Fire and Steel

by Gavin Magson

  Miles and Rex watched as the last pursuer entered the building. Neither man could make out what was being said, but the raised voices suggested at least one man had reached the second floor.

  “Line up the shot, take your time, don’t fire until you are certain at least the majority of them are within that room.” said Miles.

  Rex leant his rifles barrel on the ledge, pointing it downwards in order to aim into the second-floor room. He waited, counting under his breath as shapes entered the darkened room. They were barely illuminated by the moons light, which made distinguishing one person from the next nigh on impossible.

  A head appeared through the broken window, peering around the street below. A second joined him, but this one chose to scan the buildings opposite. Rex watched through his telescopic sight for the moment that his target realised there was a gun trained on them. Before a single word of warning could escape the man’s lips Rex pulled the trigger, sending a round into the floor behind the two men.

  The explosion tore through the group and reduced the outside wall to airborne debris. Along with raining brickwork Rex watched as limbs fell to the street below, scattered in all directions. When the last brick finished skating across the street all was silent once more, not even the slightest sound could be heard.

  “Do you think that I got all of them?” asked Rex.

  “Probably, but we can’t risk backup being called. Get your mag back in the gun, we are going over to do a quick sweep. I’ll tell Jerry to keep an eye on Rose and Ward.”

  Chapter 19

  Are you still in the sector? I need to see you now; meet me at the mansion.

  Aiko awoke in darkness, a third night’s sleep interrupted hours before dawns light. She had exhausted every resource at her disposal to try and locate Ilya, no one could provide a credible sighting of the woman for several months. Not a soul claimed to have seen her since the union.

  Rine had warned her against investigating Henry Steel. Whilst several of the young mayor’s predecessors had been in Rine’s employ, this one could not be bought. Rine had said that Henry had been tolerant of the sectors organised crime, but disturbing whatever peace existed would only be detrimental to Rine’s business.

  There was no point trying to fall back asleep, Aiko had attempted to do so the previous two nights and only succeeded in becoming increasingly frustrated at herself. Instead she sat up in her bed and whispered a command that saw her room bathed in a gentle glow. The lights slowly increased in luminescence until it passed for something close to daylight.

  Aiko pulled up a metal arm attached to the side of her bed and pressed her thumb into a groove set within the polished metal. From the side of the arm was projected all the reports and maps she had been viewing before sleep had finally taken her.

  With a wave of her hand Aiko dismissed the multitude of screens to leave herself staring at a blank canvas, save for a single small map in the lower right corner displaying Ajax’s tablets final movements.

  She opened her message list, which contained a new reply. Aiko pressed her finger through the projection and was greeted with a long message detailing how difficult the writer had found accessing any surveillance of the mayor’s mansion. Aiko was too tired to even notice the inflated price that her contact requested for access to the file and paid without giving it a moment’s thought.

  The blank screen was replaced by nine tiles, all showing a different angle from the outside of Henry Steel’s mansion. Two images covered the approach to the mansions front gate, showing the drop towards Sector Four and several large residences that belonged to the sectors elite.

  Aiko synced the map in the lower corner with the timestamps of the images before advancing the recording, watching the position marker get closer to the mansion. When Ajax should have been coming into view the two feeds remained unchanged, still showing the same images. Aiko watched on as the marker approached the mansion, yet still nothing appeared. As she had seen dozens of times before the marker blinked out, and still there were no sign of Ajax before her.

  It took several minutes to navigate through the footage until the time that Ajax’s marker reappeared, and only then did the image change. It was slight, so much so that Aiko had to rewind and advance frame by frame. Within a fraction of a second the front gate went from closed to closing, which didn’t make the slightest bit of sense.

  Aiko watched the same transition several times, one moment the gates were closed, as they had been the entire playback, the next they were ajar but closing together. Someone had doctored the video, removing any trance of Ajax’s presence. Aiko reached for her tablet.

  “You do realise that you are suicidal, don’t you?” muttered Arnold, keeping his voice low.

  “No, I’ve got past that stage. I’d say I’m stuck somewhere around dangerously reckless. Now boost me up or I’ll tell you how I plan to castrate Henry Steel myself.” said Aiko, not a trace of humour in her voice.

  Arnold knitted his fingers together and crouched so that Aiko could fit her foot into his hands. With seemingly no effort he managed to propel her up and onto the building’s roof. Once Aiko was out of the way Arnold took a short run at the wall, kicked off it and grabbed the ledge above him. Aiko pretended not to hear his grunt as the large man pulled himself up to stand alongside her.

  “Pass me the scope, please.”

  Arnold retrieved the item from within his rucksack and handed it to Aiko, who walked over to the opposite end of the roof. He turned to look out over the sector, the dazzling light show far more interesting than the mansion behind him. Despite the vantage point Arnold didn’t have a clear view of Five, thanks to the increased desire for tall buildings within Four. He wondered whether he’d be able to see all the way to the Outerlands if he ever stepped foot in One.

