Morgan's Return (29 page)

Ravindra followed Morgan, running his fingers along the smooth shelving to help guide him. Eastly and Partridge followed him, their footfalls as silent as his own. A narrow space separated the shelves from the wall and the door. When they were all through, Morgan shifted the compactors again to hide the hole in the lift shaft.

One last system check and Morgan opened the door. "There are sensors in the passage," she whispered. "I've fixed the image to an empty corridor but be quick and be quiet. The door to the stairs is up ahead on your left, fifty-three-point-two meters away."

Ravindra went first, sprinting up a dimly-lit passage carved into the rock. Partridge, coming behind, stumbled.

Eastly stopped to help him up. "Are you all right?" The words rang loud.

"Quiet," Morgan hissed. "Move it."

She took Partridge's other elbow and hustled him along, through the door and into the stairwell.

"I'm sorry—" Partridge's voice rebounded off the rock walls.

Ravindra clamped his hand over the idiot's mouth, and shook his head.

Morgan pointed a finger, up, then pressed the same finger to her lips. Judging by the scowl on her face, she was as annoyed with these two fools as he was.

Partridge raised a hand in acknowledgement.

Morgan padded up the stairs, until she stood at another door, which he knew led into another corridor. Ravindra crowded close behind her, Partridge and Eastly behind him.

She turned to him, inclined her head, and slipped out the door. Pulling out his knife, Ravindra followed. Morgan would create a diversion, a glitch in the computer system, which she hoped would give them a chance to deal with the guards. Partridge and Eastly would remain in the stairwell until they were called.

This passage was well lit, with a gate adjacent to the guardhouse. Through a transparent pane Ravindra saw two people bent over a screen, their voices a murmur. One was a woman. He quelled the momentary reluctance. She was a guard. That was all. An adversary.

Morgan opened the door. The woman's head jerked up, her mouth an O. Morgan rammed into the man from the side, sending him smashing against the wall. Ravindra jumped the table and had the woman in a headlock before her fingers reached an alarm, tightening his grip until she stopped kicking and collapsed in his arms. Morgan took her opponent's handgun from his sprawled body and handed it to Ravindra, who flicked off the safety and aimed at the guard. Morgan winced when he hit the trigger. The body jerked once.

"Take her uniform," Ravindra said, leaning over the body to remove a pistol and a nerve whip, then pants and jacket. The man's uniform was too small for him, but it would probably fit Eastly.

Morgan skewered him with a look, but complied, slipping the jacket and pants over her wetsuit. It wasn't a bad fit.

The female guard stirred. Ravindra shot her through the forehead, a clinical execution.

Morgan bit her lip, but she didn't say anything. By now, she ought to know better. A man did what he had to do.

"Call our friends," Ravindra said.

While she opened the gate to the cell block and unlocked the cells, he propped the bodies up in chairs. They sagged, but they might pass muster for a casual glance. He met Eastly and Partridge at the door.

Eastly tried to look past him. "Are they...?"

"Don't ask." Ravindra pushed a nerve whip, and the guard's uniform, into his hand. "Put these on."

Eastly swallowed. "Sure."

The man was understandably frightened but seemed more resolute. Any soldier who went into combat unafraid was a fool. The pants and jacket were a little too big, but he'd pass.

Ravindra handed the other nerve whip to Partridge. The man frowned down at the weapon, deployed it once, briefly, at a wall, then caught Ravindra's gaze with a look that said 'ready'.

Ravindra opened the door to Prasad's cell first. The intelligence officer stood, legs apart, facing the door, his face set until he recognized his visitor.

"
Srimana
." A wide smile on his face, he jumped out of the cell.

Prasad hadn't been mistreated, then. Ravindra hid his relief. "We'll talk later. First we'll collect the others."

Prasad went to the next cell where Jirra was imprisoned while Ravindra opened the doors for Tullamarran, then Davaskar. They clustered around him, relief shining in their eyes, all speaking Manesai.

"Good to see you, Admiral. Do we have weapons?" Davaskar asked.

"Only a couple. We'll have to collect others as we go." Ravindra handed a knife to Prasad, took the nerve whips from Eastly and Partridge and gave them to Jirra and Tullamarran. Morgan gave her pistol to Davaskar.

"What's the plan?" Prasad slipped the knife into his belt

"We steal a transport, get back to our ship. Easy," Ravindra said. They knew it wasn't.

"Who are these two?" Prasad said, eyeing Partridge and Eastly.

"They've helped us," Ravindra said. "What happened to you? How were you taken?"

"A squad of police raided the hotel early in the morning and arrested us. We didn't stand a chance. Four of them to each room, all armed. We were loaded onto a transport and brought here. I was questioned separately. I suppose we all were?" Prasad gazed around at the others. "They accused us of being part of some sort of organization I'd never heard of, that we were here to help them subvert the government. Same for everyone?"

A chorus of agreement.

"Name of Veritas?" Morgan asked.

Prasad nodded.

"No one was hurt?" Ravindra asked.

They shook their heads.

"Maybe they decided it was a trumped-up charge." Ravindra shrugged. "Anyway, right now we have to get out of here. Morgan?"

"We've won one round, anyway. The transport is on the landing pad. It's a standard RS-300 troop transport, probably the one that delivered you here. I've flown these a hundred times. At least. So that's a bonus. But we have to go up twenty levels to get to the landing pad. We can take a lift. I think I can keep them from stopping it."

"Go." Ravindra turned to Partridge and Eastly, speaking in Standard. "Do your best to keep up. We must hurry."

Partridge laid a hand on his arm as he jogged along. "Are you human?"

"Why do you ask?"

"You have superhuman strength. Haven't you?"

"I'm as human as Morgan," he replied.

