Truthseer Page 5

  ‘Why not? Burton doesn’t seem to discriminate between different groups.’

  ‘Anyone wanting to join has to kidnap someone off the street and kill them. On video. It’s kept on file to be sent to the police if a member tries to leave or turn evidence.’

  ‘So if it’s them, the threat’s serious?’ Parry hesitated. ‘Burton’s setting things up to pin the blame on you.’

  Raine didn’t reply, working out where or how this fitted with Jac’s intel about the president’s involvement with ‘something’ connected to the central market. If she was right, this went further up the chain of command than Burton’s position as head of security. It meant the president himself was involved. He almost missed Parry’s next comment.

  ‘Raine, what I don’t understand is why Burton hasn’t evacuated the market. He ordered the manager to lock everything down and city-guards are out in force, kettling people outside the main doors. It’ll mean maximum casualties.

  Raine was starting to see a kind of twisted logic to it now. ‘Looks like a carefully planned PR exercise. There’s an election coming up and Moris wants a well-timed drama. Everyone intimidated by a terror attack and then he’ll save the day by capturing the perpetrators. Whether they’re actually guilty is irrelevant to this kind of plan.’

  Parry didn’t sound entirely convinced. ‘Raine, I know the policy is lethal force on outlaws and there isn’t much consideration given to collateral damage... but for Moris to deliberately put his own people in harm’s way?’

  ‘Except that his own people are those in the Avarit faction. Anyone else is either outlaw or replaceable workforce. Leaders have always increased their votes by starting a war. Moris is just cooking up a localized one now that other continents are too depopulated and restricted in heavy munitions to be available for the purpose.’

  He might have added that they were also all under the control of Avarit global, but in any case Parry didn’t argue. Raine suspected there were aspects of his job he either justified or tried to ignore and this conversation was probably stirring up uncomfortable buried memories. The priority now was to try to avert a bloodbath in the city centre.

  ‘Michael, if my people go in and try to stop it, what protection can you give them from Burton’s enforcers?’ He watched Parry’s expression, knowing he was caught between conflicting priorities; a precarious choice between colluding with mass slaughter or colluding with outlaws. Too much conflicting pressure and the tenuous collaboration would break. His guess proved accurate.

  ‘Raine, I’m still on observer status, just getting sight of partially-redacted bits of Burton’s intel. At least it’s more information than I was getting before––Burton is the secretive type. I’m sorry. Of course I want you to send your team in, but they’re on their own.’

  ‘How long have we got?’

  Parry checked his watch. ‘One hour, four and a half minutes.’

  *

  Fin watched Jac as she monitored the newscasts, trying to work out the best way to train an unexpectedly talented young medic in applying control and analysis to what she was picking up intuitively. Her attention was distracted by the anxiety in Razz’s voice as he tried to deal with a call coming in from the Tarn.

  ‘Raine, I really want to help, but something the size of an evac for the whole market is not our speciality. We’re an urban protection force for volunteers in the food banks and free clinics. Small groups, out of sight most of the time. It’s the only way when we’re caught between staz patrols on one side and F2 on the other.’ He gave an exasperated groan. ‘Give me a few minutes to contact the tigers, collect some good numbers for backup. All I’m asking for is someone with experience of strategy.’

  ‘Bel and Kit can do it. With Fin in support.’ Raine’s image on the screen started breaking up again as the connection failed once more. Razz turned to check that the others had overheard the transmission.

  ‘You catch all that? Can you put a team together? I need to tell the geeks to block the street cameras in the area so the enforcers don’t spot us going in.’

  There was a long silence.

  Fin knew that as the most experienced ranger in the room, she was expected to make the first suggestion. And the painful truth was, the best strategy by far would be to have Bel leading the op. The very thing she’d been hoping to avoid.

  Tough. Lives depend on it.

  ‘Bel, I know this wasn’t the plan but... we’re going to need your rapid gestalt reactions if we’re going into so many unknowns. Kit and I will be there to back you up.’

