“There are more ships coming,” Francis pointed out from where she stood near a holotank. “A dozen SSF destroyers and two cruisers.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Maverick said. “Unless they plan to nuke us from orbit, they can’t do anything.”
“And if they do?” she asked.
The president shrugged. “I’ll be gone before that happens.”
Francis’s eyes narrowed, and he saw a spark of fight in them that hadn’t shown in some time.
“That a problem for you?” he asked. “You’ll be with me. We’ll be safe.”
The threat and promise hung in the air for a moment before she nodded.
“It’s not a problem, thank you.”
He nodded, glad that she understood that safety could only be found with him. “Good.”
* * * * *
<I’ve tapped their comm networks,> Alice informed Grayson as they approached the end of the aqueduct. <They’re preparing for an aerial attack.>
<And The Shade? Are they moving more troops to protect it?>
The AI was silent for a few seconds. <Not that I can see. They’re still defending it, but not bolstering those defenses at all. Maureen is making progress, too, so it’s not because they think they have it in hand.>
<Has she reached The Shade itself?>
<Yes, and no casualties, either. The defenders are falling back.>
Grayson considered what that could imply. <Have her slow down, I don’t want them rushing into a trap. Tell her to get close to the surface and not to enter The Shade itself.>
<Won’t that make them suspect that we have another objective?> Alice asked.
<That won’t matter before long. Do you have the plans for this tower?>
A simplified diagram of the central atmospheric processing tower appeared on Grayson’s HUD.
<I do.>
<So where do you think he’s hiding?>
<I’m not sure yet. I’m tapping into the operational logs of the facility, trying to see if there are any systems that never get used. They usually run the smaller tertiary towers for the city’s air. But they regularly test the secondary towers, and the main one sees test runs every few years as well.>
A frown settled on Grayson’s brow. <Why do they care if the main tower runs? The tertiary ones are more than enough for the city. The main tower is designed to feed atmosphere over a thousand square kilometers at least.>
<It seems odd to me, too. Oh…wait. It was Maverick that sponsored the work to get the main tower working again a few decades back…and the tests. The internal logs are not consistent with the actual operation of a tower like this. I think something’s being faked.>
<OK, people,> Grayson addressed the soldiers and Kal. <Maverick is somewhere in the central atmo tower.>
<Figures,> Kal muttered. <Probably near the top. That’s how he’d roll.>
<And I think I have a way up that gets us past any defenses,> Alice added.
* * * * *
One squad remained below, situated amongst the pumps at the head of the aqueduct, guarding the entrance carefully cut into the pipes that once carried water to the top of the tower, where, in centuries past, atomizers had heated and dispersed it to maintain the planet’s atmosphere.
Of course, if Alice was right, those atomizers wouldn’t be there anymore. If she was wrong, they’d find out soon enough.
The pipe was just over a meter wide, and the soldiers rose through it on their a-grav harnesses in single file, a corporal in the lead carrying a demolition pack. It took just a few minutes to soar up the two kilometers to the top of the tower to the location Alice had marked. Grayson knew they might be tripping sensors, but he was relying on speed and surprise at this point, not stealth.
Get in, get Maverick, get it done.
<I’m in position, Colonel,> the corporal reported a second later. <Setting the charges.>
<Don’t wait on me, Aarin.>
<Yes, sir. Fire in the hole!>
The blast shook the pipe, a hot rush of air pushing the soldiers down. Once it was past, Grayson looked up to see light shining through the hole. Then it was blotted out by the first fireteam moving through.
He tapped their feeds and saw that they were in a clean, white passageway, not the internals of an atmospheric processing tower.
<Good guess, Alice.>
<I didn’t guess.>
The rest of the troops moved up to the hole, and a minute later, fourteen SSF soldiers, along with Kal, were in the curved corridor, spreading out and checking the doorways that led off.
