Chapter 70 - The Kraken Gate
Na-Su, James, Mahkran, Inigo were sitting on the floor of the crypt. They looked pleased to see me, but could offer only verbal greetings as they were bound hand and foot.
Obermann forced me to the ground by sticking the barrel of his revolver into my collarbone and shoving hard. Harman’s labourer then set about tying me up. Although it was good to see my team uninjured, there was little to celebrate. My body felt like a discarded sandwich wrapper that’s been trodden into the dockside filth by a hundred stevedores on a busy Siguthday shift. The pathetic glow of the electric lamps contributed to my sombre mood, and to make matters worse, I was still dressed for the weather on Ganessa, when the weather in the cellar was almost a cold as wintersole outside.
‘Are you alright?’ James and Inigo asked in unison.
‘I’ll be fine. How about you?’
Everyone professed that they were well enough. There was a pause while we all worked out what to say next, but it was Mahkran who spoke first.
‘Where is Ankush?’
I met the Gulreimian’s eyes with what I hoped was compassion, and he knew, without me saying anything, that the news was not good. This time, I told the story as thoroughly as I was able. My team deserved to hear the detail. The events were already hazy and disjointed in my mind, so it seemed that I was describing a period of two weeks instead of two days. Ankush’s fight with Coleman was still clear in my mind, so that his professionalism and the honour with which he fought were easy to relate.
‘He saved our lives.’
‘But something happened, yes?’
‘I’m so sorry, Mahkran. A Charg crept up on us during the fight. It was dark…none of us saw it until it was too late.’
Mahkran nodded. There were tears in his eyes, something I’d only seen once before, when he’d talked about his wife and daughter back home.
‘It was quick,’ I offered.
‘Thank you, Ms. Derringer. He died fulfilling the wish of Zhou-Anrah Drelahk. I can think of no greater honour. Our prince will be proud.’
There was a long silence while everyone took in the news. James hung his head. He and Ankush had been getting along well. Eventually, Mahkran insisted that I proceed with the story, so I skated over most of what had gone on between Benjamin and me, and told them of Banks’ treachery. I explained that he had killed Benjamin, and that he would have killed me, had it not been for Tyrone’s intervention.
‘Wait just one fucking turn!’ exclaimed James, with the others in uproar. ‘You mean to say that Ty is alive?’
‘Yes, but I don’t know if he made it back through the gate!’ My idea for Tyrone to remain in hiding suddenly seemed like a terrible option. ‘I tried to create a diversion so that he could follow me through.’
Four glum faces spoke eloquently of their disappointment.
‘Sorry, everyone.’ I sighed. ‘This is a total mess, and it’s all my fault. I didn’t put everything together until it was too late.’
‘No, Connie,’ said Inigo, his voice firm. ‘This is not your fault. We discovered…well, that is to say Ellen discovered Harman’s plans while you were away. She’d gone to see him to report progress on stockade, but accidentally overheard him and Dr. Betz talking about the gate, and some calibration they needed to do if they were to target Nallia.’
‘They make gate into a bomb,’ drawled Na-Su. Like Mahkran, she was working the ligatures on her wrists, determined to get them loose.
‘Yes, so when she came back and told us, I went with her to confront Harman.’
‘What did he do?’
‘He told us to grow up. Then, when we carried on arguing with him, he had Obermann and several others round us up and bring us here. We don’t understand how they’ve managed to weaponise the Koulomb Gate, do you?’
‘Do we have any water here?’ I asked. My throat was dry and my head ached. I desperately needed to sleep, but would hold it at bay for a little longer. Mahkran picked up a wooden mug that was sitting beside him on a crate. Hampered as he was by his restraints, he carefully passed it to Inigo who handed it to me. It was simple act, a fingers-width of water, but just then it felt like a blessing, or a forgiveness, or both. After I had drunk it, I told them what I had learned from Jenniver.
‘What I don’t understand is how the gate can be pointed at Nallaxia. The telescope can’t focus over the horizon. Did you say something about this, Inigo?’
‘Well, the telescope is vital when you need to target something that’s moving in relation to us, like a planet around a distant star.’ I recognised that look on Inigo’s face, a look like the coming of dawn. He was a problem solver and had always had an untutored flair for science. ‘Nothing on this planet is moving. We know where Nallaxia is.’ He pointed through the floor, as though at the underside of Nallia through Illesin’s crust. He might even have been pointing in the right direction, I couldn’t be sure.
