I stowed my flight suit and changed into jeans and a tee-shirt. Nobody here had any real personal possessions, so we all looked like clones of each other most of the time, although rumours were abound that they’d started manufacturing proper casual-wear on the station. They had at least provided jeans and tee-shirts for us, which I was grateful for. I didn’t fancy traversing the station with my name, rank and medal on my chest constantly. I got enough attention as it was.
I headed over to The Loop, where I needed to catch an anti-clockwise train to Globe 6. It was my first time using the service, and I admit I was nervous. There was a small glass dome with double doors on either side, sitting just about a hundred metres from the Great Wall. Inside was a bank of mag-lifts. “Six lifts on the left for the clockwise platform. Anti-clockwise, take the right side. Keep moving” said a woman whose only job, apparently, was to shunt people onto the platforms.
I descended for ten seconds, and then the doors opened onto the middle of a long platform. Being that this was a covert meeting, I headed down to the back end of The Loop, hoping I’d be alone in the carriage. As it transpired, it didn’t matter.
Within a minute, I could hear a faint whining sound. The tunnel on my right was like a black hole to nowhere. It reminded me of trips on the Tube with my grandparents when I was still a kid, before they abandoned the trains for mag-trams. We’d stand on the platforms and wait for the metallic sounds and the breeze to pick up, before the ‘dragon’s eyes’ came into view, followed by the loud clattering of a train as it hurtled into the station at Pimlico. I was grateful for those memories, although in my current emotional state, they were more compromising than comforting.
I watched for a short while and the faintest light stretched along the track bed, the whining noise getting louder by the second. A minute later, The Loop arrived and stopped after the front hundred metres had entered the next tunnel. The back end looked like it also extended back inside the tunnel and I wondered if there were cargo platforms either side of the passenger area. The train was like a giant needle. The front end was almost conical, with the steeper slope on the top side. I had expected individual carriages, but I was wrong. It was essentially one very long tube that ended in line with the visible platform, with utilitarian seating down the sides. There were doors spread along every ten metres, and a single, thin horizontal window between each of them. The ceiling was almost entirely glass.
I stepped on board and sat for a minute until the doors finally closed, and we started moving. The acceleration was incredible.
“First time on The Loop?” asked a man opposite me.
“What gave it away?” I replied.
He just smiled. “Just wait until we’re through 11. The view gets good. The tunnels are all shrouded in Globes 5 and 11, because they’re militarised, but once we get through, you’re in for a treat.”
We were out of the station in mere seconds, into the inky darkness of the tunnel. We stopped at 11-A for a minute – each globe had two stops, four kilometres apart. The Loop started up again, and we shot into a tunnel, but within a few seconds we were out. I could see through the windows, and the view was breath-taking. In the window set into the ceiling above, I could see the main command structure, the Hub, like a nucleus, holding all the globes together and the outer-edges of the globes opposite. Behind me was a view into open space. I could just about see Earth on the left, but it was vanishing from view.
Shortly, we entered the tunnel to Globe 10, which was very different to Globe 11. The Loop only passed through the sub-levels, so I was yet to see the wonders that were topside, but down here was a hive of activity. There were factories and enormous warehouses spanning the lower deck, all the way to the distant edges of the dome. I could see forklift trucks trundling about, and steam emanating from several chimneys into glass tubes that funnelled it elsewhere, dotted across the horizon. There were thousands of people down here, all busily scurrying about between buildings. They were in a line ahead – the queue for The Loop, I suspected, and we soon slowed down and entered the station. A few hundred people clambered on board, most looking like they’d done a full day's work, and many just collapsed into seats wearily. It was so reminiscent of the Tube in London that I felt slightly comforted at the normality of it.
The Loop picked up speed again, and we passed through into the tunnel between Globes 10 and 9. I marvelled at the Hub above me. It was incredible to behold.
It went dark again momentarily as we entered the tunnel for Globe 9, and then, just as suddenly, we were hurtling over what looked to be an entire town that stretched for the complete diameter of the globe. I was slightly confused, as it seemed strange to see a town in a lower level, without the same daylight permeation from the upper dome, but it was actually really bright in here, with five-hundred-metre high glass walls surrounding the entire township. It took me a few moments before I realised everything was still. There was practically no movement at all. This must be unpopulated, or if it had been previously, they’d moved the occupants to different accommodation once the evacuation halted. It was ghostly and serene, and I could feel the hairs on my arms prickling.