On Grayson’s right, a fireteam kicked in a door, only to be met with return fire, causing them to fall back around the sides.
Grayson dashed down the hall, bellowing through his armor’s speakers. “Maverick! You’re not getting out of here. Surrender.”
His words were met by a laugh from inside the room. “Not likely. Your dozen tin soldiers aren’t enough to take me down.”
The squad deployed drones, and Grayson tapped the feed, seeing Maverick standing in the room on the far side of a holotable. A collared woman was standing next to him, and a dozen of his other girls were arrayed around the room, crouched behind cover, weapons trained on the door.
“What about you, girls?” Kal called out. “You all willing to die for Maverick? I recognize you, Francis. Your brother and I were working to free you—even led a raid on The Shade. How many of you have loved ones out there? Abandon Maverick, and you can be reunited.”
<I don’t think that’ll work,> Grayson said to the man. <They’re practically brainwashed.>
<I still have to try, I owe it to Barry. And so do you. Without the plans he secured, we wouldn’t have had this way in.>
Grayson saw that a few of the women shared sidelong glances with one another, several locking eyes with Francis—including Maverick.
“Oh really?” he asked. “It was your brother who was with Kal? You reviewed the feeds, how come you never brought that up?”
“It wasn’t relevant.” Francis’s eyes narrowed, and her weapon remained trained on the doorway. “He’s dead to me. Showing up to rescue me just shows that he’s still an idiot.”
“A resourceful one,” Maverick muttered, regarding her silently for a moment.
“We’re not going to wait forever,” Grayson called out. “Decide.”
The crime lord laughed again, a throaty chuckle that filled the room as he shook his head. “Oh, I’ve decided. Girls, get them.”
Nine of the women in the room advanced toward the doorway, while three held back, looking uncertain.
Maverick nodded to Francis, and the pair dashed toward a side door while the other women began to fire through the doorway and into the hall.
<Where are they going?> Grayson asked. <Is there a lift back down?>
<There is, but it’s behind us. I think there might be a bay up here,> Alice replied, noting it on the map of the tower.
<Dammit. He’s just gonna fly out of here.>
Grayson took a second to consider options, and then directed his team to lob a dozen concussive grenades into the room.
The shockwave from the blast nearly knocked him off his feet, but he used the lull in fire to dash past the doorway, Kal and a fireteam in tow.
<When we get there, we stop that ship,> he ordered. <By any means. Maverick doesn’t get away.>
The docking bay was only a short distance away, and when they reached it, the ramp was rising on a small shuttle inside.
“Fuck!” Kal swore, firing at the shuttle as it backed out of the bay and boosted out of view.
“Get in!” Grayson gestured to a small, two-seat skiff parked on the side of the room.
Kal nodded and ran toward the skiff, while Grayson glanced back at his troops. “Secure the tower, establish a comm relay with the Polis Fury. I want it on station to hit Maverick’s shuttle if we can’t run it to ground.”
“
Aye, sir,” the corporal replied.
<You sure this is wise?> Alice asked.
<No,> Grayson replied as he settled in next to Kal. “Let’s go. I’m not letting him get away after everything he’s done to her.”
“Her?” Kal asked as the skiff rose from the deck and shot out into Montral’s deepening dusk.
“Nevermind,” Grayson replied, scanning the nearby aircars. “There!”
“I see it,” Kal nodded, angling toward the shuttle Maverick had boarded. “Stars, Barry’s gonna kill me if I have to shoot down his sister.”
They wove through the city’s towers, keeping the crime lord’s ship in sight, but unable to catch up, their skiff’s engines not up to the task.
“Where’s he going?” Kal mused as he dove under a walkway connecting two towers. “He must be heading for a new bolthole.”
“Think so?” Grayson asked, gripping the armrests as Kal banked around a dome support pillar. “Where could he go?”
“In Montral? Anywhere.”
<I think he’ll leave the city,> Alice said.
