Chapter 34 - The Kraken Gate
‘Maddison!’ snapped Director Harman, before the small door in the side of the basket had been opened to let him out.
‘Here, sir.’
‘Is the gate up and running?’
‘No, Director, but we are close. The power plant is operating at full capacity now and we’re beginning calibration procedures.’
‘Draxil’s Beard! When are you opening the gate on Ganessa?’
Professor Maddison’s reply was anxious. ‘Hard to say…’
‘WHEN?!’
‘Ten days time, perhaps?’
‘Not good enough, Professor. You have until the end of Siguthday to do your damned tinkering! I want Ms. Derringer and her team through that portal on Ranvaday, even if you have to work double shifts to get it done.’
Maddison blanched, his pallor visible even under the actinic glare of the airship lights.
‘Two days. I don’t think that will be possible, Director. The Koulomb Field generator hasn’t even been run at full power yet.’
‘Aripole’s mangy snatch!’ growled Harman, shrugging off Rigsby’s attempts to put a coat over his shoulders. He set off for the mansion, not bothering to check whether anyone was following. ‘Haven’t you heard, Professor? We’re at war. Damn you and your timidity. Ranvaday it is, and not a day later. Do you understand?’ His little legs powered him across the lawn and up the steps of the mansion. ‘Derringer?’
‘Here, sir.’ I, along with a growing crowd were following him, sucked into his wake.
‘You’ll be ready.’ It wasn’t a question.
‘Of course,’ I replied. I hoped Na-Su’s shipment would arrive in time or we would be ill-prepared to take on the Charg. Even with whatever she had cooked up, I had to admit to some disquiet.
Director Harman pushed past us and disappeared inside. The airship killed its lights. The fifty or so of us gathered at the entrance paused while our eyes adjusted to the feeble light coming from the oil lamps mounted either side of the mansion’s entrance. Benjamin and I waited for Professor Maddison who was picking his way cautiously up the steps. His eyes were staring ahead, wide with disbelief as he scuttled into the house.
‘Two days!’ he croaked, and was gone.
‘Can they do it?’ Benjamin asked me.
‘From what I understand, opening the portal is not the problem, it’s keeping it stable for any length of time that is tricky.’
‘Which makes it more dangerous for anyone going through?’
‘That’s what I’ve been told.’ I walked down the steps, rejoining Inigo, James, Ellen and the Gulreimian brothers. Mahkran was down from the clocktower, having deduced that we were safe.
‘Which means us.’
I looked hard at the lieutenant. ‘You really intend to come through yourself? Aren’t you supposed to be here, making this place safe?’
‘Captain Banks is very able, I assure you. After hearing about the Charg, you should take a stronger force through with you. I suggest four of my men accompany us.’
‘No. We need a small force, nimble and fast on our feet.’ I was aware of my team watching and listening to the exchange. They knew that Lieutenant Scott and I had a troubled past. I sensed them trying to get a measure of our relationship, trying to work out whether there would be a problem. ‘You can bring two with you the first time we go through. Once we know the lay of the land…once we know the gate is safe, we’ll see.’
Benjamin hesitated, unhappy to be overruled. ‘Alright. Then I suggest we assemble for a briefing at the start of the day.’
It was a good idea, but I ground my teeth all the same. It wouldn’t surprise me if he used the opportunity to try to assert his own authority. There would be nothing overt, that wouldn’t be necessary, because men listen more readily to plans and ideas delivered by other men.
The crowd dispersed and we headed back to the hunting lodge. It wasn’t full dark though. Meniah was a thin crescent, low in the sky, with tiny Heroé to the fore and just off her shoulder, still fully lit. Behind them, a tapestry of stars added to the scant illumination. Na-Su was waiting for us in the hall, cradling two shotguns.
‘It’s alright, Na-Su. They were friendlies,’ Inigo explained.
‘I’m not so sure about that,’ grumbled James as we headed for the bar in the smoking room. ‘Harman is going the right way to get us killed.’ He opened the drinks cabinet and arranged five tumblers on the counter. The whisky bottle looked small in his hand. ‘I’m not an expert when it comes to the Koulomb Gate, but it’s bloody complicated and I’ve seen what happens when it goes wrong.’
He was referring to the fourth mission, when a power glitch caused the portal to scissor closed briefly, bisecting one of the away team. One half of the unfortunate man had fallen on the near-side of the gate, twitching briefly in a fast-spreading pool of gore. The power had bounced back again and the team on the far side could be seen, inspecting the victim’s arm which was all that was left on their side. The surging energy field around the portal had somehow consumed the rest of the body and flung it into oblivion.
