“Am I correct,” Sam asked, “in assuming that the Sunnies outnumber us?”
He remained trapped with Ned, Pete, and the three guards in a hydroponics lab, surrounded by rows of plants growing in pools of water. The room was warm, with a damp, green smell to it. Oddly, the Sunnies had made no attempt to get inside, which made Sam nervous. He supposed they were content just with keeping them in one place.
In the final moments of the shootout, Trevor had been hit, sustaining a deep burn to his arm. In that, hydroponics was fortuitous, for the lab boasted several aloe vera plants. Ned had applied the ointment to Trevor’s burn and settled him against a box of hemp bushes.
Andy was scanning his map for the location of a first aid kit, while Ned examined his map for more Sun guards. Pete, Lisa and Phil were searching for another way out.
“About twenty to one,” Ned said without looking up. “Not counting civvies.”
“Which are ...?”
“Civilians,” Andy supplied. “About eighty percent of the station’s personnel are civvies. Scientists, of course, but also teachers, medical personnel, cooks ...”
“Accountants,” said Ned. “Though God knows why.”
“We can’t depend on them to help us fight?” Sam asked.
Ned glanced up. “If I had time to take volunteers and organize them, a lot of them would help. A lot of them probably are fighting, if I know Arkady. But we’re still outnumbered. And for the most part, the civvies are in the way. Sun doesn’t care if any of them get hurt, but we do.”
Sam tapped an aimless pattern on his Pad. “There has to be a better way to find the bombs. We could search the station for days, and never find them.”
“Arkady’s assigned areas to search, but I’m open to suggestions,” Ned said as he went back his scanning.
“Well, look, we know the bombs were smuggled aboard with other equipment, right?”
“Yep.”
“You know which equipment? Perhaps the bombs are buried within.”
“It was all kinds of stuff,” Ned said. “The bombs Arkady’s people found were still in the cargo area, probably the most recent ones sent up. They’re sending up components, y’see. One of the bombs was assembled and sitting in a locker for extra space boots. The other one was still in pieces, packed among other standard items.”
“So someone up here is meeting the shipments, separating out the bomb materials, assembling them and placing them somewhere else?”
“That about sums it up.”
Sam continued to tap his Pad. “Do you have some way to track cargo? Chips, radio frequency ...?”
“Radio frequency,” Pete said, joining them on the floor beneath the Aloe vera. He shook his head at Ned’s silent question. “We’ve got two Sunnies guarding the hallway to this section. I guess they feel they’ve got us trapped, and can handle us when it’s convenient.”
“Arseholes,” Ned said.
Sam stayed on his thought. “Do you disable the frequencies once the shipment is received?”
Ned looked thoughtful. “No. Everything’s tracked throughout its lifecycle. We’ve learned not to throw things away.”
“You’re thinking we can trace the bombs using the RFI?” Andy asked.
“Do we have that information?”
Ned scratched his head. “For the items on the final manifests, yeah. But the smuggled items aren’t going to have an RFI listed.”
“Not on the final manifest,” Sam said, and looked at Pete.
“I’m on it.” Pete flipped his Pad on and his fingers began a furious dance.
“They’d be idiots if they didn’t disable them,” Ned said.
Sam shrugged. “Bureaucracy takes on a life of its own. If some clerk is responsible for maintaining RFI’s, he’ll do it unless someone tells him not to. Objects-in-motion kind of thing.”
Ned grunted.
“Ye-e-esss,” Pete ended on a hiss. “We have them. Bloody hell, we have them on the original manifests!”
“Trace, man. Start tracing them.” Ned sat up on his knees, face hopeful. Andy grinned.
Pete’s brow furrowed as he worked a series of taps, then a pause, another series of taps, another pause. He started to shake his head, eyes dimming with discouragement, but a sudden beeping emanated from his Pad, and he jerked to his feet in startled dismay.
“Holy hell, there’s one right here!”
Sam felt his body go still, in the same way an animal freezes at the whiff of a predator. He sensed that everyone in the room did the same. They stared at each other.
“That explains why no guards followed us in here,” Andy said, his voice just above a whisper.
“We’re trapped, so they can blow us up at leisure.” Pete turned his head, staring down a row of spinach leaves. “It’s down there somewhere.”
Sam stood, moving to the aisle, CERBO at the ready. “Give me the coords.”
Pete’s fingers moved over his Pad. “You have ‘em.”
They all watched Sam. Lisa and Phil abandoned their lookout posts, joining their injured comrade on the floor. Trevor’s ragged breathing was the only sound. Sam nodded toward the row of spinach plants. “Third plant box from the other end,” he said. He started down the aisle.
“Where the hell you going?” Ned asked, soft.
Sam stopped and looked back. “Don’t you want visual confirmation that it’s actually a bomb?
