Case and I slowed. Lockland looked up, meeting my eyes across the expanse. “What are you doing here?” he called.
“It’s been over two hours.” As we paced closer, I spotted another body crumpled on the ground to the right, blood pooling from a number of wounds. Lockland had used his Blaster. “Looks like we missed all the action.” Case and I stopped in front of them.
“The asshole tried to turn us in.” Bender gestured to the dead guy.
“Turn you in to who?” I asked.
“That’s not important,” Lockland said. “Before he could do so, this Bureau of Truth agent arrived on the scene.”
I moved around the man to stand next to Lockland so I could see his face. “This guy is from the bureau? Are you sure?”
“Not one hundred percent,” Lockland said. “He won’t say either way, but that’s my guess.”
“And he just showed up here?” I glanced around, not spotting anything out of the ordinary. We were still a good thirty meters from the opening in the wall that ran around Port Station.
“Once he got here, they both tried to play it off like it was part of the plan,” Bender said. “The guy who died”—he jammed his thumb in the body’s direction—“said he had a partner he wanted to bring in, but we could see he was scared. Then he drew his weapon.”
“He might’ve been trying to finesse a side deal,” I said. The man on his knees was helmetless, his dark curly hair plastered to his face. He had an angry look in his eyes and looked to be intelligent. He was definitely sizing me up. I glanced at Lockland, who nodded, giving me the okay. Casually, with my Gem out, I took a few steps to place myself directly in front of him, making sure his eyes were riveted on me. Quicker than he could anticipate, I kicked him in the chest. He arched over, landing on his back. I followed, bringing a knee down, jamming it straight into his abdomen right below the breastbone. His breath whooshed out as he gasped for air. I let up a tiny bit so he could breathe. Then I grinned. “Are you with the Bureau of Truth?”
He struggled to catch his breath, giving me the look I’d expected. Like I was the novice and he was the superior.
“We already asked him that,” Bender growled.
“Yeah, I figured,” I said. “But this is how I work. I like it when they underestimate me.” My gaze lingered on the man, who was now breathing somewhat evenly, my knee still on his chest. “I didn’t think you’d answer that, but you don’t have to. I’m assuming by what my friends told me that you’re here alone. You were probably sent to snoop around and keep your eye on things and report back.” I glanced up at Lockland. “Is he wearing an amplifier? Does he have a tech phone?”
“Neither,” Lockland said.
I grinned again, this time with a full-out chuckle.
“What’s so funny?” Bender asked.
“You two are forgetting something,” I said.
“What’s that?” Bender asked, his biceps jumping as he crossed his arms.
“We have Babble.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
“Who’s there?” The voice resonated with panic. “I have a wicked laser gun, and I’m not afraid to use it. If you come in, I’ll shoot, and it will hurt bad.”
“Ned?” I called through the door, tossing Case a confused look. After leaving Bender and Lockland, who were taking the prisoner back to the barracks, we’d been tasked with sneaking into the city to get the Babble. “What are you doing here?” I heard soft moans a second later. “Is Mary in there with you?”
The door whipped open a second later, and a relieved Ned collapsed in the jamb. “I had no choice.” He urged us into the room, shutting the door behind us. It was dark inside, save for his shoulder light, so I clicked mine on, making my way over to Mary. “I didn’t know where else to go,” he continued. “There are UACs all over outside, and at one point I heard voices. I didn’t want them to find us.”
We’d suspected the same thing. That was why we were two buildings away, instead of at the Emporium, where the Babble was stored. Finding Ned and Mary was a total surprise.
“I’m glad you’re safe,” I said as I knelt beside the woman whom I hoped to meet as her true self one day. She was fairly lucid, lying on top of a scummy-looking blanket. “Have you given her more Plush recently?” I hated that we were giving the drug to her.
Ned knelt beside me. “I gave her some before we left. I had to. She was making all kinds of noise. I couldn’t get her through the tube without it.”
I sat back on my haunches, facing him. “How did you know about the pneumatic tube?” A transit system had been constructed to pass through the building between the Emporium and this one. According to data I’d found a time long ago, Bliss Corp owned both buildings, but not the one in between, so they’d had to purchase the rights to a portion of the building to make it happen. It’d probably cost an obscene amount of money to build. The tube had been touted as “a passageway through which to bring in supplies,” but the fine print had said it was for transporting elite clients to and from the Pleasure Emporium out of the public eye.
It went without saying that the rich and famous hadn’t wanted their movements known when visiting the Pleasure Emporium, and I was sure they’d paid a lofty price for it.
The tube itself had housed a travel car that people would’ve been seated in as they’d been shot at high speeds through the building. In order to access the transit system now, depending on which direction you were coming from, you had to climb up or down a two-story maintenance shaft to enter. If you came from the Emporium side, you had to jump on top of the travel car, climb through an opening someone had hacked in the roof of the vehicle, and head out of the blown-out rear and crawl through the tube. From this side, we’d access the tube first, crawl through the wrecked car, and out the top.
