15. Escape

15. Escape


Brix walked into the corridor and found his buddy waiting for him as planned. He smiled a big smile in greeting and spread his arms away from the sides to show that he was very happy to see him.


"Ha, I knew you could help me my friend, you always can."


The guard scowled at him for a second but his serious visage cracked into a smile instead.


"Damn you Brix, I can't be mad at you."


Brix did some slight of hand and produced a non-traceable cred stick that he held between two fingers.


"Good for me I think. I brought you a little something mate. Now, let us get to my ship, I am in a bit of a hurry."


The two men walked over to the sealed pressure door that unlocked when Brix's pall entered the security override. That was the last thing he ever did. The almost invisible bulge in the wall animated and an arm emerged carrying a heavy-duty xithricite combat knife that impacted on the back of his neck burying it to the hilt. Brix followed the arm to its logical conclusion and found that it was attached to the wall. He stared in fear as the wall illusion turned off and revealed a one-armed Serco.


"You will take me to your ship. Then you will fly me to my destination. Once there I will get off and you will live. Or I can just kill you here and do it myself. Choose norm."


Brix used around a quarter of a second to decide before croaking.


"Live, I want to live."


"Wise choice norm. Move out as you usually would, I will be right behind you. Do not try anything if you cannot see me, I assure you that you will at all times be within my lethal zone."


Brix nodded and shook with fear as the Serco once more disappeared into thin air. If he looked carefully he could see a slight blur outlining the Serco but decided that he didn't want to test the patience of someone obviously on the run. He opened the door and at the same time tried to open a line to the UIT internal security via his communications implant. No connection. He tried again with the same result. A message appeared in his implant.


"Stop trying to contact the authorities. I have complete control of your implant."


Brix stopped immediately, so that was how he had found them. They walked out into the launch bay towards the black and silver Atlas X that was ready for leaving. Brix entered the sixteen-digit code and the door slid open without a sound. The two UIT SWAT team members inside the Atlas fired their neural laces as soon as the door had opened, one catching Brix and instantly overloading his neural pathways, forcing all his muscles to instantly contract and then relax in half second intervals. The other lace partially hit the Serco, short-circuiting his skin's Guise invisibility and overloading his left side. He sneered at the two UIT troopers and brought the stolen plasma rifle up to bear on them when another set of laces impacted on him, covering him completely. He dropped the weapon and started bleeding massively from the fist-sized hole in his stomach and from the stump that indicated where his other arm had been. The remainder of the SWAT team de-cloaked before walking over to the Serco to treat his wounds and take him prisoner. One of the troopers showed him an explosive collar before putting it on around his neck and locking it. They then turned the neural laces off on both the Serco and Brix. The wounds on the Serco stopped bleeding immediately when he once more assumed control of his body and he stood up completely unaffected by the effect of the nets. Brix didn't have toughened neural pathways and remained lying in a foetal position, moaning softly with his bowels voided. 


The Serco stood with his head high, pride shining in his eyes.


"You norms can torture me all you want, it will not help you at all. I demand to be set free."


"Listen freak, we would rather just have shot you so full of holes that nothing remained. Someone wants to see you and that is why you are still alive. So do everyone a favour and grab a nice warm cup of Shut the Fuck up or I'll make you."


The Serco smiled warmly at the enraged trooper before punching him straight across the room into the side of the Atlas, cracking several ribs and landing him in a not very flattering position. The Serco immediately thereafter stopped and stuffed his remaining hand in his pocket to show that he was not going to fight on.


"I shut up when I feel like it norm."


###


Cat was completely lost. Even though she followed the suggested route she couldn't guess what was on the next level at all. She hoped that the Grey stations in general were better organised than the complete anarchy of Aeolus Trading Prefect. She hadn't seen any police or other signs of authority so far and she began to think that the side arm that Beria had told her to wear was a good idea. She moved into the elevator as it arrived, keying sub-level 66a and waited impatiently until it arrived. At sub-level 48 a pair of black clad men entered the elevator and positioned themselves opposite her. She ignored them but couldn't help noticing that one kept staring at her. She turned and faced him, her hand on the gun.


"What?"


He smiled at her.


"Catherine Plissensky, currently working for the Diplomatic Service. How funny, we were just discussing what to do if we met you."


"What, how do... You are GESTEBO."


The realisation hit her like a ton of bricks and she immediately opened a link to Beria.


"Indeed we are. If you will just follow nice and quietly to our ship and we can get the questioning finished and let you resume your obviously important duties?"


The lift arrived at sub-level 66a and the doors opened. She remembered her commander's last words, nobody walked away from a GESTEBO questioning. She drew her gun and pointed it at the agent that had stared at her.


"Sorry, I don't think so."


She backed out of the elevator while keeping the agent covered. She squinted in wonder, why was he smiling like that? He moved towards her and she pressed the trigger. Nothing happened. She looked at the gun and saw the finger depressing the firing stud all the way down but no firing emanated from the muzzle. She ran a quick diagnostic and found out that she had no access to the weapon; as a matter of fact her implants were failing at an alarming rate. She turned to run. The other agent lifted a strange looking gun and fired at her back, hitting her between her shoulder blades. The two needles bit deep and the electricity fired long the wires to her naked flesh shorting her muscles. She hit the floor hard, convulsing in tact with the electricity, absolutely helpless.


###


The engineer rose from his desk and shouted in victory. He looked sheepishly around at the faces that had turned towards him before sitting down again.


"What happened?"


He looked up at the beautiful aide to Raewon that was leaning over his chair to see what he was doing. He blushed as she was bent exactly so far that he could see... He looked away quickly and focused on the screen, which was pretty hard with the smell of her perfume teasing him and making him remember what he saw seconds ago.


"I have found a solution to at least some of the problem miss. If the brain scans of Captain Taerow are correct I believe that we can employ a filter directly to his brain and shield him from the damaging effects of the Omega shield. But I m not sure it is easily duplicated or if it can be implanted on Captain Taerow only."


"You did good Alfred, now send the results to Raewon please. Then we can act on it."


She padded him on the shoulder. He blushed even more, she used his first name. He was going to show her that he was up to the task.


###


Yarina smiled internally even as she kept her outwards appearance calm and detached. Men, they were so easy to motivate if you knew your tricks. Maybe this would solve Utia's problem and allow him to relax again. Captain Taerow, she corrected herself. She was loosing her detachment from the subject and the assignment, a sign that she needed to be moved away from the case. She hoped her case officer would contact her soon before she did something stupid.