Outside In (22 page)

Logan opted to crawl over and I worried he would fall. He reached it, but not without cursing. We climbed to level four and entered the air shafts. Quad A4 appeared to be deserted, but I wasn’t going to trust my eyes.

Removing the vent without making a sound, I poked Zippy Too into the room. A red light glowed on his head.

“Motion sensors,” Logan whispered.

I flipped the white switch on the troll’s body and the light turned green. Lowering him to the ground, I followed. Then Logan climbed from the shaft. He headed toward the safe and removed a small device from his pocket. While he opened the heavy safe, I reprogrammed the lock on the main door.

So far so good. One problem remained—bypassing the weight sensor on the floor of the safe. Logan worked on the sensor and I counted at least thirty stunners and six kill-zappers inside.

“It’s off,” he said.

“Get back into the duct, I’ll hand you weapons. There’s a laundry chute about two meters east,” I said.

He grumbled about all the climbing, but he scaled the wall like a pro. I handed him two at a time, waited while Logan dropped them down the chute and returned for two more.

Working together, we managed to empty the safe. We also managed to alert the Outsiders. The door’s lock beeped. I glanced at the clock. It had taken us two hours to complete our task.

“Go,” I said to Logan. “Get back to level one.”

“How?”

“Laundry chute. Wait thirty seconds after you send the last weapons. I’ll let them know you’re coming.” I closed the vent and signaled Riley.

More beeps emanated from the door, then pounding and, finally the buzz of a cutter.

“And when can we expect you?” Riley asked.

“I’ll meet you on level five.”

“You better,” he grumped.

I removed the vent from the heating duct as the door flew open. By the time five people rushed into the room aiming their weapons at me, I had the stun bomb in hand. I recognized Phelen, one of Hank’s supervisors.

“Don’t move,” Phelen said.

Counting on my collar’s protection, I yanked the pin on Ivie and Kadar’s stun bomb and rolled it toward the group. They all glanced down, but nothing happened. A dud. Damn.

“Made you look,” I said.

“Ha. Ha.” Phelen deadpanned. He gestured to the door with his stunner. “Let’s—”

A bright flash cut him off. I dove for the heating vent as a wave of energy exploded from the bomb. The glass shards pelted the walls as the men grunted. When quiet returned, I peeked out from the duct. Lying on the floor, Phelen and his team remained motionless. A few sported cuts from the glass.

I checked to make sure the gashes weren’t too deep and they all had strong pulses. Then I removed all their weapons and anything else that looked interesting, like Phelen’s communication device.

Back in the air shaft, I signaled Riley, warning him of incoming and sent my loot down to the laundry room. I kept one stunner. “Any damage?” I asked him.

“One really annoyed Tech No, but otherwise all came through fine. How many did you neutralize?”

“Only five.”

“Better than getting caught. What are you planning now?”

Good question. “I’ll spy around level five. See what we’re up against.”

“Be careful. We’re starting our ascent. Bubba Boom is leading the Quad I team, and I have the Quad A stairs.”

I ghosted through the air shafts on level five for the next hour. No one guarded the brig. It was my first clue of something strange. Groups of Hank’s supporters raced through the hallways, but I didn’t see any Outsiders. And Lamont failed to answer my hail.

Sloan reported success in the air plant.

Riley and Bubba Boom encountered only a token resistance as they secured each level.

The fight to reach Hank’s control room in Quad A5 lasted a mere five minutes. We met up outside the double doors. They opened without trouble.

The control room appeared the same. Banks of computers. Half completed consoles leaking wires. And Hank, sitting in the big captain’s chair in the center. He was alone.

“RIGHT ON TIME,” HANK SAID.

“For what?” I asked.

“Nothing. Absolutely nothing. All thanks to you,” he said.

Riley and Bubba Boom flanked Hank, but he was unarmed. All his supporters had been stunned, but a threat still hung in the air.

“Okay, I’ll bite. What are you talking about?” I asked.

“The Controllers have made some changes to their plans. They’ve acknowledged their growing sterility so they’re going to keep that transport full of people alive to breed with. That’s the good news.”

