Veteran (37 page)

‘You know we can’t pay for these.’

‘They attacked my home. You know I’m coming with you.’ I looked up at him sharply and then nodded. He would be useful, very useful indeed.

‘And I won’t be needing one of these,’ he said, gesturing at the Wraiths.

Pagan and Mudge went to work trying to find corroborating intel for Buck and Gibby’s story. Pagan used the other world of the net and Mudge reached out to all his old journalist contacts. Morag worked on God, researched the actual Atlantis Spoke itself and either avoided or ignored me, not surprisingly.

Rannu helped me with an assault plan, which wasn’t built on very much information. He was also teaching Morag to fight, helping her integrate her softskills, running simulations for her, that kind of thing. He’d added a smartlink to both her laser pistol and her personal defence weapon and provided her with glasses that would act as a heads-up display and show her where the crosshairs were. The guns were linked through a glove that was wired into the glasses. They also provided low-light vision. It wasn’t as good as having it all hard wired but it didn’t involve replacing any more of her flesh.

Rannu and I also worked on the Wraiths. We ran diagnostics, did the deep-water operations conversion and attached insulating foam to help keep their EM and heat signatures to a minimum.

Buck and Gibby took in the sights and got drunk and high. When Balor provided them with a transport flyer, they complained about it but went to work improving it as much they could and breaking it into their way of flying.

I was leaning against an acoustic tile, wearing only a towel just like the rest of us.

‘If you’re going to talk don’t lean against the tile; have as little contact with the floor and walls as possible,’ Pagan said.

‘Should I stand on one leg?’ Mudge asked. I thought Balor looked ridiculous with a towel wrapped round his waist but all our clothes were outside the clean room. I didn’t think Morag looked ridiculous only wearing a towel. I was trying hard not to look at her. Pagan had checked us all thoroughly for surveillance devices before we entered. Worryingly, he’d found a couple on Buck and Gibby, presumably picked up while they were sightseeing.

I pushed myself off the wall and onto my feet.

‘What’ve we got?’ I asked. My question was aimed at Mudge and Pagan.

‘A lot of smoke,’ Mudge said. ‘There are rumours about a facility deep below the surface. Couple of journos I used to know went missing looking into it. There have been a couple of deaths connected to it, one a hacker allegedly burnt out on their security countermeasures, and another a geneticist who’d contacted one of my missing journo friends. Rumour was he was going to blow the whistle. There are some wild stories about it from some of the more conspiracy minded. Usual stuff - the government has captured Them down there, that sort of thing. Nothing solid, but if I was looking for a story and didn’t mind getting killed I’d look into it. Not sure if I’d plan an assault on the strength of it.’

‘Any ideas as to where this facility might be?’ I asked.

‘I’ve got three sub-surface locations,’ he said. Morag unrolled the schematics she’d found. Pagan hadn’t allowed a monitor into the clean room. He’d said it was bad enough that we all had internal electronics. Mudge looked down the long, thick stem of the Spoke and found the three locations.

‘Here, here and here.’ He tapped the deepest one again. ‘This being the one that was most recommended, but like I say it’s all speculation.’

‘How deep?’ Balor asked.

‘Five hundred metres. What difference does that make?’ Mudge asked suspiciously, glancing over at me.

‘That’s the abyssal zone,’ Balor said. ‘No light, very cold.’

‘Pagan?’ I asked.

‘I think there’s something there. I found similar stuff in the more conspiratorial areas of the net. More importantly I confirmed most of Buck and Gibby’s story. The
Steel
was docked when and where they said it was. There’s a significant drain of power to that area,’ he said, pointing at the third possible location, the one that Mudge had favoured. ‘Some major kit has been delivered and then disappeared, as have a lot of supplies.’

‘What kind of kit and supplies?’ Rannu asked.

Pagan shrugged. ‘Lab gear, bio-hazard stuff, big containment stuff, genetics equipment, general lab supplies, food and enough gear for a not insignificant security force.’

‘Estimate?’ I asked.

‘Platoon strength at least.’

‘Heavy-duty gear?’ I asked. Pagan shrugged.

‘Unknown,’ he said finally. ‘They could be reinforced from elsewhere on the Spoke,’ he suggested and he was right. The Spokes were crawling with security, corporate and otherwise, soldiers returning or shipping out. Most had a garrison of Fortunate Sons, not to mention the Spoke Police, who would have a well-trained C-SWAT unit probably made up of vets like us.

