“Understood,” said Li Fei. “The docks should be closed.”
“I’m not seeing any sign of that from up here,” the commander told us.
“That bitch is either stupid or confident,” said Andrea. “They’re fucking with us.”
Captain Vassar had sounded the alarm right in front of us. What she’d said to the station was a veiled message to everyone on board. Arbiters are here. Offer them resistance and do not comply with any instructions they give.
Li Fei got the airlock door open. “We won’t have long.”
That’s when the Llyr security guards opened fire on us from behind. I don’t know what prompted it, but it was one of the stupidest and most suicidal gestures I’ve ever seen. I heard the shots but couldn’t feel anything beneath my armor. In our drop suits, we were too big to miss but too strong to harm.
Li Fei’s voice was a strange combination of amusement and anger. “So that’s how it is? We’re shutting this place down.”
He raked a burst of fire over the heads of the security guards. They ducked for cover as the bulkhead wall was pitted with two-foot wide scars. As a warning, it was incredibly effective. One guard tossed his gun away like it had just bitten him and threw his hands up. Another ran, but one recomposed himself and returned fire. Mike Mitchell shot him through the stomach and sent his torso pinwheeling away from his lower half.
That was it for the firefight, such as it was. The other security guards within line of sight all threw their guns down, raised their hands, and cowered in front of us.
“That was the most pathetic display I have ever seen in my life,” remarked Andrea. I couldn’t disagree with her, but it had also had the effect of delaying us from getting out to the Havisham. Was that the intention all along?
“Back to the bridge Mitchell,” Li Fei ordered. “We need to secure command and control. Agent Caplan, have your team secure the bay.” The two Arbiters headed back to confront Captain Vassar.
“Sweep the area,” ordered Andrea. “Search every room.”
Under normal circumstances, we’d be clearing rooms in teams of two, but this was hardly normal for Section 9. What was the point of overwatch when your gear made you into a fire team unto yourself? We all seemed to innately understand that and fanned out. I headed for a trio of storefronts clustered around an elaborate fountain and marveled at it as I passed. It had been designed with the centrifugal motion of the station in mind, the jets of water curving through the air into tendrils knotted around each other. Llyr was certainly a bizarre study in excess.
The first room I checked was a jewelry shop, empty except for the owners who had their hands high above their heads before I walked through the door. The second place was a restaurant, serving what looked like fresh lobster, although that would not have been an easy thing to do in the outer colonies.
On my way to the third space, I encountered another Llyr security guard, who was aiming his gun at me with shaking hands. The man looked like he was trying to talk himself into doing something that could only get him killed. He was smart enough to know he shouldn’t be aiming that tiny gun in my direction, but for some reason he wasn’t smart enough to actually stop doing it. I gestured with my rifle for him to throw down his weapon, and to his credit he did. I took the weapon as the man ran off.
The armed security on Llyr Station wasn’t very formidable. They had no armor, and their weapons were low caliber sidearms. It was almost as if their only real purpose was ornamental, so why were they attacking us?
The door the man had been guarding had no placard, the space no sign. It wasn’t a shop, so far as I could tell. So why did it rate a guard of its own?
I checked the door, and it was locked. That’s rarely a problem if you have a skeleton key, but I couldn’t get to mine in the drop suit. On the other hand, was the door really strong enough to resist me? I pulled back, punched the door, and watched a section of it crumple around my fist like a scrap of paper. I pulled the door open and stuck my head in to see what was so important to the owners of Llyr Station.
Inside was a massive metallic ring with a chair in the center, suspended in mid-air. There were four thick metal legs supporting the ring, and rows of computer banks and other equipment inside the room.
Thomas Young came up behind me.
“Now that is curious.”
Andrea’s voice came over the shared channel. “Section 3, status report.”
“Veidt clear.”
“Jax clear.”
“Sendrig all clear.”
“Contralvo clear.”
“Caplan, you need to see this,” Thomas said. Then, in a dataspike message, he said, “They have a device here. It looks similar to that ruined equipment we found on Venus.”
Thomas, we don’t have time for this. The target is the ship. Focus on what’s important.
I suspect this is more important than anything we’ll recover from that ship. We need to seize this, and we need to do it now.
Thomas, I believe you. But that comes after we search the ship.
Thomas sighed and started back in her direction. “Come along, Barrett. Capanelli is being small-minded.” I didn’t choose to comment; I just followed him back to the others.
Commander Vassar was sitting on the floor flanked by the Arbiters, a slip-tie around her wrists and a defiant glare in her eyes.
“Why are you arresting me? I didn’t do anything!”
“Shut up,” was Mike Mitchell’s only response.
Li Fei followed up. “You will speak only when spoken to, Captain, or I will assume you’re dog whistling again and fracture your jaw.”
I didn’t want to say anything about the strange device in front of the Arbiters, but Thomas was too excited to keep his mouth shut. He walked up to Andrea and continued where he’d left off.
“They have something similar to what Marcenn used. We should—”
“August Marcenn?” asked Li Fei. “What is he talking about? That doesn’t have anything to do with your human trafficking case, does it?”
Andrea turned to him, wheels in her head already turning. “I have no idea. It’s—”
“If Section 3 wasn’t honest with us about the purpose of this warrant, it’s going to affect our willingness to cooperate in the future.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she insisted. “My colleague made a discovery that he thinks is interesting, but I’ve already told you that it has nothing to do with the warrant we’re here to act on.”
“Then what does it have to do with?”
“That’s classified. I can’t say anything more.”
“I’m here by request of Section 3, as is my colleague. We’re risking our lives, so I’d say we are squarely within the need-to-know.”
“That isn’t up to me,” said Andrea.
The situation was rapidly going downhill while precious seconds burned away. If the Havisham succeeded in cracking the docking bay locks, it could launch at any moment. Even if it didn’t, there was no telling what was happening inside. For all we knew, there were gunmen setting up an ambush while we gave them the time to do it.
Captain Vassar glared up at us, while Li and Andrea stood there arguing right in front of her.