HAWK

CHAPTER THIRTEEN: NEST (4/7)

Inside was a huge, dome-like chamber, three-hundred feet high at its apex and double that in diameter. It was dimly lit, but throughout the vast space, Kas could see hundreds of circular desks with an equal number of lone workers trapped in their centres. The desks followed the room's perimeter in a large circle, with another slightly smaller row inside that one, then another and another until they reached the round glass heart of the room which looked to Kas like a giant black marble.

'This way,' the captain said. Kas followed him across the floor, cutting through the rows of desks towards the room's centre with the two soldiers following close behind. Kas looked around at the workers confined within their desks and saw they were surrounded by low angled monitors built into the desktops. She tried to get a glimpse at one of the monitors but she was frustrated to find it was eye-locked to its user. All she could see was a blur of indistinguishable shapes and colours.

It took a full minute to reach the centre of the room where they finally arrived in front of the giant black marble. It was at least twenty feet tall and so lustrous Kas could see her own distorted reflection in its surface. A shudder filtered through her spine when she realised it looked like a scaled-up X1 computer.

The crisp white outline of a door suddenly appeared on the marble's side and began tilting towards them in a slow and smooth motion. It touched the floor and became a ramp. From within the sphere stepped the slender shape of a woman, silhouetted against the bright white light of the marble's interior.

As Kas's eyes adjusted to the light, she saw the woman to be a tall and stern creature in smooth white skin and a blood-red skinsuit. Her silver hair was cut short in a style that imbued her with frosty sophistication. Kas put the woman somewhere in her early forties and thought her face had a touch of familiarity to it, but she couldn't quite work out why.

'Captain Mack,' the woman said.

'Governor Swanne,' the captain replied.

'What's happening with the ship?'

'It's in hangar-one awaiting repairs.'

'Repairs can wait. Is the C-Ram retrievable?'

'It is... but we are still awaiting approval.'

The woman called Swanne held out her hands as if nothing more needed to be said, but she said it anyway. 'Consider it approved.'

The captain hesitated. 'Forgive me, Governor, but approval has to come direct from the Federation. Have you contacted them with this?'

'The Federation is a little busy at the moment to be worrying about such trivial matters, don't you think?'

'Law's still law, Governor.'

The governor didn't respond to that. Instead, she turned to Kas and looked her up and down like she was something she might buy. 'So, you are the bounty hunter.'

'That's right,' Kas answered, though it wasn't a question. Swanne smiled warmly and turned back to Captain Mack.

'Thank you, Captain. You may leave us.'

The captain nodded and turned to the two soldiers. 'C'mon guys, let's go.'

'Not them!' Swanne barked, her voice unleashing surprising power. 'They can stay.'

The captain looked back at the tall woman in the doorway and raised an eyebrow. 'If that's what you want, I'll order my men to stay here.'

A sneer registered on Swanne's face, but she managed to turn it back into a lukewarm grin. 'I think you may have misunderstood your position when I gave you the job here, Captain. You are not in the army anymore. All soldiers here are under my command. I thought I had made that clear.'