Part 3 (1/2)
Two hours later, Jason had to resign himself to the inevitable: he wasn't going to meet Lucas's timetable. Jason rubbed at his eyes, inspecs bright against the darkness. ”s.h.i.+t.”
He was tired. Staring at command windows and the framework of a security grid he had no hope of breaking would exhaust anyone.
Right on schedule, Lucas commed him. ”Finished?”
”I finished the communications you wanted, but we've got a problem.”
”That's not what I want to hear.”
”I managed to hack the security feed around here earlier only because it was tied into the same system Novak hacked on our flight over the Atlantic. I got lucky with the artillery, but I can't hack this last system, Lucas. It's completely separate, half of it is tied into biometrics on-site, and I'd need a week, at minimum, to build a back door.”
The comm hummed softly with static. Jason winced as Lucas implanted an image directly into his mind for a visual. ”Get back here.”
Jason extracted himself from the hack and closed out before teleporting back to the shuttles sitting on the airfield a kilometer away. Alpha shuttle had its cargo doors open, metal ramp digging into the dirt. Lucas was standing at the edge of the ramp, bright blots of red dripping from his nose to the metal beneath his feet. Lucas might not have been hemorrhaging anymore, but nosebleeds were common while suffering through psi shock. Jason was surprised the younger man was capable of walking, much less pulling off an attack on a government outpost.
Shaking his head, Jason jerked his thumb over his shoulder in the direction of Longyearbyen. ”Security grid for the island is set. The artillery on the mountain is dormant now, but the security system tied into the seed bank is something else.”
Lucas wiped at the blood dripping from his nose, flicking it off his fingertips. ”If we jacked Novak into the hack?”
”He's burned through all his neuroports.”
”We could strip new ones onto different nerves and modify the ones in his brain.”
Jason stiffened. ”That will kill him.”
”Most likely.” Lucas turned his head to stare south at the flat-topped, small mountain that rose into the sky nearby. It was mostly white near the peak, the rest dark rock and dull green moss. ”If you can't hack it, we only have one option.”
Lucas headed back into the shuttle, Jason on his heels. Matron and Kerr were huddled near some of the cold-storage units, with Samantha and Kristen sitting nearby, watching them. Jason didn't see Threnody or Quinton.
”Did you scan the terrain?” Lucas asked Matron as they got closer.
”This place don't get tectonic s.h.i.+ft like other continents,” Matron said, glancing up from the readouts on the unit's control screen. ”That road is stable enough, but I wouldn't want to land a shuttle on it. Lucky for you, two of the shuttles that survived are carrying the gravlifts. We'll be able to transfer whatever Jason can't teleport.”
”I take it I'm the stevedore,” Jason said with a heavy sigh.
Matron smiled at him, showing a line of metal teeth. ”You know you're worth more than that, so stop complaining.”
”Is the hack finished?” Kerr said.
Jason shook his head. ”No.”
”Then how the h.e.l.l are we getting inside that mountain?”
”Better question would be how are we doing it without tipping off the government?” Matron said.
”They won't know what's happened up here until it's too late,” Lucas said, heading for the flight deck.
”You sure about that?”
”We'll be in Antarctica by then.”
”We'll be where?” Jason said. ”What the h.e.l.l, Lucas? You want to go from polar day to polar night? There are other places in the world we can go to ground that are less extreme.”
”And that's exactly where the government would think we'd go, except we won't be in Norway, Greenland, or Canada. There's no other place to match the Arctic except the south pole. Antarctica wasn't worth the trouble for the government to excavate after the Border Wars, which means they won't be searching for us there.” Lucas glanced over his shoulder at them as he palmed open the hatch to the flight deck. ”The seeds need to be kept frozen. These shuttles won't run forever.”
Matron snorted. ”Tell me about it. We're gonna have to refuel somewhere between here and there. Hope you've got a place in mind.”
”Just stick to the plan and don't ask questions, Matron. You'll live.”
”You keep saying that. I keep not believing it.”
Lucas ignored her in favor of Quinton's sharp gaze. ”I need Threnody.”
”No.” Quinton stood up from the navigator's seat. Threnody was curled up in the pilot's seat, seemingly asleep, but at the sound of Lucas's voice, she opened her eyes. She looked worse than she had before the fight.
”You don't have a choice.”
Quinton put himself between her and Lucas. ”She can't handle whatever it is you need her to do.”
”She survived a focused lightning strike. She can survive this. Move.”
Quinton's fist smashed against Lucas's jaw hard enough to knock the other man on his a.s.s. Pain stabbed through Lucas's skull from the blow, blood trickling over his tongue from where he bit it. Black dots edged his vision, telepathy slip-sliding against his shaky s.h.i.+elds. Lucas sucked in a deep breath, taking a few seconds to anchor his s.h.i.+elds before anything else. Then he propped himself up on one elbow and glared at Quinton.
”You're starting to annoy me, Stryker.”
”Quinton,” Threnody called out, pus.h.i.+ng herself out of the seat. ”Lucas-don't.”
Telekinesis yanked Quinton forward, slamming him onto the deck beside Lucas with enough force to knock him briefly unconscious. Lucas used those few seconds to roll over until he was crouched over Quinton, hands on either side of the pyrokinetic's head.
Wake up.
The older man's eyes jerked open as that harsh mental order stabbed into his mind. Blood dripped out of Lucas's nose, falling onto Quinton's cheek.
”Still a b.l.o.o.d.y telepath, even with psi shock,” Lucas said, voice low and flat as he moved one hand to Quinton's throat. ”I'm not powerless here.”
”f.u.c.k you,” Quinton forced out between lips that barely moved, telekinesis holding him down.
”We don't have time for a hack. Threnody is the only one who can get us into the seed bank. And she will. You don't get a say in the matter.”
Lucas pressed his hand down hard against Quinton's throat, feeling the ridges of the other man's trachea roll against his palm. Quinton choked from the pressure, incapable of fighting back.
Cool, shaking fingers pressed against the back of Lucas's neck. He felt a faint, warning electric tingle against his skin. ”Let him go, Lucas.”
Be grateful Aisling needs your life, Lucas said into Threnody's and Quinton's minds. I would eradicate you if given the choice, Quinton.
Lucas stood up, his telekinesis s.h.i.+fting off the other man. Quinton dragged in a ragged breath of air, shoving himself to a sitting position. Lucas bared his teeth at Threnody around a split lip. ”Ladies first.”
Threnody shook her head and walked away from him. Quinton got to his feet and followed Threnody to the cargo ramp. Lucas tracked their movement, watching as Quinton supported Threnody with a care he showed no one else.
”Matron,” Lucas said. ”Pick half your crew to come with us up the mountain. The rest can stay here and organize the shuttles for loading.”