The Liberation Paradox

Something Gleeful and Predatory

Marcio

13:31

(7hrs, 37min remaining)

As the door to the server room clicked shut behind them, Danny held his finger over his lips for Marcio to be quiet. Marcio nodded his understanding and began leading the way down the hall in the direction of the front stairwell and the elevators.

Once they were some distance from the closed server room door, Marcio stopped and checked that they were alone in the hallway. He whispered to Danny, "Okay, so what's your great plan? 'Cause we just sped up the servers. Sky and his decryptors are going to find that data by midnight tonight."

"Sky and the Decryptors," Danny mused, "sounds like some bad cover band."

"Could you please take this seriously?

Danny cocked his eyebrow at Marcio. "I am taking this seriously. And speaking of Sky, you need to take that one seriously. He's a real threat to you. He's out to get you, and he'll go straight up to The Mushroom's office the moment he thinks he's got you."

"I know that," Marcio said, annoyed. Of course he knew that. Marcio continued, "Back to the business at hand, it's gonna be tough enough just getting that data. And then, after we do that, we need to figure out how we're going to get past those goons guarding the elevators. Do you even have a plan for all that? Or are you just making this all up as you go?"

Danny hooked his thumbs in the belt full of tools which he obviously had no idea how to actually use. "Easy, kid. Remember, my butt's on the line, same as yours." Danny paused for a moment, presumably to let the tension die down. It didn't work; Marcio felt as tense as an airlock door. Danny continued, "I'm assuming they've got the stairwells secured as well?"

Just as Marcio had suspected, Danny was making it all up as he went. This situation sucked. "Yeah, of course the stairwells are secured. We can go up and down the stairs within the secure zone, but there's a security door that prevents us from going below the 14th floor."

"Just a security door? No goons?"

"Nuh-uh. Supposed to be goons there, but they're a little understaffed. I think Mr. Miles sent half of the goons out into the city to look for you."

Danny grinned. "Well, that should be easy, then. Security doors won't slow us down." There was something gleeful and predatory behind Danny's grin as he said that. Marcio wasn't quite sure he liked it. "What about Miles and Daniau themselves? They know my face. If either of them sees me, our operation is blown."

"Last I checked, Miles was asleep on his office couch up on sixteen."

"How long ago was that?"

"I dunno. Couple hours ago."

"What about Daniau? Any idea what he's up to?"

"No. Only that he left earlier in his private plane."

Danny gave him an irritated look. "What do you mean by 'he left?' Don't you think you should've mentioned this before now?"

"I didn't think it mattered. He was out of the building and out of our way."

"It does matter. Remember the QSP scanner? Remember the safe that I need your help getting into? Remember that we need Daniau nearby to mirror his QSP signal?"

Marcio remained silent. He didn't care about that safe. He just wanted to retrieve the data for Beau Tie and get out of this building. Danny's greed would get them both killed.

Danny clearly wasn't pleased. His brow furrowed for a minute. "I know you think I'm just being greedy, and admittedly, I am. But we need some of the items in that safe to make our escape. Without the safe's contents, we can't get off world, understand? Besides, I'm not doing this for charity. That safe is my real payment for coming back into this deathtrap and saving your sorry, little mushroom. I'm not doin' this for the chump change Beau Tie offered me. We need to open that safe."

Marcio was surprised. He'd never mentioned Beau Tie's name to this guy. "How do you know I'm working for Beau Tie?"

"Other than the fact that you just said so?"

Crap! Marcio felt stupid as he realized his mistake.

"Kid, you're a Boater from Gonaways station who's spying off station. Who else could be holding your leash?"

"I'm not a Boater. I just...I'm working for them to pay back a couple favors is all."

"What, you think the Boaters issue membership cards? If they got you by the balls, then you're one of them, whether you admit it or not. And as long as you play by their rules, you'll never get off their leash. Like it or not, you're a Boater for life, now. Might as well wear that douchey boater hat they all wear."

Danny was wrong. Marcio only owed the Boaters two favors and this job would fulfill one of those. One more crappy job after this one and he would be free and clear of the Boaters. He wasn't in the mood to explain that to Danny.

"Look," Danny said, "we can't get into the safe until The Mushroom gets back but we can figure out the combination and see about getting your data. That's half the struggle. You said it's been a couple hours since you last checked on Miles? Any way to check on him again?"

Marcio thought for a minute. He could take Danny to his room where they could use his personal terminal to check the creeper cams. No, that won't work, he remembered. With the secure zone in lock down, Marcio's personal terminal would be offline. He wouldn't be able to get into Daniau's secret camera network from there. Marcio glanced back down the hallway towards the server room door. "Only place I can hack into the cameras is in there."

"Hmm. Would look suspicious if we went back in there." Danny gave a casual shrug. "Oh, well. Guess we better just hope Miles doesn't catch us, then." The conman had his nihilistic self-confidence back.

"How can you be so blasé about this?"

"Lots of practice. How can you be so uptight about it?"

This guy was infuriating.

Danny laughed.

Marcio sighed.

"We should use the back stairs," Marcio said. "Since they won't let us use the elevator, most people are using the front stairs. Much less chance of running into anybody on the back stairs."

Marcio had been intending to lead Danny to the front stairs, but now he turned and walked back in the direction from which they had come. He led Danny back past the closed server room door and down a short hallway that ended at the back stairwell door. He pushed the door open to a small landing.

The stairwell only led up from this point. The stairs leading downward were blocked by a vault-like security door with an alarm on it. This door, meant to protect the secure zone from any intruder, was made of solid crystalanium two centimeters thick. Although the expensive, transparent door looked like glass, it would never shatter. It would require a special plasma torch to cut through. Marcio could see the stairs leading down to his freedom on the other side of the door, but he couldn't reach them. If his sister, Lyssa, were here, she'd be able to cut through that door. As an aviation mechanic, she knew all about cutting crystalanium. Marcio was glad she wasn't here, that she was safe and sound on Gonaways.

"Even Mr. Daniau's goons can't open that door," Marcio explained to Danny. "Only the boss himself or possibly Mr. Miles can open it while we're in lock down."

No way out via the stairwell.

Danny shrugged. "Looks like we can get out through the stairwell easy enough," he said. "This door won't stop us."

Marcio wasn't entirely sure he trusted Danny's bravado, but what choice did he have but to trust this man?

"What about that data we need to retrieve?" Danny asked. "Where's it at currently?"

"I'd imagine it's up on seventeen, same as the safe."

"That's convenient," Danny said.