  Bel simply nodded a reluctant acceptance and started to gather her weapons and night-sights.

  Razz passed a spare handset to Jac. ‘The geeks managed to hack one of the low-level military coms channels. If you sense anything beyond the obvious in their messages, tell the hive and they’ll find a way to pass it on to us. Lizzie will be transferring emergency trauma meds to the north-central clinic––it’s closer to the market in case there’s casualties. You’d better go with her.’ He signalled Bel and she followed him out of the door.

  Fin gathered her equipment, trying not to think about how many of her friends and students might not make it back from this new emergency.

  9

  Fin stood concealed behind the perimeter wall of the flat roof overlooking the central market. She watched the streets below as a double line of black-clad enforcers tightened their control of the whole market complex, riot shields haloed in the eerie blue haze of dusty street lights.

  The heavily-armed human barrier had trapped a restless crowd of civilians in the street and the parking area directly outside the market’s glass doors. If the bomb inside the building detonated, the carnage from flying shattered glass would be devastating. No need for deductive skills to imagine that––and the time-frame Raine had passed on to them was running down to less than half an hour. Now they needed Bel’s skill to instantly connect scattered pieces of information and create patterns the rest of the team could work with.

  Bel was scanning the street with a faraway look in her eyes, speaking softly, communicating her gestalt-analysis of the whole-picture she was seeing. Kit was using her instructions to dispatch small groups of city-tigers into the best routes to dodge the guards, clear the trapped crowds, and get inside the market.

  Fin allowed herself a brief sigh of relief. Raine’s two trainee leaders were back to their brilliant best; alert, focused, and in close communication. If they were lucky the shock and grief they had to push aside wouldn’t take too heavy a toll on them. If not...

  No time for distractions. Focus.

  She flexed her limbs, anticipating the burst of action that would be needed in the next few minutes. It was getting harder to keep up with the eighteen year olds these days. The rigorous mind-body lieth training had kept her fit into her seventy-third year, but she knew it wouldn’t last much longer at this front-line level. And she needed to be on that front line when Bel and Kit took over from Raine, to give them a balancing perspective to the training he had given them.

  If she could just keep going long enough––

  Razz ran across the flat roof to press broad shoulders against the wall beside her, a couple of small smoke grenades clutched in each hand.

  ‘Hey, Fin! Now’s your chance to really appreciate my speciality.’

  Fin rolled her eyes. ‘Do you ever take anything seriously?’

  He flashed her a mischievous smile. ‘Only if it improves performance. Right now the only thing keeping me going is my love of mayhem and distraction. You heard where Bel has me posted?’

  Fin nodded. ‘Down into the street under cover of the smoke, use your heavy-team to break through the staz cordon, get people out of the parking area and away from those glass doors. I’ll be right behind you with Bel, till I follow her round the side of the market to the rear delivery bay, get inside and move people out of the building.’

  Razz cinched his pack tighter to his waist and looked cautiously over the edge, wavi
ng his team of six tigers to standby.

  Bel held up her hand, signalling pause. With encrypted signals easily monitored by security scanners they had to rely on knowing who was in each team and where they were heading. Anyone with deeper communication skills was also focusing on a basic sense of the others’ presence.

  Fin could feel the strange mix of everyone’s fear, anticipation and excitement that always preceded these operations. Sharp awareness enhanced by that alluring sense of group-mind, passionately focused on achieving a common goal, each individual ready to protect the others. An experience once tasted and hard to forget. She knew it was what kept Resistance people together through the years of hard work and harder living.

  Bel signalled everyone to use the flimsy smoke masks to protect their eyes for a couple of minutes until the air cleared. Razz lobbed his grenades over the side of the building and a series of muffled explosions shook the air as the street below filled with thick black smoke. He threw down the fixed ropes and disappeared over the side. Fin followed, landing among a milling mass of very frustrated trapped people.

