Dark Star (27 page)

“Essie,” he said quietly, “I think it’s the only way.”

“You can’t be serious? Riley–”

“If she can get the plans, she can upload them to the implant,” he said. “She’ll be able to bring them out.”

“You mean the implant that’s not working,” Pip said.

“It will work and the serum Cassie made will keep it stable long enough for you to carry the plans safely,” Riley said.

Rosie swallowed. “But I tried to access the implant with the Helios machine, and it couldn’t do it.”

“Because I turned the receptors off in the nanos, so Helios wouldn’t be able to mess with it. I can tell you how to switch them back on. It’s simple.”

“Jesus Christ, Riley, no!” Pip was furious. “Rosie, I’m not letting you go.”

“We’ll get her out,” Riley said. “And they won’t harm her; I’ll make sure of it. I will contact Jebediah. I know a way to ensure he keeps her alive.”

“Yeah, I’ve heard that before,” Pip said bitterly.

So had Rosie. The last time it had been Riley deciding to give himself up, to sacrifice his life to Helios, to save hers. It hadn’t worked out that way, but she knew he would do it because Riley believed in giving all for his cause, for those who needed him.

“Tell me how to fix the nanos,” she said.

“Rosie.” Essie’s voice was quiet, pained.

“It’s okay,” Rosie said. “I won’t be alone. Dalton is still there, and another girl, Gillian. I know I can count on her. And Sulawayo–”

“Sulawayo is either dead or she’s taken off. She wouldn’t have hung around after pulling a gun on her boss,” Pip said. “And Dalton and Gillian are either dead or in a cell by now. And they’ll do the same to you as soon as you go back in. How are you going to do anything?”

“I’ll find a way. Like Riley said, I still have information they want. They have to get rid of the last Pantheon member. She’s too much of a risk to leave her out in the wind.”

“How do you know they didn’t make her disappear already?” Pip said.

“They haven’t,” Riley said. “I’m sure of it. And I’ll make sure they think she’s still around. I can do things from here, Pip, or have you forgotten?”

Pip made a disgusted noise and swore under his breath then walked away. Rosie did her best to ignore him. “I’m sorry, Aunt Essie,” she said. “Riley, tell me what to do with the nanos.”

It was as simple as he said. Her aunt hated the idea, but Rosie tried to assure her she would be okay. When she turned the com off though, she felt she had barely convinced herself, much less anyone else.

Pip was fiddling with the bike, tension clear in the set of his shoulders, his movements jerky with anger. She took a hesitant step towards him.

“Pip?”

“Stefan will be back any minute. We’ve got to get ready to go,” he said.

A terrible ache filled her chest. “Pip, you can’t come.”

He didn’t stop putting the gear he’d dropped on the ground back in the bike.

She put a hand on his arm. “Stop–”

He whirled around. “You’re not going back there alone, Rosie. They’ll kill you.”

“I am. I have to. I need to fix this.”

His mouth hardened. “Not going to happen.”

“Pip?”

“No.” His face twisted with pain. “Why do you do this, Rosie?” he said fiercely. “Why do you have to be some goddamn heroic? I can’t–” His lips compressed. “First you run off, without telling me, deliberately not telling me, now you’re doing it again and you don’t want me with you. I’m not some useless–” He stopped, his breath shaky. “I know I’m injured, but I came back for you. I always do. Why do you keep leaving me behind?”

Tears filled her eyes. “I’m not. It’s not like that,” she whispered. “But I have to do this.”

He stepped close, blue eyes blazing with emotion, and took her face in trembling hands. “Then let me help you. Jebediah needs me as well. That vaccine is only a start. He won’t have the cure without me. I’m your best bargaining chip.”

Rosie felt like her heart might break, and right then, for a second, she wanted nothing more than to jump on the bike and run away with him, go somewhere safe, anywhere but here. But running away didn’t solve anything. She put her hands over his and pulled them away.

“I have to do this alone.”

Hurt and disappoint filled his face and she said, “Pip, it will be more dangerous if you’re with me; they want you too badly. You have to go back to Riley and Essie.”

He stared at her, as if he couldn’t quite believe what she’d said. Then they both heard the distant sound of engines coming towards the ruins.

