Reyer looked out of the skybridge’s massive windows. The buildings surrounding them were so tall, they seemed to be leaning over her, their faces, nothing more than gray slabs broken up by small patterns of square lights. A few shuttles dodged around the buildings. She stared, open mouthed, until she heard the staff sergeant chuckle.
“You can always tell the tourists.” His smile was kind.
Reyer reminded herself that she was not, in fact, a tourist and focused on working out the environment. She tried to figure out what she could say to Vas that wouldn’t raise the peacekeeper’s suspicions.
When in doubt, go with the obvious. “It’s not as crowded as I thought it would be,” she said.
“Out on the streets, you sometimes can’t move for people,” Vas assured her, “but it’s getting late, so the port isn’t too busy. I’ll bet anywhere off the main passage is pretty quiet this time of night.”
So they only needed move off the main passage? Reyer nodded.
The peacekeeper spoke up. “You don’t like crowds, Miss Thorne?”
“I’m not used to them.”
Eduard looked over his shoulder at her. “I hope you like your visit here, Miss Thorne. I know that city life isn’t for everyone, but I’m rather fond of it. The worst will be getting you your new ID. Then you should be able to enjoy yourself.”
Reyer smiled while internally cursing the man for being so inconveniently friendly. She hated to think about how much trouble he would be in before the day was out.
It wasn’t long before the staff sergeant led them down a small side hall to a security door. Vas had been right; the hall was empty. Their attack was fast and vicious. Both Eduard and Harel were down before they could draw their weapons. Vas shoved them through the door the staff sergeant had been kind enough to open for them, while Reyer disposed of the two e-pistols.
“Bound,” she said. “They won’t do us any good.”
“These will.” Vas held up a pile of IDs and security cards. “Come on. Let’s get going.” He took her arm and pulled her back down the hall. As they walked, he took his com from his pocket. “Diego de la Vega? This is your brother.”
“Yes?”
“We’ll meet you later.”
“Understood.”
They were almost at the end of the hall before Vas noticed Reyer’s smile.
“What?” he asked.
“It makes sense that you would have a fake ID,” she said, “but why does Ciro?”
Vas scoffed. “He probably made it for himself when he had to make me one. He was rather excited by the idea. I told him he wouldn’t need it, but he ignored me. Like usual.”
“He wasn’t wrong, was he? It’s pretty lucky he decided to do it. One missing ID was bad enough. If it had been two, I don’t think even you could have found a convincing story.”
“Robbed at knife point, and they stole our IDs.”
“I never should have doubted you.” After a pause, Reyer asked, “Did you let Ciro pick the names?”
“Yes,” Vas said. There was a note of uncertainty in his voice. “Why?”
“You don’t know who Diego de la Vega is?”
“No…Is there something I should know?”
“I wouldn’t worry about it if I were you.”
They made it thought most of the building without any problems. Their last obstacles were the check point and final scanners at the exit. The tall structures flanked the open doors, beyond which the wide streets of the city stretched out tantalizingly in front of them.
“Hold this,” Vas whispered, pressing a clip of cards into Reyer’s hand. “You need ID to get out, but hopefully, we’ll be through fast enough they won’t notice you don’t look like the staff sergeant.” He nodded toward the guards.
They were staring at their computer screens and only glanced up at the passing people occasionally. If they had to take a risk, this one didn’t seem too bad to Alix.
The moment she passed through was tense, but there were no alarms. Vas grabbed her hand and pulled her to the side of the building, into the crowd and out of view of the peacekeepers.
They were half a block away before Vas looked over his shoulder. “We’re clear,” he said with a small sigh of relief.
“So you can let go of my hand now?” Reyer asked.
“Can you keep up? I don’t want to lose you in the crowd.”
“You’ll have to walk slower, but you’re not going to lose me, Vas.”
He glanced at her but said nothing. When he let go of her hand, he pointed to one of the looming buildings a few blocks down. “If Ciro’s right, that’s where we’ll be heading.”
Reyer nodded. “Do you think Ciro’s okay?”
