As the briefing continued, Skyler worked his way through the crowded room, moving casually, until he reached the door. Without looking back, he stepped out of the tavern.
In the hall beyond, he took a long thirty seconds to tie his boots. Sure that no one noticed his exit, or cared at least, he walked away, up the gently curved hall, looking for a ghost.
He had no plan other than to simply wander. Make himself visible, and see if the so-called Ghost would try to jump him. He just hoped she’d recognize him before inflicting any damage.
Section B proved too crowded for Skyler’s needs. Weaving his way around loitering groups of station staff, some of whom eyed him with open contempt, he took the first junction tunnel that led to Section C. The bulkhead at the end of the tunnel had six guards, whom Skyler found in raucous conversation. They wore Nightcliff uniforms like his and barely acknowledged his passing. He kept his pace steady, eyes forward, and turned left to walk down the vast curved hallway. Once the junction guards passed out of view, their conversation faded and Skyler was totally alone.
He slowed to a stop and moved to the wall, kneeling next to it. The bottom half of the surface had a fine pattern of tiny holes. Placing a hand over it, Skyler felt the slightest brush of cool air.
Scanning the hall around him, he saw that every third section of wall had a similar half-height vent. He remembered his flight from the station with Kelly, and the maintenance tunnel she had led him through with all its twists and turns. Finding her now would be impossible, he knew. Best to let her come to him.
A patrol of guards approached. Skyler quickly stood and saluted.
“Nuts to be out here alone, friend,” one said.
“Orders,” Skyler muttered. “Sobchak said I should report to the brig and help out.”
There were three of them, wearing the Gateway uniform. The one speaking was middle-aged; the others Skyler judged to be just shy of twenty.
“And he sent you to do this alone?” asked Thomas, according to the name on his jacket.
Skyler knew the tone of someone looking for a fight. He’d heard it often enough. He looked left and right, mocking the rhetorical question. “Apparently.”
Thomas took a step closer. “Getting smart with me?”
“I’m not getting un-smart.”
“What?” said the younger guard on the left.
Skyler rolled his eyes. “I am getting smart. It’s a double negative. Never mind.”
Thomas took another step toward Skyler, now within arm’s length. “You know what I think, mate? I think you arrogant bastards don’t know how to take orders.”
“No,” Skyler said, “it’s just it doesn’t take three of us to handle a couple of women.”
All three had their weapon slung over a shoulder. Slow to bring ready, awkward to fistfight with it hanging there. Skyler felt he might have a chance, if it came to blows—
The soldier on the left lurched backward, an arm around his neck. He cried out in surprise as he was pulled into a panel that had opened on the wall behind him.
Skyler took the opening and smashed his forehead into the nose of Thomas. Blood exploded from the man’s face, and his instincts became his worst enemy as he grabbed at the shattered mess. He howled so loud, Skyler thought the whole station would hear it.
Skyler crouched, lowered his shoulder, and pushed off, throwing himself into the man’s midsection, lifting him from the floor. The guard on the right, who gawked like an idiot at the space where his companion had been seconds before, had no time to react as Skyler pushed the leader straight into him. All three went down in a tangle of limbs.
A fist caught Skyler on the jaw. The blow had no weight behind it, a punch of desperation. Skyler ignored it and focused on the machine gun over the leader’s shoulder.
Without warning, the second of the young guards vanished through the air vent. He screamed, a panicked, terrified sound. From inside the vent Skyler heard a dull, wet thud, and the noise stopped.
“Kelly, it’s me, Skyler!” he yelled, finally pulling the gun away from the leader.
The man began to flail wildly as he realized death loomed. He punched and scratched at Skyler, rolling on to his back, blood streaming from his nose. Skyler kicked once, a powerful connection directly against the man’s shattered nose. The man’s eyes rolled back and he dropped, limp.
Skyler sat in the middle of the hall, breathing hard, clutching the gun. He saw a shape in the vent, and then a face appeared.
“Well, you idiot,” Samantha said, “come on.”
