Skyfall (35 page)

‘Kes, I need you.'

‘Lari, what's wrong?'

‘You have to come with me. Now.'

‘Now?' She glanced back into her apartment. ‘What's happened?'

‘I don't have time to explain. Can you come or not?'

‘Where?'

‘Down. To find Gregor.'

‘What!' Quickly, hoping her parents hadn't heard, Kes stepped out into the hallway and let the front door slide shut behind her. ‘Lari, have you gone insane?'

Lari shook his head. ‘Listen, Kes, I'm not joking. That girl I told you about the other day – Saria – she's in danger and the only person who can help save her is Gregor.'

‘Lari, what's gotten into you? Gregor's dangerous. Why in the sky do you think he'd help you, of all people?'

‘He will. Trust me.'

For a moment he thought Kes was going to refuse, but then she sighed.

‘Okay. Where are we going?'

‘Dome 87b.'

Kes looked thoughtful. ‘And you don't want anyone to know we're going there, obviously.'

Lari nodded. ‘Can you still reallocate a lift?'

‘I don't know. I haven't tried it again, but I reckon they'd have plugged that loophole.'

‘So how can we get to Gregor?' Lari watched as Kes chewed her lip for a few seconds and lifted her hand unconsciously to fiddle with the trident pendant on its slim chain. ‘Kes?'

‘Hang on, I'm thinking …'

Then she spun round and opened her apartment door. Lari tried to follow her in.

‘No. You wait out here. The Bean's asleep.'

‘What are you going to do?'

‘Just wait. I'll only be a few minutes, okay?'

Lari stood alone in the dingy hallway, wondering if he'd made the right choice.

Of course it's the right decision. What other choice is there?
It was all so obvious now. Gregor, his daughter, everything. Lari wondered how the shiftie would react when he found out what was going to happen to Saria.

There was nobody else to turn to, though. Gregor and the Underground were the only chance Lari had of getting Saria out of DGAP safely.

‘Okay. Let's go.'

Kes slipped quietly back out into the passageway.

‘To the hub?'

‘To the ref.'

‘What? Kes, we don't have time for caf, I told you …'

‘Lari.' His friend touched his shoulder. ‘Trust me, okay?'

‘I hope you know what you're doing.'

They made their way down to the common and across to the ref. At this time of day it was almost empty, and they seated themselves on opposite sides of one of the long benches.

‘So, tell me,' Kes said, once they were settled. ‘What's going on?'

‘It's … complex.'

‘We've got time.'

‘No, we haven't. Right now, Janil is over at DGAP getting ready to kill Saria and wrap up the project.'

‘What in the sky for?'

‘The Prelate has decided she's too much of a risk. Too politically dangerous to
maintaining stability
in the city.'

‘So they're just going to kill her? And your father's allowing it?'

‘My father hasn't got any say. Janil's been put in charge.'

‘But why?'

‘I don't know. It's politics. He's got some kind of arrangement with the Prelate, that's all I've been able to work out.'

‘So he might have done it already.'

‘Possibly, but I doubt it. If I know Janil, he'll do it by the book. He'll at least want to tie up all the loose research threads before he terminates the subject, just in case something does come up.'

‘How long will that take?'

‘No idea. A few hours, at least.'

‘That's not much time.'

‘I know.'

‘So what do you plan to do?'

Lari looked his friend in the eyes.

‘Get her out.'

‘To the underworld?'

‘Initially. But then out of Port City.'

Kes shook her head.

‘Do you really think Gregor's going to let her go? Even if he helps you get her out of DGAP.'

‘He'll help. And he'll let her go, too.'

‘How can you be certain?'

Lari hesitated before answering.

‘I just am.'

A young man walked into the ref and looked around. When he spotted Lari sitting with Kes, he looked as though he was about to leave again, but then he strode over and glared at Kes.

‘What's he doing here?'

‘Who's this?' Lari asked, but Kes waved his question aside and met the new arrival's glare with her own.

‘None of your business. We need to see Gregor.'

The man shook his head. ‘No way. You see Gregor when he wants to see you, not before.'

‘Listen …' Kes rose from her bench and stood toe-to-toe with the man. ‘If you don't help us, Gregor is going to be very, very angry indeed.'

Lari watched the exchange, mystified, and after a few seconds the man backed down.

‘If you're wrong, girl …'

‘Just take us.'

Without further comment, the man turned and marched from the ref. Kes grabbed Lari's arm and pulled him up.

‘Come on, then.'

‘Kes, who is that?'

‘He can get us to the underworld.'

‘But how …'

‘Not now, Lari. Just hurry up, okay?'

They followed the man across to the hub, where he waved his wrist over the allocator and leaned close to it, muttering a series of instructions quietly into the machine.

‘Sign in,' he snapped.

‘We don't want any record of …' Lari started, but the man grabbed his left wrist in a vice-like grip and forced it across the allocation plate.

‘When I need instructions from you, copygen, I'll ask for them, okay?'

They followed him over to the waiting area, where a lift was already standing by, three strange names above the door.

‘This is us.'

Their escort marched straight in, with Kes right behind, and, trying not to show his bewilderment, Lari followed.

‘Where are we going?'

‘Down.'

The maglift dropped into the system. Inside, the three stood in awkward silence. Lari wanted to ask Kes who the stranger was and how she knew him, but his glowering presence was enough to silence even the thought of conversation. Kes wouldn't meet his eyes, anyway. Every time he glanced in her direction to make eye contact and get some sense of what she was thinking, she'd look away, staring up at the babbling newspanel with grim determination. Finally he'd had enough.

