The Saffron Malformation (103 page)

             
“We’re doing it,” Eric said with authority.

             
“You can’t be serious.”

             
“I’ll leave a group here at the dock to keep it secure.  The rest of us’ll press on to the core and draw security away from the hanger.”

             
“Sir,” Carmen began.

             
“I believe in what we’re doing here,” he said, meeting her eyes.  His were hard, the eyes of a man not to be questioned.

             
“So do I,” she replied meekly.

             
“And I’m prepared to die for it.”  He looked over at Ryla and Quey.  “Getting the word out, that’s the most important thing.  I’d love to be around to tear through Blue Moon when this is over but its better that task be left to others than the mission fail completely.  Those words’ll let the universe know how fucked up these assholes are, that they don’t give a fuck about you or me or anyone.  They take and take and when they throw you specks of food from their plate they expect you to kiss their feet and topple over with gratitude.  Fuck them.  Fuck all the corporations.”  He turned and looked through the window at the dock and the cluster of soldiers gathered there, waiting for security to come back with another push.  “I want them to burn,” he continued.  “And if I have to die to make that happen then so be it.”  He turned to Carmen and said, “You can stay at the docks if you like,” then he walked past her and started down the stairs.

             
“We should get going,” Ryla said after a moment.  “We caught them by surprise but it won’t take them long to recover.”

             
Eric Hoss was ready to take his men to the base’s command center.  Carmen said she’d stay behind, but made it clear it wasn’t for lack of faith or belief in the ideal.  “Someone has to make sure this place is safe when you make your way back.”  There was a moment that passed between them and had they been alone it’s likely they’d have kissed.  As it stood they nodded to one another and parted ways.

             
Natalie used the bit of medical gear she’d been given to tend to Quey’s wound.

             
“Bullets still in there,” she told him.  “Best I can do is patch it up and hope we have a way of digging it out later.”

             
Quey nodded as she worked.

             
Eric allotted five of his people to assist Quey and his crew and told them to wait until he signaled back to start for the transport.  Then he turned and started toward the door on the far right of the docks, leading a cluster of men and women in black gear carrying guns.

             
Quey exchanged handshakes with the five, four men he didn’t know and one woman he did.

             
“Name’s Marcus,” the first said as their hands met.

             
“Argento.”

             
“Burke.”

             
“Ross.”

             
And finally, “Elvy.”

             
“I remember,” Quey smiled.

             
Quey introduced his team to them and then they stood, waiting.  As the seconds ticked along they grew anxious.  Natalie trembled and kept touching Amber, throwing an arm around the girl and hugging her every once in a while.  She asked, “You okay,” so many times that Amber was beginning to lose the little nerve she had left.  Rachel sat on one of the smaller crates and tried to keep her breathing slow.  Arnie paced and Leone stayed back.  Only Ryla seemed un-phased by the wait.  She stood motionless a few paces from Quey, watching the door patiently and checking her device from time to time.

             
Quey moved to Leone and asked, “You doing alright?”

             
The boy looked from the rifle to the moonshiner and nodded, “Yeah.”

             
“I suppose I can’t talk you back into the closet,” he fished.

             
“Nope,” Leone said, rejecting his bait.

             
Quey shook his head.

             
“I know what you’d say,” the boy offered and Quey looked to him.  “All the things you’d say about her.”  His eyes shimmered a bit and that was good.  It meant he was still feeling something.  “You’d be right too.  She’d be fucking pissed right about now.”  Quey was about to agree but then the boy met his gaze and said, “But she’s dead.  Now I know these men had nothing to do with it.  Killing them makes no matter to the one that killed her, but this plan succeeding does.  You think I’m going to sit idle and not be a part of it?”  Leone checked his gun to release a nervous bit of energy and keep the tears in his eyes from falling.  “After all she did for me.”

             
Quey nodded and said, “Make sure you’re loaded up.”  It gave the boy permission to stop talking and he took it.

             
“Those things are pretty nice,” Marcus said, nodding toward the robots.

             
“Thank you,” Ryla replied.

             
“Once we get to the hanger,” Marcus began, and the other four in his squad looked at him and listened, “We’ll make sure they’re on board and make our way back to this position.”  There was a nod of agreement.

             
“If it looks to go sour,” Quey said, “You can come with us.”

             
“Naw,” Ross groaned.  His voice had a bit of gravel in it.  “I got a wife and a set of kids waiting on me.  She’d kill me if I went flyin’ off ta outer space,” he finished with a laugh.

             
“Nancy’d be none too happy with me either,” Argento added.

             
“We all got reasons to stay,” Burke concluded.  “Sides, from where I stand no matter how bad the way back looks, flyin’ off in a spaceship just sounds crazier.”

             
There was a brief moment of lighthearted agreement.

             
“How about you two?” Rachel asked Elvy and Marcus.  “Got someone waiting on you?”

             
“No,” Elvy replied dryly.

             
Marcus smiled ever so slightly and answered, “Yeah, a bit.”  Rachel looked at him for a long moment, prying with her eyes.  “Craig,” he added.  It looked like he might have gone on but then the speakers on their devices cracked open.

