Third Transmission by Jack Heath Page A

demonstration begins in three minutes.’
    The screen flickered to life above her head. It showed live footage of the stage, magnified so everyone could see what was happening clearly. Her eyes sparkled in the lights.
    Demonstration? Six took a seat next to Ace. Allich was going to use the machine, tonight?
    Six now had three problems. One: the transmission chamber looked tightly sealed. He had no way of getting in there to plant the beacon. Two: the window. Even if he could get inside, he would be spotted immediately. Allich’s view of the window was obscured by the airlock, but everyone in the audience could see inside the chamber. And three: if Allich was demonstrating it now, it might not be used again for months, or even years. When selling a new technology, demonstration was usually the last step before the long and messy contract negotiations. And Six didn’t have months or years to wait. He needed to find that warhead as soon as possible.
    Half the guests were now seated. The others milled around slowly towards the back rows. A cooling pipe vented a blast of steam up above.
    â€˜Have you noticed how much this place looks like a missile silo?’ Ace asked Six.
    â€˜So?’
    â€˜So, what if the launch is an actual launch?’
    Six turned to look at her.
    â€˜Doesn’t that look like a rocket to you?’ she asked, pointing at the giant tube.
    She was right. Six stared at the tube. It did look alarmingly like a rocket preparing to blast off into space.
    He shook his head. ‘It can’t be. We’d be fried as the thrusters passed us, along with all the other guests.’
    â€˜That’s not as reassuring as you might think.’
    Someone sat down on Six’s other side – a middle-aged man who looked like he’d spent his whole life on a tanning bed. Six fell silent for a moment. Behind the constant chatter, he could hear a rich humming coming from the tube.
    â€˜Has everyone signed the card?’ Allich was saying.
    Ace chuckled.
    â€˜What?’ Six said.
    â€˜Nothing,’ Ace whispered. ‘It’s just, you know. An evil launch of an evil technology, ChaoSonic’s deadliest minds bent on world domination – and there’s a card for everyone to sign!’
    â€˜Focus on the job,’ Six said. His mind was racing.
    Nearly everyone was seated. Six got the packet of cigarettes out of his jacket. There might be a way to pull this off. If he could get close enough to Allich, he could shoot the beacon onto whatever she was planning to put in the chamber.
    But he didn’t know what it was yet. And he might have only seconds between figuring it out and the transmission.
    â€˜One minute,’ Allich said.
    The humming from the tube was getting louder. The air was starting to smell slightly burnt. The crowd had fallen completely silent.
    Six jammed the hollow cigarette between his lips, and thumbed a beacon into the end. He didn’t light it yet. He figured that Allich would produce whatever she was planning on transmitting any second now.
    Unless it was already inside the transmission chamber.
    If that’s the case, Six thought, we’re screwed. The mission falls flat on its face. But he couldn’t see anything inside that didn’t look like part of the machine.
    â€˜Thirty seconds,’ Allich yelled over the rising hum. Six thought he could hear a muffled crackling, like the fizzling out of a firework.
    â€˜Where’s the cargo?’ Ace hissed.
    â€˜I don’t know.’ Six gripped the arms of his chair tightly. The mission was in jeopardy – and there was nothing he could do.
    The needles inside the tube were quivering, faster and faster, until they were blurred into a grey paste. The floor was vibrating under Six’s feet. The air in the auditorium was getting sucked towards the tube, and the burning smell was almost overpowering.
    There was an explosion of lightning inside the chamber, still blinding