by C. G. Hatton
He’d renewed the connection with Genoa as soon as he was clear of the planet. She’d gushed relief at hearing from him and he’d been impressed with his cool, calm front of innocent ignorance.
Pen had guys scattered throughout the station and Hil calmly reacted to their warnings, taking turnings, stopping and waiting when instructed, and was safely conveyed past any possible threat all the way to the dock. There was no sign of Kase and Martha or their ship. He wasn’t sure what he would have done if he had seen them. Pulled out a gun and taken them both out probably, and enjoyed it. But it didn’t happen.
The docks area was busy and as he approached, he could see the hauliers waiting with the crate by the entrance to the airlock leading to Genoa’s berth. Pen was there checking documentation. He looked up and waved Hil over.
“Here’s that stuff you asked Elenor to find for you,” he said pulling out a small case.
Hil took it and opened it carefully. It was just big enough to hold three tiny auto-injector vials. Two of the spaces were empty.
“That’s all she could get in the time,” Pen said. “She says it will last for twenty four hours but don’t depend on it past eighteen. And whatever you do, don’t use it with that crap Martha gave you. Ele said that will be fatal however superhuman you decide you want to be.”
Hil smiled and tucked the case away safely in a different pocket to Martha’s vials.
Pen slapped him on the back. “You’re all set and ready for go,” he said and stuck out his hand for a handshake that turned into a bear hug. “Go get them, bud.”
“Thanks for everything, Pen,” Hil said, no need for any more ceremony, they’d said it all last night, and he went through to the ship.
“Zach, you won’t believe how worried I’ve been since you lost contact,” she said. “I’ve been scanning the entire planet.”
I bet you have, he thought as he stashed the bag in the locker under the bunk.
“It’s good to be back, Genoa,” he said cheerfully.
“You’re looking much better. I take it you found your friend down there. You could have let me know you were alright.”
“I am alright and I’ve got the package.”
She didn’t react straight away and Hil smiled. Her massive ship brain must have been doing flips. He gave the hauliers the go ahead to start loading the crate into Genoa’s hold and she took over, giving them instructions on storage.
“Here’s the coordinates for the drop,” he said, taking a seat in the bridge and noticing vaguely that it had all been cleaned. He’d been soaking wet and bleeding last time he was in here and tidying before he left had been the last thing on his mind. She’d had a complete scrub down.
Genoa took the data he input and started processing the numbers. She probably had it all prepared already, she’d know where they were going if she was in league with them. He had a brief flutter of concern, the thought that he was in all probability back in their hands, but he stifled it with resolve and a surge of belligerence. This time he knew what was going on and this time he was the one in control.
He checked that she had the numbers then jumped up. “I’m going to check on the package,” he said and wandered nonchalantly out towards the hold.
Pen was still waiting dockside, talking to the crate guys. As he saw Hil leave the ship, he nodded to them and walked over.
“Well, if we weren’t sure before buddy, we are now,” Pen said. “You were right. She sent a tight-wire transmission long distance nano-seconds after you said it was the package.”
Hil smiled. “I knew she wouldn’t be able to resist. Half that ship’s mental storage capacity must be taken up with her ego.”
He took the band off his wrist and the knife from his boot and held them out. “Look after these for me, will you?”
Pen took them and caught him up in another hug. “Good luck, Hil. Come back, you hear me? That equipment is expensive, I want it back.”
They got clearance and left the station with no problems. Hil avoided Genoa’s attempts at small talk and used the time to sleep off his hangover until they were clear for jump.
With the course he’d set, it was going to take four jumps to get to the base. After the first one, he excused himself from the bridge and said he needed to check on the package again.
“It’s fine, Zach,” Genoa said. “I could monitor it for you from here if you didn’t have it so well shielded.”
Hil left the bridge anyway. “This is the most valuable item in the whole galaxy right now, Genoa. Humour me. I’m just going to take a look.”
Once in the hold, he went straight over to the crate and opened up a panel on its side. He pulled out the control board from the massive device in the crate and began pressing keys in the sequence he’d memorised at Pen’s place.
“Zachary, what are you doing?” Genoa said. “We need to make jump. I need you back on the bridge. So, Zach, was LC down there on the planet? Where is he now?”
Hil shook his head and had to bite his tongue not to throw back a sarcastic barb at her crass and phony curiosity and absolute lack of subtlety. She failed miserably at trying to fake concern.
“He’s fine, Genoa.”
He must have failed at trying to hide his lack of belief in her emotions because she dimmed the lights and her tone was harder when she spoke again.
“Zach, come up to the bridge.”
He finished the initiation sequence, well aware that he had to move quickly. As far as she was concerned, she had him and the package. She could quite easily shut down life-support and jump. Dead or alive was the latest criteria on the bounty. He was sure they wouldn’t care which they ended up with.
“Zach, what are you doing?”
He could almost hear her synapses sparking through the logic channel possibilities and had no doubt she’d reach a conclusion quickly that would not be in his favour.