As I was about to turn away, a movement just below, between the buildings, drew my eye. I could see two people, one male and one female, in what looked like a heated argument. They were both very animated, and even from here I could tell that the woman was in charge. It was only as the station rotated that the sun shone between the buildings and illuminated the man, throwing his face into sharp relief.
It was Mark Hanson, no question about it. I couldn’t see the woman, and before I’d had a chance to take more of the scene in, The Loop had hurtled past.
My adrenaline kicked in and my brain was running at hyper-speed. Mark had always been a suspect back in Compression, but there was simply no evidence to support any theories about his involvement with the AoG and the events that transpired, or were plotted for the future. And who was the woman? If only I’d seen them sooner, I may have had a glimpse of her face. But no, that couldn’t have happened. The entire event had been over in three seconds and it was only because I was looking in that direction that I saw anything at all. Still, there was definitely something wrong with the whole situation. Why would Mark be in an empty globe with a woman? I could think of a few answers to this, and my brain conjured images that nobody ever needed to see. Shaking my head to clear it, I made a mental note to tell the others.
We passed through the two stations and back along the next tunnel through space into Globe 8. This one was heavily populated. I could see hundreds of people in each segment, and what looked like factories and plants and workshops. There were flatbed trucks and an assortment of strange-looking vehicles, which I assumed were to facilitate transportation of whatever it was they were doing here. We stopped at two stations here also, but were in them for a full five minutes each. I guessed they were loading up with whatever was coming out of these factories, or perhaps unloading.
Each globe we passed through was like a separate ecosphere, and completely unique. It was fascinating to see, and part of me wished The Loop would slow down so I could absorb everything that flashed past my eyes. I wondered what it must be like being down there, and seeing The Loop zoom past every few minutes. In the hangars you could hear The Loop passing through, but no sight of it.
Eventually, after about twenty-five minutes, The Loop pulled into Globe 6, Station A, and I left the train. I was alone on the platform, and looking through the windows I could see vast farmland below, stretching all the way to the glass hull. It was eerily quiet. I walked down some steps to a mag-lift marked ‘Level 3 Access Only’, and waved my bio-band over the pad before stepping in. There was clearly only one destination as the mag-lift descended with no prompt from me.
Twenty seconds later, I stepped out into what looked like a vast barn – a bog-standard, agricultural machine shed, except it was massive; more like a hangar. There were machines lined up all down the left side; tractors, combine harvesters, diggers and loads of other mechanical instruments I couldn’t figure out at all. There was an office building in the corner nearest me, and the lights were on, so I headed over and swiped my band to get through the door.
As I stepped inside, friendly faces greeted me. Tyrone Harris, Andrew Grealish and Amanda Barclay were all staring back. Then, from behind Amanda, Laura emerged from a doorway and gave me the biggest smile. She reached me before the others, got up on her tiptoes and kissed me.
“Hi, handsome.” A flick of the hair and that playful smile.
“Good to see you, Jax,” Colonel Grealish greeted me next.
“What, no kiss from you?”
“You’re not that lucky, Lieutenant,” he winked, shaking my hand. I laughed. Grealish wasn’t known for his sense of humour, and our previous conversations had all been under enormous stress, so it was good to see him more relaxed.
Harris pulled me into a rib-cracking hug, followed by Barclay. I stepped over to the door where Laura had entered from, grabbed myself a coffee and then joined the others at a conference table in the office. We talked for a little while about life on the Bertram, waiting for Amy Cooper and Sara Hennessey, who walked in ten minutes later, chatting to each other. They joined us at the table, and all eyes fell on Grealish.
“OK, let’s get down to business.” Grealish sat at the head of the table and addressed us all. “It’s been five weeks since our arrival, and, whilst we haven’t been idle, we need to make progress. With less than two months until we leave Earth’s orbit, the pressure is on for us to find these infiltrators and prevent further loss of life.”
“Where are we with Brian Latimer’s family?” asked Tyrone.
“Their last reported location was the family home in Globe 11,” replied Hennessey. “Amy and I have been in, but it looked abandoned. We found their bio-bands inside.”
“So why weren’t there any alarms? I thought that was the point of the bio-bands? We take them off. Alarms start ringing.” Laura looked between Grealish and Cooper, waiting for an answer.
Grealish returned her look. “Alarms don’t sound when they’re removed here. There’s too much manual labour happening for people to wear them constantly, but there is an alert logged when a band is disconnected, and the crew knows to keep the bands on them at all times.”
“So you’re able to tell exactly when they abducted Mrs Latimer and the girls?” It felt important to know how long between their kidnap and Brian’s demise in Echo.
