“Sarge…” said Doukas.
Alice looked across the clearing. Shadows moved among the trees where the Transport Authority soldiers were hiding.
“Dammit,” said Alice. “Doukas, you’re in charge. Draw them away to the east, but keep moving. I want both of you back at the rendezvous.”
“Understood,” said Doukas. Leah thought she could detect a hint of excitement in his voice.
“But Doukas…” said Alice.
“Yes, Sarge.”
“You leave in two hours. No matter what. I mean that. If we’re not there, something went wrong, and you’re to get out. That’s an order.”
“I’m sorry, Sarge, you’re breaking up. We’ll see you at the rendezvous. Out.”
Alice rolled her eyes as she tapped her headset. Gunfire rang out across the clearing—a dozen shots from the Transport soldiers hiding in the trees.
“We’re leaving them?” said Leah.
Alice nodded. “It’s the right thing to do.”
“But… there’ll be too many Transport soldiers. They’ll be killed.”
The delay before Alice replied told Leah everything she needed to know. “They’ll be fine.”
Alice placed her goggles over her eyes. She gestured for Leah to do the same, then set off through the trees.
More gunfire echoed through the forest. Leah looked back over her shoulder and caught sight of flashes of yellow as the soldiers exchanged fire. The thought of leaving Doukas and Da Silva behind made her feel sick. Silently wishing them luck, she turned and followed Alice into the trees.
23
The sound of gunfire chased after them as they hurried through the forest. Guilt gnawed at Leah. Again she was running away, leaving people behind to die while she got to live another empty, pointless day. Tears stung her eyes. She could feel Alice’s frustration at having to leave the others behind as well. She almost suggested they turn back to help, but at least this way the mission might not be a complete failure.
Their goggles gave them a green-tinted view of the world that Leah found quite disturbing, but Alice seemed to instinctively know which direction to go. She didn’t stop to check a compass, or consult a map. She just forged ahead, moving from trail to trail in an effort to keep moving as quickly as possible but still heading in the same general direction.
Eventually, half an hour or so after they left the battle, the ground began to climb. When they reached the edge of the forest, Alice motioned to Leah to remove the goggles. The sky had grown clearer, and the moon shone brightly down on the hilltop, providing more than enough light for them to see by now they were out of the forest.
The data center was ahead, on top of a small hill. It was a circular, domed building. It was shaped like an observatory, but the roof didn’t look like it opened. The area surrounding the building was flat and clear of grass. Two Jeeps were parked outside. They were just like the ones Leah had seen at the inn, and she tried not to consider what it would mean if they were the same ones.
There was a doorway facing the forest but no sign of a guard.
“We’ll go in through the ventilation system,” said Alice.
She indicated across the hill. Leah couldn’t see what she was pointing at initially, then she spotted a small raised area of grass that seemed too perfectly square to be natural. Alice pulled a small tablet from her backpack and tapped it. It flared to life. A wireframe outline of a building appeared. It was the data center. The structure extended five or six levels below the ground, like some sort of man-made iceberg.
Alice double-tapped the screen, and a map expanded to fill the display. She pointed at a small room on the right side of the screen. “The ventilation system will get us here.” She tapped a green rectangular object two rooms over. “That’s the nearest data console. It should have a VRI we can use to get the data.”
Leah nodded. Butterflies were swarming in her stomach, and she was starting to feel sick.
Alice put the tablet away, then nodded to Leah. They ran in a crouch across the hilltop. The ground was uneven and slippery, and Leah had to concentrate on her footing to avoid falling. She didn’t think about the possibility of Transport Authority guards spotting them until they reached their destination.
The air vent was rusted and battered. Red stains coated the slats, and a vine had grown up along one side. Leah felt a pang of nostalgia. In her previous life, the metal would have been worth a lot in trade. Her father could have fed them for a couple of weeks on just one of the slats.
