Embedded (39 page)

  Falk fired wildly along the shelf. He couldn't seem to hit anything. He loosed three shots before he made a contact, and then it was only the cliff overhang. He brought chunks of it crashing down, driving the special-ops team back a few steps.

  "Come on! Get into cover, you fucktard!" Rash yelled. He got down on one knee beside Falk and loosed two bursts with his PAP, followed by a pair of AP grenades from the undermount. The grenades blew in amongst the hostiles, killing at least one of them with a storm of highdensity shrapnel shot.

  Rash grabbed Falk and dragged him back along the shelf. There was a cavity ten yards along, a square cut opening in the rock like a cave. Rash pulled him into it.

  "How the fuck are you alive?" Falk asked.

  "We ditched the truck," said Rash, "nowhere to go. We figured hiding was a better idea."

  "All of you got out?"

  Rash didn't reply. He didn't have to. Rash didn't leave people behind.

  They ran deeper into the cave. It was a tunnel, a side spur drilled and beam-cut into the rock. An exploratory channel? A lot of effort had been put into it.

  "What is this?" Falk asked.

  "It's better than outside, is what it is," replied Rash. "It was the best option."

  They ran on. There was no immediate sound of pursuit. There was a barrier ahead of them, a serious, heavy-duty glass door installed at great expense.

  "What is this?" Falk repeated.

  "I'm guessing work access to one of the specialist mines," replied Rash. He had already forced the lock of the glass hatch to let the others through. He held the hatch open for Falk. It was heavy, like an airlock seal. Inside the hatchway there was a ring of sensor panels.

  "I think they found a seam of something pretty fancy down here," said Rash. "Extro-transition, something like that. They must have been scanning the engineers in and out to make sure they didn't exit with pockets full of the good stuff to make a little on the side."

  There was no power. The cut had been abandoned and sealed with the hatch. There was still a lingering afterscent of Insect-Aside in the cold air, as if the place had once been pressurised and ventilated. Falk guessed that was to pump water out and clear the workface.

  They caught up with Preben and the girls. Only Preben and Tal, wearing glares, could see them in the low light. Tal quickly reassured Milla and Lenka. They were struggling with Bigmouse.

  Falk and Rash took over, taking an end of the sling each.

  "Where's Valdes?" asked Preben.

  "Not coming," replied Falk.

  "Someone is, though," said Rash. Far away and behind them, they could hear activity.

  "Keep going," Falk said, struggling with the weight. "We'll find a defensible position. Halt there. Maybe then we can find another route out. This place was pressurised but there was no pipework or venting at the mouth. There could be another duct in, maybe a service port for heavier machines or ore extraction."

  "It gets bigger up ahead," said Tal. "A bigger space."

  The square-cut shaft opened out into the bigger space, a natural cavity in the rock. There was a route through it, walkboarded, which led to an even larger natural cavern, a vast and echoey chapel of rock. In the entrance area, sorted and stacked neatly, was mining equipment, toolcrates, spoil carts and other excavation kit.

  They carried Bigmouse in, set him down and made him comfortable. Falk had almost forgotten what Bigmouse's voice sounded like. He didn't expect to hear it again. He looked at the immense cavity surrounding them.

  It was cool and black, with a faint hint of damp. Falk had never felt so hidden, so enclosed. He closed his eyes to escape the green glow of the low-light vision for a second.

  He had found peace and security, if only for a few minutes.

  "What the hell?" said Tal.

  Falk opened his eyes again and looked for her.

  She had gone further into the underground space, right up to a metal safety rail positioned to prevent workers blundering off the rock platform of the entrance area and falling into the bottom of the main cave.

  He limped over to reach her. Rash came with him. They stopped at the rail alongside her and looked out into the body of the main cavern. They saw what was lying there in the cave, half-buried, half dug out.

  They saw it, but they didn't really understand it. It took a moment before they realised what the thing they were looking at had to be.

  "Oh my God," said Rash.

  It was right there in front of them, in the rock.

  Embedded.

THIRTY-TWO

"There's some fucking weird noises coming from up there," Preben said.

  "What do you mean?" Rash asked, too preoccupied to be really interested.