Rosie backed away. “You have to go.”

“No.” He grabbed for her hand, but he was still weak and she twisted out of his grip. At that moment, Stefan ran back around the corner.

He stopped as he saw them. “What’s going on?”

“Pip, please just get on the bike,” she said. “Stefan can drive.”

“No.” He glared at her with frustration.

She couldn’t bear the pain on his face but he had to understand. “You have to. I’ll be okay.”

The engines were getting closer.

“Come on!” Stefan ran to the bike and started it.

“You can’t help me in there, Pip,” Rosie said. “You’ll only complicate things and there will be two of us Riley has to get out. Besides, Dalton is still there. He will help me, but you can’t, not now. It’s him I need now, not you.”

At that something in his face changed. “Right, Dalton,” he said and a queer anger twisted his lips. She knew he’d react like that; it was why she said it. It had hurt him that she’d confided in Dalton before and not him. It made her hate herself a bit, but she needed him to leave. It worked. He backed away and went to the bike. “Move, I’m driving,” he snapped at Stefan. The boy didn’t argue, shuffling back on the seat.

“Ride fast,” she said.
Be safe
.

He shoved the helmet on his head so she could see only his eyes and it took everything for her to keep standing there. Then he revved the bike, wheeled it around and was gone, heading out into the street, away from the approaching vehicles.

Feeling more alone than ever, Rosie took a deep breath and stepped out to meet the operatives.

Pip kept the jammer on full, sending out a blanketing signal that bounced their location all over the place so they couldn’t pinpoint them. Stefan’s fingers dug into his waist but he barely felt them. Rosie’s expression as she told him to go was burned into his retinas like the halo of a pulse blast. Dalton. Did she really think he believed she trusted Curtis more than him? It made him want to shake her. Didn’t she understand how well he knew her by now? She was doing it to make him leave. Her goddamn hero complex again, thinking she had to do it all, solve it all, on her own. If there hadn’t been the tiniest bit of truth in what she’d said about him causing more problems if he went back there, and if he’d had the strength to pick her up, he would have ignored everything she’d said. But he couldn’t, because, annoyingly, this time she had a point. He was a danger to her but he was damned if he was going to leave her there.

He bent low over the handlebars, squinting behind his helmet through the spray of sand from the tyres. The screen showed vehicles fifty kilometres behind at the limit of the bike’s sensors, but the jammer had forced them to spread out in a wide line, and finding their trail would be slowing them down. He hoped. He should be able to make it to the Desert Bypass before they caught up. The wounds on his torso throbbed and the headache he’d been carrying for the last twenty-four hours was a tight band of pain across his forehead. He was weak, dehydrated and probably running a high risk of infection. He blinked hard, forcing himself to focus. At least the bike was doing most of the work navigating the best ground.

“They’re catching up.” Stefan looked over his shoulder at the screen. The kid had left behind the extra helmet Pip had brought with him, and was no doubt suffering from the wind and dust.

“I know!” Pip replied.

“What?” Stefan yelled. Without the helmet coms he couldn’t hear him. Pip pointed at his helmet and didn’t bother trying again. The kid was right, the dots were getting closer, but now he could see the shadow of the road ahead. The ground was harder packed as well, so he increased their speed, the fat tyres chewing through the sand. Within five minutes, they were bouncing onto the tarmac. Pip revved the bike and cut across in front of a car. It blared a collision alarm at him that faded fast, as he leaned into the sharp corner and sped out to merge with the traffic heading into Newperth.

It was after seven and the morning traffic was building up, the road crowded with transports from farms and the cars of the wealthy east side estate owners. Most of the vehicles were locked into the AI and were keeping the regulation space between them.

Pip wove the bike through the gaps between the other vehicles and checked the screen for their pursuers. He grinned. They were pulling back, not willing to follow and draw attention on the Senate-patrolled road.

His triumph was short lived. A few kilometres along, a control on the bike bleeped and he spotted a Senate-marked pair of bikes in his rear-view screen in pursuit. Senate, my arse, he thought. They had to be more Helios grunts dressed up as Senate to have been on him so fast. The real Senate patrols didn’t have a station this far out. Of course the grunts from the Enclave had pulled back; they had a team waiting on the road.