She was starting up the jump drive and he felt rather than heard the slight change in the noise of the air-con. He punched in the code that Pen had given him and watched the lights on the board flash up green.
“Zach? How did Skye..?”
He input the final code and stepped back as the device fired up with a barely audible hum.
That had been the danger. Genoa was a smart ship, they all were. He knew it wouldn’t take her long to realise that the crate he knew she would assume was the package was way too big to have fitted in Skye’s hold. Skye was tiny, built for speed. It didn’t often limit their capability to chase tabs but it had once or twice. If this had been the package, they couldn’t have gone with Skye to retrieve it. Genoa had realised that just too late.
The ship powered down slightly, engines going to standby as the AI shut down. What he had just done was the equivalent of smashing a bottle over her head and somehow he couldn’t bring himself to care. It was the only way he was going to be able to do what he had planned. He shoved the control board back into place and shut up the container.
According to the laws of Winter and some quarters within Earth’s sphere of influence that recognised AI sentience, he was now guilty of kidnapping, but on a personal level and what bothered him more was that he’d effectively just hijacked a guild vessel. Now he hoped he could remember how to fly it.
Chapter 25
“And of course,” the Man said, lighting a long tapered candle on the desk, “the problem with a wildcard is that you have no way to predict the way it will fall.”
The wick caught the flame and embraced the light, casting shadows across the wooden surface. The glow was mesmerising and NG felt his eyes drawn to the flickering halo of orange fire.
“Did you have any idea what Hilyer was going to do?”
NG tore his gaze from the candle’s flame to the Man, the most powerful individual in the guild and possibly in human controlled space, sitting there opposite, and for the first time since NG had set foot on this massive cruiser, questioning his actions. It was hard not to be defensive, and with the liquor coursing throug
h his veins and the darkness closing in, it was becoming hard to keep focused.
The Man didn’t let up. “The furore that this item has generated suggests that it will have monumental consequences for the history of mankind,” he said. “You, of all people NG, should understand the enormity of that. I worry at the timing of this development. It does not align with the timeframe for my plans.”
Never before had the Man spoken so openly of such things. NG reached across and picked up the jug, filling both goblets with the last of the steaming hot wine. That the Man was worried did not bode well. For anyone.
“Again,” the Man said slowly, “I ask, did you suspect what Hilyer intended to do when he left Aston?”
NG shook his head. “No, no I didn’t.”
•
Docking had never been his speciality. With no AI in control, the basic backup computer systems on any guild ship could handle a simple route with little input from a pilot. Hil’s problem now was that he had to be careful exactly what he broadcast to the station before they arrived. He let the ship fly on auto from jumping into the system to a fair distance from the orbital but as soon as comms traffic started coming in, he disengaged everything and took manual control. It wasn’t worth the risk that the automated systems would send some kind of signal that would give them away.
He strapped in tight because as much as he was trained to fly a ship this size, he’d be the first to admit he had no finesse. The mood he was in didn’t help and he belligerently left it to the last possible moment to kick in the braking sequence and align for dock.
They scraped in, too fast and with station operators yelling warnings at them, but he really didn’t care if Genoa lost a layer of paint or even an engine. The dock’s safety systems were adequate enough to catch them. He ignored the warning sirens and powered down.
The welcoming committee dockside was a mix of emergency services personnel running to put out what looked like a fire Hil thought he’d probably caused with his stylish entrance, station security who looked pissed and the corporation heavies he was expecting. One of the uniforms was arguing with the suits but it was clear who had the situation under control.
Hil walked across the dock, no baggage, no weapons, pockets emptied. He scanned the group for familiar faces. He thought a couple of them had been on Abacus, but there was no sign of Kase and Martha. He was almost disappointed, but thinking about it, Martha wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. She’d turn up on her own terms.
He didn’t make it to the group before two of the Zang guys broke away and intercepted him.
As they got close he recognised one of them as one of the twins, looking like he’d had serious facial reconstruction, a deep scar crossing his right eye socket.
They frisked him roughly and didn’t find anything because there was nothing to find. He took it calmly, trying not to smirk too openly. They weren’t gentle and he wasn’t going to give them the satisfaction of bitching about it.
They finished by slapping a patch on the side of his neck over the implant, that was expected, and restraining his arms too tightly behind his back, also true to form. What took him by surprise was the tiny device they stuck to the back of his neck. It adhered with a sharp pain like a needle going in deep and for a second he couldn’t catch his breath. He gasped and the guy laughed and flicked the device, sending another shard of pain lancing through his spine.
Hil bit back a curse.
The guy with the scarred face shoved him back and grinned, holding up a small remote. With over exaggeration, he threatened to activate it. Hil stood his ground defiantly, keeping his balance, and keeping calm – until the guy hit the remote and an excruciating pain sent Hil to his knees, feeling like his heart was going to explode. It didn’t ease up even when he managed to look up and see that the guy had disengaged the device.
“Not so cocky now, huh?” he said and hit it again.
