Star Road Page 20

Like a series of interconnected roller coasters, set on pylons that rose above the waves.

  Usually.

  The problem was—with Hydra Salim—sometimes the storms got fierce enough to wash over even some of the higher routes.

  Like now.

  A huge wave—it had to be thirty meters high or more—swept over the ramp in front of them. When it drew back, it left behind a tangled black mass of vegetation—a layer of the indigenous life smashing into the ship.

  No intelligent life, though ... unless it remained at the bottom of the vast ocean that encircled this planet.

  Annie clenched her teeth as she steered the SRV along the amazingly complicated network of winding roads.

  “Why do you think the Builders made it so damned complicated at this station?” Annie asked.

  “Beats me,” Jordan said.

  Annie fought to keep control of the SRV. Rough winds buffeted the vehicle from every side, knocking it around like a kite. Pellets of rain lashed the windshield.

  “Have to ask the Seeker we got onboard,” she said. “Maybe she’ll have a mystical... theory.”

  In the corner of her eye, she caught Jordan’s grin.

  It took her total effort to keep the vehicle on the road as wind-whipped plumes of spray shot up and washed over them, momentarily obscuring their view.

  “Any closer to the water, and we’re going to need a submarine,” Jordan said without even the trace of a smile.

  Annie focused straight ahead, watching the mad spiraling complex of ramps, interchanges, entrances, and exits unwind past her. All of the spurs and runways tied into one huge knot supported by towering gray pylons.

  Dense mist and lowering clouds, veined by white lines of lightning, hid the terminal in the distance, but then—

  She caught glimpses of what was up ahead, and she didn’t like it.

  Shifting blacks clouds. Darker than any fog or clouds she knew.

  Smoke?

  “Jesus, no!”

  “Say again?” Jordan asked, looking at her.

  Annie pointed ahead. Jordan said nothing for a moment or two as he stared at the heavy black billows partially masked by the shifting mist and smoke.

  “I think we got more trouble,” she said. “No way we can stop, get out of here.”

  Annie saw Jordan activate his main gun HUD.

  Not good.

  She punched the button for the intercom.

  Her voice was pitched low, steady. “Please remain in your seats with your seat belts securely fastened until further notice—even after we come to a stop.”

  She didn’t know what she might have to do once they reached the station, the smoke and whatever the hell it meant.

  She flicked off the intercom, grateful she wouldn’t have to listen to the passengers’ reactions and questions.

  Enough trouble to deal with up ahead.

  Without a word or a glance, Jordan unbuckled his safety belt.

  And headed to the back of the vehicle ... to the gun turret.

  ~ * ~

  Jordan ignored the upturned faces of the passengers ... all except Gage, who wasn’t looking at him.

  As if he isn’t wondering and worried about what’s going on, too...

  It wasn’t easy, keeping his stride straight and steady, Annie still taking the sharp turns, left and right, twisting on the entryway, the SRV on a roller-coaster ride.

  His knee bumped into the armrest on Ruth’s chair, and she looked up at him.

  Eyes glistening and bright with fear.

  He could tell her not to worry, that they would be all right.

  But he had no guarantee of that.

  A cooling wave of relief swept over him as he opened the hatch and settled himself into the gun turret’s seat.

  A quick run-through to power up the weapon systems and visuals.

  He nodded to himself as the weapons charged.

  A look outside, to the world below and the station ahead. The black smoke rising out of this watery hell.

  Heavy storm clouds pressed down on the portal runways. Huge waves topped by blowing spindrift surged in a roiling mass. The SRV, now down so close to the water, and Jordan feared the waves would engulf them.

  Kind of funny, he thought. The ship can withstand the quantum variations on the Star Road, but can it make it through water? The power of a raging sea?

  The smoking ruins just ahead now, as the vehicle swung around on one of the looping curves.

  The closer they got, the clearer it became....

  Something was really wrong here.

  Far in the distance, the way station—or what was left of it—was destroyed. As if a massive bomb—or several smaller ones—had gone off. Exposed girders, scorched and blackened alloy as thick as the SRV, lay in huge, twisted heaps beneath the lowering clouds.

  Lightning spiked the smoke that billowed from the wreckage. Nearer to the terminal, the landing area all covered by debris ... still smoldering rubble.

  Orange blades of flame flickered inside the ruins.

  “Jordan? Seeing this? This is not good.”

  Annie’s voice sounded tinny through the commlink.