“Why’s that?” Grayson grunted as the skiff jinked to the left, Kal narrowly avoiding a collision.
<Because it looks like he’s flying erratically, but he’s getting steadily closer to the Ventralla Docks.>
“Or a place to hide in Ventralla,” Kal suggested. “Trust me, if we lose him there, you might as well just give up.”
“He can’t get away outside of the city, though.” Grayson’s brow furrowed. “With the Polis Fury overhead and no risk of civilian casualties, we’d just take him out from orbit.”
<Not for twenty minutes, we won’t,> Alice said. <The Fury is on the far side of Jericho.>
“Dammit,” Grayson shook his head. “Maybe he is trying to make a break for it. How—”
<Colonel Grayson?> a voice came into his mind across the Link.
He backtraced the connection and found that it was routed through a dozen nodes in Montral, obscuring its source.
<Who is this?>
There was a pause. <It’s me…Francis.>
<Do you mean Karen? Kal told me about your little switcheroo.>
<Yeah…what a great plan that was.> Her voice dripped with sarcasm. <Still, I’m glad that…Karen got out. It’s been so long since I’ve used my old name, it’s easier to think of it as hers.>
<So why are you talking to me?> Grayson asked.
<Because I want out…but I don’t want to die.>
Grayson let out an irritated sigh. <That damn collar? It can kill you?>
<Yeah, it can. Though Mav has to use overrides for that. He didn’t used to have safeties, and accidentally killed a few girls on a whim.>
<I might be able to help with that,> Alice said.
Grayson’s eyes widened—partly in surprise at the AI’s statement, and partly due to a gut-wrenching maneuver Kal had pulled.
<Really?>
<After the mind-control used by the Revolution Fleet, the ISF gave us breaching routines that can crack a host of different neural control systems.>
Francis was silent for a moment, then said, <Are you offering?>
<Yes,> Alice clarified. <You’ll need to grant me root access to your Link.>
<Root?>
<Time is of the essence, Francis,> Grayson urged.
The sensation of a gulp came across the Link. <OK. Do it.>
CRASH AND BURN
STELLAR DATE: 10.14.8948 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: City of Montral, Jericho
REGION: Gedri System, Gedri Freedom Alliance
Francis gave Maverick a sidelong glance, worried that he would somehow have picked up the chat with their pursuers. However, Gert had assured her that Maverick could no longer snoop on her conversations.
Of course, knowing that and putting it to the test are very different things.
“Focus, Francis,” Maverick grunted. “We’re coming up on the tunnel.
“We’re in the clear,” she replied. “Traffic has been diverted.”
“Good,” the man said, dropping them lower, speeding just a few meters above the road that passed under the dome and out to the docks.
“And once we’re out?” Francis asked. “We’ll be sitting ducks the next time their ship passes overhead.”
A low chuckle sounded in Maverick’s throat. “I have secrets even you don’t know about, Francis. You know the planet is riddled with bunkers and secret launch sites. We’ll be long gone by the time Grayson’s Polis Fury passes overhead again.”
The statement about secrets she didn’t know sent chills down Francis’s spine.
“How far out are they?” she asked.
“I think it would be best if I kept that to myself for now.”
Francis nodded, waiting as patiently as possible, hoping Grayson’s AI friend would have her freed before the ship got beyond the dome. Her shipsuit was capable of keeping her warm and under pressure, but she’d need a helmet, and those were in an aft locker.
<You’re not just going to bail out, are you?> Alice asked. <We need your help to stop him.>
<How do you know what I was thinking about?>
<You gave me root access to your Link. I saw you querying the ship’s inventory systems.>
<So you want me to take out Maverick?> They were in the tunnel now, the dome supports whipping past. <I’m not bad in a fight, but in close quarters like this—especially on my tip-toes in these boots—he’ll crush me.>
<What do you propose?> Alice asked. <Oh, and your collar is deactivated.>
It took a moment for the words to register in Francis’s mind.
