Mack n me, p.9
Mack 'n' Me, page 9
“Hang tight,” Mack said, and pushed the tiny craft into a steep dive.
Seconds later we were caught and buffeted by the shock-wave of the shuttle’s destruction.
“I hate it when I’m right,” Mack muttered, and I wanted to argue that he loved it, but I didn’t quite dare.
Bastien had taken out the shuttle. Tens had broken contact for a reason. I wondered if I could damp my implant, hoped Bastien had only gotten as much out of it as Tens and Mack thought he had, but didn’t want to bet my life on it. Literally. Inside my head, I explored what I could find, and then found the mechanism Tens had used to make the implant appear dormant to Bastien’s scans.
Hoping I wasn’t about to put it off-line permanently, I flicked it, and felt Mack relax, just a fraction.
“Good girl,” he said. “Very good.”
And I was reminded of Bastien’s ‘Byen fee’. Dammit! I was not a dog!
For a moment, I was torn between giving Mack a good clout upside the head, or ignoring him, but he was flying, and it was never a good idea to beat up the pilot, while he was flying. I chose to ignore him, instead, and focused on finding out what was in the pockets of my latest outfit.
I was as excited as a kid on Family Day by the time Mack set us down behind a small complex of sheds behind the main building.
“What’s in there?” I asked, indicating the nearest shed, as we unfolded ourselves from the tiny craft.
Mack looked at me, and I blushed.
“That’s what you brought me along for, huh?”
He nodded, reaching under the seat to pull out a couple of snub-nosed pistols, while I grabbed the weapons locker, and headed for the shed. Mack glanced back at the craft we’d flown in on, and nodded. I glanced back to see what he was nodding at, and saw the tiny vehicle disappear.
“Visual displacement,” he said.
“A blend?”
Mack nodded.
“What have you got?”
I moved over to the control panel beside the door, reaching into one of the pouches at my waist. Unlike the last mission, I’d come properly equipped. The pouch contained a small data-box, and the connectors I’d need to make a hard connection, if I couldn’t make a wireless one. It worked kinda the same way as the data-mine I’d used back at the pharmaceutical plant, only different.
For this, I had to activate the implant. I could only hope Bastien and his techs weren’t waiting for me to try. I really had to rely on the shuttle’s explosion to keep their minds elsewhere, or on the Odyssey team taking out whatever Bastien used for security scans.
“Two seconds,” I murmured, as Mack sidled up to me.
“Make it one, and make it quick, and pray there’s no-one on the other side of the door,” he said, opening the lockbox and pulling weapons out of it. I felt extra weight added to the belt at my waist, and a strap draped over my shoulders as I worked. And then I felt him shifting beside me, as he stowed more weapons around himself.
“You sure you got enough?” I asked, getting the door open, and leading the way inside.
“You’d better hope so,” he said, nudging the box behind a crate by the door.
Fan-fucking-tastic. I focused on business.
“What do you need?”
“Find a terminal. Find a way into the vault under this complex. We can’t use the way we went in last time. Delight’s crew blew that sucker all to hell.”
Great. I scanned the shed, noted stacked crates and pallets, and hoped there was an office toward the front. Deliveries had to be recorded, right? Workers had to clock on and off, yeah? And I was betting good ol’ Bastien didn’t allow just anyone into his little home-away-from-home.
“Before, or after, they got in?”
“After.” Mack’s voice sounded strained. “Soon as they figured they’d just waltzed themselves into a trap.”
Yeah, well, I guess that made sense.
“So, what makes you think there’s another entrance?”
“Because Bastien’s a rat, and those critters always have a bolt-hole. We have to find it first.”
“What makes you think he hasn’t used it already?”
“Tens.”
I didn’t like the way the comms stayed quiet, wished Tens would come on-line and confirm he was okay, couldn’t quite fathom why he stayed silent.
“Okaaay,” I said, hoping my tone would tell Mack he hadn’t really answered the question.
I was about to step around a stack of crates, when Mack grabbed me by the shoulder, and pulled me hard up against him, as he squeezed himself into a niche between the stacks. I pressed my lips together, pushing down the urge to shout, as we watched a forklift purr softly past.
Well, that was going to make life interesting.
“Try patching into the system from here.” Mack’s voice in my ear.
“Kay.”
I didn’t like it, but I liked the idea of running a gauntlet of forklifts even less. I went wireless.
It took me a little longer than I liked, but I did it, and found the floorplans Bastien had hidden behind a second firewall in a partitioned drive. It didn’t take me long to begin siphoning files. Honestly, it would have been faster to just copy the drives... if that had been an option, but there were protections against that. I wormed my way past them, and then worked out how to wriggle the files through the gap without activating the security protocols.
Those suckers looked spiky, and I didn’t want them coming after me. It was just too bad I couldn’t find another place to store the files outside my implant.
“This is what I pay you for,” Mack said. “Send me the layout.”
“What about Tens?” I asked, but Mack signaled the negative, turning us about in the narrow gap he’d found and pushing me further into it.
“Just me,” he said. “Tens will make contact, when he’s sure he can get a clean signal. Don’t try to reach him.”
