Time Siege (51 page)

She put her arm around Sasha's shoulder. “We'd like to see him, please.”

Chawr opened the door and let her through. Elise felt her heart beat faster as she approached his door. It felt like forever since the last time she had seen him. The two had certainly been apart for longer before. Some of his jobs, like the one when he went to retrieve Levin, had kept him away from her for over two months.

This time felt different though. Previously, they were involuntarily apart because of distance and work. He was gallivanting around Earth and the solar system while she worked on the cure. This time, the separation was voluntary. She had chosen, of her own volition and for his good, to extract herself until he was better. Did he understand why she had had to do this? Was he angry with her? A hundred worries ran through her mind as she walked to the door. She hesitated as she lifted her hand to knock.

Sasha didn't give her a chance to complete the motion. She pushed the door open wide and charged inside. “James!”

Elise heard a cry of surprise and then his voice calling Sasha's name. She leaned on the doorway, crossed her arms, and watched as Sasha leaped into James's arms. Her breath caught in her throat as he picked her up and twirled her around. What she saw was a stark contrast to the perpetual gray, brown, and rot that seemed to permeate through the isle. Maybe it was a little providence or a trick of the eye as a rare bit of the afternoon sun shined on him, but there was something alive and colorful, even magical, about that moment. It gave Elise hope that things in this miserable present could get better.

James hadn't noticed her, so she studied him, trying to see if she could tell a difference between the last time she had seen him, half drunk and sobbing, and now. The first thing that came to mind was that he looked rested, healthy, even. The second thing she noticed was that he looked thinner. His face was less bloated and splotchy, and his eyes weren't quite as dark, no longer sunken in like a raccoon's.

She gave the two Griffins some time, a brother and sister born six years apart who now had a quarter-century difference in age. James was more a father to Sasha now than brother, and it showed. After a few minutes, Elise finally spoke. “Have they been feeding you enough?”

James looked up and noticed her for the first time. His face twitched as their eyes met. Time slowed down, and she wondered how he was going to react. Was he angry at her for locking him up? James picked up Sasha and carried her over to Elise.

He leaned in close and kissed her on the mouth. “About time you came in to visit. I was tired of you waiting outside my door.”

Her mouth dropped. “How … how did you know?”

He looked over at Chawr and Hory standing behind her. “See. You see those guards standing outside my door? That's where you made your mistake, Oldest. Those are my guys.” Those two fools grinned from ear to ear until she shot them a glare. They managed to look sort of abashed until she smiled.

“Close the door,” she ordered.

The three of them moved the family reunion to the couch. Elise sat on one side of him and Sasha snuggled up to him on the other. She studied his reactions as Sasha spilled out her life over the past few weeks to him, from Elise teaching her geometry to Franwil's continuing efforts to groom her as an herbalist to Rima showing her how to make a bow. The smile on his face fell once when Sasha told him about the new Flatiron boy who had been teasing her and always brought her flowers. In Elise's opinion, the girl should be a storyteller, because her tales were getting taller and taller.

James caught her staring. “What's so funny?” he asked.

“Nothing,” she said, moving closer to him. “I think you'll make a great dad.”

The three of them spent the rest of the afternoon together until Bria and Laurel came to relieve Chawr and Hory, and to bring up James's evening meal.

“I'll be back tomorrow,” she said, throwing her arms around his neck and giving him a last kiss. “You keep on getting better.”

“How much longer do I need to stay here?” he asked. “This floor is driving me crazy.”

“Soon,” she said. “Titus says in a few days.” She paused. “You know I love you, right?”

He squeezed her tightly to him. “That's the only thing that kept me—”

The All Galaxy shook and the windows rattled. Everyone froze. The skyscraper rumbled again, this time followed by the sound of multiple explosions. A few seconds later, Chawr burst into the room. “Oldest, we are under attack by the Co-op.”

“Where?” James asked.

“Everywhere!”

“Oh, no, they found us,” Elise gasped. Both she and James stood up and headed for the door.

