Morton flashed him a very skeptical look. “Go on.”
“The stormrider flies a twenty-hour ellipse through and around the Lagrange point. It spends five hours powering the wormhole while the plasma current pushes it in toward the neutron star, then fifteen hours gliding back into that original position. Right now it’s starting its return flight. All we have to do is take control of its guidance system and thrusters, and shove it back into the thick of the plasma current. It can generate enough power for us to open the wormhole.”
“But it probably won’t be able to fly back to the Lagrange point again,” Bradley said. “This will be a one-time attempt. We’ll be closing the door on Far Away until a replacement power source can be built here.”
“Given what’s happened on Boongate I hardly think that’s a consideration for us,” Adam said. “We must focus on our one opportunity to get to Far Away. This is it.”
“Good idea,” Wilson said. “Let’s do it.”
“Wait one,” Morton said. “Even if you can hack the guidance system, we still have to face the weapons on the other side. I don’t buy this bullshit about switching them off until the start of the next cycle. For a start, if they’ve got one eye open they’ll see the wormhole open up again. They’re going to know we’ll be busting our balls to find a way to open it. All they have to do is link the guns to a simple sensor. Anybody sticks their head out through the pressure curtain and zap. My suit array identified what those trucks were loaded with, you know: neutron-injected atom laser. Are you sure your armored cars can take that kind of punishment? From one shot, maybe, maybe two, I’ll even believe you if you say five. But we don’t know what the fuck else is waiting for us on the other side. They can hit us with twenty-five atom lasers simultaneously. They can even nuke us; if we open the wormhole what’s to stop them flinging a fusion bomb through at us? Sentiment? Come on, get real here. It’s over.”
“If that’s what you believe, then you’re free to take the Carbon Goose back to Shackleton,” Bradley said. “You’ll be safe over the ocean when we open the wormhole no matter what happens. But I am going back through.”
“All the Guardians are,” Adam said.
“It’s suicide!”
“It might be suicide. And that gram of doubt is all the hope we need.”
“You have a beautiful desperation about you, Bradley Johansson,” Qatux said over the general band. “It can be as powerful as base emotions in someone as compelled as you. I did not realize this before.”
Wilson couldn’t help giving Tiger Pansy a disapproving look. Childish, he knew, none of this was down to her. The woman was chewing her gum, looking almost blithely unaware of what was being discussed around her. He wondered about that; just how naive could a porn star be?
“That sums up most of the people in this passenger deck quite neatly,” Bradley said with a forced smile.
“May I inquire why you do not move the other end of the wormhole to a location on Far Away that does not have your enemies waiting outside?”
Tiger Pansy’s expression changed to one of mild surprise. She rose from her seat, looking as though she was being prodded along by someone unsavory.
Bradley gave her a discomforted stare as she came to stand in front of him, regarding his face with intense curiosity.
“The gateway,” Bradley said hesitantly. “Er, helps anchor the end of a wormhole. It’s very, uh, difficult to hold the end open and steady, especially given the distance involved here. The processing power to alter the wormhole coordinate is simply not available at Port Evergreen.”
Tiger Pansy’s heavily mascaraed eyes blinked uncertainly; she reached up and touched her fingertips to the side of Bradley’s face, as if she was consoling a lover. The sight of the action made Wilson feel queasy; there was something disturbingly parasitic about it. Bradley didn’t flinch.
“I can perform the computations for you,” Qatux said.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Mellanie wasn’t quite sure what she was expecting as the big screened car turned onto the Rue Jolei. A burst of nostalgia, maybe? The bustling metropolitan road certainly contained enough memories. It wasn’t long ago she would have said they were all good memories.
Today she hunched down in the car’s front seat next to Hoshe Finn, and looked up at the sixty-five-story skyscraper at the far end of the road. The golden rapier-blade shape was among the tallest of the skyscrapers that dominated the downtown cityscape of Salamanca. Mellanie remembered the view from the top of it only too well. Alessandra had liked her to be pressed up against the thick window wall of the penthouse as she serviced yet another politician’s aide or family friend. Those were the memories that lingered now. She kept reliving them, trying to work out the relevance of each piece of information to the Starflyer.
“Did you ever see her security system display?”
