Galloway roared onto a paved circle and skidded to a bumpy halt in front of the admin building’s double doors: polished glass and metal. The two-story administration building was shaped like a blocky C with glass walls instead of solid ones. Those walls looked pretty, but would offer absolutely no cover in a gunfight. No one emerged to greet them, which was a relief.
“Admin building,” Galloway said, as calmly as if he hadn’t just attempted vehicular manslaughter. “Out you go, Senator.”
Jan allowed Bharat to hop out before him — that was what a senator would do — then hopped out as well. He was understandably dismayed when Sheriff Galloway hopped out as well, and Deputy Miller slid over to the driver’s seat.
Galloway was supposed to leave now. That was the plan, for Galloway to go away.
“Can’t let you into a secure building without an escort,” Galloway said, offering a very non-apologetic shrug. “Can’t get you another escort because everyone’s busy and you didn’t tell us you were coming. So, here we are.”
“Ah ... thank you, Sheriff, but you don’t need to put yourself out on our account.” Jan glanced at Bharat. “I can find the archives myself. If you need to get back—”
“Yeah,” Galloway interrupted, “no. I don’t. At least not until I know you’ve left without one of my overzealous citizens caving in your skull. The paperwork would keep me busy until next year, and Mayor Solace would be understandably pissed.”
“I have Dave,” Jan pointed out.
“And I have a rifle.” Galloway glanced at Miller, who waved, smiled, and peeled off in a shower of gravel. “Between my rifle and your Dave, we shouldn’t have any problems. Now, you ready?” He gave Bharat a warning look. “Dave?”
Jan knew he’d already set off this man’s bullshit detector. How was he to delete the files Rafe needed him to delete with Sheriff Galloway watching over his shoulder? How was he going to even find Rafe with Galloway escorting him back to the maglev station after he’d deleted Rafe’s data?
Jan turned his back to Galloway and glanced at Bharat, then gestured with his eyes toward the sheriff. Bharat nodded. They’d simply have to choke Galloway out, tie him up, stuff him in a broom closet, and get the fuck out of town with Rafe. It wasn’t a great plan, but Jan rarely had the luxury of those.
“Thank you, Sheriff,” Jan said agreeably. “Please lead us to the town’s archival server now.”
“Right,” Galloway said. “This way.” He walked toward the doors, which opened for him, then stood in the doorway without going inside. He waited for them instead.
So the administration building’s doors were keyed to open only if authorized personnel approached. That would make it a real chore to get out again without a lot of noise or an authorized body. It seemed Galloway’s unconscious body would accompany them on their escape.
Once inside, Sheriff Galloway led them across clean tile floors. They walked past walls covered in what looked to be work boards displaying what were probably planting schedules and other data Jan truly did not care about.
What was surprising was the number of colorful scrawled pictures festooning the halls. It seemed there were quite a few children in Cliffside, and apparently, they had no shortage of art supplies. In the Sledge, where Jan had grown up, you could trade one set of intact chalk markers for a week’s worth of food.
They followed the sheriff up a flight of weathered metal stairs to the second floor, then down another hall that curved around the building. The walls here were biocrete, not glass, and no more charming child pictures hung on their gray surfaces.
Galloway led them to a reinforced door. The sheriff pressed his palm to the glowing square beside it. The door whisked open.
“Thank you, Sheriff.” Jan gave Bharat a cautionary look before he stepped into the chilly server room. “If you don’t mind, I must ask you to wait outside.” He really hoped that would fly, because if it didn’t ...
“Sure,” Galloway said. “Take as little time as you need.”
“Dave,” Jan said, “why don’t you remain with Sheriff Galloway?” And make sure he doesn’t call for help or lock me in here until the Patriots show up.
“Yes, sir,” Bharat said, almost convincingly.
Jan smiled at Galloway. “Close the door?”
Galloway grunted. The door closed, leaving Jan alone in a humming server room filled with metal racks, filled with blocky computers, filled with blinking lights. A speaker crackled in the ceiling, invisible to Jan.
“Top notch, mate!” Rafe again, already on their internal systems. “Server I need you to wipe the data off of is to your right. Yeah, keep walking. No, the other right. Sorry, mate, everything’s mirrored on my screen. Yeah, there you go. More right. Next row. Stop. Go back.”
Jan didn’t knock any shelves over or yell at the ceiling.
“There you go. That one. You got it, mate!”
“If you can talk to me in here,” Jan said, assuming the room was relatively soundproof, “why not delete this data yourself?”
“Can’t access it from here,” Rafe said. “Servers I need are all air-gapped except during archiving periods, when the external network is locked down. That’s about the only smart thing these farmnecks have done since I hacked them.”
Jan didn’t ask what the data was. Knowing Rafe, it could be anything from malware he forgot to delete to compromising video of him masturbating. Whatever it was, Rafe wouldn’t have gone to all this trouble to delete it if he was going to tell Jan