  The scope hummed gently as Aiko pressed it against her eyes. She flicked between the different viewing modes until the darkened mansion was bathed in a pale green light that gave her a much clearer view of the mansions front face.

  There was little lighting on within the mansion, the majority of that concentrated in the hallways visible. Aiko waited patiently, as there was no point rushing her surveillance.

  The first guard walked past a ground floor window, a gun holstered on his left hip. Aiko magnified the image and, when the guard walked past the next window, saved the image. She repeated this over the course of the next hour, documenting each person that appeared to be security personnel. Another figure completed their lap of the upper floor, a female guard that Aiko recognised from some twenty minutes earlier, and the final guard Aiko needed to confirm that she had seen a full rotation.

  Aiko moved the scope away from her eyes, leaving her with a disorientating view of her surroundings whilst she adjusted to the early dawn light. Arnold noticed the movement and stirred from his trance, having spent far longer than he’d like fixated on a row of insects marching along the roof’s ledge.

  “Are you finished here?” he asked.

  “Nearly, I just want to wait until there is a change of staff, which I was informed should be shortly. I’m going to count all the images I’ve got of unique security personnel, to confirm a suspicion I have.”

  “What exactly is it we are doing here?”

  Aiko let out a chuckle at the question; Arnold had barely moved an inch the entire time she had been surveying the mansion.

  “What you are here for is to honour Rine’s request that I don’t do something foolish and piss off the mayor. What I’m trying to do is get an accurate headcount for the amount of security that Henry employs at his mansion. A standard mayor’s security detail is normally around twenty personnel, and that is to cover every shift. I’d expect six to eight on each shift, to allow for sickness or holiday; I’m confident that number is closer to double expected.

  “Rine has never had call for more than twelve guards, and he’s had to dodge plenty of assassination attempts over the years. It’s been several years since I’ve been that concerned for his s
afety that we’ve needed double figures of security. Right now I have five guys keeping his house secure, and two of those are in place of me.”

  “So, since you’re my security expert, what reason would you say Mayor Steel has to need so many watching his mansion?”

  “I’ll think on it, as the obvious answer isn’t the only one. It’ll help that you confirm how many guards you’ve spotted before I start hypothesising reasons.”

  Aiko showed a little surprise that Arnold had double digit length words in his lexicon but managed to hide it enough for him not to notice. She set the scope into a comparison mode, which should, with reasonable accuracy, return one image per individual that she had photographed.

  Whilst the scope was processed the images several hovers crested the steep hill to her left, moving along the road that lead up to the mansion’s front gates. None of the hovers slowed as the gates opened, leaving Aiko impressed by their timing. She looked down when the flickering images on the scope’s screen halted.

  “Eight confirmed guards, all sporting weapons, purely for perimeter patrol. I couldn’t get any pictures from those patrolling inside. Now tell me what you think would be his reason for keeping that many on the payroll.”

  Arnold considered his response whilst the hovers pulled up in front of the mansion’s front door. Several dozen staff, including the relief security team, exited the hovers and filed inside. Once the first group of staff walked out of the mansion to finish their shifts he turned towards Aiko.

  “Fear, predominantly. Whether it is fear of assassination, information breach, or theft, only fear could lead someone to excessively overstaff his security detail. He is a powerful man, so much so he worries the honest and dishonest equally. The mayor could have a hundred known enemies, if his tenure has altered the status quo. Without more information I couldn’t tell you exactly his reasoning behind this.”

  “What might change your evaluation is the fact that, prior to the union, he had only been seen in public with seven personnel in his security team. Since Henry’s honeymoon ended his amount of public appearances are the lowest during his tenure, and he has nearly doubled his entourage since then. We both saw the eight guards leaving the mansion, a minimum of fifteen on a shift seems excessive to me. Any ideas what he needs so many men to protect?”

  “Without getting inside the mansion I can only guess. Rine won’t like the idea, but you could always use one of them.” Arnold pointed across to the last of the staff as they boarded a hover. “Find out where they live, or frequent, and you could plant a listening device on them. Get something that doesn’t transmit, it will make it more difficult to retrieve the file, but also far harder to detect and trace back to you. I’ll help you find something suitable, and will talk with Rine, if you want, to ease any of his concerns.”

  “Thank you, Arnold, I would really appreciate your help here. Let’s get home before the sun is up.”

  The small black metal pin, its head barely wider that the needle thin tip, cost Aiko half a year’s wages; she hadn’t so much as blinked when the merchant told her the price. Arnold had taken her to a run of the mill weapons shop, or so she thought, but the selection of black-market options was more extensive than Beryl had been willing to lay her hands upon.

  Rine gripped the pin lightly between thumb and forefinger, moving it slowly to look at the surveillance device.

  “I warned you not to go too far with this investigation, yet you’ve purchased this device without talking to me first. Is there anything else you want to tell me about?” asked Rine.

