Chapter 14
"The corporations," the Man said with a hint of disgust. "The balance of power between Earth and Winter tips precariously on the whims and the greed of men."
NG set his goblet on the desk. This was dangerous territory for a discussion with the Man.
"We take from and give to every corporation," the Man said, "on both sides of the line. They squabble and manoeuvre, they deceive and scheme. They are our lifeblood. It is an indisputable fact that there is no real art in their guile. These entities born of pure unadulterated greed are not driven by the same basic veneer of philanthropy that holds governments in check. But it is their innate drive for self-preservation itself that has dealt us a situation like this. Could we have anticipated that one corporation's aim for competitive advantage would send us to the brink of war?"
The Man poured the last of the jug into his own goblet and drank deeply. There were no clocks or timepieces in the Man's chambers and NG had the vague feeling that more time had passed than he realised. He'd glanced at his own watch a few times but it was frozen at the exact time he'd stepped over the threshold into this room.
He leaned back, trying to clear his head.
"Be assured," he said, "we would never have taken this job. Somehow, they found the chink in our armour and pushed it to force our people to act outside any boundaries we could have predicted."
-
Another explosion took out the lighting and must have knocked out the gravity compensation as well because Hil staggered against the wall as the floor rumbled and it felt like his weight increased a notch. Emergency lights flickered on and klaxons began to wail, like they really needed a warning of the shitstorm descending on them. There was no one around so Hil ran as fast as he could, knees complaining and legs feeling like lead. Each blast now brought down a showering of sparks and dusty debris. He covered his head with his arms the best he could, trying to keep going and find a way outside. It was typical, just as they were going to let him go, someone else moved in. Twenty six million. No surprise that he was mister popularity. Another blast sent him to his knees and he had to scramble backwards to avoid a section of wall that collapsed inwards.
He curled into a ball and let the debris rain down, taking a couple of knocks in the back and one to the back of the head that sent his vision spinning.
"Genoa, I'm getting bombed here. Any chance of some help?" He got to his feet and pulled himself along, coughing, climbing over the rubble and through into another dark nondescript and equally deserted corridor.
"Anything?"
Nothing. Either the connection was lost again or the ship wasn't wasting time feeding him information she didn't see as relevant. In that respect, Genoa was very different from Skye. Skye would have reassured him constantly, gentle nudges of contact to keep in touch. With Genoa, there was simply cold efficiency.
The emergency lights were struggling and patches of the way through were completely dark, just to add to the atmosphere of it all. Hil checked his wristband, paranoid suddenly that the air could be contaminated. It was all clear so far.
Another blast hit somewhere up ahead. How far would someone go to collect on twenty six million? That woman hadn't said whether that was dead or alive. But presumably he was worth more alive so dropping a building on his head wasn't that smart. Hil stopped running and took time to gather his bearings. If he was getting bombed, so were they. And he wanted that data board.
It took a while to find a corridor that looked familiar. With the lights on, they'd all looked the same. Hil crouched and stared at the figure lying in rubble close to where he reckoned the interrogation room had been. It was the woman. Dead, as far as he could tell from here. He crept forward and reached out a hand to check her pulse. Nothing. Glancing over his shoulder to make sure they were alone, he searched her pockets, as much as he could reach in amongst the rubble. No ID, no personal effects, nothing. He pressed his hand against her neck, feeling the tell-tale chill of an imbedded chip.
Hil stood up and another not too distant explosion sent him staggering aside. Dust and debris tumbled down onto them. He looked down at the woman. That chip could contain information about who these people were. It took him about half a second to make a decision and thirty seconds to cut out the implant using the knife he pulled from his boot. She was dead, it wasn't like it could hurt. Even so it still made him feel queasy to slice into her flesh. The tiny implant wasn't far beneath the surface but he was careful not to damage it or trigger any protections. He wiped the chip and the knife on her expensive suit, put the knife back in its hiding place and pocketed the implant.
He stood back and looked around, blinking dust out of his eyelashes. The data board had to be somewhere. Another blast sounded closer and sent ceiling tiles crashing down. He ducked and backed off, and heard gunfire and shouts. The implant would have to do. He stared at the woman for a second, then turned and ran.
