Sunspire (The Reach, Book 4) (30 page)

Yefim said nothing, continuing to look about through his own binoculars in a futile search for clues.  Rojas felt for the hunting knife on his belt.

How easy it would be to step over and slit your throat
, he thought. 
You deserve nothing less for what you’ve given me.

He pulled the knife free and took a step toward Yefim, and for a moment he thought that he might actually do it, that the act may actually sate his bloodlust.

But as he moved, Yefim spoke.

“Movement,” he said, pointing.  “There, to the south.”

Rojas stopped, jammed the knife back into its
hilt.  “Is it them?”

“Not sure from this distance,” Yefim said.  He lowered the binoculars
and
started up his quad bike.  “There’s only one way to find out,” he yelled over the roar of the engine.

They sped across the terrain, their wheels churning great wads of dirt in their wake, and soon closed in on their target.  Thumping across the old highway, they reached the place where Yefim had seen movement amid a cluster of crumbled walls that stuck out of the earth like weathered gravestones.

Once again, Vincent Rojas was left disappointed.  This was not the one he sought.

They
drew to a halt and killed the engines.  Not far away stood an old man towing a cart full of blackened rocks, watching them dispassionately.

“What you want?” the old man grunted.

“We’re looking for someone,” Rojas said, striding over toward the man with Yefim a step behind.

“Not me,” the old man said.  “I ain’t nothin’ to nobody.”

“No, it’s not you that we seek,” Rojas said.  “We’re looking for a group of people who might’ve come this way earlier today.”

The old man glanced around doubtfully.  “Not many venture through these parts.  Not lately.”

“We’re looking for a boy with black hair,” Rojas went on.  “Dark as night.  With him there might have been a dark-skinned man and a young woman.”

He drew out his holophone and showed the old man the photograph of Roman.  The old man stared at it for a few seconds, then hocked noisily and launched a wad of phlegm on the side of the road.

“Like I said, not many venture through here.”  He scratched his face.  “But I might’ve seen someone looked like that not long ago.”

Rojas felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.  “Well?  Which way did they go?”

The old man seemed to mull over that as he stared out to the west.  “Storm’s comin’.  I’m guessin’ you fellas are in a hurry.”

“Spill your guts, man,” Yefim said.  “Speak up.”

The old man nodded.  “Could use some coin to loosen my tongue, if you know what I’m sayin’.  I’m in debt to the Parkinsons over at Dry Gully–”

“I have no coin,” Rojas said, “but I have steel.”  His hand dropped to his hunting knife.  “Would that be an acceptable substitute?”

The old man smacked his dry lips together nervously.  “A’ight, a’ight.  Just feelin’ the waters.  Can’t blame me for that.”

Rojas drew the knife with a flourish and stepped forward, pressing in close to the old man’s neck.

“Speak, you miserable sack of bones!”

“They passed through here, might be an hour ago,” the old man said quickly, his eyes darting between the two men who stood before him.  “There was the boy and the woman, just as you said, and a couple more with ’em.  Burly types.  I didn’t see no black fella, though.”

“But the boy was there?” Rojas said intently.  “Are you sure?”

“Well, my eyes ain’t too good, but I’d say it was the one you’re after.”

“Where did they go?”

The old man pointed over his shoulder.  “That way.  They were headed up Sunspire M
ountain, right over there.”

Rojas stared up the nearby peak, which sat grey and obscure in the failing light.

“Sunspire Mountain?” he said.  “
What is that?”

“It’s haunted.  I told ’em not to go up there, but they didn’t bother listenin’ to me.  No one does, these days.”

“Haunted?” Rojas said thoughtfully.  “Yes.  It makes sense that Ciro would be drawn to such a place.  He is a malevolent demon, a nexus of all things corrupt.”  His eyes widened.  “This is where it ends.  This is the place where I will finally banish him into the void that exists outside the very bounds of the Greatness.”

The old man’s eyes darted to Yefim, then back to Rojas.  “I don’t know nothin’ ’bout that.”

Rojas stepped forward, past the old man, as if he had already forgotten he was even there.  His eyes were fixed on the mountain.

“Fifteen long years I have waited,” Rojas breathed, and suddenly there were tears in his eyes.  He thought of his mother, lying beaten to death on her bed, the marks of Ciro’s knuckles still fresh on her pale skin.  “But tonight, I will finally be set free.”

Rojas turned and swept past Yefim
, then swung his leg over the quad bike.  He gunned the engine, and without waiting, started off toward the mountain.

Yefim hurried to follow, and as he was about to start the quad bike, saw the old man standing nearby with an odd grin on his face.

“You’d best be takin’ shelter, mister,” the old man said.

Yefim glanced over his shoulder at the dark sky.  “I’m not afraid of a splash of rain.”

The old man cackled.  “It ain’t the rain I’m talkin’ about.”

36

Darkness descended upon Sunspire Mountain, and Talia’s unease grew.

The climb to the summit was not as physically demanding as she had anticipated.  Although in a poor state of repair, the road that led upward still provided a gentle incline and relatively stable footing.  She had to remind herself that Sunspire had probably been a busy spaceport in its day, shifting people and cargo up and down the elevator day and night.  A decent access route to the summit would have been a necessity.

