Greenshift (15 page)

“We have crew, not
passengers,” Dale said. “Seventy-five, though most of them either
work in the lower decks or wait there until we’re ready to off-load or take on
cargo.”

“There are only six of us on
the
Bard
. How does everyone fit here?” Granted the
Trawler
was twice as big as Mari’s ship, but with the cargo bays comprising the bulk of
the vessel, passenger—crew—quarters had to be packed tight.

“We make room when we need
it,” Dale said, adding a note of finality to the chit chat.

Her eyes adjusted to the scant
light seeping from runners along the commonway’s floor, but the dreariness
inside this ship pressed around her small form. So did Carlos. He’d shadowed
her more closely with each step the farther they moved into the ship.
Occasionally his arm brushed her shoulder. She wanted to shrink away from him,
but there was nowhere to go.

At least the visit would be over
within the hour. The thought of living here for six months was depressing at
best, horrifying at worst. What had she been thinking?

Their shoes tapped a muted
cadence along the hard rubber floor. Carlos’ heavy steps nearly vibrated up her
leg. Needing to take some control, she slowed her pace, forcing Carlos to back
off ever so slightly. She was about to ask for a little more room when she
spotted the filtration system running along the wall to their right. Only
advanced hydroponics labs had that kind of system, and judging by the slight
organic smell and humming condensers, this one was already operational. Why
would Dale need her if he had a system in place? Perhaps this one needed to be
adjusted. But, Dale specifically wanted a system designed from scratch. He
could just be ripping this one out entirely and starting over…which would be
astronomically expensive.

Little jolts of foreboding swept
through her fingers, and the hairs on the back of her neck stood up as David’s
concerns jabbed into her mind. When Carlos’ hand touched her shoulder to guide
her toward a corridor on the left, she screamed.

Her echoed cry startled Dale,
making him whip around. “You frighten too easily, dear.”

She was definitely frightened.

“I just don’t like people
touching me,” she said.
Specifically him
, she wanted to add.

“That could be a problem for
you later,” Dale said, more to himself than Mari.

Still she didn’t like the way he
said it. Or the way he led them away from the hydroponics bay. Her heart raced.
A rush of panic rolled through her chest and surged out into her limbs in
little adrenaline licks of electricity.

Carlos’ body blocked her exit
back to the gangway. If she could just get around his huge bulk. Refusing to
take another step away from escape, Mari stopped and grabbed at her ear,
snatching the silver hoop out.

“I think I dropped my
earring.” She ducked down and acted as though she were searching the
floor. “Can you help me find it?”

Dale grumbled.

“Sorry, but they were a gift.”
Mari stealthily maneuvered around the Armadan’s leg.

“Fine. Help her,” Dale
said.

As soon as Carlos stooped over,
Mari casually slid her body around him. Then she bolted for the gangway.

Keep it calm. Mari hasn’t been
gone that long.

David didn’t even make it up the
Bard
‘s
gangway before Sean met him. Maybe he had news. He hadn’t when David contacted
him from the contractors’ guild.

“Found Mari’s reporter in
her room.” Sean held up the small silver bracelet. “She must have
forgotten it this morning. She does that sometimes. There was another message on
there besides yours…from Dale.” Sean’s voice tightened saying the man’s
name.

He played the audio for David.

“I’m sorry I missed you
today, dear. I thought you were planning to come by this morning, but I suppose
you not showing up is your answer. Such a shame. It would have been nice to
work with you. Maybe some other time.”

“Bullshit,” David said.
“He’s lying, covering his tracks.”

“That’s what I figure, too.”

“I’m heading over to get
Mari now,” David said.

“At the industrial docks?”
Solimar Robbins sauntered up the gangway in a revealing pink sari that showed
off her shapely legs and her Upper Caste poise. Few women David had met had her
grace or her penchant for always being in other people’s business.

“What are you talking about?”
David asked.

“I just saw Mari leaving
Wright’s Landing. She was in the back of a high end transport heading toward
the commercial side of the docks.”