The entire system had remained intact only because it’d been extremely well-built out of super-thick steel and was located right above the water line. I’d used it only a couple times, because it was a pain to crawl through the tube for that long, and once I’d salvaged a few times around the area, there had been no need to revisit. Until now.
“I didn’t know about it until Darby told me a few days ago,” Ned said. “I think someone in your group said something about it before you guys left town. They instructed me to use it in case of emergency.” That made sense. Bender and Lockland both knew about it.
“Well,” I said, “I’m super impressed you got Mary up and down those skinny ladders. In fact, it kind of boggles the mind you were able to do it.” I stood, glancing around the small space, a former interior office of some kind. It was the first room after exiting up and out of the tunnel. Not a super-great hideout if whoever was after them knew about the tube.
“Yeah,” Ned said, absentmindedly flicking his hair. “I had to use some rope, but we made it.” He gaped at me like he was seeing me for the first time. “But what are you doing here? How did you know we would be here?”
“We didn’t. We just happened upon you. We came to get Babble to interrogate the guy we captured and figured the Bureau of Truth was monitoring things, so we came this way.”
“Bureau of what?” Ned asked, his brows furrowing.
“Never mind. The good news is, once we have the Babble, things should be figured out within a day or two. Do you think you’re okay to stay here with Mary until then?” It wasn’t ideal. I spotted a small duffel on the ground. “Do you have enough food and water?”
“Yeah, I have enough for a couple days. But I don’t have any Plush left. I used it all.”
I nodded. “Okay.” I glanced down at Mary, who seemed to be fairly peaceful for the moment. “Then we’ll just have to work faster.”
Case grunted, “How exactly do you propose we do that? We’ve been going at breakneck speed.”
I shrugged as I moved past him. “We use our legs and make them work harder.” At the door, I turned, addressing Ned. “Do you really have a wicked laser gun?”
“No,” he answered as he lifted his wai
stband. “I just have this.”
A half-tase. “That will do. But the element of surprise is important. If anyone else comes here, don’t announce yourself and don’t panic. Open the door and hit them with it, keeping your finger on the trigger as long as you can. But I don’t think that’ll be necessary. If these guys knew about the tube, they’d already be here. When we leave, lodge something in front of the door. If we’re not back within two days, you’re going to have to move Mary again.”
Ned looked a little confused, but rallied. “Okay. I understand.”
“If you have to go, get her out of the canals. Head someplace familiar. How about Dill’s?” We’d been there together, and I could find it again.
He nodded. “I’ll do that.”
With one hand on the knob, I said, “I promise we’re going to get Mary to that medi-pod.”
Ned’s eyes were solemn as he responded, “I believe you.”
I shut the door.
Case stood by the maintenance entrance. “You were right,” he said with no further clarification as he mounted the ladder and began to climb down the two stories needed to get to the tube.
“And you’re surprised about that?” I asked as I followed. I didn’t even have to ask him what he was talking about. Of course I was right.
“I’m talking about coming this route, instead of going directly to the Emporium,” Case said with a chuckle.
“Again, and you’re surprised?” After a few moments, I said, “I’ve been thinking about something. It’s a little strange that the UACs chose now to come after Dixon’s craft, since you’ve been buzzing around the city for a couple of months now. They had to have known you were here before. It’s a possibility they left you alone because they thought you were with Tandor, but now that they know you’re not, they’re pursuing you. I think it’s all tied together. Tandor and his group definitely had something to do with the Bureau of Truth.”
Case reached the bottom of the ladder before responding, jumping down the last few rungs, his footsteps echoing up the shaft. I still had my shoulder light on, soft blue effusing the small space around us. “I’ve been running over those same things in my mind.” Case made room for me to land, ducking down to begin our crawl through the tube. “It feels like it’s all connected somehow. But I have no idea how the Bureau of Truth could’ve brokered a deal with Tandor. The only thing that possibly connects those two are the militia factions down South.”
“Exactly,” I said. “And if all the militias are somehow working together, with the Bureau of Truth at the head, it means that Tandor’s trip up here might’ve been a trial run. He could’ve been a sacrifice sent to the big city to see who would act up in the face of an overthrow. If that was their plan, we played right into it. No one acted up more than we did—in fact, we reacted so hard, we ended up killing Tandor and most of his men.”
“Yeah,” he said. “It’s going to take some time to unravel. If the Bureau of Truth is a pseudo-government group working with the militias to infiltrate and tear down the current structure, it’s one hell of a network.”
I didn’t want to think about all those implications just yet. If the scope was that big, the task seemed insurmountable.
One thing at a time.
We finally made it to the other end of the tube, coming up on the old pneumatic car that had privately zoomed rich clients looking for a good time to the Pleasure Emporium. We picked our way through the wreckage of the transport, which held six seats, and made our way out the top, where someone long before we’d been here had made a hole in the roof.
The next maintenance shaft was directly above us, but the first rung was farther off the ground than I remembered. Either Case or I would need a boost. “How do you want to work this?” I asked.
He answered by intertwining his fingers and bending over. I placed my boot in his hand, springing off the ground as he shot me upward. My gloved hands encompassed the cold steel. I hoisted myself up easily, hooking my knees around the bottom rung, bending my torso back down, and extending an arm.