Without thinking, Leah pulled at the top slat to see if she could work it loose. Alice reached past her and pushed a lever on the right-hand side of the vent. Metal ground against metal as the slats moved. They caught about halfway open, and Alice had to put her whole weight on the lever to force it the final few inches.
Leah eyed the gaps between the slats. They seemed very narrow. Not for her of course, but Alice was bigger.
“I’ll go first,” said Alice. She must have seen the skepticism on Leah’s face because she smiled.
Alice pulled off her backpack and removed a small electric screwdriver. She checked the vent, selected a bit and began removing the bolts on each of the slats. The drill whined quietly, and flakes of rust broke free and fluttered out of sight down the air vent as one by one the bolts came free. Within a couple of minutes, most of the slats were lying on the ground beside the vent.
Alice exchanged the screwdriver for a flashlight and shone it through the opening. “There’s a maintenance ladder, but it looks pretty old. I’ll go down first.”
Leah tapped her earpiece twice, then Alice handed her a second flashlight. Leah’s butterflies had settled down while Alice was removing the slats, but the idea of clambering down into the darkness with only a rusty old ladder to keep her from falling to certain death brought them back with a vengeance.
Her mouth turned dry as Alice ducked through the slats and disappeared out of view. Leah went to the edge of the vent and peered inside. Alice’s flashlight bobbed and weaved, illuminating the stained metal walls of the shaft. The ladder creaked and groaned. Alice’s flashlight vanished. Leah stretched farther into the shaft, trying to find some sign of life, but it was too dark.
Leah’s headset beeped, and she tapped it.
“Okay, it’s not far, and the ladder seems pretty solid. There are a couple of loose rungs about twenty feet down. Test each rung before you put your weight on it, and you’ll be fine.”
It took Leah a couple of attempts to find her voice. “O-okay.”
Leah counted to four, then ducked through the slats. A wide ledge ran along the outside of the shaft. She stood on it until her eyes had adjusted to the gloom and she could see the curved handles of a ladder.
The butterflies in her stomach were gone now. They’d been replaced by thick, greasy snakes that writhed and twisted inside her gut.
Alice’s voice came over the headset again. “Don’t think about it; just start climbing.”
Leah clipped her flashlight to her khakis. She whispered to herself. “You can do this. Just like in the tunnels beneath the City.” And then she climbed onto the ladder.
She took Alice’s advice and didn’t think about what she was doing. Instead, she focused on moving steadily down the ladder, testing each rung before committing to her weight to it. The flashlight bounced around with each step, sending shadows darting across the walls. The constant flickering was off-putting, and after a few feet Leah turned the flashlight off. She clung to the ladder until her eyes had adjusted to the gloom and then continued the descent.
She’d just about gotten back into her rhythm when the ladder shifted beneath her feet. Metal croaked, and something broke away from the wall near Leah’s hand. It clanked off the ladder and disappeared into the darkness.
Leah clung to the ladder, her heart thundering in her chest.
Light flashed across the shaft. “Are you okay?” said Alice in Leah’s ear.
“Y-yes, I’m fine.”
“Good, now keep moving.”
There was an urgency in Alice’s voice that Leah didn’t like, and without stopping to think about the precariousness of her situation, she continued down the ladder.
Alice guided her down, using the flashlight to illuminate each rung in turn. The light made Leah feel a lot more comfortable, but when her feet touched solid ground again, she was shaking with relief.
The ladder ended in a large square room with a single door marked L1. Three horizontal air circulation fans dominated one wall. They were old and the paint had peeled and flaked away giving the machinery a beaten-down look. The huge electric fans turned lazily, halfheartedly circulating air that was warm and moist and smelled of food, sweat and oil. Leah covered her mouth, but the smell seemed to cling to her skin. Already she felt greasy, like she needed a shower.
Alice helped Leah off the ladder. Her face was impassive, but Leah could sense the tension.
“We need to move quickly,” said Alice.