David looked at Sean.
“That’s where the
Thrall
would be berthed. If he takes her on
board….” Anger and panic wouldn’t let David finish his thought.

“It’ll take forever to get
across the bay on a ferry,” Sean said.

“How else are we going to
get there?”

“A municipal fast
track.”

“Do you plan on stealing one
from the dock officials?” David needed
feasible
ideas. Sure the
lightweight, high speed mini boats could cover the distance from one dock to
the other in one tenth of the time a passenger ferry could, but he didn’t have
access to one.

“It’s easier than you think,”
Sean said.

David’s head snapped around, his
hope pushing out thoughts of committing a felony. “Then do it. In the
meantime, Soli, can you use your archivist credentials to track that transport
to its destination?”

“I’ll try to access the
stationary cameras along their route, and maybe syphon something from any
voyeurs wandering around, but I can’t promise much.”

“Send us anything you
get,” David said. “No matter how small.”

“Is Mari okay?” she
asked.

David didn’t wait to respond—he
and Sean ran for the municipal docks. Dodging pedestrians along the concrete
boardwalk, the two men drew more than a few grumbles of displeasure. When a
group of Embassy office staffers froze in David’s path, he shouldered through
their grey suited figures without a word of apology. He dove into combat mode
and focused on his mission—get to Mari.

To his surprise, Sean matched him
stride for stride—David had assumed the mech tech’s sedentary lifestyle
wouldn’t include conditioning, but Sean was almost in military-grade shape.

The communications barbican
curved into view ahead, appearing like a great concrete and glass ship about to
take flight. This red and black, multi-leveled structure monitored traffic for
all three docks surrounding Carrey Bay. It also was the sole point of access to
the municipal docks from the domestic berths.

David slowed his pace as the security
gate came into view. The blue glimmer of an electronic barrier funneled
visitors through two scanners. If he and Sean were to reach the restricted
municipal area, they’d have to make it through those scanners, like the hundred
or so other citizens already in the queue.

“If we wait in that line
we’ll never make it,” Sean said.

“We’re not waiting in
line.” David shouldered his way amongst the crowd, Sean on his heels.

A group of dock workers formed a
blockade, intent on not letting them pass. But David moved them with a stare,
the resentment from last night’s attack most likely written all over his face. These
men weren’t the same ones who had assaulted him and Mari, but they reminded him
too much of them.

As he came closer to the
automated gate sensor, he hung back a bit in line. Pungent smells of sulfides
and petrol-based substances mixed with the scent of bodies standing too close in
the stagnant air surrounding the entrance. A concrete wave of a wall blocked
the sea breezes, forming an eddy of heat and trapping the miasma of chemical
and organic scents. It agitated David, heightening his unpleasant mood. He
shoved further up the line.

Just two laborers remained
between David and entry. “Do we rush the gate when these guys go in?”
he asked Sean.

“Ever jump one of these
before?” he asked.

“No.”

“If the sensor detects more
than one person entering, it triggers an alarm and locks both offenders in
between this gate and the next one.”

David wondered at the secondary
access just a few meters from the first. Now it made sense, like opposite ends
of a steel cage.

“Watch,” Sean said.

One of the men in front of them
slid his wrist over a waist-high scanner within a concrete column that followed
the exact curve of the entire barbican. The man’s worn reporter looked clunky
and hopelessly outdated compared to the ones Sean had provided for David, but the
antiquated equipment did the job—both gates dropped their electronic shields at
the same time, allowing him access through each one in turn.

David looked to Sean for their
next step.

“We’re going to trick the
sensor,” Sean said.

“How?”

“I have a hack that will
mimic the algorithm used by that last guy’s reporter.”

“Won’t it register that he
went through already?” David asked.

“Believe it or not, the
security system doesn’t care how many times the same ident goes through, just
so it’s one of the ones programmed for this area.”

“I hope you’re right,”
David said.