Case grabbed on, and I hauled him up, crunching my waist, one hand reaching up for the rung above me for leverage. It took every ounce of strength I had. “How much do you weigh anyway?” I groaned. It felt like a hundred and fifty kilos.
“I have no idea,” he grunted, reaching out for the bottom rung as I scooted to the side. Once he had both hands on the steel, I pulled my legs out and continued up the ladder.
It felt longer going up than it had coming down. Once we reached the top, I was breathing hard. We still had several more stories to go to reach the lab, but thankfully, we were going to use a staircase instead of a ladder.
“There are four stairwells to choose from,” I said, bracing my hands on my thighs for a second to catch my breath. The Emporium occupied the upper floors, but the entire building had been Bliss Corp offices. When we arrived back in town a few days ago, I’d done some scouting—pretty much for emergencies just like this one. “Two within twenty meters of center. Darby’s lab is located on the south end of the building on the floor we occupy. I say we start up the south stairwell and hope it’s clear.” During my scouting process, I hadn’t run all four stairways top to bottom. That would’ve taken too much time. “Unless you have a better plan?”
“Sounds good to me,” Case said.
We headed that direction.
The damage on this floor was extensive, the place in shambles. If the infrastructure hadn’t been constructed so well, with no expense spared and steel beams and girders exceeding the load specifications, this building would’ve been done for long ago.
We had no idea if bureau agents might be inside the building, or only staking out the airspace above, so we had to move cautiously. We traversed four stories, sidestepping and mucking through a ton of garbage. Rounding the fourth-story landing, we encountered a pile of trash taller than we were.
I stuck my head into the middle of the stairway and glanced up. “It’s completely impassable from here on.” Large chunks of wall and ceiling tiles had caved in, blocking the way for several stories above us.
“Let’s try to see if this floor is passable,” Case said as he eased the door open. It was barely set on its hinges and made a loud groaning noise.
We both paused, listening.
“I’m just guessing here, because it’s hard to keep track of where we are,” I murmured, “but I think the Pleasure Emporium is at least four to six stories above where we’re standing now.” He nodded as we slipped into the hallway.
Halfway down, Case stopped and set his head toward a small window cut into a door. All the signage had long eroded, but it looked like the entrance to a stairwell to me.
He opened it, and we went through.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“I think this is it,” I whispered. We’d just rounded the fifth landing in the new stairwell, which had contained much less trash and had been easier to traverse. Case laid his ear against the door. When he deemed it clear, he eased it open no more than a couple centimeters, adjusting the position of his head so he would detect anything in the hallway.
A second later, his arm shot up, catching my attention.
He’d heard something.
I crept closer. He murmured, “Voices. At least two.”
“Damn.” That’s not what I wanted to hear. “It’s going to be hard to sneak by people who are lying in wait for us,” I said, my voice low. We had no choice. We had to get to the Babble. “Maybe we can sneak into the lab and retrieve the vials, then escape without them detecting us.”
Case slowly shook his head. “Highly unlikely. We have to find out where they’re located first. But if I open the door any wider, it’s going to make noise.”
My Gem was out and ready. I drew my taser. “We have to do this. Lockland and Bender are waiting for us back at the barracks. The information that guy will give us is priceless.”
Case nodded. “I’ll open it. You go through first. I’ll follow.”
“Any time you’re ready,” I told him, bending my arms, propping my elbows against my rib cage for maximum support. Case opened it and, for once, a door I was using didn’t make a sound.
I entered the hallway at a crouch, both arms extended in front of me. It took me only a few moments to realize we were on the wrong floor, likely one below the Emporium. That meant whoever was here staking us out expected us to arrive from above, not from a stairwell on this floor.
Bonus.
Case came into the hallway behind me, the door closing with a soft whoosh. The two male voices were coming from a room on the right. I moved to the other side of the hallway and made my way closer. Someone had shoved all the trash against one wall, which made it much easier to navigate.
“This is bullshit,” a guy said, his voice low and raspy. “There’s no way they’re coming back here.”
“A job’s a job. What are you going to do?” another guy answered, his voice higher and rushed.
“I can’t believe these people think they can go up against Bender’s crew. Don’t they know anything about this city?”
So, we were “Bender’s crew” to the public? Interesting.
“If I had to guess, I’d say they’re government,” the guy with the higher voice said.
“Nah,” the other one replied. “If they were government, they never would’ve hired us.”
“What you mean? We can do surveillance just as good as anyone else.”
I’d have to vote a hard no on that. Case and I were already within three meters of their location, and they had no idea we were here. The good thing was, we were dealing with hired help, not the bureau. And I agreed with the first guy. Why would a group like the Bureau of Truth hire amateurs?
“No, we can’t,” the raspy guy challenged, echoing my thoughts exactly. “We’ve never even seen this kind of tech before. All we’ve ever done was use a few amplifiers.”
“The monitors do the work for us,” the whiny guy said. “If we see something, all we have to do is call them on this.”
Danger's Cure: (Holly Danger Book 4) Page 9