“What’s wrong?”
“Doukas and the others have been forced back to the rendezvous point already. They’re pinned down. Backup is on the way, but they’re going to have to bug out as soon as they can.”
“They’re leaving us?”
“If they have to, yes.”
Leah swallowed. There was no going back now. She’d made her choice.
Alice moved to the door and pressed her ear against it. When Leah joined her, she held a finger up to her lips.
Eventually, Alice straightened up. “There should be a maintenance room along this corridor. Third door on the right. I’ll go first; stay close behind.”
Leah nodded. The snakes in her gut had gone now. She was still tense and the adrenaline flowing through her system had her senses in overdrive, but there was something else too. Excitement.
Carefully, Alice opened the door. The corridor beyond was empty. Here and there water had stained the concrete walls. The air was damp and musty. It really did remind Leah of the tunnels beneath the City.
They moved quickly along the corridor until they reached the third door, “Elec Main 4.”
“Electronics maintenance,” said Alice. “Or electrical, maybe. Whatever it is, this is our way in.”
Alice tried the handle. It turned.
As Alice pushed open the door, a male voice echoed down the corridor. “Hey!”
24
Leah whirled around. A greasy, pasty-skinned man in dark blue overalls that were a couple of sizes too small for him was striding toward them down the corridor. He was broad shouldered and moved with an aggressive confidence, and in the harsh halogen lighting, he was an imposing presence.
Leah raised her gun. She willed her fingers to squeeze the trigger, but they wouldn’t. They seemed locked in place. Instead of the blast of gunfire followed by a cascade of blood and a falling body, Leah heard a strangled cry. A fraction of a second later, she realized the sound had come from her.
The man’s footsteps faltered when he saw the gun. His right hand started to move to his belt, then stopped as though he’d realized the only weapon he had was the greasy rag sticking out of his pocket.
Leah stared at him, but all she could see was the man she’d shot lying dead in the back of the truck, blood pooling around his still warm body.
The workman must have seen something in Leah’s face because he reached for a radio clipped to his lapel.
There was a loud pffft sound, near Leah’s right ear. The man twisted left and fell back, clutching his shoulder. He hit the wall and slid to the ground. His face was contorted into a grimace.
Alice brushed against Leah’s shoulder as she hurried down the corridor toward the fallen man. He saw her coming and grabbed at the radio again. His fingers wrapped around the talk button as Alice reached him. She knocked his hand away from the radio and then punched him in the shoulder where the bullet had hit him. The man screamed in agony and grabbed the wound again.
Alice placed the barrel of her gun against the man’s forehead.
“No, please!” he said. Fear raised the pitch of his voice.
Leah was about to add her own voice to the man’s plea when Alice snatched the radio from his overalls. It crackled, and a static-filled voice said, “Are you there, Gleeson?”
Alice pressed the gun harder against the man’s forehead, and he flinched. “Tell them everything’s fine, and it will be.”
Gleeson’s Adam’s apple bobbed. “Okay.” His voice came out as a ragged whisper.
Alice leaned forward, placed the radio near the man’s mouth and pressed the talk button.
Leah saw Gleeson consider his options. She saw him realize this was his chance to become a martyr for the cause, to die a hero. And she saw him decide he’d rather live.
“Yes, sir. Just checking on EM4.”
Alice released the talk button.
The static voice came again. “There a problem?”
“Tell them you’re going to take a look inside the system, run some internal tests.”
Gleeson nodded and Alice pressed talk again.
“There’s some lag in the data nodes. I’m going to log in, run some manual diagnostics. Should only take a few minutes.”
Alice jabbed the barrel of the gun into Gleeson’s forehead as she released the talk button again. He pulled back, then winced and pressed his hand harder against his shoulder.
“Okay,” said the voice over the radio, “we’ll keep an eye on things from this end and let you know if we see anything you should know about.”
