The Martian Job by Jaine Fenn

Author:Jaine Fenn [Fenn, Jaine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: NewCon Press
Published: 2017-12-18T22:00:00+00:00

Five

What the hell was I supposed to do now?

Stick to the plan, that was what.

I could work out what Paula meant later. Right now, I had to get out of here.

I had the Eye, and the lack of guards, alarms or security lights suggested that, despite Paula McIntyre’s duplicity, the job was still on. I shifted my pack more firmly into place, and left my traitorous accomplice to her drugged sleep. By the time I was through the first room I was all but running. Jumping the pressure-pad in the doorway between the armoury and garden rooms felt like flying. Then I landed, and the Eye shifted on my back. I stumbled, then caught myself. I was pumped, more alive than I’d been for a decade. And that was dangerous. I made myself walk across the garden and through the statues.

When I reached the door, I pulled at the handle. Nothing. Not pull: push. I pushed. It didn’t move. I was locked in.

No: think, Lizzie. The security on the door was to stop people getting in, not out. I looked to the side. There it was, a palm-sized black panel set into the wall. That had to be an override for the door. What I didn’t know was whether it would set off an alarm as well as opening the door.

Option one: press it and see.

Option two: get Paula’s toolkit out, and apply what little I knew about intrusion.

Given how little that was, option two was as likely to lead to tripping an alarm as option one. And it would take longer.

I pressed the panel with one fist while pushing the door.

It swung open. Silently.

I paused inside the entrance, listening, catching my breath, and adjusting my hudglasses. Ideally I should shut the door after I left so anyone walking past wouldn’t realise anything was amiss but with no external handle –

Then I remembered why not having Paula McIntyre any more could scupper the job.

The next part of the plan involved riding an elevator to the building’s basement. Paula would have bypassed the lift security, that being, as I’d just reminded myself, outside my area of expertise. Perhaps if I could raise Nico he could hack the lift from his end, but even if he wasn’t tied up with his own prep, our comms were deliberately low powered to avoid detection, and there was a lot of Martian rock between me and him. Perhaps if I stood at the top of the lift shaft and he happened to be standing at the bottom… Might as well try shouting.

My mind went blank for a moment. Think. There would be a way out of this.

Just like the external doors, any elevators giving access outside the complex needed a pass. Therefore, all I actually had to do was get hold of a staff pass. There: a simple solution, at least in theory. I called up the map on my hud.

The senior staff would all be out enjoying the New Year’s celebrations but some of the up-and-coming execs would be happy to work overtime to prove their worth.

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