March hesitated, looking at the phone, at the alley, and then back at the wrecked trucks. It could be a trick. It could be a bluff.
“Shit,” said March, and he sprinted back towards the trucks.
In the distance, he heard the slap of Lorre’s footfalls as the Machinist agent fled towards the spaceport.
March ran towards the opened door of Lorre’s truck, and Axiom came into sight. She was wobbling a bit, the rifle dangling from her right hand, but she was on her feet and moving under her own power. She was staring at the black metal case of the bomb, her metallic eyes wide.
“March,” said Axiom. “The bomb…”
“I know,” said March, climbing into the back of the wrecked truck. “Lorre trigged the countdown.”
“We have about two minutes and thirty-six seconds until the bomb goes off,” said Axiom.
“Hold these,” said March, shoving the rifle and the relic in her direction. Axiom took them both without complaint. “Lorre’s run off to the spaceport, so he’s set the bomb on a timer to stop us from following him.” He looked around, seeking for an access panel on the bomb.
“There,” said Axiom, pointing.
March seized the panel with his left hand and ripped it away, revealing a maze of wires and components. He had seen warheads like this numerous times before, usually employed as missiles in starship-to-starship combat, and he started ripping at wires and pulling at components.
An electronic whine came from the bomb.
March turned an anxious glance at Axiom.
“The power has stopped,” said Axiom. “The bomb has been disarmed.”
“Good,” said March, wiping sweat and blood from his forehead. More blood than he would have thought. He must have cut himself at some point, but he couldn’t remember when. Anger flooded through him as he realized that Lorre had likely gotten away by now. March could try pursuing him, but almost certainly he would be intercepted by the Securitate if he didn’t get out of here now.
Still. At least they had stopped Lorre from nuking Rykov City.
He saw Axiom staring at the alien relic in her hand.
“What?” said March. “That thing didn’t activate, did it?”
“You know,” said Axiom in a soft voice, “we could sell this for a tremendous amount of money.”
March said nothing.
“Come with Helen and me,” said Axiom. “We can sell this, and perhaps settle down quietly somewhere. Somewhere away from the Final Consciousness. Does not that sound compelling?”
He remembered kissing her, remembered the feverish heat of her skin when she had touched him.
“It does,” said March, “but that thing’s dangerous. You know it’s too dangerous to sell. You saw the ghost drones. The Machinists made you and me into an Iron Hand and an Iron Eye. If we sell it, the Final Consciousness will get it back someday. They’ll make more monsters. They’ll rip apart more people they way they ripped us apart.”
Axiom sighed, and then dropped the relic into March’s outstretched hand.
“I meant what I said, Jack March,” said Axiom. “I think we could have had a lot of fun together.”
“Maybe,” said March, “but we had better get away from these trucks. Getting arrested and shot by the Securitate wouldn’t be fun at all.”
“I calculate that you are entirely correct,” said Axiom, and they ran like hell.
Chapter 10: Not Done Yet
March and Axiom wound up having to hide in the subterranean levels of the city for a day and a half.
Once the Securitate found the undetonated fission bomb in the wrecked trucks, Rykov City went into lockdown.
Tolox and Casimir were uncertain of the details, but it seemed that the anti-Machinist elements in the Securitate had had enough. There were mass arrests in the upper echelons of Rykov City’s Securitate branch, and chaos reigned for a day or two. Once things settled down, March and Axiom returned to Tolox’s warehouse and rejoined the others.
“The whole thing getting covered up, of course,” said Tolox as March sat in her office. “The official story is that two criminal gangs got into a firefight and blew up Deveraux’s warehouse.” She snorted. “Given that it was Casimir’s drones that attacked Deveraux’s warehouse, that’s true enough. Any involvement of the Machinists is covered up. The Securitate knows all about the ghost drones, but they won’t tell the public. Though hopefully, it will keep the Republic from getting too cozy with the Final Consciousness for the foreseeable future.”
“Is Casimir going to give us any trouble about the relic?” said March. “He was keen to sell it, and he probably lost millions of credits in this entire mess.”
