The Belt - Complete Series, page 76
When they finally pulled apart, Scott could sense an awkward silence from across the table. He glanced over.
“Hallelujah.” Steph raised her glass in a mock toast and downed her drink in one go. “I was wondering how long it would take for you guys to park all the bullshit.”
Scott laughed. Miranda grinned.
“Say, Cyrus?” Steph elbowed the engineer in the ribs. “Weren’t you going to show me some amazing Mars artifact in some place here on the plaza?”
Cyrus looked a little confused. Steph elbowed him again.
“Oh, yeah…that’s right. Eh…I think it’s quite near here.” He pointed off in the distance, over the heads of the crowd.
Steph got to her feet. “Come on then, better show me now or I won’t get the chance again.” She turned to Scott and Miranda and gave a wink. “See you when I see you.”
Scott didn’t protest this exit, even though Steph was making it perfectly clear what she was up to. Miranda gripped him tighter. He turned back to gaze at her. No words were needed.
But the moment was cut short as Miranda suddenly untangled herself and tapped the side of her temple to activate her comms. She looked up at Scott, wide-eyed. “It’s Luca.”
Scott sighed, inwardly. He was happy she was making contact, but less so about her timing. “What’s she saying?”
Miranda jerked a hand up to silence him, concentrating on the call. “Are you sure? When? Goddamnit, just when I thought this crap was over. Okay, okay, I got it. Fine, we’re fine.” The call ended, and she looked over at Scott.
Scott raised his eyebrows in a question. “So?”
“She thinks there are node-runners here…on Mars, possibly in the city.”
“I don’t believe it. How is that even possible?”
“I don’t know, but she seems pretty convinced. Anyway, we’re not safe here, out in the open. We need to get back to the villa complex.”
“Better let Cyrus and Steph know.” Scott glanced in the direction they had taken.
“Yeah.” She gave him an apologetic grin. “Bad timing, eh?”
Scott smiled and gently pulled her close. “Oh, I don’t know. I was wondering how I was going to get you back to my place.”
18
EASY TARGET
After Sebastian VanHeilding’s ship had landed and César had given them the all-clear, they transferred into the ship’s rover, a well-appointed, six-wheeled vehicle designed, like the rest of the craft, for luxury and comfort. Aaron Judge, his head of security, took the helm alongside Sebastian. César sat in the main cabin flanked by three security crew. They carried light, non-lethal plasma weapons. Anything more purposeful was forbidden in the city, and there was no point in taking the risk, since they were not planning on needing such force. This would be quick and quiet, with no unnecessary drama.
However, the terrain was more unforgiving than they had initially thought, so it was hard and slow-going. It took them nearly an hour before they finally managed to find their way onto the main highway. After that they made good time, slowed down only by the increased volume of traffic entering the city for the festival.
But they could only go so far by surface rover, since such vehicles were not allowed inside the city due to the risk of contamination. Once they reached the city’s western gate, they would have to leave the rover in one of the vast underground parks and then rely on Jezero’s own autonomous transport pod network.
The first test of their newfound identities came as they approached the western city gate. Here, all vehicles were scanned, identified, and issued a parking designation—this they could not avoid. César sat in the main cabin, jacked-in, eyes rolled back inside his head. He was scanning the data-stream, making sure their digital deception held up. But they passed through without incident. Sebastian took this to be a good omen: the plan was working, the prize would soon be his.
Once safely inside the city, the node-runner commandeered a transport pod, keeping it off-grid and under his control. Sebastian now watched the city slip by through the side window. It was taking them to a mothballed VanHeilding Corporation facility in an old industrial sector of Jezero. That area would be completely deserted now, especially with everyone at the festival, so it was a perfect place to establish a base of operations.
Outside, the city lights swept past, bathing the interior of the pod in garish pinks and purples. The people all seemed to be moving in the same direction, lured to the center by the promise of a spectacle.
But all throughout this journey into the city, César had continued to voice his concerns that the two node-runners back on the ship were running hot. He needed to take the load off them, and soon. It would be a disaster if one were to burn out on this mission—that would be game over for Sebastian and his hopes of rising through the family ranks.
“We’re here,” Aaron announced, pointing out a set of utility doors that had scissored open in the front of a dilapidated-looking building. The pod entered in through the gap and down a short ramp to the facility’s basement entrance.
They disembarked from the pod and took an elevator to what used to be a luxury private apartment on the third floor—kept ready for the pleasure of any high-ranking family members who happened to be visiting. Now, though, it had lost most of its opulence; only a scattering of furniture remained. It did, however, have power and a functioning holo-table, giving them excellent access to the citywide network. The apartment activated automatically as they entered.
Without saying a word, César sat down on a long, low bench beside the holo-table and jacked-in to the data-stream. It was now all up to him to find her. How long that would take was anyone’s guess. But she was out there somewhere, and if anyone could find her it would be César. Sebastian had to admit, this guy was good.
