by Rachel Aukes
“Four, three, two, one,” he counted.
Throttle covered her eyes and ears and flattened herself against the wall.
The boom was deafening, and shock waves reverberated through her body. She started running as soon as she could regain her footing and turned to find Birk grinning.
“Are you crazy? You could’ve breached the wall and flushed us all out into the black,” she said.
“Nah. This tunnel doesn’t have any external walls. Besides, shock grenades don’t screw with the pressure enough to really worry.”
Ahead of them, Finn stopped at an access door and kicked it open. He and Nolin rushed through the small opening, and Throttle followed to find herself at the edge of Jade City. As soon as Birk appeared, Finn slammed the door shut and spun the wheel to lock it.
She scanned the area. “That won’t hold them for long.”
“We need to hurry to the West side. East security can’t go over there,” Finn said.
She took in the mile of storefronts that stood between them and the West doors.
“We’ll never make it,” she said. “I have an idea.”
She looked to her left and then to her right, searching the walls that gradually curved around the city. When she saw the red hieroglyph in the midst of a wall of graffiti, she pointed. “There.”
She took off running, and the others followed. When she reached the door, she paused only long enough to turn the wheel to open it. She ducked and entered without peering inside first. When all four were through the door, Birk closed it, and Throttle spoke.
“These are the gutters,” she began. “Rumor is, neither East nor West security forces will come into these tunnels.”
“Why won’t they?” Birk asked, dubious.
“Because they’re owned by Jade-8’s ‘invisible population,’” she said.
“I’d lay bets that we shouldn’t be here, either,” Nolin said.
“It can’t be worse than out there,” she countered and began walking. The lights were dimmer here, and she suspected that power was being siphoned off other areas to keep these tunnels lit. Graffiti covered much of the walls. Drawings, some far more artistic than others, depicted scenes of families, loved ones, and other worlds. She wondered how many people had ended up stranded on Jade-8 on their way to a planetside colony.
When Birk matched her stride, he frowned at her. “There’s something wrong with your braces.”
“They’re working fine,” she said, then held out a hand. “But I could use a weapon.”
He unslung his bag as he walked and rummaged through the contents. It was filled with various hardware, and she noticed the laser cutter near the top. He pulled out a small blaster and handed it to her.
“Thanks.” She checked the charge and found immediate comfort in its heft before holstering it.
The tunnel came to a fork. Throttle looked to the right, to the left, and up and down the ladder that stood before her. She glanced back to her team.
“Left,” Birk said. “Left is always the right way to go when you don’t know where to go.”
“Why do you say that?” Finn asked.
“Because he’s left-handed,” Throttle said and took the tunnel to her left.
There was still no sign of people, but the air was heavy with the stench of people and food, despite the colder temperature. Her clicking leg brace echoed through the tunnel.
“That was a good rescue plan back at the cells,” she said.
Birk smiled. “I’ve cut through a lot of jail cells and banks, and the one thing I’ve seen is that most places focus too much on what’s in front of them and not what’s above or below. When you told me they had bars, I knew then that they were using old tech here. Usually old tech is the hardest to break since it can’t be hacked. But these guys are just downright lazy. This wins the record as the easiest break-in of my career.”
“We’re not free and clear yet,” she said.
Birk looked over his shoulder and beyond the other team members. “They didn’t follow us in here, so things might finally be turning to our favor.”
They turned a curve and found themselves standing before a group of disheveled men and women, all with homemade machetes and axes.
“You were saying,” Throttle muttered before holding out her open hands and facing the crowd. “We mean you no problems. We’re just passing through.”
A man in the front pointed his machete at Throttle. “Nobody trespasses through our gutters and lives to talk about it. I take it you came here to die, trespasser?”
Noise behind her led her to look over her shoulder to see more people jump down from openings in the ceiling, blocking any kind of retreat.
Throttle’s jaw hardened, and she lowered her hands to be closer to her holster. “No one has to die here today, pal. But I can promise you, if you try to take us down, we’ll take several of you with us.”
“You reach for that gun, and I’ll cut your head off before you get off a shot,” the leader said.
“Then don’t give me a reason to,” she said.
They stared at each other for several long seconds.
“What are you doing in my tunnels?” the leader asked.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if you already know the answer to that question,” Throttle said. “I’m guessing you have spies spread out across this colony. I’m guessing you know more about what’s going on than anyone else, maybe even more than West or East.”
She couldn’t mistake the hint of pride in his unwashed features, so she continued, “And I’m guessing that’s why you didn’t kill us as soon as we ventured into your tunnels, because you know we can help each other.”
His brows rose. “And just how do you think you can help us? You can’t even help yourselves.”
“I have multiple ships, with one being a full-sized colony ship with plenty of extra room for more passengers.”
“And you can’t get to either ship,” the leader said.
A narrow smile formed. “I could with your help.”
He pursed his lips. “I don’t think you understand how this game works. You’re supposed to sell me on how you can help me, not the other way around.”