“And the bad?”

“They’re going to clean house.” Hank swept his arm out, indicating all the people standing in the control room. “They’re going to kill us all.”

“How?” Riley asked. “We have the air plant.”

“They’re going to hide in those transport ships and turn the power plant off,” Hank said.

No power meant no electricity, no heat and no pumps to move the air around. It would be a slow death. So much for not wanting to dispose of corpses.

“How?” I gestured to the computers. “They don’t have control of the network.”

“They don’t need all this for control,” Hank said. “There’s an antenna on the Outside. That’s what they used to hijack our network.” He explained how the Outsiders could communicate with the network without wires.

“Maybe Logan can bypass the power plant controls,” I said. I signaled and asked him to join us.

“Logan’s one sharp fellow,” Hank said. “The Controllers are well aware of his knowledge and don’t plan to wait for us to save ourselves.”

“Why are you telling us all this?” I asked.

“I’m in the same position you’re in. Since I couldn’t handle one small problem,” he glared at me, “I was left behind. Ponife couldn’t handle you either, but that didn’t seem to matter to him.” He continued to stare at me. “You know, Karla was right. I should have kill-zapped you long ago. Before Ponife put that damn collar on you.” Hank mimed shooting me with his finger and thumb.

“Where is Karla?”

“Up with the Controllers. Along with your mother and Jacy.”

Worry mixed with relief. Lamont would be safe with the Outsiders. They would need her expertise if they planned to repopulate.

“What did you mean by the Controllers don’t plan for us to save ourselves?” Riley asked.

“They’re not playing around this time. They’re going to open up Gateway and all our air will blow out into Outer Space. I’m guessing it’ll take us four to six minutes to die of asphyxiation.”

“You don’t seem upset,” I said.

“Well…when your saviors turn out to be thugs from the past and you’ve been nothing but a fool, endangering the entire population of Inside, then dying seems insignificant in comparison.”

I understood the feeling.

“How do we stop them?” Riley asked.

“You can’t. Not in time,” Hank said. “They’re already up in the port.”

“And even if the lift is working, we could only get a few people up there at a time. Easy pickings.” I considered. “What about their transport? Is it still attached to Gateway?”

“No. They flew it up to the port,” Hank said. “All they left is a couple of their space suits and a bunch of empty gas cylinders.”

“Space suits? Can you survive in Outer Space wearing one?” I asked.

“Yes, but that would only save four or five people and not for long. As you said, easy pickings,” Hank said.

He was right. Except I hadn’t been thinking along those lines. “Can you install a sheet of metal over Gateway?”

“It’ll still leak air,” Hank said.

“But it’ll give us some more time.” I glanced at the people who had volunteered to fight. Not many had the arm strength to climb up the Expanse. “And I have an idea. I’ll need those suits, a few volunteers, safety harnesses and some magnets. Can you help us, Hank?”

His considered for a moment, keeping his gaze locked on mine. “Ponife underestimated you. Hell, we all underestimated you. Yes, I’ll help.”

Riley, Sloan and Bubba Boom all volunteered right away. By the time Hank had collected the other supplies we needed, Logan had joined us.

“Logan, do you remember seeing the symbols about the port?” I asked.

“Sure. I read a bunch of them when I was up there. Until the Outsiders came for me.”

I explained my plan to him. “Will it work?”

“It should, but I’d better come along to make sure,” Logan said.

“It’s suicide,” Riley said.

“Do you have any better ideas?” I asked.

“No.”

“Then let’s move.”

Hank shouted orders and we dressed in the Outsiders’ suits. Captain Trava rushed up from the air plant with the gas cylinders now full of our air. We hurried to Gateway before the Outsiders could open it. The code to open it hadn’t changed from when Cog and I had used it—our first lucky break.

The outer door swung open. Squeezing into the inner room, which wasn’t designed for five people in space suits, I gave the signal. Hank and his crew closed the door and would seal it with a sheet of metal. Once he finished with that, he had another job to do.