Ned fidgeted. “Suppose I do. But not you.” He gestured with his taser. “Lisa, you’re on.”
Lisa gave a sharp nod and moved with quick steps to join Sam. A jerk of her head sent him back to the end of the aisle. She holstered her taser and inched her way down the corridor. Once in front of the box, she began an intense examination without touching anything, searching from every angle she could. They saw her shake her head.
She raised her hands, touching each finger to her thumbs in quick succession, then bent into a squat, fingers playing over the frame with a feather-light touch.
Sam could feel his heart pound, setting up a dizzying thumping in his ears. He reminded himself to breathe, and the thumping quieted to a background knock.
Lisa sat, flipping on her wrist light. She stretched out on her back, sliding head and hand beneath the box, light poking into the darkness. When her body went still as death, Sam knew she’d found it.
Using just her heels, she slithered out and stood with care. “Wires,” she said. “The bomb is attached to the bottom of the planter.”
Sam crooked a finger at her. “Come this way.” As she came toward him, he sent the planters coordinates to CERBO and set a destination.
“Go,” Ned said.
Lisa had nearly reached Sam when he pressed the final button. At the sudden clap of thunder behind her, she threw herself forward. Sam let out a yell as she crashed into him, sending them both to the floor in a clatter of weapons and Pads.
“Bloody hell!” Sam yelled, pushing her off of him and sitting to rub his head. “What’d you do that for?”
Nervous laughter from the others brought a flush of embarrassment to Lisa’s face, but she laughed, too. “I thought the bomb went off. I forgot about the thunder.”
Pete slapped Sam’s shoulder. “Be grateful for her quick reflexes. She just saved your life.”
Lisa snorted. “Doubtful, if that had really been the bomb.”
“It counts,” Sam said, and held out a hand to help her up. They all took a moment to stare down the aisle at the now-empty space.
“Find the others, Pete,” Ned said. “Lisa, Phil, I want ideas for handling our personal guard team out there.” He nodded at Sam. “Good work.”
Sam shrugged.
“Where’d you send it?” Ned asked.
“Three hundred kilometers in that direction,” Sam said, pointing behind Ned. “Into the big, dark middle of cold space.”
“My hero,” Ned said, and tapped his Pad. “Arkady, my man,” he said when Arkady answered, “I’m reporting our first success.” He gave a brief run-down, and they all heard Arkady’s whistle.
“Good job,” he said. “I’ve got your original manifest. I’ll help with your search on this end. Oh, did you ever send those civvies down here?”
Sam clamped down on the fright those words gave him, but he turned to face Ned. Pete and Andy did the same thing.
Ned stiffened. “I did, thirty minutes ago.”
“They haven’t made it here. No word from them, either.”
The men stared at each other, none of them willing to speculate.
“Shit,” Sam said under his breath. “Shit, shit.”
~~~
Dinnie splashed cold water on her face, then stared at her reflection in the bathroom mirror. Water dripped down as she listened to the hard, frantic pounding of her heart. She fancied she could see it beating through her blouse.
Feldman suspects something. He’s watching me. Waiting for me to trip up.
She shuddered, and reached for a towel, certain that she was going to crack. Feldman terrified her, and she was losing the ability to hide it.
Her Pad went off, on a triple-urgent alarm sound that sent her a foot into the air. She was out the door and heading back to the lab before she finished pulling it out of her pocket. Two steps later and she was racing inside, snapping the alarm silent without answering it. Mike and Feldman were in front of the detector. She joined them there, not even needing to ask.
“Bloody things are becoming commonplace,” Mike muttered when she reached his side.
“Into space?” Dinnie said, confused by what the display showed her. “They sent someone into space?”
“Or something, Feldman said, his cold eyes lowering her body temperature several degrees when he looked at her.
She shivered, then rubbed her face, as if to wipe his glare away. “It doesn’t make sense.”
“No people were on that bridge,” Mike said. “Whatever it was, it was small and inert.”
A bomb. Please, all the saints, let it be one of the bombs. Afraid that Feldman could hear her traitorous thought, Dinnie glared at the display, as if looking for the answer there. Mike sent her a little smile. She wasn’t the kind of boss who hovered, but she thought he was grateful for her as a buffer between him and Feldman.
She wondered who would buffer her.
~~~
“We have to find them,” Sam said. He struggled to contain his fear for Sarah, as well as his bewilderment at the other men. He could understand Ned’s attitude: Ned had to command the entire team, and that meant being willing to accept losses. But he didn’t understand Pete at all. How could he be willing to ignore the danger his wife might be facing? Even Andy was strangely ambivalent. Moira might be Andy’s student, but it was obvious to all of them that he was in love with her. Yet he seemed to be taking his cues from Pete and Ned, and wasn’t willing to go after the women.