She was free of Maverick’s control, but the brute still sat beside her.
I’m not yet free of him.
<Is there anything explosive in the ship?> Alice asked. <Something not on the inventory?>
Francis thought for a moment. Other than the rifles they carried, nothing came to mind. It was possible she could disable the ship, but the weapons were both slotted into a weapon’s rack in the back of the cockpit. By the time she got one free, Maverick would be on her.
<Wait…his plasma sword. He set it in a rack by the hatch.>
<Perfect!> Alice crowed. <Right inside the hatch on the port bulkhead is the main fuel line. If you drive the sword into the wall one and a half meters up, it’ll sever the lines.>
<He’ll be able to make a controlled descent,> Francis cautioned.
<Our orders are to bring him back alive, if possible. This is ideal.>
The ship passed out of the tunnel and through the Ventralla Dock’s grav shield.
“Yeeehaw!” Maverick shouted. “Home free.”
Behind them, the skiff slowed, and Francis gave a relieved sigh. “Looks like they don’t want to risk the exterior guns.”
“Blow ‘em right out of the fucking air,” he laughed.
Francis laughed with him, then scowled at her console. “Shoot, there’s a malfunction in one of the grav emitter control boards.”
“So switch to secondaries,” Maverick said, not bothering to glance at her as he spoke.
“I tried that,” she replied. “It won’t fail over.”
He gave a distracted wave, and she nodded, unfastening her harness and rising from her seat as the shuttle gained speed and altitude, headed toward one of Maverick’s secret bunkers.
<I’m headed back,> she said.
<Good. We’ll mark your location when you jump, and send a shuttle to pick you up. With Maverick gone, taking control of Montral will be simple.>
Francis doubted that, but decided that this wasn’t the time for debate.
She walked down the short passageway and stopped at the equipment rack, carefully opening the panel and grabbing a helmet. She tucked it under her arm, and then pulled out Maverick’s plasma sword.
The weapon disgusted her. She’d seen him use it to torture and maim countless people. It stored a charge of starstuff, and would also produce additional plasma on demand, coursing it through a channel along
the blade’s edge, holding it in place with a magnetic field.
Francis walked back to the location Alice had indicated and activated the sword, drawing it back to plunge the blade through the bulkhead.
Only to have a steel grip arrest the motion.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
She pivoted to see Maverick towering over her, brow lowered and rage building behind his eyes.
“Seriously?” she asked. “That’s all you have? ‘What do you think you’re doing?’”
He raised his other hand, a sneer on his lips as he snapped his fingers—which should have sent bone-numbing pain through her body. But nothing happened.
“What the—?” he began, but jumped back as Francis swung the blade at the crime lord.
“Awww…can’t cheat today, Mav,” she sneered, widening her stance. “And what better way for you to go down than by your own blade?”
“Gedri’s core, I will.” He backpedaled toward the cockpit, and she knew he was going for a rifle.
Francis didn’t hesitate to swing the plasma blade up and drive it into the bulkhead, severing the fuel lines. The act of sabotage complete, she looked up to see Maverick standing in the cockpit entrance, pulse rifle in hand.
“I can still land it,” he said with a sneer. “And you’ll still be dead.”
“Good luck!” Francis hurled the plasma blade at him like a javelin.
Maverick swung his rifle to the side, firing at the sword, but he missed. There was no blood as the blade sliced through his left arm, severing the limb.
Francis barely heard his guttural wail as she snatched up the helmet from where it had fallen, and slammed her hand into the emergency release panel.
The door snapped open, the decompression sucking her outside before she got the helmet over her head.
Shit, shit, shit!
Twisting through the air, she fought against the wind and got the helmet over her head, activating the seal to her shipsuit. The suit’s internal a-grav harness began to slow her descent to the planet’s surface, and she again twisted in the air to get a look at the pinnace, hoping to track where it would land.