“Huh?” Mellanie pulled herself away from the bitter recollections. For some reason, now she didn’t have Dudley to manage, the things she’d done oh-so-willingly for Alessandra burned ever more shamefully in her mind. “Sorry, what?”
“Baron’s security system? There are a lot of exterior circuits hardwired into the penthouse array. The technical staff were wondering how pervasive it is.”
“I’ve no idea, Hoshe. She never accessed it on a screen or portal, not in front of me.”
“Okay, we’re guessing the approach to the skyscraper is well covered, as well as the building itself.”
“Uh, the SI didn’t seem to consider it exceptional, not when I was running away from her.”
“Right, thank you.”
She gave him a small smile. Dear old Hoshe Finn, always approaching every problem with the timidity and caution of a true bureaucrat.
“I’m moving our external perimeter team into place. The arrest squad will enter the building as a service company contracted for maintenance work on an apartment on the sixty-first floor.”
“Can I go up there with them?”
“No. It’s dangerous, and you’d hinder operational protocols.”
“I’d wear an armor suit, and I’d stay at the back, promise.”
“No. Our observation team say that at least two other people are in there with her. Until we know otherwise we have to assume they’re Starflyer agents, too, and may be wetwired. I’m not going to assign one of the arrest squad to chaperoning you. We need all of them frontlining.”
Mellanie gave an exaggerated sigh. “When do you have me scheduled to see her, exactly?”
“As soon as the arrest has been performed, and any wetwired weapons have been neutralized, we’ll go up.”
“Paula Myo didn’t mind me being up close and very personal with Isabella.”
“That was different. We were taking a risk then; now we’re not.”
“All right, but I’m going to get closer to the building. If she puts up a fight, there could be visible weapons activity from the street.”
“We’re going to clear civilians directly underneath the building as the arrest squad goes in. Don’t get in the way.”
“All right, all right.” Mellanie climbed out of the car and strolled down the street. It was midafternoon, with a large number of pedestrians about. She knew Hoshe wanted to wait until the early hours of the morning, when the situation was more containable; but Nigel and Senator Burnelli had overruled him. They were getting quite paranoid about Starflyer agents since Daniel Alster.
She lingered at a boutique window, giving the designer clothes a critical eye. It was automatic, such a normal thing to do. Hoshe had been right, she really ought to start thinking what she was going to do afterward. The way she was positioned politically right now, she could build herself a show that would rival Michelangelo. And of course, the producers of Baron’s show would be needing a replacement in about ten minutes’ time. Once upon a time those prospects would have sparked a real fever in her. There was also Morty. That had all changed, too. Not what he’d done, but somehow she couldn’t quite see herself as the corporate trophy wife with kids waiting for him to come home after a busy day at the office.
The SI’s icon flashed, and expanded into her virtual vision. “Mellanie, we have a problem.”
She couldn’t help glancing up at the penthouse. “Is she watching? Has she seen me?”
“No. As far as we know, Alessandra Baron is unaware of her imminent arrest.”
“Oh. So what’s the problem?”
“Ozzie Isaac has returned to the Commonwealth.”
“Really? I didn’t know that.”
“Are you sure? You are keeping some very interesting company these days.”
“My my, is that a note of jealousy?”
“No. We are simply reminding you we have an arrangement.”
“I go where you can’t, and report on things you don’t know about. What’s new? Are you telling me you don’t know what happened on Boongate?”
“We know the Starflyer is on its way back to Far Away. Obviously. What we are uncertain about is what Nigel Sheldon will do next. His Dynasty has developed an astonishingly powerful weapon.”
“He doesn’t consult with you, because he doesn’t trust you. I’m not sure I do, either. There was a lot more you could have done to help us.”
“We have been through this before, Mellanie.”
“Yeah, yeah, you don’t do physical stuff. It doesn’t matter anymore. This war is about to end. I figure you know that.”
“It is how it will end which concerns us.”
“I don’t get it. What’s this got to do with Ozzie coming back?”
“He did not finish telling us about what he found before Nigel Sheldon placed him in custody. In order for us to understand the full sequence of events we need the information he has.”
The hairs along the back of Mellanie’s spine rose in response to a very cold sensation. “How unfortunate for you.”
“We would like you to make contact with him, and hopefully provide us with a link.”
“What would you do with the information?”
