Zero (6 page)

“
Twelve, sir. I was sent for training on the
Endeavour
then assigned to the
Zero
.”

“
You were recruited into undercover-ops training at twelve?”

More nodded.
“Yes, sir.”

“
No schooling?”

More gave a small shrug as he went back to his work.
“There wasn't much point, sir. Formal education is of little use in this game. The youth unit had taught me all I needed to know.”

Hugo looked up.
“You were recruited from a youth unit?”

“
Yes, sir,” he said. “We all were.”

“
All of you?”

More turned in his chair, scratching his stubble.
“Well, we picked up Kinjo on Haven and Sub and Bolt were recruited older. But none of us have any family.”

“
No one has any ties to exploit, then? And nothing to divide their loyalty?”

“
I think that was the admiral's thinking sir, yes,” More replied. Hugo drummed his fingers on the command chair, watching his sub-lieutenant skim his way through fuel inventories and tech checks on the display. More tapped a couple more keys and the display went blank. He turned in his chair to face Hugo. “That's two hours, Captain,” he said.

Hugo nodded, blinked up at the overhead bulkhead for a moment, then rose.

“Captain?”

“
Yes?”

More just looked at him for a moment, eyes unreadable.
“No matter how the commander acts...we all know that the
Zero
needs a Service-trained captain.”

“
You think so?”

“
There's no medals, no credit. No thanks. But it’s dark out there. And messy. We need someone to lead us, even if it means dragging us onto the right course by our teeth. Without that... we're just another rudderless pirate ship, scraping an existence off the underside of humanity.”

Hugo held the other man's look for a moment, feeling that chill creep once again along the underside of his stomach. More stood, paused, then moved past him and off the bridge. Hugo stood for a moment longer, gazing out into the darkness beyond the viewscreen before following.

ɵ

“
Okay, what do we have?”

The whole crew were crowded into the galley, sat on the benches or leaning against the wall. Hugo did not miss the heavy look Webb was giving him, but he ignored it, turning first to Spinn and Rami who were stood either side of the wall display.

“Lieutenant? What do we have?”

“
AI's central command centre is in this range of mountains in Old Europe,” Rami began, queuing up visuals of the mountain range and the surrounding area. “There is nothing up there except some old battlegrounds, hiking trails and a couple of fuelling stations.”

“
That's a strange place for a base.”

Rami nodded.
“Officially, it's because it has cheaper labour and licence taxes.”

“
Any fallout?”

“
Not here, sir,” Rami said. “The histories say there were munitions-only land battles in this area during the Whole World War.”

“
Civilian habitation?”

Rami pulled the map out wider.
“The nearest town is forty miles away. Not large, but big enough to have local monitoring systems. AI have a lot of remote monitoring of their own spread out all through the area as well.” She keyed in a couple of commands, and a web of sensor-lines laid itself over the map.

“
Christ, that's a lot of surveillance,” Webb said.

Rami nodded.
“This command centre houses their primary research labs, but even so. It doesn't look like they want anyone sneaking around. There's no harbour or docking port nearby, either.”

“
How close can the
Zero
get?” Webb asked.

Rami looked to Spinn. The doctor scratched his head with one hand and zoomed the map out further with the other.
“There is a little less surveillance further west... in the foothills. There is a clearing in the woods not far from this groundway. Well, it's a road really. Old, but well maintained according to the scans. It should be possible to manoeuvre the
Zero
between the local long-range sensors long enough to drop a ground team, but we'd have to retreat to orbit immediately.”

“
How far is that from the command centre?” Hugo asked.

“
About twenty miles, Captain,” Spinn said. “The ground team will have to take land transports.”

“
Any chance we could bullshit our way in at the front gate?” Webb asked.

Rami shook her head.
“It's a completely closed base. Shift rotas, worker profiles, maintenance schedules – everything is stored on their grounded system. We can't even hack you onto a shift, let alone set you up with fake swipe badges.”

“
Guess we wouldn't want it to be too easy,” Webb mumbled. “Fine, in that case, we'll take the bikes. We can stay off-road and come up to the boundary wall under cover. Do we do this day or night?”

“
Day,” said Spinn. “They lock the data systems down at night. We cannot afford the extra time it would take to get in.”

“
How close can the bikes get to the base before being detected?” Hugo asked.

“
Use your eyes, Captain,” Webb said, keying in some commands into the panel laid into the galley table. A contour grid laid itself over the command centre map and sensor-read plan. “We come in from the north. There's a dip in the land, there.” He pointed. “We can stash the bikes there.”

“
That's two miles north of the wall.”

“
So we'll hike.”

“
Unacceptable,” Hugo shook his head, stepping up to the display. He zoomed the image back in and leaned in close. “That will take too much time and increase the chances of being detected.”

“
Captain, look at the scope on those sensors. They'd pick up the bike's heat signature when they got within a mile of the goddamned wall.”

“
Commander, I have put up with about all I will take from you,” Hugo kept his face still as he looked as his commander. “Don't make me ground you.”

“
You -”

“
Zeek,” More said, laying a hand on the commander's shoulder. “Let's just hear him out, okay?”