"A… Supertech? No, that's not right."

"No. A modified human." The words felt strange, a shiver coursing through him. But it was true, nevertheless. "Enough. Keep your questions for later."

Ravindra herded everyone into a lift. They pressed together, all nervous. Tullamarran stared at the ceiling, Jirra chewed her lip, Eastly, wide-eyed, gazed at the faces around him. Ravindra wondered if he could still trust these two. If he couldn't, if they crossed him, he would kill them without compunction. Morgan stood motionless. Behind those contacts her eyes would be vague as she smoothed their progress through the Temple.

The lift stopped. Morgan kept the doors closed. "Guards, one on either side of the entrance to the landing pad. They're relaxed. There are another twelve troops in easy hailing distance."

"We have to get out of here without alerting anybody," Ravindra said. "We still have to get to the space port and transfer to
Vulsaur
."

Morgan heaved a sigh. "I'll give this a try. Orders to the guards up here about a prisoner transfer." In the space of a heartbeat, her lips twitched. "Done. Eastly and I will escort the rest of you. Look suitably downcast, please."

She led the way, back straight, erect. Eastly strutted beside them, looking and acting the part. One of the guards in the doorway raised a hand, eyes narrowed. "Just two guards for all of these?"

"Don't need any more. They've been drugged." She swept a hand at Eastly. "Keep them moving."

Ravindra, his head lowered, heard the hiss of a door opening, then a soft clunk as the ramp hit the ground. It seemed to be enough for the guard, who stepped back as they shuffled past him.

Morgan raised the ramp as soon as the last person was on board. "I don't know how long that'll last," she said, hurrying through unfamiliar hatches to the bridge. "I took a gamble that the guards are like guards anywhere. They get an order, they obey. If they ask too many questions…"

She slid into the pilot's seat in a cramped, utilitarian bridge. No comforts here.

"Won't they question the ship leaving?" Ravindra clamped the harness over his shoulders even as the transport lifted off, thrusters roaring in the confined space.

"I put a departure in their log. Standard practice."

The ship rose above the heights. To Ravindra's right the white tower at the centre of the temple building gleamed in the sunlight. The sea looked calm and yet the waves crashed against the cliffs at the base of the island. White foam leapt up the black rocks, as if reaching out a misty hand to claw them back. He looked across at Morgan's profile, her straight nose, long eyelashes almost shading her eyes, the short lobes on her ears just visible under the curl of dark hair that held a hint of red. She hid behind a wall of stubborn aggression, warding off all attempts at closeness. Even with him, after all this time. What was it like to be her, to control that mighty computer in her head even as the rest of her brain ran her body? She had such unbelievable power over anything with a computer interface. He'd known that, of course, seen her handle a capital ship on her own, deal with Artemis. But that had all been military. Now she'd shown him the vast extent of her abilities. She could accumulate enormous wealth, manipulate governments, banks, the military, whatever she wanted.

"Have a got I pimple on my nose?" She was grinning.

Ravindra cleared his throat, but was saved from having to comment when Davaskar stepped through the hatch. "What's the plan?"

"We dock at the station, then we walk around to our own ship." She looked at Ravindra. "Are you happy with that?"

"No problem docking?" Ravindra asked.

"I've said it's a military training exercise, short term berth required."

Police would be waiting for them but his guess was that at most they'd send half a dozen. This was a trumped-up charge, based on Marina Seabright's complaints and judging by what Prasad had said, the police were aware of that. For the crew, anyway, if not for him and Morgan. He had to hope they hadn't broken into the ship. But then, they wouldn't be able to. Morgan would have seen to that.

Chapter 26  

S
o far so good, Morgan thought. They'd been incredibly lucky. Or maybe they were incredibly lucky that people depended so much on technology. Morgan connected with
Vulsaur
. Might as well air the ship and get the artificial gravity working so they could get on board and disappear quickly. The artificial gravity system acknowledged, but the air supply system returned a fault. The valves were stuck.

Fuck it. This was the last thing they needed, messing about with a problem at the last moment.

"Change of plan, Ashkar."

Ravindra looked at her with his 'please explain' expression.

"There's a mechanical problem with
Vulsaur's
air supply system. I'd best go in the backdoor and fix it. I'll take an exo-suit and go in through the cargo bay."

His brows lowered. "Must you?"

She raised both hands. "Do you want to sit at a berth waiting for everyone to realize something's happened? Wasn't the idea to clean up the local security and bugger off as fast as we can?"

"Yes." The frown persisted. "You don't think they breached the ship, that they're waiting on board? Remember the alert you received earlier?"

"That was somebody stopped at the first hurdle, probably the Trimasi trying their luck at the docking bridge. I would have been notified if anybody had actually made it on board. A mechanical problem is all it
can
be."

"Well, go on then."

Morgan found the exo-suits hanging in the hold next to the airlock. Suited up, she went into the airlock and set the release in motion. Just like a submarine, only different. Strange how confronting a vacuum was so much more comfortable than multiples of atmospheric pressure. The indicator light blazed red and the hatch released. She floated up into the vacuum, while the transport moved away from her, heading for its allocated bay. The space station rose before her, tiers of ships hanging in their docks.
Vulsaur
wasn't far way, one level and three places around. From here she could just see the ship's stern.

Morgan fired her suit's jets, at the same time directing
Vulsaur
to open the cargo hatch. The bay door dropped slowly, revealing a dark maw. From here the valves for the air supply were close by, down in the engine room. This shouldn't take long. She angled her body and fired the suit's retro-jets gently, slowing herself down. A little more to the left and she landed feet first into the ship's gravity field.

She closed the hold with a thought, walking up to the main corridor which would take her to the engine room. A figure stepped out in front of her.