He flicked on the bike’s turbo and they shot forwards, narrowly avoiding ploughing into the back of a farm transport. The fake Senate bikes immediately blared sirens and sped up. The AI-locked vehicles behind parted like they’d been unzipped.

“They’ve got backup!” Stefan shouted.

“Really, I thought they just liked me,” Pip said, even though he knew he couldn’t hear. He pushed the bike as fast he could, weaving around the cars in front. The grunts were gaining.

“Faster,” Stefan shouted, then pulled out his bullet gun and began firing at them. The sharp crack was loud even through Pip’s helmet.

They weren’t even close enough to be in range. What was the stupid kid doing? He swerved the bike hard around a transport, almost unseating Stefan so he had to stop shooting. It was pointless wasting ammunition and the last thing he needed was the grunts shooting back. They were pushing up to three hundred kilometres per hour now, the rocks and barriers along the road verge and the other cars whipped past in a blur. It took all his concentration to keep them from sliding out and dying in a massive fireball. The bike’s warning systems were blinking into overdrive and the skin of protection was fully extended up to their thighs.

The grunts hung back, keeping out of range of the gun, but they wouldn’t do that for long. Sweat covered his forehead, soaking into the helmet bios. Up ahead, the city glittered in the hot morning sunshine, the Central towers like mirrors reflecting the glare. The rip of the bike’s tyres on the road vibrated up through his body as he swerved it through the traffic. Stefan had stopped firing to hang on, and Pip tried to think through the routes he could take to shake the Helios grunts and get to the Game Pit.

They reached the first buildings of the outer city. Other vehicles slowed, but Pip kept the pace up. It was almost better to attract the attention of the real Senate than get caught by the grunts. But they couldn’t risk it for long. They didn’t need a double pursuit. Feeder roads verged off the main artery and revolving holo signs announced exits as the buildings on either side grew denser and larger. As did the traffic. He slowed to get by them and collision alarms went off all around as he forced his way through. The grunts were starting to gain. The exit for the west Rim flashed. They were expecting him to go there.

As the exit came up, Pip angled the bike like he was going to take it. He watched the grunts behind do the same, parting traffic with the AI so it flowed thicker in the main lanes and left the exit more open. At the last moment, before his front wheel crossed in, Pip swerved back into the expressway revving the bike and nudging into the next lane right into a car. The female driver, wide-eyed with shock, screamed soundlessly at him and the AI immediately detoured it right, but her car AI failed to compensate enough and she slammed into another vehicle. Then it all snowballed. Car after car, and transport alike, smacked sideways into each other across the lanes as the AI tried to arrest the damage. Shrieks of alarms screamed along with the sound of tyres on the tarmac and the whump of collision protectors expanding to protect the inhabitants. It was a pile up, blocking half the expressway and the pursing grunts had to skid to a halt as a farm transport wheeled in a circle right in front of them.

Pip laughed, then coughed and winced in pain. Stefan let out a whoop of triumph and Pip sped the bike up and coasted in along the road towards the towers of Central. The pile up would give them a bit of time, but not much. He peeled the bike away from the traffic at the first Central exit.

Offices and apartments reflected each other above their heads, while below, the walkways were filled with Centrals strolling in their deluded bubbles of safety. The roar of the traffic was behind them now, taken over by the gentler hum of the surrounding solar cars and the whoosh of the shuttles. Unseen were the thousands of invisible eyes, watching them, hooked into the Senate Grid. Helios would have tabs on the Grid; they’d know they were in the city. They didn’t have long to get out of sight. He kept his face front, but tracked all around him and called up a grid of the surrounding area on the bike screen. Eateries, offices, apartments.

There. Cosmetic enhancement parlours, three streets ahead on the right. Pip eased the bike into the outside lane and down the smaller street. Ahead was a ten storey shimmering tower. Beautiful images of perfected people gazed down smiling and laughing silently while offers for enhancements scrolled beneath.

Pip drove the bike into the entrance, heading underground to the transport bays. The light dimmed to artificial. Underneath was a vast cavern of solar courtesy cars and AI luxury transports. Only a few people were around, all heading for the elevator tubes to the parlour. He brought the bike to a stop against the far wall and pulled off his helmet.