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– Chapter 16 –
Tarun stared at the spybot, ‘Maybe, but De Monsero exiled Tarak for embezzling funds from his accounts, so he could work for anyone now.’
Mervyn frowned in disappointment, ‘That doesn’t help a lot.’
‘Cracking the password methodically will take hours,’ Loren said. ‘Anyone like to hazard a guess?’
‘Halival Tarak?’
‘Tarak Halival?’
‘Halival?’
‘Tarak?’
‘Revlon?’
‘Starlight?’
‘Starlight Raid?’
‘Raid?’ Soon they lapsed into silence as every suggestion came up negative.
‘This is useless,’ Tarun said. ‘We don’t know anything about this guy.
‘Try, Destroyer,’ Mervyn suggested. Loren gave him a sideways glance but tapped in the word anyway.
‘It’s thinking about it,’ Loren said and they waited with baited breath. ‘Quarks, Mervyn, we’re in. How did you guess that.’
Mervyn shrugged, ‘De Monsero’s nickname in the sledding league, remember.’
‘That doesn’t prove it’s De Monsero’s probe though,’ Loren said carefully. ‘You just got lucky. Perhaps they knew each other at the Academy or something.’
Loren selected the playback mode and they watched the big screen as the spybot approached Starlight. A light flashed and Starlight’s dome burst outwards. The spybot shot forward past debris from the asteroid and dived into central control. It recorded the firefight between Starlight’s defenders and the raiders. Mervyn watched in silence as his father surrendered his weapons. Grey suited invaders crept warily into central control, collected the fallen weapons, and herding the defenders out of the room.
The spybot focused on the invaders and Loren froze the recording, ‘Look, the shorter ones are definitely human, but who are the tall ones -- I can’t see their faces?
‘Whoever they are they must be in league with the Naga,’ Tarun said.
Loren restarted the recording. One tall and one short spacesuited figure came together. They started to point and gesture as they discussed some aspect of the invasion. The more they discussed the more vigorous their gestures became. The human glanced up briefly.
‘Hey, that’s the human leader -- Guthrik, I remember seeing him beside the Naga when they waylaid the Silvin Trader,’ Loren said, ‘I think they’re arguing.’ Without warning both sides drew their blasters and a stand-off ensued. The taller figure finally lowered its blaster and stalked out of view followed by the rest of the tall invaders. ‘What was all that about?’ Tarun asked.
The humans pocked round central control for a while then left. The spybot drifted into the emergency room and hibernated.
It sprang back to life as four orange figures passed the door.
‘That’s us,’ Loren said. The spybot shot out into central control crashing into Loren’s helmet as it went. The screen fizzed and cut to a black star-field. A sled sat in the centre of the screen.
‘That’s why it’s in for service,’ Loren said. ‘They can’t access the middle section.’
‘You mean they want to see who we are,’ Tarun said.
‘Quarks, look at that,’ Mervyn cried. ‘De Monsero actually swerved to avoid hitting it.’ The spybot flew so close to De Monsero’s sled they could see him grinning. Mervyn paced back and forth to work off the anger now coursing through him. ‘De Monsero had lied through his teeth -- not only did he see the spybot, it nearly killer him.’
‘What’s that,’ Tarun said holding up a hand. They all paused and listened.
‘It’s the back door,’ Loren hissed and frantically pulled leads out of the spybot.
Mervyn dived for the door, ‘Quick, I’ll get the lights. Tarun, kill the screen.’ They scrambled to remove evidence of their occupation as Loren snapped shut the spybot and replaced it carefully on the rack.
The trio settled themselves behind a wall of crates as the lights flicked back on and two sets of feet entered the room. Mervyn found a crack between two crates through which he could spy on the table. He wanted to shift position to see the newcomers, but dare not in case he gave himself away.
‘Is this your spybot, Mr Tarak?’ Mervyn glanced to where the others peered through their own vantage points. Loren’s hand hovered in front of her mouth.
Two Ethrigians stood by the table: one male, one female. They opened the spybot and plugged it into the screen. The playback skipped to the collision with Loren’s head.
‘There is your problem,’ the female said. ‘Spybots are quite delicate really.’
‘Can you fix it?’ Halival Tarak asked.
‘Probably,’ the female said tapping away on a virtual keyboard. Tarak paced up and down while the female worked.
‘Well?’ Tarak asked.
‘I have fragments. No more than stills really.’
‘Let me see.’ The first picture looked fuzzy and showed four orange spacesuits diving in different directions. The next showed a close up of two gloved hands.
‘What are they doing?’ Tarak asked.
‘Trying to catch your spybot I think.’ The third picture resolved itself into a clear shot of all four Misfits running after the probe. Mervyn swore to himself.
‘Zoom in on their faces,’ Tarak said. Even from behind the crates Mervyn could clearly make out his own features.
‘Know them?’ the female asked.
‘I know these two,’ Tarak said pointing to Aurora and Tarun. ‘But not the others.’
‘Quarks, I employed this one this morning,’ the female exclaimed pointing to Loren’s upturned face.
‘Here? On Revlon?’
‘Here, in this very room, working on the spybots.’
‘Are you sure?’
‘As sure as there’s a black hole at the centre of the galaxy. Do you want me to sack her?’
‘No. She’ll lead me to the others. I got to make a call.’ Tarak disappeared from view and Mervyn heard the back door bang. The female packed up the spybot and followed a few minutes later.
‘That’s blown it,’ Tarun said as peace returned to the workshop. ‘What do we do now?’
‘Get off Revlon tonight,’ Mervyn said crossing to the rack of spybots. ‘And we need to take this with us,’ he handed the spybot to Loren.
‘We can take an extract, Merv. It’ll be easier to hide.’
‘No, the link to De Monsero is in the password.’
‘It’s just a name, Merv -- it doesn’t prove anything.’
‘We’re taking the whole spybot,’ Mervyn said firmly. ‘Got a bag about you?’
‘Of course,’ Loren produced a tablet from her utility belt. She unscrewed the top and stood back as a backpack unfurled itself, ‘Bought this from the gadget shop yesterday -- I’ve always wanted one.’
Tarun eyed the backpack with envy, ‘Wow. How do you get it back in?’
‘Memory molecules -- opening the capsule releases an amino acid which makes the structure reshape itself, another amino acid folds it back into the tablet. Same way your spacesuit’s piton sticks to the target then releases again. Good huh?’
Mervyn dropped the spybot into the bag, ‘You’re almost as bad as Tarun. Maybe if you hadn’t spent so much on gadgets we’d be home by now.’
‘Well what about the money you’ve spent watching swot,’ Loren retorted.
‘That’s different.’
‘How?’
Tarun held up his hands, ’Hold it, guys. None of this matters, the important thing is how do we get off Revlon tonight?’
‘I’ve got an idea,’ Mervyn said. ‘You two go find Aurora -- she might have picked up some sizeable tips at the tables.’
‘That doesn’t sound very promising,’ Loren said leading the way to the door, ‘And what are you going to do?’
Mervyn paused, ‘I’ll find Valna,’ he lied.