Iron Heart (The Gauntlet #2)

Chapter 43 - Grey Areas

A minute later Ripple's harsh but triumphant whisper beckoned them to the upper left corner of the grid, and Codi looked up to find the girl beckoning furiously. Scrambling up the stairway to join her, she skidded to a halt, staring at the cubicle. Laying lengthways inside it a jet black cradle with the name DARKWOOD, K. emblazoned on the upper right section in white letters. Beneath the name was the sun motif of the academy.

"Gotcha," Rokki declared, stepping past them and pressing a large, disc-like button built into the right side of the cubicle frame. A faint hiss sounded, and then the exoskeleton cradle slowly slid from its refuge, out into the light. He turned and gave Codi an impish grin. "Time f'yer boyfriend to get to work."

Codi felt the blood rush to her cheeks. Beside her Kye sighed in exasperation and stepped towards the cradle.

"Alright then..." he murmured. "Let's see what we can see."

Slinging his backpack off his shoulder, he undid the zip with a barely audible rasp. From inside he withdrew a broad, rectangular device that sat balanced on the palm of his hand. A series of holographic dials and buttons sprang up in lower half of it, below a glittering screen filled with numbers and letters.

Plunging one hand back into the backpack, he withdrew a small three-pronged square that plugged into the side of his pad. Codi watched, uncomprehending as the lights on the square blinked from red to blue. Then the fingers of Kye's free hand started flashing over the holographic interfaces as he delivered his instructions. A moment later the lights on the square moved to green and at that instant the cradle holding Keefer Darkwood's exoskeleton hummed into life, rising from its protective bed in the wall and sliding out towards them.

"Damn," Rokki chuckled approvingly. "You got some tech in your brain, buddy."

"Thanks," Kye murmured, not looking up at him, eyes narrow with focus as he stared at the readouts on his pad. "The initial diagnostic run looks normal – standard exoskeleton specs."

"If they are hiding something it was hardly going to appear on a normal inspection," Ripple interjected, an edge of impatience creeping into her voice.

Kye said nothing, but Codi saw his shoulders tense. Pressing his lips tightly together he flashed more silent commands into the pad. As he did, a sudden projection shot up out of the cradle with such suddenness that Codi couldn't stop herself from take a step back in surprise. Then the gleaming lines of electric blue coalesced into an image and she realised it was a holographic representation of the exoskeleton in the cradle.

"Wow..." she breathed.

"Alpha Level Diagnostic Protocols," Kye explained absently. "Takes the suit apart layer by layer to look for abnormalities. I ... borrowed it from the technicians' base and ramped the invasiveness up a few notches. Now, let's have a look at those sensors."

A tense silence descended on them as Kye set to work, peeling away molecule after molecule of the exoskeleton's structure. The dim hum of the active cradles was starting to make Codi's head hurt and she found herself pacing softly back and forth. Ripple watched the hologram intently; Rokki seemed bored, lounging against the nearest wall and drumming fingers against his thighs, nodding his head to a beat only he could hear.

After a few minutes, Kye made a sound, somewhere between a snort and a groan and straightened up, staring at a zoomed in section of the hologram. Codi followed his stare. The diagram had zeroed in on a tiny section at the base of the neck where a cluster of impact sensors were situated. He pressed another button and it focused even more, not pulling out a single sensor. At such magnification it looked like a simple disc with a tiny bulge in its centre.

"The mass is off," Kye said quietly as he looked down at his pad. "Only by a couple of micrograms, but its enough. Even across all the sensors it wouldn't make a noticeable difference to the weigh-in tests, but it might be what we're looking for."

"What does that mean?"

"It means that each of these sensors is carrying something a little extra. Now if I just ..." another flickering motion of his fingers and the display of the sensor was flayed apart by his code. What remained was a small speck of red, an oval shape with eight thin rods jutting from its flanks like a metal spider.

"Jackpot," Kye breathed.

"That it?" Rokki grunted, frowning at the display. "The hell is it?"

"It's a damned piggy-back sensor," Kye continued, anger creeping into his voice. "We were right. I didn't think you could even get tech like this out on the colonies. That thing is barely a micrometer across – it's fixed between the impact sensor and the exoskeleton's circuits."

"That doesn't sound good." Codi looked at him. "What exactly does it do?"

"It works like a valve. Normally the information flow is one-way," he explained. "Someone hits you, the impact sensors register the hit and transmit the signal out to be recorded and collated. This little bastard overrides that and opens the sensor up to outside transmissions. Someone can transmit the trigger for the sleeper code in the exoskeleton systems through this, and there you go. Keefer Darkwood starts hitting harder. Unless it's actually happening you'd never know this thing was there. And without stripping the sensor to bits like this the Gauntlet techs would never find it. As good a stitch up job as you'll ever see."

He looked at Codi, his jaw tight with anger. She looked back, feeling the familiar churn in the base of her stomach, that sensation of wanting to tear something apart with her bare hands. Her fists clenched. They had their confirmation – Black Horizon had moved the goalposts, and done it without anyone noticing. The biggest sporting contest in human history, and they were cheating their way through it.

Eventually, out of everyone, it was Ripple who said what they were all thinking.

"Son of a bitch."