It was quieter further into the building. And darker. Hil began to think he was walking in circles when there was a shaft of light up ahead. He looked up, a deep down instinct holding him in check. He hugged in close to the wall. The shaft became a beam cutting through the dust and bobbed in the way searchlights do. It was joined by others and they scanned the corridor. Hil shrank back, seeing the shadows behind the beams, the outline of helmets and weapons and the cold efficiency of military teamwork.
He crept backwards quietly, thanking every single second spent in the Maze. The lights flashed in an arc over his head and over the floor to his right. They were coming this way. One silent step at a time, he backtracked to an open door he'd passed, staying just ahead of the lights, hearing now the soft mechanical hum of motors and actuators. If it was a rescue party they'd be yelling for survivors, if it was the guild they wouldn't be wearing heavy combat gear. He slipped into an adjoining corridor and ran and almost yelled out loud when a voice sounded in his head.
"Hil buddy, where the hell are you?"
"Kase! Shit! I'm in the goddamned building. Where the hell are you?"
"We're taking heavy fire outside, Hil. We can't get anywhere near the building. I've got two teams coming in from orbit who are going to take the roof but that's going to take a few minutes. Can you get up there?"
A beam of light flashed by and Hil winced, ducking down to crouch behind a pile of rubble. What? The roof? If he could have, he would have but it wasn't like he had much choice. "Yeah, I'll be there."
He sat still as the beam withdrew and the sound of footsteps and armour passed by. He looked around. There had to be stairs somewhere or an accessway through the ceiling.
There were two more massive blasts in the time it took him to find a stairwell, both close and at one point he could hear the tinny wheezes of voices through helmets, fading as he turned and slipped away in the opposite direction. Finally, he gently pushed open a door and saw with relief that it opened onto a narrow stairwell with steps heading up and down. There was a chilly breeze blowing down from above, but up it was.
He clambered up the steps, on all fours sometimes, breathing laboured. Two flights up and he could hear the rain outside. The stairs ended abruptly. Whether this was the roof or the top floor or what, it was impossible to tell. Twisted metal and prefab panels blocked the way.
The rubble was unstable but it extended up beyond a pile of ceiling tiles. Pipes and wires trailed down, sparking and leaking fluids. Rivulets of water streamed down from above.
Hil climbed up carefully and warily eyed the gap up to a maintenance gantry that had been exposed by the collapse. He took hold with his left hand and hoisted himself up, feeling the weakness in his right arm and ignoring the pain that shot up to his shoulder.
He pulled himself onto the mesh walkway and rolled, the sudden vibration from his wristband giving him a shock that almost sent him tumbling back down. The display in the band lit up, figures scrolling. It was at maximum, overdose levels, and Hil looked from his wrist up into the jagged edges of a broken conduit that shone with a sickly green g
low. It was hard not to gag. He turned away and fumbled with his sleeve. He could imagine the hoards of tiny electrobes swarming into his eyes and nose and ears and felt his chest restrict with panic at the onset of the poisoning.
He cried out softly and covered his mouth and nose with his sleeve, scrambling to get away. The gantry was more stable up ahead and Hil kept his breathing as shallow as he could, breaking into a light run. The band throbbed against his skin, only beginning to ease off once he'd made a decent distance. It didn't stop though, there were electrobes still present even if in lower concentrations.
It was awkward to climb in the increased gravity anyway never mind having to use one hand, with the other still throbbing every time it even bumped against anything, but he found a ladder and climbed slowly up to the next level, muscles screaming at him by the time he reached the top. It was cooler up there and the band calmed down to a vague tingle. Hil coughed and his lungs felt hot, his eyes were sore and he could already feel a trembling in his limbs that had nothing to do with the climb.
Bastard freaking electrobes.
He coughed again and looked around. It was a roof compartment, pipes and vents leading up. The rain was still pounding down, pouring in through rubble strewn holes in the flat roof, puddling and ponding and bouncing off the floor tiles. It streamed in rivers towards him, racing down any channel it could find in the irregular and broken flooring. It looked dark outside, searchlights panning across the building. He could hear the roar of gunships flying overhead and gunfire echoing.