  “I know what it looks like, and I’m sorry that I didn’t talk to you first. You’ve seen the images I took; there is no denying that Henry is hiding or protecting something very important to him. This Snooper is so low-tech that it isn’t detectable by any security system that is used today, which means even if he did discover what it is there is no trace back to me, or your business. This is my best option to try and discover what it is Henry needs to keep secret, or safe. Let me have this and, if there is nothing of worth gained from using the Snooper, I promise that this is the last time I’ll ask your permission to pry into Henry Steel’s life.”

  Rine removed his half-moon spectacles, setting them down on the polished wooden desk. For a moment, as he once again inspected the Snooper, Aiko expected him to crush the miniscule device between his fingers.

  “For what it is worth, Aiko is right about how untraceable this device is; the chance of Henry finding it are beyond remote, identifying where it came from or whom is impossible. She did a good job at the mansion, kept her distance and emotions in check, didn’t alert any of the guards to her presence; she’ll handle this well.” said Arnold.

  “Would I be correct in thinking you’ve already got a target in mind for this Snooper?” asked Rine.

  “No, not yet. If you approve my plan, I’ll have the mansions staff monitored and shortlist the ones with the most predictable patterns. I intend to use a third party to attach this to a staff member, preferably one who is part of the cleaning team, and then later retrieve it. I can’t claim that to be all my own idea, Arnold has shared his knowledge of how to identify the safest target to plant a surveillance device on, and which would have the most freedom of movement within the building. It was very enlightening, and a little scary.”

  “I suppose it was only a matter of time until you became self-starting, I’d like to think it’s because I trained you so well. You have my permission, but under one condition; if you find nothing to suggest he has information about Ajax then this is the last time you investigate our mayor, bar going over anything you’ve collected so far. I will have no choice but to fire you if you go against my command.”

  “Thank you, Rine, I won’t let you down. If Henry doesn’t supply the answers I need then I will put my efforts into different avenues.”

  Aiko pushed her seat back and stood, reaching across the table when Rine followed suit in order to pass over the Snooper. She gave him a warm smile before turning and leaving through the door that Arnold opened for her. When she was out of sight Arnold pulled the door closed.

  “How did she perform last night?” asked Rine.

  “For someone who hasn’t run surveillance before she did a lot of things very well and came to the correct deduction that Henry’s excessive guard force is a red flag for something worth our time investigating. With any luck Aiko will uncover something you could put to good use in ousting our mayor.”

  “Good, I am glad that she demonstrated skill last night. She is a quick learner and makes the best out of her teachings. However, I worry what she will find by going down this route. Ajax’s death nearly broke her; if she does not find any answers from Henry what will that do to her?”

  Chapter 20

  “Captain, you asked me to tell you when it had been twelve hours since Boden’s ship passed through the hyper gate. I’ve completed all the pre-checks, we are ready for your signal.”

  “Thank you, Deborah. Greg, contact the Gatekeeper and get permission to jump.” commanded Duke.

  Greg used the controls in front of him to make contact with their destination gate. Duke listened to Greg’s request for travel, taking interest in only the parts of the conversation he needed to know about.

  “We’ve permission, Duke; powering down the engines now.” said Greg.

  “Deborah, best get yourself strapped in with Lev. Greg, get us level with the gate and count us down.”

  Deborah sat in the vacant seat next to Lev and clipped in the three-point harness, which adjusted automatically to tighten around her torso. Despite the great distance they had to travel until the Illicit Jane passed through the hyper gate Deborah was fixated on how it was rapidly filling the front screens view.

  “Forty miles, engines offline, thirty seconds to jump.” announced Greg over the ship’s speakers.

  Deborah began to count down in her head, focusing on synchronising her breathing to each second. She did her best to remain relaxed despite kno
wing what was to come, which meant she had to fight her body’s desire to tense.

  “Fifteen seconds.”

  Greg pulled down his own harness and clipped it together as he began to count down from ten. Deborah could no longer see the gate’s outer circumference, instead her eyes were drawn now to the flashes of purple light flaring up all over the surface of the hyper gate. As Greg’s count reached one Deborah’s body betrayed her.

  The first time Deborah had travel via hyperspace her fellow crew members had told her to grip her seat tightly as there was a slight kick when entering hyperspace. Being the youngest crew member, she had followed their instructions and spent weeks on reduced duties because of the horrific bruising.

  Hyper gate technology was not something Deborah knew a lot about, but she had experienced it enough to have come up with several observations. As their ship entered hyperspace it underwent violent acceleration, which continued far longer than she would ever become accustomed to. Hyperspace was variable, connecting two points in the universe and folding the space between them to a fraction of its original distance.

  Yet there was never the sensation of reaching a steady velocity to provide a reprieve from the nauseating bludgeoning the body went through. Rapid decelerating left her internal organs attempting to become external and, when Deborah thought she could take it no more, the Illicit Jane exited hyperspace. Once her senses returned Deborah became aware of the wet slaps of Lev’s vomit hitting the floor.

  “That felt like the worst one yet. Any damage to report, Greg?” asked Duke.

  “I don’t have a damage report, save for the floor by the sounds of it. We hit a rough patch of distortion, but that should not have been enough to weaken the hull. Anything not bolted down will probably have been thrown down the length of the ship though.”