Skybreach (The Reach #3) (28 page)

“If you loved your job so much, why did you leave?” Roman said.

“I didn’t jump.  I was pushed.  By the end, there wasn’t a whole lot of planning or development going on in the Reach.  Administration was downsizing everywhere.  All of the departments were tightening their belts, and people like me found themselves on the outer.  I thought my life was on the rocks, but then Skybreach came along and I found a purpose again.”

Knile had begun to pull ahead, and now he glanced over his shoulder at the other two.

“Listen, I hate to break up the fireside chat,” he said, “but Team Omega are heading across to the elevators right now.  Iris said she’s not going to wait for us if we’re late, so if we don’t hurry, we’re going to find ourselves on our own.”

Remus pointed ahead, to where a dull glow could be seen at the top of the incline.

“What’s that?”

“The waypoint,” Knile said.  “Come on.  We’re almost there.”

The access panel turned green, then Knile removed the cable from the slot and eased the door open.  The others followed through and then he closed the door again and waited for the lock to arm itself once
more.

“What are you doing?” Roman said.

“We have to come back this way to get to the elevators,” Knile said.  “We don’t want every scumbag in Gaslight finding this open and wandering inside to check it out, right?”

Roman shrugged.  “Sure.”

“It’s this way,” Remus said enthusiastically, bustling forward.  “I remember this part of the journey.”

They crossed an open area toward a tunnel on the othe
r side.  Half-
way across there came the echo of raised voices and footsteps from an adjoining corridor, and the three of them lifted their pace.

“Go, go!” Knile urged, and they got out of there as quickly as they could.  The voices disappeared behind them as the corridor curved to the left, and soon after Remus gave a little whoop of triumph.

“That’s it!” he said, gesturing to a residence ahead.  “Right there!”

The place immediately stood out from its surroundings, even though it was recessed some distance from the main thoroughfare.  A row of burnished steel columns ran along its facade, and narrow horizontal windows had been set into the walls, covered by a latticework of iron bars.  A bronze plaque near the entrance displayed the word ‘Squires’ in a cursive font.

“Wait a minute,” Knile said.  “I know this place.  It belongs to Donald Squires.”

“Who’s that?” Roman said.

“The richest man in Gaslight,” Remus said.
  “He’s
–
”

“Uh, guys,” Roman said as they reached the door, “I think someone made it here first.”

Before them, the entranceway to the premises had been left in a bad state.  The place where the door should have been was now nothing more than a mangled wreck of twisted and scorched metal.  The walls around the doorway were covered in black residue, undoubtedly a remnant of the explosives that had cr
eated the carnage, and the door frame itself was warped, with chunks missing in several places.

“Dammit, Remus,” Knile said angrily.  “Why didn’t you say that we were coming here?  What a waste of goddamn time.  I could have told you that Squires’ place would be the first one targeted when the riots began.”

Remus’ good mood seemed to have evaporated.  “I, uh…”

“Let’s get out of here,” Knile snapped.

“No, the RECS might
still be inside,” Remus said adamantly.  He strode forward and began to pick his way through the debris.  “Come on.”

Knile and Roman exchanged a doubtful glance, and then Knile shrugged.

“Give it five minutes,” he said.  “After that, we’re gone.”

They followed Remus through the doorway and into the gloomy interior, where they once again required the assistance of their flashlights to see.  Inside, the looters had made a right mess of the place.  Knile had never been inside Squires’ residence before, but he’d heard about it, and he knew that it had previously been the closest thing to Lux one could find in Gaslight.  Although it lacked the gold trimming and the marble floors of Lux, Knile could imagine
how impressive
it might have looked like before it had been trashed.  There were broken statues lying around, as well as a series of smashed cabinets containing fragments of crystal and fine china and other things Knile couldn’t identify.

“Squires moved out about a month ago,” Remus said as he led them through the first room and into the next.  “I don’t know if he got wind of what was about to happen, or if he finally organised himself a Sponsor, but either way he was gone before things went bad.  The looters probably didn’t find anything much of value by the time they got here.”

“So if there’s nothing of value left, what are we doing here?” Roman said.

“There’s no value to the looters, but that doesn’t mean there’s no value to
us
.”

He led them along a corridor, then through another room that contained a grand piano and other musical instruments, all of which
had been thoroughly trashed.  He kept going.

“How do you know your way around here?” Knile said.

“Two years ago, Donald Squires approached Administration about putting the RECS back into active service.  He wanted to use them to defend his premises.  He’d acquired them years ago, after they’d been decommissioned.  I’m not sure if he bought them because he wanted them for their antique value, or if he had planned to reactivate them right from the start.  Probably the latter.”

“Is there a point to this story?” Roman said.

“I was the one that RA
sent down to investigate Squires’ application.  He showed me around and put his case forward, telling me all the reasons why he needed the RECS to protect his investments here in Gaslight.”  Remus shrugged.  “I took the pictures, wrote down the notes, then too
k it all back to my superiors.”

“What did they say?” Knile said.

“They said no.  Squires had his application denied, and was told that if he tried to put the RECS into service that they’d be dismantled.  I never heard from him again after that.”

