by Chris Ward
‘There they are.’
Raine peered out of the window before Benny could scold her again. Their hideout was an abandoned apartment building a few hundred feet up the street.
Five men had emerged from the entrance to the safe house, guns visible in their arms.
‘Is that all?’
‘They’ll be more. The whole Tank will be looking for you. David came to me with a woman called Mika, some scientist. The Tank’s no longer under UMF control.’
Benny told her what he knew. Tim Cold was dead. Lindon had assumed control and was hunting them.
‘He’ll turn you over,’ Benny said. ‘If he’s made a pact with the government, he’ll want to clean house, and that means blowing out the Tube Rider cobwebs. The Tank’s network stretches right across the city. They have better connections than the government. Nowhere’s safe for you.’
‘What about David?’
‘Trust him to look after himself.’
Jake cooed in her arms. Raine stroked his head and hugged him closer. Benny was right. Whatever David planned to do, she had to trust him. She had to get Jake to safety.
‘What do we do now?’ she said.
‘We go to the meeting place and we wait. And if he doesn’t come, we leave him behind.’
Raine let out a slow breath, then she turned to Benny and nodded. ‘Let’s go,’ she said.
‘In here.’
Mika stood back as David jammed the end of the clawboard against the door handle then jerked it sharply. The lock broke with a sharp crack.
A set of stairs led down into darkness.
‘Back door,’ Mika said.
Using the flashlight from David’s clawboard, they headed down. The air turned damp and cold as they descended deeper and deeper. The light closed in and David began to feel the press of earth around him, as though the city only had to sigh and the walls would come together to seal them in. Their world became only the handful of steps in front of them and the damp stone of the walls.
Finally the stairs ended at a tunnel that stretched off into darkness in either direction.
‘What is this place?’
‘It’s an unused London Underground tunnel. It was dug a hundred years ago when a high speed link was planned, but the surveyors found too many instabilities in the bedrock and abandoned it. Staircases like the one we just came down marked the locations of potential stations. Now they’re lost to most maps, but once upon a time it was quite the curio. It runs west to east across the city for about fifteen miles, but to the east it’s flooded and to the west the entrance where the tunneling machines entered has caved in.’ She smiled. ‘If you know the way, it’s a good way to cross the city undetected.’
‘Which way now?’
‘East. Towards Parliament Tower. There’s a holding facility not far from Parliament Tower Plaza where I think they’ll be keeping Airie. I couldn’t find any record when I hacked their computers, but it would make sense to have her there.’
‘How will we get in?’
‘The lowest levels of the facility were once planned to be an Underground station. I studied the plans and I think I can get us inside. We might have to do a little digging though.’
‘What then?’
‘I’ll tell you on the way.’
They turned the board’s flashlight down low and hurried eastwards along the damp tunnel. In places, puddles of ancient standing water glittered silver, and David wondered how long it had been since they had seen light. The walls of the tunnel were smooth, made by some machine, but the floor was laid with gravel that crunched under their feet and stole the energy from their legs. David was gasping for air when Mika finally came to a breathless halt.
‘Shine the light along the walls. We’re looking for an entrance that’s been bricked over. It should be here somewhere.’
David took one board and went forward, while Mika took the other and went back the way they had come. The walls were just uniform concrete, made by some great boring machine that had laid the cement as it moved—
He stopped. A doorway-sized patch of bricks broke up the seamless concrete. ‘Here!’
She hurried over. ‘This is it. That’s our way in. We have to get through that wall.’
David banged his fists against it. ‘It’s solid brick. It would take days to break through without proper tools.’
Mika held up the board she carried. ‘This was Airie’s. There are a couple of explosive charges left.’
‘Won’t they hear us?’
‘The lowest levels in the facilities are often just used for storage. Hopefully we’re too deep to be heard.’
David used a sharp piece of rock to chip a hole in a corner of one of the blocks, big enough to nestle the explosive, and they pushed the tiny metal ball carefully into the space, then jammed a little triangle of rock into the gap to keep it from blasting straight out.
‘We can remote detonate it using a control on the board,’ Mika said. ‘I hope this works. It’s a long walk back to the surface.’
They retreated a safe distance, ducking down behind a heap of debris that had fallen from a loose section of the wall. David looked up at Mika’s face illuminated in the glow of the clawboard’s screen and nodded. ‘Ladies first,’ he said.
Mika smiled and pressed the detonate button. A thundering roar filled the tunnel, making the ceiling shake, pieces of debris cascading down around them. David pulled her close, holding his clawboard over their heads to protect them until the tunnel went quiet again.
The bricked-up entrance was now a heap of broken concrete. The entrance had burst open, spewing a cascade of rocks and soil down on to the tunnel floor.
Mika sighed. ‘Thank God. I was afraid they’d filled in the other side with concrete. Now all we have to do is dig.’
Using flat pieces of masonry as makeshift shovels, they began to dig their way through the soil, rocks, and other debris that had been piled up on the inside of the bricked-up entrance. Soon David’s back and shoulders were aching. With each scoop of soil he moved away, more fell down to take its place, and occasionally they came up against rocks the size of David’s chest that they had to dig around and then maneuvre out of the way.
