A Sword Into Darkness (17 page)

There was a purple flash and a crack of lightning, followed closely by a blast of heat and ozone-soaked air that knocked Nathan on his back again.  He cried out as his cracked ribs ground against one another, paralyzing him with pain for several breaths.

Looking up from his back, his eyes saw only a green afterimage of the shorted capacitor bank and heard a continuous series of sizzle pops from the wrecked bulk of the laser array.

Soon, though, the pain in Nathan’s side faded just enough for him to notice the dull pain over all his exposed skin, especially along the front half of his body.  He struggled to his feet, disregarding his fresh flash burns, and found that he could see, after a fashion.  He began to limp forward, heading toward the hazy, far end of the building.  He could make out very little detail, given the smoke and his temporary flash-blindness, but something was definitely different.

He approached and saw that his aim had been a little off – not bad considering the haphazard way he had fired the system.  The laser beam, only partly collimated by the inactive lens trunk had not confined the beam to a tight, parallel stream or a devastating pinpoint, but rather more of an irregular oval.  He knew that because that was the shape of the hole.

The hole through everything.

The bottom half of the last flight of stairs was gone, either melted, or blasted, or vaporized to nothing.  Also gone was the base of the steel girder supporting the weight of the stairwell, the lower portion of the outer wall bounding the stairwell, and the right foot of the person who had been climbing down the stairwell.

The malformed beam had caught the thief just as he had been stepping onto the last run of stairs, destroying his foot and cauterizing the stump.  Then the accompanying heat bloom of the beam in atmosphere had blasted him off the stairwell to crash into the opposite wall, where he now lay unconscious.

Nathan checked the burned and blasted man’s pulse, found it satisfactory to his layman’s touch, and then rooted around for the flash deck.  He found it just as the tactical team from Windward security burst through the doors at both ends of the building.  Standing above his victim, and holding the deck high in the air for the benefit of all the automatic weapons pointed at him, Nathan gave them a lopsided grin.  “S’all right.  I got it.”

Whereupon, he immediately passed out.

“Hey there, Tex.  You just waking up from your little siesta?”

Nathan opened his eyes to half-slits, and even that hurt.  Kristene looked down at him, a smile playing along her mouth, but a nervous cast to both her eyes.  He closed his eyes and reopened them a moment later, disliking the way his eyelids felt papery and stiff, as if he had received a massive sunburn.  He licked his parched lips and coughed, causing a flash of pain all over, but especially from his side where he had fallen.

He glanced around, taking in the hospital room in which he lay, and then looked back toward Kris.  She still appeared concerned beneath the mask of her smile.  “How long have I been out?”

“Not too long – just a few hours I’d guess.  They’ve got fluids and a bitchin’ cocktail running into your arm.  They said you’d wake up when you felt like it, but nothing was hurt too badly.”

Nathan moved a tentative hand toward his side, feeling his skin crinkle slightly.  She saw the movement and gently pushed his hand back down by his side.  “You broke three ribs, but nothing got punctured.  Aside from that and a hell of an impromptu tanning session, you’re okay.  You look a damn sight better than the other guy, believe me.”

She smiled for real this time, her nerves relieved.  “Listen, just lay there and let me tell the nurse you’re awake.  Okay?”  Kris turned and left, with Nathan watching her as she walked away, his mind a tumult.

A minute later, Gordon walked in, with Lydia Russ following close behind.  She was slowly becoming a more common feature around the offices, but whether that was for government oversight or because of the bond she obviously shared with Gordon, he did not know.  Nathan nodded to her and turned to focus upon his boss. 

Nathan thought the man looked worse than he himself felt.  Lee’s skin was deathly white with a grayish-yellow pallor, and he looked panicked, worried beyond all hope of recovery.  He looked like a man who had very nearly lost everything.