Elise pushed Sasha into Bria's arms. “Take her to the lab. There's a storeroom in the back that has a hidden cubbyhole. Sasha knows where it is. If you find Grace and Titus, take them with you.” She grabbed James by the hand and dragged him out the door. “I guess you're getting out earlier than expected.”

 

FIFTY

T
HE
M
EETING

Levin had every intention of honoring his agreement with Vaneek and waiting patiently for his former assistant to contact him, but he questioned his decision more and more with each passing day. Without a backup plan for how to obtain the encrypted files with his painstaking research of how far corporate influence went in Chron Com, he didn't have any other choice. Even so, he had nearly lost hope when he finally did hear from Vaneek a week later.

“Midnight. Cargo dock wing, D-Lio,” was all Vaneek said before going silent.

Levin pulled up the blueprint of Earth Central on his AI band. D-Lio was a rarely-utilized underground hangar at the far end of the south wing of Earth Central, usually reserved for storing mothballed vessels: generation ships, sun beamers, and terraformers. Surprisingly, a large number of pleasure crafts, space yachts and the like, were housed there as well, their resource consumption too high for modern use. In any case, it was a strange rendezvous point. Not like Levin had much of a choice. With few other options, he had to trust Vaneek.

Levin looked over at Cole. “We're a go for tonight. Be ready.”

Cole, sitting on a chair with his feet up on the railing, grunted. “So the skinny twerp got back to you after all.”

His nephew had reverted to hostility after the situation at the underground residences. Whatever goodwill Levin thought he had built since pulling him out of Nereid was fleeting. Now, the sullen, angry Cole had returned. It was a shame. Levin thought they had made progress while in Chicago. They were bound to have ups and downs. Levin decided this was just a down period.

“Where is the rendezvous point?” Cole asked. He frowned when Levin told him. “That's out in the middle of nowhere. There's no way the quarantine archives are there.”

“It doesn't matter. If Vaneek wants to meet there, we'll do it,” Levin said. “He's our only chance to break into the archives. Let's not blow it.”

He had considered telling Cole to stay behind. As much as he wanted a gun to watch his back, his nephew wasn't reliable. That violent outburst with Vaneek was so over-the-top it made Levin question Cole's mental state. Still, he was family. To tell him to stay behind at this crucial moment would likely shatter their relationship forever, and Cole wouldn't be here when he returned.

Cole had already disappeared for an entire day shortly after the incident with Vaneek. Levin had thought the last family he had was gone forever, but his nephew returned that night. Levin admitted he was surprised when Cole walked through the door. When asked, Cole just said he had needed to blow off some steam. He even reluctantly apologized for his behavior. It was better than nothing at this point. Levin forgave him immediately, because that's what family did. Or at least that's what family should do.

Right now, they were holed up in one of the beach slums along Lake Michigan two kilometers north of ChronoCom campus. The shanty houses here, frequently flooded by heavy rains, were home to vagrants, the drug-addled, and the poor. They were too violent and worth too little for the local authorities to bother patrolling. Their rickety one-room shack was tight and rancid, but after half a year in the Amazon Penal Colony and then half more in the Mist Isle, both of them were used to such miserable accommodations.

This area was also advantageous because Levin had parked the
Frankenstein
close by at the only place he considered safe from identification or theft: a hundred meters out into the lake and fifty meters underwater. The bottom of the lake was thick with wreckage, junk, and Earth Plague. In some places, the refuse was piled so high, it broke the water's surface. Levin had maneuvered the collie until it rested between two piles of garbage and then used the exo to carry him and Cole to land. It made for an easy escape if they were ever found.

Levin went over the blueprints and mapped out a route to the wing on a piece of paper. He and Cole spent the rest of the evening going over the plan, making sure they had memorized all the exit points, backup rendezvous points, and contingencies in case things went south. Being overprepared was ChronoCom's mantra. They were still Academy-trained former chronmen.

“Hey,” Levin said, offering Cole a hand. “We get out of this alive. Together.” Cole hesitated a beat before clasping hands. Levin pulled him close. “End of the day, we're family. We'll make it work.”

“Yes, Uncle.”

