The Dying Light (35 page)

She touched his wrist

BUT—

While she didn’t know precisely where Cane and Maii were being held, it seemed likely they would be in one of the two holding pens indicated on the station’s maps. They were located midway between the outer hull and Galine Four’s centralmost chamber, but on opposite sides of the station. The closest wasn’t far from where they were, so it was to this one they headed. Roche silently prayed it was the right one.

At the end of the corridor were two freight elevators waiting to take them deep into the station’s infrastructure. As the heavy doors slid aside, a rumble echoed through the floors and walls.

<
Daybreak
has been spotted. Hold while I concentrate.>

Roche stepped into the elevator and steadied herself. Having a moment to spare while the cage dropped, she reconnected herself to the battle outside.

¹⁷
Get the ship!

___
It’s too late! Fall back!

³⁸
We can’t let them take it!

¹⁸
Yarrow! Don’t—

¹⁷
What the hell is he doing?

²⁵
He’s going to mine it!

___
Clear the area!

___
Now!

Through the senses of the courier Roche saw a singleship loom close. The sky beyond was thick with crossfire. Into the web of energy came the black shape of Yarrow’s battle-scarred all-suit, a magnetic mine in one extended manipulator. Watching the speed and precision with which he moved, Roche couldn’t help but think of Cane. The obvious comparison left her with mixed feelings, the strongest of which was fear.

The singleship turned to defend itself, but it wasn’t Yarrow’s target. He dived straight toward
Daybreak
and pressed the mine onto its hull. Then he moved away, heading low and close to the hull to maximize the amount of mass between him and the explosion.

When it came, the view from the courier blacked out instantly. The last thing Roche saw was the singleship realizing what had happened and trying too late to get away.

A heavy
thud
made the floor beneath jump. From the
Ana Vereine’s
point of view, Roche watched as a blue-white hemisphere suddenly blossomed from the side of the station, then disappeared, leaving blackened ruin in its wake.

Another deep rumble echoed through the station. Haid’s suit whined softly as he staggered.

“What the hell was that?” His voice came from internal speakers this time. “One of the prowlers?”

“A mine. They found
Daybreak.
Yarrow destroyed it, and the entrance.”

“Is he crazy?”

“It actually makes sense,” said Roche. “This way they won’t be able to work out how many of us were in the ship—nor can they follow us in. They don’t even know if we got in at all. It’s a mess up there.”

“It still leaves us trapped, though!”

“Don’t worry. We’ll find a way out.”

The elevator slowed to a halt, but the doors didn’t open.

said the Box.

A new window in Roche’s field of view opened, revealing two guards maintaining watch at the end of the corridor. They were armed, but not heavily armored. When a siren began to wail, they became instantly more alert.

said the Box. you
are on board, but they don’t know precisely where—or even if you are alone.>

She checked her map. To the others she said: “We have a couple of guards outside. Is everyone ready?”

“You’re really going through with this?” asked Disisto.

“I have no choice. You and Myer keep your heads down and follow me.” She studied the view of the security guards. Their weapons looked like standard issue; her armor would absorb it easily, but Disisto and Mavalhin would not be so well protected.

His hand touched her upper arm. GOT IT.

She took a deep breath.

The drone moved out as soon as the elevator door opened, with Roche stepping past it to its left. The drone raised its rifle and fired a single sharp burst before the guards had a chance to react. One guard fell. Roche was a split-second behind; her shot caught the second guard in the shoulder, spinning him around and into the wall. He slid down to the floor and didn’t move.
Two down,
she thought.

The pitch of the alarms didn’t change.

she asked the Box.

She touched Haid’s shoulder.

OKAY.

He edged up to the corner, with one of the drones close behind. Once he had rounded it, Roche headed off along the passageway, with the two captives and the other drone behind. So far Disisto and Mavalhin had shown nothing but cooperation, but she couldn’t afford to relax. She would feel easier once Haid caught up with them again.

She had almost reached the guardroom when two sharp retorts rang out along the corridor; then a third. The response was immediate: voices and movement came from ahead of her. Instinctively she selected a subsonic from the suit’s array of weaponry and stepped around the corner into the guardroom itself.

Two of the guards were fully equipped and ready for action while the others were still in the process of fitting armor and weapons. None of the armor was powered, and the blast of low-frequency sound caught them by surprise. One keeled over backwards; another doubled over vomiting; the others clutched their heads in pain.

The drone moved forward, its raised gun taking out a guard with a single shot to the chest.

The drone immediately flipped the rifle and used the butt to club the remaining four unconscious.

A hand touched Roche’s shoulder: MESSY, said Haid.

she replied, looking down at the dead body.

A corridor on the far side led into the black zone.

Roche said. Before Haid could protest, she explained:

OKAY. SHOUT IF YOU NEED BACKUP.

“Wait,” said Mavalhin as Roche stepped forward.

She turned. “What?”

“I know this area,” said the pilot. Then in response to Roche’s quizzical expression, he explained: “I’ve, ah, spent some time here in the past.”

