Ice Baron (Ice Chronicles, Book One (science fiction romance)) (29 page)

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Anya and Joshua
crouched in the bushes. The maintenance
shacks were ten meters distant. According to Joshua’s computer, a low intensity
shield encircled Gorno’s foundation, including the Tek-Lite diamonite
maintenance structures, which were made of a special blend of silicon and
steel. Rodent and rabbit corpses lay scattered on the ground, clearly marking
the energy field’s invisible, electrical line.

It was so quiet. No one seemed to
be about, which seemed strange to Anya. And yet, if everything in Gorno was
running smoothly, why would crews sit in the cold maintenance shacks?

“Maybe it’s a holiday,” she
whispered.

He grunted. “They know something’s
going to happen, so they’ve hunkered into their city to wait.”

“Where are their military hangars?”

“To the north. Richert’s men will
attack there first.”

“Maybe we should wait until dusk
to break in. It’s only another hour. The air battle would camouflage our entry.”

“We’ll wait thirty more minutes.
That’ll give us half an hour to get up the ladder. I’d like to time our break-in
to Gorno with the first attack.”

With a nod, Anya fell silent.

“Stay here. I’ll find the source
of that energy shield.” Computer in hand, Joshua crouch-walked south.

Anya stared up at Gorno’s giant,
curving steel stalks. What would it be like to climb so high? What obstacles
would they meet at the top? How could they possibly break into Gorno?

Her thoughts returned to more
imminent problems. How would they breach the deadly energy shield? A stiff,
dead rabbit lay nearby, its spine unnaturally arched; a testament that it had
died in terrible pain. Even if they did manage to breach the shield, how could
they climb up the steel beams without being detected? Surely cameras swept
every centimeter of this foundation. Not to mention the hidden lasers primed to
fire when infrared sensors were triggered.

Joshua returned. His faint smile
lifted her spirits. “I accessed their wireless network.”

“What do you mean?” Anya peered
over his shoulder. A multitude of pictures edged his computer’s main screen.

“Each of these,” he tapped the
pictures, “are cameras. I can copy the feed, then send a subroutine to each
camera, looping the new feed. The cameras will only ‘see’ what I send them.
They won’t see us at all.”

“Great. But what about the
infrared sensors and the shield?”

“I’ve mapped out a path around and
under the sensors. It’s logged into my computer’s grid, and locked in by GPS.
The computer will help us each step of the way. The shield is more tricky. I’ll
need to disable it for a few seconds. That will probably trigger an alarm.”

Any alarm sent to Gorno would
likely send down droves of soldiers. Especially if they were on tenterhooks
already, waiting for an attack. There had to be another way.

Her gaze returned to the poor,
dead rabbit. She said, “Instead of turning off the shield, could we break
through it somehow? Or would it kill us?”

“Full strength would kill us. Why?”

“I know breaking through would
probably trigger an alarm, too. But the Altai may not find that alarm
suspicious. Rabbits hit the shield all the time. Maybe we could trick the
cameras when they check. We could send a feed of two new dead rabbits. Security
might believe they tried to break through, instead of humans.”

“Good idea.” His fingers flew over
the screen. “I could reduce the shield’s power. We’d get a shock, but survive.
The fluctuation might be noticed, but I’d program it to occur at the same time
we dive through. I’ll program the new feed for the rabbits to start the same
instant. If Onred’s men rewind the footage, we might be in trouble. Those
rabbits will appear out of nowhere. But it’s a chance worth taking.”

Anya was pleased that her idea
would help the mission.

“I’ve set up all the new feeds,”
Joshua muttered. “Now I’ll start them. Then we’ll need to move the rabbits.”

Anya didn’t want to touch one of
the cold stiffened corpses, but she gamely picked up a grotesquely twisted rabbit
by one of its frozen paws while Joshua retrieved another. Consulting his
computer, he headed north again, toward the base of Gorno.

