Much of the first night was spent in the quiet hours of the night cutting into the wall, once they'd confirmed as much as possible that it was a solid, though thin, wall and didn't contain any important, or dangerous, wires or pipes.
It had to be done all in one go, so that they could immediately camouflage the work, otherwise someone might notice the half-completed entrance and that would be unacceptable.
Rally sat with their minicams on the hallway feeding into the portable computer monitor, watching for trouble outside as Vivian leaned against the wall next to her sister and concentrated on feeling for every fiber of mental and emotional presence that she could out in the tunnel.
It was sort of like trying to look at one of those optical illusion mystery pictures, and it was giving her a headache. Looking toward Shanti, her sister was having fun getting to use her ability, but was getting tired as well.
Small sparks appeared inches ahead of Shanti's eyes occasionally, though, for the most part a burst of white hot fire appeared spontaneously ahead of her, burrowing into the metal like they used to play with clay as little kids.
Rally kept them both supplied with water, enforcing breaks occasionally, especially after Shanti cut enough to allow them to hear some of the echoes in the tunnel beyond. And, as Shanti moved to another section of wall, she'd started drilling the hinges into the wall and the as yet unfinished door.
As the cutting was finished, Shanti stepped forward toward the heated piece of metal and leaned her hands against it. Quickly, the heat around the new construction seemed to sap away and the uniformly cool air of the station took hold again.
The long-haired girl took a deep breath and stepped back away to go sit on a bed as Rally tossed her and Vivi a bottle of water each and opened the new door on its hinges in a test. Shanti had rounded the inside edges of the wall so that it smoothly bent in without creaking.
Then it was just a matter of quietly as possible putting in the locks and levers, and finally the camouflage bookshelf.
"So," Rally asked as she and Vivian stocked the bookshelf. "Any chance you're going to read any of these books?"
Behind them Shanti had finished her water bottle and curled up into sleep on her bed.
"Life, the Universe and Everything?" Vivi asked. "Why'd you buy a philosophy book?"
"It's not philosophy, it's humor," Rally said. "I saw the movie once."
"Where'd you get these books anyway?" Vivian asked.
"Used book store," Rally said. "We didn't have enough of our own books with just the technical manuals and such. And they won't move around much when we open and close, because these shelves are made for ships."
She pointed to the ridges that lay in front of the books, holding them in place in case of a sudden shift.
After a quick test of the door from both sides and applying some break away molding on the dark side of the maintenance shaft exit, Rally and Vivian put up the equipment and then settled down in their own beds for the night.
*****
It was a few days later that found the Vincents in the Red Sector outside of the Security Headquarters.
A tall, dark haired man with deep-set blue eyes greeted them at the door, smiling in a friendly manner as he looked over the woman and the two girls behind her.
"Rally Vincent," he said with an eager look to his eyes. "This is something of an honor. I'm the acting Chief of Security."
"You know, I wasn't recognized this much while I lived on Proxima 3 the last few years," Rally said, trying not to sound bitter.
"Well, this is the front line now," the man said. "A lot of people who were very appreciative of your work ended up here."
Rally kept the frown off her face and turned to her girls.
"Well, we're here to take a few shots on the range," she said.
"Lieutenant Commander Ivanova said you'd be in," he said. "Right this way. These are your daughters?"
"This is Vivian and Shanti," Rally said, noting the doubtful look in the man's eyes. "My kids."
"I hadn't heard you married," he said.
"We're adopted," Shanti said.
"I see," the man said. "Well, let's get you to the range then. The lieutenant commander told you that you'd have to settle for using the security weapons for now?"
"She did," Rally said, clearly a bit unsatisfied with that.
"We'll need some time to see if a slugthrower is safe in here," the man said with a smile.
He led them to a long room with narrow slots, a row of targets down range.
Rally surveyed the room with a low whisper, nodding and clearly impressed.
"This is very nice," she said. "Amazing what you guys have in this place."
"Care to try a few shots?" he asked, pulling his own gun out and offering it to her. "I'd be honored if you were to use my weapon."
"Sure," Rally said.
"Can I try next?" Shanti asked.
"Everybody'll get a turn," Rally said as she accepted the gun and looked down range.
Then the plasma bursts were flying through the air, sheering through the target in the back. Rally handed the weapon off to Shanti as she moved to call the target forward to the shooting position.
The security officer moved forward to look at the results and blinked. On first glance, it looked like it was a scattering of random and wild shots, certainly not the work of the master markswoman Miss Vincent was reputed to be.
On closer look, however, each impact was very precisely placed in a way that incapacitated the target without killing them. There was something even more unsatisfying about this discovery than he had been when he thought she'd just fired randomly.
Off to the side, Shanti took her turn and passed the gun on to Vivian.
Vivian froze as the gun came into her hand, eyes moving rapidly for several seconds.
"Rally..." Shanti said nervously, drawing her guardian's attention over to Vivian just before the fit ended.
"I...think I'll wait until we can use our own stuff," Vivian said with a sick tone of voice as the security officer turned about.
The short-haired twin set the gun down gingerly, as if it was something disgusting. Rally narrowed her eyes and looked toward the security guard.
"You said acting head of security?" she said. "Who's the normal chief on station?"
"That would be Mr. Garibaldi," the man said.
"Where would he be?" Rally asked, noting the somewhat familiar name.
"He's in medlab," the security man said, brow furrowing as he started to notice the cooling atmosphere. "Someone shot him in the back. Hazards of the job. Especially with the bad element around here."
"I'm not arguing that point," Rally said with a smile. "Well, thank you. We'll be back as soon as the paperwork on our weapons is certified, Mr..."
"Oh, call me Jack," the man responded.
As they exited the area calmly, Rally looked back over her shoulder and then down toward Vivian.
"Murder?" she asked quietly.
Vivian nodded, shivering.
"More than one," she whispered.
"Fill me in when we get to the apartment," Rally said.
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(Posted Sat, 24 Apr 2010 05:48)
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