9am SST Monday 14 January 2085
After breakfast, Zak allowed himself half an hour to assess the hijackers’ regime. They were happy to let people talk, and also tolerated the odd person visiting another table. Only when several people were up at the same time did they get jittery and order everyone to sit back down.
Zak pretended to go back to bed. He lay under the duvet for a while, then slipped under the blanket and out through the air circulator.
He needed a place to hide safely, so picked the location furthest away from the hijackers – the upper maintenance zone at 32-I-B. The map indicated a narrow passageway running between the outside wall of the cargo hold and the bare metal wall that ended the living area. Zak ignored a nearby ladder and jumped down into the passageway. It immediately met his approval. No-one would have reason to come here.
Before making contact with Herbet and Geremi, he thought he’d do a little investigation of his own, in order to get a handle on the hijackers’ routine.
He activated a large section of the wall and logged in to the ship’s computer. He displayed the PSI map, and positioned it to his right. All the yellow dots were far along the ship. If anyone came near him, he would see them in plenty of time.
The first question in Zak’s mind was – who had guns? He searched for and brought up on screen each hijacker in turn. The two blasters they had assembled were in the hands of Krushkov and Romero. Of the three ES guns, the restaurant guards Fang and Brigard had one each. Ubogu was unarmed, but then given his size, thought Zak, he didn’t need a gun. The other ES gun was held by Zahedi, one of the two prison guards. So the status of the hijackers was seven men and five guns.
