Shadow of War, page 33
—••—
“In fact,” I said, “this whole thing has been you. This whole mission. From the very start. You started us on this. To steal the weapon. You introduced us to Sahar, to Alyssna, to Chalam. You wanted to go get this neutral beam. You’ve manufactured this entire situation.”
“I didn’t manipulate you!” he shouted. “I presented an option and you agreed with me! Trieste needs the neutral beam!”
Behind him, Johnny and Alyssna had hauled a trolley into the corridor with the large device perched atop it. It looked deadly; a single massive barrel three meters long. The lasers we’d already stolen would enclose it. There were wires and cables spiraling around it.
All it needed now was for us to connect it to the Laser Module, the Staging System, and the Aiming Module.
And a fusion source, of course, to feed power to the weapon.
I exhaled. “Richard, you’ve been a long-time proponent of independence. You fought beside my father. But you’ve become obsessed with it. You’re so focussed on it that you’ve resorted to killing the people I love just to keep me ‘on the path,’ as you say. You’re sick.” I clenched my teeth. Hard.
I almost tasted blood.
The rage was burning through me.
I couldn’t control it.
Then I raised my pistol and pointed it directly at Richard.
His face went pale. “Mac, I only want what’s best for Trieste. After they killed your dad, Jessica and I fled. For thirty years we worked at Ballard and waited for the movement to take hold again. And then you started it! With the SCAV drive, you finally had a way to achieve what your dad started. But then I saw that things distracted you. Kept you from working sometimes. Your mind started to stray.”
“So what did you do?” I roared. I held my gun steady. My palm was sweating, and then the barrel started to tremble. “Did you kill her?”
The horrible truth had occurred to me. Every muscle in my body quivered.
I couldn’t control it.
Cliff was watching me. “Uh, Mac. She’s still alive. Renée’s outside. We have to go—”
“Not her,” I said. My finger twitched.
“Then who?”
“He killed her, Cliff, to keep me ‘focused.’ To keep me working for independence. He was telling me he was with us, working for us, fighting for independence, but at the same time he was trying to hurt me. Trying to make me angry. Trying to keep me consumed with rage.”
Cliff shook his head. “I don’t understand. Who are you talking—”
“Katherine Wells, Cliff. He’s not just trying to kill Renée. He killed Kat, one year ago.”
Interlude: The Mid-Atlantic Ridge
One Year Earlier
Interlude: The Mid-Atlantic Ridge
Date: March 2130 AD
Depth: 3,688 meters
Latitude: 27º 54” 11’ S
Longitude: 17º 35” 41’ W
Time: 2143 hours
Katherine Wells had invented the SCAV drive. She had done it to fuel Trieste’s fight for independence, and also for every other city in the oceans.
And it had worked. She’d just watched the defeat of the FSF and USSF forces in the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The fighting had badly damaged her vessel, SC-1, which she had designed and contracted a company in Clearwater, Florida, to build for her. She loved the seacar. It was foundering, however, taking on water and struggling through the depths. Her control console had exploded in her face. It was time to get back to the base, to abandon the fight and leave Mac and the others to finish up.
Behind her, her two companions were still arguing. It sent shivers up her spine. They were angry.
“I’m sorry,” she called back to the living area. “We’re flooding. The canopy is cracked and water is compromising the electrical system. We have to leave!”
The arguing paused for a moment, then it picked up again. She couldn’t quite make out what they were saying because the strength of the water was obscuring all other noise.
“I’m heading back to The Ridge. Back to the base. We need to get there before we’ve taken on too much water.” Kat stared at the console before her. The explosion had badly damaged it. There were red lights everywhere. Some areas were black—no power. Pieces of the console lay strewn about. Sharp pieces of plastic and metal.
She felt a presence behind her and turned.
It was Richard Lancombe.
His face was dark.
“Did you hear me?” she asked. “We have to get back now.”
“Do we have comms?” he asked after a moment. His voice did not match his expression. It was soft, sad.
Kat checked with the thumb trigger and replied, “Nothing. I can’t hear anything, can’t signal anyone. We have to get back.” She pointed at the ballast. It was steadily filling. “We’re flooding on board as well as in the tanks. We don’t have much time.”
“I understand.”
Another voice echoed from the living area behind her. “Don’t do it.” It was Jessica Ng, Richard’s partner. She’d essentially been along for the ride, and she’d had a front row seat to the battle.
“I’m sorry,” Kat said again. “We have to get back while we still can.” She was powering away from the battle to the north, hugging the cliff face to attract as little notice as possible.
“That’s not what I meant,” Jessica said.
Her tone was also soft, and the hair on Kat’s neck spiked. She wrenched around to look behind her—
Richard was looming over her. There was a long piece of sharp plastic in his hand.