  Razz hastily tore off his mask, masquerading as a civilian and using his size and weight to press against the constraining line of heavily-armoured enforcers. He managed to get just the right level of panic in his voice as he yelled a warning.

  ‘That’s only the first bomb! There’s loads of people dead and we saw another two bombs about to go off!’

  The two guards nearest him took a shocked and fearful step backwards, just enough for him to force a wedge into the cordon. Two more bulky tigers threw themselves into the gap and then the press of trapped bodies poured through. In the smoke it was barely possible to see the protective line of the city’s biggest and heaviest tigers helping people escape and widening the gap as they did so. In seconds the trickle of terrified people became a flood, driving a human wave into the opening as the crowd poured into surrounding streets.

  Fin turned away from the escape and followed Kit as he headed for the narrow pedestrian gate that led round to the rear delivery bay, relying on his powerful frame to clear a path through the crowd for herself and Bel. They swarmed easily over the twelve-foot high mesh gate and ran down the narrow alley into the delivery yard, their backup tigers close behind. Bel and Kit headed left to force open the back doors of the market building, while Fin ran to the rear fence and examined the security locks on the giant delivery gates.

  Solid steel. This could take a while.

  She noticed a blur of movement under the delivery truck parked by the fence as the driver tried to hide behind the rear wheel. A moment later the cold steel of her knife pressed against his neck.

  ‘Key. For the truck. Now.’ She held out her hand.

  He passed it over and ran. Fin scrambled up into the cab, started the engine and drove straight at the gate. The windshield didn’t survive the impact but neither did the gate, buckling and collapsing outwards. Fin slammed on the brakes, dusted off granules of shattered glass and headed for the back door of the building to join the others.

  Two of the market’s security detail were arguing with Kit and blocking his way. Bel had doubled back to stay out of sight in the narrow alley they’d used to get into the yard, and was now trying to force a small window.

  She waved Fin to join her. ‘I’ve nearly got it open. The store-guards have orders to keep everyone inside and so far they’re sticking to them. Kit’s trying to persuade them to back off––while creating a diversion for us to sneak inside.’

  Fin checked the time again. ‘Good thinking. I’ll go in and get people to the back doors while you find more exits you can force open in case the guards give trouble.’

  ‘But––’

  ‘Bel, there’s only a few minutes left and we can’t risk losing you. You’re the only one with this level of gestalt and you know it makes sense. I persuaded you to take command of this little exercise, so I’m reserving the right to overrule you and tell you to stay out here.’

  The window swung loose with a crunch of mangled, half-rusted lock.

  ‘Hmph. Somebody’s been lax on maintenance.’ Fin signalled Bel to start work on the next window and scrambled through the narrow opening. Inside, a deserted storeroom led into a long corridor giving access to a row of admin offices along the side of the building. Heavy security doors lead into the market itself.

  Fin wedged the access door ajar ready for a quick retreat and ran through into the market to start the search nearest the glass doors at the front. The crowd outside had thinned and so had the smoke but she could see there was still confusion in the street as the enforcers regrouped. Razz and the tigers were trying to persuade them that more explosions were imminent and the last trapped stragglers needed to leave. They were using the same technique as Kit––keep arguing and provide a distraction while their friends got people out.

  Inside the market, several shoppers gathered round Fin, all asking questions at once.

  ‘What’s happening?’

  Why did the announcement tell us to stay inside?’

  Fin decided not to mention the bomb. Starting a panic wasn’t going to help. She pushed them towards the back of the building.

  ‘Seems like there’s a fire. See the smoke outside? Just go out the back quickly in case it’s serious. Quickly. Now. Pick up your shopping later.’

  ‘Why have they locked us in?’ The woman already sounded close to panic.

  ‘The front is where the fire is. Just keep heading back.’