“Easy. You help me get to my ships, and anyone who’s interested gets a free lift to Hiraeth, where your people can build your own colony on a planet with fresh air and open space.”
She watched the expressions on his people’s faces more so than his. She’d gambled—she had no idea if his people desired a colony of their own. Seeing their faces, she knew she’d guessed correctly.
The leader was a harder read. “You think that by me helping you get to your ships, that you can just take them back and fly us all to Hiraeth?” He shook his head. “You’re an idiot if you think either East or West would let you off Jade-8 without a fight.”
“They won’t have a choice,” Throttle said. “Not when they have to choose between letting us go and saving themselves.”
The leader watched her for a long moment before lowering his machete and motioning them to follow. The four of them followed the larger group, and a dozen more had Throttle and her team penned in from behind. One of the men was taller than Birk, twice as wide, and carried an axe with a blade bigger than her head. She made no assumptions that her people were anything else except prisoners.
They took turns and winded through tunnels. Throttle could see her breath in one tunnel where a steel and tar patch covered most of the wall, and she suspected air was still leaking through the breach.
“Did you find out where the sleepers are being kept?” she asked quietly.
Birk nodded. “They’re in one of East’s warehouses, located just a shade off Jade-8. Sounds like they’re packed into a big ole powered moving unit.”
Throttle frowned as she considered his words. The sleepers could be moved in hours, or they could remain in the warehouse for months. If they were moved before Throttle could get to them, then she could lose them to the black.
They con
tinued walking. Throttle tried to remember the turns while she thought through the sleeper situation, but she soon became lost in the deep maze. Eventually they arrived at a large area, where it looked like several tunnels had been cut open and rewelded into what Throttle guessed to be their version of a community area. Tents and hammocks filled the space. Small children played with balls and makeshift toys. Several adults were filling containers with water from spigots attached to a line running just above the floor.
They were led to a shack in the center. The leader brushed the fabric door aside and stepped in. Throttle followed, while her team was blocked by several guards. She made eye contact with Birk before a guard dropped the curtain over the doorway. The lights were dim in here, and it took a moment for her eyes to adjust. A brightly colored hammock was strung between two posts near the far wall. The leader took a seat in a torn ship chair that had been built up to sit at a normal chair height. He leaned back, watching her. She took the second chair across from him, a table standing between them.
He spoke first. “You shouldn’t have come into my tunnels. You’re going to be like catnip, drawing East’s people in, and they’ll make one of mine give you up.”
“I’m not asking you to hide us, only to let us use your tunnels,” Throttle said.
“It’s too late for that. They would’ve seen you enter my domain. Hell, half the city probably saw you.”
“We were in a bit of a hurry,” she said drily; then her gaze narrowed. “Why hasn’t East or West cleared out the tunnels? Why do they let you live in here?”
“Easy. They need us. Whenever they have a job that’s too messy or dangerous, I get a call. They know someone will always take a job if there’s enough credits involved.”
“I didn’t think you cared about the credits.”
“Everyone cares about the credits. We can get our hands on a lot of things, but one of the things we can’t get are medical supplies. Someone’s kid gets pneumonia, someone breaks a bone, you know how it goes. The odd job here and there helps people survive.”
“You could do more than survive on Hiraeth.”
He harrumphed. “Starting a colony on Hiraeth may sound tempting, but my people would be in worse shape than we are here. At least here, we have access to food and have roofs over our heads. We have no idea what we’d face there.”
“I agree, building a colony from scratch isn’t easy, and there are plenty of risks involved. But there’s one thing you can find at Hiraeth that you can’t here, and that’s a future.”
“How do you know? Have you been there?”
Throttle tapped her finger once on the table. “No, but I made a promise to the colonists I brought here that I’d bring them to a new home. I broke that promise to them once, and I refuse to abandon them again. If I can’t get them to Hiraeth, I’ll make sure they can live as free men and women on Jade-8, even if it means I have to take down both Jakob West and Anna East to see it done.”
“You don’t have to worry about Jakob West too much. He’s the good guy compared to Anna East.”
She gave him a sideways glance. “He may be better than her, but that doesn’t make him the good guy.”
He watched for a length. “So tell me, how would you go about getting your ships and people off this colony and to Hiraeth? Not that I’m committing anything to your cause just yet. But Jade-8 is a nasty enough place that even the Galactic Peacekeepers know better than to step foot on this colony.”
She leaned forward. “I’m working on a plan. Wouldn’t mind having a partner, someone who knows Jade-8 inside and out.”
He scrutinized her for another moment and then held out his hand. “My people call me Mutt.”
She shook his hand. “Mine call me Throttle.”
Two hours later, Throttle and Mutt emerged from his home. The large man with the axe stepped aside to let her pass, and her team stood from where they’d been lounging on the nearby floor.
Mutt nodded to Throttle’s left leg. “I can have someone look at those braces if you want.”
She shook her head. “I’ll take care of it.”