  "Sounds like a fucking firefight," said Preben. "A full-on shoot up. You didn't leave Valdes up there fighting a crazy fucking rearguard action, did you?"

  "No," said Falk.

  "Well, I'm telling you, there's something going on. What are you all looking at?"

  "Well, that," said Falk.

  Preben looked.

  "I don't get it. What is it?"

  "I'm not entirely sure," said Falk.

  "So who the fuck cares? It's just rock."

  "I don't think it's rock," said Rash.

  "I think everyone's going to care," said Falk. "And that's the whole point."

  He turned and looked at Rash.

  "I'm going back up. See what's happening. Keep everybody here."

  "I can come with you."

  "Keep everybody here, safe, Rash. And keep an eye on

this. I'm going to do everything I can to get us all out of this."

  "What,
now
you can do that?" asked Rash. "Why couldn't you do that before?"

  "Because the game just changed," Falk replied. "Everything just changed. Now we know what's at stake."

He headed back up the long, sloping tunnel from darkness towards the light. There was probably, he decided, something terribly symbolic about the walk he was taking, something he could work effectively into a later account. He didn't honestly care.

  "Did you hear any of that?" he asked.

  "Are you freeking
^®
kidding?" Cleesh asked. "That was all a joke, right? A freeking
^®
joke. Right, Falk?"

  "No joke, Cleesh. No joke. Feed it to Noma, all of it. Feed everything from me to her until I stop sending."

  "Why the freek
^®
do you think you'll stop sending, Falk?" Cleesh asked.

  "Because I don't know what's waiting for me up there," he said.

He pushed through the glass hatch. He could smell outdoor air, smoke. He could feel a breeze. There was a square of pale light ahead. When he came out onto the shelf walkway over the pit, he felt the rain on his skin again, smelled the damp. Columns of filthy black smoke were pouring into the air from behind the refabs. Stuff had happened over in the site yards. Now and then, the flames were big enough to dance into sight above the line of the roof.

  Falk heard chopwash. He pressed into the cliff wall, wary. In close formation, two boomers droned overhead. They approached through the curtain of black smoke, rippling it, unveiling themselves, and flew on over the quarry towards the southern part of the site. A third Boreal followed them a few seconds later.

  SOMD troopships.

  He was approaching the metal steps when his glares began to tag aura codes. Bodies were moving in, approaching him. He saw twenty or thirty ID tags, clustered, dancing, moving towards him from the yards.

  "SOMD!" he yelled. "SOMD friendly over here!"

  Troopers appeared, dressed like him, armoured like him, but all much cleaner and fresher. The first of them fanned out at the top of the metal steps, covering him with their weapons.

  "SOMD!" Falk repeated, in case his brooch wasn't working.

  Their aim didn't waver.

  "Put the weapon down!" one of them ordered. "Put it the fuck down beside you, kneel, and raise your hands."

  "SOMD!" Falk protested.

  "Do it! Comply, or we drop you!"

  He bent down, laid the M3 on the ground and settled onto his knees despite the pain in his hip. He put his hands on his head, his fingers laced against his wet scalp.

  Some of the troopers scurried down the steps and surrounded him.

  "SOMD," he repeated. "Private Nestor Bloom, Team Kilo out of Lasky."

  "You alone, Bloom?" asked the squad leader. His tag identified him as Essley. "Anyone with you?"

  "I've got people with me, Essley," he replied.

  "How many? Where are they?"

  "I want a guarantee of their safety before I tell you where they are."

  "Fuck's he think he is?" asked one of the troopers covering him.

  "I think I'm SOMD personnel, and I think I'm a little fucked off at the treatment I'm getting," said Falk.

  "Should I pop the sunbitch?" one of the troopers asked. Falk tensed suddenly. There was no missing the fact it had a genuine suggestion.

  "Don't be a dick, Benet," replied the squad leader. "There's a procedure."

  "A procedure?" asked Falk. "What kind of fucking procedure?"

  "The kind where you shut the fuck up," replied the squad leader. "This whole situation is in the control of SO Human Services, and that means it's a few trillion miles above your head."

