The Ruins of Karzelek (The Mandrake Company series Book 4) Page 4

  A dog barked on the other side of the hole. Ticked waved for them to continue, and they jogged onward, doing their best to find shadows. More men appeared, walking out of buildings, and a tram came out of the hole and delivered more workers to one of those platforms. Workers being called off shift to address the security breach? Kalish grimaced.

  A shuttle flew by overhead, searchlights waving back and forth. She was beginning to doubt her chances of finding those maps and escaping. Her mother’s concerned words floated into her mind, about what fate a female intruder might suffer here. Of course, the miners might simply shove all the intruders down that hole, male or female, and let gravity solve their security problem.

  Tick stopped at the corner of a building, the back end of the hole to their right. Worried about the paucity of shadows, Kalish halted right behind him. The scent of his gum—something that smelled of berries made in a lab rather than under the sun—wafted to her nose. She imagined some hound tracking them by the odor.

  “We’re getting close, aren’t we?” Tick whispered.

  “Yes,” Sedge said before Kalish could. “Second story of that third building.”

  “The one with the guard standing at the bottom of the stairs?” Tick asked.

  “I was hoping that was an off-duty miner out for a smoke.”

  “I don’t know. He’s caressing his pistol a lot for someone off-duty.”

  “Striker caresses his pistols day and night, on-duty or not,” Sedge said.

  “Yes, but he has that insecurity issue. Let’s try to sneak around to the back.” Tick looked both ways down the road, then trotted across.

  Kalish hurried to follow, wincing when someone called, “Who’s that?” from the shadow of a doorway.

  Tick waved cheerfully to the man, then ducked into an alley. Kalish hustled after him. She was too nervous to muster the cheekiness to communicate with the locals. Cheeky or not, Tick was hustling too. She had to sprint to keep up with him. She grimaced at the sound of her boots striking the pavement. Tick was wearing similar boots, but he didn’t make a sound. Maybe he was a stealth expert, or whatever Val had claimed. Sedge wasn’t quite as quiet, but they made it through the alley without anyone bellowing down from windows.

  The next street was dark and empty, backing the perimeter wall. Good, maybe they could escape that way once they scanned the files. Tick led them to the building they had observed, stopping at the bottom. There weren’t any stairs on this end, not so much as a fire escape, nor was there a door.

  “We can use our boots,” Sedge whispered. “Go up and through the window. It should be that one.”

  A shout came from the alley they had just exited.

  “You two go up,” Tick said, backing away. “I’ll keep anyone from bothering you.”

  “I thought that was Striker’s job,” Kalish whispered.

  “I’m sure he’ll do something too.” Tick waved to them, then ran back toward the alley.

  “We better hurry.” Sedge tapped his remote to activate the propulsion system on his boots again.

  By the time Kalish floated up to the second story with him, he already had an electronic device resting against the window pane. It beeped a few times while he bobbed, the boots keeping him aloft. A thunk came from inside. He removed the device and tugged open the window. He slipped inside first, but Kalish was right on his heels. She climbed into the dark room, deactivated her boots, and pulled out her tablet, thumbing on the flashlight application.

  A utilitarian office surrounded her, a few framed nebula pictures on the walls and an inactive floor-cleaning robot nestled in the corner next to a potted plant. Kalish hoped Sedge wouldn’t have a sneezing fit. He had already found the computer terminal, a bigger version of the tablets most people had, this one likely providing the local network for all the equipment on the base.

  Kalish left dealing with it to him. Doubting a virus could do anything to cover their tracks at this point, she headed for the file cabinets along a side wall. It seemed that no matter how much technology came along, people insisted on keeping permanent papers on the important things. She tugged at an oversized cabinet, thinking the maps might be larger than standard. Unfortunately, it didn’t open. She shone her light onto a fingerprint sensor. Great.