Finally, more than an hour after they had started, the soil and rocks gave way to other kinds of rubble: old tiles and bent pieces of piping, lumps of rotten wood and metal.
‘They used this whole staircase as a dump,’ Mika said, wiping her face. ‘There could be entire levels of this.’
‘Let’s hope there’s not,’ David said. ‘The clawboard’s light is starting to fade.’
They renewed their efforts. A few minutes later, David pulled aside a rotting table and a glow appeared some way above them. Mika retrieved the clawboards and her bag and they crept up the steps, stepping over debris and junk that had been tossed down.
The light was coming through a postcard-sized window in a door at the top.
‘We’re on the basement level,’ Mika said quietly. ‘Whatever you do, don’t draw attention to us. Don’t cry out, whatever you see. There could be anything down here at all.’
‘What are we looking for?’
‘An office or an archive room, anywhere that might have a computer terminal. If anyone gets in front of us … don’t hesitate. They won’t.’
‘Huntsmen?’
‘They’re not held down here. The main holding facility for the Huntsmen is a few miles north. There could be other things though.’
The door wasn’t locked. Mika went first, slipping out into a corridor hewn out of rock, David following behind. They pulled out the clawboards, holding them out in front by one hand like a shield, the other hovering over the control panel. David readied the smokescreen as Mika had instructed him, while she set up Airie’s last explosive charge in case they came across a group of guards.
Doors led off the corridor, set into the rock. They looked like dungeon doors, with heavy locks and metal bars across small windows at face height. He heard moaning coming from behind a
couple, but when he leaned forward to look in one, Mika gave a sharp shake of her head.
‘Best if you don’t see,’ she whispered.
They approached a door at the end of the corridor. A camera hanging from the ceiling swung to follow them as they moved.
Mika turned to David. ‘I have an idea,’ she said, then quickly explained her plan. David nodded, squatting down to slide the board under his clothes. Mika pushed him in front of her as they reached the door.
‘Hey!’ she called, waving a hand in front of the camera. ‘Where’s the cell I was allocated for the prisoner? They’re all full. I was told Level Seven B. That’s here, right? Hurry up, it’s freezing.’
The door opened to reveal a uniformed guard. David leapt forward, slamming into the man before he could reach for a gun in a holster at his waist. As the guard tried to sit up, David punched him in the face and twisted him around, pressing his arms behind his back.
‘Kill him,’ Mika said.
David reached for his knife, then stopped. ‘I can’t.’
‘It’s us or them.’
‘No.’
‘What do you want?’ the man gasped.
‘Airie Walker,’ David said. ‘Where is she?’
‘Who?’
‘The Tube Rider girl.’ David pressed the knife against the man’s throat. ‘I have nothing to gain by keeping you alive,’ he said, shifting the blade a little so that it broke the skin.
As a line of blood ran down the guard’s neck, he said, ‘I don’t know. No one does.’
‘Then tell me what you’ve overheard.’
‘Level Four.’
‘Thanks.’
As David relaxed his grip, the man shifted, twisting around and bringing a knee up into David’s stomach. He grunted, his eyes closed by a sudden elbow to the face. He heard a clipping sound as a gun holster was unlatched, then the man cried out and went still.
David looked up to see Mika standing over him, the clawboard in her hands, a red welt on the metal where it had struck the man’s forehead.
‘Working down here desensitizes you to the value of human life,’ she said. ‘You need to remember that.’
David let Mika help him to his feet. ‘Thanks,’ he said, looking down at the dead guard.
There were several other desks but no other guards. As Mika logged on to a single working computer she explained to David that the government’s manpower was stretched to breaking point.
‘You don’t want to know what might be in those cells,’ she said. ‘There should be half a dozen guards down here but that man was alone.’
‘Was he right about Level Four?’
Mika shook her head. ‘Level Four is research laboratories. Experimental cells but no prisoners. That’s how I knew he was lying.’
‘How will we find her?’
Mika’s fingers flew across the keyboard. ‘Come here.’
He pulled up a chair and sat down beside her. ‘She’s on Level Six, which is two floors above us, Holding Cell Three.’
‘How do you know?’
Mika pointed at the screen. ‘I checked the assignment manifests of the operational Huntsmen. I figured they’d have her well guarded, and they have. Three Huntsmen have been assigned to guard that room.’ She turned to look at him. ‘Tell me who else they might deem important enough to guard with three Huntsmen? She might as well be Marta Banks herself.’
David nodded. ‘So, all we’ve got to do is get past them, right?’
Mika gave him a grim smile. ‘Something like that.’
56
Tracker-Killer
‘Put on that guard’s uniform. It might buy us a few minutes.’
David nodded, and began to strip off the guard’s uniform while Mika continued to work at the computer. The man was a few inches shorter so the trousers and jacket were a poor fit, but with the cap pulled over his head he felt slightly less conspicuous than before.
Mika hit one final button with a hard tap and turned back to him. ‘That’s it. Let’s go. I’ve activated the radio transmission jammer that Rick made. The guards have no radio communication, and in eight minutes the power will temporarily black out. That’s our cue.’ She looked up at him, her eyes solemn. ‘We’ve got one chance at this. If we fail now, we’ll never get near her again.’
