Chapter 29
Guns had always made Amaya nervous, so the walls and racks of tools designed for violence carried much less majesty than they apparently did for Andre, who looked like he might bow down and start worshipping the murderous steel in front of them. Amaya looked at her new friend and laughed at the boyish smirk that had grown across Andre’s face - he was smitten with the room. The endless rows of tables, lined with a variety of weapons. This was what Amaya thought Andre, as a child, might have looked like as he walked into a sweets store.
“It’s impressive,” Jaeden said plainly, as he noticed Andre’s gaping stare, “but most of it is more than what you’ll need.” Jaeden sounded bored, but the way he looked at Andre, a jealous gleam in his eye for an almost imperceptible second, before turning deeper into the room made Amaya think that Jaeden envied Andre’s wonder. For Jaeden, this was just another day, but for Andre, this was the defining moment of his life. “This way.” Jaeden continued, stepping quickly to lead them further into the room. Andre looked disappointed that he wouldn’t get to play with the big toys, but Amaya figured that what they would get to use might still satisfy Andre’s masculine (childish?) desire to hold a gun. The farther into the room they progressed, the more Amaya felt like she was on a spaceship. The walls and floors were all a reflective chrome and the matte black carbon-steel racks juxtaposed militantly. Amaya noticed The far right wall was adorned with several video terminals, each displaying a set of camera views. In addition to an armory, this looked to be an active surveillance center.
“Are those feeds recording from Skyreach?” Amaya asked as they passed the display terminals. A quick glance, she observed, were of some familiar areas from her last couple of days: the landing bay of the Mosely compound, the hallways leading to Allonz’s office, the the gun room beyond. Most of the hundreds of video squares on screen in front of her, though, looked to be from somewhere else: office buildings, rooftop landing pads, greenspace promenades.
“Some,” Jaeden said. “Better you not know too much about those, eyes straight ahead please.” He stepped to disrupt Amaya’s view of the video feeds and held his arm out to indicate that they ought to keep moving. “Eyes forward, please,” he said.
Amaya felt a spike of adrenaline. She hadn’t yet felt like a prisoner here, nor did she now, but this was the first time someone had directly instructed her against asking questions, and that made her nervous. Alicia was her best friend, Allonz, though she’d only met him 2 days ago, was just as good as a father to her now. Jaeden’s shift from nonchalant guide to soft enforcer made her question just how much this resistance really valued her safety. Just what exactly are we getting into here?
Before she think about it any deeper, Jaeden stopped in the middle of an aisle, spun around on his heels abruptly to face them, and gestured down at a pair of equipment racks. “These’ll be for you. Basic things you’ll need to stay alive. Encrypted Terminal, sidearm with a couple of quick-clips, some -” Jaeden stopped and pulled out his hand terminal, his eyes moved rapidly as he read the notification. He dropped his head back and slumped his shoulders. “Ah shit,” he said, his voice full of dread. He quickly bagged a set of equipment for Amaya and Andre and then handed each of them a bag. “Take these, now. And follow me.” He cut back through Amaya and Andre to lead them back out of the gun room, depositing a sleek black backpack into each of their hands.
“Woah, wait up there, J!” Andre drawled as he tightened the straps on his bag and got a hopping start to keep up with Jaeden’s quick stride. Amaya shouldered the bag onto her right shoulder, heavy, and jogged to catch up with Andre and Jaeden. The bag bounced clumsily against her lower back and a couple of items banged noisily inside the bag as she ran. “Tighten up those shoulder straps, hoss,” Andre advised. “Otherwise, we ain’t gettin’ further than the loading bay ‘fore we get caught.” He pulled his straps out and pretended to pull them tight in demonstration.
Amaya looked down at her bag and then back at how Andre was wearing his. She pulled the other strap over her shoulder and tightened herself into the bag. She nodded her thanks to Andre and they both continued the power-walk to catch up to their escort. He’d reached the doorway and was waiting for them to exit so that he could close the door behind them. As Amaya and Andre left the gun room, the same noisy whoosh filled the hallway with sound and flowing air.
