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I didn’t exactly run, but it was more than a walk. I kept my eyes full front, and didn’t even flick from side to side as I went past the guards. I had a valid reason to be here and no reason to feel threatened by them. If I could keep that firmly in my mind, then that was what they would see on the outside. There were two guards, so it could have been better and it could have been worse. One was behind a table, on a chair. The other was sitting on the table, on the same side as the guy on the chair, facing away from me. And there were two double doors. I hoped with my whole being that they weren’t locked.
Even though I wasn’t looking at him, I could see the seated guard look up at me as I got to the bottom of the stairs. By the time I had taken half the dozen steps to the door, his eyebrows had gone up and his head had started to turn. I saw his arm start to move to tap the other guy, who was also starting to turn, but he was turning the wrong way – to where I had come from not where I was going. Behind me I heard light feet patter down the stairs behind me, and as I pushed through the door nearest the guards, Alyssa pushed through the other door and started to jog down the street. I paused for a split second to look from side to side as though I was getting my bearings, then I took off at a gentle jog after Alyssa, who at least was going in the right direction. I strained my ears to try to hear any hint of pursuit or, just as important, the patter of Pitr trying to catch us up. I heard nothing for an eternity, then I heard voices. Only a brief exchange, but definitely voices and I was sure one of them was Pitr. My stomach started to contract and I started to fear that the worst had happened and Pitr had been caught
Miracle of miracles, I heard laughter, then a set of footsteps start running along behind me and, even more amazing, Pitr yelling ‘Hey, hold up girl.’
Alyssa was already around the first corner ahead of us, so I guessed she wouldn’t hear him, and I didn’t think he really wanted her to stop. I reached the corner, turned, and almost ran into Alyssa. Understandable, as she didn’t know where to go until I got there. I gave her the minutest jerk of my head and went straight past her, slowing to a quick walk. Almost immediately, she turned to follow me, but showing exceptional good sense, she walked on the other side of the path, and slightly behind me. Running footsteps behind me slowed and fell back, and I knew Pitr had taken up position at the back. We were set.
There were still plenty of people on the street, which was a good thing. It made us stand out a little less. The lighting had been changed too, to something more suitable for mid to late evening, both less bright and a different, mellower colour. At home, we had different light at different times, but it was just dim and dimmer. We stood out, but only as much as any other messenger would have done. I set out towards the equipment yard at a steady jog. I wanted to go faster, but I had to set a pace I knew Pitr could manage. We all had to get to the yard at the same time.
It had been a twenty minute walk. At the pace I set we passed the main door of the yard in less than fifteen. I jogged on past, then ducked down a smaller side tunnel, hoping that Alyssa and Pitr both saw me turn off. Another thirty metres on I stopped at the side door I had found. I pushed my mind out to the lock, and asked it to open for me. There was a click and the door slid quietly away into a recess. Alyssa joined me as the door opened, and Pitr arrived as I started to peer inside. It was almost dark, with just a few dim glows enough to stop people tripping over their own feet. I hissed, and motioned for them both to come inside but to stay close to the door. Once Pitr was inside, I slid it closed and told the door to lock itself again.
I eased past Pitr and Alyssa, whispering to both that they should stay close, and I started to make my way towards the big mobile debonder. I kept to the shadows, then slipped down the side of the debonder to a ladder that led up to a control room. I waited for the others, then climbed up. When we were all inside the control room and the door was shut, I felt safe enough that we could talk in a low voice.
‘So how do we make it go?’ Pitr asked, and I realised I didn’t have a clue.
All I had been thinking about was finding something the right size that would let me talk to it. I’d never given a thought to actually controlling it. In the twilight, the control room suddenly felt sinister, and the bewildering array of buttons and screens arced around two control positions looked totally incomprehensible.
‘Can’t you start it up and see?’ Alyssa suggested.