‘Why five glasses?’ I drew James’ attention to the measures he’d poured. ‘Ellen and the brothers don’t drink alcohol, remember?’
‘Oh.’ James looked crestfallen. ‘I clean forgot. I poured one for Ty.’ He picked up the extra glass, knocked the contents back and raised the empty above his head. ‘That’s for you, Tyrone!’
There was a respectful silence that lasted a few moments, then James handed out the rest of the glasses. He threw the second one down and turned to me.
‘So, chief, what are we going to do?’
‘We are going to do what we’ve been paid to do.’ I took a sip of the whisky. ‘The first trip through the gate is for reconnaissance. We need to sweep the area around the touchpoint for Charg and begin to establish a perimeter. There will be supplies to shuttle through the portal for a more extended mission.’
‘What if the area isn’t safe?’ Ellen.
‘It almost certainly won’t be safe,’ I replied. ‘It’s up to us to make it safe, and if there’s an unacceptable level of risk, we pull back. We come back through the gate and try again later, or get the landing point moved to somewhere we can secure.’
We talked for a while about preparations. James and Ellen would go into Lannerville to check whether the shipment had arrived. I instructed them to take Mahkran with them, in case the mercenaries who’d tried to jump me on the previous trip tried again.
'Stay with the waggon,’ I said. ‘Do not leave the waggon. Go to the collection point for the shipment and nowhere else, is that clear?’
James was disappointed. He’d been looking forward to visiting an inn or two. I assigned Inigo and Ankush to help me finish setting up the failsafe. Na-Su would oversee our work and keep inventory on the explosives.
Finally, we agreed the rota for the night watch. Inigo and I would patrol the hunting lodge until two bells with Ellen, James and Mahkran taking over until first light; that way they would be ready for an early trip into town.
When we were done, Ankush and Mahkran left and Ellen followed soon after. Na-Su and James looked like they intended to demolish the whisky. The Omolit woman was the only one of us who could keep pace with an ex-dockworker, so Inigo and I left them to it.
‘Nervous?’ Inigo asked as we climbed the stairs.
‘Do I look it?’
‘You’re a little more quiet than usual.’
I nodded. ‘How about you?’
‘I am worried,’ Inigo replied.
‘Really? I’ve known you for three years now and during that time, I’ve come to believe that ice runs in your veins.’
‘Good to know that my facade still works, but only an idiot is never scared.’
‘True enough.’
‘This job isn’t like anything else we’ve done.’ A small frown creased Inigo’s brow. ‘I understand people, humans. I know how they behave. These Charg…we don’t know anything about them, do we? We have no idea how they think, or what they want.’
‘You’re right, Inigo, but we know what we want. We know what our purpose is when we go through the gate, and we treat any Charg that come near us as a threat.’ I paused at the top of the broad stairway. ‘The army is pretty hopeless in all kinds of ways, but the only lesson it taught me is to keep things simple.’
‘You’re right, but there are so many unknowns on this job, so many variables and things that are completely out of our control, like the gate itself.’
‘You’re really worried, aren’t you?’ The realisation hit me hard. I was used to Inigo’s ruthlessness. When we’d faced trouble before, his cool detachment and precision of purpose helped to carry us through. It was Inigo’s turn to nod.
‘This machine, this gate.’ He shook his head. ‘I don’t understand it, and it frightens me. It shouldn’t be possible to take one step so that one foot is on this planet and the other is a million-million leagues away.’
‘It does sound mad,’ I conceded.
‘You don’t seem at all concerned. How do you deal with it?’
‘Me? Oh, I’m worried alright, but worrying about how the damned thing works isn’t going to help. That’s what Maddison and his egg-heads are for. No, I’m keeping my attention on all the other things that can go wrong that I am responsible for.’
‘Things like the failsafe!’
I looked at Inigo, wondering if he blamed me for the loss of Ty Rendish. I decided that he didn’t. He’d had his fill of subterfuge and secrecy during his time in the underworld. He’d been nothing but straight with me since I’d known him. ‘Like the failsafe,’ I agreed. ‘Let’s make sure none of those bastard creatures get through, eh?’
Inigo nodded. We parted company and headed our separate ways. I decided I would speak with Harman about our military escort. The threat from the Charg was clear, but it was obvious that the Nallians, or some other force was at work on this planet. Humans! The biggest threat to humans was almost always other humans.
I paused outside my room. Light was coming through the crack underneath the door. Not very covert, I thought. Unlikely to be someone trying to kill me. Perhaps it’s Jenniver, the randy bitch. I grinned and pushed the door open. Benjamin was sitting in the armchair by the dresser. I stopped grinning because he was pointing a gun at me.
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