Hostile alliances, p.29
Hostile Alliances, page 29
part #3 of ShadowTech Series
And imminent. Not this week, maybe not even this year. But soon.
When she felt pressure on her hand, Ryann looked down. Keelin’s fingers curled round and squeezed. She lifted Ryann’s hand off the covers and held it suspended in her own grey grasp.
“We?” Keelin said.
There were a thousand unasked questions in that one word, and Ryann’s guilt hit hard. She blinked away the rising moisture, and sniffed.
Then she nodded.
“I’m going to fight alongside you,” she said.
Deva
The Preben felt awkward in Deva’s left hand, but she tightened the muscles in her arm, held it as steady as she could. She looked along the sights at the target—concentric circles on a pad a hundred metres away. She took a breath, let out half of it, and felt her heart beat once, twice.
On the third double-thump, she squeezed the trigger.
The Preben jerked. Even without checking, she knew she’d missed.
“Bloody broken arm!” She slammed the Preben down on the table in front of her.
“I hope that thing’s safe.”
The voice forced her to spin.
Lise stood by the closing door to the firing range. She pointed to the gun.
“I was always told giving in to anger when you’re using weapons is a recipe for disaster.”
Deva checked. Yes, she’d automatically flicked the catch to make the Preben safe.
She nodded.
“That’s good,” Lise said, walking across to the table next to Deva and pulling out her own Preben. “And your shot wasn’t bad. You caught the edge of the target.”
“Wasn’t aiming for the edge.”
“You’re using your weaker arm.”
“Obviously.”
Lise opened her weapon and inspected it, running through the standard checks. “You should be resting. You know that, don’t you?”
“That’s what they said.”
“And, as usual, our wild-card plays by her own rules.”
There was no malice in the woman’s voice, but still Deva had to bite back all the comments that rose in her mind.
“I needed to do something,” she said eventually.
Lise nodded as she reassembled her gun. “Obviously. And training with your weak side makes sense. Even when your right arm’s healed, we never know what’s going to happen in the future, do we? It’s always best to be prepared.”
Deva sighed. “Chiron sent you to manipulate me again?”
“Maybe.” Lise tapped the table’s terminal, selecting a target at the same range as Deva’s. “Or maybe I wanted to see how you were for myself.”
She lifted her gun, held it in a two-handed stance. Deva reckoned she tilted her head too much when she sighted, and her finger struggled to curl around the trigger.
Deva had never noticed how small Lise’s fingers were before.
“Or you wanted to show me up in the range, reckoned you could only beat me when I was injured.”
Lise fired. The shot echoed around the range. The target flashed. She tutted as she lowered her weapon. “Missed,” she said.
Deva looked closer. “Clipped the edge.”
“You called that a miss.”
“But I’m better than you.”
“Is that so?” Lise smiled as she clicked her gun safe and looked at Deva. “Couple of months ago you were scared to come in here.”
“Still came. Needed to be prepared. Didn’t know what might happen in the future.”
Lise’s smile widened. “Good point.”
It was impossible to stay angry at Lise when she was like this, and Deva felt her cheeks pull as a smile forced itself onto her own face.
“And we need to be ready,” Lise continued. “Chiron’s told you about the signal, hasn’t he?”
“Among other things.” Like evidence of more of those Eve things. Like Kaiahive’s forces mobilising all over the planet and beyond. Like the Governor apparently boarding a shuttle from Gaia, either abandoning the central planet or heading to the heart of the growing trouble.
Lise put her gun down. “What about your friends?”
“Wrench?”
“Good that you think of him as a friend now. No, I mean your other friends. The ones who faced the Eve with you.”
Of course Lise meant Ryann and Keelin. And Deva had already told Chiron about them. Not that there was much to tell. They hadn’t exactly had time to talk.
And when they’d got out, Deva hadn’t wanted to hang around. Ryann had been in a Kaiahive facility. Sure, Deva could never imagine her working for the company again, but it was suspicious. It raised too many questions. Deva wasn’t ready for questions at that moment.
She just wanted to get back to the base, back to…to Wrench, and Chiron. And Lise.
Strange to think that, but it was true.
Chiron said he’d been monitoring activity, and had an inkling Deva would turn up somewhere other than the planned escape route. And he’d been waiting, with Wrench. Made out it was a routine observation patrol, but he hadn’t been surprised to see Deva.
Wrench had been worried, Deva remembered that. He’d fussed, and Chiron had told him to run back to the base and alert medical. He’d then picked Deva up and carried her.
She must’ve passed out somewhere on the way back, because the next thing she recalled was waking up between clean sheets, with her arm in plaster and a numbness all over. She’d struggled to twist her head to look at the person beside her bed.
