Landfall (The Reach, Book 2) (21 page)

“Yes.”

“Once you’re in, keep walking.  Don’t look back.  Head over to the northern end, toward the maintenance area, and we’ll come looking for you there.”

“But aren’t you taking the barrels outside–?”

“No.  Once you’re through I’ll pretend to receive new orders in my earpiece, telling us to bring the barrels back inside again.  That way we all end up on the right side of the gates.”

“Hmm.  Yeah, okay.  If you think so.” 
She sounded decidedly uncertain.

“Are you happy with all of that?”

“Well, it sounds good in theory
–
”

“I’ll take that as a yes.”

“I’ll trust you on it, Knile.  What other choice do I have?”

“That’s the spirit,” Knile said, trying his best to sound calm and confident.  “Now, we have to get these barrels moving.  See you soon.”

“See you.”

He hung up and slipped the holophone back inside the suit, then pulled the gas mask down over his face.

“You ready?” he called to Roman, his voice reverberating inside the mask.  The boy nodded and gave him the thumbs up.  “Good.  Let’s go.”

Knile leaned his weight upon the broad pallet truck that held the barrels, moving with exaggerated care to give the impression that it really was a load of radioactive waste that was being carted.  Taking a number of twists and turns over the course of several minutes, they then passed out of the mai
ntenance area and into the wide-
open spaces of the Reach’s ground floor, where a constant stream of workers and vendors were moving about in all directions.  Knile and Roman were given more than one odd glance, and several of those who had been headed into their path made obvious changes of course in order to give them a wide berth, their eyes fixed worriedly on the radiation symbols clearly stamped on the exterior of the barrels.

Knile lifted one hand and pointed.  “There.  Gate Twelve.”

They changed course and Roman lifted a hand to steady one of the barrels.

“What happens if this doesn’t work?” he said through his mask.

“Then we try something else.”

“What if they start asking me stuff?”

“Just stand there and look official.  Let me do the talking.”

As they approached Gate Twelve, one of the Enforcers who was standing there caught sight of the two men in hazmat suits out of the corner of his eye and blanched noticeably.

“Hey, what the fuck are you doing?” he demanded, walking toward them and waving his hands in a mild panic.  “This area is for processing of civilians only, you can’t bring that shit through here.”

Knile pulled back on the pallet truck and slowed its momentum, then brought it to a halt.

“Don’t you think I know that?” Knile shot back, adopting an irritated tone of voice.  “This route is twenty minutes out of my way.  I should be on lunch by now.”

“Turn it around,” the Enforcer said curtly.  “Get it out of my sight.”

“No can do,” Knile said.  “This exit is our only option.”

The Enforcer advanced menacingly.  “I said get this shit out of here.  Take it through the containment facility over at Eastern Pier.”

“Can’t,” Knile said, throwing up his arms, exasperated.  “Damn elevator malfunction means we can’t
get it through Corridor Ninety-S
even.  We’re blocked off.”

He looked over the Enforcer’s shoulder, and through the gates he could see the dwindling line-up of folk trying to gain access to the Reach.  The queue was always much shorter in the afternoon as the gates prepared to shut down for the night.

There was no sign of Talia.

“Then take it back to storage,” the Enforcer said.

“Can’t do that either,” Knile replied, turning his attention back to the man before him.  “These barrels have been sitting around too long and the seals are wearing out.  I have instructions to get them out of here today at all costs.”

“What?” the Enforcer said, staring down at the barrels in horror.  “These things are
leaking?
”

“Yeah.  What a damn mess, huh?”

The Enforcer backed away.  “Take them back where you came from.  Right now.”

“Listen,” Knile said reasonably, “you’ve probably already eaten a few rads in the time we’ve been talking.  Why don’t we keep discussing it until your teeth fall out?”  Knile crossed his arms and shrugged.  “Fine by me.  I’m wearing the suit.”

The Enforcer glanced back over his shoulder at the gate, then at the barrels again.

Come on, Talia.  Where are you?

There was still nothing outside but a cluster of unfamiliar faces peering in to see what all the fuss was about.

“There’s a loader that’s going to swing by out there in about two minutes to take these away,” Knile said.  “If we don’t make it by then, they’re going to be sitting around for a lot longer.”  He glanced at a vacant space over by a nearby wall and pointed.  “I could park it there if you want?”

The Enforcer’s resolve crumbled.

“Simmons,” he called, “reconfigure the gate.  We need it widened to allow these barrels through.”

A female Enforcer looked up from where she’d been checking the ID of a newcomer at the entrance, uncertain.

“Uh…”

“Just do it, Constable.  Right away.”

“Okay, Sarge.  Whatever you say.”

Simmons left her post and began to tap on a terminal screen that was located nearby.  A cluster of square panels in the gate began folding inward, providing an increased space through which the pallet truck could fit.

“There, go!” the sergeant barked, waving his hand at Knile.  “Go!”

“Nice and gentle,” Knile said, easing forward.  “We don’t want these to–”

He stopped, his words catching in his throat.

Out through the gate he could see Talia appear seemingly out of nowhere, shouldering her way through the queue.  She looked frazzled and weary, with dark circles unde
r her eyes and strands of blonde
hair sticking out from the loose ponytail she’d tied behind her head.  In fact, she looked as though she were on the verge of collapse.

But Knile saw relief in her eyes as she spotted the hazmat suits as well.  Relief, and beneath the tiredness, a kind of delight.

“Hey, watch it!” the sergeant said as Knile began to veer off course.  Knile pulled back on the handle to slow its momentum.