As the room emptied of air, I explained to the others what to expect and not to panic, trying not to let my own fear taint my voice. Of all my adventures, this was the scariest so far. To keep from floating away, we were all harnessed to magnets which clung to the side wall.

I felt light as the door to Outer Space swung open. My stomach rolled as if I fell from a great height. Various exclamations and curses reached me through my receiver.

Funny thing about Outer Space, I couldn’t hear the door as it opened but I could hear Logan’s voice inside my helmet. He thought he was going to get sick.

“If you puke, try not to cover the glass on your helmet,” was Sloan’s advice to him.

The magnets keeping us attached could be turned off by squeezing the handle. I released one magnet and moved it, then the other, working my way to Outside.

The nothingness didn’t seem so empty this time. Pricks of light dotted the blackness. I ignored the beauty behind me and climbed slowly up the side of Inside. The others followed.

“Don’t let go,” I said again. “One magnet on the metal at all times.”

“Yes, mother,” Logan said.

The climb was easy because we were weightless, but difficult due to our cumbersome suits and magnets. I marveled over the audacity of this attempt, at what—or rather, where—we were. On the outside of Inside. In Outer Space. It was humbling, thrilling and terrifying at the same time.

When we finally reached the top of Inside, we all took a moment to drink in the amazing sight of Outer Space and to catch our breaths.

“Okay, Logan. Do your thing,” I said.

While Logan hunted for the antenna and the override controls, I signaled Lamont. “If you can, it’s time to start acting like my mother.”

The plan was to disable the antenna and then access the override controls for the port’s big bay doors. Once it was activated, the air would empty in the main hangar. From the Video Cameras, we knew the transport full of Insiders remained in the side bay with a dozen Outsiders guarding it.

We hoped the transport of Outsiders was in the hangar. By opening the hangar doors, the bay doors would seal shut, protecting our ship and trapping the rest of the Outsiders in their ship.

Lots of hopes and speculations, but anything was better than waiting around to die.

“It’s a go,” Logan said.

The doors widened. Our second lucky break—the transport was in the hangar. Figures moved behind that strange black metal, which Hank had called metalastic, a combination of metal and something named Plastic, making the vehicle lighter than if it had been made entirely of metal, but just as strong. It also let in the radiation Lamont had talked about, which was why it was only supposed to be used as a temporary transport.

We climbed down into the hangar before the doors closed. Since we had a limited amount of air in our tanks, we couldn’t keep the hangar doors open. Bubba Boom unhooked his welding gun from his tool belt. Air began filling the hangar. It would take some time before we could remove our helmets.

As Bubba Boom headed toward the transport ship’s access hatch, the Outsiders figured out what we planned to do—melt the metalastic so they couldn’t open the hatch and escape their ship.

A long thin tube on the underside of the ship swiveled and pointed at Bubba Boom. I yelled for him to duck as the tube spat out bright disks. Our luck had run out.

“Get in close,” Riley yelled.

Everyone scrambled to get underneath the ship, hoping the gun had a limited turning radius. Bubba Boom remained flat on the ground. Two more guns spun as if searching for targets. Sloan pulled a wrench from his belt and attacked the one gun. Riley grabbed the other, hanging from it with both hands. And I shoved the handle of a screwdriver into the opening of the last one.

Riley’s gun jerked back and forth, shaking him like a toy. Mine belched. The screwdriver shot out and dented the far wall. Only Sloan had success.

“Take out the rest,” I called to Sloan as Riley flew off his. “Before they…”

Too late. The hatch opened. Cold horror froze the sweat on my skin as one then four then seven suited and armed Outsiders poured from the ship. I checked the air pressure gauge that hung on my belt. There still wasn’t enough air for us to shed the space suits. It would have given us a small advantage.

I pulled my knife. The others followed my example except Bubba Boom. He hadn’t moved, but I didn’t have time to worry about him right now.

The Outsiders fanned out, trying to surround us. They held those long tubes Bubba Boom had warned us about.

“Get behind something,” Riley called.

