Stars in the Sand (29 page)

 “
Better make this quick, Corporal,” she said. “I think someone’s on to me.”

 “
They’ve spotted us?”

 
“
No,” she replied in between entering commands, “but someone’s worked out I’m in their system. I don’t think they know where yet, or what I’m doing, but that’s only a matter of time. How long left?”

 “
Four and a half minutes.”

 “
That’s a billion years in cyberspace. Move it, Corporal.”

 He walked into the airlock, looking up at the seal, and placed the first charge in the middle of the joint, pulling a cord out of the device and plugging it into his datapad. Entering some instructions, he carefully backed out into the tunnel, then reached up to the retracted door, placing the second charge at the right point to knock out the mechanism. This was going to be a nightmare to repair, but he decided he needed to make it worse.

 “
What are you doing with that?” Cantrell said as he pulled out the third charge.

 “
I’m impressed that you can hack and talk at the same time. I’m giving the Cabal something else to worry about.”

 He stepped over to the wall space in between the two airlock doors, looking for a flaw and not finding one – good engineering, evidently, and at least it showed that someone cared about doing a decent job. He might not be able to bring the tunnel down, but he could do enough damage to the wall to knock out any potential pursuit. This time he didn’t attach the cord, instead tapping a timing sequence to the detonator itself.

 “
Done,” he said, stepping beside Cantrell. He looked down the passage, extending further to the south before emerging out in the Smoke. If anyone outside had noticed them, it seemed as if they didn’t care enough about the guards to do anything about it.

 “
What do we do now?” Cantrell asked.

 “
We wait until I get the go signal from Orlova. Then we give the Cabal a repair bill they’ll never forget.”

Chapter 28

 Clutching her forged identification, Orlova walked up to the waiting truck, looking over the vehicle as she approached. A standard armored personnel vehicle, an older model handed over for civilian service, its rear door secured to City Hall’s airlock. The pop turret was still in position on the roof, but the weapons had obviously been removed long ago. She couldn’t see anyone inside, and glanced down at her watch. Only a few minutes to go.

 A hand tapped her on the shoulder, and she turned with a start to see a tall, dark man wearing a security guard’s uniform, a scowl on his face and his hand resting on the butt of his pistol.

 “
What are you doing here?” he barked.

 Looking up at him, she replied, “My boss is up there bidding on the prisoners. He wants to know how long it will take for you to ship them out.”

 “
Arrogant bastard, your boss. Must be half a dozen bidders today.”

 She shrugged, and said, “I’m just doing my job. One answer and I can keep him quiet for a bit.”

 “
Five minutes. They’ll come right down in the secured elevator, into the rear compartment without ever hitting the street.” He looked at her again, saying, “I’ve never seen you before. Who did you say you were working for?”

 Glancing around to make sure they were alone, and more importantly, out of sight of the lone security camera that was covering the parking lot, she replied with a furious kick to the solar plexus, knocking the wind from him. He reached down for his gun, but she was too quick, cutting it away with another blow, sending it rattling to the ground.

 A sensible man would have run for help at that point, but his ego had taken over, and he hurled himself towards Orlova, arms reaching out to grab her and pin her to the ground; she only just evaded in time, rolling on the ground and towards the pistol. Just before he reached her, she managed to turn and level the gun at him.

 “
Party’s over, buddy,” she said. “The only question is whether it is permanent or not.”
 
“
You won’t get away with this.”

 “
Funny, I rather think we will. Is the van ready to go?”

 He laughed, replying, “Why should I tell you anything?”

 “
Because if I get bored with our conversation I might try a little target practice to keep things interesting.”

 The driver’s face paled, and he glanced up at the cab, “All ready to go. Where the hell are you going, though? There’s only one city on this planet and the starport’s under lockdown. There’s nowhere to run!”

