Aneka Jansen 3: Steel Heart (40 page)

Outside the door to the interrogation room, an Enforcer waited at attention, his rifle slung at his side. Yrimtan closed the door behind her and turned to him. ‘The ship?’

‘We detected three detonations and no further transponder signals,’ the Enforcer responded.

‘Good. I want this cleaned up with clinical precision. Send a team to destroy their shuttle and burn the bodies at the museum. Let Leo have his fill of the scientist and then execute them. Everyone in Matlock is to be eliminated. A viral outbreak, I think. We can repopulate it in a few months. The loss of produce will be inconvenient, but I want no one who has met them left to talk about it.’

The Enforcer nodded. ‘The medi-techs?’

‘No one who has met them below Enforcer level.’

‘Yes, Manu Dei. I’ll begin preparations.’

‘Oh, the girl in there. Sedate her and take her to my private rooms. The small bedroom. Don’t bind her, she’s not dangerous.’

‘Yes, Manu Dei.’

Turning, she started down the black-walled corridor with its faintly yellow lighting, smiling to herself.

Aldershot Camp, 22.9.526 FSC.

The little aircraft flew on wings of almost transparent Plastex, its engine barely making a sound as it carried Aneka in a slow circle around the ruins which had once been the army base at Aldershot. She had flown over the town once, but there was nothing there aside from rubble. Here some of the buildings were still almost intact and on her second pass she spotted the black-clad figures outside a facility she did not recognise. Probably built after she had left, maybe a lot later since she thought she recognised the signature of Plascrete in its walls.

North-west of it was what had once been an athletics track, and it still had an area of flat grass she could put down on and some walls which would provide cover. Turning the microlight, she swung around, dropped down low, and slid the small craft in over the stands and onto the field. She scanned the surrounding area, seeing no one, unstrapped herself, and climbed out of the bucket-like seat. Equipment was quickly removed from the space behind the seat, then she triggered the folding mechanism and hid the suitcase in some bushes. Using the aircraft to escape was out of the question, but she did not want it found either.

‘As far as I can tell,’ Al said as Aneka started running across the rubble-strewn wasteland outside the stadium, ‘we can be anyone we wish to be. There was trivial encryption on the man’s identification. Primarily a verification mechanism, I believe. I’ve given you what I believe to be a moderate rank in their military.’

‘And you can just tweak the data and do that?’

‘Yes. They simply don’t think anyone would actually change their details, so there is nothing to stop it from happening.’

Spotting another guard ahead of her, Aneka slowed to a walk. ‘If this works I almost feel like finding their boss and talking to him about his lousy security.’

‘I am going to assume you are joking.’

There was a pause as they got closer to the other black-clad figure. In-vision an identity panel appeared for the woman walking towards them: no name, just an ID number and rank, which was low. Aneka waited for the snap of a salute, and got one, before returning it.

‘It looks like we’re in the clear,’ Aneka observed.

‘Apparently. I’m seeing no unusual changes in radio activity from Corporal Nine-One-Two-Seven-Three.’

‘Who am I?’

‘Lieutenant Commander Eight-Seven-Five-Three-Nine,’ Al replied, flashing up the ID data he had manufactured based on the dead man.

‘Enforcer? That’s what they call these people?’

‘Apparently. Not a name which invokes a feeling of trust.’

‘Less military, more secret police.’ She rounded a corner of the building she expected to find the city entrance in and marched towards the steps leading up to the front door. Two guards with rifles snapped to attention and saluted as she started up the stairs. ‘They certainly have discipline.’

‘I am picking up wireless network signals,’ Al announced in lieu of a reply. ‘Connection achieved… Go through the doors and head directly forward. There are a set of lifts opposite the door.’

‘That was quick.’

‘Their computer system is very responsive,’ Al replied. ‘The technology behind it rivals that of the Xinti, or seems to. I have a map of the city, but if we are to attempt to locate Ella and the others I would suggest finding somewhere to sit down. If we keep moving we may draw undue attention to ourselves.’

‘Let’s worry about getting down first. How big is this city?’ An Enforcer held the door for her as she walked into the building and she gave him a quick salute in reply to his. Being an officer was always better than being a grunt.

