Polaris (24 page)

He knew why, given her history, but at the moment he was too mesmerized by the view in front of him to dwell on it. He'd never been in a city so ancient. Most of the buildings looked hundreds of years old, some with crumbling facades of gray granite, white marble, or red brick, others with windows that seemed to sag from sinking foundations. And yet everywhere he looked there were new structures as well. Tall steel buildings as sleek and shiny as spaceships and with impeccable facades stretched high overhead. Video advertisements in full 3D rendering covered large expanses of the walls and most of the windows on the storefronts they passed. Nearly all the vehicles were state-of-the-art hovercraft, some with emergency vertical airlift propulsion systems and programmable colored exteriors.

Jeth watched as one such craft, a small, sporty little number, changed color from white to red to cameo-pink all in a matter of seconds. It seemed the craft's owner—or one of its half dozen passengers—couldn't make up her mind about what would look best gliding down the strip. The autopilot system on the craft made such frivolous distractions possible with no danger to the other craft.

But even more startling than the vehicles and buildings were the people. Thousands of them wore brain implants. There were blue ones, red ones, black, brown, pink. Jeth even spotted a zebra print.

“Why are there so many implants?” he asked Sierra.

She glanced at him, her gaze taking in his Brethren implant. She was completely unrecognizable with the facial prostheses in place. To complete the transformation, she wore her black hair pulled back in a severe bun, along with high heels and a dress beneath a white lab coat. She returned her gaze to the road. “People use them for all sorts of things, those that can afford them anyway. Mostly, they're used to interface with computers and other tech. Or to communicate with family members and loved ones far away.”

Jeth gaped. Whole families with implants? And they paid for them? He couldn't wrap his mind around it. Nowhere else in the galaxy had he seen implants for personal use like this. The only ones he'd ever seen had been for soldiers or slaves.

“Don't look so surprised,” Sierra said. “These implants aren't set up like Dax's. They're not designed to link people
together. They're for simple communication and little more.”

Jeth considered the idea, especially the way he'd gotten the impression that Hammer's personality—and later Dax's—had influenced the feel of the Axis. He supposed what she was saying made sense. He could see the appeal of being able to communicate so easily with others far away. And it was fitting that they would be used so commonly here, the home of the ITA, the heart of metatech manufacturing. Jeth let out a breath. That was a lot of dead Pyreans.

Thirty minutes later they finally arrived outside the Hanov building. Once they found a place to park—a daunting task that took twenty minutes and multiple trips around the block—they left the truck in staggered formation. Eric went first, followed by Aileen and Remi. Then Jeth and Sierra. Perry would be staying to cover the truck while Marian focused on hacking into the Hanov's security system once Sierra planted the Mite.

Jeth started to pull his jacket hood over his head then decided it wasn't necessary. Not with so many others wearing implants. He sighed in relief. The prosthetic pieces he was wearing to avoid being recognized from the ITA's Most Wanted bulletins were uncomfortable enough.

Jeth had insisted on escorting Sierra as far as he could before joining the others in the subway. They walked in silence, the sidewalks too crowded to carry on a conversation. People of every color, shape, and size filled the streets, bumping into Jeth without so much as a glance of apology. A new and unexpected sense of claustrophobia came over
him. If they didn't get there soon, he was going to lose his patience and start bumping back.

As they rounded the corner of the Hanov building toward the entrance, Sierra stopped and faced him. “I've got it from here. Be careful.”

“I will.” He leaned in and kissed her, hating the distance that still loomed between them.

“Hurry up, Longshot,” Aileen's voice spoke through the comm patch affixed to the skin behind his ear. “The train will be coming soon. We only have five minutes to hit the alcove or we go splat.”

Jeth made a face at her choice of words. He turned and headed back around the corner toward the subway entrance. The stench as he descended the concrete stairs made him gag, a pungent combination of urine and garbage.

