Stolen Flyght – Chapter 14

“Okay. Everything is in position. Be ready to move.”

Skylar’s voice in my ear has my pulse on hyperspeed.

“You’re clear in the hallway. Everyone is working.”

I step up to the doors and peek into the kitchen via the windows.

Wow. It’s a fancy chef’s table meal in the kitchen. My stomach growls as I watch the head chef and his crew plate prime cuts of meat over creamed potatoes with roasted fennel. I’m going to guess most of the food is imported, Neve being a winter desert world and all. They finish off each dish by singeing the tops with a blowtorch and setting the plate in front of each diner simultaneously. The precision is impressive. Gus would love this. He wanted to be a professional chef at one point in his life.

Standing on my tip-toes, I angle to the side to see Gus’s mom, Lady Nina, cut into her steak and bring the morsel to her lips to taste.

Now, I’m ravenous.

Hmmm, that’s interesting. An older man sitting across the table from Lady Nina does not approve of her. The set of his jaw is rigid as he watches the meat travel from the plate to her mouth. She looks up at him, and his stare becomes even more piercing. So, she does what I’ve seen other threatened women do. She turns her body to the side, blocking him from viewing her head-on.

I know military politics are a bitch, but she’s one of the top. Elite. To have someone even higher than her harassing her puts some meaning to a lot of her actions lately.

Thinking back on our confrontation in the Amagi, she said she had no choice, and she had to do what she did.

I wonder…

A giant crash startles everyone in the kitchen, including Jinzo and me on the other side of the door.

“Get ready,” Skylar says in my ear.

Everyone stops talking at the chef’s table as they all turn their heads to see what’s going on over at the stoves. I angle to the side to bring the stoves into view, and two androids are standing over a mess of pans on the floor while another one lets a fire start in a high-powered wok.

“Let’s go.” I urge our cart forward with Jinzo and open the door as quietly as possible.

The fire on the stove whooshes to a roaring flame, and several people shout. Alarms blare, and emergency lights flash. The flames burn bright orange, lighting up the kitchen. Everyone at the chef’s table leans away from the disaster.

“Go, go, go,” Jinzo urges me, pushing the cart forward.

We rush through the space, keeping our distance from the chaos at the other end, and we’re two steps from the door when the fire suppression system initiates. Every nozzle explodes at once, flooding the kitchen with inert gas and foam. People sprint for the doors.

I glance over my shoulder as the doors to the corridor open, and everyone at the chef’s table has evacuated out the opposite end of the kitchen to the cafeteria.

Fire crews barrel past us, dressed for the worst. Jinzo and I pretend to cough and keep going. I train my eyes on the people scattering in the halls. The fire warning system has distracted them, and no one has noticed our lack of an android.

“You’re doing great,” Skylar says in my ear. “Turn right at the next hallway and then enter the second office on the right. It’s vacant, and the owner is off-planet.”

“Right.” I gesture to Jinzo at the hallway. I jog ahead of him and scan my hand at the door. It asks for a second identification using my eye, so I look into the sensor, begging it to work, urging it to move faster.

The thundering of heavy feet climbs louder but the door clicks open. Yes!

Just in time.

I hold open the door for Jinzo and the hovercart, and they squeak by me right before I close the door on the people running past. Pushing my ear against the door, the sound of their pounding feet recedes into the distance.

Jinzo and I both pant and lean against the door for a moment.

“That was close.” I raise my arm to show my shaking hand. Jinzo clasps his fingers around mine and holds them steady.

“I’m sure it’s only our first brush with death,” Jinzo says, laughing.

“Hello? Can we get out?” Gloria’s voice startles us both.

Jinzo and I smile at each other.

One emergency down. A billion more to go.

—-

“That fire worked out to our advantage because lots of people lost their androids during the chaos. The security system tasked many of them to help handle the fire. We should be in the clear,” Eamon says, then lowers his voice. “Assuming no one finds and questions the old android sitting in the cold room any time soon.”

Well, that’s disconcerting. I wonder what will happen when someone finds it.

The small office we’ve taken refuge in is barely big enough to handle the hovercart. We should dispose of it, but I don’t want to do anything else now to call attention to us. We still have far to go before we accomplish our mission.

Once Gloria and Lia are out of their box, the room diminishes and seems to close around us. This base is full of tiny rooms and too many people.

“I’ve purged the original records from the database,” Carlos continues. “When the androids get there, they’ll think you’re newly arrived. So, it’ll be the same drill from before. There are two on their way. Looks like they’ll be there in three minutes.”

I nod through all this information, and so does Gloria. She has the same implants I do so she can be the communication conduit for Lia.

“So, you’ve been here longer than us. What’s the plan?” Gloria leans back on the desk.

“Me? You’re asking me?” I place my hand on my chest.

She flattens her lips. “Seeing as you saved me from military jail, I think you may know better in this situation. Maybe,” she stresses before she sighs and deflates. “Plus, this is one wicked hangover. I still feel cold.” A round of shivers makes her shake.

I glance at Jinzo, and he shrugs.

I had a feeling I’d be doing a lot more on this mission than people planned, but I was hoping Gloria would take over. It would make everything a lot easier.

“I think our best bet is to get in and get out, just like we planned. The kitchen fire was an excellent distraction, and we may need something like that again. But we should pick different classified areas, go in, and start poking around.”