“What’s going on, Jaeden?” Amaya asked. Jaeden flicked his glance from the entry-terminal up to Amaya, then back down to the terminal as it dinged to his satisfaction.
“Training mission,” he said curtly, as he spun again on his heels and led them back up the hallway. As they passed Allonz’s office, Amaya detected a growing urgency in Jaeden’s pace and demeanor. Something must have gone wrong. They went back up through the ladders and labyrinth of hallways. When they finally arrived back in the living area they’d breakfasted with Allonz earlier that morning, Amaya heard some kind of meeting happening at the kitchen table. Allonz was briefing a couple of men who were seated around the table. As they approached the table with Jaeden, Allonz finished his discussion and the three men got up in unison and hustled to the vehicle bay. Allonz hadn’t seemed to notice their arrival - he immediately returned to something he was monitoring on his hand terminal.
“What’s going on, Allonz?” Amaya asked. Allonz looked up from his terminal and frowned, sighed, and stood from the table.
“Alicia and De’Ante - ‘dey had an accident and needs some help. Looks like they might get picked up by some Jurisdiction pigs if we don’t get to ‘em in time, if I’m reading Alicia correctly in this here message.” His voice was somber, he looked shrunken. The winkles in his face and the discolored liver spots on his bald head appeared much more pronounced now than they did earlier in the day. “I know you got’chur own plans, but I might need a favor here, if you’d be so kind.”
Amaya blinked in disbelief. The earlier concern surrounding Jaeden’s stern answer about the surveillance terminals evaporated, replaced now with terror for her friend. Terror, and guilt that this was her fault. She’d dragged Alicia into her mess, and now Alicia might be the one who got locked up.
“Anything, Allonz. Just tell us what to do,” Amaya said, taking inventory of what she could really do to help here. She did have a bag of spy shit that Jaeden had just given her, but without knowledge of how to use it, something told Amaya she could hurt herself just as much as an enemy. No, she didn’t have much, but she had her feelings. Terror, on one hand, was useless and could get her killed. Rage, on the other hand, could be useful. She remembered everything she’d lost and tried to find her anger at the system for taking it all away. She felt a spark and hoped it would grow into a full fire before they made it to wherever they needed to go.
“I sent Jaeden some coordinates. He’s going to drive y’all there, y’all back him up if shit hits. Go get my kids and bring them home. Please.” His voice cracked on the last word, and Amaya couldn’t help but feel pity for him at this moment. Sure, this man in front of her had probably taken his fair share of other fathers’ children from them. Here, now, though, there was no bullshit or gamesmanship in his voice, and Amaya could sense no angle. He was just a father pleading for the safe return of his children.
Amaya shifted the pity aside and continued to stroke her rage. Emotion bubbled in her chest and throat, threatening to gush out. She wanted to say something, anything that could help Allonz feel that they would do their best to bring Alicia home, but all she could muster was a hard nod and a fierce grip of his shoulder. Anything else would have broken the dam and she would have cried, she was certain.
Andre was more in control of himself, it seemed. “We’ll bring ‘em back, Allonz,” he said, finding a smile and an encouraging nod. He grabbed Allonz’s other shoulder and squeezed. “Come on, Amaya. We got ourselves some work to do, I reckon,” he said, before they both withdrew their hands and turned to follow Jaeden to the transport bay. Allonz sat back down at the table and returned his attention to the terminal in his hand. From what Amaya could tell, he was looking at a readout that showed several GPS pings on a large map. He wouldn’t be joining them in the field, but he would be monitoring everyone’s location and progress through their encrypted network.
The sophistication of their communications and surveillance network surprised Amaya and she wanted, intensely, to ask Alicia for one of her geeky explanations of how it all worked. A tear escaped from one of her eyes at the recognition that Alicia wasn’t here to help her right now. For once, it was Amaya’s turn to help. Don’t worry, A, she thought to herself. We’re coming for you. She blinked the moisture away and hopped into the back seat of the transport with Andre. Jaeden zipped them up, out, and away to where Alicia and De’Ante waited for pick up. Thinking about her sweet friend being hurt and afraid made her skin crawl with urgency. She wished Jaeden would fly a little faster.
