive.”

  “As soon as you give us an elevator, we’ll be on our way.”

  “Tell me the number of the elevator you’re closest to.”

  Knile edged the RECS forward and peered around the corner.

  “It’s number thirty.”

  “Okay. Standby.”

  Excited shouts began to emanate from the crowd at the opposite end of the waiting area, as one by one the elevator lights flickered to life. The throng rippled and began to draw away from Knile and the others as those waiting sought to gain access.

  “It’s working, Talia.”

  “We’re bringing thirty online now. You should haul ass.”

  “Okay, we’re hauling.” Knile brought up the claw of the RECS and pointed. “Let’s go.”

  They moved forward swiftly, and Zoe reached the elevator first. She hammered on the call button, then stood with her .38 raised toward the crowd in anticipation of being spotted.

  She needn’t have bothered. The crowd was far too busy squabbling over the elevators that had opened at the other end. A handful of people turned as the RECS thudded across the floor, but they did not seem interested in confronting them, opting to pursue the elevators that were closer to hand.

  Moments later, the doors opened and the five of them began to move inside. Zoe, Duran and Remus went first, backing up to allow space for the RECS, and then as Knile manipulated the machine through the opening he smacked noisily against the door frame, jarring his head painfully against the side of the cockpit. Roman came through last, navigating the entrance to the elevator with far more precision.

  “Smooth moves, Knile,” Roman said smugly as the doors slid shut. Zoe hit the button for the top floor, and the elevator began to ascend.

  “Might have to revoke my license,” Knile said ruefully. Then, he added, “Talia, we’re on our way.”

  “Great. Call me back soon, huh? We’ve got a situation here.”

  “Will do.”

  Knile turned to see Duran staring sourly at him again, his fury all the more palpable here in the close confines of the elevator.

  “What the hell are those contraptions, anyway?” Duran said.

  “They’re RECS,” Remus said. “Defensive systems from a few decades ago. They were once used throughout the Reach for crowd control. We pulled these out of storage.”

  “What for?” Duran said.

  “For taking on the Redmen, or anyone else who gets in our way,” Remus said confidently.

  Duran arched his eyebrow. “So, let me get this straight. You’re fumbling around in ancient tin cans that you haven’t even figured out how to drive yet, and now you intend to go toe-to-toe with a full squad of Redmen, who happen to be the most brutal and highly trained soldiers in existence.”

  Knile glanced down at him awkwardly. “That’s the gist of it, yeah.” He looked over at Remus. “It wasn’t my idea.”

  “I didn’t figure we’d be taking down Redmen with the RECS,” Remus said. “More like drawing their attention away while the brawlers finished them off.”

  Knile stared at him, stupefied. “Why didn’t you tell us this before?”

  Remus gave him an embarrassed smile. “Because you wouldn’t have agreed to use them if I’d said that.” He held up his hands placatingly. “But don’t worry, these things are built like tanks. They should take a few pulse rounds fine.”

  “So, in effect, we’re target practice,” Roman said.

  “I’d use the term cannon fodder,” Duran said, seemingly enjoying the thought of Knile stumbling around in the RECS while the Redmen had their way with him. He took a step back. “You can go first, Knile.”

  “Yeah. Thanks.”

  Knile watched the levels tick by as they neared their destination.

  When the elevator doors opened, Knile could only stare stupidly at what he saw. His mind sifted through the images that confronted him, but understanding remained well out of reach. He experienced a baffling disconnect between what his eyes were telling him and what he had expected to see.

  Surely they had arrived at the wrong place. That was the only explanation that made sense.

  This couldn’t be the Atrium. Could it?

  Gone was the beauty and serenity of the Atrium he had always known. The vision that had taken its place was nothing more than a smoking ruin. As far as Knile could see, everything was charred, coated in black. There were no Redmen, no Children of Earth, no sound of gunfire or boots thumping on the floor. No voices.

  Instead, there was merely a landscape of ruinous lumps of charcoal and blackened concrete, cloaked in a smoky haze as far as the eye could see.

  And the Stormgates. The Stormgates were twisted, inert, the glowing blue portals that had glimmered within now extinguished. The once majestic arches now resembled sagging ruins, mere caricatures of what they had once been.

  Knile pushed the controls of the RECS forward, and the others followed him silently out of the elevator. He opened the door of the machine and stepped down, numb. His boots crunched on something and he looked down. He realised with horror that he was stepping on charred human remains.

  “Goddamn,” he gasped, staggering away. “What the hell…?”

  “We’re too late,” Zoe said soberly. “Too fucking late.”

  “What do you think happened?” Roman said, disembarking from his RECS and standing next to Knile.

  “Children of Earth unleashed the mother of all explosions,” Knile said.

  Remus stepped forward and pointed through the haze at the opposite side of the Atrium, where the red orb of the sun was barely visible through the smoke.

  “Look. There!” he said.

  Knile squinted and saw what Remus had indicated. Past the central column o
f the Atrium, the floor ended abruptly in a jagged line, as if it were nothing more than a cliff. It seemed that a huge section of the Atrium had been destroyed – indeed, two of the massive columns that had once stretched up from the floor now ended in ragged stumps far above, like giant stalactites.

  “No wonder the elevators on that side are smoking ruins,” Knile said.

  “They tried to blow up the whole damn Atrium,” Zoe said.

  “They didn’t just try,” Roman muttered. “They succeeded.” He glanced at Knile. “What if Team Omega were here? Iris and the others, they’d be…”

  Knile grimaced and ran a hand through his hair, dismayed. “Since we haven’t heard from them, we have to assume they were here when it happened.”

  “So what now?” Roman said.

  “We can’t leave Talia and the others stranded up there. We have to find a way up, but that’s not going to happen unless there’s some other way to get to the roof that I don’t know about.”

  “Not so fast,” Remus said. He pointed. “That central column was built with incredible amounts of reinforcing. It had to be, to cope with the stress created by the tethering of the Wire.” He waved his hand at the column. “The structure still looks sound. If it’s only sustained superficial fire damage, the elevator might still work.”

  “Sounds like a long shot,” Roman said.

  “From the damage, it looks like that explosion occurred out on the west side,” Remus said. “Maybe they couldn’t haul the explosives all the way up before it went off. If it had detonated right here in the Atrium, I doubt the central column would have held.”

  “Well, let’s not die wondering,” Knile said, pushing aside his sense of stupefaction. He headed back to his RECS. “Let’s do this.”

  Roman followed his lead. Beside them, Zoe began to move forward, but she was stopped in her tracks.