  More people were gathering round. ‘You security? You don’t look like it.’ The tired-looking man clutched his shopping cart close to his body, suspiciously eyeing Fin’s greying hair and wrinkled features.

  ‘Plain clothes. Community Liaison Officer. Just keep heading back. Please.’ At the far end of the aisle Fin could see Kit and his team pushing people out of the back door, hampered by the market security guards who were still trying to keep them in.

  So far, so good. But where’s the bomb? For all we know we’re pushing people right into it. And they’re not moving fast enough. At this rate we won’t get them all out in time.

  She headed for the rear door, pushing stragglers towards the escape route. Halfway down the aisle an abandoned shopping cart suddenly looked out of place. The brightly-coloured multi-paks of compressed dried food were piled too high, much higher than most workers could afford. All but the wealthiest city residents depended on this kind of food to survive regular harvest failures––but even six twelve-hour shifts didn’t pay enough to stock up like this.

  Fin moved aside a couple of multi-paks and saw instantly that they’d been used to bury a black leather bag. She unzipped the bag, looked inside and suddenly felt cold. She was no specialist on explosives but she’d demolished enough sections of road around the Warren to know that although this device was fairly crude, it was complex enough to defy any attempt to defuse it in the time she had left.

  One last glance through the glass front of the market confirmed that there were still several dozen people trapped in the parking area. And the crush of frantic shoppers trying to get out of the back doors had stalled with the market’s security detail blocking the exit.

  She glanced at her watch. Only a few minutes left to get the thing somewhere it would do less lethal damage. It wasn’t the sanest plan she’d ever come up with but there wasn’t much choice. She picked up the bag, trying not to imagine what would happen if Raine’s time-estimate was out by a few minutes, and headed back through the wedged-open security door to the office corridor. One of the offices would be the safest place to dump the damn thing. The side wall and empty alleyway would take most of the impact, reducing the pressure on the glass at the front and the shoppers heading for the rear exit.

  She pushed open the door marked ‘Manager’ and stopped. A middle aged balding man in smart city clothes sat rigidly behind his desk like a frightened rabbit watching the approach of a hungry fox. Fin marched towards him, hastily composing the best message she could
think of to get him out of harm’s way. Fast.

  ‘I think you should leave. This is a bomb, and I don’t know how to defuse it.’ She held out the offending item at face height.

  Not very diplomatic for a Community Liaison, but we need instant results here.

  The manager didn’t move. They stared at each other for a very long few moments. Finally, he cleared his throat. ‘Security command advised me to keep everyone inside the market as there is a large IED outside in the street.’

  ‘Sorry. It’s in your office. On your desk in fact. Look.’ She lowered it gingerly to the desktop and opened the bag.

  He looked. Fin pointed to the open door behind her. He ran.

  She hastily pushed the bag under the desk and followed him into the corridor, silently cursing her luck when she saw him disappear through another door and slam it behind him to auto-lock and bar her way.

  She sprinted back the way she’d come, hoping to cut him off before he got out of the delivery yard. Priority now was to retrieve the only person who could issue new orders to the guards.

  By the time she reached the delivery yard a fight had started between the guards trying to keep people inside and Kit and Bel who were desperately trying to get everyone out. Fin pushed her way into the scrap, ducking an attack from a guard with a heavy baton, tripping him and leaving him out cold with an elbow to the left eye. Two more took this as a personal challenge and drew their handguns.

  Kit saw what was happening and ran across the yard, dodging to the side of the nearest guard and throwing him hard against the wall, leaving a smear of red on the grey concrete. Bel grabbed the other from behind and wrenched the weapon from his hand. He turned, swinging a savage punch at her head but she ducked and left him on his knees gasping for breath with a hand-chop to the throat.

  Fin reached Kit’s side. ‘Have you seen the manager? Short bald guy in a suit. He saw me put the bomb in his office. He can order his security guards to let everyone out––then you won’t have to keep thumping them. Only a couple of minutes left.’