Watching the Mosely compound disappear into the darkness of the lower city, Amaya felt the terror coming back. What the fuck am I supposed to do? She couldn’t fight, she couldn’t shoot, she’d never piloted a transport; her stomach knotted with the realization of how much of a liability she was here. As uncertain of how to help, she was confident in one thing: she would do whatever she could to bring her friend back. That, or she would die trying. She steeled herself for what was to come and watched as Jaeden piloted them into the neon lights of Middle-Skyreach, the bright holo-ads coloring the interior of the transport with glittery blues, greens, and reds.
The bag Jaeden had given her earlier jangled in her lap and she realized she hadn’t fully acquainted herself with her new gear. Andre, having the same thought, reached for his bag on the floor and pulled it up into the seat to take inventory. “So what’d you give us, J?” Andre asked, unzipping the bag and pulling out the most conspicuous item, a sleek black handgun. Andre’s eyes widened and he couldn’t help but grin in admiration as he looked down the sights of the weapon.
“Mostly first aid and survival rations, but there’s a weapon, several quick-load clips, some infrared contact-lenses, and a special encrypted terminal,” Jaeden replied as the piloted the vehicle through the dense late afternoon traffic. A few drivers honked their disapproval as Jaeden sprinted by them. “Oh, and a few suppression explosives in case you get stuck.”
Amaya felt a twinge of anxiety at the thought that she was carrying an explosive in her bag. The vehicle jolted suddenly as Jaeden narrowly avoided an oncoming industrial transport, more horns blared behind them as they sped away.
“What do you mean suppression explosive?” she asked.
“Not gonna knock down any walls, but is bright, loud, and conussive enough to knock down a 300 pound man in full tactical gear. Just make sure you’re not holding it when it goes off, right?” Jaeden flicked his eyes back through the rear-view mirror and another smile found its way to one corner of his mouth.
‘Aren’t you worried about cops, with the way you’re drivin and all?” Andre asked. He was snapping his weapon into a holster that he’d fitted into his coveralls, but was struggling against the seat’s safety strap to lean forward enough to fit the holster around his chest. Jaeden turned to look around the right side of the vehicle, checking his blind spots, before he slipped the car in and out of some more traffic, forcing Amaya and Andre both back into the seat with the force of his acceleration. I’m not really worried about getting arrested, I’m worried about throwing up, Amaya thought to herself as he stomach wretched with another hairpin turn.
“Not really, no” Jaeden said, whipping the steering wheel, again? really?, in a dramatic 180 degree rotation to drift the transport around the corner of a building and through several lanes of oncoming traffic to catch a shortcut between two buildings. Amaya felt pretty certain that she’d vomit soon if Jaeden didn’t cool it with the lightspeed turns. Oblivious to the effect he was having on his passengers, or maybe just apathetic, Jaeden focused his attention forward to plan his next death defying maneuver. “When they can barely see you pass, they’re not likely to come after. Plus, I bet most of them are busy looking for Alicia and De’Ante.”
At the mention of her friend, the knot in Amaya’s gut tightened, as if her stomach was a wet towel and the stress of her endangered friend and the trauma of the last couple of days were working in tandem to wring out her insides. She wanted to ask about Alicia, where are we going, what happened to them, are they safe, but figured Jaeden probably wouldn’t have much to share, and wasn’t quite in a position to offer a briefing even if he had something to tell them. Instead, she sat quietly and watched the lights blur by as she mentally prepared herself to do whatever she could to bring Alicia and De’Ante home safely.