“Got it.”
“Stay here,” Mack said, moving to the edge of the gap, and he dragged a box across in front of me, before I could protest. “This is what I pay me for.”
This is what he what?
Well, of all the macho bullshit I’d ever heard in all my life!
“Get the files,” Mack said, “then get your ass back into the ship, and stay there. Tens will fly you out, as soon as it’s clear.”
“But what about you?”
“You leave me to worry about me,” Mack said. “Just do what you’re paid for.”
What I was paid for, huh? I didn’t bother trying to remind him that he didn’t pay my wages, that Odyssey paid my wages, and that they might have a different view on what my duties were. I caught the look on his face that said he either guessed, or knew, exactly what I was thinking, and didn’t agree, so I sighed.
“Fine,” I said. “You’re the boss.”
And I kept my thoughts deliberately quiet on exactly what I thought of him heading downstairs to deal with Bastien alone.
12—The Bastien Excursion
I stayed where I was, taking a minute to patch myself into the security camera feeds so I could see what might be sneaking up on me. On the upside, the feed also let me see exactly what Mack was doing. On the downside, I knew I wouldn’t be the only one to see him, so I had to lock each camera out of the circuit until he had passed.
Given I didn’t have time to loop the footage, because Mack was moving too fast between the sectors they covered, I took to switching off each camera for the few seconds it took him to pass through its range. It was pretty much the only way I had of trying to keep him safe. I could always go back and doctor the feeds so the few-seconds flicker I made was concealed by the briefest loop of footage. Maybe...
At the same time, I kept a brief eye on the file download, and the security systems. Bastien had hired, or forcibly acquired, some darn fine programmers, and I wouldn’t be surprised, if at least one of them was on security duty all the time. The programs built into the system, I could deal with, either by avoiding the trigger, turning them off for the time it took me to get what I needed, or by countering the program with another one to keep it busy.
And, no, that wasn’t as easy, or as straight forward as I make it sound, but it was a darn sight easier than dealing with living security personnel wet-wired straight into the system. I wondered if it would be too much to hope Odyssey had taken out the computer protections on the way in, but then decided the team had been hitting too hard and too fast for niceties. In which case, I could only hope that anything living that had been connected to the system had been taken out, and I was dealing with automation.
It was a dangerous assumption, and I realized Tens had gone off-line for a reason. Automation didn’t strike me as something that would bother him a lot, and that got me to wondering exactly where Bastien might keep his most secret files. I mean, what I had looked like a pretty nice find, and when I took a peek, I’d found some good stuff, but I felt uneasy.
These things weren’t the sort of thing Bastien would want to fall into the hands of folk like Odyssey or GalPol, but they were nothing on what I’d seen in my short stay on the lower levels. I shuddered, and pulled myself away from the memories, focusing back on the task at hand.
I found the door Mack was making for, and unlocked the hatch. I also took a peek at the security feeds of the tunnel beyond, and realized Bastien was taking no chances. Half a dozen heavily armored guards were on the other side. Two just inside the door, and the other four lined along the stairwell... and they weren’t the only thing.
I flipped a circuit meant to activate only for intruders, and watched as the four men lined up on the stairwell went down in smoking heaps, and then I wondered if the weapons the others carried were smart. And that led me to considering the likelihood of Bastien’s men having implants for coordination, and suddenly things got a lot more fun.
I might have felt guilty about triggering their own security protocols to short-circuit their brains, but Mack was about to go through that door, and I really didn’t have the time to play nice. If Tens was out, and Mack went down, then I’d be left with Bastien, and that just wasn’t going to happen.
But, damn, I sure hoped these guys were something more than mercs just doing their jobs. Of course, mercs just doing their jobs would still have been turning a blind eye as Bastien went about his business. And, just as quick as that, I didn’t feel bad any more.
The look on Mack’s face, as he came through the door was priceless, but I resisted the urge to contact him. Instead, I gave him a look at the security feeds of the ground ahead of him, and let him sort out how he was going to deal with the mess up he was running into, because Bastien was definitely leaving a mess, even if I hadn’t located him, yet.
“Get these feeds out live,” Mack snarled, surprising me with the anger in his tone.
“But Tens—”
“Tens will understand.”
From which I read that Tens had better understand, or Mack would have his balls. Made me feel a whole lot better about pissing Tens off. This time, I was pissing him off with Mack’s permission!
“Done,” I said, but I rerouted the feeds through a private shuttle standing idle in the hangar next to the one Mack and me had entered, and then I routed the link up and out to the ship. I was hoping it might make the signal just that little bit harder to trace. Tens was not impressed.
“I’m going to kick your ass three ways to Sunday!” he started, but I interrupted.
“Mack said.”
“Fine, I’ll kick his ass three ways to Sunday.” He paused. “Why aren’t you in there with him?”
“Because of the files.”
“Let me handle the files,” Tens said, flashing a picture of Mack moving quietly from one cell to another and handing out weapons as he went. “You need to be down there.”
I did? I looked at the footage I was feeding to Tens, and had to agree. Mack was moving fast, but he wasn’t going to be fast enough to save them all, and that was when I found Bastien—and Drammon, and Delight. Someone had to get down that second corridor. And they had to do it fast.