“Whatever suits.” He then motioned to a teenage girl with red hair. “Cinder will guide you to the West side, where you’ll at least be safe from East’s forces. Notify me when the deal’s been made, and I’ll send you my engineer.” He pulled out a knife and handed it to Throttle. It was homemade and more of a short shiv than a blade. “Here. You might need this out there.”
She looked at him. “Thanks. For everything.”
The redheaded girl nodded for them to follow, and Throttle motioned to her team.
As the girl led them from Mutt’s community, Birk moved closer to Throttle. “So I take it they’re not going to try to kill us anymore?”
Throttle replied, “Today, they’re our allies. Tomorrow, they’ll just as likely change their minds.”
Chapter Thirteen
Throttle felt like she’d walked ten miles by the time she reached the West side, and she supposed she probably had. The clicking in her left brace had worsened, and the hitch in her step had redoubled. The brace needed to be fixed before she ended up without the use of her legs—with her wheelchair back on the Javelin, that would be a very big problem.
Cinder had kept them moving at a fast pace, though it was obvious the lithe teenager was walking at a slower clip than she was accustomed to. Throttle could tell by the way the girl would toss bored glances over her shoulder. Cinder opened a tunnel door just outside the elevator that led to their apartment. She’d held the door just long enough for the four outsiders to climb through, then the door was closed, and Throttle saw no more of Cinder.
Throttle didn’t feel her tension ease until they were all in the elevator and climbing to their floor. She glanced at Birk. “When we get inside, think you can take a look at my braces?”
He nodded. “I’m tired of hearing it click with every step.”
Nolin tapped a finger to his lip. “We should’ve printed off the material to build a second pair of braces back when we still had the printer.”
“We’ll get it back,” Throttle said with more confidence than she felt.
Nolin’s brow creased. “I wonder if Rusty’s bots could be programmed to build a second pair. It seems like those bots can be programmed to do just about anything.”
“As long as you don’t need it right away or even this month. Have you seen those things in action? They make caterpillars look like speed demons. No wonder it took Rusty three centuries to rebuild itself,” Birk said.
She glanced down at her left brace and the fresh blood near her knee where the brace was cutting into her skin. The elevator opened. “I don’t need another. These braces work fine, just need adjusting,” she said and stepped into the hallway.
Throttle was relieved to find the hallway empty and headed to their apartment. She reached into her pocket for her pass-card but found it empty. She frowned. “I’m guessing East took my pass-card.”
“Mine too,” Nolin said.
“Allow me,” Birk said before swiping his card over the reader.
The door opened, and Throttle took a step, only to stop. Finn whipped out a blaster.
Don Simon stood inside their apartment. The Jader held up a hand, though the guard on either side didn’t lower their guns.
Throttle placed her hand on the barrel of Finn’s gun and pressed it lower. “It’s okay,” she said without taking her eyes off Don. “What are you doing here?”
“You missed your nine o’clock meeting with Mr. West.”
“I was otherwise engaged,” she said drily.
“I am to escort you to his office,” Don said. His gaze floated over her team. “Only you.”
“Am I under arrest?” she asked.
He frowned. “No. Why do you ask?”
“No reason.” She looked to her team, ending on Birk. “Looks like I’ll have to get you to work on my leg braces later.”
He gave a tight nod.
She lef
t the apartment alongside Don, and the pair of guards followed. As they walked, Don frowned, and she could tell the clicking from her left brace was annoying him.
After a moment, he sighed. “There’s something wrong with your legs.”
“Nothing I can’t fix.”
He said nothing more while he brought her back to Jakob West’s office using the same hallways and elevators he’d taken her and her team through the day earlier.
This time when she entered his office, Jakob remained at his desk. “My, my, my, you Trappists have done a bang-up job of attracting trouble.”
She ignored his comment. “Thought it’d be easier to break into my ship?”
One side of his lips curled into the slightest smile. “It has proven to be a bit more challenging than I’d expected. I hadn’t taken into account our different technologies.”
She cut straight to the chase. “You can’t get on my ship without damaging it, and you want me to unlock it for you.”
“I just want to have a chat with you. Two Jaders in a casual conversation, that’s all.” He steepled his fingers. “I admit, I underestimated your technology earlier. I’d assumed that Sol tech was superior, and it is in many ways, but it seems that Trappist tech is enough different that our systems don’t play well together.”
She knew that the real reasons East couldn’t hack the systems was because Sylvian was one of the best software techs she’d ever known, and Rusty was the most impressive central computer she’d worked with. It was a bit of information she had no interest in sharing with him.
He motioned to a chair. “Take a seat.”
She paused. The chair was on the other side of the energy shield, or at least where the shield was the last time she’d been in this room. She glanced to the walls and ceilings.
“I’ve turned the shield off, as a sign of trust,” he said and gestured to the chair again.
She cautiously stepped forward.
He glanced at her clicking leg brace. “I can have someone take a look at that if you’d like.”
“No.” She took a seat.
“I assume you have a disability of some sort. I’ve never seen leg braces like those before.”
