RECAP: After a perilous rooftop chase near the Bellgast Mine, Iver escapes pursuing District Authority Militia (dammers) with the help of Poms, a teenager who lives with his grandmother and siblings in an underground hideaway. Iver finds brief refuge with them and, though Abis’s betrayal has left her with no way back to the Avalon Protectorate, she decides to continue her mission to uncover the source of the mysterious message she received.
Iver climbed onto the hood of a derelict hydraulic loader sitting on an embankment sixty meters from the mine’s adit. The cloak was working well in the dark of night; if anyone was close, they would only notice clumps of dirt and debris dislodged from the hulking mining vehicle’s frame as she climbed.
Iver crouched on the top of the operator’s cab and surveyed the crater. She guessed there were twenty dammers near the mine entrance. Some men sat in a makeshift tent while others strolled the area, UXP submachine guns casually dangling from shoulder straps.
The substation was situated another hundred meters beyond the adit. Iver figured she could make it past their bivouac without being detected if she stuck to the shadows and avoided the floodlights. Then she remembered Rada and the other women holding vigil for the miners trapped inside.
“You’re still The Beacon, you fickling,” she muttered to herself. “Time to start acting like it.” She wanted to see for herself what was happening inside the mine.
She released the cam m-drone from her tacbelt and maneuvered it down into the rough-hewn crater. The tiny drone zipped past the dammers and hurtled into the dark opening of the adit. Iver activated her mag drive and began recording as the m-drone traveled down a reinforced tunnel, following tracks in the earth and shafts of eroded ventilation ducts. The passageways turned into steep slopes, winding deeper into the earth.
Through her neurolink, Iver adjusted the cam’s lens, but the image still suffered from the lack of light. She promised herself to have Phaen work on infrared and scotopic mods for the drone – if she ever saw her brother again. At some point she feared losing track of the course back, wary of the m-drone going adrift in the tunnel system.
She was about to recall it back to the surface when the mic picked up something. A voice, or multiple voices, from further down the passage.
She guided the drone in the direction of the sounds. The voices slowly grew clearer as a soft, dull light appeared in the distant darkness. When the m-drone drew near, she could make out multiple figures crouched around a small LED lantern. A young man was hunched over the light, reading from a tattered book. As she maneuvered the m-drone closer, Iver realized she had never seen a book printed on paper in use before.
“... when the winds of spring blow dust and despair across broken bodies,” the young man read. “Twenty million in this land, equal in our wretch. We watch the flames of war and ask the smoke: ‘When will we rise with you?’ Join hands, for together we can lift all, and light the whole sky.”
“Glory,” whispered a man slumped against a rock wall. He coughed raggedly before spitting inky phlegm into the darkness.
Iver zoomed in to see the cover of the book. She could barely make out the scrawled text in ink: Words of Isidra Azzeh. Iver had learned the name Azzeh in school: a dangerous and destructive insurgent who led a revolt in the outer districts that lasted for almost a decade. She wasn’t surprised they’d never been taught the elegiac words that fueled Azzeh’s militancy.
“Read the one she wrote from the Five Roads,” said a young woman, her face streaked with soot.
“Yeah, that one’s gloss.” The reader smiled and carefully flipped through the tattered pages.
Iver rotated the m-drone to capture the images of as many of the miners as possible. In the muted light she could make out the features of eight others, eyelids heavy with fatigue, skin ashen, lips cracked and dry. In the shadows she thought she could make out the forms of bodies lying against the passage wall.
“The red tower no longer stands in the heart of Five Roads,” the reader began. “Now the district is for roamers, stepping across clut, from the missiles of masters…”
She considered activating the m-drone’s mic to speak to them. But what could she say? What hope could she give them? She recalled the drone, cursing her uselessness.
The two-story substation was situated on a ridge among the remnants of three other mining facilities. A steel walkway encircled the exterior of the top floor of the structure. Sections of the nearby security fence at the edge of the perimeter had collapsed. It looked as if no one had accessed the building in decades.
Iver climbed the slope to crouch in the shadows of the substation. She could still see the floodlights from the militia encampment in the distance. Remembering what Rada told her, Iver realized the message with the coordinates was probably sent when the militia had been forced to retreat by the Sixth Column insurgents. The sender had most likely had to abandon the location with the increased presence of the dammers.
I’ve come all this way for nothing. I’m ineffective, incompetent…
A massive digital billboard hovered in the night sky over the district core in the distance. Iver could see the colorful ads hawking Wells-Tybonne products; even here she couldn’t escape her mother’s torment. She could hear Marsander’s voice, feel her condemnation. Iver rubbed her temples, rocking herself back and forth on her heels.
A guttural cry bubbled up from deep in her gut. She clenched her teeth, holding it in, driving the thoughts of Marsander from her head.
I’ll always see you, Kosa. A childhood promise drifted into her mind. She couldn’t give up. She had to keep fighting. For Kosa.
She refocused, clearing her thoughts as she activated her neurolink.
Iver maneuvered the m-drone to hover outside one of the dark windows lining the substation’s second floor. She could make out a figure on a chair in the middle of the empty room. A crack in one of the windows came into focus, just wide enough for the drone to fit through. Iver guided the m-drone into the shadowy room to hover a few meters from the person. She could see it was a man, hands tied behind his back. His long hair and baggy jacket made Iver suspect he was not a militia member.
Iver activated the drone’s mic. “You must shine light on their crimes or many skids will suffer,” she said. The man quickly lifted his head, looking around the room for the source of the voice. Iver could see he sported a thin mustache and a scar on his chin.
“Do you recognize those words?” she asked.
“I – I -” he stuttered, confused. “Are you The Beacon? I – I’ve been waiting.”
“Who are you? What happened to you?”
“Please. They’ll be back soon. Help me.”
Iver’s heart skipped. Her journey had not been in vain. She summoned the m-drone back through the rift in the window and maneuvered it around the exterior of the substation, looking for any signs of movement. The crumbling structures in the surrounding area appeared to be empty. She crept up the stairs to the second floor walkway and tried the door to the room; it was unlocked.
She dropped the quantum suit’s cloak and slowly opened the door. The man’s eyes grew wide as she stepped into the room.
“Quick,” he said. “Not much time.”
“I surveilled the perimeter, it’s clear,” snapped Iver. “Tell me who you are and what you’re doing here.”
He nodded, trying to quell his fear. “Maks, that’s me. I’m the one that pinged The Beacon, inside Avalon. Been waiting for you to come. Sixth Column found me first. They’re close. Get me free, please!”
Iver was not interested in encountering the insurgents responsible for the burner attack on Dolvac Heights. She moved to untie the man, but hesitated. “Why did they leave you here?”
“They’ve got a scrapper parked just beyond the fence. Can you hear it? I heard it.”
She triggered her neurolink, moving the m-drone toward the perimeter fence. No sign of any vehicles on the far side of it or further down the road. “I can see beyond the fence,” she said. “It’s empty.”
He frowned in confusion. “You can?”
“If you want me to free you, I need to start hearing some answers. Beginning with why you wanted me to come here.”
He sighed, nodded his head. “Motherfuck,” he muttered before launching himself at her.
The straps binding his wrists fell to the floor as a stunstick slid out of his sleeve and into his hand. Iver released her electrode drone but was too slow, too surprised.
He jabbed the stunstick into her chest. Iver convulsed from the charge, fighting and failing to leap away. She slumped to the floor, immobilized, and the world plunged into darkness.
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Helluva cliffhanger to leave us hanging with for a week 😬