“Where is the Stits-girl?” another Soulhag asked Epone in the common tongue.
Epone tried to think quickly. “She tried to bite me so I left her tied up.”
The other Soulhag laughed; an ugly sound that would have grated on Epone’s ears if she was wearing her own.
“It is time for the exchange. Bring her.”
Epone hesitated but saw no way to delay things from where she was. She dragged the Soulhag’s body back to the bunker where she’d left Zorica, Uzochi, and AX.
“They want you,” she said to Zorica as soon as she’d closed the door behind her. “What do you want to do?”
Zorica stepped forward. “Take me to them, then come back and free these two.” She pointed at AX and Uzochi.
Epone sighed. “I think we should all make a break for it, Z.”
“They want me. They will let you go,” Zorica retorted.
“Whatever they want you for, it’s nothing good. That Stits out there? Something is very wrong with it,” Epone said, really getting in Zorica’s face.
“You think I don’t know that? There’s no way they’ve ignored me for most of my life only to realize they want to embrace me now. But I want to know. AX put a tracker on me, then get out of here.” Zorica turned to look at AX. They regarded each other solemnly for a moment and then AX nodded once.
“I will find you,” he said.
“I know.”
Zorica held out a hand for Epone to grasp. “Let’s do this.”
Epone nodded once and grabbed for her.
Chapter Thirteen: Trojan
Escaping while the Soulhags were otherwise occupied exchanging Zorica for whatever it was they wanted was surprisingly easy. Nobody asked a question as Epone dragged a deceptively unresponsive AX and a ‘semi-comatose’ Uzochi to the exit, allegedly to throw them in the hole created by the Stits. They were of no use to any of the Soulhags that they could think of; perhaps if the AI was still active they might have kept it, but this almost dead hybrid was useless to them.
So they let Epone drag them out of the ship.
“Knock the Soulhag out,” Epone said to AX as soon as they were a ways from the ship.
“Never mind, move,” Jordan said, appearing as if by magic, shotgun raised. Epone left the body even as Jordan put a slug in its brain. The Soulhag folded slowly, seemingly surprised to find itself off the ship, surrounded by enemies. Even with the head shot, it died slowly.
“We have to get out of here, follow me,” Jordan said, leading the way to the ship as Uzochi and AX jogged by his side.
“Where’s Zorica?” he asked AX.
“She gave herself up,” AX said.
Jordan shook his head. “Our fearless leader will not be pleased to hear that.”
“I have a tracker on her,” AX said.
Jordan smiled. “Of course you do.”
AX gave him an intent look. “You are pleased to see me,” he said thoughtfully.
The flush on Jordan’s cheeks gave him away. AX merely continued looking even as they came upon their orbital pods.
“Where are the others?” Uzochi asked, breaking the awkward silence.
“I expect Epone is retrieving her body and will join us shortly. Ash and Jaime are waiting aboard. The original plan called for them to rescue you, but since Zorica and Epone changed it, they decided to come back and be ready to take off at the fastest possible convenience.”
“Do they know Zorica is not with us?”
“I doubt it. But it should become apparent to them soon,” Jordan said even as the pods began to rise. A look at his monitors showed Epone entering the last remaining pod and shooting upwards toward them.
“AX, how is our girl doing?” Jordan asked for something to say.
“Still planetside. Stationery.”
“Is there a chance to intercept her now?”
AX stared at him. “Why would you ask that? Do you wish to go back and attempt a rescue?”
“No. But Jaime will want to know there’s no chance.”
“She is surrounded by eight heat signatures. Three of which burn hotter than the other five. So three Soulhags and five Stits probably. Perhaps Uzochi can see.”
Uzochi closed his eyes at once, heaving a sigh and letting his eye travel below.
∞
Jaime paced up and down, curiously anxious about everything. Leaving this rescue completely in the hands of his team went against everything he believed in. As the leader of the pack, it was his duty to always be at its head, leading them into danger from the front, not skulking in the back like some bureaucrat. But Zorica and Epone had hijacked the plan and now the new plan required that he be ready to take off as soon as everyone was on board. He heard the first orbital pod dock and made ready, Ash watching silently from the corner, ready to plot a course just as soon as he said the word.
