Crusade For Vengeance (Dark Vengeance Book 2) (7 page)

Unsurprisingly, Valerie was already in the yard, at the back of the Dawning Sun, when Hanna arrived.  “Morning,” the older woman greeted her.  “Good to see you’ve dressed appropriately.”

Knowing it would be cold up in the mountains, Hanna picked out a jacket and trousers made of thicker and warmer materials than she normally wore.  They didn’t look a lot different from her usual attire, but cost a lot more.

“I thought it would be worth giving them a go before we head out to Olympus.  Deni said it’ll be spring there when we arrive.”

“Early spring, yes,” Valerie was wearing her ever present dark trousers and long dark coat.  The only concession to the weather was the long sleeved shirt underneath, also dark.

The whine from the engines of a descending aircar made them both look up.  It came down gracefully and landed in the area specifically set aside for it in the yard.

“I’ll fly, Deni,” Valerie said as they entered through the side door.

“You could just tell me where we’re going,”  Deni replied a little indignantly. 

“Don’t worry.  You’ll both understand when we get there.  Now shoo,” Valerie told her, waving to the co-pilots seat.  With obvious reluctance Deni did as she was told.  “Hanna.  I need you to do the usual with Traffic Control.  I don’t want any records of this flight.”  She ordered as she took over the pilots seat.

“On it,” Hanna got out her Quartz and started to pull up the back door Sneaker and herself built the year before.

“Deni.  Get into the aircars internal systems and make sure it won’t remember this either.”  That surprised Hanna.  It was pretty much business as usual to take them out of the Blaze traffic control, but to ensure the aircars system was wiped wasn’t.  Valerie really was serious when she told Sneaker to mind his own business.  She felt proud Valerie trusted Deni and her with her secrets.

This trip was nothing like the last time Hanna had been in an aircraft with Valerie piloting.  There were none of the sudden dives and climbs she previously experienced.  Of course, this time they weren’t being hunted in the air by four armed Helos.  Valerie took the aircar all the way up to the Indigo zone, as her fake pilots licence allowed her.  She then let the aircar have its head, pushing the engines and electron power cell harder than they normally had the opportunity to do within the confines of Inferno city.

With her part done, Hanna leaned back in her seat and enjoyed the view from the Visual Image screens.  With the exception of the cockpit, there were no windows in the aircar, only screens on the walls showing input from the external cameras. 

From this high up, the segregation within Inferno was obvious.  The centre had its gleaming towers, a solid Speedway fully encompassing it.  Unlike all the other Speedways, it was on the ground and not suspended above the buildings.  There were no Speedways in amongst the towers, they weren’t needed.  The Privileged all used aircars and, as there were no parking facilities for wheelies in the centre, Manuals could only use the underground trains.

On the other side of the Speedway ringing the centre, were the dark and grey Ghettos.  They spread out in all directions, as far as Hanna could see, factories intermixed with the residential buildings and Speedways suspended above them all.  Scattered amongst the Ghettos were the suburbs of the Privileged, designed for those who preferred sky over their heads.  Each of these had a solid band of red a kilometre across, made up of the local red bark trees and blood grass, around them.  Where it met the Ghettos stood a wall ten metres high it ensured none of the Manuals could make use of the space and go where they were not wanted.

Every time she saw this landscape she felt angry.  She knew the statistics, there were over ten million people living in Inferno.  Approximately one hundred thousand of them were made up of the Privileged.  Yet from this vantage point she could see they used almost ten percent of the land.  None of theirs included the factories.

Feeling somewhat helpless, there was nothing she could do, Hanna turned to where Valerie sat in the pilot’s seat.

“Yesterday when we met Scribe, did it worry you how everyone was afraid?”

Hanna saw Valerie’s shoulders tighten at the question and didn’t worry about it.  If the woman didn’t want to answer, she wouldn’t, but Hanna thought she needed to ask, if only to keep her engaged with them.  There was a long pause before Valerie answered.