  "What's Human Services?" Falk asked. He'd never heard of it. But he could guess.

  "Human Services is us," said the trooper, Benet.

  "Back off, Benet," said the leader. "This is an ultra-high confidence operation, Bloom. It is Bloom, right?"

  "Yeah," said Falk.

  "Ultra-high confidence, you understand?" asked Essley. "There are certain matters at stake. Issues we have to deal with."

  "I understand," said Falk. He risked a look up at Essley. The man was clean-shaven, thin-lipped, lean, anonymous behind his glares.

  "I understand," Falk repeated. "I've seen what's down there."

  The men around him muttered. The one called Benet swore.

  "You've seen it?" Essley asked.

  "Yes."

  "You understand what it is?" Essley asked.

  "I don't seem to be as retarded as some of the men in your command," said Falk.

  "You seem pretty fucking dumb to me," replied Essley. "You've just talked your way into much deeper shit." He turned to one of the other men.

  "We may need to arrange rendition here," he said.

  "Why fucking bother with that?" asked Benet. "We should just clean house."

  Essley looked back at Falk.

  "How many of you are there, Bloom?" he asked. "How many have seen it?"

  "Why? Are you going to silence all the inconvenient witnesses?" asked Falk. "Scorch all the expendables? I thought that was the Central Bloc method. I understand what this is, Essley. US-sponsored SO efforts to effect cover-up, thus protecting US interests. It won't stand, and it won't work."

  "Really?" laughed Benet. It was not a humorous laugh. "But you're the one kneeling in the mud with a gun at his head."

  "I know something you don't," said Falk. "So the faster you wake up to the idea that you need me alive, the better it will be for you."

  "Start talking," said Essley.

  "Not to you," Falk replied. He looked past Essley at the huddle of SOMD personnel behind him, hunting for the code he'd seen a few minutes earlier when they first approached. "I won't talk to you, Essley. But I'll talk to her."

  "Who?" asked Essley.

  "Her. Tedders."

  Tedders pushed to the front beside Essley.

  "He wants you," said Essley, frowning.

  "Do I know you?" Tedders asked, looking down at Falk. "Bloom, yeah? I think I saw you at Lasky."

  "I'm going to stand up," said Falk. Essley nodded. No one stopped Falk from rising. He faced Tedders. He realised he was seeing her at a different angle from the last time they'd met.

  "I don't know you," she repeated. "Except by sight."

  "So let's have a conversation," said Falk. "Get to know one another."

  "Why?"

  "Because I have a position to communicate," he replied. "It was going to be a hard sell, a really hard one. But seeing you gives me a tiny chance to make it easier."

  Tedders glanced at Essley, then stepped away from the group with Falk. They walked a short way along the shelf, the members of the special unit waiting and watching them intently.

  "So, you're Human Services, huh?" he said.

  "What's it to you?" replied Tedders. "Human Services has no public remit. It is not an acknowledged department. No accountability."

  He looked up at the rain.

  "No accountability, huh?"

  "That's right."

  "How many times has this happened, Tedders?" he asked.

  "This?"

  "Yes."

  "It's never happened. That's why it's a big deal. Now what can I do for you?"

  "Humour me for a second. Seberg found it by accident, didn't he? Kept it hidden while he worked out how to parlay it into the best result for him?"

  "Yes."

  "How long ago?"

  "A few years, as far as we can tell."

  "And the SO found out because somebody let it slip, and wanted the whole thing secure. But some of Seberg's speculative partners from the Bloc had already got wind of it."

  "That's not how I'd care to characterise it," she said.

  "There was a counter-intelligence war to discover the actual location of the site, because Seberg had kept that detail hidden to protect his prize. That war escalated into a real war."

  She stared at him, compact and unmoving.

  "You remind me of someone," she remarked.

  "I know I do. And I'm right, aren't I?"

  "I couldn't comment."

  He grinned.

  "The SO is backing the US in a secret war against the Bloc to locate and achieve private control of the most valuable find in history."

  "There's never been anything like it," said Tedders. "Three hundred years, hundreds of worlds, and finally we find proof of the one thing we no longer thought was possible. It changes
everything
."