Skybreach (The Reach #3) (37 page)

“There’s a problem,” Knile said.  “We’ve got a lot of company here.  People are swarming in like there’s a free lunch.”

“We had the same problem when we hit the elevators.  Tell me the bay you’re at and I’ll get Aksel to light a few up.  That should thin out the crowd.”

“Okay.  It’s Bay Five.”

Knile heard her speaking to someone else for a few moments, then she returned.

“Knile, you have to hurry.  It sounds like the Redmen are trying to bring reinforcements through from below.  You have to get here before they arrive.”

“As soon as you give us an elevator, we’ll be on our way.”

“Tell me the number of the elevator you’re closest to.”

Knile edged the RECS forward and peered around the corner.

“It’s number thirty.”

“Okay.  Standby.”

Excited shouts began to emanate from the crowd at the opposite end of the waiting area, as one by one the elevator lights flickered to life.  The throng rippled and began to draw away from Knile and the others as those waiting sought to gain access.

“It’s working, Talia.”

“We’re bringing thirty online now.  You should haul ass.”

“Okay, we’re hauling.”  Knile brought up the claw of the RECS and pointed.  “Let’s go.”

They moved forward swiftly, and Zoe reached the elevator first.  She hammered on the call button, then stood with her .38 raised toward the crowd in anticipation of being spotted.

She needn’t have bothered.  The crowd was far too busy squabbling over the elevators that had opened at the other end.  A handful of people turned as the RECS thudded across the floor, but they did not seem interested in confronting them, opting to pursue the elevators that were closer to hand.

Moments later, the doors opened and the five of them
began to move inside.  Zoe, Duran and Remus went first, backing up to allow space for the RECS, and then as Knile manipulated the machine through the opening he s
macked noisily against the door
frame, jarring his head painfully against the side of the cockpit.  Roman came through last, navigating the entrance to the elevator with far more precision.

“Smooth moves, Knile,” Roman said smugly as the doors slid shut.  Zoe hit the button for the top floor, and the elevator began to ascend.

“Might have to revoke my license,” Knile said ruefully.  Then, he added, “Talia, we’re on our way.”

“Great.  Call me back soon, huh?  We’ve got a situation here.”

“Will do.”

Knile turned to see Duran staring sourly at him again, his fury all the more palpable here in the close confines of the elevator.

“What the hell are those contraptions, anyway?” Duran said.

“They’re RECS,” Remus said.  “Defensive systems from a few decades ago.  They were once used throughout the Reach for crowd control.  We pulled these out of storage.”

“What for?” Duran said.

“For taking on the Redmen, or anyone else who gets in our way,” Remus said confidently.

Duran arched his eyebrow.  “So, let me get this straight.  You’re fumbling around in ancient tin cans that you haven’t even figured out how to drive ye
t, and now you intend to go toe-to-toe with a full squad of Redmen, who happen to be the most brutal and highly trained soldiers in existence.”

Knile glanced down at him awkwardly.  “That’s the gist of it, yeah.”  He looked over at Remus.  “It wasn’t my idea.”

“I didn’t figure we’d be taking down Redmen with the RECS,” Remus said.  “More like drawing their attention away while the brawlers finished them off.”

Knile stared at him, stupefied.  “Why didn’t you tell us this before?”

Remus gave him an embarrassed smile.  “Because you wouldn’t have agreed to use them if I’d said that.”  He held up his hands placatingly.  “But don’t worry, these things are built like tanks.  They should take a few pulse rounds fine.”

“So, in effect, we’re target practice,” Roman said.

“I’d use the term cannon fodder,” Duran said, seemingly enjoying the thought of Knile stumbling around in the RECS while the Redmen had their way with him.  He took a step back.  “You can go first, Knile.”

“Yeah.  Thanks.”

Knile watched the levels tick by as they neared their destination.

When the elevator doors opened, Knile could only stare stupidly at what he saw.  His mind sifted through the images that confronted him, but understanding remained well out of reach.  He experienced a baffling disconnect between what his eyes were telling him and what he had expected to see.

Surely they had arrived at the wrong place.  That was the only explanation that made sense.

This couldn’t be the Atrium.  Could it?

Gone was the beauty and serenity of the Atrium he had always known.  The vision that had taken its place was nothing more than a smoking ruin.  As far as Knile could see, everything was charred, coated in black.  There were no Redmen, no Children of Earth, no sound of gunfire or boots thumping on the floor.  No voices.

Instead, there was merely a landscape of ruinous lumps of charcoal and blackened concrete, cloaked in a smoky haze as far as the eye could see.

And the
Stormgates
.  The Stormgates were twisted, inert, the glowing blue portals that had glimmered within now extinguished.  The once majestic arches now resembled sagging ruins, mere caricatures of what they had once been.

Knile pushed the controls of the RECS forward, and the others followed him silently out of the elevator.  He opened the door of the machine and stepped down, numb.  His boots crunched on something and he looked down.  He realised with horror that he was stepping on charred human remains.

“Goddamn,” he gasped, staggering away.  “What the hell…?”

“We’re too late,” Zoe said soberly.  “Too fucking
late
.”

“What do you think happened?” Roman said, disembarking from his RECS and standing next to Knile.