They took the guard’s keys and headed through a door into another corridor. A few turns later they came to a set of stairs leading up, blocked by a metal cage door. Two guards sat in a small office room off to the left.
‘Start getting into character,’ Mika hissed, dropping to her knees. David nodded, then pushed her arms behind her back and shoved her face down.
‘Help me, would you?’ he shouted. ‘Bitch jumped me. Don’t know where she came from.’ Mika made a play of biting his leg and he cried out, then swung an airy backhand in her direction as the two guards came running out of the office.
‘Jackson, what the hell…?’
‘That’s not Jackson!’
Mika leapt forward, swinging up the clawboard hidden under her clothes to ram it into the first guard’s stomach. David swung his into the other man’s face, then Mika had her hands on the gun holster at the first guard’s waist. Two deafening booms later and both men lay face down.
‘Remember, no mercy,’ Mika said, breathing hard as David stared at the bodies. ‘Take the guns.’
They disarmed the men quickly, David adding the second guard’s gun to the belt he had taken from the guard downstairs. Mika rushed into the guard station and a few seconds later the cage door buzzed and swung open.
‘If this is what the government calls maximum security, it’s pretty easy to bust,’ David said.
Mika raised an eyebrow. ‘This is a research facility, not a prison.’
‘Doesn’t look like there’s much difference.’
‘There isn’t. Come on, we don’t have much time.’
The floor above looked like a hospital, with sterile white corridors punctuated by dozens of closed doors. At the sound of approaching footsteps Mika opened the nearest door and pulled David inside. They crouched down behind a jumble of shelves as the sound of irate voices passed by.
‘They’re pissed at their radios being out,’ Mika said. ‘Let’s move.’
They headed down the corridor. As they reached the stairs at the end, a voice came over an intercom, commenting on the radio outage, telling people to stay where they were and await further instructions.
‘This is our chance,’ Mika said.
They reached an elevator. David pulled a gun, emptied the bullets into his pocket to be safe, then held it against Mika’s head as she crouched at his feet, her hands behind her neck. When the doors opened at the next level and two guards entered, he growled at her to shut it or she wouldn’t make it to the cells. One of the guards chuckled. The other just looked at his feet.
When the doors opened at Level Six, David planted a foot on Mika’s back and shoved her out into the corridor. He gave the other guard a wink as the elevator doors closed.
‘Careful,’ she muttered. ‘That hurt.’
‘On your feet, bitch,’ he snarled at her, dragging her up by the neck and pushing her forward towards a guard office that stood to the left of a pair of heavy steel doors. Under his breath he whispered, ‘Sorry.’
A guard came out of the office and lifted a gun. ‘What are you doing here with her? Where’s your ID?’
‘Mark Jackson, up from Level Eight,’ David said, praying the guard wasn’t familiar with the man whose identity he had stolen. ‘Found this woman wandering about. Got told to bring her up, throw her in with the other one in Holding Cell Three. You got the communication, right? They said you’d be waiting for me.’
The guard shook his head. ‘Didn’t you hear? The radio’s down.’
‘You don’t check the fax? What the fuck do you do up here all day?’
The guard glared at him. ‘Do you know what they’ve got in there? I got told to open for no one.’
&nbs
p; ‘Well, go tell my boss that.’
The man started to turn back towards the guard office, then he frowned, his eyes falling to David’s shirt. David looked down, and saw the ID card for Mark Jackson still pinned to his uniform’s front pocket.
The resemblance wasn’t exactly striking.
The guard went for his gun, but Mika was quicker, drawing her stolen gun and putting two bullets through the guard’s chest. As he slumped back against the doors, she darted forward, into the guard office.
‘Quick, David!’
To his left he heard running feet. Three guards closed in on him. He swung the clawboard up, pressing the sonic inhibitor as Mika had instructed. The men screamed and fell back. David winced, the hideous shrieking not quite blocked by the swabs of wet tissue he had stuffed into his ears.
Then there came a massive groan that emanated from the walls themselves. David threw himself to the ground, fearing the building’s collapse.
The lights blinked out, plunging them into darkness.
Men were screaming over the squeal of the sonic inhibitor. Emergency lights blinked on, occasional blocks of orange at intervals along the ceiling, casting everything in a deathly hue of amber.
Mika came rushing out of the guard office. Behind her the steel doors stood open.
‘Eight minutes, David!’ she screamed, and he leapt up, all too aware of what that meant. As he passed the steel doors he saw the magnetic locking systems in the ceiling, and knew that when the power came back on they would swing shut to seal their tomb.
Mika was up ahead, the clawboard held in front of her, one hand holding a gun against the metal edge. David copied, her, bringing up his clawboard’s screen and setting it to grapnel. The sonic inhibitor had faded, and he was out of explosives. That he knew of, Mika still had one left.
Two guards appeared through a door to the right. David took one out with a swing of the board, and Mika shot the other in the shoulder. He kicked the man back through the door and saw him stagger away. To their left, a heavy metal cage door stood open, inky blackness inside.
‘Not that one!’ Mika screamed. ‘Three! Three!’
