“Goddamn ...” The word was cold and hard, coming from Feldman as an unbelievable four bridges appeared and disappeared in less than ten minutes. “What just happened there? Where did they go?”
Mike was tapping furiously, alternating with glares at the display. “I don’t know, sir. Three of those bridges were too small to measure at this scale. Those all had people in them. The long one went to the same spot in space that the last one did. Another object.”
“Are they porting around the station?” Feldman asked.
“Yes, I think so.”
“Find out where they’re going.”
Mike leaned closer to the display, as if it might help him see better. Dinnie broke in. “We don’t have access to NISS maps,” she told Feldman. “We need them hooked up to the detector, and the scale adjusted.”
“Get it,” he said. “Get it now.” His face was scarlet. Dinnie thought she saw his temple throbbing, and had a faint hope that he might drop dead from stress and save all their lives. But no. He turned from her on stiff legs and ran to her office, slamming the door. In a few seconds they heard his voice raised to a near-bellow.
Dinnie’s office was not soundproof. She wondered if Feldman thought it was, or was just too angry to care. Her people stood around the room, eyes on whatever was in front of them, trying to act as if they were working. But they were listening. There was nothing else they could do. She listened with one ear while she placed a call to Technical Support, ordering the upgrade.
“I told you to confiscate their equipment,” Feldman shouted. “You haven’t done that, and those people are flying around your fucking station like they own it. Where are your people? You’ve got ten fucking intruders on your station, and you’re not doing a goddamn thing about it.”
He paused, presumably for Rhyder’s excuses. When he spoke again, his voice was louder than before. “They are transporting objects off the station. Do you have any ideas about what those object are? I know you do. Are you trying to pretend you don’t know? Your fucked-up people can’t even hide bombs properly ...”
Dinnie closed her eyes, frozen in place, numb with horror.
“ ... and all the rebels have to do is look for them, and they can get rid of them.”
Rhyder’s desperate voice could be heard for a moment, though they couldn’t make out the words.
Feldman overrode him. “Of course you didn’t know people could transport themselves around your station. You didn’t have to know. I told you to confiscate their equipment. I made that very clear. It was the first thing you were supposed to fucking do.”
“You get that equipment, Rhyder. I don’t care who you have to kill to get it. I don’t care if you have to blow up the goddamn station. You get that equipment.”
Dinnie jerked nervously, but Feldman did not come out of her office. Shortly, they heard his voice again, at a normal level this time. Dinnie sniffed, and realized there were tears on her cheeks. She wiped them away and turned to face her people.
No one was looking at her, or at anybody else. They continued to stare at the work before them, lost in their private dread. They’d seen it happen before when innocent employees learned too much. Entire departments wiped out, a few people at a time. Vehicle accidents. House fires. Burglaries gone violent. The press never connected the dots, never pursued it at all.
Now it was them.
Behind Dinnie, Mike spoke. She turned, but he was still watching the display. “I have a sister on NISS.”
She stared at him, watching as his shaking hand touched his keyboard. She wanted to shout at him, or jump on him, something that would stop him. But she couldn’t move, couldn’t speak. His fingers danced a pattern and the display flickered. He continued to tap, feeding garbage data into the system, setting priorities.
The security guard raised his weapon. “Step away from the keyboard, Mr. Ontrera.”
Mike ignored him, except to tap faster.
The guard fired, a long, sustained burst. Mike fell, his body jerking from the shocks. Around the room, the tension exploded as if a pin had pricked a balloon. People screamed or sobbed, backing into each other or against the walls or furniture.
Dinnie dropped next to Mike, ignoring the residual shocks as she lifted him in her arms. “Mike. Talk to me. Mike ... Mike.”
His body had stopped jerking, and now his eyes opened. He smiled at her, the smile and eyes ghastly in his white face. “Oops,” he said. She had to listen very carefully to understand him.
“They’ll just restore it from backups,” Dinnie said. “It won’t stop them.”
“Slow ‘em down a wee bit.”
“Yeah.”
His eyes closed, but the smile remained. “Not just a data flunkie.” He breathed out.
“No,” Dinnie said, holding him close. “No. No.”
~~~
Moira was asleep. Sarah scrunched against the wall with her backpack on her lap and regarded her partner. Her eyes had long ago adjusted to the darkness, and she could see Moira’s shadowed form, her head tilted to rest on the wall. Sarah couldn’t see her face, but her breath was slow and even.
It was good that she slept, Sarah thought. It had not yet been a full day since her surgery. In fact, despite all that had happened, it was only four hours ago that Moira had been released from the infirmary.
They weren’t taking very good care of her.
Sarah raised her head, as she did periodically, to listen for footsteps or voices. There had been guards out there a few minutes after Karen left, but she’d heard them running off. Since then, there was nothing.
Real success meant that Karen came out of it all right. Sarah checked the time, keeping her Pad on its dimmest setting. Twenty minutes. It felt longer. That meant the bomb was down to two hours and fifty-two minutes. That felt awfully short.
When the sound came, it was so soft, Sarah almost missed it. She just knew her body went still with the instinct of the hunted, and her ears were straining for a repeat of ... what? She held her breath, then realized her hand had moved to Moira’s arm, and that Moira also lay still, not breathing.
Listening.
The door opened, light from the corridor blinding them. Sarah felt Moira’s muscle flinch under her hand, but the girl remained still.
The door closed. “Okay,” Karen said. “Let’s go.”
With a whoosh of breath, Sarah sat up and moved the box in front of her. Karen grinned up at her. “Sunnies are busy elsewhere for a few minutes, and I found us a safer place. Bigger, anyway.”
