The small truck had gone unnoticed within the morning traffic and within two hours was on a deserted track several kilometres off the main road in the foothills of the Bresserin Mountains.
Abubaker steered the truck into a clearing amongst the tall trees that seemed to dominate the lower mountain slopes. They reminded Ed of pine forests back on Earth, the only difference was a slight silver and purplish hue at the end of the needles.
‘They’re nearly ready for Christmas up ’ere,’ said Andy. ‘Just need some baubles and a fairy on top.’
‘I don’t think Santa’s sleigh can manage a hundred and forty thousand light years,’ said Ed.
‘He’d certainly need a large brandy and a couple of mince pies after that,’ added Andy.
Haitham gave them a sideways glance with raised eyebrows.
‘Who’s Santa?’ he asked.
‘A fat lazy bastard who only works one day a year,’ said Andy.
‘I think I’d want three hundred and sixty-four days off if I’d had a hundred gallons of brandy and fifty tonnes of pies in one day,’ said Ed, giving Andy a serious stare.
Haitham shook his head this time.
‘I wish I’d never asked,’ he said. ‘Are you sure you’re the best this GDA could’ve sent to save us?’
‘Probably not,’ said Andy. ‘But we were available and cheap.’
Pol emitted one of her little guinea pig sniggers as Abubaker brought the truck to a sudden stop next to a decrepit wooden shed set back into the hillside.
‘Journey’s end for now,’ he said, as the electric whine of the truck’s motor died away.
Complete silence greeted them as they disembarked. Not a breath of wind stirred the pine needles and Ed stared back down the hillside, noticing the outskirts of the city just visible in the far distance. The clearing was scattered with old rusty lumps of machinery, none of which Ed recognised, and the building itself seemed a bit of an afterthought and ramshackle.
‘That thing looks like it’ll fall down with the first breath of wind,’ said Andy, stretching his back after hours sitting on the hard bed of the truck.
‘It’s designed that way,’ said Haitham. ‘Discourages snoopers if anyone was to stumble on this place.’
Abubaker strolled across towards the building, extracted something from a pocket on the front of his jacket and pointed it at the shed.
A low whine from the structure built in pitch until the whole frontage lifted up like a giant letterbox opening outwards.
‘Fuck me – Thunderbirds are go,’ said Andy, causing Ed to snort out loud.
‘Get the truck out of sight,’ said Abubaker to Haitham, then beckoned for the others to follow him.
He led them into what reminded Ed of a railway tunnel. It was about the same size with a curved ceiling and disappeared straight into the darkness. Haitham backed the van in behind them, Abubaker pressed whatever he pressed before and the shed frontage whined back down and closed with a crunch.
Low lighting emanating from the occasional glow panel fixed to the wall lit their way as Abubaker led them deeper into the tunnel.
‘What was this place?’ asked Ed, as they walked.
‘Cutter mine,’ said Haitham. ‘Closed a while ago when the seam became too small to be economic.’
‘What’s a cutter?’ Andy inquired, looking at the different mineral seams in the walls.
Haitham scuffed around in the dirt with his foot as they walked and stooped down to pick something up. He handed it to Andy with a dismissing shrug.
‘Cutter rock,’ he said. ‘Although that’s too small to be any use.’
Andy wet a finger and rubbed the stone, causing it to sparkle back at him in the gloom. His eyes bugged as he realised what the supposedly worthless stone actually was. He nudged Ed and handed it to him.
Ed inspected the grape-sized glittering jewel in his hand and glanced back at Andy. Even unpolished they both knew what it was.
‘Do you mind if we collect a few of these small bits while we’re here?’ said Ed, biting his lip. ‘We call them diamonds and even tiny ones are useful on our planet.’
‘Should be able to find you some much bigger ones than that,’ said Abubaker. ‘I’ll keep my eyes open.’
He led them into a smaller side tunnel that led straight to a door. He unlocked it and entered a hollowed-out cavern lined with old rusty shelves weighed down with hundreds of metal boxes.
‘It’s a regional munitions store,’ said Haitham, noticing Ed eyeing up the shelves.
‘You have many of these?’ asked Ed.
‘I should imagine so,’ said Haitham. ‘All the BDF cells are compartmentalised so we can’t give each other away.’
‘What about your families, though?’ said Andy. ‘Won’t they be in danger now your cover’s blown?’
‘Neither Abubaker nor I come from Garag,’ he said. ‘We’re from a TA world called Ro’an about two hundred and six light years from here. The BDF central hub sent us here on fake identities to organise a new cell in the city when the previous one was compromised.’
‘It seems you still have a snitch within the cell,’ said Ed, ‘judging by the Blends waiting at the safe house.’
‘We’ve narrowed the suspects down to three,’ said Abubaker, waving towards a table and chairs set against one wall. ‘And we’re about to set a trap.’
Haitham sat down at a small second table with several flat wall screens above. They flickered to life and showed views from outside. He looked over his shoulder and smiled.
‘Stops the red bastards sneaking up on us,’ he said.
‘I take it there’s a back way out?’ said Ed.
‘Two, actually,’ said Abubaker, pointing at two screens showing empty forest scenes. ‘But neither have a vehicle and it’s a long walk back to town. So I’d rather we didn’t have to use them.’
‘Out of your three suspects, who knows about this place?’ asked Andy.
‘None of them,’ said Haitham. ‘That’s why we’re here. We’ll give each one a different address for a new safe house we’re hiding in and whichever one gets raided will point to our man.’
‘They’re all TAs then,’ said Ed.
‘Unfortunately they are,’ said Haitham. ‘More susceptible to bribery and threats than the Quads.’
‘Especially the Inners,’ continued Abubaker. ‘Which, two of our three are.’
‘Inners?’ questioned Ed.
‘Inner worlders – TAs from this planet or ones in the near vicinity,’ he answered. ‘We’re known as Fringers or Gappers depending on the region.’
Ed nodded, sat at the table, closed his eyes and attempted to feel his way outside.
‘The rock strata here are too dense,’ said Andy, sliding onto the bench beside him. ‘I’ve already tried that.’
Ed opened his eyes again and exhaled impatiently.
‘One of us will have to pop outside regularly to check for the Gabriel,’ he said, glancing at the door.
‘I wouldn’t advise that,’ said Haitham, turning to face them again. ‘They can quickly trace any transmission from the surface. I can see from here when any new vessels arrive.’
He switched one of the screens over to a three-dimensional image of the planet showing dozens of green dots moving slowly around. As the planet turned, a row of red dots appeared in a line, stretching down to the surface.
‘What are those?’ asked Andy, pointing at the red dots.
‘Alien craft show as red,’ said Haitham. ‘They’re more of the ships being unloaded from the Quad colony ship.’
‘Can’t they detect your array picking this up?’ asked Andy.
‘No,’ said Abubaker. ‘There’s a communication booster antenna on the hill above us. One of our guys is a service engineer and secretly patched us into it. Everything we have going in or out is encrypted and just rides on the back of someone else’s signal.’
‘Cool,’ said Andy. ‘Can I send a quick message?’
‘If your ship was here, we’d see it,’ said Abubaker, nodding at the screen.
‘That’s just it,’ said Ed. ‘Our cloaking technology is way above anything the Blends have. If our ship was here, it certainly wouldn’t be showing on there.’
‘If we only had something like that,’ said Haitham, looking over at Abubaker.
‘There’s a lot of stuff you’d get if you were part of the GDA,’ said Ed.
‘What message d’you want to send?’ asked Abubaker.