Seeing her familiar face made him instantly forget the melee. “You’re alive,” he said.
“Save it. We need to get the fuck away from here.”
Skyler looked left and right. The curved hallway looked empty. No, Skyler realized, listening. Footsteps, a lot of them, and close. He pushed the gun across the floor to her and rolled into the vent.
Kelly waited deeper inside, crouched over the bodies of the two guards that had disappeared. She grinned at him.
“They heard,” Sam said; “we’ve got to move.” She pulled the vent cover back into place, as if it were second nature.
“Lead the way,” Kelly said. “Hello again, Skyler.”
He clasped hands with her. “Good to see you.”
“So you can handle a couple of women, eh?”
Skyler grinned. “All thanks to my boyish good looks.”
Samantha chortled and crawled deeper into the ventilation shaft while Kelly pushed the guard into a corner.
“The body in the hallway …,” Skyler said.
“His face,” Kelly said, “will scare the hell out of them. Adds to our reputation, and buys us time.”
He crawled as quietly as he could, struggling to keep up. Samantha’s movements were fluid, familiar. She made no noise at all despite the hurry, and yet Skyler seemed to buckle every weak spot along the crawl space.
She was comfortable here, he realized.
Kelly kept right on Skyler’s heels. He tried to crawl faster, his back scraping the top of the tunnel. Neither of the women said a word, so Skyler kept his silence.
After nearly two minutes of crawling, taking corners and intersections in stride, they entered a utility tunnel that seemed identical to the one Kelly had led him through during his previous escape.
Skyler’s lungs ached for air, but no break was to be had. Samantha continued to lead them at a fast pace through the dark hallway. He followed her lead, ducking under obstacles he could barely see in the dim light.
“Sam,” Skyler said.
“Later,” she replied. She didn’t break stride. Skyler realized he couldn’t hear Kelly behind them, and so he chanced a look back. It was too dark to tell, but she didn’t seem to be there.
“Where’s Kelly?” he asked.
“She’ll be along. Don’t slow down.”
They ran and ran, then climbed. A series of tiny panels lit the vertical shaft, and looking back Skyler saw Kelly enter the base of the tube, ten seconds behind.
The shaft extended all the way to the central ring, but Samantha stopped at the halfway point and opened a recessed access door. As Skyler followed her through, he noticed the locking mechanism had been covered with duct tape.
“They tried to track us by the locks,” Samantha said.
Closer in to the center point of the station, gravity tugged at two-thirds its normal strength. Skyler had to adjust his stride to keep from bouncing into the ceiling. Thick pipes and cable conduits lined the narrow passage.
Samantha finally stopped. For the first time since Skyler had known her, she hugged him. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and squeezed him until his arms ached.
The fierce embrace made his entire journey worthwhile.
She pulled away abruptly. “Can’t believe you fucking abandoned us,” she said, the words pouring out through a confused mix of laughter and crying.
“Good to see you, too.”
Her hands still gripped him by the shoulders. “Takai and Angus …”
The look on her face finished the sentence. Tears welled into his eyes and he blinked them away. He could see the two of men, lying lifeless on the floor of that tavern, staring up at the ceiling with lifeless eyes, staring right at him. Skyler tried and failed to shake the vision, to replace it with a happy moment. Instead all he could envision was their dead stares, boring into him, accusing and sorrowful.
“So it’s just you and me now,” he said, numb.
Samantha bit down on her lower lip, her entire face hardening as she held back a wave of anguish.
“I’m so sorry,” Skyler whispered. “I thought … we, Kelly and I, thought all three of you—”
“I know,” Samantha replied.
“I tried to get to you, but we were too late.”
“I know. Kelly told me. I’m just glad you didn’t … what’s with the goddamn Nightcliff uniform?”
Confused, Skyler glanced down at his clothing. “Oh. I hitched a ride up.”
Samantha’s eyebrow arched.