“He should be well clear of the port by now. If anything had gone wrong, Lynx would have sent me the emergency signal. They’ll be heading to our rendezvous port. If all goes well, Ciro will be waiting safely there until he hears word.”
“How much time do you think we have?”
“I don’t know. Without their IDs, the two we left back there won’t be able to get out of that hallway, but all it takes is for someone else to come along. Not to mention Ciro’s unauthorized departure probably caught someone’s attention by now.” He growled quietly in his throat. “Come on. We have to hurry.”
As they approached the building, Vas swore under his breath. There was a crew of peacekeepers guarding the front. Considering the importance of their post, they weren’t permitted to be bored. Their eyes restlessly scanned the crowd as it passed. Adan pulled Reyer into the nearby alley.
She cried out but quickly stifled it. “Could you yank me around a little more gently?”
“Sorry. How much time do you have left before your next dose?”
“Dammit, Vas! You’re my bodyguard, not my babysitter.”
“So it’s almost worn off?”
“What?”
“You get grumpy when it starts to wear off.”
“Go to hell.”
“I recommend taking a dose now, Miss Reyer. You may not get another chance.” While she was pulling out the Tranomine, Vas looked around the corner of the building. “It’ll give me a chance to think—”
A new voice said, “I think you’d better turn around slowly, Mister.”
The mugger was young and skinny. His eyes were wide with adrenaline and the light of the street lamp stone off his grin. He had a knife, but he was holding it an inch away from Reyer’s neck. He waved the blade around in small circles, playing with it. His other arm was across the top of her chest.
Vas noticed the grimace on Alix’s face. “Are you all right?”
“Never better!” the mugger said.
“I wasn’t talking to you.”
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Reyer gasped, “The little shit pulled my back.”
“Hey—hey!” The mugger sounded indignant. “Are you two listening to me? You know, the guy with the knife?!”
“Shut up for a moment,” Vas told him. He looked back at Alix. “Do you want some help?”
When the mugger jerked her closer to him, the pain shot through her legs and all the way up to the base of her neck—the origin point was nothing but a white blaze of agony. She closed her eyes and forced herself to take a long breath in through her nose. “Yeah,” she said. “I could use some help on this one.”
“Hello! If you—”
The mugger didn’t even get a chance to finish his threat before Vas’s fist flew past Reyer’s shoulder to smash his face. The impact drove his head back several inches. The mugger and Reyer both dropped to the ground.
Adan was kneeling beside her, his hands on her shoulders. “Can you stand?”
“Not yet,” Alix said through clenched teeth. “Finish taking care of our friend. I think he had a knife?”
“Yes, but he obviously doesn’t know how to use it.”
“All the more reason he shouldn’t have it. He might hurt himself.”
Vas stood and went over to the mugger. The young man was trying to find where he’d dropped his weapon, but it was hard to function with the blood pooling in his mouth and throat and flowing from his nose. He had barely found the hilt when Vas kicked it away. The captain lifted him up by his shirt and slammed him against the wall.
“Rule number one—learn to pick your marks better.” He let go with one hand to land a punch in the boy’s gut. “Rule number two—you’re supposed to keep the knife on their throats or in their back. Make it dangerous for them to move.” Vas grabbed the mugger’s shoulder and forced him upright against the wall so he could look at his face. Adan’s thumb was gouging down at the base of the mugger’s throat. “Rule three—if you hurt her again, I’ll kill you.”
“You’re…you’re not going to kill me now?” He was almost weeping.
“No, I’m not. I’d feel bad killing a harmless little thing like you. Besides,” he motioned with his head back to where Reyer was gingerly easing herself to her feet, “she called you her friend, and we could use your help.”
“My help?” the boy sputtered through the gore.
With one last shove, Vas let go of the young man. Then he picked up the knife and handed it to Reyer.
“Hey—” The mugger’s objection was instantly bit off when he saw Vas’s face.
“It’s hers now. You don’t object, do you?”
“…No.”
“Thank you,” Alix said. “Do you have a sheath?”