"Kase, I'm up near the roof."
"Keep your head down, Hil. We're too far away. Whatever you did to upset these people, they're serious. There's a whole damned army out here."
"I'm coughing up lungs full of electrobes here, Kase, where the hell are you?"
"Shit. Give me a minute."
It felt far longer than a minute and Hil jumped again when the connection flared to life. "Okay, get out there," Kase sent, sounding stressed as hell, "we're moving in fast."
Each breath was getting harder. Hil resisted the urge to sit down and flake out and climbed up onto the roof instead. It was flat and wet but vents and pipes gave him cover at least. He crawled out and peered over the edge. Figures were darting between the small buildings and vehicles out there but his eyes were watering and he couldn't make out who was who or where the guild teams were.
"Kase?"
"Hil, hold on."
He held on. He didn't feel like he was worth twenty six million. He felt cold and wet and miserable. It felt like his chest was caught in the grip of a vice.
"Hil, there's a tower at one end of the building. The ship is inbound now but she won't be able to stick around. You'd better be there, bud."
Hil squinted through the rain at the tower. It looked miles away.
"I'll be there," he sent and started running.
Halfway there, another blast shook the building and Hil staggered from the shock, trying to keep on his feet. He fell, rolled and tumbled and getting up was even harder. Coughing hurt. He scrambled forward and tried to see the ship. It wasn't on the roof yet and it could have been any one of a number flying low over the building. He stayed close to cover and picked his way across, splashing through puddles and avoiding the gaping holes and rubble. Twice he thought he heard someone behind him and the third time, red laser sights darted across his line of sight and shots sparked off a pipe ahead of him. He hit the floor and scrambled away, barely squeezing underneath a bent and twisted conduit. There were yells from different directions as if they were separating and spreading out to angle round on him. He stayed low and glanced about, and saw a grenade skittering across the roof towards him. In a painfully slow movement that should have been a graceful and sweeping kick, he managed to lash out with one foot and nudged it away. He didn't wait to see where it went. He turned and crawled frantically away and caught the edge of a concussion blast, nowhere near full force or he would have been out for the count, but still it sent his senses awry.
"Hil, buddy, the ship is moving in. Where are you, bud?"
He tried to respond but he couldn't manage to speak out loud or via the connection hardwired into his brain. He gasped and shook water from his eyes and tried to be as small as possible, tucked up inside a tangle of pipes as red dot laser sights and flashlights scanned overhead and the mechanical crunch of boots and armour sounded closer and closer.
Martha was the last person he wanted to hear but true to form, there she was. "Hil, this is the second time we've saved your ass. You want us to come in there and haul your butt out like last time or could you manage to walk it this time, do you think?"
He thought he sent, "I'll be there" with a touch of irritation and more than a hint of belligerence, she always brought out the best in him, but she snapped back at him, swearing that if he didn't want to bother he could go screw himself, so maybe he hadn't said it out loud.
"I'll be there," he sent again.
"Good because the ship is not going to wait for your sorry ass."
If anything, the rain seemed to get heavier and he envied the soldiers in their snug full-on body armour. The powered exoskeletons gave them an advantage in this gravity and a couple of times, he was spotted but he slipped away before they could pinpoint him. He was cold and wet through but agile as hell, despite the cough and pathetic weakness that was making him want to curl up in a ball and die.
He made it to the tower before anyone else and definitely before any ship. There was a flat intact expanse of roof, unbroken by any bomb holes or interrupted by any pipework so he could see why they'd chosen this as the RV. He hunkered down by the base of the tower.
"Any time now, guys, would be highly appreciated," he mumbled.
"We're taking losses down here, you little shit," Martha snapped back, "you'd better be worth this."
"Twenty six million," Hil muttered and sat back to keep watch, wondering if there was any way he could collect on that himself.
He was woken up by a sudden yell inside his head.
"Hil!" Kase screamed, "get away from the tower. If you're at that fucking tower, get the hell away from it!"
What? Hil shook his head and looked up, scrambling to his feet as he stared up at a fireball spiralling towards him. He ran, slipping and scrambling. The blast lifted him off his feet and threw him sideways into a wall. He hit hard and blacked out.