‘Kes …'

‘Shh!' the man growled. ‘Not a word.'

‘Why not?' Lari snapped back at him.

‘Just do it, Lari,' Kes muttered and the silence grew thicker.

Finally, after an age of falling, the lift began a long horizontal transit before sliding a little way upwards into a hub. The doors opened to reveal the darkly familiar common of Dome 87b.

‘Here.' The man indicated that they should get out of the lift.

‘What about you?' Kes asked.

‘I'm just the driver.'

They stepped out into the gloomy dome, and behind them the lift slipped away without another word from their sullen escort. As soon as they were alone, Lari turned to Kes.

‘What in the sky is going on?'

‘Not now, Lari.'

‘Who was that guy?'

‘Look.'

She pointed up at one of the towers on the far side of the common. A single, dull flickering light reflected through a window, three floors up.

‘Let's go.'

‘Kes, wait! How do you know that's Gregor?'

She didn't answer, just set off towards the building, and Lari had no choice but to follow her across the empty, darkened common. Before they were halfway to the building, Kes stopped.

‘What's wrong now?'

‘Listen.'

Lari listened. Around them, the dome was shrouded in heavy silence. Only the occasional creak or groan broke the stillness.

‘What?'

‘It's too quiet. People are still supposed to be living down here. At this time of night they should be at home.'

‘Perhaps they're asleep? It's getting late, you know.'

‘No. Something's up.' Slowly, Kes started backing towards the hub, not taking her eyes off the flickering light in the broken-down res tower.

‘Kes …'

‘Quiet!' she hissed.

The silence continued, until they felt the reassuring bulk of the hub behind them.

‘What now?'

‘Find the allocation plate.'

Kes glanced around, left and right, staring into the shadows, alert like Lari had never seen her. Lari looked across to where the podium and scanning plate should have stood, but there was nothing there.

‘There isn't one.'

‘There has to be.'

‘Well, I can't see it.'

‘Shi!'

‘What'll we do?'

‘I don't know.'

Lari stared around the derelict dome once more. Between the towers, dark shadows stretched away from the common towards the outer walls. Above them, Port City was shrouded by a thick, murky atmosphere. The lights that seemed so bright from up in Lari's apartment struggled to penetrate the smoky haze that blanketed the lower levels. It'd be horrible to have to breathe this air all the time, Lari thought.

Breathe. Outside.

‘This way!' Lari started to edge around the hub, sticking close to the wall and moving towards where the shadow of one of the silent towers fell right across the common.

‘Lari, come back,' Kes whispered urgently. It had no effect. ‘Lari … Shi!' She had just caught up to him when a figure stepped from the shadows of the tower with the light in it. The man's form was hidden from them by the gloom, but then he turned slightly and the dull cast from the window above him caught his face.

‘Jenx!' Lari whispered.

‘What are you doing?' Kes demanded.

‘Shh! Just follow me.'

They were almost into the deeper shadow, where there'd be less chance of Jenx spotting them. On the other side of the common, the security man was standing calmly, staring into the darkness.

‘Whoever you are, I know you're there.' His voice echoed, calm and ominous. ‘I saw you step out of the lift, and as you've probably worked out by now, there's no leaving this dome any more. Not that way, in any case.'

‘He doesn't realise it's us,' Lari whispered to Kes. ‘He must think we're residents.'

‘The best thing you two can do would be to surrender, without a fight. There's no other choice. Ratz is gone. He's left you all. There's nobody's here to protect you now except me.'

Lari and Kes were deep in the shadows now. Dropping flat to the ground, Lari began to inch forward across the common towards a black slot between two of the towers.

‘Where are we going?' Kes whispered.

‘Down. Out.'

Jenx had fallen silent again, listening.

Lari's heart pounded in his ears.

‘I'm going to give you one minute,' the security officer announced. ‘One minute only, not a second more, and then I'm sending a team to find you. Trust me, you won't find them nearly as … accommodating … as I'm prepared to be.'

They were almost there. Lari kept inching forwards, towards the safe darkness between the buildings. Behind him, he heard Kes draw in a ragged breath.

‘Do you think we should just give up?'

Lari didn't answer. He just kept crawling.

‘Thirty seconds …'

They were almost there now. Just a few more metres and …

With a loud clunk, a beam of bright light sliced through the gloom, probing into the shadows around the hub.

‘Shi!' he whispered.

‘Go!' He felt Kes throw herself past him in a rush, plunging into the embracing darkness. Lari scrambled after her, hurling himself into the dark just as the light beam probed through the patch of shadow where they'd been concealed. In the tight space between the buildings, he could hear Kes's breathing.

‘Okay, what now?' she whispered.

‘Feel along the walls. Find a door.'

They groped deeper into the alleyway, stumbling occasionally when their feet came into contact with chunks of detritus that lay strewn, undetectable, in the darkness. Finally, when they were almost at the outer wall, Kes whispered, ‘Here!'

In the darkness, her voice seemed unnaturally loud. Lari groped towards it, and a moment later, in a quick flash of light, he saw the door: grey, metallic, rusted.

‘That's it.'

The handle was icy cold and his palm sweaty as he closed his fist around it and pulled.

Nothing happened for a moment, and then, with a shriek of protest, the door ground open. The sound, amplified by the tight alleyway, seemed to howl around the whole dome.

‘There!' A shout came from behind them.

‘Through!' Lari shoved Kes into the narrow stairwell and slipped in after her, pulling the door almost shut as he did so. Then he glanced back along the alleyway towards the common, where dark shapes were gliding fast towards the mouth of the alley.