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She sighed and pressed her lips together. Something was undoubtedly wrong.
Compounded with her longing for Kage and inability to reach him, she felt her skin crawl with worry. ‘We don’t seem to be able to access any network,’ she told Sondra. ‘It’s late, and I don’t want to be stuck up here with no comms. I think it’s best to try to get a shuttle to the surface. I’ll check if one’s at the terminal.’
Sondra rose from her desk, still looking deeply concerned. ‘I’ll come with you.’
The two women gathered their bags and headed for the door.
They rushed to Skylab’s terminal and came to a dead stop, surprised at the sight of the empty landing pad.
‘Am I glad to see you! Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to comm a shuttle all night,’ a voice said behind them.
They turned to see Bassam. He looked slightly distraught. ‘I went into the bar for a quick kahawa and missed the second last flight. I thought it’d return like it usually does every half hour, but it didn’t. I also tried the terminal bots, but all of them are down. That was an hour ago. I thought you two had left, so I stayed put, waiting for the shuttle to get back.’
Harlow gave Bassam a faint smile. Her team had no idea she’d been sleeping over at Skylab these last few days. She’d covered her tracks well, appearing at her desk before they arrived and remaining there under the pretext of working late. ‘We stayed back. Seen anyone else?’
He shook his head. ‘Just us. But I know some engineering guys over in Building C have shifts every night. Plus, there are usually about four of five resident interns in the merc training wing. Shall I alert them?’
‘No need to panic yet,’ Harlow cautioned. ‘Let’s give Sysnet and whatever else is happening with their ops an hour or so. I’m sure the Sable Riders are working on whatever has caused this. If we still can’t raise anyone, we can reach out to anyone else left inside the campus.’
Basal shook his head. ‘It’s unusual, though, for the shuttle not to come back to Skylab. It usually spends the night here in case anyone needs to get down to the surface.’
Harlow closed her eyes momentarily and breathed in. ‘Comms must be down even on the surface. Something’s up.’
Sondra and Bassam nodded, looking up at Harlow with worry. She realised they were counting on her lead.
‘Not sure what’s going on out here tonight, but I’m of the mind we need to keep together and wait.’
She took one final look at the empty terminal and led them away. They hunkered down in the cafe. Harlow tried to access all her network connections one more time. Still, nothing. She looked up at the transparent plex roof and into the stars above Skylab, and began to pray all was OK with Mirage, the Riders and most importantly, with Kage. Because she knew she wouldn’t handle it if anything ever happened to him.
Somewhere on Rhesia
In an office nestled within the Rhesian Royal Palace, a man dressed in a luxury half-canvas horsehair suit looked into a holo screen. ‘As I said, we can confirm that one of the Riders is in custody. Waiting on you for what to do with him.’
A masked man gazed down at him, his 3D virtual features shifting and voice cycling through various decibels. ‘I’ve decided. Dangle a ransom. The payment is all access codes to Sable-Net, their AI and their servers.’
‘Just like that?’
‘Just like that.’
‘They won’t make it easy. The Sable Group is lethal about what’s their own. They might even sacrifice their brother for the sake of security.’
‘Then let them do so and see how it feels to lose one of their own.’
The Rhesian man’s eyebrows rose. ‘That’s pushing the envelope, isn’t it?’
‘Deal with it. The Triumvirate is only strong because we take no prisoners. Once they hand over the access codes, get rid of him.’
‘To the Triumv.’
‘True and sure.’
Kage
Kage jerked awake to clashing klaxons and panicked boots running over steel floors.
He sat up and rubbed his face, slapping it to wake himself faster. He was still propped against the bulwark he’d been resting against, and when he felt sufficiently alert, he sat back, one hand over a raised knee.
He watched lazily as the Haiku’s crew and the Rinnax clones dashed past him, gripping weapons as they tried to secure their bridge.