With nothing to do now but wait, Sebastian opened the doors to the balcony and gazed out to the edge of the dome that housed this sector of the city. Through its translucent membrane he could make out the brightly illuminated forms of several other adjacent domes. But one stood out more than most: the great central dome that dominated the Jezero City skyline, now a kaleidoscope of color—the Festival of Lights had begun.
Eventually, after what seemed like an eternity to Sebastian, César finally spoke. “I’m getting a lock on something now.” He relayed a feed of his dive into the data-steam onto the holo-table.
Sebastian turned back inside the apartment and moved closer to the table to study the projection that now blossomed out across its surface. It was a confused mess of flashing images and garbled sounds. But it grew in clarity, culminating in a bright flash of a human face.
César suddenly pulled off the neural lace, jolting himself out of the data-stream. He was breathing hard, his face flushed.
“What? Was that her? Where is she?” Sebastian demanded.
The node-runner took a moment to get his heart rate down before attempting vocal communication. “She’s…in the data-stream.” He looked up at Sebastian and then to Aaron. “I think she sensed my presence.”
Sebastian considered this for a moment. “Are you sure it was her? Could it have been one of the node-runners from the ship, or the QI, Aria?”
“No, it was definitely a human mind, not one of us, and definitely not artificial.”
“What’s she doing in there?” Aaron’s face looked grave.
Sebastian waved a hand. “It doesn’t matter what’s she doing. What matters is where she is—physically.”
It was now César’s turn to look grave. “She’s located in the science institute, around two hundred kilometers north of the city.”
“That’s Xenon’s facility,” said Aaron, shaking his head. “We’ll never get in there without being spotted. Way too much security.”
“Damnit, we need to find a way in and get her.” Sebastian thumped the holo-table, sending a quiver through the now frozen projection. “We haven’t come all this way just to give up now.”
César shook his head. “There’s no way we can get in there and keep the ship hidden. We just don’t have the neural bandwidth for a hack of that complexity.”
“I’ve just checked with the ship.” Aaron held a hand to his temple, listening to an internal comms link. “No security alert issued on the grid. She may not know we’re here. Or if she does, she hasn’t done anything yet.”
Sebastian remained quiet for a moment, thinking. He was close, so close. There had to be a way. He turned to the node-runner again. “What’s your feeling, César? Have we been exposed?”
“Hard to say.” César stood up now. “Even if she has sensed a runner in the data-stream, that doesn’t mean she knows our location. She may think we’re still off-planet, on a ship in orbit. Also, she seems…weak, like a novice. Again, nothing like the awesome neural power she’s supposed to be.”
Sebastian remained silent for a moment, looking out across the city again. “I think she’s afraid and running scared. We can still do this. All we need to do is find a way to flush her out of Xenon’s institute.” He spun back around to the node-runner. “Can you find where the rest of her family are? We may be able to use them as leverage.”
César took a long, slow breath, nodded, and jacked-in again. After several minutes, a fuzzy 3D rendering of the central plaza blossomed out from the holo-table. Four highlighted, ghostly human forms could be identified clustered around a table just at the edge of the plaza.
“There, that’s them.” Aaron poked a finger at the projection, then glanced over at Sebastian.
“If we could snatch one or two of her family from there,” said Sebastian, waving a finger at the holo-table, “then we could offer her a deal. Their lives for hers.”
Aaron examined the projection as he contemplated how exactly this could be executed. “Tricky, in such a crowded area. Too many people.”
But before anyone had time to reply, two figures began to move away, leaving the plaza area. Sebastian leaned in to get a better look. “Someone’s on the move.”
Aaron checked the data analysis. “Looks like Dr. Stephanie Rayman and Cyrus Sanato.”
“Dr. Rayman would be perfect.” Sebastian stood up, looking over at Aaron. “According to Luca’s profile she has a strong emotional attachment to her, almost to the point of regarding her as a surrogate mother.”
“She would certainly be a much easier target,” said Aaron. “The parents are fighters, especially the mother, who’s highly skilled and very dangerous.” He jerked a finger at the projection. “And it looks like they’re leaving the central dome, heading away from the crowds.” Aaron glanced back at Sebastian.
“Okay, I have an idea on how we take them quietly without a fuss.” Sebastian then turned to César. “I need you to commandeer another transport pod.”
19
TAKEDOWN
Cyrus and Steph threaded their way through the crowded plaza toward a short, broad connecting tunnel that would bring them into a sector commonly called the cultural quarter. It was smaller in size than the main plaza, but more architecturally impressive since it was home to museums, galleries, theaters, and well as the more upmarket bars and cafes.
“So where is this…thing you’re taking me to see?” Steph seemed a little dismissive of the quest they were currently embarking on.
“Not far.” He gestured ahead at a futuristic building that looked as if it had been grown from some organic compound—which to some extent, it had. “At the festival exhibition building. The one that looks like an internal organ.” He glanced back at Steph. “Actually, I didn’t think you were all that interested in seeing it.”
“I’m not. I just wanted to give the others some space.”