“There’s a bomb in here,” Sarah said, and watched the grin disappear from Karen’s face. That was too bad. It had been nice to see it.
“Where?”
Sarah pointed and Moira leaned forward so she could see Karen. “It’s down to two hours and forty-eight minutes.”
“It’s live?” Karen slapped her hands together once, then reached up. “Hand me your stuff. Get down from there.”
As soon as they were safe on the floor, Karen scrambled onto the shelf, craning her neck to peer into the bomb’s corner.
“Shit.” She tapped her ear. “Ned.” Her voice was a whisper. Sarah nodded to herself. It made sense to whisper: they had no way of knowing what Ned’s situation was. Calling was dangerous.
His answer came quickly, matching her whisper. “Here.” No questions, no demands. That could all wait.
“There’s a bomb at our coordinates. It’s live. Two-and-a-half hours.”
“Any Sunnies?”
“Negative.”
“There’s a corridor near you. Is it empty?”
Karen’s brow wrinkled, and the look she sent Sarah and Moira was puzzled. But she pointed with her chin, and Sarah eased the door open a crack, then closed it.
“Clear.”
Karen passed the word along.
“We’re on our way. Out.”
“Okay,” Karen said to the closed line, and shrugged at her companions. “I suggest we don’t wait for them.”
She jumped down on light feet, then squeaked in alarm as the door began to open. Her taser was out before Sarah could blink. It was several seconds before they understood it was Ned, rather than a Sunnie guard, who was staring at them.
“How the feck did you get here so fast?” Karen demanded.
“They ported,” Moira said, as if it were the most logical thing in the world.
How fast the young adapt, Sarah thought.
“Would ye mind,” Ned said, “not pointing that thing at me?”
“Porting’s a real timesaver,” Pete said from behind Ned, and Karen finally put her taser down.
“So let’s use the time we have.” Ned waved the women out of the closet.
Sarah was surprised when Andy stepped in, holding CERBO. He aimed it at the bomb, tapped a few keys, and just like that, the shelf was empty.
“Had to lose a few supplies with that one,” Andy said. “It was that, or part of the wall.”
Moira’s expression as she looked at Andy made Sarah turn away to hide her amusement. Moira looked like she couldn’t decide whether she was impressed or jealous. But then Sarah caught Sam’s eye, and her own emotions confused her: relief that he was all right, happy he was here, and furious that they were still trapped in this outrageous universe. He seemed to feel the same way, as he pulled her to him for a brief hug.
“We’ve got a pretty safe place we’re using to reconnoiter,” Ned said. “You may as well come with us.”
Sarah kept hold of Sam’s hand as Andy worked his magic. He’s pretty good with that thing, she thought, and then they were in a room filled with plants. It took a few minutes for all the explanations, but at last, they were all silent, sitting on the floor in a comradely circle, while Pete ran a search for more bombs, and Ned brought Arkady up to date.
“I just went on the offensive,” Arkady said. “Because you know that Sun will be spinning the news from here. I thought I’d beat ‘em to it.”
“How’d you do that?”
“Sent a flash out saying we’d found bombs up here, and showing the manifests that prove Feldman set you up. I said the Sunnies were restricting our movements, but we’re trying to find the rest of the bombs.”
Ned shook his head. “They’ll just pull the flash, Arkady. No one will get the information.”
“Don’t sell me short, man.” Arkady was cheerful. “I know a thing or three about getting past the firewalls. Sure, the official channels will just get a few seconds, but underground will be burning up with it. And when NISS is concerned, people pay attention. There’s a reason we’ve got people up here from every country, right?”
Phil was nodding in vigorous agreement as they all listened. Ned shrugged. “Well it can’t hurt, that’s for sure. It should be obvious at some point, that we’re trying to get rid of the bombs, while Sun is hindering us.”
“People are getting antsy, up here,” Arkady warned. “They know the lockdown is to keep the area clear for the Sunnies to do their dirty work. People are talking about charging them.”
“Get themselves killed, is what,” Ned said.
“Maybe. Some of ‘em are willing to take the chance.”
“All right. Give us a bit of time to clear some more bombs. Between that, and your news flash, maybe we’ll have ‘em on the run.”
Ned signed off, shaking his head. “Quit grinning like a fool, Phil. We ain’t won yet.”
Phil shrugged. “Offense is what we need. Sun wasn’t ready for us this time, and we got them on the run. I say we hit hard and keep it up.”
“Okay.” Ned spread his hands and tossed the ball to Pete. “How many bombs have you found?”
“All of them.” Amid their exclamations, Pete tapped a few keys and his display lit up. The large number of red dots silenced everyone. Sarah wondered if they were all as shocked as she was.
Pete pointed at the display. “There are nineteen left,” he said.
“Nineteen?” Ned leaned in, his finger tracing a path among the dots. “What are they doing? If that many bombs go off, there won’t be a molecule left of the station.”
“Can’t figure it.” Pete followed Ned’s finger with narrowed eyes. “We haven’t examined any of the bombs. Maybe they’re all low-charge. Maybe Feldman’s trying to limit damage, but he’s covering all his bases by having them all over the station.”
“The bastard’s psychotic.”
“No doubt.” Sam said. “How many of them are live?”
“Three. No way of knowing what our time frame is.”
“Fuck me.” Ned whispered it as they all leaned in to examine the display. “Guess we do the live ones first, eh?’
“That’d be my advice.” Pete tapped a key and three dots began blinking. None of them were near any others.
Sam entered the coordinates into CERBO. “Let’s get moving, and hope our luck holds.”