“What are you—”
He leaped at her with a growl. She let go of the yoke and put her hands on his chest, straightening her arms and keeping him far from her. He was strong though, and he slapped her face with an open palm.
Her head snapped back and hit the control panel beside her. A stream of water hit her face, and her drooping eyes snapped open.
She tried to ask again what he was thinking, but the only thing that came out was a gargling cry of fear. Then Richard was on her again in a flash. The sharp end of plastic was at her sternum, and he began to push.
She cried out.
Behind them, Jessica also screamed something, but Kat couldn’t make it out.
The spear pierced her skin.
Richard screamed as he pushed.
Images of Truman McClusky flashed through Kat’s mind as she realized what was happening. She had desperately wanted a life with him, to lead the people of Trieste together to a new world where the topsiders respected and appreciated the ocean colonists.
She’d loved him more than anyone else in her life.
Kat thrust her chin up and howled in pain as Richard drove the long piece of shrapnel deep into her heart.
“How can I be substantial if I do not cast a shadow?
I must have a dark side also if I am to be whole.”
—Carl Jung
Part Six: Fourth Component
Chapter Thirty-Four
The pistol was in my hand, aimed solidly at Richard. His face was white. His hands were out, in defence, to keep me from firing.
Cliff was next to me. “Are you sure?” he hissed.
I nodded. “He was with Kat in the seacar during the battle. The torpedo had detonated too close. There was no more communication from SC-1 as she struggled back to our base. We only assumed the torpedo damage had done it. But during that period, Richard killed her, Cliff. To keep me on the path.” I snorted. “You disgust me. You’ve murdered someone I love just to keep me working for independence. You killed Kat so I would focus, which you’ve kept telling me.” I shook my head. “Haven’t I done enough? Haven’t I lost enough, Richard? My family is gone, except for Meg. Kat’s gone. Now you’re trying to kill Renée too, but none of it has anything to do with my attempts to achieve independence for Trieste! You’re mad!”
He face went red. “Don’t call me that. Don’t say I’m insane. I’m not!”
“What other reason could there be? You’re killing people to keep me full of hate. To keep me hating the superpowers. But don’t you see, I’m fighting for independence regardless of what you do. It’s the only way for Trieste to move forward. You don’t have to kill the people I love to keep me doing it!” I stepped forward and thrust the gun right into his face. “Who’s next, after Renée? Meg? Johnny? Cliff?”
He stepped back against the wall, but I kept the barrel pressed into his face. “Mac, I didn’t want to hurt you, ever! I want to continue what your dad started!”
“By killing Kat? By trying to kill Renée?”
“Kat had contributed all she was able to. She had nothing left to give! She was distracting you, and so—” He stopped, realizing what he’d said.
All around us, the lights were flashing their warnings.
The PA system had been quiet; there were no more verbal commands echoing through the corridors.
There were bodies on the ground, blood still trickling from them; red streams traced paths to the drains near the rock walls.
And the alarms were still piercing the corridors.
Cliff swore. “You killed Doctor Wells?”
Richard looked frantic. “I did it for the movement! I did it for Mac!”
It made me sick. I didn’t know what to say.
The sound of a seacar whined past the facility. At first I assumed it was Meg in SC-1, but the sound of the screws was off. Then it grew more distant, until finally it disappeared altogether.
A vessel had just departed The Vault.
Then I realized what had happened, and my mouth fell open.
It was likely Commodore Clarke, leaving.
He’d escaped.
—••—
Johnny yelled up the corridor to me. He and Alyssna had the neutral beam on a powered trolley and were maneuvering it into the hall. Alyssna was helping negotiate the corner. She pointed and he guided The Accelerator along the deck. There was an airlock somewhere here, which only opened from the inside. Its purpose was to ship larger equipment to and from The Vault. Our plan was to mate SC-1 to The Vault via umbilical, then load the two components into the seacar.
But things had grown more complicated.
Richard was before me. His expression was pleading, and he was holding his hands out to me, as if warding me off.
Cliff was by my side; his face was a mask of confusion and anger.
It was a frozen tableau; no one was sure what to say.
My hand trembled on the gun. My finger twitched.
“Mac!” Johnny called again. “What are you doing? The personnel will be back soon. Let’s go!”
He didn’t realize what was happening. He was staying on mission and doing his duty without distraction. He was a good operative.
Richard took a breath. “What do you say, Mac? Are you going to kill me? Your dad and I worked—”
“Don’t say that I owe you loyalty because of Dad!”
“He was one of my best friends.”
“You committed murder.”
“Come on. You’ve killed entire boat crews. What are you talking about?”
I scowled. “You looked her in the eye and stabbed her. You drove the shrapnel into her. She was innocent. How could you possibly think that was okay?”
“For the greater good.” He held his chin up.