“Children of Earth unleashed the mother of all explosions,” Knile said.

Remus stepped forward and pointed through the haze at the opposite side of the Atrium, where the red orb of the sun was barely visible through the smoke.

“Look.  There!” he said.

Knile squinted and saw what Remus had indicated.  Past the central column of the Atrium, the floor ended abruptly in a jagged line, as if it were nothing more than a cliff.  It seemed that a huge section of the Atrium had been destroyed – indeed, two of the massive columns that had once stretched up from the floor now ended in ragged stumps far above, like giant stalactites.

“No wonder the elevators on that side are smoking ruins,” Knile said.

“They tried to blow up the whole damn Atrium,” Zoe said.

“They didn’t just
try
,” Roman muttered.  “They succeeded.”  He glanced at Knile.  “What if Team Omega were here?  Iris and the others, they’d be…”

Knile grimaced and ran a hand through his hair, dismayed.  “Since we haven’t heard from them, we have to assume they were here when it happened.”

“So what now?” Roman said.

“We can’t leave Talia and the others stranded up there.  We have to find a way up, but that’s not going to happen unless there’s some other way to get to the roof that I don’t know about.”

“Not so fast,” Remus said.  He pointed.  “That central column was built with incredible amounts of reinforcing.  It had to be, to cope with the stress created by the tethering of the Wire.”  He waved his hand at the column.  “The structure still looks sound.  If it’s only sustained superficial
fire damage, the elevator might still work.”

“Sounds like a long shot,” Roman said.

“From the damage, it looks like that explosion occurred out on the west side,” Remus sai
d.  “Maybe they couldn’t haul the explosives all the way up before it went off.  If it had detonated right here in the Atrium, I doubt the central column would have held.”

“Well, let’s not die wondering,” Knile said, pushing aside his sense of stupefaction.  He headed back to his RECS.  “Let’s do this.”

Roman followed his lead.  Beside them, Zoe began to move forward, but she was stopped in her tracks.

“There’s no reason for you and me to go any further,” Duran said to her, clutching her arm.  “You wanted to stop Children of Earth, but we’re too late for that.  There’s nothing up there now but Redmen, according to Knile’s friends.”

“He’s right,” Knile said.  “You two should get out of here.”

“No.  I’m going to follow this through,” Zoe said, taking out her .38 and casually checking the rounds.  “Right to the end.”

“That’s not necessary,” Knile said.  “Really.”

“Listen,” she said to Knile, “you saved my life down there.  I told you I’d help you in return.  So far, I’ve only taken an elevator ride with you.  I wouldn’t call it even just yet.”

Knile opened his mouth, intending to dissuade her, but then he considered.  If they made it to the roof and had to take on the Redmen, two more guns wouldn’t go astray.  On the other hand, Duran w
as still a loose cannon that would be better off left
behind.  Who knew when he might snap and try to put a bullet in Knile’s head?

If Knile could choose, he would rather that the two of them simply fled while they had the chance.

Suddenly, two of the nearby elevators lit up, heralding the imminent arrival of more passengers.

“We have to go,” Knile said, responding quickly.  He climbed into the RECS.  “If those are Redmen on their way, they’re not going to waste time asking questions.”  He swung the door shut and looked out at Zoe and Duran.  “You two need to make a decision.”

Duran pulled Zoe back toward the open elevator.  “Zoe, come on–”

“No!” she said, wrenching herself free of his grip.  “You can run if you want to, Alec, but I’m not backing out of this.”

Knile got the RECS moving again, lurching across the smoking ruin of the Atrium, his thoughts moving from Alec Duran to the blackened elevator doors that lay waiting in the central column not far away.

35

Ursie placed the last wedge of toast in her mouth, then slid off the cot and got to her feet.  She stepped over to the door and grabbed the handle.

She had to get out of here.  As much as the very thought of it made her feel sick to the stomach, she had to leave this cramped apartment and make her way out into the habitat.

The time for sitting around had passed.

“Where you goin’, Missy?” Tobias said behind her.

She turned to regard him as he sat watching her from the corner of the room, a steaming mug of tea clasped in his withered hands.

“I have to go out,” she said, her words slurring slightly as she talked around the mouthful of toast.

“Out?” Tobias said.  He sounded disappointed.  “Out where?”

Ursie considered how to phrase her response.  Even though she didn’t want to lie to the old man, she was also reluctant to give away too much about her true intentions.

She decided upon replying with a watered down version of the truth.

“I’m going to have a look around.  A friend down on Earth wants to know
all about what goes on in the habitat.”

“Is that why you wanted those ol’ floorplans
I got for you?  So you could find your way around?”

She shrugged and swallowed the last of her toast.  “Yeah, I guess.”

Tobias glanced down at the bench next to him.  “Your tea is still awaitin’, if you have a mind to drink it.”

“Sure, when I get back.”

Tobias beamed at her.  “All right, then.”

She smiled back, hoping that the sadness she felt inside was somehow concealed by the gesture.

She had a very strong feeling, bordering on premonition, that she would never see Tobias again.

The old man watched her over the rim of his cup of tea as she closed the door, and then she turned up the corridor, hugging her borrowed coat tighter to her chest.