‘So we have to move quickly. Couldn’t get into their net?’ I asked, knowing the answer.

‘It’ll be isolated from the net, a completely separate system, never the twain shall meet. They’ll have external communication in a separate net but it will be AI encrypts. I wouldn’t be able to break them if they’re even breakable at the moment.’

‘Who’s paying for this facility?’ Mudge asked Pagan.

‘Ostensibly a logistics company, but that’s just a shell corporation. If I had the time I could find out, but judging by the sophisticated way they’ve covered their tracks I would imagine the logistics company is an intelligence agency slush fund.’

‘Any idea whose?’ I asked. Pagan shook his head.

‘Okay what’s here?’ I asked, tapping the preferred location of the facility.

‘Airlock,’ Morag said. ‘Submarine loading dock.’ This surprised me.

‘You sure?’ I asked. She bit back a reply and nodded.

‘External defences of the Spoke?’ I said. There was shifting and muttering in the room. Spokes were thought to be near impregnable; since they’d been built there had always been paranoia about terrorist attacks.

‘Forty feet of reinforced concrete, in theory enough to deflect a nuclear-tipped torpedo’s blast. Full spectrum scans, motion sensors, automated steel guns, seeker torpedoes, probably augmented guard fauna, fast-response patrol submersibles,’ Morag said. I wasn’t the only surprised one; everyone was looking at her now.

‘Sounds fun,’ Balor said, grinning. ‘I think I’ve always wanted to attack a Spoke.’ He gave this more consideration. ‘Yes, I have.’

Pagan looked furious. ‘I’ve been wasting my time when I could’ve been working on God,’ he said. ‘What you’re suggesting is suicide.’

‘It does sound like an invitation to a cluster fuck,’ Buck said. Rannu, who had helped me form the plan, just smiled.

‘We’re not going to attack the Spoke,’ I said, trying to calm everyone down. ‘All I’m suggesting we do is enter this facility from the ocean.’ Balor looked disappointed.

‘We have to stealth their security as much as possible, then all we have to do is keep them off our backs long enough for Pagan to get us in,’ Rannu said.

‘And while we’re in the airlock they form up their security force and waste us,’ Pagan said.

‘Not if you’re quick enough,’ I told him.

‘I don’t have control over how fast water is pumped out of an airlock. Besides, how’re you planning on getting to that depth? Submersible?’

‘Wraiths,’ Rannu said. Everyone stopped and considered this.

Mudge let out a low whistle. ‘That would certainly give us an edge over their security force.’

‘Can they even operate at that depth?’ Pagan asked.

‘Yeah,’ I said. ‘ ‘Course.’

‘Just,’ Rannu answered more honestly. ‘Look, the plan is interesting as far as it goes but we don’t even know for sure if there’s anything there.’

‘The plan’s insane,’ Pagan said.

‘I like it,’ Balor said.

‘You’re insane,’ Mudge told him. ‘Even if your highly implausible breach works, we still don’t know what we’ll be facing inside. That’s if there’s even anything there. For all we know this could be an expensive and dangerous assault on a laundry.’

‘It’s there,’ Morag said.

‘More hooker’s intuition?’ Mudge asked.

‘No, but there’s a hole in the information there.’ She pointed at the third possible location on her schematic, the one that both Pagan and Mudge had favoured. She looked up at Pagan and her eyes glazed over.

‘I said no comms traffic!’ he shouted at her.

‘They won’t break it. Check my info,’ Morag said. Pagan went quiet. We all watched him expectantly. A few minutes later he seemed to deflate.

‘She’s right,’ he said. I think he must’ve felt a bit like I did when Rannu was beating the crap out of me - the realisation that you’d just been utterly superseded.

‘So how come you didn’t work that out?’ Mudge asked innocently.

‘Leave it, Mudge,’ I told him. From underneath the schematics of the Spoke Morag took a second set of schematics, unfolding them and laying them on the floor.

‘What’s that?’ I asked.

‘I used the floor plans I could find and wrote a program to fill in the blanks. This is the area that we are dealing with. These,’ she pointed at walls and supports, ‘are internal walls and structural supports that have to exist or the Spoke will fall down. As to what’s actually inside I don’t know, but as near as I can work out this is the shape of the area.’ We were all silent; Pagan looked stricken.

‘You sure?’ I asked.

‘Would you ask if Pagan had told you?’

‘Pagan’s done this kind of work before,’ I said.

‘Yeah, I know, and I’m just a stupid rig whore.’

