Pagan sent out a heavily encrypted message to Balor. Rolleston, if he was still interested, could break it in time, but the phrase was random, prearranged with Balor when we’d set up our comms procedures. The Commancheros and the Big Neon Voodoo had both agreed to send out small convoys to confuse anyone surveilling us and to confuse satellite observation. Pagan was running scans and ECM attempting to either find or confuse recce drones and other methods of detection they might use. He’d also swept the vehicles and us for bugs but found nothing. We discussed nothing more about our plans on the journey back.
We drove through the night. Mudge ditched the bike but neither he nor Morag was badly hurt. I kept going through the pills, the stims and some rather good amphetamines that Mudge had. I’d known he would have some somewhere. Things were pretty quiet in our truck.
Balor himself met us by the water, a different rendezvous point from where we’d last seen him. There was a speedboat waiting for us; we were to leave the trucks. He greeted us all like old friends and Morag like visiting royalty. I think Buck and Gibby may have found him somewhat disconcerting.
Over the water I could see parts of New York were burning, the flames reflected in the cold grey water. Smoke was rising from other sections of the city.
‘Problems?’ I asked somewhat redundantly.
‘Nothing for you to worry about,’ Balor said. ‘You are my guests.’
‘Is this because of us?’ Morag asked.
‘I don’t know; we didn’t stop to ask them.’
‘Who were they?’ Mudge asked.
‘They insulted me by sending a marine expeditionary force of Fortunate Sons. As if Fortunate Sons would be a match for my vets. Still, they did have a lot of aircraft,’ he growled, sounding generally angry that they had not properly challenged him.
‘Balor, they could level the city if they wanted to,’ I said evenly. Balor turned to me.
‘I think my evil eye would weep. I love that city.’ He looked sad but then he laughed. ‘I was told they tried to assemble a SEAL team to come into the city, but they all refused and then contacted some of their friends who work for me. That was how we knew they were coming.’ He grinned his unnerving shark grin.
‘If this is Rolleston he’s painting with a pretty big brush,’ Mudge said. I nodded.
We went to work, though I spent a bit of time in the hospital getting my skin patched up again. I wrote down what we would need and gave it to Balor. He read it, ate it and then asked me for another, memorised that one and then ate that too before complaining that I would bankrupt him. I was asking a lot from him but he came through. I couldn’t help but be impressed when he showed me the ten Wraiths. They were one generation back but they were what I’d been trained on in the Regiment.
‘You got the deep-water conversion kit?’
‘Got all the conversion kits, deep water, deep space, toxic atmosphere, high gravity, you name it. They’ve never been used; they belonged to a Fortunate Sons unit before we boosted them.’
‘You know we can’t pay for these.’
‘They attacked my home. You know I’m coming with you.’ I looked up at him sharply and then nodded. He would be useful, very useful indeed.
‘And I won’t be needing one of these,’ he said, gesturing at the Wraiths.
Pagan and Mudge went to work trying to find corroborating intel for Buck and Gibby’s story. Pagan used the other world of the net and Mudge reached out to all his old journalist contacts. Morag worked on God, researched the actual Atlantis Spoke itself and either avoided or ignored me, not surprisingly.
Rannu helped me with an assault plan, which wasn’t built on very much information. He was also teaching Morag to fight, helping her integrate her softskills, running simulations for her, that kind of thing. He’d added a smartlink to both her laser pistol and her personal defence weapon and provided her with glasses that would act as a heads-up display and show her where the crosshairs were. The guns were linked through a glove that was wired into the glasses. They also provided low-light vision. It wasn’t as good as having it all hard wired but it didn’t involve replacing any more of her flesh.
Rannu and I also worked on the Wraiths. We ran diagnostics, did the deep-water operations conversion and attached insulating foam to help keep their EM and heat signatures to a minimum.
Buck and Gibby took in the sights and got drunk and high. When Balor provided them with a transport flyer, they complained about it but went to work improving it as much they could and breaking it into their way of flying.
I was leaning against an acoustic tile, wearing only a towel just like the rest of us.
‘If you’re going to talk don’t lean against the tile; have as little contact with the floor and walls as possible,’ Pagan said.
‘Should I stand on one leg?’ Mudge asked. I thought Balor looked ridiculous with a towel wrapped round his waist but all our clothes were outside the clean room. I didn’t think Morag looked ridiculous only wearing a towel. I was trying hard not to look at her. Pagan had checked us all thoroughly for surveillance devices before we entered. Worryingly, he’d found a couple on Buck and Gibby, presumably picked up while they were sightseeing.
I pushed myself off the wall and onto my feet.
‘What’ve we got?’ I asked. My question was aimed at Mudge and Pagan.
‘A lot of smoke,’ Mudge said. ‘There are rumours about a facility deep below the surface. Couple of journos I used to know went missing looking into it. There have been a couple of deaths connected to it, one a hacker allegedly burnt out on their security countermeasures, and another a geneticist who’d contacted one of my missing journo friends. Rumour was he was going to blow the whistle. There are some wild stories about it from some of the more conspiracy minded. Usual stuff – the government has captured Them down there, that sort of thing. Nothing solid, but if I was looking for a story and didn’t mind getting killed I’d look into it. Not sure if I’d plan an assault on the strength of it.’
‘Any ideas as to where this facility might be?’ I asked.
‘I’ve got three sub-surface locations,’ he said. Morag unrolled the schematics she’d found. Pagan hadn’t allowed a monitor into the clean room. He’d said it was bad enough that we all had internal electronics. Mudge looked down the long, thick stem of the Spoke and found the three locations.
‘Here, here and here.’ He tapped the deepest one again. ‘This being the one that was most recommended, but like I say it’s all speculation.’
‘How deep?’ Balor asked.
‘Five hundred metres. What difference does that make?’ Mudge asked suspiciously, glancing over at me.
‘That’s the abyssal zone,’ Balor said. ‘No light, very cold.’
‘Pagan?’ I asked.
‘I think there’s something there. I found similar stuff in the more conspiratorial areas of the net. More importantly I confirmed most of Buck and Gibby’s story. The Steel was docked when and where they said it was. There’s a significant drain of power to that area,’ he said, pointing at the third possible location, the one that Mudge had favoured. ‘Some major kit has been delivered and then disappeared, as have a lot of supplies.’
‘What kind of kit and supplies?’ Rannu asked.
Pagan shrugged. ‘Lab gear, bio-hazard stuff, big containment stuff, genetics equipment, general lab supplies, food and enough gear for a not insignificant security force.’
‘Estimate?’ I asked.
‘Platoon strength at least.’