“Do we know where the classified areas are?” Lia asks. “What happens if they’re all the way on the other side of the base?”

“They’re close by.” Gloria glances at the door. “I can lead us there.”

“Good news!” Skylar’s voice is full of cheer. “Gloria is right. You’re not far from the secure areas. We have maps that indicate which areas are classified, but that’s it. They don’t label anything for the public directories. Carlos says he can pull up the data, but since you’re able to access the classified areas, you should go there and call up detailed maps on the other side of the doors. He’s a little busy with other tasks. Tell your androids you want to go to area 3B.”

Gloria nods. “3B. Yeah, that’s where I think we should go next.”

“That’s it?” It can’t be that easy. “Just tell them where we want to go?”

“Yep. They’re required to take you wherever you need to be,” Skylar says. Gloria seems to agree, so I guess this is our next step.

The door chime sounds. Okay. It’s game time again.

We open the door, and the two androids are standing side-by-side like mirrored objects. God, that’s creepy. I suppress a shiver.

“Your previous escorts have been called away to deal with an emergency. I am Echo-216.”

“And I’m Echo-97. I’m here for Terri Parsons and Jin Andreas.”

We go through the drill again with each android, identifying ourselves and getting scanned. I breathe a sigh of relief when it all goes according to plan.

“Where is your destination?” Echo-97 asks.

“We’re all going to area 3B, then we will be splitting up from there. Can you lead us there?”

“We can escort you there. Please follow us,” Echo-216 says, opening the door.

My shoulders are tense as we make our way out into the hallway again. A whiff of smoke floats in the air and people hurry to their destinations. Whether it’s the usual workday rush or because of the emergency, I’m not sure, but the atmosphere is charged with energy.

We follow our androids through several corridors and junctions and into an elevator that takes us to level three, which must be underground based on how my stomach drops. I try to act bored, like we do this all the time, but my heart is racing as we get closer to our destination.

After the terrible start to our mission, I’m worried we won’t make it any farther, that we are one dreadful decision away from getting caught. There’s nothing I want more than to walk out of this building with Jinzo and Lia right now. Well, maybe Gloria, too. She’s not so bad, I think. Just protective of her reputation.

The elevator doors open, and another gathering space with couches, a general store, and a noodle vendor greets us. This Neve military base is rather posh. I expected more gray hallways and offices lit with grotesque lighting that makes you look sick. But they obviously gave some thought to the space people would inhabit for years at a time. It’s not like people can go take a walk outside if they’re bored of their habitat. Better to give them plenty of locations inside to slip away into.

But people here are far from anonymous. Every person traveling through the common area has an android escort, and androids stand over each group of people sitting around talking. The space wouldn’t look so crowded if it weren’t for all the extra bodies.

Looking left and right, there are three main corridors off the common area, all labeled A, B, and C. We head straight for B.

Gloria’s head turns to watch the noodle vendor spoon out soup for someone waiting in line.

“I’m hungry for real food.”

“Me too. And it looks like the main cafeteria is out of commission for a while.” I regret that a bit after hearing about all the delicious food they had there. Oh, well. I must ignore my growling stomach.

Within ten meters down hallway B, we’re met with a reinforced transparent door labeled 3B. On the other side of the transparent door is another reinforced door.

“This is a classified area,” Echo-97 informs us. “You will need to scan independently of your escort to be admitted.”

“But you scanned us,” I protest. “What’s the point of this?”

“It’s security policy.” Echo-97 does not give a shit that this isn’t logical. But I suppose paranoid humans programmed her, so this must seem like no big deal.

And I guess it’s not a big deal, right? We’ve made it this far on our falsified identities. What’s a few more scans?

I roll my eyes and try to look important and unfazed, though I’m crumbling from lack of self-confidence. Every time I take another step on this base, I’m putting my life and the lives of my crew in danger.

I raise my shoulders and head to the door. Scanning my hand and then my eye, the door opens for me, and I’m admitted. Once the first door is closed, the second door opens and lets me into the classified area. Huh. It’s kind of like an airlock, a security mechanism so no one else can sneak in as you’re making your way in the door.

An android waits for me, and she puts out her arm to stop me from going farther.

“You will wait for your escort.”

That was a smart security move too. Okay, I no longer think these precautions are dumb. They have thought of almost everything on the base. They didn’t count on us hacking the back end.

Jinzo, Gloria, Lia, and our two androids join me, and the security android lets us go.

“Captain, we’ve picked you up on the classified section of the base. Can you please access a nearby map?”

I touch my hand to a wallscreen on the opposite wall, and it lights up with a directory and map. I train my eyes on everything so Skylar and Carlos can capture what I’m seeing.

But I immediately know where we should each go.

“Let’s split up.” Looking at the map, I act relaxed for the androids. They may be able to read my tone of voice or body language, so I need to pretend like we’re here for work. Nothing out of the ordinary or sinister. “Jin and I will go check in at the botany labs here.” I point to a place on another sublevel. “And then you two should go check in with the gene labs. Let’s meet up in an hour for a break.”

I look both Gloria and Lia in the eyes, letting them know my blasé voice and attitude is just a front. We’re here to scout and find illegal shit.

So, let’s get to it.