“Nah,” said Tolox. “He’s going to do quite well out of this. Bernard Casimir is smart enough to take the long view. With Deveraux dead, he’s going to take over the gaming leagues. If there’s big money in liquor smuggling, there’s even bigger money in fixing the Renarchist Hero tournaments. In five years, Casimir is going to be richer and even more powerful than he could have ever gotten off liquor smuggling alone.” She shrugged. “And he’ll be a friend. Though I suppose the Silent Order has to use criminals to carry out our work.”
“Yeah,” said March. “He’s a criminal. But he didn’t try to set off a nuke in Rykov City.”
Simon Lorre had escaped, much to March’s annoyance. The damned rat always made sure he had an escape ready. A few moments after March had disarmed the bomb, there had been an unauthorized launch of a small freighter from the Rykov City spaceport. Before the Securitate air forces could intercept the ship, the freighter had punched into orbit and vanished into hyperspace. Likely Lorre had prepared his escape long before.
“Lorre might have gotten away,” said Tolox, “but you’ve need to get that alien device back to the Silent Order. I’ve got a cover story arranged for you. You’re a privateer so you wouldn’t leave Rustaril with an empty hold. You’ll be flying a load of algae protein to Constantinople Station.”
March grimaced. “It’ll take weeks to get the smell out of the hold.”
Tolox grinned. “You get used to it. It’s been a pleasure working with you, Captain March.”
He shook Tolox’s hand and left the office, stopping by the main desk long enough to say goodbye to Dredger, who was occupied with another game of Renarchist Hero. Evidently Dredger was about to embark on a new side career as one of Casimir’s ringers in the rigged gaming tournaments. March wished him good fortune and health and left the warehouse.
Helen Descard awaited him outside, clad in a long coat, her hands in her pockets.
“Helen,” said March, surprised.
He hadn’t expected to see her or Axiom again.
“Captain March,” said Helen. She reached into her coat and drew out a small data drive. “This contains a one-time access code for a bank transfer. It will pay you one-quarter of the fee Axiom and I received from Casimir. She thought you deserved it, and you did save our lives multiple times.”
March hesitated, and then accepted the drive. “Thank you.” Serving as an Alpha Operative in the Silent Order was often a self-funding enterprise, and March could use the money. Perhaps he shouldn’t have taken a payment from a crime lord, but Casimir was a liquor smuggler, not a narcotic manufacturer or a human trafficker.
It wasn’t as if he had tried to set off a nuke in a city of ten million people.
“Maybe my sister and I will have the chance to work with you again,” said Helen. She hesitated. “Might I ask you a personal question?”
“You do take after Axiom, don’t you?” said March.
She hesitated. “Why…did you turn her down? It’s none of my business, except it sort of is. She doesn’t often express interest in anyone, and when she does, she usually tries to make me set things up.”
“Must not make for much of a romantic life,” said March.
“It doesn’t,” said Helen.
They looked at each other.
“She’s ready to move on,” said
March at last. “To make enough money to live someplace and stay out of the war. She’s…at peace with what happened to her in a way that I am not. Axiom is ready to give up the fight. I’m not.”
Helen nodded. “I can understand that. I’ve had to struggle and scrape all my life. I’m sick of it. I’d like to stop…and maybe Axiom and I can both stop.” She leaned up, and to his surprise, she gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. “Good luck, Captain March. I hope you can find something that gives you peace.”
“Maybe I’ll retire and take vows as a monk in a monastery on Calaskar,” said March.
Helen blinked, looked him up and down, and then laughed. “No. No, I don’t think so. That wouldn’t suit you at all.”
“Tell Axiom,” said March, “that I hope you both find what you are looking for.”
###
The next day March piloted the Tiger away from Rustaril Station with a cargo hold full of algae protein, the relic of the Great Elder Ones secured in the strong room.
He thought about Axiom and Helen, about the atrocity that Lorre had almost worked in Rykov City.
No, March was not ready to give up the fight.
The Final Consciousness was working to enslave all mankind, and March intended to stop them.
Vigil finished the navigational calculations, and March took the ship into hyperspace, eager to begin his next mission.
THE END
JACK MARCH WILL RETURN
Thank you for reading SILENT ORDER: AXIOM HAND!
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Silent Order: Axiom Hand Page 18