  “Not good at all,” Jordan replied as he hurriedly checked the scanners for signs of anything moving out there. “You still going to dock?”

  The pause was long enough so Jordan thought their commlink might have gone down. Then: “Got to. After that bath, we at least need to check the deionizers.”

  The wheels of the SRV screamed as they left the ramp and hit the tarmac, the impact rumbling through the vehicle...jerking it from side to side.

  Jordan could see that Annie had to pull the steering hard to avoid the larger chunks of rubble that were strewn all across the runway.

  The wind slammed against the SRV like invisible fists, rocking it from side to side.

  Don’t go skidding off the ramp ...

  As they got closer to the terminal, the massive devastation here was perfectly clear. Wind-driven rain swept across the tarmac in shimmering silver sheets as SRV-66 rolled and then stopped more than a hundred yards away from the nearest terminal entrance.

  “As close as we’re going to get,” Annie said over the direct commlink to Jordan.

  “We going out?” Jordan asked.

  He knew the answer; a clear Road rule. Investigate any signs of an attack. Offer help.

  He began unbuckling the turret chair restraints.

  Before he took off his commlink headset, he said: “We’ll have to be fast.”

  “Don’t worry about that,” Annie said. “In and out.”

  ~ * ~

  “You want some help out there?” Ivan asked.

  He nodded his head at the port window as Jordan made his way up the center aisle toward the main hatch.

  Jordan paused, turned, and froze, as if studying him.

  He thinks he can intimidate me, Ivan thought, smiling as if they were in on a private joke.

  “No. Not till we know ... what happened.”

  “I’m just saying”—Ivan shrugged—”I can— we can all see that something really bad happened out there.”

  Jordan stood silently for several seconds.

  Ivan kept smiling. Then he continued: “I don’t have to prove that I’m good with a—”

  “You know how to shoot. Congrats. You’re still staying here.”

  Ivan could tell that Jordan was close to asking for him to hand over the gun.

  But he didn’t make a move to take the weapon.

  Ivan tightened his grip on the rifle just in case.

  If he wants it, let him try.

  “We’re all in this together,” Ivan said, still trying his best to sound friendly ... helpful.

  “You’re a civilian, Gage—”

  Ivan didn’t like the emphasis he put on his fake name.

  “So if I ask ... tell you to stay put, you damned well better do it.”

  A nod
. The smile still in place.

  Let’s not make the gunner even more edgy.

  “Just trying to help,” Ivan said with a casual shrug. And then, his hand still tight on the pulse rifle, he turned and looked out the window.

  It doesn’t look good, he thought.

  And as to staying put?

  If anything out there might threaten him, staying “put” would be the last thing he’d do.

  ~ * ~

  “You ready?” Annie asked.

  After what had happened at the Nakai Station, she wanted to be sure that they didn’t take any unnecessary chances.

  She and Jordan had pulse rifles and were suited up in full battle armor.

  She looked at Jordan, finding strength in his confidence.

  Annie checked her weapon, adjusted her gloves, and then put on her combat helmet.

  The HUD on her faceplate came to life.

  All the readings looked good.

  A few seconds to boot up, adjust—and to make sure the sensors were reading.

  She nodded.

  “Okay. Good to go.”

  Jordan opened the hatch and, taking the lead, went down the steps to the rubble-strewn tarmac, Annie only a few steps behind.

  ~ * ~

  The wind-blown rain lashed at them, almost knocking Annie over.

  She braced her legs and hunched her left shoulder into the blast. Rain sliced across her faceplate, so forceful it made a metallic noise.

  “Christ!” she said loudly.

  She thought she had to shout to be heard above the howling wind. But when Jordan spoke, his voice sounded surprisingly close.

  “Remember, quick. In ... and out.”

  But even Jordan didn’t look any steadier on his feet. His helmet swiveled from side to side as he scanned the area.

  His rifle ready.

  The right person to be watching my back, Annie thought as they headed across the tarmac toward the terminal.

  Up close, the damage looked much worse. The terminal had been stripped to its girders, with gaping holes in the walls and all of its windows blown out. Below them, the ocean churned as towering waves crashed with a thunderous roar against the support pylons.

  Annie knew: these weren’t lightning strikes. This damage wasn’t caused by any storm.

  That much—at least—was obvious.

  But what—or who—had?

  Everywhere she looked, she could see scorch marks from pulse weapons and craters from what had to have been concussion grenades. The flames that had appeared so small from the distance were, in fact, huge, stories-tall conflagrations, sweeping through the buildings in spite of the driving rain.