Kelly came through the door, finally, and closed it behind her. She gave Skyler a quick embrace. “When I saw that latch still on your bird, I thought for sure it wouldn’t fly,” she said.
“It didn’t,” Skyler said, frowning.
Samantha released his shoulders. “The Mel is gone?”
Skyler did not need to respond; his expression was enough. “I had to bail out, ten klicks south of the Aura.”
She frowned at that. “Any trouble getting back?”
“Nothing but trouble. It’s a long story,” Skyler said, “and we’re a bit short on time.”
Kelly said, “Somewhere to be?”
“I’d hoped to find you,” Skyler said, “and head to Anchor.”
“Anchor?” Samantha asked. Then, “Oh. The scientist.”
“Blackfield’s up there, and you know what he’s like. I have to help her if I can.”
Grudgingly, Samantha nodded. “And here I thought you came back for me.”
The remark landed like a punch to the gut. “I did. Originally just to offer myself in exchange for you and the guys,” he said. “But then I heard about Blackfield heading up to Anchor, and Platz getting killed.”
Kelly’s face tightened. She sucked in her lower lip.
“Sorry,” Skyler said. “I figured you knew.”
“I knew,” Kelly said. “Doesn’t make it any easier.”
Samantha gripped the back of her neck and gave a soldier’s squeeze.
“Platz told me that Tania is the key to everything,” Skyler said. “We have to get to her.”
“You realize,” Kelly said, “that Anchor is at the ass end of a forty-thousand-kilometer street the enemy controls.”
He shrugged. “All of this started because of her research. What she knows. Platz gave his life for it, and I’m guessing he wouldn’t do that in vain. So if you believe Platz had a reason for everything that’s happened—”
“—then this scientist is the person who can finish it.”
Skyler nodded.
Samantha folded her arms across her chest. “The climber port is crawling with Nightcliff goons, Sky.”
A quiet moment passed. Then Kelly said, “I know what to do.”
Kelly took the lead.
She insisted on silence as they moved along a complex path, often crossing normal station hallways. Her knowledge of the station’s layout might be absolute, Skyler thought, but he wondered how long she could last now that there were so many patrols looking for her. Samantha at her side probably made the risk greater, even if their actions were more effective.
At one point she stopped them in a large, cube-shaped room with fans spanning two entire walls. The noise made for good cover, and the breeze felt good on Skyler’s sweat-soaked uniform. Kelly called for a rest.
“We’re close now,” she said.
Skyler worked to control his breathing. “What’s the plan?”
“There’s a launch bay in Section E, not far, where the older utility crafts are stored. Construction and repair, that sort of thing.”
“What will we do there?”
“Steal one,” Kelly said, “and you’ll fly us to Anchor.”
Skyler moved closer to the fans, letting the constant flow of air dry the sweat on his skin. “What if I can’t fly them? What if they don’t have that kind of range?”
“They do,” Kelly said. “We overheard some workers. This is how Russell and his men went to Anchor without passing through the other stations.”
Grudgingly, Skyler nodded.
Kelly shrugged. “It’s the best idea I’ve got.”
The fact that Russell Blackfield had made use of them to get to Anchor meant they had the range. Of course, Skyler realized, they wouldn’t need much fuel in space. He needed to stop thinking like an Earth-bound pilot, and soon.
“Can’t hurt to have a look,” he finally said.
The issue settled, Kelly took point again, her pace even faster than before. Twice they had to crawl through tight spaces, which renewed the aches in Skyler’s healing shoulder and ribs.
Kelly had been right when she said they were close, however: A short time later she held up a hand as they reached the end of a warm, dark corridor.
“Wait here,” Kelly said. “I’ll scout ahead.”
Skyler half-expected Samantha to argue. She would have if I’d given an order like that, he thought, but his old crewmate scarcely reacted. It amazed him how quickly the two women had bonded. They worked together like veteran partners.
Standing alone with Samantha now, Skyler found himself unable to think of anything to say. He felt like an outsider. The unspoken truth was that she’d left his crew and joined Kelly’s.