The Whisper of Stars (27 page)

She spoke again. ‘Can you open it from there?’

‘I’m going to try,’ he said, doubt buzzing through him. ‘I’m sorry. I must have old data for that area.’

There was a pause. ‘Listen, Nathan. You’ve done really well getting us this far. Just do what you can.’

Jen looked at the door. Solid steel. Next to it was a flat, red scanner. There was no way she was getting through. Nathan needed to get it open. He’d messed up once before when they had broken into Powell’s house, missing an alert and putting her in serious danger. She wasn’t angry at him – she meant what she’d said, he had done well – but this wasn’t good. Even if they made it though, what about her escape route? What if they hit a dead end again? She looked back down the corridor, miles of white vinyl flooring and doorways stretching far into the distance, and prayed she wouldn’t have to go back.

‘Did it work?’ Nathan asked.

Jen’s heart sank and then the door clicked open loudly.

‘Never doubted you,’ Jen said, laughing. ‘Not for a second.’

Ahead were more corridors with large black numbers stenciled above doorways. It was a welcome sight and finally an indication of progress. They started at 400. Jen jogged, heart pounding, until Nathan’s voice told her to stop. She looked up.

457B.

Red light. Drowning.

She shuddered at the memory and entered Powell’s code into the keypad next to the door.
The day he had become CEO of Baden Corporation
. She closed her eyes and hoped. When she opened them again, there was a green light.

She stepped through the doorway and into a glass tunnel, suspended above a limestone chamber of servers – at least ten white rack units – each with an attached monitor. At the far end of the walkway was a circular room and a console.

She walked, boots squeaking against the polished surface, breaking the otherwise perfect silence. ‘I’m inside now.’

‘Right, you need to attach the device within a few feet of the screen.’ Nathan said, clearly trying to stay calm.

This is it,
she thought.
I’ve done my part, got us into the chamber as promised. Now it’s your turn.

Jen looked down through the tinted green floor and spotted armed guards, three in total, plus a droid, patrolling the server room below. One of the guards nodded but didn’t smile. The scene reminded her of something she had watched as a child. A cartoon about a man inside the belly of a whale. She felt like that man, and if someone lit a fire, all hell would break loose. She stood at the console, which was comprised of a voice board, mind interface and three holographic feedback screens. She grabbed a chair, sat and slid herself up to the desk.

‘Right, look busy,’ Nathan suggested.

Jen attached a small device to the underside of the steel console. It gripped the surface and immediately went to work. For a few seconds she held her breath. If Nathan told her it wasn’t working, then all this could be for nothing. All of it. Jen glanced down to see a guard watching her.
Look busy? How the hell am I supposed to do that?
She nodded, forcing herself not to smile.

When Nathan’s voice returned, he was excited.

‘I can see the server,’ he said, almost shouting. ‘Jen, I can see it all.’

‘Okay, good.’ She spoke deliberately, lifting her hands in a gesture that suggested to the guards below that the people back at base were giving her a hard time. ‘I will sit here and
look busy.
Just be quick, okay?’

‘Search algorithm is running,’ Nathan whispered. ‘We’re going to be okay.’

Jen told him he was doing well, but her mind was elsewhere, trying to figure out how to ask him a question, one that had been burning since leaving England. She’d assured herself there was no point raising it before now. What if they hadn’t made it this far? They could have had an argument for no reason.

‘Nathan,’ she asked quietly, wringing her hands.

‘Hmmm?’

‘I need you to do something else.’

‘Sorry? What?’

‘You need to do something else while we’re here.’

‘Yes, I heard that bit,’ he said, briskly. ‘What do you need? Pizza?’

He was jovial, trying to keep her relaxed. He’s good at this, Jen thought, better than expected. He’d managed to keep his cool in situations where she’d seen lesser men crumble.

She swallowed and said clearly, ‘I need you to search for someone. A man named Conrad Fowler.’

‘I’m sorry, what?’ Nathan shouted, incredulous. ‘Who the hell is he?’

‘He’s on a witness protection programme. You’ll need to do a wider search.’

Jen explained the deal she’d made with Lynch, knowing immediately it had been a mistake not to tell him. She tried to persuade him that it had been their only chance to get to Russia, that Conrad Fowler was a bad man, that it was a good trade, but as she talked she felt more and more empty, embarrassed by her secrecy.