Even though Sierra had warned them that the terminal wouldn't be empty, even at this late hour, Jeth was amazed by the sight of a few dozen people waiting for the next train as he joined the others. Getting into the tunnel without any of them noticing was going to be tough. He didn't quite believe Sierra when she said that no one who lived in this city would look twice at five people hopping down onto the train tracks and making a run for it.

The train arrived a few minutes later, rushing into the station with a hot breath of wind. Like the city above, the subway system was a combination of the very old and new. The mosaics decorating the walls and pillars were faded and indistinguishable, broken and missing tiles dotting the
designs. But the train was sleek, shiny, and virtually silent as it hovered over its magnetic tracks. The doors slid open with a quiet hiss, dumping its travelers and taking on more.

Jeth and the others congregated near the edge of the station and waited for the train's departure. The moment the tunnel was clear, they jumped down into it and raced away without a single shout of alarm from anyone on the platform. In seconds, the lights from the terminal faded, the darkness swallowing them until Eric and Remi pulled out flashlights.

Despite the fast pace, they barely made it into the alcove before the next train. Jeth's heart ricocheted in his chest as it swept past the opening, blowing hot air and subway stench in their faces. Splat would've been an understatement.

Once the train had passed, he pulled the portable viewer out of his pocket and switched it on, but there was nothing to see on it. “We're we at, Riptide?” he asked through the comm.

Marian answered a moment later. “Sparrow's in the latrine. She made it through the physical security check without issue and successfully planted the package. The program is running now. You'll have visual as soon as I'm in.”

Jeth waited, his gaze fixed on the viewer as the others began to set the plasma charges on the alcove ceiling. The seconds stretched by with no change on the viewer. He resisted the urge to signal Sierra. He didn't want to risk it with guards so near.

Once the plasma charges were set, Eric switched on the frequency device, and ten seconds later there was a loud
pop. As the dust cleared, revealing the hole into the room above, Jeth glanced down at the viewer, but there was still no change.
What's taking so long?

As if she'd heard his thoughts, Marian's voice spoke over the comm. “Almost there. Okay, the vid loop is in place on the guard's screens, and you should have visual control of all cameras in four, three, two . . .” As she reached one, the viewer flicked into life. The picture was blurry at first and then became clear—displaying the camera view of the main entrance to the Hanov building.

“Got it.” Jeth ran his finger over the screen to change the view. He oriented it toward the latrines, monitoring for Sierra's return. On the bottom part of the screen he could see a portion of the guard station and one of the guards. The man wore a dark green uniform with a stunner holstered to his right side while an electrified nightstick hung from his belt on the left. Strapped to his back was a Kali shotgun. Jeth quailed at the sight of it. That was some serious firepower. A Kali was capable of shredding a human being into pieces at close range.

“Just another minute, Sparrow, and I'll have the clearance activated,” Marian said.

“Good,” Sierra whispered. Even still her voice echoed a little off the tiled walls in the latrine.

“Be careful,” Jeth said.

He stowed the viewer in his pocket and then walked over to where Remi was hoisting Aileen into the chamber above. Eric followed, and then Jeth. Once up, he bent over the hole
to offer Remi a hand, but the man didn't need it, hauling himself up without so much as a grunt of effort.

Thick dust coated the defunct chamber, and Jeth covered his mouth to keep from coughing as their movement stirred it into a cloud. The others were doing the same, all except for Remi, who seemed impervious. The giant headed straight for the main ventilation shaft, grabbed it at the base, and ripped off a two-meter section, exposing the way up.

Jeth whistled through his teeth, unable to help himself.
Big-boned indeed.

Moments later, Remi headed up the shaft with scalers affixed to his knees, forearms, belly, and back. He would need his hands free to set the plasma charges to blow a hole through the foundation above.

Jeth returned his attention to the viewer, keeping focused on what he could see of the guards. Any sign of restlessness on their part, and he would call for an abort of the mission.

Finally, Marian announced, “The clearance is good. Whenever you're ready, Sparrow.”