Ned had already nixed the idea and was ignoring Sam’s diatribe, busying himself in a discussion with Phil and Lisa. Pete was likewise ignoring him while he ran a search for more RFIs on bomb components.
Andy placed a hand on his shoulder. “It’s not happening, mate,” he said. “Ned’s right. It won’t do any good to find the women but have the station blow up around us because we didn’t get the bombs out of here.”
“Just like that?” Sam swallowed the bitter bile that rose in his throat, and shrugged off Andy’s hand. “Maybe at your age, girlfriends are a dime a dozen. But it’s not like that with Sarah and me.”
“No, damn you.” Andy shoved him, not hard, but seeing the anger on his face made Sam curl his hands into fists.
“I’m scared, too.” Andy said. “I’ve never been this deep into the rebellion, the way Pete and Karen are. I’m not used to this, and Moira’s not prepared for it at all. But I know Pete. And I know Karen. She’s never let anyone push her around. If Pete doesn’t seem worried, it’s because he knows her abilities better than anyone. He trusts her to handle bad situations.”
Sam glanced at the door, with the Sunnies still on the other side, keeping them trapped in hydroponics. He tried to think of an argument, but finally just sighed, and rubbed his eyes.
“I won’t tell you they’re probably fine,” Andy said. “Because I don’t know if they are. But whatever trouble they ran into, I do know that Karen will do everything she can to get them out. And that’s saying something.”
“All right.” Sam nodded and looked around the room. “I just need to do something. I feel so helpless.”
Pete glanced up from his Pad. “I’ve found another one. That should keep you busy, if we can manage to get to it.”
They all turned to Ned, who bounced on his toes and nodded toward Phil. “This bloke’s got the right idea. Pete’s got the coords for the bomb. Sam can just port us over there, and we don’t have to worry about our Sunnie friends out there.”
Sam pursed his lips as he thought about it. “All right ...” he said. “But we need to know what we’re porting into. There must be enough room. And what if there are Sunnies there?”
Ned called up his holo map. “Where are the coordinates, Pete?”
They all gathered around the display as Pete sent the coords to the map. A red dot appeared, flashing deep within the upper right quadrant of the station.
Ned whistled. “Bloody hell. Those are living quarters.”
“Families?” Sam asked.
Everyone nodded as they stared at the dot. Ned flushed red, highlighting the freckles on his face. “Those bastards are framing me for this? Killing children?”
Pete shook his head. “No one would believe them, Ned. You’re in the news all the time, and whatever people think of your activities, they all know you don’t hurt innocents.”
“It’s like your wee calling card,” Lisa said.
“What is in that room?” Sam asked. “I need specifics.”
Ned tightened his lips, as if to suppress his rage, and adjusted the map to zoom in. “Looks like a bedroom.”
“Is there furniture? How much space is available?”
“Can’t tell that from this map, mate.”
“Well, I can’t send anyone where I don’t know the layout. It has to be a clear space.”
“What about the corridor outside the flat?” Andy asked. He thrust his hand into the display and traced the corridor with his finger. “Just outside the flat entrance.”
“That will be clear,” Ned told Sam. “With the station on lockdown.”
“Except for potted plants,” Pete said. Sam threw him a puzzled look, and Pete explained, “To help with O2. You remember seeing potted plants in the corridors while were searching?”
Sam nodded. “Sure. We do the same thing in our universe.” He pointed at the corridor Andy had traced. “The pots are always along the walls, right? To keep from blocking the corridors?”
“Yeah,” Ned said. “You can port people to the middle of the corridor, can’t you?”
“Yes, but the next problem is how do we know there aren’t people in the corridor? I don’t care if they see us, but I don’t want to port someone into a space that’s already occupied.”
“What would happen?” Ned sounded curious.
“It would probably kill both people.”
“Bollocks.” That came from Phil, who looked as if he was having second thoughts about using the portal.
Ned raised a brow at Phil. “Station’s on lockdown. There shouldn’t be anyone in the corridors. Still ...” He tapped his Pad to put it one speaker. After a moment, they heard Arkady answering.
“I need a clear hallway at these coordinates,” Ned said. “Can you do anything? And while you’re at it, who lives in Flat 62, and is anybody there right now?”
“Hang on.” Everyone stared at the 3D display, lost in their own thoughts while they waited for Arkady to come back. Sam counted to twenty-eight before Arkady spoke again. “The hallway is clear. We’re on lockdown, so they’re all inside. There’s no one home in 62, though. It’s occupied by Candace Lightfeather and her teenage son, Ryan. Candace is one of our doctors.”
Ned and Pete exchanged a glance and Pete shrugged to indicate he couldn’t make sense of it, either. Sam went to work inputting the coordinates of the hallway, half listening to the rest of the conversation.
“There’s a bomb in one of the bedrooms,” Ned said.
“Shit.” Arkady’s voice was soft. “Is it live?”