I had noted that Jessica hadn’t been around lately. She’d been with him on SC-1 at the time. Was it possible that she had played a role? “What did Jessica think?”
He hesitated. “That’s not your business.”
“I thought you were married.”
“We are.”
“Then where has she been?”
“No comment.”
“Did she participate in the murder?”
This he was prepared to answer, at least. Although it might have been a lie. “We argued about it.”
Cliff was shifting next to me, and I shot him a glance. He said, “Boss. What do you want me to do?”
The implication was unmistakeable. He was asking if I wanted him to kill Richard. He would have, in a second. I had no doubt; he was completely and utterly loyal. He was the CSO at Trieste, and Richard’s actions had eluded him.
Johnny called again, “Mac! Come on!” He and Alyssna had disappeared around a corner.
I was staring at Richard. There was sweat on his face, dripping along his wrinkles, and his white hair was glistening.
He thought I might actually kill him.
I deflated. “Arrest him, Cliff. Restrain him. We’ll take him back to Trieste.”
Cliff looked shocked. “Are you sure?”
“No.” But the truth was that Sahar was on my mind. She was outside, with Renée, and there was a security crew hunting them. Sahar would not want me to kill the man. For whatever reason, I had decided to take her lessons to heart. Perhaps it would help ease my own guilt, especially after what had happened in the previous years. I’d killed many people. Meg had also murdered, and we’d all dealt with the ramifications. Hell, we’d destroyed an entire USSF base during her rescue.
But Sahar had insisted on a path that didn’t require excessive killing.
It seemed weird, as I stood in a hostile facility with bodies littering the deck around my feet, but I needed to keep her on my side. I couldn’t let her down.
Cliff continued, “He killed Kat in cold blood. Tried to kill Renée.”
“I am aware.” I sighed. “But it’s possible he can still help with independence. There’s also Jessica to think about.”
Cliff’s face showed his surprise, but after a moment he stepped forward and pinned Richard’s arms behind his back and restrained him with a black zip tie. He relieved him of the PCD and his two weapons.
We stepped over the bodies as we followed Johnny.
—••—
It was a large airlock with a circular door that swung outward on a single, massive hinge. The neutral beam was inside, and Johnny and Alyssna were standing next to it. They stared at Richard and his cuffs, and a look of astonishment flashed across their features.
“Everything okay?” Johnny asked.
“Not really.” I left it at that. Looking around, I noticed something immediately. “There’s no scuba equipment here.”
“The airlock is just for equipment to bring in and out,” he responded. “From vessels.”
I pursed my lips. “You’ll stay here with Alyssna and Richard. Don’t let him go, whatever you do. We’ll close the hatch and lock you in so the base personnel can’t get in. Cliff and I will return to the docking pool. When SC-1 arrives and connects the umbilical, get the two components on board and come get us.”
His eyes were wide. “Where will you be?”
“Outside. We have to go help Renée and Sahar.”
—••—
We’d already delayed it too long. I’d been arguing with Richard while the two outside had been in immense danger. There was no more time to waste. Cliff and I began the journey back up to the modules and through the travel tubes, back toward security and the lift down to the docking pool.
It was the same path back that Commodore Clarke had taken, so I knew we could make it. He’d likely cleared the way of any resistance, anyway.
The errant thought made me swallow past a dry throat.
He’d murdered everyone wearing a BSF uniform in those labs.
Holding the PCD to my lips, I whispered, “Renée. Sahar. We’re coming out. Stay away from them if you can. We’ll be there in a few minutes.” I watched the screen as we moved through the first travel tube. The alarms were still ringing and the lights flashing. Our feet pounded on the white deck as we ran.
got it
we’re just south of the facility
a ship left a few min ago
“It was Clarke,” I hissed. “He’s continuing his . . . his mission.”
There was a long pause as they processed that. And then:
have to stop him
I swore inwardly. “I don’t know what he can do. He can get to Diego Garcia and maybe enter, but he’s on his own now.”
have to try
The hatches opened at our approach. We were in the living and recreation module when the hair on the back of my neck stood on end. I pulled to a halt and grabbed Cliff.
He had heard it too.
People were speaking:
“There’s a team of intruders here. They’re in the labs.”
“Somehow they planned it to occur at the same time as a quake alert, of all things!”
“You idiot. They caused the alert! Everyone’s in their emergency collection zones. Hidden away. Meanwhile, they’re causing havoc. God knows what they’re doing.”
There was a long pause. I peered around, but it was dark and the flashing alerts were forcing me to squint. It was difficult to make out anything.
The voice continued, “You think they caused the quake? But that’s impossible.”
“It was a perfect distraction. We went into lockdown and the personnel vacated the entire facility. Security is outside chasing another group. There are only a few security guards here now. It left us wide open to—”
“But what do they want?”