Jordan walked in, gun still in hand, followed by Uzochi and AX. Jaime looked beyond them, looking for silver hair and light grey eyes… but no one else came.
“Where’s Zorica?” he asked. “And Epone?”
Jordan smirked. “Epone is in the pod behind us. She should be docking any minute.”
“And Zorica?” Jaime couldn’t help the anxiety in his tone, or how his voice went up with worry.
Jordan moved aside so that Jaime was facing AX.
“She asked me to put a tracker on her so we could find her wherever they took her,” he said to Jaime.
“Excuse me?” Jaime squeaked.
“She wanted to go,” Uzochi cut in.
“And so you just let her?”
“We know where she is. She wanted more intelligence on what the Stits want with her. You said yourself, that’s the mission now,” Jordan said.
Jaime wanted to snap at him; tell him to shut his mouth. But he knew that would be irrational and unfair. The mission was to gather intel. And if Zorica chose to put herself in danger to do that, there was very little he could do about it.
He didn’t have to like it though.
“Where is she now, AX?” he asked just as Epone joined them.
AX’s blue eyes blinked on and off for a minute.
“Still planetside. Headed downward.”
“Downward?” Jaime asked in surprise.
“Into the earth.”
Jaime and Epone exchanged glances. “The hole the Stits made,” Epone said.
Jaime’s eyes met AX’s urgently. “Are you likely to lose your signal underground?” he asked.
“Distance is always a factor. We should make arrangements to follow soon.”
∞
“Where are we going?” Zorica ventured to ask as the sloughing of the soil around her created a whirlwind of sound that buffeted her on all sides. Her Stits companions said nothing, just continued to sit, staring ahead. The mutated one, who Zorica suspected was the source or at least explanation for the virus besetting the Federation followed behind them. He was shackled to the transport robot currently digging a way to the center of the planet while Zorica and her two companions sat on its platform and watched. The robot was clearly controlled remotely and headed to a particular destination. A destination the Stits did not want to be tracked to.
Zorica wondered if she was already out of range of AX’s tracker. She began to think of a plan B for escape, just in case.
∞
“Our transportation is not made to go underground,” Jaime said.
“We can follow them overland. There is only so deep they can go without risking being buried alive,” AX replied as he lowered the shuttle to the ground. The Soulhag starship was nowhere to be seen although they took care to land out of sight and range of its last known coordinates.
“Where to?” Jaime asked.
AX pointed north by north-west, and Jaime pointed the shuttle in that direction.
“Not to be a buzz kill but how are we getting her out once we’ve arrived wherever we are going?” Jordan asked
, coming to stand next to AX.
“We would have to do some recon. See what the fortifications are like. Epone, do you think you can possess a Stits the way you did that Soulhag?”
“I don’t know. Zorica was instrumental in helping me with that. With this new magic boost you give us, I might be able to do it on my own. But I would rather not. Perhaps Uzochi can try to See where we’re going and what’s waiting?” She turned to look at the seer who was sitting cross-legged near the wall.
Uzochi shook his head. “I have tried to See. There is some blockage. They expect me to be Looking.”
“What if I amped you up? Would you be able to blow past the blockage?” Jaime asked.
Uzochi looked at Jordan. “I have another idea,” he said.
“What is it?” Jordan asked, looking wary.
“Your…curse and my gift have a complementary symmetry. I try to See the future, you find the Truth. If we combined these gifts, we might get an answer both to what the Stits want and what they have to do with all of this.”
Jordan frowned. “I tell truth, I don’t find it,” he said.
“You do not realize it yet perhaps, but your curse works both ways. While it obligates you to tell the truth, it also helps you to identify the truth in others.”
“Huh,” Jordan said, looking thoughtful.
“You just need to employ it consciously,” Uzochi said.
“How?” Jordan asked.
“Look into my heart, see the truth.”
Jordan stared at him, and then his eyes moved to Jaime, and then Ash and Epone in turn. Finally, he turned to AX.
“I don’t have a heart,” AX said as soon as Jordan’s eyes landed on him.
“Lie,” Jordan said softly.
AX jerked as if startled, his blue eyes going wide.
“How do you know?” he asked.
“I just…did.” Jordan looked just as perturbed as AX.
“Okay good, you’re doing it.” Uzochi smiled.
“How does this help us to discover what the Stits want with Zorica?” Jaime cut in impatiently.
