Kendrick duly arrived at the front of the queue where a technician guided him speedily on board through an airlock inserted into what had originally been a pair of cargo-bay doors. He turned around just before he entered to see that the high-capacity elevator that had lifted them into the gantry was rising again. Draeger stepped out, dressed in a grey-blue spacesuit with racing stripes on the arms, a lightweight helmet tucked into the crook of his arm. Marlin Smeby appeared by his side, followed by the rest of Draeger's entourage.
Kendrick spoke for a moment to the technician who was processing everyone on board, then waited until Draeger and his men, queuing dutifully, reached the shuttle. Sabak was talking quietly to Draeger, and he glanced over at Kendrick with a wary expression when he noticed him waiting. Everyone else was already on board.
Draeger studied them both in turn with dark, hard eyes before smiling tightly. 'I appreciate your help in this matter,' he said to them both. 'There are wonderful things happening just a few thousand miles above our heads. We may soon be witnessing things that very few people are ever likely to, at least in this life.'
Kendrick glanced over at Smeby who gazed back levelly. Smeby, he knew, was the one he really had to worry about. Smeby was Draeger's right hand.
Draeger smiled disingenuously. Kendrick turned away from him to enter the shuttle.
Three more technicians guided them into a tall vertical bay filled with seats, all facing upwards. Kendrick tried to ignore the feeling of vertigo but with minimal success. He was led to his seat via a complicated array of ladders and strapped carefully into place. Buddy was positioned nearby. They nodded to each other.
'I'm sure there were more people than this,' Kendrick called to Buddy over the tumult of voices. Some others nearby were weeping, not without reason. One or two were even praying, although Kendrick couldn't help but wonder to what or to whom their prayers were directed.
Buddy looked pointedly over his shoulder at Draeger and his men who were being helped into seats at the very rear of the passenger bay. It occurred to Kendrick that the only reason there were any seats for them was because of the Labrats who had turned back or who had died before they could make it here. He thought of Erik, dying by a frozen northern shore, and of Audrey, back in LA. And Caroline. He stared over again at Draeger and nursed the hate that burned deep within him.
Then, finally, even the technicians were gone and the passengers were alone. The air was filled with nervous muttering and the incessant litanies of the few people who were praying.
The same image played over and over in Kendrick's mind: the third Los Muertos shuttle barely getting off the ground before exploding, its sides rupturing and splitting, liquid fire spewing out, anything alive inside it obliterated instantly… he gripped the armrests of his seat so hard that sharp spikes of pain radiated through his hands.
Instinct told Kendrick to get himself out of the shuttle, to run, to throw himself into the Pacific and start swimming. But just then a deep pulsation rattled through the craft, building to a powerful and steady roar. The craft lurched violently, and he let out a yell. People around him screamed, clearly believing as he did that the attacking jets had returned, or that the whole platform had been holed and was sinking. For a moment he imagined that the shuttle had been blown free from its gantry and was falling towards the ocean. Powerful vibrations made his teeth rattle.
Very gently, the shuttle swayed. Panicked, Kendrick glanced over at Buddy, and to his consternation saw him grinning happily. Turning in Kendrick's direction, Buddy gave him a thumbs-up.
Next followed a terrible lurch, and the whole craft: began to tremble with furious energy. An enormous invisible hand seemed to press down on Kendrick's face and chest and he writhed desperately.
'When are we taking off?' someone shouted over the tumult.
'We already have,' Kendrick heard Buddy yell. Barely audible, there were a few half-hearted cheers and whoops.
They were off.
Fifteen minutes later Sabak unstrapped himself and floated over to Buddy, conferring with him briefly. Kendrick gripped his armrests, convinced he was falling, knowing it was only the lack of gravity that made him feel that way. Most of the other passengers would remain strapped in for the duration of their short flight to the space station. He still couldn't quite believe they had not been blown out of the skies.
He found it wasn't quite so difficult to adapt to free fall as he might have expected. In fact, once he was out of his seat it was kind of fun.
Buddy unstrapped himself next and floated over to Kendrick. 'We need to talk further with Sabak about Draeger, and we don't have much time to figure out what we're going to do once we get to the Archimedes.'
'All that really matters is that nobody makes the mistake of trusting him.'
'Those guys with him…'
Kendrick glanced carefully to the rear of the cabin where Draeger had unstrapped, as had Smeby and the rest of them. They still remained carefully apart from everyone else.
'You might want to assume that his men are Augments, too,' Kendrick replied.
Buddy looked at him quizzically. 'You mean Labrats? They don't look-'
'Not Labrats. Black-market work – at least one of them. I've met others, too, including a woman employed by Draeger. She was also an Augment but I'd be surprised if she was ever within a thousand miles of the Maze.'
Buddy frowned. 'There's a shitload of international laws against…' He stopped, and pressed one hand against the side of his head. 'Jesus, just listen to me. So you've dealt with these guys before?'
'Only Smeby.' Kendrick nodded at the man in question. 'He's not to be trusted under any circumstances.'
There was a commotion, and they glanced over to see that Sabak had opened a hatch. Behind it lay a tiny porthole, and Draeger had floated over to stare out through it.
Looking around at the other passengers, Kendrick could see from the consternation and anger on their faces that they were now well aware who their unwelcome guest was.
Sabak floated over and put a hand on Kendrick's and Buddy's shoulders. 'Gentlemen, I want you to come and see exactly where we're going.'
As he guided them forward, Kendrick flailed about uncertainly for a moment but Buddy kept a firm grip on his shoulder as they eased through a pressurized door into the cockpit area.
There was a crew of four, and Kendrick suspected that one or two of them might turn out to be Labrats. But it was impossible to tell since they were all wearing spacesuits.
Beyond them he could see stars, the bright curve of the Earth visible over to one side, and something else in the far distance: a dark grey cylinder floating against a sea of black velvet.
Sabak moved forward to chat to the pilots. They all looked relaxed and happy, and Kendrick wished that he could feel the same.
Sabak returned to their side shortly. 'We're coming in for an approach pretty soon.'
'How close did it get down there?' asked Kendrick.
Sabak raised his eyebrows. 'Pretty close. I find this difficult to admit, but Draeger's the only reason we got this far.' He shook his head. 'I think he must be obsessed with the Archimedes, wanting to come here in person. That does take a certain kind of guts.'
Buddy nodded. 'Yeah, but he's only going to stay friendly for as long as we serve his purpose. We've got to start being real careful.'
'Sir?'
Sabak glanced over at the crew member who had spoken.
'We've got visual contact with the two Los Muertos shuttles.'
Kendrick peered forward intently to where the Archimedes was growing visibly larger. He saw a rough-hewn tube covered in fragile-looking gantries and docking facilities. Kendrick noticed that one of the shuttles was still locked into an external gantry, its nose pointing inwards towards the main body of the station. The other shutde, though, appeared to have ripped itself free and only dozens of powerful-looking cables kept it connected to the station. They were twisting and writhing slowly like snakes, and the hull of the shuttle looked battered and broken, presumably from repeated impacts with the hull of the Archimedes. As they came even closer, they could see an intermittent sparkle of light inside a deep wound in the shuttle's structure.
Sabak spoke up. 'Looks like they've got something burning inside. Wouldn't be possible unless something was feeding it – probably broken fuel and air lines. Can we get a zoom on that?'