The two set off for ChronoCom campus shortly after ten in the evening. The entire city shut down after dark to preserve energy, so the streets were quiet and dark. They crept through the city's deserted beach until they found an entrance underground and then followed a series of blue tunnels down to a lower set of purple ones, past dimly lit heavily trafficked passages filled with vagrants and night market vendors sitting shoulder to shoulder on the sides.

Levin had powered down his atmos and exo to conserve levels, having been used to the uncleanliness within the ruins of Manhattan, but the stench in these poorly ventilated and heavily occupied underground tunnels was overpowering. He tolerated it for nearly an hour as they wandered through a veritable maze until finally reaching the blue tunnels again. He breathed a sigh of relief when they emerged on the surface just northwest of the ChronoCom campus.

The two cut back east and then south through a rundown residential area. The main groupings of the city's darkened skyscrapers could be seen to the north, jutting up to the sky like misshapen black teeth against the slightly lighter night. That meant visibility, unlike most days, was good. A bad night to be sneaking around.

They continued, moving through alleyways and broken streets until they finally reached ChronoCom campus. They slowed their pace and crept forward with more caution. The campus was patrolled by monitors, but they weren't difficult to avoid. Nighttime patrols were usually punishment, and no one took that job seriously. After all, who was stupid enough to commit a crime near the agency's base of power?

A breeze brought in the stench of sulfur and rot from the clusters of giant smokestacks to the west. Behind them, loud snaps and pops like gunfire echoed in the air. Levin motioned for Cole to pause inside the shadow of one of the buildings. Other than the sounds of cracking far in the distance, the only audible sound was the whistle of the visible gray wind that drew lines in the air. When he was sure their path was clear, Levin signaled for them to continue.

They dashed between the shadows of buildings and towers as the misshapen form of Earth Central loomed larger and larger. Several blocks and three patrols later, they reached the southernmost building connecting to the main building and continued around the perimeter until they found an entrance with a large, flaked-off D over the door
.

Levin pressed his ear to it and listened. He heard nothing but the shrill whistle overhead. He looked at Cole and counted his fingers down from three. The door opened with a long creak and Cole, blaster rifle pressed against his shoulder, crept in. Levin waited a beat and followed.

The cavernous room had faint moonlight pouring through small slit windows where the walls met the roof. They could see the outline of a ship, a space yacht by the looks of it, covered by a tarp. The smell of oil and dust lingered in the air. Levin tapped Cole twice on the shoulder and pointed to the east side of the room. Levin walked the perimeter on the west.

Staying low to the ground, he went two-thirds the length of the building before a small light between the shadows of two ships caught his eye. He cut in to it and found Vaneek standing alone, nervously pacing back and forth.

The boy gave a start and looked his way. “Who's there?”

Holding his hands up, Levin walked into the light. “Thanks for agreeing to see me.”

“Auditor Levin,” Vaneek said, visibly relieved. “You're on time. Of course. Come with me.”

“Where are we going? This can't be where the quarantine archives are located.”

Vaneek looking nervous, chuckled. “This is just the easiest way to sneak you in. Come on, we're heading two more levels underground.”

“Hang on,” Levin said. “Let me recall Cole.”

The young administrator fidgeted. “Does he have to come?”

“I'm in hearing range,” Cole said inside Levin's head. “Your voices are echoing all over the room. Go ahead. I have sights on him and can keep an eye out on you from the shadows.”

“Will do, Cole,” Levin thought back. “Hey, thanks again for following through with this and watching my back. It means a lot.”

“I'm just not going to let that little shit get the jump on Javier-Oberon. That's all.”

Levin nodded to Vaneek and together, they headed further east, past the skeletons of several more ships, until they reached a staircase heading down to the sublevel of the building. There, more ships resided, most in worse condition than the ones above. This must be where the agency kept dead collies for parts. Hundreds of wrecks littered the room, some covered in so many layers of dust he couldn't make out what they were. Levin couldn't help but feel the many blackened portholes staring eerily at him as he passed by. They continued through the maze of ships until they reached a small clearing.