‘So it’d kill anyone inside?’ asked Amy coldly. She was famed more for her efficiency than her compassion. ‘That’s their problem.’ She looked solid and slab-like in the near-darkness, not someone to tangle with.
‘Yeah,’ agreed Lina, thinking of what had happened to Sal.
‘No, no, it’s not just that,’ said Alphe. ‘We’d likely blow the whole fucking works out of that shuttle, strew the lot across space. No good.’ He shook his head once, frowning, obviously displeased, and continued to study the diagram, tracing details with one finger.
‘Well what about the cargo hold?’ asked Lina, who was actually qualified to fly an inter-system supply shuttle, although she’d never done so for real. ‘The hold is unpressurised.’
‘It is?’ asked Alphe, squinting into the schematic. ‘It doesn’t say that here.’
Lina pushed the smaller Ilse out of the way and bent over the schematic. She, too, began to trace details on its surface. She noticed that there were still flecks of blood around her fingernails. Her hair was still full of the stuff, too. She wondered absently when she’d ever get the chance for a proper wash. She’d just had time to change her clothes after seeing Hobbes, before Halman had summoned her again.
‘Yeah, look here,’ she said, tapping at the diagram. ‘This is an airlock, into the shuttle’s hold. An internal airlock.’
Alphe peered closely at the indicated point, and Lina moved her bloody finger away self-consciously. ‘Oh yeah,’ he said, sounding a little irritated as well as pleased. ‘So we can cut into the hold and go through the shuttle’s interior airlock.’
‘Good,’ said Halman. ‘Are you sure the Kays will do it? Lina? Ilse?’
The two miners exchanged noncommittal looks. ‘Well. . .’ they both said together.
Ilse made a you go gesture with one hand and Lina said, ‘It does kind of depend on how thick the hull is.’
‘Alphe?’ asked Halman.
‘Erm. . .’ said Alphe, staring into the sheet of plastic. ‘Of course, the deuterium shielding is all at the front of the ship. . . Here — barely two-hundred-mil. Even I’m surprised at how flimsy that sounds.’ He looked up, probably trying to smile. ‘Economy first, right?’
‘Then yes,’ said Ilse, stroking back her straggly grey hair and standing to her full five-foot-two. ‘If we put a bigger cutting disc on one of them.’
‘Right,’ said Halman. ‘So we do that. We do have a bigger disc, yes?’
‘Sure,’ said Liu, smiling whitely. ‘In the warehouse.’
Halman coughed laughter. ‘And can you find it in there before the power runs out?’ he asked.
Liu looked slightly offended, but his smile didn’t falter. ‘Charlie Stenning will know where it is,’ he said.
‘Good. Well, change the discs on two Kays if we have two larger ones.’ He glared around the room like a searchlight. ‘Backup,’ he explained ominously.
‘What I don’t get,’ began Liu, smiling that open, benevolent smile of his, as if they were just discussing what to have for lunch, ‘is why he’s attached the shuttle to that asteroid. Lina says he’s used the boarding and rescue tube, so maybe the rock is hollow. Right?’
Lina nodded, causing an errant and bloody lock of hair to swing down into her eye. She brushed it back impatiently and said, ‘Yeah, I’m sure of it. Looked like he’d plugged up holes in it with instawall.’
‘Why the hell would he do that?’ asked Ilse.
‘Who knows?’ replied Lina. ‘But I’m pretty sure of it. Instawall means he’s sealed the rock, probably to make it airtight. That means hollow, and that means. . . well, I’ve no idea what that means, really.’
‘What’s inside it?’ asked Liu.
‘Buggered if I know, old man,’ said Halman.
Dragon! cried Lina’s little interior voice. No, she told it, that’s ridiculous. The voice retorted, sounding too much like Eli for her liking, It’ll eat you up! She shook her head, trying to clear it.
‘Will Eli know that the hull is breached?’ asked Amy. ‘If we cut through it?’
‘Well, there’s supposed to be a warning system, yes,’ said Lina. ‘But that ship’s probably two-hundred years old, and knowing who built it and supposedly maintains it, it might well just not work.’
‘I don’t think we can rely on that,’ said Ella, who was leant against Halman’s desk. Lina turned to look at her. She seemed to have aged ten years overnight, and Lina’s heart went out to her despite the nightmare time she’d been having herself.
‘No,’ Lina agreed. ‘I suppose not.’
‘We have to assume he’ll know what we’re up to, and that he’ll try to stop us,’ Ella elaborated. ‘That means–’
‘A fight!’ Halman finished for her, with a touch too much relish for Lina’s liking. She looked up at him and saw that he was smiling beneath his bushy moustache, his huge arms folded across his chest.
‘Well, that’s great,’ said Ella. ‘But who are we going to send in there?’
‘I’ll go,’ said Lina. All eyes turned to her. ‘I have unfinished business with Eli,’ she continued, feeling that an explanation was required.
‘I should go,’ said Ella, but she didn’t sound too keen.
‘Can you fly a Kay?’ asked Lina.
‘I’m sure I told you before: I flew M4s at Platini Alpha,’ said Ella. ‘It was a long time ago, but Kays can’t be all that different.’
‘Well they kind of are,’ said Lina. ‘Firstly, the jets are arranged in a–’
‘Lina!’ yelled Halman, raising one hand to stop her. ‘How about if you both go?’ The two women stared at him, considering this. They looked to each other, then nodded together. ‘Lina, you’re pretty handy with the Kays and the cutting gear. And you know something about the shuttle. How to fly it back here, for starters. Ella, you’re my security controller, and you’re pretty handy at kicking ass. Also, I could use a break from you.’ Lina wasn’t sure if he was joking or not. ‘We will assume that there’s going to be a. . . hostile reaction. . . to your arrival. You can take laser pistols from security. But make sure they fucking work first. I know some of them don’t.’
‘If Lina’s going to cut,’ piped up Alphe, ‘then I’d like her with us when we modify and check over the Kays.’
‘I’ll pre-flight them with you,’ said Liu. ‘My department, my ships. You work under my supervision. No offence.’
‘Fine by me,’ said Alphe, nodding.
‘Sure,’ said Lina. She noticed that Ilse Reno was staring at her strangely, even for someone with a cybernetic eye. Was she jealous? Technically, Ilse was now the chief of the mining division. Had Lina stepped on her toes? She decided she didn’t really care. She had other things to worry about.
‘What if the prisoner is there too?’ asked Hobbes, pushing his glasses higher up onto the bridge of his nose. Why he had never had corrective surgery Lina didn’t know. Maybe the glasses were an affectation — supposed to make him look scholarly. ‘And maybe the pilot, too. They could be facing three people. I really think we need to consider this carefully before anyone else gets killed.’
‘This is Ella,’ said Halman slowly, as if talking to an idiot. He indicated the woman in question with a sweep of one arm. ‘Would you pick a fight with her? Even with two friends?’
Hobbes faltered. ‘Well, I wouldn’t, of course not,’ he replied. ‘But Eli would, I’m guessing.’
‘I think he has a point,’ said Liu. ‘It does sound pretty dangerous to me.’