  And there were bodies ... body parts more like it... strewn everywhere.

  The tale here clear, obvious. The station had been attacked, the place destroyed, the personnel wiped out.

  “Suggestions?” Annie asked, stunned by the devastation.

  “None yet.” Jordan shook his head even as he added: “I don’t think we’re going get to deionize here.”

  “I think you’re right.”

  “And you know—this wasn’t done by warrows.”

  “Gee, you think?”

  “But maybe whoever hit Nakai did this.”

  Walking close to Jordan, Annie picked her way as carefully as she could through the carnage. The wind kept slamming into them, knocking them around. Annie kept her stance spread wide for stability, but that only gave the wind a wider area to hit.

  “Well, lookie here,” Jordan said.

  He had stopped a few paces ahead of Annie and pointed down at one of the bodies on the ground.

  Annie drew to a stop beside him. At first, all she could see was the mess of tangled, charred flesh. Even the internal organs were fried.

  A man, she assumed by the large build, burnt to a crisp. The mouth, a ragged black hole.

  The skin on the face was seared, peeled back, exposing both upper and lower teeth. A silent, sinister scream.

  And the eye sockets.

  Empty holes.

  “Someone from the station?” she wondered.

  Annie glanced at Jordan, then back at the corpse.

  She saw that the dead man’s left arm and his uniform were still intact, the torn edges burned and melted into his skin.

  And sewn on the sleeve ... an arm patch.

  “Oh, shit,” Annie muttered, seeing it.

  A depiction of a spiral galaxy with a large R over it, stitched in red ... and a blood-tipped spike driven through the letter.

  Annie swallowed hard.

  “Runners,” she whispered.

  Jordan nodded.

  Then he knelt down and, taking a sharp blade from the tool kit on his belt, cut the emblem off with a few quick slices. Burned skin crinkled and blew away on the wind.

  Before Annie could ask Jordan what he was doing, he looked up at her and said, “Evidence.”

  “For who?”

  But Jordan didn’t answer. He stuffed the emblem into his kit and stood up.

  “I’m pretty sure the pod bays are gone,” she said. “We can’t even get word out, get help.”

  “That would be my bet.”

  “So how are we going to contact the WC?”

  Silence from Jordan.

  “Okay then.” Annie squared her shoulders in spite of the buffeting wind, and looked around. “So we don’t get a message out to report this attack, either.” She shook her head. “I have to give ‘em credit. They may be brutal, but they’re damned systematic.”

  “Very thorough.”

  Annie kept staring out over the desolation, not even trying to estimate how many bodies she could see from where she stood. She didn’t like the note of urgency she heard in her voice when she asked, “It’s just... why are they doing this? What’s their goddamn message?”

  She heard Jordan in her ear, voice low, taking a deep breath.

  “I think there’s someone on board who can tell us.”

  ~ * ~

  25

  THE TRUTH

  [PART ONE]

  Ivan looked up slowly when the swatch of cloth with an arm patch dropped into his lap.

  Facedown. A tiny burst of adrenaline entered his system, his right hand steady as he slowly turned it over and saw: the Runners emblem.

  He took a slow, steady breath and looked up straight into Jordan’s eyes as the man said: “Recognize it?”

  How do you play this hand? he asked himself.

  Act dumb?

  Confess everything?

  Go for the gun?

  It was all so wide open, as far as he was concerned, until: “What’s wrong?”

  Ruth’s voice came from the back of the vehicle. He didn’t want her to get into the middle of this, to confuse the options he had.

  But she got out of her seat and walked up the aisle to them.

  She stopped close enough to Jordan to put her hand on the crook of his elbow.

  How well do they know each other? Ivan wondered.

  Something there.

  “It’s none of your business.”

  Sharp.

  Not the way you talk to just any passenger.

  Then, softer, more understanding, and—what? Concern?

  “Please. Ruth. Go back to your seat.”

  Ivan looked up to the front of the cabin at Annie, standing a few paces away, her pulse rifle lowered but ready.

  The others—Nahara and Rodriguez—gawked at Annie and her gunner, and the drama being played out.

  She could easily get a shot off before I even touched my rifle, Ivan thought.

  And he knew how fast the gunner was.

  Game over... no reset.

  “That’s a good idea,” Ivan said, casting a quick glance at Ruth. He saw the worry for him in her eyes.