  An explosion sounded outside. The floor shuddered, and the windows rattled. Kalish gripped the file cabinet for support, but it wobbled toward her. Visions of being crushed beneath the heavy furniture flooded her mind. She shoved it back harder than she needed to, and it thudded heavily against the wall. She hoped everyone else in the building was too busy worrying about that explosion to listen for intruders.

  “Was that your people?” she asked, tugging at the handle again, vainly hoping that the lock might have been jostled open. It still didn’t budge.

  “Given the location, likely so.” The glow of the holodisplay was reflected in Sedge’s focused eyes.

  Kalish felt bad about distracting him, but she had one more question. “Any chance that gadget of yours opens filing cabinets as well as windows? Otherwise, I’m about to have to get violent with the furniture.” She tapped the hilt of her pistol.

  Sedge frowned in her direction, maybe wondering why a would-be thief hadn’t brought tools for thwarting locks. Because it was her first heist...

  He tossed her the device. “Front side handles electronic locks. Try the back for anything old or magnetic.” His gaze shifted back to the glowing display, but he added, “Furniture mutilation would be a sure sign that we were here.”

  Kalish fumbled with the slender black rectangular device, having never seen one before. She turned it to the back side, thumbed on a button, and pressed it against the handle near the latch, where the fingerprint sensor waited for something more appealing than her own digits. The device attached itself and hummed softly.

  “I’m not sure it’ll be possible to hide that we were here,” Kalish said. “Explosions being hurled around the streets suggest intruders. Or disgruntled employees.”

  “We may still be able to hide what was taken.” Sedge met her eyes across the office. “That’s important, isn’t it?”

  “Yes,” Kalish said without hesitation. As botched as this heist already was, it would make her mission easier if they could keep the miners from knowing why she had been here.

  Sedge’s fingers danced in the air, interfacing with the display. His own tablet lay open next to the computer. Transmitting the virus?

  A soft clunk came from the filing cabinet. Kalish tugged on the latch. This time, it opened. Excitement thrummed in her breast when she pulled out the drawer, revealing long rolled scrolls bound together by rubber bands. There were at least two dozen wedged in the cabinet, and she scooped them all out. Her hands shook as she pushed off the first rubber band. If this was it, maybe there would still be time to scan the information she needed and escape.

  “Put down your weapons and halt,” came a robot voice from outside the building, the amplification carrying it through the walls.

  Kalish’s first thought was that the order was for her, but how could anyone on the ground see in here? No, the instructions had to be for Tick. That wasn’t comforting, knowing he had been spotted, but she went back to work, hoping she had a few more minutes. She pushed open the scroll and found a faded pencil drawing, two of them. A side elevation and an overhead representation of swirling tunnels. Cavern 1373-A. This was it.

  “Primitive as hell,” she muttered. Didn’t they have robots and computers capable of handling the mapping? Even as she wondered this, she switched to the scanner program on her tablet, shining the light at the same time, afraid the faded pencil work wouldn’t be captured.

  As soon as it beeped, she moved to the next map, then the next. Some were done in pen and some in pencil, and the hands changed over the years—each was dated and signed down in the corner, as if someone had intended to sell these as artwork one day. They might actually fetch a decent price in an auction catering to treasure hunters. Not that the
company that owned this mining outfit and the claim for this part of the planet wanted anyone snooping around in its caverns.

  As she scanned map after map, she didn’t see anything that might signify alien ruins. What if the miners had never truly encountered them? What if nothing but rumors had brought her all the way out here? No, her retired snitch had claimed to have seen them for himself and she had known enough about the aliens to question him, to make sure what he had described sounded like an authentic ruin site.

  Another boom sounded, this time from the other side of the building. As with the other explosion, it wasn’t more than a half a block away, and the floor and window shuddered again. The cabinet drawer slid out farther, only a hitch inside keeping it from dropping out on Kalish’s head. She imagined the foreman charging up here and finding her unconscious amongst his pile of maps. Yeah, the miners might do more than drop her in the hole if that happened.