Webb slouched back on the bench, arms folded. Hugo pointed at the readings on the display.

“Spinn, from this sight pattern I assume these are the same spec as Service ground sensors – sensitive to heat, light, movement?”

“
Yes, sir,” the researcher said. “AI make them for the Service.”

Hugo nodded.
“They are unbeatable across open ground, but the woodland will lessen their range and muddy their readings. Spinn, do you have a display marker?” The professor pulled a blunt length of plastic from his breast pocket. Hugo took the marker to the map, drawing two ragged lines from north to south, in and out of the trees and perfectly slipping between the read-lines of the sensors. “I assume you are capable of manoeuvring those bikes with some level of competency? Load the co-ordinates of these routes onto your wrist panels. If you can stick to them you can get yourselves to within twenty feet of the wall... here.” Hugo circled the spot with the marker then looked back at his crew. He felt a flicker of satisfaction when Webb said nothing, just took a deep drink from his coffee mug. “Now,” he continued, “since AI designed these sensors, I'm assuming they probably know their weaknesses in woodland?”

Rami nodded.
“The satellite monitoring shows regular foot patrols, Captain.”

“
Bad day to be on patrol,” Webb murmured into his mug.

“
What's next?” Hugo said as he took his seat again.

“
The security system is grounded like everything else,” Spinn said. “Neither Rami or I will be able to get in to scramble any of the sensors or camera feeds. The first part of the mission will have to be disabling or getting interference into the security system. There is one place near that arrival point that should give you the access to the security systems...a motor pool security booth... here.” Spinn used the display marker to ring a square on the display.

“
That's
inside
the boundary wall...” Hugo frowned.

Spinn blinked his watery eyes at him.
“Yes, Captain.”

Hugo frowned.
“What about the wall?”

“
We climb the wall, Hugo,” Webb said.

“
How high is it?”

“
Spinn?” Webb asked, sounding infuriatingly amused.

“
About thirty feet, Commander.”

“
Piece of cake,”

Hugo glared at him.
“You cannot be serious.”

Webb grinned.

“Ignore him, Captain,” Rami said, glowering at her commander. “He's winding you up. We have grips. The ground team can climb the wall.”

“
And the sensor web strung over the top?” Hugo asked, pointing at the red lines on the display.

“
We jump,” Webb said.

Hugo sighed, rubbed his temples.
“We'll go through that later. What happens at the guard booth?”

“
The ground team should be able to disable the alarms and misdirect the camera feeds from there,” Spinn said.

“
Don't suppose that booth is connected to the central data system?” Webb asked.

Spinn shook his head.
“Only to the security net.”

“
Figures,” Webb mumbled and drained his coffee.

“
The central system that we’re after is accessible throughout the main building,” Spinn said. “But Rami and I have analysed the schematics and we think that you'll have the least trouble if you try and access the data we need from the smaller research lab. It's here...” Spinn used his marker to ring another part of the diagram. “It's on the third floor and looks to be a relatively quiet section.”

ɵ

Webb watched Hugo as Spinn and Rami went through the details of the command centre’s third floor and the research labs. The captain sat stiffly in his chair with his arms folded, eyes fixed on the display, back and shoulders tense. Webb was sure he could see his jaw muscles working and he didn't appear to blink.

“
I estimate the total time scale to be three hours, maximum,” Spinn concluded, tucking his display marker back in his pocket. “The
Zero
should plan to be back at the drop point exactly three hours from mission start to collect the ground team. I estimate there will be a window of about ten minutes before the ship will have to retreat again.”

“
Ten minutes?” More said. “Anywhere else close by suitable for an emergency meet point, just in case?”

Everyone looked to the display. Spinn scrolled back and forth.

“What's that?” asked Webb, pointing.

Rami peered closer, zooming in.
“It's not marked on the official map. Scans read concrete. As I said, this area featured pretty heavily in that last land war. It's probably a disused bunker.”

“
That'll do. You got those co-ordinates?” Webb said. More nodded.

“
We may have a problem,” Bolt mumbled.

“
Oh?” Webb asked, looking at the crewman, who stood against the wall scowling at the display.

“
That drop-off point,” he said, pointing, “I don't much like my chance of piloting the
Zero
in and out of that shit-nest of sensors on my own.”

Webb blinked back at the display.
“Shit.”

Hugo frowned.
“Who can do it?”

“
Me or More,” Webb said, rubbing his chin. “Unless... Sub...”

Sub shook his head.
“Not me, Commander. I could get a fighter through that mess, but not the
Zero
.”

There was a moment of silence.

“So we'll have to re-think the ground team,” Hugo said, turning in his chair.

“
Webb has to go,” Rami said. “He's the only one who can hack the data.”

“
Aren't you the systems expert, Lieutenant?” Hugo asked.

“
Rami needs to stay on the
Zero
to help Spinn monitor the surveillance net,” Webb said. “They have electronic scans as well as everything else so we'll have to maintain comm silence. The only sign that the ground team are in trouble will be if there's a change in the network activity.”