“I am. You’re up first.”
Sean held his naked wrist over the gate sensor.

Prompted by his implanted
reporter, lines of coded gibberish flew across the blue screen projected onto
his palm. Within seconds Sean’s hack opened both electronic gates. David forced
a casual pace into the
cage
, but he was ready to sprint for the other
gate if he heard an alarm. Halfway there he fought the urge to bolt. He balled
his fists and tensed his arms as if to come out swinging, but there wouldn’t be
anything he could do against an electronic gate.

Two more steps and he passed
beyond the second scanner. The shield glimmered back to life momentarily until
Sean tricked the sensor again. Though he made it look easy, David could only
imagine how sophisticated the program was which allowed them access to such a
secure area.

His reporter vibrated. “Did
you find them, Soli?”

“Yes, according to
several dockside cameras, her transport arrived at berth six-two-four. She
entered a freighter with two men. She seemed nervous, David.”

Soli’s voice quivered, whether
out of true concern or melodrama, David wouldn’t speculate.

“Keep an eye on that
freighter. If you see any activity, like Mari leaving, let us know.”

David knew Soli wouldn’t see any
such thing.

“This way,” Sean said.

They mingled with some of the
dock workers until they could break off and head toward the fast track slips.

Sean kept his voice low and asked,
“Are you going to tell me what’s going on before we get there?”

“Dale is part of a human
trafficking ring. Apparently, some sick asshole has a thing for raping
Deleinean women, then killing them.”

For the first time David saw a
flicker of concern cross Sean’s face, but the mech tech remained silent.

“Maybe I should have contacted
the authorities,” David said.

“Because they were so
helpful the last two times you encountered them?” Sean asked. “I
wouldn’t trust the contractors’ guild here with Mari’s life, and if what we
suspect is true about Dale, he’s had a man on the inside covering up his shit
for so long that nothing is going to stick to him now.”

Sean suddenly motioned David back
behind a massive support pillar. A maintenance woman strode within a few meters
of them, but never looked up from the data on her palm. As soon as she moved
into another section of the shipyard, David and Sean headed straight to the
nearest slip.

The smell of the salt water
usurped all other smells, its freshness invigorating David as they took the
next step to completing their mission. He had to keep thinking of Mari in such
a way, otherwise his emotions threatened to paralyze him and steal his ability
to strategize. She had come to mean so much to him over the past month, and he
would be damned if Dale Zapona was going to take her away from him.

“Can you drive one of these
things?” Sean asked.

“Yeah.” David’s boat
back home was similar to the fast track.

“Then get ready to move out
as soon as I disable the slip’s electro-magnetic leash.”

“Better do it fast,”
David said, jumping into the speed boat and engaging the starter. A brief
glance over the controls made him confident he could handle the craft in open
water—he’d powered up and down Cheat Lake hundreds of times.

“Move,” Sean said.

David pushed the throttle full
tilt, kicking up a blinding spray and throwing Sean to the floor as they jumped
away from the slip.

“Shit,” Sean said.

“Thought you’d know to hold
on,” David said as Sean stumbled to stand beside him at the controls.

Squinting against the salty wind,
David assessed the water traffic zigzagging ahead. The ferries had the right of
way in every instance, but since they had their own lanes, he wasn’t worried as
much about them as the smaller commercial craft. He’d skirt the closest ones
and make a straight path to the industrial docks. Hopefully even the larger
commercial shuttles would give way to an official craft.

You’ll get her back.

David battled to control his
emotions with each minute that slipped passed. But his concentration waivered
as he spun the fast track away from an oncoming shuttle at the last minute. He
received a blast from their horn in reprimand, but the tinted fishbowl cover
hid the angry expressions of whoever rode inside.

Keep it together.

Traffic thinned as the fast track
approached the industrial docks. Even as the boat skipped across the small
waves of the bay, the trip felt excruciatingly slow. Dale had a head start on
them. Plus, the
Thrall
would have already been prepped for departure
this morning.