“Oh.” Cyrus sounded disappointed. “What for?”
“Seriously, Cyrus, you need to get out more. Did you not see they were having a moment, burying the hatchet, putting the past to rest—whatever you want to call it.”
“You mean, getting back together?”
“Yeah.”
“Jeez, Steph, what do you take me for? Of course I saw it.” He tapped his optical visor. “You forget, I can see in infrared, and their temperature was definitely rising.”
He stopped suddenly, bringing his hand to the side of his temple and gesturing to Steph to wait up. “Scott,” he said. “Yeah…what? You serious… For real? Okay, okay, will do.” He signed off and looked at Steph. “Luca has made contact with Miranda.”
“Good. Is she coming to the festival?”
“No. Apparently she jacked-in to the data-stream and…well, she thinks there might be a node-runner snooping around.”
“What, here in Jezero?”
“She’s not sure. Possibly. But Scott seems to be taking it seriously. He says we should head back to the villa complex.”
“Screw that. I’m fed up running scared of those ghosts. I’m not spending my last few sols in Jezero hiding away. Let’s just keep going. We can go back later.”
Cyrus thought about this for a moment, then nodded. “Yeah, I’m sure it’s just Miranda being paranoid.”
They continued walking until they came under a high portico that covered the entrance to the exhibition. The crowd had thinned out quite a bit and they found it much easier to move through this area. As they entered the exhibition, Cyrus spent a moment studying an information screen, figuring out exactly where the artifact was located. They then weaved their way through many decades of Martian history until they arrived at a section dedicated to the very earliest examples of humanity’s efforts to explore the planet.
“Here it is,” Cyrus finally announced as he came to halt in front of an ancient-looking chunk of space technology around a meter and a half in diameter, with four open flaps like the petals of a flower.
Steph glanced at this lump of prehistoric metal with mild interest. “So what is it?”
“That, my dear Steph, is the very first human-made object to successfully land on Mars. In fact, on any planet—way back in the mid-twentieth century.”
Steph leaned in a little to examine the artifact. “Humble beginnings. Well, we’ve certainly come a long way from that. Hard to believe it was capable of doing much of anything.” She shifted her gaze to the conveniently placed information screen. “Mars 3 Lander,” she read out loud. “I assume the previous two crashed and burned.”
“Something like that. Although this one only survived for around a hundred seconds. It sent back one gray, fuzzy image, no details.”
Steph finished reading the information panel on the Mars 3 Lander, then glanced around the rest of the exhibition space. “Anything else of interest?”
“Sure, lots. Come, let me give you the guided tour.”
For much of the next hour, the two wandered through the history of Mars colonization before Steph had finally had enough of space junk. They left the exhibition center and headed outside, where they managed to grab an autonomous transport pod—which, as luck would have it, arrived right in front of them just as they were leaving. They clambered in, set the destination for the villa complex, and sat back watching the city slide by.
Ten minutes into the journey, the transport pod unexpectedly started to glitch, then it shut down completely. Cyrus was first to react, stabbing at the user screen. This seemed to work, as the pod booted up and started moving again.
“What was that about?” Steph said, more as a question to herself.
Cyrus was studying the transport pod’s interface screen, stabbing at it a few times with a finger.
Steph finally sensed from his body language that something might be wrong. “What is it?”
“I think this pod has been hacked. We’re taking a different route.” He glanced out the side window. Then tried the door. “Shit, we’re locked in.”
Steph tried her side. No joy. She glanced back at Cyrus. “Can’t you do something?”
“I’m trying.” He began to disassemble the door panel. “If I can get this off, maybe I can bypass the locking mechanism.”
But Steph had her own plan. She reached into a pocket in her jacket and pulled out a souvenir she had purchased at the exhibition: a die-cast miniature replica of the Mars 3 Lander. She slammed the pointed end at the side window, and succeeded only in hurting her wrist. It barely made a scratch.
“That window is quartz. You won’t break it with that,” Cyrus informed her.
“How the hell are people supposed to get out of here if they’re in a crash?” Steph fished out her comms unit and tried to get a connection—but also no joy. “Damnit, no comms. Can you get anything?”
“No, nothing. We’re being jammed.”
The pod began to slow down, veer off the main transport route, and down a dim and deserted slipway. They exchanged a glance. Steph picked up the souvenir and gripped it tight. It might not break the window, but it could put a big dent in a human skull.
“Where is it taking us?” Steph leaned over to examine the pod’s user interface.
“Looks like we’re heading toward the western gate. That’s a terminus—it can’t go any farther than that.”
Cyrus continued to disassemble the door panel while Steph watched anxiously as the transport pod treaded its way through the vast rover park for that sector of Jezero City.
The pod finally came to a halt in a deserted sector of the park. They both exchanged glances. Steph held the makeshift weapon tight as the side doors of the pod hissed open to reveal several plasma pistols pointed in their direction.
“Out,” a voice commended.
“Who the hell are you?” Cyrus ventured as he stepped cautiously out of the transport pod.
