HAWK

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: INCOGNITO (3/5)

Kas followed Astrid along the balcony until they came to a wide set of double doors built into the glass wall. The doors slid open as she approached and the path gave way to a wide ramp leading down into the lab. Kas pushed the cart through them and began her descent.

She tried her best to appear calm but her webbed gloves were wrapped so tightly around the cart's handle she could feel her pulse in her fingers. As she descended, she saw another worker pushing an identical cart up the ramp. They passed each other without so much as a nod and the ramp was all Kas's.

Kas locked eyes on Swanne standing on the dais fifty feet ahead. Though the governor had her back to her, Kas could still hear her voice which grew steadily louder as she approached.

'...quite aware of the Federation's situation, thank you, General. I'm doing everything I possibly can to assist... Perhaps I'm the one who should be reminding you of your responsibilities.'

Kas couldn't see anybody in front of Swanne and presumed the governor was talking to someone via a comm-link.

'Thank you,' Swanne continued. 'I'm pleased we finally understand one another. Now back to the equipment I requested. How soon can you have it ready for collection?'

Kas was nearing the bottom of the ramp. A few more steps and she'd be on the main floor with the rest of the staff.

'That's not good enough,' Swanne growled. 'I need it now.'

Kas reached the foot of the ramp and turned left, following Astrid around the side of the lab and circumnavigating the dais. She looked out of the corner of her eye as she rounded the stage and saw the silver panther lying on her side by Swanne's feet. Its head was facing towards her but its eyes were closed. Kas shuddered at the memory of its hot, oily breath in her mouth but also felt a pang of sadness for the poor creature.

She averted her eyes and instead looked to Worm just a short way ahead. She could just about make out the kid's goofy little face through the clear round window of her containment suit. Unlike the rest of the workforce, Worm did not have a stack of glass slides in front of her but a large black ball over a foot wide. It was Hik, Kas realised, stripped of all his melted metal until only the glossy computer remained.

'Don't slow down,' Astrid said. 'Head to the back of the room where the racks are.'

Kas looked ahead and saw aisles and aisles of black walls, a seemingly endless field of them.

'What about Worm?' Kas whispered.

'We'll get her on the way back. Keep going.'

Kas reluctantly continued past Worm and soon entered one of the aisles. It was only five feet wide - just enough for her to push the black cart through. The walls looked like eight-foot tall bookshelves, except instead of books, they were lined with thousands upon thousands of data-stacks.

'What is all this?' she asked.

'The bio-mech mainframe. These data-stacks contain the software for every bio-mech in existence.'

'I didn't know bio-mechs needed software.'

'Their brains are biological, but they still need to be inhibited by software to give their handlers control. Otherwise, they would retain their animal instincts and be nothing more than animals inside robotic bodies.'

But Kas was only half listening. Her attention had been drawn to the ceiling where a huge mechanical beam was sweeping over the aisles. It came to a stop and lowered a telescopic arm to one of the black walls. The arm was articulated like a huge snake. It slithered down until it was only a few feet from the floor and aimed its mouth at the wall. It appeared to bite one of the data-stacks and withdraw it from the rack. Its job done, the snake-thing receded upwards to its nest as the beam zoomed off back the way it had come.

'Just through here,' Astrid said. Kas lowered her gaze and saw that they'd come to a break in the aisle. There was a mostly open space about twenty-feet square, in the centre of which was a large black monolith. Astrid fluttered over to it.

'Push the cart up to this,' she said.

Kas did as instructed and steered the cart towards the monolith. Once the cart came within a foot of it, it pulled away from her grip and guided itself to the monolith's edge where it docked by itself. A scuttling sound like a swarm of giant beetles racing through a pipe made the floor reverberate under her feet. It lasted all of ten seconds before it stopped and the cart ejected itself from the monolith. The display beside the handle now read:

CART EMPTY

'Now back to the lab,' Astrid replied. Kas grabbed the cart by the handle and swung it back around to face the racks. She proceeded into the aisle where she'd come from and headed back towards Swanne's lab. Astrid went ahead of her as she explained the next part of her plan.

'There's a switch on the end of the handle that will open the top of the cart. There's just enough space inside to hide the girl.'

'How do I get her into it without anyone seeing?'

'I will cause a distraction, giving you approximately thirty seconds to get the girl and get out of the lab.'

'Thirty seconds? Is that all?'

'That is the longest I can disable the lights for.'

'Wait a minute,' Kas said, coming to a stop. 'Your plan is to just turn off the lights? Are you serious?'

'Your WASP mask will allow you to see in perfect darkness. Thirty seconds should be just enough time for you to get Worm and escape. That's the best plan that I can think of that offers you a realistic chance of success.'

Kas took a deep breath and tried to sharpen her focus. 'Then I guess it'll have to do.' She continued pushing the cart, her stomach boiling her nerves with every step. All she had to do was wait for the lights to go out, kidnap a child from under Swanne's and Kymeira's noses and make a run for it before they realised.

Should be easy...

But as Kas neared the end of the aisle, she was discomforted to see Swanne giving a zealous speech from atop her dais.

'...working so hard for so many months. And now, at last, we are little more than a breath away from realising our goal.'

Kas slowed her pace to a crawl as she saw that everyone in the room had stopped their work to listen to the governor.

'This moment has been a long time coming, but I can now finally say that phase one... is complete.'

The workers broke into an applause.

'Uh oh,' Astrid said.

'What?' Kas asked, but Astrid didn't reply. Swanne and Kymeira had stepped off the dais and turned to face it. It began to move. The circular platform twisted up out of the floor revealing a huge tank underneath like the ones she'd passed earlier. Kas squinted and saw the hazy silhouettes of three dark creatures floating in pink liquid.

Wait... what are those...?

Within seconds, the shapes became clearer, and suddenly their human frames were impossible to deny. Kas forgot all about her escape for a moment. Her legs trembled beneath her as her grip on the cart tightened. She already knew exactly who they were.

The small frog-like man with raw, pink skin.

The white-fleshed thug with coal black teeth.

The tall, slender mistress with amethyst eyes.

The Black Chains...