The mugger stared at her.
She sighed and put it in her belt.
“Who are you people?” the mugger whimpered. He wiped his face, staining half his sleeve red.
“We’re the people who need to get into that building,” Vas pointed, “and who don’t want to go in the front door. I have a suspicion that you might be of a criminal bent, so maybe you can tell us if there’s another way in.”
“Dude, are you crazy? That’s a Supremacy information hub!”
“Oh, good,” Reyer said. “We did get the right building.”
The mugger lifted a shaking hand to point back down the alley. “Back there. Take a right and follow the wall. There’s a ramp that leads down to a loading area. You should be able to jump the fence easy. Getting past the security doors is your problem.”
“See? I knew you’d know your way around these alleys,” Vas said. “Would you like to hobble away, or would you like to sit down?”
“I think I wanna sit down for a while.” The young man slid down the wall.
“Probably a good call.”
Reyer was limping pretty bad, but she shook her head at the suggestion that he should help her walk.
“I’ll need your help soon enough, Captain.”
The ramp was alongside the back of the building. It took the already narrow alley and stole half of it away for the private use of the Supremacy Information Systems.
Vas motioned for Reyer to wait while he went to check it out. When he came back, she was kneeling.
“It’s not going to be easy, is it?” she asked.
He shook his head.
She put her face in her hands. When she lowered them, she asked, “How high is it?”
“I can give you a seven-foot climb from the street, then a seven-foot climb down and an eight-foot drop to the bottom of the ramp. Or you can climb up and down the whole fifteen feet of fence at the top of the ramp.”
“Right. We’re climbing. It’ll hurt, but if I jump and land wrong, who knows how long I’ll be laying in a filthy alley before the Supremacy finds me.”
Vas nodded.
He had started walking away, so Alix had to reach out to grab him. “Vas.”
He turned back.
“Please help me up.”
Once she was steady on her feet, he made her look him in the eyes. “We don’t have to do this.”
“Yes, we do.” Despite the pain that was making her face pale, she smiled at him. “It’s a good thing you’re a captain. You never would have survived as a grunt.”
He let out a silent huff of laughter.
“Come on,” she said. “Let’s go.”
The process was tortuous. By the time she was on the other side of the fence, Vas was worried she might faint. When she was close enough he could reach up and grab her waist, she fell back into him, taking them both to the ground. Adan only grunted, but he held one hand over her mouth so she wouldn’t cry out. He carefully laid her down, painfully aware of each time he moved wrong and jolted her back, causing her whole body to wince.
She’d been laying there for a while before she spoke. “I’m sorry, Vas.”
“What for?”
“This must be a tiresome mission—looking after me.”
He smiled. “And you thought the grunts had all the hard jobs.”
Reyer chuckled while faintly shaking her head.
“I don’t know.” Vas kept his voice casual. “It’s been interesting, and at least you have a sense of humor. I don’t mind.”
“Ito was right to send you. I hate to admit it, but I never could have done this on my own. Thank you for your help.”
“My pleasure, Miss Reyer.”
Vas gave her as much time to rest as he dared, but eventually his sense of urgency forced him to tell her it was time to move. She pulled herself up with his help, and they made their way over to the door.
Reyer sat down on the steps and leaned against the wall. Vas pulled out his com.
“This is Amado. Diego de la Vega? Are you there?”
“One moment, Mr. Amado,” Ciro replied. “I’m almost done with inspection.”
Reyer looked up at Vas with a worried face.
“At least he’s arrived at the new port,” Vas said. There was nothing he could do and no real way to reassure her, so instead they both waited, all their nerves humming.
Minutes passed.
“Amado, this is Don Diego de la Vega. How are you?”
“Alive and alone. You?”
“I wouldn’t have called you otherwise. They let me in without any problems, and they didn’t pick anything up during inspection. God bless a slow-moving bureaucracy—it’s what will win us the war. I’ll have been here for an hour before they learn they should be looking for me to land. I take it you’re ready for my help?”
“Yes.”