 She glanced around for a second, looking at the street, waiting for Marshall to arrive. He should have slipped out of the building as soon as it was apparent there was a winner, as soon as their comrades had been sold. The driver saw her hesitation and advanced on her again, taking a cautious step forward.

 “
Something’s going wrong, isn’t it. Boyfriend not turned up yet.”

 
“
You’re the only one having a bad day, buddy.”

 He smiled, then said, “You aren’t going to shoot.”

 “
Care to bet your life on it?”

 “
No, just yours.”

 He dropped to the ground, rolling and pulling a pistol from a hidden holster; Orlova kept her gun leveled on him, but he was right; she didn’t dare to fire. She’d kill the guard, but no-one could miss the gunshot, and someone was bound to investigate.

 “
Game’s over, honey,” he said with a leering grin. “Course, if you want to do me a few favors, I might be willing to forget this ever happened.”

 He advanced towards her, and Orlova leveled her gun, preparing to fire despite what it was going to cost them, but the decision was made for her; Marshall ran out of the shadows, slamming into his back, felling him with a blow to the head, sending him crashing down to the street. Snatching the pistol from his grip, he rose to his feet, brushing off the dust.

 “
Thanks for the assist, skipper,” she said.

 “
We’re ready. They were on their way down to the elevator when I left that hell-hole.”

 The two of them climbed into the van, Orlova taking the driver’s seat, trying to remember what all the controls did, while Marshall dragged the unconscious figure out of sight, underneath the van, carefully positioning him so that they wouldn’t run him over.

 She settled back in the seat, peering at the rear compartment monitor. It seemed like an eternity before the doors finally opened, and the prisoners from Alamo were marched on board, their faces a combination of defiance and despair. She counted them all in, and as the last one walked through, the communicator crackled.

 “
Jerry, they’re on board. Give
me your
ident code and we’ll let you go.”

 Orlova shrugged, and reached up to the console. They were already past the point of no return anyway, but the fun was about to begin. She tapped the emergency override, and the door slammed shut, then turned on the engine and hit the accelerator, sending the van jerking forward.

 “
Jerry, what the hell are you doing? Jerry!” the communicator shouted. Evidently they saw their friend laid out on the road, and a few desperate shots raced after them as sirens began to sound, alerts of a prisoner escape. Marshall looked at her with a smile, then tapped a button.

 “
Everyone all right back there?”

 The astonished voice of Sergeant Forrest replied, “Captain? Is that you?”

 “
This taxi ride is courtesy of the Battlecruiser Alamo!” Orlova whooped.

 “
I thought…,” Forrest said, while the rest of the troopers celebrated in the back.

 “
If this goes wrong your buyer got fourteen for the price of twelve,” Marshall said. “Strap down and brace yourselves. This is going to get wild.”

 “
Captain...thank you.”

 “
Thank Cooper. This was all his crazy idea.”

 Orlova was concentrating on the road. The pavements were filled with people, bystanders watching as the van screamed down the street at its top speed. Glancing at the rear camera, someone was already pursuing them, but they were keeping their distance. The last thin
g
the security forces would want was a crash in the heart of the dome.

 The communicator crackled again, and the voice said, “You can’t escape. All the airlocks are sealed. This is over. Surrender and you will be treated leniently, or we will have no choice but to use deadly force.”

 Orlova ignored him, and continued to speed down the streets. Up ahead, some CorpSec guards were trying to set up a roadblock, but she drove through them, one of them only just jumping out of the way in time. She turned down a side road, lining up on her target airlock, then pulled out her communicator. Up ahead, more guards were assembled, lining guns on the cab, standing in front of the sealed airlock, and she slowed to a crawl.

 “
Cooper!” she yelled into the communicator, “Punch it!”

 A shattering blast shot through the doors, tearing the metal and sending it crashing open, the blast wave knocking the guards to the ground. Cooper and Cantrell, a few seconds later, raced through the ruined airlock, snatching guns from the bodies as they went; Orlova opened a side door to let them in, then stamped down on the accelerator again, the van rocking around as it traversed the debris.