‘So, we find this guy, give Lynch the details and then what?’ Nathan hissed. ‘Fowler is tracked down and killed, along with a few others, probably.’

Jen remained silent.

‘Brilliant.’ Nathan’s optimism seemed to have left him entirely. ‘Now I’m a fucking hit-man, too. Sentencing some guy to death. Nice, Jen, thanks a lot. What happened to teamwork? Sharing? In this together?’

You’re right. I’m a bitch.

There was a long pause broken by Nathan’s voice, horribly monotone and stripped of feeling. ‘If we have time – and I have no idea how long this is going to take – then maybe, maybe I’ll do it.’ He sighed loudly. ‘You should have told me.’

‘You’re right,’ Jen replied. ‘No more excuses. I’m sorry.’

There, deep in the Shiryaevo Vault, buried under tonnes of limestone, Jennifer Logan felt something she hadn’t for a long time: a genuine, personal connection. She wanted to tell him that she really
was
sorry – and that, perhaps more importantly, that she cared about him.

* * *

Victor Reyland’s sleep was interrupted by his neural comms tugging at his consciousness, lifting him out of his selected dream. He was annoyed until he noticed the caller’s name.

<
Zido Zitagi.
>

Reyland cleared his throat and answered.

‘Were you asleep?’ Zitagi asked.

‘I was.’ He tapped the light next to his bed and checked the time. 2.05am. ‘This better be good.’

‘It is. We’ve found her.’

‘Logan?’ he asked.

‘Yes, Sir.’

‘Where?’

‘Samara, Russia. Picked up her image on a mind sweep, local trapper in the Zhiguli Mountain Range. She got caught in a storm, took shelter.’

Victor Reyland was fully awake now and calculating options. ‘Shiryaevo? The Vault?’

‘Yes, Sir. She’s already there.’

‘If she lets loose with the Histeridae in that Vault, we could have a serious situation on our hands. Governments and major corps pay good money for their data to be secure.’

‘I know, Sir, I understand.’

‘We can’t afford an incident, Zitagi.’

‘I understand,’ she said again.

‘What the hell does she think she’s going to achieve? That place is impenetrable.’ He paused a beat. ‘Even with that
device
. There’s no way she’s getting anything.’ It was a statement and somehow also a question.

‘We have her trapped.’ Zitagi said. ‘We can contain her, bring her in and –’

‘She’s inside?’ he interrupted. ‘You’re sure?’

‘Yes. Posing as a technician.’

‘Alright.’ Reyland composed himself.

‘Sir, what
are
the risks?’ Zitagi asked. ‘If she did manage to steal something and escape, what secrets do we have down there?’

Reyland frowned. He could sometimes forget there was so much she didn’t know. He often thought it was a strange game they were made to play.

‘Zitagi,’ he said, his mind made up. ‘Authorise a strike team. Even if she does find something, make sure she doesn’t leave with it.’ Reyland sighed. ‘Are you sure this blocker of yours is going to work?’

‘Absolutely. She won’t stand a chance.’

‘Keep me informed,’ Reyland said and hung up.

Finding a way to block the Histeridae had cost the lives of three people. That in itself didn’t concern Zido. What did was her inability to test the newly developed technology. She was confident it would work, but the only way to truly know was to go up against Logan.

Her sighting had been confirmed seven hours ago. Zitagi hadn’t waited for approval. She immediately began preparing everything, hoping Reyland would authorise her initiative. Her strike team were assembled in readiness. It would take them fifteen minutes to reach the vault.

She looked around the busy command centre at the team of operators initiating the mission,
her
mission. A central screen displayed a team of soldiers running towards two combat helicopters. Reyland had decided Zitagi was ready for bigger things and the recovery of the Histeridae would validate his decision. She would take it back and Jennifer Logan would be dead. Failure wasn’t anywhere near her mind.

You’re trapped, Logan,
Zitagi thought and smiled, her tongue flicking across her dry lips.

Trapped like a rat.