However, it wasn’t the road itself that bothered her.

It was everything else.

Someone had gone to great lengths to warn people away from Sunspire.  Every hundred metres or so they came across a sign bearing some kind of dire warning, much like they had seen at the base of the mountain.  These had been painted messily on hunks of scrap metal and wooden crosses that had begun to sag, slanting off at acute angles as the soil beneath them eroded.

Talia wasn’t superstitious, not in the least.  But she couldn’t help but be unnerved by what she saw.  It wasn’t the supernatural aspect, the so-called ‘haunting’ that worried her, but the fact that someone had gone to this much trouble to scare people off.

What were they protecting up there?

Further on, attempts to thwart the passage of trespassers became more direct.  At a narrow section of road that passed close to a cliff face, an old military transport had been parked sideways across the road, effectively blocking access.  Covered in barbed wire, it made a considerable obstacle, especially in the failing light, and the four of them were forced to pick their way across carefully to avoid injury.

“Do you think that maybe we’re not welcome here?” Roman muttered.

“I get that impression,” Talia said.

With the truck safely negotiated, Kolos took the lead, sweeping his flashlight across the road as he attempted to uncover more surprises.  It didn’t take long to find one.

“Hold up,” Kolos said, raising a hand.  “I see something here.”

Norrey stopped dead and shot a glance at Talia and Roman to indicate they should take the warning seriously.

“What is it?” Norrey said.

Kolos edged forward slowly, his flashlight trained on an uneven patch of ground not far ahead.  He knelt at its edge and then lightly touched his fingers into the dirt.

“What’s going on?” Talia said.

“There’s something here.  An explosive device,” Kolos said, dragging several wires from the broken asphalt, their ends frayed.  “Long since discharged, luckily for us.”  He got up.  “You can come forward.”

“So this was some sort of trap?” Roman said as they joined Kolos.

“Yes,” Norrey said.  “And it looks as though someone walked right into it.”

“But not recently,” Kolos added.  “Judging by the erosion, this happened some years ago.”

“So we’re walking into a minefield,” Talia said.  “Literally.”

Norrey pursed his lips.  “I would assume this won’t be the last surprise we’ll stumble across tonight,” he agreed.

“I’ll keep an eye out,” Kolos said, and he began to stride forward fearlessly once again.

“Don’t worry about him,” Norrey said with a knowing smile.  “He can take care of himself.”

They continued to make their way upward, and Kolos proved to be a worthy scout, guiding them around two more buried explosives and a third object that may or may not have been dangerous.  At a time like this, Talia was glad that the two bodyguards had agreed to accompany them to their destination.

By now the stars had been blotted from the night sky.  The heavens were lit only by intermittent flashes of lightning on the horizon as the storm continued to close in.  In those brief moments of vivid light, Talia could see the space elevator above them, a shaft of glinting metal stretching upward from the mountain’s peak like a taut silver filament.

That’s it
, she thought, trying to harness that positive thought. 
That’s what you came for.

But she continued to feel nothing but dread as they closed in on their target.

“There!” Roman exclaimed not long after, pointing as the lightning flared again.  “I can see the top of the mountain.”

Talia watched, and as the sky lit up again, she saw that he was right.  Nestled in the mountain’s crown was an unspectacular building, a structure several stories high with a smooth, flowing facade.  The
space elevator appeared to terminate at the far end.

Everything up there was dark and still.  Silent.

“We made it,” Norrey announced.  “Wasn’t so hard.”  He turned to Talia.  “Do you think your friends are here yet?”

She gave him a wry smile.  “I doubt that.”

Norrey gestured at the building.  “So let’s go find a way in.”

The main entrance
to Sunspire was locked tight as a drum, so they began to circle around the outer walls in search of an easier way to gain passage inside.  Under the glow of Norrey’s flashlight, Talia could see that the pale concrete exterior had been smothered in paint.  Initially she thought it was just random graffiti, haphazard scrawlings with no purpose, but after a time she began to see recurring themes.  A yellow sun with rays of light stretching from it in every direction was the primary motif.  In addition there was a tall black stripe stretching up into blue skies that was either a building or perhaps a representation of the elevator itself.  The words ‘salvation’ and ‘light’ had also been written in several places.

“No ghosts yet,” Roman said.

“No,” Talia said.  “So why is it so damn spooky?”

They made their way through an old security gate that had all but fallen apart, and beyond that they came upon what looked to be a maintenance door.

“Try here,” Norrey instructed.  Kolos nodded, then reared back and launched his boot at the door.  It resisted twice, but on the third attempt it crashed open, revealing a darkened corridor beyond.

From within emanated a stale, unpleasant odour, along with a deathly silence.

“What’s that whiff?” Roman said.

“Take this,” Norrey said, offering the flashlight to Kolos.  Then he raised his rifle and began to move forward.  “Follow me.”

They crossed into Sunspire, Norrey on point with Kolos right behind him lighting the way.  The corridor opened out into a workshop of some kind, comprised of scratched and worn benches but no tools.  Beyond that was another corridor, and this branched  off in several directions.  Norrey paused there for a moment as he tried to figure out which way to go.

“We should do a systematic sweep of the area,” he said, thinking out loud.  “Make sure there’s nothing hiding in here.”