By the time they pulled him up, Hil felt like his spinal cord had been ripped out, shivers of pain still darting in and out and sparks of light behind his eyes. That he hadn’t been expecting but it didn’t change anything. He wasn’t sure what they thought he was going to try but he was going with them. He wanted to go with them but if they wanted to have their fun, then fine. He choked back what would have been a laugh if he could have managed it and the guy shoved him again but didn’t activate the remote because a corporate suit was heading their way, frowning.
“Bring him over here,” the suit said with disdain and Hil was pushed forward. “Where’s the package?”
Hil smiled and shook his head. “I want to see Anya,” he said. “Then I’ll tell you where LC is with the package.”
The twin with the missing eye moved in close and grabbed the back of Hil’s neck. “You’re not in any position to negotiate,” he whispered harshly, holding up the remote again.
Hil kept the smug smile firm, keeping eye contact with the suit but answering Scarface, “Funny, but you’re the second low life who’s said that to me recently and the other asshole was wrong as well.”
The man put up a hand, waving off his thugs. “We’ll take you to Anya, alright,” he said with a sneer. “Take him down to the base, and try not to kill him on the way.”
The drop ship was the same type as last time, plush, reeking of money and still incapable of compensating for the vicious velocity of an emergency descent. With no watch or timer, Hil mentally kept a vague idea of how much time was passing.
There was a lot more corporate security once they landed and entered the corporation’s complex of low, flat domes. He watched their systems closely as they passed through, playing games trying to figure out what plan he would’ve used if he’d been trying to break in. It wasn’t impenetrable.
He changed his mind when they entered a wide, open, circular atrium that he could see was laced with bio-sensors. Corridors led in all directions like spokes, a guarded energy barrier across the entrance to each. To break in here, he’d need to infiltrate a bio-electronic security system that was at least as good as anything he’d broken before. He reassessed his opinion of the corporation he was dealing with. Not that it mattered.
They marched him across the open area, getting a mixture of indifference and curious stares from the corporate suits and lab staff they passed. He kept his head up and memorised every procedure they went through, only losing track a couple of times when Scarface screwed with the remote, giving him brief flashes of discomfort that verged on agony.
The whole place was bland, sterile bio-tech – corporation through and through but still nothing that would identify it as Zang. They reached a lift and the doors opened to an equally sterile and cold interior. Hil was pushed in and surrounded by his escort. The thugs stood to either side. He looked to one then the other and stared straight ahead, a slight smile twitching the corners of his mouth. He tested the restraints and reckoned he could get free when he wanted. The suit was standing with his back to him. He could break free and break the guy’s neck before the scarfaced twin and his new buddy could move. But that wasn’t the point.
As if they’d read his mind, they moved closer and a persistent throbbing emanated from the device, not enough to hurt but enough to take all his attention from anything but concentrating on staying upright.
They dropped down and leaving the lift, it was evident that security was tighter down here. They picked up another four guards who took them through more checkpoints.
At one, they shoved him into a cubicle and told him to strip. A more thorough search still didn’t find anything. They gave him loose fitting pale grey pants and a matching oversized shirt to put on. They really weren’t taking any risks and didn’t even let him keep his boots. It was flattering in a way.
Then it was more cold corridors until eventually, they were led through into a large room with knots of people standing waiting. Hil scanned the faces and his stomach muscles tightened as he spotted Kase and Martha up ahead. He caught Martha’s eye and she tensed, trying and failing t
o keep any emotion from her face. He smiled as he was led past. She stared without moving.
For once it was Kase who couldn’t resist speaking up. “Hey, Hil buddy,” he said. “Nothing personal, y’know. Just business.”
If he hadn’t been expecting to see them, it would have been near on impossible not to react. But he’d got all that out of his system at Pen’s place with the help of a good friend and a bottle of whisky so seeing them now face to face, he could keep up the air of nonchalance, even though his eyes might have said different. Screw them all.
He stopped and turned to them. “Hey, Kase,” he said, “heard from Genoa lately?”
The phony smile on Kase’s face dropped and Martha’s eyes widened a fraction. Hil was given a shove in the back and moved on before he could say anything else.
He heard Kase say to someone behind him, “Hey, get me a link up to security on the orbital. Now!” as Martha muttered, “What the hell?”
It was a small victory but sometimes that’s all you need to keep going.
He was taken into a smaller room with a soft carpet underfoot. There was a small table and just one chair. He was pushed into the chair and they secured the restraints. He didn’t resist. They gave him a short, sharp shock before throwing the remote down onto the table, laughing as they went.
He was left alone.
It was quiet, very quiet considering how many people there were in the hallway outside. He kept track of the time and kept his heart rate slow and steady. It was unfortunate that Elenor hadn’t managed to get him two shots of the drug but he’d manage. He toyed with the idea of busting out of the cuffs but decided they were probably watching and he didn’t feel like putting on a demonstration.
So he sat there. The longer, the better as far as he was concerned.