Chapter 49

Nathan was nearly done. He’d found Conrad Fowler too but wasn’t going to tell Jen that. He was still seething at her
extra
request. He pulled his eyes away from the screen and blinked, gazing around the bare hotel room. A packed case was placed in the centre, bathed in the tangerine glow of the collective heaters. He would finish here, pick her up and they would head to the safe house. There they would wait two weeks for things to die down, for security to become lax. He rubbed his face and turned back to the screen. It was flashing. Multiple alerts.

‘Shit,’ he said, dropping all thoughts of planning, of success.

‘What?’ Jen asked.

‘Shit, shit shit.’ His voice was accelerating. ‘No!’

‘Talk to me, Nathan. What is it?’

‘You need to get out of there.’ He swallowed, his throat clicking loudly. ‘They’ve initiated a silent lockdown, a manual shutdown of the main frame. All doors, exits, and systems.’ He tapped ferociously. ‘I’ve got 60 seconds max before they lock me out.’

Nathan watched his link to the server disappear. They had found what they came for. Secret files. Baden, the Government, Histeridae project files. He needed to park all of that now. The only thing
he
had was a list of files. The actual data was on the drive in Jen’s hand. He needed to get her back safely or it was all for nothing.

Jen’s mind was racing, her body tingling with adrenalin.

Silent lockdown?

‘Then… they know we’re here,’ she said slowly.

The guards below her looked up, eyes darting, clearly listening to unseen voices. It wouldn’t take them long to reach her. There were no sirens, no flashing lights, nothing to worry an intruder. A silent lockdown meant they
knew
she was here but didn’t want to alert
her
to the fact. Nathan had given her a chance, and if she was quick, she might be able to use it.

‘How could they know?’ Nathan screamed. ‘I was so careful!’

‘It’s not your fault,’ Jen replied, the face of the trapper who saved her flashing into her mind.

I should never have let him go.

Jen grabbed the device from under the table. ‘Just get me out of here.’

She had counted three guards and the first was already inside, pistol raised, shuffling towards her. Another followed. She guessed the other one was hiding behind the doorway. He popped his head out confirming her suspicion.

The nearest guard closed in and Jen noticed his hands were shaking. They didn’t expect anyone to break in, let alone get this far.

‘You can’t escape,’ the guard said, sounding like he was trying to persuade himself, too.

Below, Jen saw the droid, large and heavy. It couldn’t move to her level. Her relief was temporary, though, as it flashed a blue laser across a console on a nearby wall. With a loud metallic scraping sound, steel security shutters began to descend from gaps in the ceiling. The guard’s expressions turned from shock to panic as the shutters descended rapidly on all sides around them. Jen raised her hands, lit red by security lights as the metal sheets completed their journey, trapping her and two guards inside.

The Histeridae’s tendrils flickered and spun around the cylindrical tomb, unseen by all except her. Flashes of blue and purple danced around and then through the guards. Jen made her selection, the weaker of the two: Leo Guskov. Leo had no idea why he ordered Mikhail, his colleague, to drop his gun and kick it away. Mikhail shook his head and asked why Leo would betray him like this. They had worked together for over two years, made jokes, managed against all odds to find some fun down there in the depths. Leo had even eaten a meal at Mikhail’s home. Leo raised his gun and asked again. As the gun skidded past her feet, Jen resisted the temptation to grab the weapon. As the guards continued confused talk of betrayal and broken trust, she asked Nathan for a way out.

‘There isn’t one. I can’t control those shutters.’ Nathan’s voice was robotic and broken.

‘Are you locked out completely?’ Jen asked.

‘Not yet, but it won’t be long. I’m opening doors on other levels where I can. You just need to get there.’

Just,
Jen thought, deciding it was time to turn things up a notch. She turned on Leo Guskov.

‘How do you open the door?’ she screamed into his mind.

His expression turned to abject horror. He clearly had no idea how this woman was doing these things. He blinked, a tear streaking down his cheek, followed by another. Jen crept towards him, her face bathed in the blood-red security lights. She could read Leo Guskov’s mind. He was convinced he was being controlled by some kind of she-devil, the mind from the stories his father read to him as a child, stories of demons and evil spirits. Jen used it and transformed into the demon from his darkest fears. She approached him, her face red, eyes like black wet marbles.

‘Tell me how to open them!’ Jen boomed into the corners of his brain. ‘Or I burn the flesh from your bones.’

‘It’s a timed door,’ Leo sobbed. ‘T – timed door… it’s impossible.’