“Well-deserved too, if I recall,” muttered Disisto.

Mavalhin shot the security chief a sharp look. “I paid all the money back!”

“Eventually, and only because—”

“I haven’t got
time
for this!” Roche’s bellow startled them both to silence. It had been effective, but she hoped her voice hadn’t carried too far. “Myer, you come with me. I’m looking for maximum security cells, possibly with medical facilities.”

“Not a problem,” he said. “Lead the way.”

Roche’s laugh was brief and humorless. “I don’t think so,” she said. “If I’m going to be led into a trap, I’m making sure you’re right there in front of me, Myer.”

“Were you always this suspicious, Morgan?”

“Just move it.”

He swallowed under her glare. “Okay. This way, I think.”

She followed him into the black zone, down a corridor that looked no different from any of the others they had traversed. They passed several closed doors, but none of them looked secure enough to be cells, and Mavalhin didn’t stop.

Their movements were cautious and relatively quiet, and there had been no signs of any other guards. Nevertheless,

Roche remained tense and uneasy. She knew that setting off just one internal alarm would change everything

“Here.” Mavalhin pointed through a closed transparent door.

Roche peered in and saw steel-gray bulkheads, six down each side of a wide corridor. Everything about them said high security to her.

There was a panel by the side of the door.

She did so.

The door clicked and hissed slowly open. Roche nudged Mavalhin ahead of her. The first door on her left had a transparent panel at eye level. She peered through it, but saw nothing except for featureless walls and floor. The cell was empty.

So was the one opposite, and the next one along. All twelve, in fact, turned out to be empty.

“Are these the only cells here, Myer?”

“I’m afraid so,” he said. “At least they’re the only ones I ever saw down here.” He led her out of the corridor. “See, there’s a dead end, and that leads to the way we came.”

“
Damn
.” She cursed their luck, but quickly regained her composure. She needed to stay focused. “Okay, then. It’s back the way we came.” To the Box she said:

When they got back to the others, Roche found that Haid had taken the time to bind the four unconscious guards. Their absence, along with that of their dead comrades, would inevitably provoke some concern, but for now it afforded them a little breathing space.

Disisto looked worried when she walked into the room, which surprised her. If anything, she would have expected him to have been relieved to see her empty-handed.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

He shook his head. “When do I get to talk to the chief?”

“Later,” she said, shepherding him and Mavalhin ahead of her. “Just keep moving.”

Back in the elevator, Roche checked the status of the battle outside. The all-suits had retreated entirely, apart from a few of those teleoperated by the Box or the outriggers aboard the
Ana Vereine.
Casualties were higher than Roche would have liked. They were down to forty fully functioning all-suits, while the station had lost just ten singleships. Half of the prowling mines had been disabled and their hulks were drifting steadily away from the battle. The
Ana Vereine
had also pulled back, as though reassessing its options, and conducted only the occasional raid on the station.

There was little point in maintaining the illusion that the attack had merely paused and would begin again at any moment. Rufo and the Kesh somehow knew that she was inside. And when the attack resumed, they would know that she was preparing to leave.

said the Box,

She acknowledged the news with merely a grunt. Time was definitely running out.

“Do you know the other security compound at all?” she asked Mavalhin.

The pilot shook his head. Even through his suit’s helmet she could see the sweat trickling down his face. “Sorry, Morgan.”

The elevator stopped and they disembarked once the Box had assured them the area was clear. The AI had a transit cab waiting for them at the nearest tube entrance. They filed inside, and were rapidly whisked around the equator of the station’s inner perimeter. At the other end, they found another elevator and went down several levels.

“I think I should try to get in contact with someone,” said Disisto.

“Only when we’ve got nothing to bargain with.”

“You haven’t anything now!” he shot back. “You’re not exactly doing that great out there.”

“We’re doing all right,” she said.

“You could at least
try
.”

She turned to face him. He looked worse than Mavalhin. “Why? We’ve got this far without bargaining.”

He didn’t answer.

Doubt suddenly flooded through her. “It’s been too easy, hasn’t it? That’s what’s worrying you...”

Still he said nothing.

The elevator was two floors away from stopping.

above
the one we need.>

The cab decelerated suddenly. The map showed a maze of corridors at that level; a maintenance and storage floor that promised to be mostly empty.

the AI said.

Roche belatedly remembered the other two drones. She quickly checked through the vision of the one the Box had allocated her, but saw only darkness on most frequencies except infrared, which revealed a dull background of heat. It was almost as though the drone had its faceplate pressed up against something warm. She didn’t have time to work it out, so closed the window to the drone’s viewpoint.

“This way,” said Roche as she exited the elevator. She led them along a winding corridor, keeping one eye on where she was going and the other on the map. Superimposing the two levels was confusing; she relied heavily on the Box to warn her if they were about to run into company. But soon they were where she wanted to be: below their feet, separated by only a meter of decking, was the other black zone.