‘Any let every guard in the building know we are trying to steal it?’ Pitr shot back. I hissed at them to be quiet. I was trying to think of a way around the problem. I had got us this far. We couldn’t stop now. If we didn’t get away, there was no way for us to get back to the apartment unseen, and we would never be trusted by the Go-yen again. I pushed my mind towards the consoles. It had talked to me yesterday, maybe it could give me some help now.
‘I don’t want you to do anything,’ I said. ‘I just want you to talk to me. Understand?’
‘Understood.’
‘If I want to control you, do I have to do it all myself, or can I just tell you where I want you to go?’
‘Provide destination.’
That didn’t exactly answer my question, but it seemed to be playing along so I woke the drone and told it to display the map. I had been planning to relay the destination, but as soon as the drone woke up, the debonder spoke.
‘Local control sub processor interface available. Local control sub processor interface synchronised. Authorisation token for reduced functions accepted. Standing by.’
And everything switched on at once. Every light in the control room seemed to sparkle into life, and a deep vibration started to hum through the floor.
‘Garret,’ said Pitr, sounding nervous. ‘Do you know what you are doing?’
I didn’t answer. The drone was flashing all kinds of displays in front of my eyes, and the detail was getting confusing. I could probably have understood some of it if I had been able to take a couple of hours to read it all and fiddle with stuff, but that wasn’t really an option. We had to move. The only thing I could think of to try was to use the drone. It seemed to be talking happily to the big machine, so it had to be worth a go. I visualised the place on the map I had made it find for me a couple of nights ago, the place just after the last junction.
‘Make this machine go there,’ I said. ‘As quickly as we can.’
The low rumble got more intense, and was joined by a whine that got louder and went up in pitch as, with a creak and a lurch, the huge machine slowly rolled forward out of its stall for the first time in an age. Bright spotlights switched on at the front and flooded the area in front of us with blue-white brightness that hurt my eyes and made me wince. We started to turn, and the next flaw in my plan came into view.
‘Garret,’ said Alyssa, voice low but intense. ‘Doors, Garret.’
I hadn’t thought about how I was going to get the huge doors at the end of the yard open. I hadn’t even realised there would be doors.
I tried to push out with my mind but we were either too far away or the doors didn’t have that kind of interface. We were less than twenty metres away now. There was a loud clank, a groan audible even inside the control cab. The doors started to slide apart. I hadn’t done a thing. Either it was automatic, or the drone had done it without me asking.
Unfortunately, the opening of the door was accompanied by the braying of a very loud siren.
‘Can’t this thing go any faster?’ said Pitr, echoing my thoughts
‘How do we see what’s behind us,’ Alyssa asked at more or less the same time. It was a good point, but part of me didn’t want to know. I looked around the control cab and spotted a small screen inset into one of the consoles, showing a view of the hall back towards the offices. I pointed at it.
‘There.’
All three of us huddled around it and saw a couple of guards running into the yard, waving their arms. I wasn’t sure what at, as there was no way they could have known it was us inside the thing. I guess they figured somebody must be in here or the machine had suddenly gone rogue. And that made me think about something else.
‘Pitr, how did you get past the guards? I heard voices.’
He laughed. ‘I was about fifteen seconds behind Alyssa. As I came down the stairs, slowly, they were both looking out the doors after you two. Actually, I think they were really looking after Alyssa. I had to say ‘excuse me’ to get past them.’
‘So what did they say?’
‘I told them I had to catch up because Alyssa had taken the wrong bag and had the wrong message. Then they let me out.’
As he spoke, he was chuckling harder and harder, and at the end he started laughing.
I shook my head in disgust and said, ‘I could get away with anything with your honest face. And your luck.’
The machine suddenly picked up speed. I turned my attention to the front again, and saw that we had negotiated out of the yard, down the ramp, and were in one of the accessways. The debonder almost filled it. People and buggies took one look at us coming towards them and headed down the nearest junction. We ploughed onward at about the same speed as a buggy.
‘Look,’ said Alyssa, and she pointed to the screen that supplied the rear view. Guards were following us, or trying to. There weren’t many yet, and they were all on foot, but it would only be a matter of time before more arrived.