Upon seeing Nathan, the corner of his mouth turned up in a grin and he sighed audibly, relieved.  Gordon reached up and fished around in his jacket pocket, producing a small bottle of pills.  He popped a couple into his mouth, dry, and winced as he swallowed them down.

Gordon sat down beside Nathan’s bed, color already returning to his pained face.  He placed a hand over Nathan’s and gave it a light squeeze that Nathan tried not to cry out from.  “You had us worried, boy.”

Lydia nodded sagely from across the room.  "That's right."

Nathan smiled as far as he could without involving the muscles in his cheeks.  In a raspy, dry voice he said, “I just wanted a little R & R, Boss.  I figured this was safer than asking you for time off.”

“Well, next time just route a request like everyone else.  Damn, it’s good to see you awake – even if you do look like hell.”

Nathan thought that was a bit hypocritical.  It was not often that Lee showed his age, but today he seemed far older than his actual mid 60’s.  “I’ll bet, Gordon, but I’ve at least got a reason.  Have you looked in a mirror lately?  Is there something wrong?”

Lee let go of Nathan’s hand and stood, pride making him suddenly closed and distant, though he was only inches away.  “I’m fine, so don’t you join the nagging crowd of my doctors.  It’s like they worry the smallest little emotional roller coaster will send me into palpitations.  I've got pills.  It’s nothing you need to worry about.  It’s nothing at all.”

Lydia frowned.  "So you say, Gordon."

Nathan tried to make light of it.  “As long as you don’t keel over on me, I won’t nag.  My skin is very sensitive right now and your dead weight might make me un-comfy.”

Gordon’s eyes narrowed.  “Your compassion and concern are noted.”

At that point, Kris reentered, ahead of a wave of nurses and doctors.  She and Gordon stood off to the side with Lydia as Nathan was poked, prodded, queried, and quizzed.  Soon enough, his IV bag was changed, a fresh round of pain killers and antibiotics administered, and his guests were cautioned not to keep him up for too long.

Kris saw the last of the medical staff out and then closed the door, leaving the four of them alone.  Gordon had grown far fresher during Nathan’s examination, so his medication was apparently effective.  The man’s health and his own discomfort no longer his primary concerns, Nathan could hold back his questions no longer.  “So what the hell happened at the shipyard?  Who was that guy?  Have we questioned him, found out who he was working for?”

Gordon’s slight smile dropped.  “Before I tell you, I want you to keep in mind that as soon as you’re better, I’m going to beat you unconscious again.  You blew up an entire laser emplacement and burned a hole through three buildings.  You’re supremely lucky no one was killed, including yourself!  What were you thinking?”

Kris appeared to have no concern over Nathan’s chosen method of stopping the thief, her approval obvious from her expression.  “Yeah, good shootin’, Tex, but talk about overkill.  You gave us a new north exit, and made our unexpected guest footloose and fancy-free.  What were you planning on doing if the laser didn’t work?  Nuke him with a ship-to-ship missile?”

Nathan grimaced.  “I really hoped I’d misremembered that.  Did I really burn his foot off?”

She shrugged.  “Let’s just say Hopalong’s going to be stepping very carefully around you from now on.”

“Enough of that,” Gordon interjected.  “This was a serious security breach.  We’re hoping that we were lucky and this was the first such incident, but just because you caught him last night doesn’t mean he hasn’t been stealing from us on every previous night.”

“How did he even get in?”

“Well, you may not have even noticed, but he bears a striking resemblance to Bill Blake, our night security chief – rather, our former night security chief who had a bad habit of drinking himself into a stupor when he was supposedly on watch.  Last night, your thief made sure Bill was drugged enough that he wouldn’t wake until morning, dropped a virus in the telecom server so no one could call in or out, and made the rounds himself.  We don’t know who this man is yet, or who he worked for, or even whether he’s a spy or just an industrial agent."

Lydia spoke up.  "He's been taken into DOD custody.  So far, Under-Secretary Sykes has clamped down on even my access to info.  We don't know anything about the thief yet, but when we find out, you'll be among the first to know."