Lise had smiled, and Deva had known that she was safe.
And now, Lise was playing with her, like she had on the supposed escape from the restaurant. But Deva felt no malice.
She’d asked about Ryann and Keelin, but what could Deva say? “Guess they’re doing whatever they need to,” she said.
“They freed people from that facility.”
Deva nodded—Chiron had told her that. “He says they’re working for someone. Not us—I mean, not the Heralds. Definitely not the company. Someone else.”
“And what do you think of that?”
Chiron had asked the same thing, and Deva told Lise what she’d told him. “Like I said, they’re doing what they have to.” Then she added, “At least they’re alive.”
One of them, anyway. Chiron hadn’t mentioned seeing Keelin come out anywhere. Didn’t mean she’d gone—he didn’t have eyes everywhere, did he?—and Deva wanted to believe Keelin was tough enough to survive somehow.
“And they fight the company,” she said. “That helps you—helps us, right?”
“Every little helps.” Lise picked up her Preben again. “Especially when we don’t know what’s coming. We have to be prepared.” She set another target and raised her gun. “We have to make sure we hit the target, even if it is with our weak side.”
She smiled as she fired—clipped the target again—and the smile was infectious, spread through Deva’s body.
“Couple more sessions, I’ll get dead centre every time,” Deva said, picking up her Preben in her left hand again.
Piran
When Piran woke properly, Casey was in the room, and there was no sign of the white-coats.
She smiled, but the expression did nothing to hide the worry in her eyes. She leaned over him. He breathed in her smell, and it reminded him of apples, of trees and sunshine.
“Hi,” she said.
“Hi.” He was surprised his voice didn’t crack.
“You collapsed.”
“Yeah?”
Casey nodded. Had her hair down today, and it hid half her face, made her look mysterious.
“Used my access to get into your room,” she said. “Found you in your chair. Thought you were sleeping at first, but you were drenched. White fingers, too—gripping the desk. I couldn’t get any response from you. So I called for help.”
“Thanks.”
Because what else could he say? If she hadn’t found him, he’d still be there, wouldn’t he?
A thought rose. He reckoned he knew the answer, but he asked her anyway.
“How long?”
“Since I found you? Three days.”
Which tied in with what he’d reckoned. Three days, two hours and forty-six minutes. No idea how he knew that so accurately, but it had involved some calculations from his lattice’s internal chrono.
No. His internal chrono. Because the lattice was part of him, wasn’t it? Worked with his body, kept tabs on it. Even while he was unconscious, he knew what was going on, didn’t he? Had data stored away, could scan it to figure out what had been going on.
Data from his senses. Which was the same as data from sensors. Took in ambient stuff, converted it into signals that could be understood. Sensors were digital and senses analogue, but they weren’t that different, were they? Go down deep enough in analogue, and you came to points of existence, to binary. Pull in enough digital data and it became all-encompassing, mapped the analogue to a degree that made it indistinguishable from the real thing.
Something like that, anyway.
“Three days,” he said, because she frowned, worried that he wasn’t responding.
Then her eyes glazed. Sussing.
“He wants to talk,” she said. “If you’re up to it.”
He. Had to be the main man.
“He’s coming to see me? Or he wants me to drag myself into his office. Don’t know if the white-coats will agree to that. You know what they’re like.”
Macklyn’s voice was the same as always—strong, articulate, and cold.
“Guess that makes sense,” Piran said. “Take it you’re monitoring sensors.”
And Piran knew exactly where the sensors were, could follow their feeds, right back to Macklyn’s office. Watched him behind his desk, drink in one hand, top button undone, leaning back in his chair.
“Yeah, she’s great.”
Casey smiled—which told Piran that she was listening in on Macklyn’s part of the conversation. Of course she was—she was still his operative, right?
And who decided to check on him? Sure, Macklyn said it was Casey—just happened to be passing or something—but what if Macklyn got suspicious? What if Piran’s loop glitched? Unlikely, but might’ve happened.
He checked—swung through Metis’ system, reached his room, analysed the data. No sign of glitches. Didn’t look like they’d tampered with his hacks, either. They’d removed the whole sub-system, replaced it with a fresh one. They’d added more sensors too, hidden away, masked by the sub-system.
Except that he could see them, plain as day. Already had their feeds linked, could follow their trails.
Piran tried not to smile.
Macklyn asked. Made it sound like an innocent question.
“No idea. I was working.”
There was a pause. Casey watched him, her head tilted to one side. It was obvious she didn’t believe him, and he doubted if Macklyn did either. But they couldn’t prove anything, could they?
It was a blunt question, and Piran took a moment to dive through Metis’ system, analyse the workings around the signal. Records made it clear that activity had increased over the time he’d been unconscious. In fact, the activity surged from the moment he’d been attacked.