Pete shook his head.
“No,” Ned said, “but we’re on our way to get it. We’ll port to the hallway. Can you unlock the flat for us?”
“No can do, mate. Only security can do that, and I don’t recommend asking them. Can’t you just port inside the flat?”
“It’s not safe to do that, evidently. I’ll explain later. So we’ll just have to break in.”
“That’ll set off an alarm in security,” Arkady said.
Ned grinned over at Phil and Lisa. “Guess we’ll have to be ready for them,” he told Arkady. “One more thing: we’ve got an injured mate. Can I port him to your location? Just clear a space for him.”
“Oo-kaay.” Arkady sounded doubtful, but they heard him instructing people to clear the center of the room. Sam got busy deleting his previous coordinate entry and told his CERBO to access Arkady’s location. Arkady’s voice came back to them. “I’ve got a space about two meters in diameter. Will that work?”
“Yeah, hang on.” Ned moved over to Trevor, who was laying down where they’d left him, under the aloe vera plants. Andy had found a first-aid kit and put a pain-patch on his shoulder, then covered him with a blanket. Trevor was half asleep, and Ned shook him gently as he knelt next to him.
“Can you sit up, mate? Just for a few minutes, then they can take care of you.”
Trevor mumbled something and reached for Ned’s arm. Ned propped him up against the planter box, but Sam shook his head. “He’ll have to move away from the box or I’ll have to send it with him.”
“I can do it.” Trevor sounded more awake and he scooted forward a couple of feet. He wobbled a bit, but gave Sam a tight nod. “Ready.”
They all jumped at the clap of thunder, but grinned at each other to hear the astonished shouts coming through Ned’s Pad. Arkady’s voice came through over the racket. “You have got to tell me how you do that.”
Ned grinned. “I’ll buy a round when all this is over and let Sam answer all your questions.”
“Sure you will. Stop fooling around and go get that bomb.”
“On our way.” He snapped the connection closed, and sent Sam a look of regret. “We should have done that with the women. I didn’t think of it.”
Sam stood very still, his own regret weighing him down.
Next to him, Andy shifted. “New technology,” he said, brushing a shoulder against Sam. “Even in your universe, it’s new, isn’t it? We can’t know all the ways it can be used.”
Sam nodded, blinking down at his Pad. He flipped the data back to the coordinates for the hallway. “Let’s get moving,” he said. Even to himself, his voice sounded bleak.
The others stepped closer. Lisa and Phil flanked them, facing outward from their circle, tasers ready.
Ned took a breath. “Go.”
Sam closed his eyes for the port, but opened them as soon as he heard exclamations from the people around him. He suppressed a grin. It took a while to get used to. He was relieved to see the corridor was empty. Pete joined with Lisa and Phil to guard them while Ned did something dirty and fast to the door. It slid open and Ned stood, jerking his head to point Sam inside. “There’s an alarm going off in Security right now,” he said. “You’re on the clock.”
Andy rushed in. Sam followed, unsettled at the simple normality of the flat. A living room with a kitchen off to one side, and a small dining table in between. Ned pointed to a hall, eyes on his Pad. “Down there. Second door on the left.”
As the map had told them, this was a bedroom. Had to belong to a teenage boy, Sam thought, taking in the scattered clothes, oversized shoes, one on a chair, the other half under the bed, and a dart game on the wall.
He glanced at the bridge machine. “Bloody thing is under the bed.”
This time it was Andy who lay down to look. He didn’t crawl under, just lay on his side and peered into the darkness, then shook his head as he sat up. “Hooked to the mattress. No lights or anything.”
“Hurry,” Ned said. He was watching the hallway.
Sam handed CERBO to Andy. “You gotta learn how to do it.” He grinned at the expression on Andy’s face, one of sheer terror and delight. He understood. “Talk it through, but don’t waste time. I’ll stop you if something’s wrong.”
Andy stood and took the machine. “Bomb’s attached to the bed, so I’ll have to send the entire bed out.” Sam just nodded, but Andy didn’t look up to see his reaction. He fiddled with the coords, then nodded. “Field is locked on the bed.” He tapped a few more times. “Omega is the same as you used for the previous bomb.” He hesitated, then grinned at Sam and jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “I’m sure we’re okay, but let’s step back a bit, eh?”
Sam laughed, but followed Andy to the bedroom door.
“Hurry up,” Ned growled.
The bed disappeared.
“Wooh!” Andy jabbed a fist to the sky.
“Okay.” Ned pulled them into the hallway. “Let’s go. I want us back at Hydro.”
They joined the others in the living room. Through the open door, they could hear running steps. “Everyone get close, “ Ned said. “Go.”
Sam grabbed the machine and punched keys in rapid clicks. Before they could get a glimpse of whoever was approaching, the flat disappeared, and hydroponics took its place.