It was this moment of quiet contemplation that broke the dam; the complete surreality of her situation laid itself bare in front of her, and she felt truly lost. Even before all of this, who did she think she was, trying to work a high corporate job and live a rich-girl corpo life? She had a brother with a record, they were never going to let her get too comfortable. As if the cruelty of that situation wasn’t enough, the universe had decided to take her brother from her. Now, here she sat, with a gun in her backpack, on the way to conduct a spy-op rescue mission. It was like she’d stepped out of her apartment on Friday morning and into a Spy-Thriller flick. Maybe she was dreaming and she’d wake up any moment now, having nodded off at Alicia’s place on Friday night to whatever movie they were watching. Nope, this is all painfully real, she reminded herself.
The pilot read out from Jaeden’s dashboard terminal flashed brightly and thumped a bassy notification. Jaeden tapped a few buttons and Amaya and Andre’s terminals both pinged, Andre’s from his coverall pocket, Amaya’s from inside her bag. They both reached for their respective devices to see what, presumably Jaeden, had just sent them. “What’s this, J?” Andre asked as he tumbled through the data, an eyebrow cocked in confusion. Amaya had barely unlocked the device when Jaeden spoke again.
“We just got Alicia and De’Ante’s location, I sent it on to you all along with other intel that the advance party sent us.” Holy shit, I am in a spy thriller, Amaya thought to herself. “We got about 5 minutes until we get there. Read up,” Jaeden finished. The closer they got to Alicia, the more Amaya found herself mixed in a strange emotion of dreadful anticipation. She couldn’t wait to help rescue her friend, but the unknown quantity of how she might have to do it made her miserable. The knot tightened.
At least there was an advance party and they’d given her something to use. That begged another question, though: just what in the fuck am I getting myself into? At first, Amaya thought Allonz was just running a hidden pot farm and was living comfortably on the proceeds. The more she learned, though, the more it seemed that Allonz was the center of some larger clandestine conspiracy. These had to be questions for another time, though. She directed her attention to her new hand terminal and tried to digest the information as quickly as she could.
The advance team had sent a gps file with Alicia and De’Ante’s location, a schematic of the building, and a link to some live feeds that were documenting an explosion at a hotel. The GPS file seemed the most useful, so she opened that one first. It linked to a mapping application on her phone and, through the manipulation of several display settings, was able to see plainly where in the building they could expect to pick up their targets. The map also clarified the significance of the live feed of a collapsed hotel: Alicia and De’Ante must have fled through that hotel and into the inter-level infrastructure beneath the promenade.
The GPS wasn’t showing them on a lower level, though, it was showing them in an adjacent tower, so they’d simply tunneled through one building into another. Plus, the jurisdiction officers would certainly have locked the tunnels down by now, so inter-level travel on foot wouldn’t have been possible. Amaya opened the other document in the file, the schematics of the building, but quickly found them of limited utility to her. The engineering documents were written, seemingly to Amaya, in another language, so she closed them and returned to the GPS file to infer as much about the building as she could. A nervous sweat formed in the palms of her hands and she wiped the moisture on the legs of her pants. Her heart beat nervously in her chest.
She didn’t have long to read, as it turned out. “Pulling up now,” Jaeden said as he zipped the car to a window in the side of the building. “Can’t hop out, y’all have to go. Please don’t die,” he said as he pressed a button in the pilot dash to open the rear passenger seat.
Andre looked over at Jaeden in horror - the first look of displeasure he’d exhibited since the gun room. “You mean ain’t comin’ with us?” He tightened the straps on his backpack anxiously and pulled the gun from leg holster to wield in his right hand. He looked like a kindergartner going to their first day at the shooting range.
“I would, but someone’s gotta play getaway driver, and unless one of y’all wants to pilot a flying transport that you know nothing about, that’s gonna be me. You saw where she is, go get her. I’ll be here, but you need to go now.”
That’s all Amaya needed to hear. Something had flipped inside her and she needed the mission to be done. Now. She shoved Andre out of the open door, onto the fire escape that Jaeden parked them next to. After hearing the clanky thud of Andre’s safe landing, she hopped out of the car after him without a proper salutation to Jaeden. If she’d been looking, she would have noticed the proud nod he sent after her. Instead, she watched Andre’s ass as she kicked it out of the car and jumped after him. She’d said it to herself enough, and it was time to prove it.
I’m not a spectator.