“I’ll guide you,” Tens said, and I squeezed my way up and onto the crate Mack had pulled across to block me in.
Idiot, I thought at myself. First, because Mack’s going to be pissed you disobeyed his orders, and second because this is dumbass stupid, and you’re likely to get yourself killed, or worse.
Yeah? I told myself. And what would Odyssey say if I let their top agent die when I had a chance to save her?
You know that’s not your job, right?
The hell it isn’t, and I dropped down into the space between the stacks of crates, and began running for the door that would give me access to Bastien’s little house of horrors.
As I ran, I reviewed the security feeds, including the feed from the security control center itself, and that’s when I saw the difference between me trying to do things on my own, and Tens working with a fully-staffed team.
Each of the monitors, I could see were showing nothing, and that included the sectors I was running through. Tens already had the footage looping—and on all the feeds. That made me feel a whole lot better, even as I hoped he and his team could see what was really happening ahead, because looped footage being broadcast out? That wouldn’t be as funny as it sounded.
I made the bolt-hole door in record time, and shot straight through, trusting it was Tens and his team, and not someone else who had opened the way before me. This time, it was a good call, and I prayed my luck would hold.
“Take a right,” said Tens’ voice in my ears.
“Now a left, another left.”
“Leave that door locked!”
I raised my hand from the door, just as something large and heavy slammed into it from the other side.
“You don’t want to know,” Tens said. “Just be glad I’ve jammed it.”
He had?
“Great,” I said. “Where to, now?”
“Second on the left. Put two shots straight ahead of yourself. Medium power,” and I heard the mid-range Blakers 54 change settings.
“Hey!”
“Relax. You don’t have time to argue.”
I hit the door, weapon in hand.
“Two shots straight ahead,” I said, repeating Tens’ instruction.
“Shoot the chains off that guy to your right, and toss him a gun. He’s your best bet for getting out of here alive.”
“Done.”
The guy in question hit the floor, grabbed the gun, and started shooting. Every shot hit something meaningful, and soon we had guys shouting encouragement from the walls. Gals, too.
“Shoot anything not strapped down,” Tens said, and the guy I’d just shot free answered as I did.
“Gotcha.”
I figured Tens didn’t mean the guy I’d just shot free, and did exactly as he said. The guy, for his part came up alongside me, and we moved together to clear the room. Bastien wasn’t alone in his work, but we soon changed that. It was a blood bath.
Which was about what Bastien had been busy creating.
“Tens?” I asked. “Can you get them out?”
And I didn’t mean by flying them up in a shuttle.
“Nope. Maybe. Let me try,” and the big guy I’d shot off the wall vanished with an oath inside a pulse of light.
I couldn’t help it; I looked for ash, felt relieved when I didn’t see any, felt less relieved when Tens spoke again.
“Well, that was a one-off. If they’re all in the shape that guy was in, we can’t save ’em.”
I felt my heart sink.
“He was in good shape by comparison.”
“I’ll send Odyssey their coordinates. They’ve got the capacity.”
By that, I hoped he meant Odyssey had enough med teams.
“Get your ass out of there, Cutter. I don’t want you on an Odyssey ship.
And I’d thought he didn’t like me.”
“Mack would have my hide.”
Well, that put things in perspective.
Regardless, I got, bolting down the corridor in a direction I hoped would lead to Mack. I bolted straight into another beam of light, and ended up running smack into the wall in the teleport section. It gave me little comfort to see Mack appear, and do exactly the same thing.
Wait. Mack had been running?
He didn’t bother wasting time in swearing.
“Get us out of here, Tens. Odyssey need time to calm down.”
They did?
I pushed myself up onto my butt, and then rolled to my feet. Mack reached out and pulled me upright, and then he didn’t let go. I stared up into six-and-a-half feet or so, of seething fury, and tried to jerk my arm free.
“Get a grip on yourself,” I said, and he plucked the Blakers from my hand, before picking me up and slinging me over his shoulder.
“You disobeyed a direct order,” he said, as I pushed myself sideways, and off his shoulder.
It was a long way to fall, but he stopped, and turned. I’m not sure the glare he fixed me with was much better, but at least he let me get to my feet under my own steam. I made a show of straightening my clothes, and then glared right back.
“What the hell?” I snapped, and he turned away.
“This way,” he said, and, against my better judgement, I followed.
Something told me I wasn’t going to like what came next, but it was the same something that told me what was coming next was as inevitable as rain. I figured that, as long as Mack didn’t walk me out an airlock, I’d be fine. I was nearly right.
We followed the corridor, and then descended to a new deck.
“This way,” Mack said, leading the way through a plas-glass door, and into what looked exactly like a gym.
I took a good look around us, noting running machines, a free weights area, and assorted gym equipment. There were also three or four other folk in here, all working out, or running, or doing whatever. I couldn’t help but notice that they stopped whatever their activity was to watch us pass.
Mack took me down the length of the room, and over to where there was an open area of sparring mats. Along one side was a small set of bleachers, all empty. When he got to the edge of the mats, Mack looked over at me.
