Gary Gibson - Final Days

Bailey responded by dragging Saul to his feet, then slamming him hard up against the APC. ‘How about you tell me what you were doing here in a restricted area?’

Saul glanced to one side, at the open back of the APC, and saw that it was loaded with several crates. The top of one had been ripped open, revealing a load of flat, grey bricks that stirred up a mote of recognition. He knew that he should know what they were, but somehow he couldn’t seem to recall.

‘For Christ’s sake,’ replied Saul. ‘You can see my UP, can’t you? I have clearance.’

‘Yeah – and, according to the last update we got before everything went quiet back home, you’re currently wanted for attempted murder, sabotage and terrorism.’

‘Listen to me, will you? There’s a man here planning to kill us all. We’ve got to stop him.’

‘Answer my question, Mr Dumont.’

‘I’m trying to prevent whatever’s happening back home from happening to the colonies as well.’

‘Well, shit,’ said one of the women, ‘that’s exactly what we’re here to do. We got sent back through from Clarke, and—’

‘Shut up, Peggy,’ snapped Bailey, before returning his attention to Saul. ‘Prevent it how?’

‘Emergency destruct protocols,’ said Saul. ‘You know what that means?’

‘I do – and so do you, clearly.’ Bailey pulled out Saul’s keycard to the terminal room and held it up. ‘Mind telling me who gave you the access code?’

‘I got it from Constantin Hanover. He’s a task-force leader. I was about to shut down the whole Array, when you smacked me over the head.’

‘The whole Array?’ Bailey frowned. ‘The only gate you need to shut down is the one leading back to Florida. Why the hell would anyone want to cut off the colonies from each other?’

‘Maybe he’s working for the separatists,’ suggested one of the others. ‘Maybe he’s one of them. Maybe that’s the real reason he was there.’

‘That’s not how it is,’ protested Saul, feeling a surge of panic.

‘But that is what the separatists want, isn’t it?’ Bailey demanded.

The flat grey bricks, Saul suddenly realized, were explosives. Being knocked unconscious had made it hard for him to think clearly. Things were starting to come bk to him now, little recollections and fragments from over the last several days, but some if it was still disconnected, as if all the thoughts and memories gathered in his head had been knocked out of synch and were now struggling to reconnect with each other in the right order.

‘For Christ’s sake,’ said Saul, ‘if you reckon all you need to do is close down the Florida gate, ask yourself why Copernicus City was evacuated! Why even bother doing that, if anyone thought the Moon was going to be safe? Shutting down the Florida gate isn’t going to work.’

‘What the hell makes you so sure?’ said Bailey, his expression still disbelieving.

Saul started to form a reply, then he stopped. I’m sure because I’ve seen into the future , he thought, and realized there was no answer he could offer Bailey that they might accept. He had Jeff’s stolen files, of course, but there wasn’t nearly enough time now to go over all of that.

Bailey nodded, as if Saul’s silence were an admission of guilt. ‘I’m going to need you to give me whatever access code you have, and wherever the hell you got it from.’

‘Is that why you were sent here?’ asked Saul. ‘To shut the Florida gate down?’

‘No, the man we were escorting here was supposed to shut it down, except now he’s dead. We’ve only got one of the pair of codes we need. So give me,’ Bailey snarled through gritted teeth, ‘your fucking code .’

‘I will if you’ll tell me why your truck here is filled with explosives.’

‘We were going to try and blow up this end of the Florida gate with HMX,’ Peggy butted in. ‘With our guy dead, we figured that was the only—’

Bailey turned to glare at her. ‘Peggy, what part of shut-the-fuck-up do you not understand ?’

He turned back to Saul, and slid his Cobra off his shoulder, taking aim at the prisoner’s head. ‘I won’t bother counting to five. Just give me your fucking access code or—’

‘Okay!’ said Saul, raising his hands in a gesture of surrender. ‘Okay, I’m sending it now.’

The colonel lowered his weapon as he received the code, then turned to one of the other soldiers. ‘Isnard, check it out, will you?’

A trooper with a shock of red fuzz standing straight up from his scalp nodded, staring off into the distance as he scanned the information now arriving on his contacts.

‘They wouldn’t have sent only the six of you,’ remarked Saul. ‘Where’s the rest of your squad?’

‘We’re all that’s left,’ said the other woman, apart from Peggy, her expression grim.

‘The code’s legit,’ said Isnard. ‘But his authorization doesn’t square with his ID.’

‘So it’s stolen?’ asked Bailey.

Isnard made a face. ‘Guess so.’

Bailey grimaced and turned back to Saul. ‘Don’t even think about trying to talk your way out of this one.’

Bailey turned to the surviving members of his squad and started giving orders. ‘Isnard, Jessup, take up positions over at the courtyard. Keep an eye out there. I don’t want to get caught out like last time, and lose anyone else. Merrill, take Dallas with you and get to work placing the rest of the HMX. Peggy, you’re with me.’

‘Before you do anything else, you need to listen to me,’ said Saul, his voice sounding ragged. ‘There’s a man named Mitchell Stone . . . he’s going to try and stop you from destroying the gate. When you grabbed me upstairs in the executive suites, I thought you were him, coming to try and stop me.’

‘He wouldn’t be the first to try stopping us, Mr Dumont, but we’re more than ready for trouble.’

‘That’s not going to be enough,’ Saul insisted, watching the others head off, which left him alone with just Bailey and Peggy. ‘This isn’t any ordinary human being you’re dealing with.’

‘Unless he’s driving a tank, I’m not worried,’ Bailey replied dismissively. ‘Right now we’re going to go head down to that terminal suite and shut the Florida gate down.’ He turned aside. ‘Peggy!’

Peggy moved up beside Saul and pushed him back in the direction of the elevators, while Bailey took the lead, striding fast.

At that moment a deep and almost subsonic rumble came from the direction of the Florida gate. It’s coming , Saul realized, breaking into a cold sweat.

Bailey stopped, staring towards the gate, his face several shades paler than just a moment before.

He turned back towards them. ‘Get moving,’ he barked, ‘ now .’

Peggy shoved Saul forward again, and this time they broke into a run.

Bailey suddenly made an oof sound, after they’d covered a couple of dozen metres, before collapsing to his hands and knees. At first Saul assumed he’d tripped over something, but then the colonel slid to one side, his jaw slackening. Blood began pooling under his chest, and quickly spread out across the tiles.

Peggy gaped down at him, her eyes round and wide . He’s been shot , thought Saul, realizing he had heard a sound like a wet cough from smewhere far away across the concourse, just before Bailey had collapsed.

Peggy swung her Cobra all around, but there was nothing for her to aim at. If the attacker was Mitchell, he was thoroughly hidden.

‘We need to keep moving,’ hissed Saul, and began backing towards the elevators. ‘We’re too exposed. He can pick us off easily while we’re out in the open.’

‘No!’ she yelled, spinning around until the Cobra was directly trained on him. ‘Stay right where you are.’