“Thanks,” said Gleeson. Then he had to say it again once Alice had pressed talk.
Alice pulled the radio and the gun away from Gleeson and gestured for him to stand. He struggled to his feet. Sweat beaded on his forehead; he looked even paler than he had before he’d been shot. His overalls were stained with blood around his shoulder and there was more on his hand.
Alice pointed toward the door to the maintenance room, her knuckles smeared with blood. “In there.”
Gleeson pushed open the door and went inside with Alice following close behind.
As Alice walked past, Leah started to apologize. “I—”
Alice frowned and flicked her head toward their prisoner. Leah stopped talking.
The room was small, maybe twenty feet square, and the space was dominated by a rack of computers that ran along the wall opposite the door. It stretched from floor to ceiling, and Leah guessed there must be more than a hundred of the computers. Short blue cables hopped between sockets in the front of the black boxes. Air conditioning and cooling fans murmured in the background. The only other furniture in the room was a desk with a monitor and keyboard on it.
Gleeson was standing in the corner opposite the desk. He was still holding his shoulder. Alice was pointing her gun at him. Her backpack sat on the floor, and she pointed toward it.
“There are some plastic cuffs in there; lock him to that pipe.”
Eager to make up for her earlier cowardice, Leah quickly retrieved the cuffs. Gleeson was reluctant to stop holding his injury, but a quick wave of Alice’s gun persuaded him to lower his arms. He gasped as Leah slipped the plastic tie over his wrists and pulled it tight. She managed to avoid apologizing and stepped away.
“Your wound’s not serious,” said Alice. “The bleeding’s stopped, and it’ll stay that way as long as you don’t try anything stupid.”
“I won’t, I promise.”
Gleeson still looked as though he was expecting Alice to shoot him again any moment. He seemed young to Leah now, and far less intimidating. Despite his size, he couldn’t be much more than a year or two older than her.
Alice gave Leah Gleeson’s radio. Then she opened her backpack and pulled out a cable. On one end was a glossy black box about two inches square. The other end of the cable had one of the spider-like VRIs Leah had used back at the power station.
Leah ran her fingers down the rack of computers until she found a pair of rectangular slots. She slid the black box
into the top slot until it clicked. A pair of lights on the front of the computer turned yellow, then green.
“An ident spoofer, nice,” said Gleeson. He had a genuinely impressed look on his face, but Alice glared at him, and it vanished.
Alice removed another plastic box from the backpack. This one was clear and had a black rectangle at its center—a smaller version of the memory module Leah had found in the City. Alice pushed the module into the lower slot, and another light turned green.
“You won’t be able to get anywhere,” said Gleeson. “This is a maint node. It’s outside the firewall, which means you aren’t getting in, even with your spoofer.”
If the man’s words had Alice concerned, she didn’t show it. She lifted the cable to check the metal spider.
“Look, you’re smart,” said Gleeson. “You know my little story about running some diagnostics isn’t going to keep them distracted for long. They’ll be down here before you know it.”
“Shut up,” said Alice.
Alice raised the VRI toward her neck, but Leah stopped her. “I thought we were going in together?”
“That was before we had to leave half our team behind. Much as I hate to admit it, he’s right, and someone needs to keep watch.”
“And what am I going to be able to do if Transport turns up? You’re the soldier. Let me go in. I can do it.”
Alice pursed her lips. Leah could see her weighing up their options. “You know what data we need?” she said.
Leah nodded.
“Don’t go after anything else; there isn’t time.”
“I promise.”
Alice gave a sharp nod. “Okay. Turn around.”
“How do I bring the information out?” said Leah as she turned.
“Everything you interact with in there will be stored on that memory module. Just find the data, and then get the hell out of there.”
“By doing what exactly?”
“Picture an exit, and you’ll get one.”
Leah took a deep breath. “Right.”
“Are you sure you want to do this?”
The Girl in the Wilderness (Leah King Book 2) Page 12