  This time return fire answered the explosion, the buzz of laser cannons. Kalish gulped, praying she wasn’t condemning Tick or any of the other men to death on her behalf. Even Striker didn’t deserve that.

  “Thomlin?” a tinny voice asked.

  Sedge slapped his comm-patch. “Here.”

  “You about done in there? Because we’ve got all sorts of problems out here. Did you know these mining ships had cannons?”

  Thomlin looked over at Kalish, and she shook her head. Would he believe her? At least some of the mercenaries had to be wondering if she had been holding back information. She hadn’t, but she was starting to feel guilty about the inaccuracy of her research. Maybe she had been misdirected. Maybe the miners deliberately wanted people to believe this operation was less sophisticated than it was, for exactly this scenario. So intruders would easily be captured.

  “I’m done.” Though her instincts told her to race for the window and get out of the complex, she forced herself to grab the maps, roll them back up, and push the rubber bands around them again.

  “So am I.” The room dimmed as Sedge shut down the computer display and pocketed his tablet. He joined her, helping roll and fasten the documents. “Were these maps what you needed?”

  “They’re maps of the cavern, yes.” She jumped to her feet, stuffing scrolls back into the drawer. “Whether they were what I need remains to be determined.” She would have to take a long, slow look at each of the maps later, when she got out of here and had time. If she got out of here and had time.

  “You’re looking for alien ruins?” Sedge asked.

  Kalish looked sharply at him. She hadn’t told him that. He had to have guessed. She didn’t deny his question, but she didn’t answer it either.

  “Here.” She closed the drawer and handed him the lock-picking device. “Thanks. That was helpful.”

  Laser fire whined outside, and a beam as thick as Kalish’s arm streaked past their window.

  “Uh. Are we still planning on going out that way?” She stayed back, but she could see the movement of lights down in the street. A search team? More lasers fired somewhere out front.

  “Thomlin,” came the voice from the comm—Tick’s? Or was that Thatcher? “Get onto the roof of that building.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Sedge opened the inside door and peeked out. “It’s dark,” he whispered. “Come on.”

  Kalish feared they would simply be trapped if they climbed out on the roof—hadn’t they seen search ships flying over the complex on the way in?—but she ran after him. What other choice did she have? That back window wasn’t an option anymore.

  They ran through a hall, the walls made of the same stylish corrugated metal as the outside. This facility might have high-tech security, but nobody would accuse the architecture of having the same quality. They climbed to the third story, then found a ladder leading to a trapdoor in the roof.

  A door slammed open somewhere below them.

  “I think the smoker woke up,” Kalish said.

  More doors slammed open, and something thudded against a floor. Footsteps echoed up to them, many footsteps.

  “I think a lot of people woke up,” Sedge said, and sighed. He climbed the ladder but paused before pushing open the trapdoor. “You ready for us, Commander?”

  “The sooner the better,” Thatcher said.

  Sedge drew his pistol, slid the trapdoor open, and poked his head out a few inches. The whine of laser fire made Kalish want to run the other way and find a nice closet to hide in.

  “There’s a water tank in the corner,” Sedge said. “We’ll use it for cover.”

  “Until what happens, exactly?” She couldn’t imagine how being on the roof was safer than being inside the building, unless he had a rappelling kit in his pocket, and they could swing over to the wall and escape down the outside.

  Sedge didn’t answer. He had already climbed out and was sprinting across the roof. The firing hadn’t ceased; she could only assume it wasn’t pointed at him. Tick must still be down in the streets, drawing the defenders’ ire. And Thatcher and Striker must be out there too. Were they still outside the wall or had they come in to contribute to the chaos?

  Kalish poked her head out before committing herself to streaking across open ground. A few antennae poked up from the flat roof, but the metal water tank was the only thing large enough to hide behind. Sedge crouched there now, his rifle trained toward the sky as he watched her.