“One thing is for certain, though," Gordon said, "and that's that not everyone believes our pots are cracked.  Someone out there, besides our late-arriving government sponsors, believes in what we are doing and they want that tech for themselves.  This is the first attempt we’ve stumbled across, but it might not be the first attempt and it certainly won’t be the last.  Between the launch of the
Promise
and your somewhat open use of an offensive laser, we are building up some actual stories to go along with our crazy theories.  People are going to continue to try to get access.”

Nathan winced.  “Let me guess:  tighter security?”

Gordon nodded.  “At the very least.  More encryption, more electronic and manned security, more government oversight, whatever it takes.”

“That means slower work and more frustration, and that’s not even counting the time lost due to the laser ‘malfunction’.  Can we afford that?”

“It’s a little late to be asking that question, Nathan!  It will take whatever time it takes, time we have less and less of every day.  Soon, we should get our first close-up pictures from the probe.  What we’ve received thus far hasn’t been much better than what we’ve already gotten from the SSBA, but I guarantee the new data will impact our timeline.  The closer we get, the more we define the threat, if there is one, the more pressure we’re going to start getting from above.  We either adapt to it and continue to show progress, or we risk them ‘nationalizing’ us and removing us from the process entirely.  Understand?”

Nathan wished he was not lying down.  He wanted to reassure Gordon, and he could not do that very well from such a position of weakness.  “Yes, sir.  We’ll tighten things up and we’ll get back on schedule.  We’ll get our ship operational before the probe makes contact.  I guarantee it.”

Lee’s stern expression softened a bit.  He gripped Nathan on the shoulder, one of the few places he was not really burned.  “I know you will.  Rest now, work later.”

With that, he nodded to Kristene and then turned and left.  Lydia came up and gave him a gentle, motherly kiss on his flash-burned brow, then followed Gordon out, closing the door behind them.  Kris watched him leave and then sat next to the bed, carefully holding Nathan’s hand.  She looked down at him, a smile rising on her cheeks.  They were alone.

She was about to say something, to do something.  Nathan could see it, and now with all the new pressures being put onto their construction, his reasons for putting things between them on hold made even more sense—damnable, terrible, hatefully cold sense, but sense just the same.

He hated it, hated himself, but he still rushed to speak before she could say anything.  “Kris, about last night . . . .”

She smiled.  “I was just about to mention that.  I know it might seem a bit sudden, but when you look at it another way, it’s been a long time coming.”

“Nothing happened.”

Her smile faltered.  “Well, something obviously happened.  I seem to remember us kissing in your office.”

“
Nothing happened
.  We’re coworkers and friends, and we both work closely together.  Sometimes that … closeness is easy to misinterpret.  And with everything going on last night, we got confused.”

Her mouth was now set in a firm line.  “I wasn’t confused.”

“Kris, we can’t afford to mix work with … whatever else.  I just don’t have time for a relationship right now.”

“Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t you just break it off with your latest?  Or was it the other way around?”

“I’m sorry.  I mean that
we
don’t have time for a relationship, not a relationship like that.”

She fumed now.  “I’m perfectly capable of keeping my job and my personal life separate.”

“Good.  Then this won’t be awkward when I get back to work.”  Nathan closed his mouth and stared back into her glaring eyes, refusing to look away first.

She broke contact, stalked to her purse, and went straight to the door.  “You can be such an ignorant ass, Nathaniel Kelley.  I know what you want and what you can and can’t afford to do better than you do.  Hopefully, you can get a fucking clue before I’m done with you and this project.”  She slammed the door behind her as she left.

Nathan was alone.  He laid his head back carefully, his skin no longer painful, but still noticing the stretching and tingling of his epidermis.  He closed his eyes and tried not to think.  He tried to banish all thoughts of the new pressures the project was under, the thief he had injured, the way Gordon had looked, and Kris, Kris, Kris.