“We’ll need to toss them in,” he
said, “because I don’t want our footprints to show up on the new camera feed.
And we’ll need to be careful. The rabbits can’t hit the shield, or security
will wonder why they don’t immediately see the cause on their monitors. I’m
already feeding an old loop so they don’t spot us. The new feed will take a
minute to make.”

“You can have the honors.” Anya
surrendered her rabbit to Joshua, who tossed it with gentle grace toward the
invisible shield. A faint sparkle shimmered, but that was it. His next toss was
better. The two rabbits lay side by side.

“Now I’ll make the new feed…” Long
moments passed. “Done. …Wait a minute.” Joshua swiftly pulled his phone from
his pocket. “A text from Michael,” he reported. “Onred’s transmitting on Alpha.”

Anya crowded closer to see.

Onred’s hated face filled the
screen. “Your double-cross has born fruit, Anya. Your sisters and brother have
been tortured. They will be executed in two hours. It will be broadcast on
Alpha.” The scene switched to reveal her three siblings sitting hunched close
together, clothes soaking wet, and shoulders shaking with cold. The camera
zoomed in on Marli’s bruised, tear slick face. Anya gasped aloud. Marli was
shorn bald. All of her beautiful blond curls were gone. Elise’s white head
looked as smooth as an egg, too. Multiple bruises darkened their faces. David
still possessed his hair, but his eyes were swollen shut, and his face was a
bloody mess.

Anya gasped aloud. “Marli,” she
choked out. “Elise! David.
Joshua.
”

He pulled her hard into his arms
and she buried her face in his shoulder, trying to muffle her sobs, for fear
Gorno’s sensors would hear her. All the same, she trembled uncontrollably, and
soft, mewling sounds tore into Joshua’s shoulder. Wordlessly, he held her
tighter, his jaw pressed into the side of her head.

Long minutes passed before Anya
could control her grief. She pulled back, sniffing softly. Joshua pressed a
soft napkin from lunch into her hand, and she blotted her face. Chin trembling,
she looked at him.

The hot, savage fire in Joshua’s
eyes comforted her. Onred would pay for his crimes. Joshua would see to it.
They both would see to it.

“Ready?” His voice was level, but
the underlying steel and determination strengthened and steadied her like nothing
else could. “We’ll need to go through together.”

Anya’s hand curled around his
strong one. “Yes.” She was ready to rescue her sisters and brother. At last,
cold fury trembled through her. She would rescue her family. And if she saw
Onred, she would kill him herself.

She glanced skyward.
God help
us.

*  *  *  *  *

At a dead run, Joshua and Anya
punched through the shield, arms and shoulders first. White hot current licked
through Anya’s pores. Pain sizzled. A high-pitched buzz filled her brain, and
then she was down, cheek squishing into soft snow.

“Come on.” Joshua urged her up,
and she staggered after him, zigzagging and then ducking and sliding under
invisible infrared sensors, plowing toward the steel pillars. The shock didn’t
seem to have affected Joshua at all. Anya’s head vaguely ached. Worse, her
thoughts swam like floating, disconnected electrical fragments.

Joshua directed her hand onto a
u-shaped rod, which was riveted onto one of Gorno’s steel pillars. His fingers
curled over hers, securing them in place. “Are you all right?”

When her disoriented gaze met his,
Joshua’s eyes narrowed. “Take a breath.”

She obeyed. Slowly, her disjointed
thoughts fused. “I feel funny. Like my hair is standing on end.”

He smiled faintly. “It’s not. Are
you all right?”

“I’ll be fine.” She hoped.

“You go first. I’ll follow, in
case you need help.”

He didn’t believe that she was
fine. Maybe that was for the best.

Rung by rung, Anya slowly climbed
the pillar. The Alpha video of her beaten, abused family ran over and over
through her head, torturing her. What exactly had Onred done to them? Was he
torturing them again, even now? Tears blurred her eyes, but she blinked them
back. She couldn’t think about it. Not now. Marli, Elise, and David would live
for two more hours. She and Joshua needed to quickly get inside Gorno and
rescue them.