“So what the hell
are
these things?” Roman said.

A broad smile spread across Remus’ face as they reached the next room, and he extended his arm and pointed.

“See for yourself.”

They entered the room, and their flashlights were drawn to two large perspex cases that reached up to the ceiling.  For a moment Knile could see nothing but his own flashlight beam reflecting back at him, but as he shifted h
is position he began to make out
metallic shapes inside.  They were bulky and squarish, and at first Knile thought that he was looking at a pair of outd
ated household appliances – old-fashioned hot water systems or the like, but as he moved closer he began to make out more detail.

“What the…?” Roman said, perplexed, as he too began to walk forward.

Knile could see that one of the cases had a crack running up its face, and the other was partially covered in scorch marks, much like what they had seen at the entrance.  It seemed that the looters had made at least some kind of attempt to get inside.  He had no doubt that they could have gotten through the perspex if they’d wanted to – after all, they’d demolished the door at the entrance – but the machines inside did not look as though they were worthy of any great attention.  To the layman, they probably would have seemed more like weathered ornaments than anything of value.

Knile peered through the perspex at the nearest of the RECS.  It was taller than a man and
as
broad as a refrigerator, with a mottled, brushed metal finish and an opaque window near the top.  There were arms and legs attached to the thing as well, but Knile couldn’t make out the details particularly well from where he stood.

“So… do these things run on steam or something?” Roman said sarcastically as he tried to get a better look at them from Knile’s side.

“Hardly,” Remus scoffed.  “They’re powered by fusion packs that are mounted on the rear.”  He walked past the cases and started feeling around the wall like a blind man looking for a door handle.

“What are you doing?” Knile said.

“Squires had an access panel set into the wall here.  It’s–”  There was a clicking noise, and a small compartment slid open before him.  “Ah, here it is.”  Remus took two keys from a pair of hooks inside, then tapped a code into a keypad.  He turned expectantly toward the RECS.  “I was watching him when he took me on his little tour, filed the code away in the ol’ memory banks.”

The three of them stood there, waiting for something to happen, but nothing did.  Remus entered the code again, then sighed with great exaggeration.

“Damn.  Maybe the power–”

Suddenly there was a thudding noise, and Knile and Roman were forced to jump back as the perspex doors began to swing outward.  Remus came bounding over, his eyes wide with anticipation, and in a few moments the doors had shuddered to a stop again.

Knile decided that the RECS looked no more impressive in full view than they had when they had been obscured behind the perspex.  They were broad and solid, which was a defensive plus, but they seemed far too cumbersome, too primitive to be of any real use in combat.

Evidently Roman was having similar thoughts.

“So, you want us to go up against the Redmen in a pair of refrigerators on legs,” Roman said drily.

“They’re built solid,” Remus said, striding forward and turning the key in an aperture on the first RECS.  The front panel opened, revealing a cockpit inside, which contained a complicated array of levers and switches.  “I went and researched them after the meeting with Squires.  Fascinating stuff, really.  They were deployed at most of the elevator installations across the globe, favoured for their toughness and their ability to deal with large crowds.”

“Wait a minute, Remus,” Knile said.  “We don’t have any idea how to drive these things.”

“They use an adaptive piloting system,” Remus said.  He flicked a switch and the lights inside the cockpit came to life.  “Trust me, in ten minutes you’ll be doing gymnastics in these things.” 

Knile walked forward reluctantly and looked up into the contraption.  It began to make a whining sound as its various components initialised.

“Squires even had the fusion packs replaced and some of the wiring reterminated, in anticipation for bringing them back online,” Remus said.  “They’re ready for action.”

Knile turned back to Roman.  “What do you think?”

Roman stood there staring sceptically at the RECS for a moment, then stepped forward and took the second key from Remus.  He inserted it into the RECS and opened the cockpit door.

“I think these are walking coffins,” Roman said.  “But since we’re about to die anyway, why not give it a shot?”

28

“Someone’s coming,” Talia said.

Holger crammed the last remnants of the chow stick he’d smuggled along into his mouth, then brought up his shotgun as shadows appeared around the corner.  Talia raised her .22 and stared down the corridor, trying to ascertain how many were coming by the sound of their footsteps.

There was just one – Silvestri.  He appeared from the gloom, his skin slick with sweat, and gestured at them to stow their weapons.

“It’s just me,” he said.  “It’s okay.”

“Damn, what took you so long?” Talia said.

“We’ve got company out there,” he said simply.

“Who, and how many?” Holger said from the corner of his mouth as he chewed, the chow stick causing a large bulge inside his cheek.

“Looters.  Maybe twenty of them.  They’ve forced the elevator doors open on several shafts on the southern end.  It looks like they’re trying to get them reactivated.”

“So I was right,” Aksel said, tapping at his holophone.  “None of the elevators are in operation.”

“No,” Silvestri said, “but you can fix that, right?”

“Yeah.  Shouldn’t be a problem.”

“What about if we try the next elevator bay?” Talia suggested.  “It should only be a ten minute detour.”