‘Approximately ten kilometres in circumference and fifteen stories deep.’ As Al spoke, he displayed a rough schematic diagram showing the below-ground structure. ‘The widest axis goes from here to the south-east. The shape is not quite a circle and some levels extend out in various directions in different ways. The first occupied level is twenty metres under ground level, but that is relatively small and central. Four metres below that is the first major level which the lifts go to. There are, approximately, seventy-five thousand people living here.’

The inside of the building was bare and concrete with a couple of large blockades set halfway down the big room. Turrets sat atop the concrete blocks. Network security was clearly not considered an issue, but physical security was. No weapon was turned towards Aneka as she walked between the walls, and she immediately saw the bank of lift doors, all of them curved outward suggesting cylindrical cars. No one stopped her; no one even spoke to her as she walked up to one of the pairs of doors, pressed the button beside them, and waited.

The car, when it arrived, had a clinical, white, plastic look to it. Aneka stepped into it, waited while the security system verified that only authenticated personnel were in the car, and relaxed when the doors closed. Her accelerometers were barely sensitive enough to detect the car starting on its way down.

‘The map shows some sort of open concourse outside the elevator exits,’ Aneka said silently. ‘Maybe there’s somewhere there I can sit down to go over the maps and come up with a search pattern.’

‘A good plan, if there is somewhere…’ The doors opened and Aneka found herself looking out on a wide, vaguely triangular plaza with a tall, domed ceiling. The walls were curved with one extending out from the lifts and two curving inward towards the only exit at the far side. In the middle of the floor was a water feature and there were tables and chairs set around it, more at various outlets on the side walls. A number of people were sitting at the tables dressed in the white coat-like garments Ella had worn to go into Matlock, and in Enforcer uniforms. ‘All right,’ Al conceded, ‘this looks perfect.’

Aneka trotted down the steps and headed for one of the groups of tables in the corner on the right side. It looked quiet and the light was a little dimmer, not that the light was particularly bright anyway. She could see other, real, Enforcers sitting at tables with their helmets off, so she removed hers and sat down, setting her helmet on the table and shaking out her hair. The long, black wig had taken an hour to fabricate, but it hid her neck which was missing the ports the others had. She had to admit, it did not look too bad on her.

‘Enforcer?’ Aneka looked up to see a handsome young man, maybe twenty years old with short, blonde hair, standing beside her table. ‘Can I get you something?’

‘Coffee? Black, no sugar.’

‘Of course. Coming right up.’

‘They’re polite,’ Aneka commented silently.

‘They are,’ Al agreed. ‘They are also drastically stratified in their social structure, and so predisposed to obeying the rules. That means that they don’t hack computer systems, which is good for us. I’m searching for anything concerning Ella, Gillian, or Bash.’

‘Let me know when you have something.’

‘Of course. They’re quick too.’

Aneka turned her head to see the young man walking towards her with her coffee. ‘How did you know he was coming? I wasn’t looking that way.’

‘He’s connected to the network, which provides location information. They all are.’

‘Your coffee, Enforcer.’ The waiter put her mug down.

‘Thank you.’

He looked pleasantly surprised. ‘You must be Infiltration Division.’

She smiled at him and went with it. ‘And what would make you think that?’

‘You’ve got manners. Enjoy your coffee.’

‘Interesting,’ Al commented as the man walked away.

‘Yeah. Infiltration Division, huh? Must be… people trained to interact with the surface dwellers?’

‘That would seem reasonable.’

Aneka sat in silence and drank coffee. It was, to her slight surprise, very good coffee. Somewhere on this world, someone was growing coffee beans just like the ones she was used to. Not quite up to the standard of the Ashtenna beans, but good. Around her people sat drinking various things, some eating pastries. It could have been a food court in any shopping centre she had ever been in, except that everyone wore the same sort of clothes, differentiated only by the stripes on their sleeves. The uniformity was disconcerting.

‘I have located a room I believe Gillian and Bash are being held in,’ Al informed her. ‘Ten floors down on the other side of the city. The area appears to be a secure medical facility. I believe some urgency is required. The area has been closed off and the staff in that area are going offline.’

‘Offline? As in…’

‘Someone is working through the area killing everyone in it, Aneka.’