“No,” was all she said and there was silence for a while until she continued.  “As Sneaker said, if they’re afraid, it means the chance of them double crossing us is much lower.  If other gangs are afraid, they won’t want to start anything with us.  If the people in our area are afraid they won’t try and betray us.”

“What about our people?” Deni asked.  “Most of them are frightened of you as well.”

This time Valerie shrugged.  “You’re not.  When I was reprimanding you over Cest, there was no fear in either of you.”

“We know you won’t do anything to harm us,” Deni said and Hanna thought back to the briefing before kidnapping Pomykala.  For an instant, Hanna really feared for her life.

“And that is all that matters to me,” Valerie pointed out.  “As long as the rest get the job done, that’s the important thing.  Besides, none of it will make any difference once we’re off planet.”

“What about in the Legion?” Hanna asked.  “Did they fear you as well?”

The pause this time was much longer and Valerie gave out a long sigh before answering.

“No.  I was...  I was different then.  They were proud of me.  They never said it to my face but they had a nick-name for me.  Battleborn.”  She gave out a slight chuckle.  “Even soldiers and sailors, who didn’t know my name, had heard of me.  There were many times I heard tales of the Battleborn while sitting in Legion bars.  I think my troops took pride in passing on the stories.  Oh, there were never any locations or anything able to lead back to me, but they were still recognisable, if you knew the full picture.”

Surprise was Hanna’s first reaction, but as her brain caught up with her emotions she realised it wasn’t true.  Ever since Hanna met Valerie, she sensed something buried beneath all the pain, a person truly caring for those around her.

“I can see it, I really can,” Hanna told her.  “It’s what the Crew see in you.”

“Yeah.  They do,” Deni agreed.

“That’s appreciated, but it doesn’t matter anymore.  The Legion part of my life is long over and so will the Crew be soon.”  There was no harshness, but the finality of it was clear in Valerie’s voice.  The girls stayed quiet for the rest of the trip.

The expanse of the city gave way to the surrounding red plains, interspersed occasionally with an exclusive Privileged village or the more common factory towns.  Air traffic around them was sparse and Hanna could see vast flights of pterodactyls.  They were made up of dozens of animals, each with a wingspan from two metres all the way up to six.  In the city Hanna had only seen the human sized one’s Valerie and her emulated during their first Heist.  Out here, they grew much bigger.  Hanna couldn’t help grinning as she watched them.

The plains rose up into the foothills.  They passed over Mishizen national park and entered the Ginormican mountain range itself.  Valerie maintained the aircars height.  The mountains seemed to reach for them until they were flying in amongst the peaks.

“Erm...  Valerie.  Shouldn’t we be gaining a little more altitude?”  Deni asked somewhat worriedly, the ground getting closer and closer to them.

“No.  If someone is tracking us, the carbon and iron here will hide us from their sensors.”  Valerie told her.  They were now only metres from the ground.  “That’s one of the reasons why the clans are so difficult to find up here.”

“You know the clans?” Deni asked.  Hannah caught a distinct edge in the other girls voice.  Her friend was always anxious to hear details about the nomadic clans.

“I was briefed on them some years ago and I passed through the Mulgrew clan when I first arrived on Blaze.  They’re good people.”

“What are they like?  How do they live?”

“Simply, is the best answer I can give,” Valerie explained.  “They herd Tofu, hunt for game and rare plants up in the mountains, before making their way across the central desert trading.  Not as much as they used to.  Most of the mining facilities out there are owned by the big corporations.  Their supplies are delivered by air.  There are still a number of independents, making it worth the clans while.”

“What about the people?”

“Each clan is a close knit community of around a thousand people, more or less.  They rely on each other to survive.  Trust and honour are integral to the clan’s survival.  If you lie or try to cheat a clansman or woman, they’ll kill you.”  Valerie seemed to sense Deni wanted more and continued.