“Whoa, damn!” he called.  He watched as Talia moved closer amidst the protests of the others in line.  “Sorry about that.  This thing handles like a boulder on a pile of marbles, y’know what I’m saying?”

“Pay attention, asshole!” the sergeant said.

Knile glanced at Roman, and the boy nodded surreptitiously.  It was time for the diversion.

“Wait a minute!” Knile called in mock panic, and everyone seemed to freeze.  “What the hell is that?”

“What?” the sergeant said, glancing around wildly.

“That barrel.  It looks like the lid’s come loose!  Did you touch it?”

“Fuck no, of course I didn’t touch it!” the sergeant yelled.  Simmons and the other Enforcer on the gate now had their eyes glued to the men in hazmat suits.  “Get this piece of shit out of my goddamn gate before our toes start falling off!”

Suddenly Roman lurched forward and stopped just short of the gate, startling the Enforcers around him.

Roman, keep it cool
, Knile thought angrily.  He reached out to grab the boy, but then he heard a muffled scream and looked out through the gate.

A man had grabbed Talia by the hair and was hauling her backward, away from the gate.  She let out another cry of pain as he wrenched her again, almost pulling her from her feet.

Talia fumbled for something at her back but couldn’t seem to reach it.

Now Knile stepped forward and joined Roman just inside the gate.  The Enforcers were oblivious to what was going on outside, having eyes only for the radioactive barrels in front of them.

“What are you two fucksticks doing?” the sergeant said, gripping Knile by the shoulder and turning him around.  “I said get–”

Knile saw the man lifting Talia into a headlock, then a second appeared and clasped his hands around her flailing legs.

She’s not going to make it.

Knile responded instinctively, shouldering his way past the Enforcers and then pushing his way through the crowd outside.  He ripped the gas mask from his head and dropped it in the dust, then turned to call back to Roman.

The boy was already following hot on his heels.

As they reached the two men struggling with Talia, Knile launched himself at the first, a large man with a bald head and a bronze ring in his left ear.  With the thug’s attention on Talia, Knile managed to get the drop on him, and he caught him just under the ribcage with a savage blow that knocked him aside.  With her legs free, Talia regained some of her equilibrium, and she managed to swing the man at her back to one side.  Roman reached the fracas and thrust out a foot, catching the man between the legs and causing him to grunt in pain and drop to the ground.  Talia swivelled nimbly on one foot and lashed out with her boot, connecting with the man’s jaw.  There was a loud crack and he ended up face down in the dust, unmoving.

The bald man was getting to his feet, pistol drawn, but Knile came at him again and shouldered him, knocking the gun out of his hand.  Knile tried to take a swing at the man, but his movements felt awkward and restricted in the hazmat suit, like he was submersed in water, and there was no power in the blow.  The bald man struck back, delivering a glancing blow to Knile’s head that knocked him onto the ground.  The man raised his fist, lining Knile up for another blow, but before he could make it
, Talia’s boot came from nowhere and smashed into his cheekbone, sending him sprawling on all fours with blood pouring from his face.

Knile looked up to see Talia standing over him, her hand outstretched.

“Who’s saving who here?”  S
he grinned down at him, breathing heavily through her respirator.

Knile took her hand and got to his feet, offering her a nod of thanks.

“We’re saving
you
,” he said, gingerly touching his face.  He turned back to the bald man, but suddenly Roman appeared at their side.

“Enforcers,” he gasped.  “They’re coming.”

Knile looked back at the crowd, and sure enough, no less than five Enforcers were heading their way to investigate what was going on.

Knile’s mind whirred at a frenetic pace, desperately searching for an angle he could use to talk their way out of this mess, but he couldn’t think of one.  The Enforcers would want to know what had happened and who had been involved, and why the waste disposal men had suddenly abandoned their job to help a strange woman outside the gates.

There would be no explanation for that, and no way to sneak Talia  through.  The game was up.

“We have to run,” Knile said, stripping rapidly out of his hazmat suit.  Roman took only a fraction of a second to respond before doing the same.

“You guys should go back,” Talia said, aggrieved.  “Just leave me out here.”

“No,” Knile said sharply, shrugging his legs out of the suit.  “We’re in this together now.  We’ll come back tomorrow, or next week, or whatever it takes.  If we try to go back now we’ll be arrested.”

They were already beginning to run as Roman discarded the last of his suit.  A revolver lay in the dust, and Talia reached down and scooped it up as she went past.

Then they were jostling their way through the crowd with the sound of the Enforcers’ voices at their backs.

21

Eryk Capper stood inside the dilapidated Enforcer barracks, a place that had been long deserted but which still retained the stink of the men in black who had once occupied the space within its walls.  It was as if the essence of them had somehow leached into the water-stained gyprock and now clung there doggedly, refusing to shift despite the passage of time and the rents in the ceiling through which the outside air wafted down.

It was not an entirely pleasant place in which to wait, but it was quiet and deserted, and it was neutral ground.  That was all that mattered.

Capper glanced back at his men, who were spread across the room in roughly equal spacing several steps apart.  Crumb was nearest, looking even more haggard and unhealthy than usual.  The man had searched for the escapee longer and harder than anyone else, and Capper knew why.  It was Crumb who had vouched for the kid, Winny, when he had joined the crew.  Crumb had assured them all that, although he was young, the kid would do a good job.

And then Winny had failed in the most spectacular fashion possible, allowing a woman who had been bound and subdued to escape.  It was a task that had been impossible to mess up, and somehow Winny had done just that.

Crumb flicked his eyes nervously over to Capper, aware of the other man’s scrutiny.  He swallowed visibly and looked away again.