I ducked behind one of the transport’s legs, feeling too big for the first time in my life. Sloan finished bashing the last gun, but it was four against twelve.

“Trella, I admire your tenacity,” Ponife said. His voice echoed from a speaker inside the collar of the helmet. “However, it is time to stop. Surrender and I will allow your cohorts to join the other survivors.”

“No,” Riley said.

“It would be unwise to trust them,” Logan said.

“Thanks for the advice, Logan. Tell me something I didn’t know,” I snapped. Putting my knife on the floor, I glanced around, searching for a way to escape. “This
stinks,
but I don’t think we have a choice. Too bad we didn’t get to the hatch in
time.
”

I walked to the hatch and almost laughed when six Outsiders followed me. Tenacious I may be, and stubborn and maybe even a bit reckless, but I never would consider myself dangerous enough to need six escorts.

We entered the ship. The room was similar to Gateway with another door and a control panel. As the hatch closed behind us, I hoped Riley and the others had gotten my hint. One of the Outsiders punched a few buttons. I repeated the sequence aloud.

Ponife chuckled drily. “Your friends are in custody. No one is left to help you.”

This was the second time he had claimed I was alone and helpless. It didn’t go as he had expected the first time; you’d think he’d learn by now. Or I would. Fear still pulsed through my body.

After a hissing noise vibrated through my suit, the other door opened and we were in an area that resembled a changing room, with empty suits hanging on hooks and shelves full of helmets and gloves.

“Keep your helmet on,” Ponife ordered. “We have no plans to kill you.”

“I feel so
much
better,” I said.

They removed their helmets.

Ponife had perfected his superior expression. “You should be happy. Your mother and friends will all be members of our new combined community.”

“Is she here?” I asked.

“No. She is with the others. Only you will stay with us until our world below is…cleaned.”

“Cleaned? Why don’t you call it what it is? It’s genocide.”

“Because that would be technically inaccurate.”

“That shouldn’t bother you since you’ve gotten a bunch of stuff wrong already.”

“Trivial issues, causing only minor delays.”

“I’m glad you can put a positive spin on what I’d call stupid mistakes.”

Ponife took the bait. “For example…?”

“You assumed that knife was my only weapon.” I pulled the last bomb from my pocket and yanked the pin out.

Rolling it along the floor, I dodged a few Outsiders until one aimed his gun at me and pulled the trigger. One disk clipped my right shoulder, slicing through the suit, my skin and muscles. Fire burned as I lost the use of my right arm in an instant. The air inside my suit leaked through the rip with a high-pitched whistle.

When nothing more happened—damn, a real dud this time—Ponife asked, “Is that it? Do you have anything else?” He yanked me to my feet and took off my tool belt. He strode to one of the cabinets and rummaged. Returning, he slapped a white patch over the hole in my suit.

Pain from the slap mixed with amazement. “Why did you save me?” I asked him.

“I told you before—”

“No plans to kill me. But you said ‘we’ and he…” I pointed with my left hand to the one who still clutched his gun. “He didn’t hesitate. Are you sure
your
plans match the others’? Because that particular idea is another mistake.” I wasn’t being suicidal, really. My will to live throbbed in my heart; I was just hoping to sow a little dissension among the Outsiders.

They glanced at each other until Ponife growled at them to stop. Then an ear-aching alarm sounded. Surprised, their focus shifted to the hatch. I was the only person to see the glass ball flash.

Once again, I flattened my body to the floor. Glass shards pelted my right side as a wave of energy rolled me over to my back. I stared at the ceiling, silently thanking Ivie and Kadar.

“Trella, quit napping while we do all the work.” Logan’s voice filled my helmet.

Riley’s face blocked my view. “Are you hurt?” he asked.

“Nothing Lamont can’t fix,” I said, groaning as I ambled to my feet. Ponife and the other Outsiders had been stunned by the bomb. “How did you two get in here?”

Logan gestured to Riley. “His knife. Sloan’s wrench. Bubba Boom’s surprise recovery. And my genius.” Then he muttered, “And your help with the code.”