Claustrophobia

Chapter Six - In Transit - 3

Near the stairway down to the maintenance bay she saw one of the janitors coming out of a cabin.

'Hey,' she cried out. 'You there!'

The lady looked up with a stupid expression of ignorant surprise. 'Who? Me?'

'Gunfire down in the maintenance bay,' Z9 said, slowing as she continued past her. 'Alert security and get them down there, now.'

The lady stared at her, little trolley of cleaning stuffs still in her fingertips.

'Now, goddamn it!'

Z9 leapt over the rope barring passengers from the stairwell as she pulled the pair of 52's out, one in each hand. She took a quick glance behind her to see that the janitor lady had finally decided to get her act together and was eagerly tapping at a Halo-Core.

'I might survive this yet,' Z9 said to herself as she charged down the stairs. Guns were out as she hit the bottom, taking the left down the corridor towards the bay she had overheard the discussion of contraband smuggling at Xylaris. The world had gone quiet save for the sound of the machinery pumping and hissing around her. She stuck to the shadows as she approached the bay's entranceway, flicking a glance to the planted microphones. Still on and still working fine. She left them there for future usage, slipping into the main hangar of a bay.

She sensed nothing wrong initially, nobody hiding around a corner or ready to fire at her. It had been perhaps three minutes to get down here, and she thought it possible that whoever was busy having a good old battle royale down here might have cleared off in the meantime, but she didn't think so. They would have had to come back up the staircase she had come down, and the janitor lady would have more than likely seen anyone coming up.

No, whoever it was that had been firing was still down here, in the grime and dirt.

Z9 slowly moved through the great containers and machinery, one gun up to her cheek and one by her side. Shoot from the hip, they always said. Z9 didn't care where she shot from, as long as whoever she was shooting at got hit and didn't decide to fire back at her.

She opened the door of a big metal container and thrust her arms out. Nothing there. She exited and continued down through the corridors and aisles, labyrinthine. Where could they have gone?

Z9 ducked to the left of the bay and headed along the edge, ducking down behind an Obsidiguld barrel. Looking up and to the left she saw the little hut overseeing the maintenance bay, the glass cracked with red smears down it. Some of the gloopy stuff still looked to be dripping.

'Fuck,' Z9 whispered to herself. She exhaled slowly before spinning out from the shadow of the barrel and making her way towards the rickety staircase that led to the lookout. She trod lightly to keep her footsteps from alerting whoever was up top to her presence. Looking both towards her destination whilst casting casual glances down to the bay floor she had time to wonder where the hell everyone was. This was a cruise ship in full flight. Even if one or two of them had been taken out, there would be at least a few bodies dotted around. It didn't look to her as if the place had even had any signs of life at the time she had come to find out what was going on. So where the hell was everyone?

Wrong time to ask the question, she told herself as she crouched low, slithering around the corner and almost throwing herself to the floor out of the light coming from the maintenance hut. She crawled to the corner and quelled her breathing. Inside she heard something smash on the floor, raised voices getting louder by the second.

'Who ordered the loading at Xylaris?' a man's voice demanded.

'I don't know,' a quivering reply told the man. Z9 recognised it as the man she had overheard the first time she had come down there. 'He just paid us and told us to make sure nobody else found out.'

'Well guess what? Someone has found out. I have. And I'm also the one that's splattered five brains against the walls and floor of this place in the last few minutes, and I've got an urge to do a sixth. So unless you have a particular wish to end up like them, I suggest you find out, and find out in a hurry.'

Z9 closed her eyes. She recognised the voice of the threatening man, but couldn't place it. Damn it, not now, why was her head failing her now?

'I swear,' the man pleaded, 'I don't know who it was.'

The sound of a gun being cocked echoed through the window to Z9. Her heart tightened.

'You'd better know, and soon.'

'Please, I...'

Just then the maintenance bay was flooded with red light. A loud, piercing siren split Z9's ears, and she had to force herself not to put all her energy into clamping her hands over her ears. Security's on the way, she thought. Took them a while.

'What the hell's going on?' said the threatening man.

'Sound's like company, boss,' another voice said over the collateral din.

'Go see what's happening,' the boss said. 'Don't let anyone in.'

The door to the hut opened up and a man in a black suit stepped out. He began to take his gun out of its holster when Z9 stood up and stepped forward out of the dark. The man sensed the movement and turned.

'What the...?'

He didn't have time to react as Z9 pulled the trigger and took his face off. The body flew back against the railing, crumpling over and falling to the bay floor below.

Z9 turned and kicked the door back open. A man was on his knees with his hands behind his head, three women behind him with guns pointed at him slowly raising them to the door. Turning to meet Z9 was a man in a black suit and red tie.

I thought I knew the voice. Z9 mentally kicked herself. Grohaw, my final target.