Part 29 (1/2)
”I wouldn't recommend asking.”
”Go scrub off in the decontamination tent once you get that thing inside. It's set up in the corner.”
Threnody and Kerr carefully hauled the carrying case up the cargo ramp. Matron made sure to keep several meters' worth of distance away from them as the two secured the bomb in the cargo bay. The scavenger was already in the pilot's seat, readying for launch, when Threnody made it to the flight deck. She'd stripped out of her skinsuit and gone through decontamination. The clothes she wore now were from Matron's stores. Threnody sat down in the navigator's seat, strapped herself into the harness, and started pulling up information.
”Didn't know you could fly,” Matron said as she put on a pair of reflective dark gla.s.ses.
”Most Strykers can pilot a shuttle,” Threnody said. ”I prefer not to, but you need a navigator and I'm leading this mission.”
”With your power, I can't imagine why you'd want to fly.”
”It's why I have Quinton.” Threnody reached over to toggle some of the controls between them. ”Lucas wants us back in Toronto.”
”Why didn't he teleport you?”
”Didn't want to risk the bomb.”
Matron glanced reflexively over her shoulder, but all she saw was the closed hatch. ”Nice how he don't care about our a.s.ses.”
”Let's get in the air. We need to stay clear of government flight paths.”
”I know. Military is shooting down anyone who gets close and don't squawk proper ident. We'll go north, over the Arctic Ocean.”
”Again?”
”No one's gonna be flying our route. Everyone's heading for Paris.”
They were as safe as they could get with a nuclear bomb strapped in the belly of their shuttle, and that wasn't saying much. But Matron knew the uncharted routes between government security grids better than most people. They made the long, uneasy flight back to Canada beneath a cloudy sky all over again.
Hours later, they pinged against the security grid that surrounded Toronto, but no one on the government channels initiated an uplink. Someone in the Strykers Syndicate did.
”It better be you in that shuttle, Thren, do you copy, over,” Quinton said.
Threnody jammed her finger down on the audio control, opening up the line. ”Good to hear your voice. We're carrying precious cargo that needs delicate handling, over.”
”You're clear for the rooftop landing pad, out.”
The uplink cut off and Threnody let out a deep sigh, some sense of calm trickling through her now that she knew Quinton had made it back from his mission alive. Slouching in the navigator's seat, Threnody rubbed hard at her burning eyes. Teleporting across time zones, fighting to complete their mission, then flying back to Toronto had screwed with her inner clock. The chrono on the flight controls said one thing, her body was saying another. The headache pounding through her skull wasn't going to go away anytime soon, and her eyes burned with the need to sleep.
Matron made a soft noise in the back of her throat and Threnody looked over at the other woman. ”What?”
”Never been to a city tower before.”
”Really?”
”Government don't care for my kind. Not how they cared for yours.”
”Given the choice, I would have preferred your freedom.”
”It wasn't all that great.”
Matron was a good pilot, years spent crisscrossing countries around deadzones and security grids forcing her to be. She landed the shuttle on the rooftop with precision. A small group of people waited for them beyond the illuminated safety lines. Threnody recognized them all.
She got out of her seat and palmed open the hatch. The cargo ramp was already opening, and Kerr was busy undoing the restraints that secured the carrying case in place. Novak was pa.s.sed out on a row of seats from exhaustion. Threnody left him for Matron to take care of and went to help Kerr with the bomb.
”You got it,” Lucas said as he strode up the cargo ramp.
”Yeah, we got it,” Kerr said as he kicked the anchor straps aside. ”Was like a nightmare flying back with it.”
”What did they get?” Jason asked as he came jogging up the ramp, Quinton hot on his heels.
Lucas waved off the question, attention focused on the cargo. ”Let's get it somewhere secure first before we talk about what we're doing next.”
”You got medical personnel in this place?” Matron said as she helped Novak to his feet.
”Got a whole level,” Threnody said with a grunt as she finally pushed the release lever all the way down. The metal clamps used to keep the case in one place released.
”Good. They better work on Novak without complaint.”
Jael? Lucas said, linking with the Strykers Syndicate's CMO. I'm sending someone down for your people to fix. Get him sorted, then come meet us in the command briefing room.
Give me ten minutes and I'll be there came Jael's response.
Lucas teleported Matron and Novak to the medical level's arrival room before focusing his attention on the Strykers. ”Let's get below. We've got decisions to make.”
Instead of teleporting, Lucas headed for the stairs. If anyone thought it strange, no one said a word. Threnody and Kerr handled the carrying case with a careful wariness that told Quinton and Jason the cargo wasn't ordinary.
The Strykers Syndicate was filled with a new sense of urgency, with fewer humans manning posts than ever before. On their way through the command level, Threnody noticed the empty terminals first and the Strykers second.
”The virus worked?” she asked as they pa.s.sed by half-empty monitoring rooms.
”We didn't get everyone,” Quinton said tightly.
She heard the guilt in his voice. Threnody tilted her head in his direction as they walked. ”Did you get most of them?”
”As many as we could.”
”If you're going to dwell on numbers, then focus on the positives, not the negatives.”
Easier said than done, and they both knew it.
The command briefing room was as streamlined as every other room in the Strykers Syndicate. The company wasn't about comfort, but about security and making money. Threnody wondered if that would change when this was all over.
Keiko and Aidan were already waiting for them. The two officers were studying a command window of information, the touch screen that filled the entire length of the table filled with a grid map of the world. Threnody didn't know enough to make sense of what she was seeing without being briefed, but she could guess.
”What is that?” Aidan asked suspiciously as Kerr and Threnody carefully placed the carrying case onto the table. Threnody touched the control panel nearby, freezing the local screen and shuffling the data around the carrying case.
”A difficult answer to a difficult problem,” Lucas said as he pulled a seat out and sat down. ”We'll start when Jael gets here.”
Nine minutes later, Jael arrived. ”Your hacker is going to need brain surgery, Lucas. What the h.e.l.l did you have him do?”