 Behind them, just as they passed through, another explosion ripped at the wall, and the blast doors slid shut to isolate the dome from the outside atmosphere. Now they were racing through the Smoke, and this time, the people were cheering. Someone striking a blow against the Cabal seemed to be exactly what they wanted to see.

 “
Good work, Cooper,” Marshall said; the troopers in the rear compartment were clapping him on the shoulder and beginning to sing, and he had to shout to make himself heard.

 “
Thanks, skipper, but the fun hasn’t ended yet!”

 Turning to Orlova, he said, “Any sign of pursuit?”

 “
Won’t be any from the dome, we’ve given ourselves enough of a head-start to get clear, but…,” she looked up, and frowned, “that still leaves their helicopters.”

 The van flew out of the city limits, tearing down the road towards the mountains. Seven miles for them to reach the shuttle, down a long, narrow track that would be ideal for target practice. There were two helicopters following them, gaining awfully quickly, missiles slung to their sides.

 “
I’m running countermeasures,” Cantrell said. “Don’t worry about the missiles, worry about the machine guns!”

 “
Spaceman, how the hell…”

 “
It’s a long story, Captain,” Cooper said, as a staccato rattle raced down the road to one side of them. A missile fired, and immediately slammed into the ground; it seemed that Cantrell was keeping them clear of those, and the van ducked into the mountains, running along a canyon, the helicopters flying overhead.

 The van skidded on puddles of oil, black rivulets running down onto the road from the peaks, another burst of gunfire just ahead of them forcing Orlova to take quick evasive action, almost spinning out onto the road. She wasn’t sure how armor-plated these vehicles were, but she didn’t want to find that out the hard way.

 Another missile, but this one went even wilder, slamming into the top of one of the mountains. It took a few seconds for her to realize how disastrous that miss had been, as rocks began to roll down the slope, gathering speed; the side of the canyon was about to collapse. Frantically, on instinct alone, she slammed her foot down harder, sending the van
careening
wildly down the road, all her thoughts focused on nothing but raw speed as she desperately attempted to win ground on her natural enemy; the helicopters were moving away, heading out of the way, perhaps thinking that their work was done.

Rocks clattered off the side of the van, sending it
whirling
around on the road, almost toppling over as she desperately twisted around, trying to keep it level. Clouds of dust smothered the landscape, and she was driving blindly, hoping that she wasn’t about to send the van careening into the wall.

Finally, she was through, but waiting for her, hovering overhead, were the helicopters, their guns pointed at the only way she could go. Desperately, she zig-zagged around, trying to get past them, but then another missile fired, ranging directly towards them, only a few seconds from impact.

At the last heartbeat, it veered up, turning back towards the helicopter and slamming into it, the explosion enveloping the craft, showering debris around. The other helicopter, battered and damaged, dived to make another attack run, the machine gun rattling again, and this time it found a target, ripping into the tires, sending the van to a screeching halt.

 “
Damn!” Orlova said, shaking her head. “End of the line, sir.”

 Turning back at the devastation behind them, the helicopter struggling to get over the hill, he replied, “I don’t think we’re going to have anyone chasing us any time soon.” He looked at his watch, then said, “We’ve got seventeen minutes left in our window. Nine of which we’ll need to make orbit.”

 “
Less than a mile, sir. We’re just going to have to walk.” She tugged on her respirator and activated the side hatches, the squad climbing out behind her as she began to jog towards the landing strip. She could just see the lights ahead of her, just began to think they were going to make it, when she heard another whirling noise overhead, and looked up to see four helicopters, larger than the rest, dropping lines – and troops beginning to slide down it.

 As the gunfire started again, she yelled, “Take cover!”, and followed her own advice, sliding in behind a rock. Her pistol in her hand, she took a wild shot at a nearby trooper, but it went far to wide. An attempt to move only resulted in a pair of cracks ripping at the ground behind her.