Chapter 16
752 Words
The great overlapping domes of Prometheus shrunk into the distance as the elevator shuttle rose above the planet.
Red watched through the wide, reinforced glass that made up the centre of the floor. As they travelled higher, the beauty of the Martian capital was replaced by the glinting reflection of the sun, turning the roofs of its domes into opaque mirrors.
The orange-red of the surrounding desert wastes started to come into view. Then the other city-states, shining silver like polished metal bowls dropped upside down into the endless sand and dust. She could still just make out the dark lines of connecting roadways, but before long they disappeared as the blackness of space engulfed the shuttle.
Mars fell away and she let its memories fade from her mind too. The process of assuming her new persona was at a delicate stage. Red needed to keep some of her natural self in place to negotiate the first stage of her passage.
She looked around as the view below became little more than a few shining blots on an otherwise empty landscape. The shuttle was busy; packed with people going off-world for all sorts of reasons. She didn’t know what any of them were and wasn’t interested in finding out.
She was Red Soyal now. A wide-eyed traveller leaving home to search for the meaning of life in the wider system. At least, that was the story available to anyone who asked. It was flimsy as a cover. Too open to picking holes. She consoled herself with the knowledge she wouldn’t need it for long.
Grayson’s words slipped into her mind as the last memory she needed to keep played out inside her head.
“You can’t go direct. The Line is watched too closely. Your cover might be good enough to get through, but it will take time and a delay like that will lose us the target.”
“So I take a more circuitous route,” She’d replied, or more accurately, the woman called Admina had replied.
“Yes.” Grayson was pacing as they talked, an affectation she was sure he put on to make people feel more at ease. “The Jovians can cross the Line, currently. Security is still tight, but the right cover and the right environment will see you through.”
The woman she used to be had thought on this for a few seconds.
“Then it has to be the God’s Belt.”
Grayson had raised an eyebrow to indicate he thought little of her idea.
“I’ll elaborate,” Admina had said. “The colonies are the safer choice on the surface. Less tech, fewer people. They’re practically famous for their desperation to get themselves anywhere else.” He was nodding along to the words, clearly waiting for her to make his argument for him.
“But,” Admina had continued. "Who among them ever has the means to make it happen? Maybe one in ten thousand, if that. Someone like that is known in their local environs. Someone like that has dreamed harder than the others around them. Made it their life's purpose. There is simply no chance a person like that hasn't told everyone who was fool enough to listen, exactly what they wanted to do from the moment they were old enough to speak."
Grayson had adopted a thoughtful look. The message was getting through, forcing him to see the problems he hadn’t thought were there.
“I would wager a person like that would seem more than a little suspicious if they were to turn up one day and manage to leave the next. Questions would be asked. Perhaps not by anyone with the power to intervene, but sooner or later talk gets around. Generally sooner when the community is so small.”
“So the Halo,” Grayson had said, leaving the sentence unfinished for her to run with.
“The Halo,” Admina had parroted. “It’s large enough for one person to go in and another to come out unnoticed. It has the right access, the right routes and the variety to make almost any story plausible. And of course, there are people there who will do anything, for the right sum. Logically, it's the only choice.”
Her case stated, Admina had leaned back to rest and await his verdict.
Grayson had thought awhile. His pacing replaced with a stationary pose, his eyes moving as his mind searched the theory for pitfalls and holes.
After a minute of contemplation, he refocused on her.
“So, the Halo,” He said.
This time it wasn’t a question, it was a statement.
- Writer