“You have an ID card and the tools I gave you, right?”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
Step by step, Ciro guided them through hacking their way past the security door by pushing a false retinal scan to the machine. The door popped open. Once inside, they were forced to repeat the process again.
On the other side of that door was a human security check. The woman behind the desk looked surprised to see them. She stood up and came around the counter to meet them.
“Captain de la Vega,” Vas said, holding up the staff sergeant’s ID. “I’m a member of covert operations.”
By the time the woman realized that the names and faces didn’t match, Reyer had the mugger’s knife at her ribs. They secured her hands behind her back with her own cuffs and tied them to her ankles. They left her gagged and hidden behind the desk.
As they walked down the hall, Vas said into the com, “All right, Ciro, we’re in. What now?”
“Find a computer. Almost any computer will do—unless it’s what they use to order lunch.”
They found a dark office and once again hacked their way inside. Reyer started the machine up and followed Ciro’s directions while Vas watched the hall through the tiny window in the door. Minutes later, when there was still no sign of anyone coming, he went over to join her.
He arrived in time to hear Ciro saying over the com, “Now we won’t have a lot of time before they find you. As soon as they realize whose ID you’ve stolen, they’ll be able to track it back to that machine. I’m going to have Lynx try to find out what they’re up to. If he can get in deep enough, he’ll be able to look up anything with your name on it, Miss Reyer.”
Adan stood over her shoulder, looking down at the console as the on-board monitor flashed and blinked through thousands of images. “Wait!”
The screen froze.
Vas said, “Go back a few files—slower, Lynx.”
The images flowed by at a smoother pace.
“There!”
Reyer was looking at her own face and what Ciro had termed “an action shot.” There was only minimal information under it.
“You caught that?” she whispered to Vas.
The captain tapped on the screen to open more information on the file.
Ciro said over the com, “That’s your wanted poster, Miss Reyer. Your name isn’t attached to it though. Not there.”
“Can you follow it back to find out who’s looking for her?” Vas asked.
“As if they could stop me from doing anything I want.” They heard Ciro chuckle.
More screens poured past—some paused for a while, some blinked by in less than a second. The only constant was a small banner fixed at the bottom of the monitor while everything else flickered and changed around it.
Re:32.
“Wow.”
“What is it, Ciro?” Vas demanded.
“She’s everywhere. Miss Reyer, you’re on every computer, on every network, on every planet the Supremacy has.”
“Then why didn’t the staff sergeant recognize me?” Reyer asked.
“The order is old. It keeps being reissued every six months, but unless he’s looking at the wanted faces every single morning, he might miss it.”
“Where are these orders coming from, Ciro?”
“Tracing that now.”
They waited.
The screen stopped and remained open on a single flashing word: “Classified.”
“Ciro—” Reyer started to say.
“Please,” he said. “This only means it’ll take more time. Lynx?”
The bot’s voice sounded as though it was coming from a distance. “The program is ready, sir.”
As the program was running, Ciro said, “We know that the order is coming from the same place each time. It seems to be a limited branch of the Supremacy military. They don’t have much of a digital footprint aside from these orders—wait…”
“What is it?” Reyer asked.
“Project 32. I found their other folders.”
“You got through the security?”
“Not yet. I’m looking around while Lynx does his thing. This is their unclassified data. At least, unclassified to the rank and privilege we’ve convinced them I have.”
“What’s that?”
“Something close to a colonel, I think. These are all planets. They look almost exactly like the files—”
There was an unnerving silence.
“Ciro?” Adan said.
“These are our files, Adan. These are some of the planet exploration files we lost when our first Home Base was destroyed.”
“I thought you destroyed all the files during the attack!”
“I did. These are older than that. They aren’t as complete. These were before my time—you can tell by the set-up and coding—but…but this is definitely Rising information.”
Vas looked at Reyer. “You never did planet exploration.”
She shook her head.
“What the hell is going on?” Adan muttered.
Behind them, the door burst open. Two streams of soldiers in full armor flooded through with their XM4’s raised.