‘I didn’t say that.’

‘Well, not today anyway. Get him to check my work.’

‘Whose work?’ Pagan managed to say.

‘Don’t start that again,’ Rannu said menacingly.

‘Pagan, can you check that?’ I asked him. He nodded. Morag sent the information to him and he drifted off, running over her work. It took him a bit longer this time.

‘I think she’s right,’ he said.

‘We still don’t know what the layout will actually be,’ Mudge pointed out.

‘So as soon as we’re in, Pagan raids their systems for a schematic,’ I said. ‘Look. Nobody said this was going to be perfect, but you know as well as I do that as soon as you hit the ground the first thing that goes for shit is the plan.’

‘Not a good reason not to have one,’ Pagan pointed out.

‘We’ve all gone out on shakier grounds than this,’ I said.

‘Rarely ended well,’ he said.

‘Mudge, are you up for this?’ I asked him. He just shrugged.

‘Yeah, whatever.’

‘I can do it,’ Morag said. I turned to her.

‘Do what?’ I asked.

‘When we get inside, I can raid their systems, bring up the floor plan, that kind of thing.’ Pagan and Mudge both looked at her and then at me. Morag caught their looks. Buck and Gibby were looking uneasy as well. ‘What?’ she asked.

‘You’re not going,’ I told her.

‘What do you mean, I’m not going?’ She seemed so surprised that she wasn’t angry yet.

‘Morag, you’ve proved yourself in tight situations again and again, and the info you’ve given us today is brilliant, but this is a mechanised assault in a hostile environment. We can’t afford to have anyone down there that doesn’t have the training, experience and the ware for this kind of thing. Besides, you don’t know how to pilot a Wraith,’ I said.

‘ I know how to pilot a Wraith,’ she said triumphantly.

‘How?’ I asked, as I looked suspiciously over at Rannu. He remained impassive as ever.

‘Softskills. I’ve run simulations.’ I was glaring at Rannu now but I turned back to Morag.

‘I’ve tried to tell you before, softskills aren’t the same. Even if they’re properly integrated they just give you the basics. You need experience and training, like I said. If we have to be thinking about you as well as what we’re doing we’re just going to get ourselves killed. We’re going to have to look after Pagan when he’s tranced anyway. One we can handle, two we just don’t have the shooters for.’

‘So let me do the running, and keep Pagan as backup for me and as an extra shooter. I’m faster than him anyway.’ She turned to look at Pagan. ‘I’m sorry but I am.’

‘You mean you’re better than me,’ he said. Morag didn’t answer.

‘Look. Doing a run in combat is different—’ I began.

‘Actually it’s not,’ Pagan said. ‘Once you’re in the net you’re in. Doesn’t matter what’s going on in the real world, you get hit, you get hit.’ Morag grinned triumphantly. I glared at Pagan.

‘Look, Morag,’ Mudge said. ‘You’re good at what you do, real good, but you’ve never seen combat. You don’t know how you’ll react. You may freeze up. It’s not just your life on the line; you could get us killed as well. When I first saw combat I used to piss myself all the time and shake like a leaf for several hours after.’

‘You’ve stopped doing that?’ I asked Mudge. ‘ ‘Cause I was little worried that you might drown in your Wraith.’ Mudge gave me the finger and then considered what I’d said.

‘It’s a possibility,’ he finally allowed and then turned to Morag. ‘Look, darling. I don’t doubt you could do this given time, and I’d happily walk into a firelight with you, or at least as happily as I’d walk into any firefight, but this is just a bad job to learn on.’

‘She won’t freeze up. I’m happy to stake my life on it,’ Rannu said. I felt anger surge through me.

‘You are. What you don’t have the right to do is stake mine and everyone else’s here on it,’ I snapped at him. I was furious that he was encouraging Morag.

‘If we’re talking about dropping people from the mission, what about you?’ Rannu asked quietly. I felt like he’d punched me again.

‘What are you talking about? I’m one of the most experienced soldiers here and I’ve done breaches before. Not to mention I was piloting Wraiths before you lost your virginity, sunshine.’ I was trying not to shout.

‘You piss blood this morning?’ Rannu asked. I stopped. I felt cold, and he was right, I had.

‘He’s right,’ Mudge said. ‘You’re pretty much being kept upright by drugs and the metal and the plastic in your body.’

‘I’ll be fine,’ I snapped.

‘So will she,’ Balor said. I was astounded. I turned on Balor and Rannu.