Chapter 7 — Signal Zones

Three weeks after starting work, Lyra told Aryn he was cleared to run node maintenance missions alone.

“Inside the designated zones only.”

She opened the network map on a tablet and turned it toward him.

Many signal circles overlapped, covering the central harbor area and the main commercial district. Green was full connection, yellow was intermittent signal, and grey was outside the network.

“In a green zone, headquarters can see your position at all times. In a yellow zone, contact may drop in and out. In grey…”

“I’m on my own.”

“Yes.”

Lyra zoomed in on the eastern waterfront district.

“These four nodes are due for inspection. All of them are in green. Straightforward work.”

Aryn looked at the map.

The four nodes were spread along the eastern harbor road. Aryn knew the area well from his old delivery work, narrow alleys between warehouses, the backs of shophouses, and roads connecting out to the main harbor.

He pointed at a cluster of nodes near the edge of the yellow.

“What about these? One of them raised an alert last week.”

“Another officer is already handling it.”

Lyra answered immediately.

The first two nodes were as easy as Lyra had said.

He linked his gloves into the system, called up the maintenance Pattern, checked the signal, logged the data, then moved on.

The third node was mounted on the outer wall of a warehouse that had been converted into cold storage for a small fishing business.

Aryn was halfway through checking the system when the gloves raised an alert.

Taba signatures.

Two positions inside the building.

His hands kept working. He removed the casing, checked the connection, and confirmed the system values as normal.

The reply came through before long.

No registered use of this building today.

Investigate and report if safe.

Support available on request.

Aryn looked up at the building.

The main door was closed.

But the staff door at the side was slightly ajar.

He moved close enough for the gloves to pick up sound.

There were people talking inside.

Quiet voices, but not trying to hide.

He could not make out the words, but he could confirm there were people in there.

Aryn backed away.

A stack of empty wooden pallets stood on the opposite side. He moved to use them for cover, in a position where he could still see both the side door and the loading point.

The audio file went back to headquarters at once.

Acknowledged.

Hold position.

Support en route.

Aryn waited.

The voices inside went quiet.

A moment later, the side door opened.

Two men came out.

Both carrying equipment cases.

Aryn’s gloves responded the instant the cases came into detection range.

Material responsive to Amrita energy.

And carrying the same signature as the trace he had found beside the node two weeks ago.

Aryn thought about Viper.

Nobody had confirmed yet that the two things were connected.

But now he had more evidence.

Aryn touched his gloves to send the data.

One of the men turned.

Their eyes met.

Neither of them moved for a moment.

Then the case in the other man’s hands dropped to the ground.

The man charged him.

Aryn retreated at once.

Taba flowed up his arms almost without thought.

The punch came in after him.

He brought his forearm up to take it.

Thud!

The impact drove him back another step. Pain ran from his arm up into his shoulder, but the Taba gathered at the point of contact kept the punch from coming all the way through.

Doran’s lesson surfaced on its own.

The second man set down his case and came around to the right.

Aryn moved at once.

Taba flashed at his legs, and his body shot a short distance to the side before he turned with his back to the wall.

The man in front of him punched again.

Aryn angled away, knocked the incoming arm aside, and drove his shoulder back into him with everything he had.

The other man staggered half a step.

Aryn followed with a punch.

The man ducked, and a fist from the other side came in toward his ribs.

Aryn could not turn in time.

Taba flashed along his side.

The impact was still heavy enough to break his balance.

These two knew when to come in together, and when to give way for each other.

Their strength and speed were not far above his.

But they had clearly been through far more fights.

A few more exchanges and he would be pinned against the wall.

Aryn drove at the man on the left.

He rammed his shoulder into the center of the man’s chest, then pushed with full force.

The man stumbled back into his own partner.

Aryn pulled out immediately.

The side door was now a few meters behind and to one side of him.

The road outside connected to the main harbor, and his motorcycle was parked not far away.

The first man came at him again.

Faster than before.

A punch drove straight at his face.

Aryn knocked it aside.

An elbow followed from the other side.

He raised his arm to take it.

The impact left it numb.

The man in front rushed in, and the other came in from the right at the same moment.

There was no time to build a protective layer of Taba.

No time to think about a Pattern.

The Taba in his body responded before thought.

He released it together with elemental power in a single motion.

Taba spread out from his body without any shape at all.

The man in front of him stopped short.

The punch coming in lost its rhythm abruptly, and his whole arm would not move any further.

His expression changed.

Aryn did not wait to find out why.

Taba flashed at his legs.

He shot through the doorway.

Ran across the gap between the buildings.

Jumped onto his motorcycle and twisted the throttle away immediately.

A voice came from his gloves.

Support approaching the area.

Aryn rode on a while longer before pulling over at the roadside.

His shoulder still ached, his forearm was numb, and bruises were coming up along his ribs, but there were no serious injuries.

What stayed in his head was that last moment.

When the Taba scattered out of his body, and the other man’s arm seemed to stop working for an instant.

Aryn raised his hand and looked at it.

“The Void element.”

Something to think about later.

The data he had collected went back to headquarters.

Lyra sat across from him.

Tharin sat quietly off to the side.

Aryn recounted the events from the start of the node inspection through to his withdrawal.

Lyra opened the footage from the log, scrolling from the moment Aryn was spotted through to the fight, then stopped on the equipment cases.

She enlarged the image.

The faces of the two men were reasonably clear.

“We have faces, equipment, and signatures.”

Lyra closed the image.

“The withdrawal was correct.”

“I let both of them get away.”

“Your job was to investigate, not to make arrests.”

She looked at him.

Aryn was quiet.

“You gathered evidence, protected yourself, and got out.”

Lyra set the tablet down.

“Your job is to bring the data back, not to catch someone every time.”

“I still took a fair few hits.”

Aryn moved his shoulder.

It hurt.

Lyra closed the debrief and sent all the data through to central.

Before Aryn left the room, she called him back.

“The merit points for position confirmation and evidence have come through.”

Aryn opened his account. The number was high enough that he started wondering which skill blueprints or training access it had opened up.

He closed the screen.

Something to look at later.