             
“They’re on us,” Eric shouted over erratic bursts of gunfire.  “Move.”

             
Quey, his crew, and the five of Eric’s people who were to go with them snapped to their feet and started toward the door on the far left.  He looked back to see Amber and Natalie lagging behind a little further than he’d like.  “Come on,” he shouted back at them then quickened his own pace to the door.

             
They stopped when they reached the wide metal cargo door.  It was designed so the security deploy could drive small vehicles, probably a cart or forklift, through to move supplies from the dock to a storage area.

             
Eric’s soldiers crowded the door.

             
“I’ll see if it’s clear,” Ryla said as her robots rolled up to the door.

             
The door opened on a wide corridor that was well lit and the robots entered, covering opposite directions.  Ryla nodded and Marcus and Burke were the first through, rifles aimed ahead of them, with Elvy and Ross close behind.  The first two faced left, the other two right, then Argento moved to the wall opposite the door and pressed his back to it.  There was no cover in the corridor so staying tight to the wall was the only way of making yourself less a target.  After a moment Argento waved Quey and his people through.

             
Marcus and Burke started to move forward, led by the barrels of their rifles.  Quey and the others stayed in the middle with Argento.  Elvy and Ross kept back, watching the flank down the barrels of their guns.

             
“Anything happens,” Argento whispered, mostly to Natalie and the kids, “Get low and close to the wall.”  They moved ahead at a quick pace, gunfire and chatter coming through the earpieces of the soldier’s devices.  Wherever Eric was, it was in the middle of a battle.  Marcus turned the volume down and the others followed his lead.  Now they could even hear the whirr of the robot’s engines.

             
Ryla looked down at her device when they came to a cross section and said, “We go right here, then we pass two doors and head left.”

             
The five soldiers moved to guard each branch of the T section before pressing on, heading right down the corridor.  They passed the first door and continued on to the second.  From there Marcus and Burke pressed on more slowly.  When they made it to the next door they stopped.

             
Quey fidgeted with his wound and Natalie smacked him.  “Leave it alone.”

             
Quey looked at Rachel and saw the nervous energy reflected in her eyes.  He glanced to Arnie and saw he was in a dark place where he was ready to accept death as easily as success.  Amber was visibly trembling as her chest heaved with quick stuttered breaths.

             
“It’s through there and it looks like the corridor leads down into a lower level,” Ryla informed them.

             
“Down into a lower level?” Marcus asked.  He and his men exchanged a look.  “You sure about that?”

             
“Yes,” she replied.

             
“I don’t like this,” Ross barked from the rear.

             
“Yeah, this is too fucking easy,” Burke added.

             
“They should have left something behind,” Elvy piped in.

             
“Agreed,” Marcus said, solemn and thoughtful.  “And why would they put a spaceship on one of the lower levels?”

             
“This whole thing stinks of wrong,” Ross snapped.

             
Marcus turned to Ryla, “You’re sure about these plans?”

             
She nodded.

             
“They didn’t know we were coming,” Quey said.  “They couldn’t have-”

             
“Maybe not,” Marcus interrupted.  “But something’s not right.”

             
“Your call,” Burke said.

             
Marcus thought for a long moment before realizing there was nothing else he could think to do.  If they came all this way, lost all those lives on the dock only to fail in getting these people to the ship then what was the point.  He wouldn’t let his friends, his brothers and sisters, die without at least trying.  “Keep sharp,” he told them and then opened the door.

             
They started down the corridor, descending at a rather steep angle and turning every fifteen meters like the ramp in a parking garage.  As they walked, Quey tried to wrap his mind around what the soldiers had said.  They spoke truths, something wasn’t right about this.  He had a feeling in the pit of his stomach, it was the same as the one he’d had as a kid when his con was about to get busted, and it made his wound itch.

             
Natalie slapped him again.  He hadn’t even realized he was fidgeting with it.

             
They made it down what must have been a little more than two stories when they came to a door.

             
“It is a trap,” Ryla said and everyone stopped.  “Just not for us.”

             
“What’s that mean?” Marcus asked.

             
“When Rain sent us the schematics for the bases she sent also sent a bunch of other files, everything she could as a matter of fact.  Still, Blue Moon will have realized we had the plans for the bases and would assume we had them for a reason.  They increased security across the board, but they don’t know we’re heading for the ship.  They think we’re going for the communications center, to attempt to access the planetary and universal networks.”

             
“Which’ll be in the command center,” Elvy concluded.

             
“What do we do?” Ross asked.  “We have to warn them.”

             
Marcus turned the volume up on his device and heard the chatter coming through.  The dock was overrun and Eric was pinned down.

             
“… Don’t know how much longer…” and then there was an explosion.  “Have to pull back.”

             
“Nowhere to pull back too,” another voice shouted.

             
Marcus looked at his group.

             
“We have to do something,” Burke insisted.

             
“Yeah but what?” Elvy asked.