Interesting. And very telling.
“Things getting urgent?” Piran asked.
Casey’s eyes glazed, then she spoke. “We’re picking up anomalies. The consensus is that the signal—or whatever’s behind it—knows we’re close, and is preparing.”
“Preparing?”
“Preparing for something.” Her eyes flickered. “We can’t be certain what. Not yet. Not without more data, and more analysis.”
So they hadn’t uncovered the secret yet. Of course they hadn’t—the other techs weren’t as intimate with the Ancients’ code as Piran was.
He suppressed a giggle. Only thing he was intimate with, wasn’t it?
“So the Ancients are still on their way?” he said.
Casey’s frown deepened.
Piran shrugged.
“Could be.”
Casey’s eyes showed that she was sussing, a private conversation with Macklyn, and Piran wondered if he could intercept it. Brice could, right? The moody sod could eavesdrop all kinds of stuff, so it must be possible.
But now wasn’t the time.
“Sure. Gets complicated, though. But you know that already, right? Analysed data from my node.”
Which was either Macklyn being awkward, or the man didn’t have any data from Piran’s lattice—because he’d cut those techs off, hadn’t he? The only thing they’d got from him was that his lattice was active.
“My own words. Okay. Shortened version—think I prodded too deep, made the signal angry. It attacked, but here’s the thing—the attack was too fast. Signal’s still too far away, right? So the attack came from somewhere closer. Confused me at first, so I prodded some more, followed the tail.”
“Signal tail. See, every communication has…no, doesn’t matter. Important thing is that I followed the tail, and found the source.”
Piran stopped. Casey frowned as she looked down at him.
“The signal was in communication with something. Someone. I followed the trail, back here.”
“Here. Not Metis, but the planet. Wasn’t sure at first, so I checked, pulled up astro stuff. Not my speciality, so I went careful, double-checking.” He smiled. “Tell you, it was a shock when I figured it out.”
Casey’s frown intensified, and her eyes glazed—private suss with Macklyn. Then she asked, “Figured what out?”
Macklyn’s question, through Casey. Because the main man didn’t admit not knowing anything, did he?
At any other time, Piran would’ve felt good about having the upper hand, but while there was a glimmer of satisfaction, the weight of the realisation quashed it.
He took a long, deep breath to compose himself. Casey leaned forward, eyes wide in anticipation. Through the sensor feeds Piran watched Macklyn sit up straight.
Then he told them.
“The Ancients are already here.”
What next?
ShadowTech will continue in 2023, but if you want to learn the history of Ryann, Keelin, Brice, Piran and Deva, that story is told in the Shadows trilogy, starting with Shadowfall. But if you’re after something a bit special, I’d like to offer you a free copy of the novella ShadowLair. This is the first appearance of Deva, after she’s stowed away and escaped Metis.
To download your copy of Shadowlair, join my newsletter list. You’re free to unsubscribe at any time, but I hope you stick around. I’ll drop you a short email every month, with news of upcoming titles, a few book recommendations, and a little insight into my writing life.
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Books by TW Iain
ShadowTech
Sci-fi adventure follow-up to Shadows
Desert Bound (ShadowTech Book 1)
Subtle Weapon (ShadowTech Book 2)
Hostile Alliances (ShadowTech Book 3)
Shadows
Sci-fi with a dose of horror
Shadowfall (Book One)
Shadowsiege (Book Two)
Shadowstrike (Book Three)
Shadowlair (A Shadows Prequel)—Mailing list exclusive novella
Shadows—The Complete Trilogy
(Contains Shadowfall, Shadowsiege and Shadowstrike)
Dominions
Dark, Dystopian thrillers
Dark Glass (Dominions I)
Dead Flesh (Dominions II)
Deep Water (Dominions III)
Riled Dogs (Dominions IV)
Rogue Wolf (Dominions V)
Rebel Rout (Dominions VI)
Fading Control (Dominions VII)
Fallen Domain (Dominions VIII)
Final Target (Dominions IX)
Gatekeeper (A Dominions Prologue)—short story
Control (A Dominions Story)—Mailing list exclusive novella
Expedient (A Dominions Story)—novella
Animus (A Dominions Story)—short story
Errant (A Dominions Story)—novella
Impact (A Dominions Story)—short story
Dominions Box Set (Books I-III)
(Contains Dark Glass, Dead Flesh, Deep Water and Gatekeeper)
Ghost Stream
Sci-fi short story available in the anthology The Power Of Words
The Reason We Run
Post-apocalyptic horror short story available in the anthology It's Behind You!
Touch
Horror/tech short story available in the anthology Electromagnetism
Millenary
Free short story collections