Grabbing her helmet, Aneka started towards the entranceway into the city. Whatever was going on, she needed to get there as fast as she could.

~~~

Ella opened her eyes and found herself looking at a white-painted ceiling. She was no longer in the interrogation room, but the fact of that did not immediately hit her. What did hit her was the need. She
needed
Yrimtan’s touch like a drug. She closed her eyes tight and clenched her fists, and fought back the desire. She heard a sound, half-sob, half-whimper, and realised she had made it, but she won, for now.

Opening her eyes again, she sat up and looked around, frowning at what she saw. The room was not large, just big enough for the single bed she was lying on, the desk against one wall and a bookcase. There was only one shelf of books, the rest contained framed photographs and certificates. Light came from a bedside lamp on a small table, and beside the lamp was another photograph. She picked it up and her frown deepened. The picture was of four people, smiling at the camera. One she recognised immediately: Aneka, but with dirty-blonde hair and a smaller bust. By association, and from the picture in the museum, she managed to work out that the others were Alan, and Aneka’s parents, Hugo and Lauren. Ella swallowed as she felt a sudden burst of loss; she was never going to meet Aneka’s family and she would have really liked to.

Putting the picture down, she walked over to the bookcase. There were more family photographs and another with Aneka and a group of men, all in desert camouflage. The certificates were for marksmanship, a commendation for actions in Afghanistan, a framed letter from someone Ella had never heard of thanking Aneka and her team for rescuing him and his family in Iraq… Then she spotted the fat, stuffed animal on the bottom shelf, and beside it the blonde-haired doll in the military fatigues.

‘Vashma,’ she breathed. Aneka had told her once about the room she had had in her parents’ house. About the ‘teddy bear’ and the doll she had named Lara because of its bust. ‘This is…’

‘My room,’ Yrimtan said, stepping out of the shadows in the corner. ‘I assume she told you about it. I wondered whether she had, which is why I had you brought here.’ She was still dressed only in beads and the sight was appealing, but Ella did not feel the overwhelming lust she had felt before.

‘What do you want from me?’ Ella asked, stepping back.

Yrimtan did not follow. ‘It’s been… a long time since I’ve had a companion. You love her, and you know all about who and what I am. I wish to see whether you could be that companion. Frankly, I prefer men, but…’

‘The Xinti opened you to new possibilities.’

The blonde woman’s brow furrowed. ‘The Xinti… Yes.’

Ella swallowed. The last thing she wanted was to be this woman’s ‘companion,’ whatever that actually meant. She went for derailing the conversation. ‘What happened to you? We know you left Titan on your own.’

Yrimtan turned, walking over to the desk and just staring at the wall. Ella began to wonder whether she was going to get an answer. ‘With Andy gone, I had no reason to stay with the Humans, but my programming… I couldn’t understand what had gone wrong. I’d done everything they wanted. Humanity had moved out among the stars, met the Herosians and Torem, joined the galactic community. Then the Xinti began killing everything they could find. It seemed… meaningless. I felt betrayed.’

‘It wasn’t them.’

‘What?’ Yrimtan turned to look at Ella, frowning.

‘The Herosians started the war, not the Xinti. They found and attacked Xinti colonies, the Xinti fought back. The Herosians persuaded us and the Torem that the Xinti were the aggressors…’

‘Ah.’ Yrimtan looked away again. ‘That makes sense I suppose. It made little difference to me at the time. I was made to make Humanity the best it could be. I returned to a broken world and started again. I gathered scientists here, had this city constructed, and began to engineer the survivors to continue living rather than dying slowly.’

‘But you succeeded. Why didn’t you try to contact any of the other Human worlds?’

There was a short, humourless laugh. ‘Safety. There have been visitors to this world since the war. In twenty-four-ninety-nine the Pinnacle came with their warships. We destroyed them before they could take over and enslave us as they’ve done to other worlds. I decided that isolation was the best course of action. No one who comes here leaves. My people are unaware that there are Humans, or aliens, out there among the stars. Here in the cities they work to create a better life. On the surface they make food, mine, whatever is needed to keep the cities supplied. We have a good life here, Ella, and you are uniquely suited to joining us.’