Furnace (Hunter-Killer #1)

Chapter 36 - One Point of Understanding

"By the Everflowing it's good to see you," he gasped as they pulled apart.

"You too," Kelso replied, his voice tight and scratchy from shouting orders across the comms for days on end. He gave Ivy a nod. "Ives – how you holding up?"

"Still riding the flow, sir," she replied with a salute.

"Well, you two better be damn sure about this, because I just stuck my professional neck on the chopping block to get you in here. By rights you should be riveted to Stamm Basin."

"Kelso, you know I'm right."

"I know there's a chance you're right," Kelso corrected as he turned and started walking. "Luckily it's not going to be my call. Now come on, and get ready to talk fast."

Ryke fell into step with him, feeling his heartbeat quicken. "Who am I speaking to?"

"Theikvaal and Hackley; a few of the Commissariat's chief tactical ministers. They're digging their heels in deep, Ryke. Right now they're more than willing to keep fighting just to kill as many Scraegans as possible and hang the consequences."

"They have to know what the Scraegans are doing."

"Well of course they do!" Kelso snapped. "It's not exactly subtle. They've been trying to brute force their way straight to the Forge, and judging from how our guest has been reacting it knows its friends are coming to the rescue."

"I...meaning what?"

"It's going berserk, Ryke."

"So what are they going to do?"

"What do you think?" his brother gave him a grim look. "The people making the decisions up there? They've been fighting the Scraegans a lot longer than you or me, and they are not about to give up what to them is the only piece of possible intelligence they've had in years. If it comes to it they'll kill that thing before they let it go home."

"We can't let them do that – this is crazy!"

"It's not me you need to convince, Ryke."

Bristling, Ryke squared his shoulders and nodded as Kelso led them to a shuttle elevator. A pair of administrative officers spilled out when the armoured doors parted, leaving an empty metal-walled cube behind. The trio piled in and Kelso punched in an access code to the machines antiquated-looking keypad. A display blinked into life – old geometric white letters on a black screen: IDENTIFICATION CONFIRMED.

His brother quickly thumbed a button in the upper section and a few seconds later they were climbing into the inner sanctum of the Forge. Lights flickered in the elevator shaft and as they moved up level after level he caught snatches of muffled noise. The elevator stopped three times on their way up, loading and disgorging Commissariat ministers, their staff, senior officers, specialists and administrators throughout the facility.

Eventually the elevator groaned to a halt at their destination and Kelso quickly ushered them out, shepherding the two teenagers through passages that thronged with crisply-uniformed, high ranking officers. Ryke kept his eyes front, ignoring the confused glances as some of the people noticed the lowly Hunter-Killer and engineer that had been granted access to their domain.

They twisted through two blocky corridors before Kelso steered them into a small briefing room. The walls were the colour of soft red sandstone, shining from the ceiling light discs. An octagonal table dominated the chamber with a dormant viewing display built into its centre, and around the table sat five individuals.

Two he recognised instantly – Colonel Hackley and General Thiekvaal – both looking somewhat perplexed by the sudden meeting. The other three wore the deep gore-red uniforms of Commissariat representatives: a middle aged woman with short curls of black hair and skin the colour of burnished brass; two men, one pale, hollow cheeked and slim, the other a portly individual with dark skin and a greying goatee around his small mouth.