Code Breakers: Beta by Colin F. Barnes Page A

well, they don’t want to make an enemy of me.”
    “I will pass on your message, Mr Cardle. Good luck in your mission, whatever it might be.”
    Gerry shut down the communication channel and, like the shuttle, altered the code within his internal system to only transmit junk data.
    GeoCity-1 was a few minutes away, but on the shuttle’s radar Gerry noticed he had company. He scanned with the shuttle’s near-field radio: another craft had followed him. It must have been one of the security members coming after him. Damned fool.
    Gerry opened a communication link between the two.
    “Who’s that following me? Bran, Elaine, Malik?”
    “Malik, sir. The Family said I should chaperone, and that’s what I’m doing.”
    “Stupidity like that will get you killed. You’ve never been outside the Dome, have you?”
    “No, sir, but I’m sure I’ll handle myself.”
    “Turn back now, Malik, don’t be so stupid.”
    Malik closed the communications channel and followed Gerry’s trajectory.
    Gerry thought about hacking the shuttle’s systems and sending him back home, but changed his mind. If he wanted to see what was in the abandoned lands, he might start to question The Family, and the more freethinkers about the better.
    Gerry reopened the link. “Malik, if you’re going to follow me, don’t do anything stupid. I’m setting up a secure VPN between us, and disabling your transmitting ability so you can’t send anything back to either the Dome or the Station. If you don’t like that, you better turn back.”
    “No problem with that, sir. I’ll still carry out my duties.”
    “That unquestioning loyalty will get you killed one day.”
    “If it’s in the line of duty, so be it.”
    “Yeah, we’ll see if you stick to that.”
    Gerry spun a security wrapper in his mind and sent it across to Malik’s AIA creating a secure channel between them. Without the Meshwork to piggyback, it’d only work within a few hundred metres of the shuttles. They each had a router and access point creating a kind of mobile Internet. Beyond that, radio was the only other option, and within the Helix wrapper, Gerry had created a virus to glom onto Malik’s radio systems, rendering them useless on certain frequencies. They’d be able to communicate with each other, and in Gerry’s case via his internal radio transceiver, but not beyond.
    If Malik wanted to follow him around like a lamb, then at least he wouldn’t give their position away to The Family. Gerry slowed his shuttle, allowing Malik to catch up so they could fly in formation. At least then he could keep an eye on the rash fool.
    As they approached GeoCity-1, Gerry started to understand what had freaked out Enna so much.
    The mounted machine guns on the various building roofs were rat-tatting down into the middle of the collection of buildings. Surrounding it on three sides were a number of Jaguar craft, and what looked like hover cars. Gerry hadn’t seen anything like those before, but given the way they moved and handled the rough terrain, he assumed they were of a similar design to the Jaguar’s technology.
    The cars were all heavily armed with laser and large-calibre canons attached to their hoods. A dust cloud plumed up into the middle of the melee of the settlement. The Bachians in their buggies and trikes were attacking the armed cars on mass, and taking heavy losses.
    “You chose the wrong day to be on duty, Malik. You should leave.”
    “Not likely, sir.”
    “Don’t be so goddamned stubborn. Look at it down there. That is a real war zone!”
    Before he could remonstrate again, one of the Jaguars hovering above the Spider’s Byte—the dive bar of the town—turned on its axis and fired its machine guns. Gerry tried to manoeuvre out of the way, but the shuttle wasn’t built for dog fighting, and didn’t have the agility to avoid the raking arc of heavy calibre shells. The craft shuddered violently, knocking Gerry around in the cockpit. Malik’s shuttle