That sounded more interesting than the empty rooms they’d found, but not immediately useful. “Let’s see the machines first.” Ky picked up one of the control rods from Ennisay and followed Betange into the right-hand passage, past several branches. It was a long way; she lost track of the turns, but knew her implant had recorded them. She was sure they were outside the footprint of the spaces above where they had been living all this time.
Finally, the passage opened into a vast space, lit by panels far overhead. Arrayed in neat lines on the floor were machines, clearly mobile, some with wheels and some with cleated tracks. About a third were painted pale cream and light gray in a camouflage pattern that would, Ky realized, be hard to see in snow. They looked like other machines she’d seen on Slotter Key and elsewhere, and she climbed up on one to look inside.
“That’s weird, isn’t it?” Betange said. “No seats. None of them have seats.”
“Driven standing up, I suppose,” Ky said, squinting to see if she could spot brackets for installing seats. No. The floor of the cab was plain, smooth, painted gray. Moreover, the front below the windshield was also plain, smooth, painted gray. No instruments. No control surfaces: wheel, joystick, anything.
“So far we haven’t gotten one to move. I’m not sure how.”
“Does any part of it open up?”
“There’s a hatch in the back we can get open, and the side door on the off side opens. There’s nothing in the back, but it would hold about half of us. Not that it does any good if we can’t get it outside.”
Ky walked around to other vehicles, examining the floor and the vehicles both. “They’re all parked on a marked area, did you notice?”
“Yes. Very military, I thought.”
“Hmmm.” Ky leaned down and ran her hand along the incised strip. At the off front corner she found a slight dimple. “Feel this, Betange.”
“It’s… just a little sort of dip.”
“Like the one beside the door that Inyatta found.”
“There was one beside the door to this.”
“So this will do something if I push the command rod into it, don’t you think?”
“You don’t know what it will do.” Now Betange looked worried.
“We need a way to get these things working, and then get them outside. This might open another door, or start an engine or whatever the motive power is. And if I do it, it can’t be anyone else’s fault, can it?” He still looked worried. “Go tell the others to get over by that back wall,” Ky said. “I have an idea.”
Betange moved off with suspicious quickness. When the others were clustered with him, Ky crouched outside the marked space and pushed the rod into the dimple. Without sound or warning, the outlined rectangle rose up, and far above icy air, snow, and light poured in as the overhead opened. Ky got a pile of snow on her head, shook it off, and saw the ceiling close around the rectangle below the vehicle. Which was now up there, wherever “there” was, being snowed on. Where it had been, a rectangular hole half a meter deep, edges sharp as if cut with a knife, gaped before her. Its floor was smooth, glossy black with a faint pattern of grid lines on it.
“That may not have been the smartest thing I ever did.” Ky shivered; the whole space felt cold and now her hair was wet, snow melting on her head.
“What did you think would happen?” Chok asked. “What if you’d been standing closer to it?”
Ky laughed. “Sorry, Sergeant, but you sound like my father used to when I tried something stupid. I thought maybe the power would come on and maybe if I got in the cab there’d be another dimple and some controls would appear. I did not expect that.” She gestured at the snow, now melting.
“Do you think that thing, whatever it is, is outside?”
“Yes. And I have no idea how to get it back. But it does mean we can move these outside without having to push them or start them and drive them along passages we don’t even know about yet.”
“But we can’t get them to move.”
“Yet,” Ky said. “I’ll bet we can get them to move in time. We have very smart people here, including you, and strong motivation to become mobile—an enemy intending to kill us all if we don’t evade them. Or kill them.”
“How many, do you think?”
“Enemies? The data my aunt’s been able to collect says transport’s being requisitioned for supplies for combat troops to Pingats. At least a hundred. She’s not sure which troops yet.”
“That many? And no idea who’s doing it?”
“She’s trying to find out without alerting whoever it is. And at the same time assemble a relief force ready to jump as soon as the weather allows.”
“So that’s why you’re so eager to get moving.” Chok nodded. “A hundred to eighteen isn’t good odds.”
“Exactly.” Ky checked her implant’s time stamp. “It’s almost time for a meal. Take a break, then finish cataloging the vehicles, check for this-level exits from the place, and work on getting some control of these things. Be back at the barracks by 2200; we’re all going to be working long days. I’m going to see if I can spot the escaped whatever-it-is outside.”
“Might be best to wait for daylight.”
Ky shook her head. “You are definitely acting like my father, Sergeant. Which means sensibly, so yes, I will wait until tomorrow.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
“More oddities,” MacRobert said. “Personnel assignments mostly in the planetary units. Enlisted Miznarii, early career, in Enforcement, assigned in small groups—no more than three at a time, over the past half year—to something called Training Group Foxtrot.”
“Someone doesn’t like Miznarii?” Grace looked up from her work.
“Someone wants Miznarii for something clandestine,” MacRobert said. “Some of our best operatives have been Miznarii. They have no implants, so their implants can’t be salvaged and queried.”
“Of course—so they’re to be used and—blamed and discarded?”
“Plausible deniability. Suicide implants, even.” MacRobert took a sip of his drink and went on. “Interestingly, Training Group Foxtrot, its personnel and weaponry, would fit comfortably on the craft that’s been assigned to carry spare parts down to Pingat Islands Base.”
“They’re after Ky—”
“Because she’s seen their secret base. They’ll kill everyone there and try to remove all traces. They know we have surveillance capability now; that’s why they blew up that bank of equipment and the unfortunate night clerk. They may be wondering who exactly fixed the scan satellites—”
“Someone would know a Vatta ship was up there—”
“Very likely. And a tech from ISC. Put those together, and they will assume you know something. I’m doubling your security.”
“Damn it—” Grace glared at him.
“No. We cannot afford to lose the Rector of Defense in the aftermath of losing the Commandant. I want to talk to Rafe and ensure he keeps Ky informed of what she’s facing.”
“We can’t let them get to her. I can rescind the orders, send loyal troops—”
“Assuming we have any. And we can’t move troops or matériel any faster than the other side—it’s still deep winter down there. We have the advantage that they don’t know what we know—or all of what we know. I want to talk to Rafe and get his assessment of what’s up there in Ky’s flagship.”
“You could call—”
“I could. But until I’m more sure the communications link is really secure, I don’t want to.”
Rafe came back in with a sheaf of hardcopy. “I did a little analysis on this, Mac; hope you don’t mind.”