‘The fine focusing is done using offsets from a gravitational source,’ the young man continued. ‘…in this case, the centre of this planet.’ This was why my father had advised me to secure Inigo’s release from prison.
‘Is that why you mentioned calibration?’
‘Calibration was the word Dr. Betz used,’ agreed Inigo. ‘But I think I’ve worked out what she meant. Maddison and his technicians can open the gate on three distant points around this planet. It doesn’t matter where they are, as long as they’re a long way apart. At each of those three points, someone uses a sextant or other means to determine its exact location, then they apply some mathematics to produce offsets which they then feed back into the machine. Once the gate is setup like that, it should be extremely accurate.’
I shook my head in amazement. ‘You’re a Draxil-given marvel, Inigo! How long do you think this process will take?’
‘Based on what we already know about the setup, they need about eight bells between each run, correct? Time needed to visually inspect all the components for damage, modify the input parameters, charge the batteries back up, etcetera.’ Everyone muttered their assent. ‘In that case, if they run the first test this evening, they could have the parameters they need by dusk tomorrow.’
I gritted my teeth. ‘In that case, we’ve got between eighteen and twenty four bells to get out of here and put a stop to them.’
‘No!’ said James, and everyone turned to stare at him, but it was Na-Su who asked the question we all had on the tip of our tongues.
‘What you mean, Mr. Dunn?’
James was resolute, sitting up straight and radiating defiance. ‘What I mean, is why would we try to stop Harman? He hired us to help him. Don’t you want to stop the war?’
‘James,’ began Inigo, but was waved aside, angrily.
‘I want to hear from the boss. Shouldn’t we be killing Nallians?’
‘Nallian soldiers!’ Na-Su shot back. ‘Not women, not children.’
‘They mean to hit the cities,’ I added.
‘What about the innocent people of Emberland?’ growled James. ‘What about our men, women and children being rounded up in Ripolis and shot? Don’t we have a duty to protect them?’
‘I know James,’ I replied. ‘Believe me, if I could think of something we could do to help those people, I’d be doing it right now, but Harman’s plan is pure folly.’
‘I’m beginning to think you’ve lost the plot, not the old man. Maybe he’s right. This thing that Maddison has created could win the war for us.’
Mahkran nodded. I was losing the argument.
‘So after Harman tears a hole out of Nallia, did you think that will be an end to it? Illesin-wide peace?’
‘Why wouldn’t it be?’
‘Even if the Council could keep him on a leash, how do you think the other countries will view Emberland then, eh? Will they be happy, knowing we’ve got a weapon that can annihilate them?’
‘Well, I…’
‘I’ll tell you how they’ll feel, they’ll be terrified of Emberland. Oh, they’ll bow and scrape in public, but behind our backs they’ll get together and build an alliance designed to bring us down. They’ll smile and dip their heads politely, but all the while, they’ll cut Emberland out of deals to keep us weak. They’ll spy on us and make alliances against us.’ I had James on the back foot now, but he wasn’t done.
‘Why would we care, as long as they leave us alone?’
‘We don’t exist in a bubble here, James. What do we do if they refuse to trade with us, or levy import taxes on us that are five times higher than between each other? Do we threaten everyone to get the trade deals we want? What comes next, James? Maybe the Caddrian Gazette publishes an unfavourable article about our Republic, so we obliterate a small town to teach them a lesson, say five-thousand souls?’
‘You’re twisting the argument,’ complained James.
‘No. I’m trying to explain that this is a weapon that can never be used. If you threaten to use it, eventually you’ll have to, just to prove it’s not an empty threat, and when that happens, Emberland will be worse than Nallia.’
James hesitated, but he wasn’t convinced.
‘Look. Suppose there’s another way?’ I had no clearly formed notion, but it occurred to me that if the threat of using the gate could be made to work, then it had to be worth a try. It would surely create new problems down the line, but it had to be better than wiping out a sizeable chunk of the population of a neighbouring country. ‘I’ll think of something, just give me a little time.’ And oh, gods! I need a few hours sleep.
James held his hands up in mute surrender. I thanked him, and then listened to them all talking about Ty Rendish, and how sure they were that he’d made it back. For my part, I felt sick to my stomach every time I thought of him and the way we’d parted. I fell asleep a short wile later, but the thought that went round and round in my head was, less than a day, Connie! Less than one day to get free and somehow stop Harman and his demented niece.
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