Jeth held his breath while he watched Sierra emerge from the latrine. She stopped just outside the door and smoothed down her dress. Then she waved to the security guards as she strode to the elevators across the way. One of them waved back, and Jeth inhaled, relief making him momentarily giddy.

He faced the others. “Sierra's heading up. We need to get a move on.”

“Already there,” Aileen said as she grabbed the rope Remi had just thrown down the shaft toward them.

Jeth blinked, cautiously satisfied at how smoothly things were going. It had been a long time since a job had gone this well for him. He stowed the viewer once more and headed for the rope. He climbed as quickly as he could. He needed to monitor the cameras in case there was anyone heading Sierra's way. Marian would be monitoring, too, but there were a lot of views to cover.

The room Jeth found himself in a moment later was loud enough to make his head ache. The heating and air conditioning units on this building were the size of small tanks, massive steel contraptions that sounded like mechanical dragons feasting on metal bodies. The building might've been renovated, but not recently. The equipment in this room was several decades old, if not older.

Jeth checked the viewer to see Sierra emerge from the elevator onto the fourth floor. The Reinette lab was one of three and the farthest from the elevator. He adjusted the camera view, then looked up from the screen, panic squeezing his chest. It would take time for Aileen to climb the four floors. But to his relief, she had the scalers on and was already on her way up the shaft through the hole Remi had made.

“Angel is on her way up now,” Jeth said through the comm, wincing at Aileen's chosen call sign. On the viewer Sierra gave a little nod.

“Now we wait,” Eric said as he upturned a waste bin. Trash that looked as ancient as the equipment in the room spilled out from it, and he brushed it aside before sitting down on the bin.

Jeth gritted his teeth, detesting the notion. He hated being idle on a job, stuck watching from afar. Still, he supposed as he returned his attention to the viewer, watching was better than being completely in the dark. He began to fiddle with the camera view, angling it out to get a better look at the place as Sierra walked along.

“Whoever is moving the camera, would you knock it off,” Sierra said through the comm. “It's creepy. There are gun turrets attached to those cameras, you know.”

He didn't know, but as Jeth adjusted the view one more time, he saw it for himself, the camera he was viewing now pointed at the one at the end of the hallway. Sure, enough, a gun turret hung beneath it. “What the hell are they keeping in these labs?”

“You don't want to know.” On the screen, Sierra had just arrived at the main door into the Reinette lab. She pressed her hand palm down and fingers spread against the security panel. Jeth braced, waiting for the alarms to sound. He knew from experience that anything could go wrong with tech ops at any time. And he didn't have the same faith in his mother as he did in Lizzie.

The panel glowed yellow as it processed the request, then flicked to green. The door slid open, and Jeth willed his muscles to unclench.

Sierra stepped through into the decontamination chamber, then came to a stop in front of the interior door as the other closed behind her. The decontamination took a full thirty seconds, the time indicated by a counter above the door.

As it hit one, the interior door opened and Sierra stepped all the way into the lab. She scanned the room, eyeing the equipment set on the exam tables and affixed to the walls. Spotting a handheld laser torch on the nearest wall, she picked it up, then grabbed a chair with her free hand and pulled it over to the air vent in the far corner.

“How far are you, Angel?” Jeth asked through the comm.

“Moving onto the fourth floor now,” Aileen answered, breathing heavily from the climb. At least it would be easier now that she was crawling horizontally instead of vertically. She was almost there, the lab vent less than twenty meters from the main shaft.

Sierra ran the laser around the edge of the vent, cutting through the wall itself so as not to set off the alarms on the biofilter covering the vent that was designed to send a signal at any loss of integrity. She pried it off in seconds, dust and debris hitting her face, but she didn't wait for Aileen to arrive, turning instead to face the center of the room where the Reinette tubes were stored inside a sealed glass cabinet.

As with the door into the lab, Sierra pressed her hand against the security panel. It flashed into life, going momentarily red before blinking to yellow, and finally green. Sierra reached through the now-open door and began pulling out small metal tubes, six of them in all, enough to destroy the Harvester.