Cooper pulled out her hollotab, hit a button in the corner and then swiped through to a folder that contained several images. She enlarged one and then magnified it upwards for us all to see.
“Sadly, no. They rigged the bands with wire and ran a current through them. Crude, but effective. The magnetic bonds didn’t lose connection, because a current passing through copper wires effectively extends the bond. Notice how the wire is six inches long. They’ll have attached the wire first, switched on the current and then opened the bands to detach from Mrs Latimer and the girls. The current would have been enough to render the three of them inert, hence no sign of a struggle.”
“Christ, that’s cruel. How old are the girls?” asked Harris with a grimace.
“They’re six. They must be terrified,” said Hennessey. “If they’re still alive.”
“Hostages are currency,” replied Amanda. “I’d put money on them still being alive.” It was awful to contemplate. But then the AoG was not discriminatory. Given their way, we’d all die horrible deaths.
Amanda continued, “What’s the score with Mark? I heard he’s working in engineering with Libby.”
Laura replied, “Yes, and no. He’s in engineering, but he’s working out of one of the smaller hangars in Globe 10. The brass felt it was better to keep him out of the main hangar where the Nova Pilgrim and Nova Palmer are. We don’t have eyes on him outside of the hangar.”
“I’ve just seen him in Globe…” I had to think to figure out which one it must have been. “… I think it was 9. Yes, definitely 9. It was like an empty township, completely deserted.”
“Yes, that’s 9 for certain,” Grealish chimed in. “What the bloody hell was he doing in there?”
“Arguing with a woman.” This drew looks from all quarters, so I sat back and explained what I’d just seen. The tension in the room increased palpably. The team exchanged looks with each other, and I could tell this was important news.
“And you’re certain it was Mark? The Loop travels so fast. How can you be sure, Jaxon?” said Amanda.
“It was Mark, no question. The station turned enough to let the light through just as I was passing over on The Loop. I saw his face, clear as day, and he didn’t look happy.”
When Hennessey spoke she seemed agitated. “What about the woman? Did you get a look at her?”
“No, she was facing the other way, and the sun threw her into shadow. They were definitely arguing, though. I could tell from the body language, and it looked to me like she was the dominant one in the conversation.”
Grealish turned to Cooper. “Amy, we need to get his bio-band feed ASAP. If we can trace him back to Globe 9, we can see who was with him on the scanners.”
“Yes, Sir. The moment we get back to HQ.”
He looked at us all. “Mark Hanson just went back to the top of the list. There’s no reason for him to be in an unpopulated town, on the lower levels of Globe 9. This is our first lead since arriving, and we need to do everything we can to keep eyes on him. Suggestions?”
I looked across at the blank faces. “Sir, I could get myself assigned to the BRAF Hangar in Globe 10 if that’s where he’s working.” I didn’t much fancy it, but it made sense.
“No, Jaxon, that would look suspicious to everyone, especially Mark. You’re the current poster-boy for BRAF, so it wouldn’t make sense to shunt you sideways. What else? Come on, people, think.”
Amanda looked up. “Laura and I could reassign to Globe 10 patrols. I can’t speak for Laura, but pushing paperwork around in 11 is doing my tits in. I’d much rather be on the ground, working the scene, so to speak.”
“Oh God, I’m glad you said it.” Something resembling relief and eagerness appeared on Laura’s face. “Yes, I’d definitely be up for that. We’d still be able to stay in 11-A though, right?”
“Sara? Can you arrange that?” Grealish enquired.
“Of course. Officers are rotated routinely, so it shouldn’t raise any eyebrows.”
“Well, that’s settled then. Anybody else have anything to add?”
“Sir, if I can’t reassign to 10, can I at least go over to 9 and have a look around once we’ve established Mark’s exact movements?” I felt like I was going to be side-lined here, but I’d been through too much to just take a back seat in a critical investigation.
Grealish looked at me appraisingly. “It’s hard to justify, Jax. What if you’re seen?”
“Mark was just seen by a few hundred people on The Loop. And if it wasn’t for this task-force, nobody would care. I fail to see how the same principle wouldn’t apply to me.”
“I’ll go with Jax,” Amanda volunteered, causing Laura’s face to scrunch up in disapproval. “We should definitely look. If the woman was AoG, then they’ll have chosen that level for a reason. I’ll get Jaxon some BRMC fatigues, so he’ll look like he’s part of a routine patrol. Someone needs to check it out, and that’s my job.”
Grealish let out an audible sigh. “Okay, check Level 4 out carefully. If you find anything, call it in. No heroics.”
“Sir.”
“We’ll meet again in forty-eight hours. Get to work.”