She focused on the long, endless
climb. Half a meter separated each metal step. As they climbed higher, the
steps curved with the steel beam so they climbed on top of the supporting
pillar, rather than hanging below it. After the first ten steps, she refused to
look down. Looking up wasn’t much better. Gorno looked as distant as the moon.

“You okay?” Joshua asked, when she
paused for the third time.

“Fine.” Her thoughts had settled,
but the jumpy, shaky feeling in her muscles had not improved. Worry and nerves
might explain them better than the lingering aftereffects from the shield’s
shock, however.

“No one’s investigated the
rabbits. That’s a good sign.”

“So far, so good,” she agreed, and
with determination continued her upward climb.

It occurred to her that their
progress seemed too easy. Were they being watched? What if Onred’s men waited
for them at the top, ready to shoot them, or push them a kilometer to their
deaths?

With difficulty, Anya pushed those
morbid thoughts from her mind.

It grew darker in slow increments.
Gorno seemed much larger now. Anya estimated they had climbed halfway. Her
hands and arms ached from clenching the steel steps so tightly. Just the
thought of looking down made her hands sweat inside her gloves. It dawned on
her that Joshua’s fake camera feeds would transmit daylight pictures, even
though night drew in about them. She mentioned this to him now, as a way to
divert her mind from worrying about her family or falling half a kilometer to
her death.

“You’re right. But security lights
just came on at the base.” Anya didn’t dare look to see. She trusted Joshua on
this point. “Even so, the lighting will be wrong. I’m hoping the air fight will
distract them.”

They had better get up to Gorno
fast, then, before the security personnel noticed something amiss, she
reasoned. However, it was difficult to increase her speed, for they were
climbing over one of the steeper arcs right now. A slip to the right or left,
and she’d plunge to her death.

It was hard to avoid looking down
while crawling on top of the curving beam. Anya focused on the half meter wide,
silver pillar, and refused to look elsewhere. Closing her mind to all
distractions, she focused only upon climbing.

Dusk was deepening into night when
Joshua said, “We’re almost there.”

She looked up. The gigantic base
of Gorno, perhaps four hundred meters wide, loomed over them. They had been
climbing in its black shadow for the past few minutes. Her wrists and fingers
ached with fatigue. She hoped they wouldn’t have to escape down this ladder
with her family.

“The attack should start soon.”

Anya glanced up through the
deepening blackness, lit only by Gorno’s dark red underbelly lights, trying to
see where the ladder ended. A pale, spider thin catwalk appeared to branch from
the pillar and lead to a landing platform. Were guards awaiting their arrival?
Unfortunately, the way the pillar curved, their backs would be to the platform
as they approached the top.

She paused, balanced precariously
on the step, and fumbled for her laser, clipped to her belt.

Joshua said, “I’ve got us covered.
Keep climbing.”

Trembling more than she liked,
Anya gladly abandoned the balancing act and gripped the smooth steel step
again.

Thirty meters remained… Now ten.
Anya craned a glance over her shoulder. The landing platform looked deserted.
She caught a glimpse of an elevator door.

The catwalk appeared at eye level.
Thank goodness, it had a railing.

It took a good dose of courage to
release the safe ladder and reach for the catwalk’s railing. Gripping the rail
with all of her strength, she took that first, scary step over the ribbon of
open space. Heart pounding and arms shaking, she stepped onto the solid,
corrugated latticework of the catwalk. Within moments, she reached the deserted
platform. Success. One step closer to rescuing her family from Onred’s murderous
hands.

Tarp covered equipment loomed in
the far corners of the landing. Joshua flipped up the corners, assessing the contents
beneath.

“Anything useful?” she whispered.
Her gaze darted about, searching for cameras. She spotted two above the elevator
door. “Joshua!”