“When I visited the Mulgrew clan, they invited me to sit by their fire and share a meal with them in the evening.  They have a tradition of people telling stories.  At the time I didn’t really appreciate it.  It was only weeks after the attack on my family.”  Hanna heard a hitch in Valerie’s voice.  “And I was very wrapped up in myself, but now I look back, I can see the good it did for the clan.  People told stories about something that happened to someone else on the day.  They weren’t told to belittle anyone in any way, but to show the group they weren’t alone, others were going through the very same difficulties and troubles.”

“Oh,” Deni said quietly.

“Why do you want to know?”  Valerie asked gently.

“I’m originally from the clans.  My Granddad brought me to Inferno when I was only four years old.  Our clan was wiped out in some sort of war and we were the only survivors.  He died about the same time as Hanna’s mother.  He didn’t really have time to tell me much about what life was like or my parents.  Granddad actually made me promise to never tell anyone our clan name.  He thought we would still be in danger.  Hanna’s the only one I‘ve told, we met on the streets and she’s the closest thing I have to a sister.”

For a while Valerie was silent and continued to pilot the aircar close to the ground.  It rose and fell with the ridges and valleys of the mountain range.

“I knew the two of you were close, but I didn’t realise it went back that long.”

“We kind of ran into each other.  Neither of us had anyone and we helped each other out.”  Hanna said.  “When Tern took us in and put us to work, we stuck together.  We’ve been that way ever since.”

“I had a bond like that once.  Shannon Forlani.  I ran a specialist Commando company and she was my first recruit.  Over the years and numerous battlefields, we became comrades in arms.  I knew I could always trust her to watch my back.”

“What happened to her?” Hanna asked.  “Was she on Furioso?”

There was a sharp intake of breath from Deni.  The look her friend gave her clearly asked if she had taken all leave of her senses.  Hanna trusted her instincts where Valerie was concerned, though she couldn’t help holding her breath.

This time it looked like the entirety of Valerie’s body froze into place.  The silence stretched out longer and longer.  She might have actually gone too far this time.  Finally the former soldier took a long deep breath and answered in a very quiet voice.

“No.  My company were all on leave at the time.”

Not wanting to push her any further, Hanna didn’t say any more.  From the look Deni was giving her, she knew she was going to get an ear-bashing.

Fortunately she was saved from the awkward silence as the aircar came to halt before descending into a steep valley.  Along the base Hanna could see large caves and there was no sign of any human habitation.

“Wow.  You couldn’t have found a more remote place to hide your stash?” she asked.

Getting out of the pilots seat, Valerie ignored Hanna’s question and pulled out three re-breathers.  She tossed one to each of the girls and strapped hers to on.

“The air’s very thin out there so put these on.”  Valerie’s voice sounded slightly muffled through the mask and Hanna did as she was told.

Air rushed out of the car when Valerie opened the door.  Hanna heard a hiss from her re-breather.  It pulled in more oxygen per breath, to compensate for the thin atmosphere.  Valerie stepped out onto the rocky ground with Deni behind her and Hanna followed.  Outside it was cold and dry.  She was glad she wore her warmer clothes.

Valerie led the three of them to one of the largest of the caves.  The sun was high in the sky, shining directly down into the valley.  The cave’s interior was hidden in deep shadow.  It wasn’t until they stepped inside Hanna made out the large black shape.

“That’s a bloody space ship!”  Deni exclaimed, echoing Hanna’s own surprise.  “Where on Blaze did you get that?”

This time Valerie did answer.  “It’s how I got off Furioso and to Blaze from Olympus.”  She activated something on her wristcomp.  A ramp lowered itself from where it sat flush against the smooth hull.

“If you have this, why don’t we use it instead of a freighter?” Hanna asked.

“Partly because the Spectre isn’t hyperspace capable,” Valerie said as she headed up the ramp.  “I piggybacked a freighter to travel between systems.  Mainly though, there’s nowhere to hide it on Olympus, the planet is too heavily populated to lose a ship in, the way I did here.”