  She was about to follow his lead and sprint to the tank, but a laser cannon boomed from the wall behind it, ten meters away from the side of the building. Armed men were running along the parapet, shooting toward the street. The laser cannon hit with force, its massive beam blasting away the shadows and tearing into pavement below. Shards of rock flew up so high they were visible from the top of the building. Fortunately, the men weren’t looking in Kalish’s direction, and there weren’t any lights on the rooftop. Staying low, she ran toward Sedge.

  Before she reached him, a dark figure stepped out from behind the back side of the tank. Laser fire streaked overhead, and Kalish had no trouble seeing the rifle in the man’s arms, the rifle pointed straight at her.

  She fired wildly at him as she hurled herself to the roof. She rolled, trying to reach the closest side of the tank, hoping she might duck behind the corner and find cover. But it was too far. She thought her shot had grazed his thigh, but if he had not been seriously injured, the miner would have an eternity in which to aim at her.

  Wincing in anticipation, Kalish lunged to her feet as soon as her momentum slowed. She was sprinting for the corner before she realized the dark figure had never fired. He had crumpled to the rooftop, the rifle falling from his fingers. Sedge had blasted him in the chest.

  Now, he turned toward the opposite corner of the tank, the one Kalish was running for, at the same time as a second man came into view. This one didn’t step out into Sedge’s sights. He knelt, using the corner for cover, and aimed at the easier target: Kalish.

  His rifle’s crimson beam burned toward her chest at the same time as something slammed into her. Someone. Sedge’s weight forced her to the roof. Laser fire squealed in her ear, and she thought she was dead, her head about to explode. But Sedge pulled her up before she knew what was happening. She glimpsed her attacker’s unmoving form as he dragged her toward the tank again. Somehow Sedge had shot the man even as he was knocking her out of the way.

  There was no time to thank him. Their skirmish had drawn the attention of the men on the wall. People fired just as she and Sedge finally obtained cover behind the tank. Orange and crimson beams streaked across the roof to either side of the tank. Panting, Kalish pressed her back to the cold metal, praying it was thick. More rifles fired, slamming into the other side of the structure. The tank shuddered with each blow.

  “I hope this thing’s sturdy.” She crinkled her nose, a burning scent filling her nostrils.

  At first, she thought the building might be burning, but with the light from the next round of lasers, she spotted smoke wafting from Sedge’s side.<
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  “You’re shot,” she blurted. Then, feeling she needed to do more than state the obvious, asked, “Are you all right? Do you need help?” She had a first-aid kit in her pack. But was there time to dig it out? The tank shuddered again under the barrage of fire, and metal shrapnel flew up from the roof itself, shards flying in every direction. Water dribbled from leaks in the tank. The miners didn’t seem too worried about damaging their facility.

  “No.” Sedge tapped his comm-patch. “Commander Thatcher, in case you were uncertain, this is indeed the ideal time for a heroic rescue.”

  “On my way.”

  Another explosion went off, this time something on the wall blowing up. Tick’s work? From her hiding spot, Kalish couldn’t see what had been hit, but she hoped that cannon was out of commission. If the miners brought that to bear on their rooftop cover, it would obliterate the tank—and half of the building with it.

  Laser fire came from a new direction, the building across the alley from theirs. It skipped off the roof, not a foot in front of Kalish. Sedge was firing before she spotted their new attackers. Two men had stepped out of a doorway on the rooftop over there. Sedge pierced one in the chest. She winced. She had not wanted to hurt anyone—she hadn’t even wanted to be noticed here.

  The other man ducked back into the protection of the stairwell, but did not close the door or stop firing. Kalish dropped to a crouch as a laser burned through the air above her head. She tried to make herself as small a target as possible, but she thought about taking the risk of exposing herself to sprint back to the trapdoor.

  Sedge caught the other man in the chest, and he flew backward, smoke wafting from his torso. Movement in the stairwell promised there were more armed men to take his place.

  “You’ve got good aim.” Kalish added her pistol fire to Sedge’s more precise shots, doing her best to spray the ground and the doorway, hoping wildness would drive them back as surely as accuracy. “Must not be allergic to lasers.”