“I can See the future, but Jordan sees the truth in people’s hearts. So I can take him with me, with your help Captain, and he can hone in on the intentions. My gift is wide, I See what is there to see; Jordan can pare that down to the actual information we need.”
Jaime was frowning. “Okay I understood maybe a half of that. But tell me, how would I help?”
“You enhance my skills so I can carry Jordan along with me.”
Jaime turned to Jordan. “And you? Do you know what to do?”
Jordan nodded slowly. “I think so.”
“Okay then, let’s do this.”
Epone stepped forward. “I can help by drawing a circle of magic within which you can better control the process,” she said.
Uzochi nodded. “Go ahead.”
Epone extracted some crayons from a cavity against her elbow and began to draw on the floor of the shuttle. The others watched her silently until she was done. She stepped back, looking up at Uzochi. “You, Jordan and Jaime, step in the circle.”
Once they were inside, she chanted an incantation, causing an unsteady purple light to surround them like a shield. She nodded to Uzochi, mouthing. “Now.”
The three people in the circle found that the shield she’d put up was soundproof. They couldn’t hear anything happening outside the circle. Not the rumble of the engines, or even the conversation they could see taking place between AX and Epone.
Uzochi turned to Jordan, holding out his hands. “Put your hands in mine,” he said.
Jordan reluctantly put his palms against Uzochi’s.
“What do I do?” Jaime asked.
“Put one hand on my shoulder, the other on Jordan’s.”
Jaime did as he was bid and waited for further instructions.
“I will grasp your hands and capture the essence of your aura within my own, and then I will take you with me as I See. Once we find the right timeline, you will take the lead. Hone in on the intention.”
“What if I-” Jordan began to say.
“Do not doubt yourself. Just let your gift do what it does naturally.”
Jordan nodded jerkily.
Uzochi turned to Jaime. “We will both pull from your energy. We need you to stay open and accessible until we are back.”
Jaime nodded his understanding.
“Good,” Uzochi said with a nod. “Let us begin.”
∞
Uzochi wasn’t as sure about his strategy as he pretended but he knew that, in theory, it could work. He could feel Jordan’s essence clinging to him as his Eye flew forward, searching, searching for the right timeline to latch onto. He could feel others in the miasma of the second world in which his Seeing happened. It was like a spiritual plane of unrealized potential, with so many possibilities dependent upon the decisions made. That was why he needed Jordan - to find the most likely possibility - the one most likely to be made by the decision-maker.
He let his Eye search around, looking for the right energy for Stits. Other Seers had been here, he could feel the residue of their energy signatures lingering. He was hit by an unexpected pang of homesickness. He had turned his back on his people deliberately, chosen this life he was living. That didn’t mean it didn’t hurt sometimes. A wave of empathy engulfed him from Jordan’s aura and he tried to control his feelings, not yet ready for his teammates to know the depth of his feelings. They seemed to be trustworthy individuals but the stakes were too high not to be a hundred percent sure.
A nudge from Jordan had him heading in a specific direction. Jordan was pulling toward a thread laced in dark purples and blood reds. If any timeline seemed appropriate to their mission, it was that one. It resembled the living innards of a dissected human and pulsed with malevolence.
Uzochi took a deep steadying virtual breath before immersing himself in the miasma.
∞
Zorica opened her mouth to ask again where they were going and then closed it again. It would be a waste of her time and she knew it, but she wasn’t one to sit idly by and let others decide her fate. She began to look around, trying to memorize her surroundings, the direction she was going and where she’d come from, just in case she needed to escape on her own. She prayed her tracker was still working but decided not to rely on it. She had to assume she was on her own.
One of the Stits turned to examine her, eyes cold, distant and curious. They reached out, running a hand down her silver hair, watching her eyes like they expected them to pop out or do something else unusual.
She stared back at them, waiting to see what they would do next.
Suddenly the transport stopped and a door opened to the side. Zorica broke her visual standoff with the Stits and looked toward the door. It opened into a long dark hallway and Zorica’s heart beat sped up. The hallway reminded her of the maze and she wondered for a moment if they had traveled to hell. The Stits and demons had a very…unique relationship. She would not be surprised if they were able to travel physically to that realm. Even if she had not heard of that happening ever on any planet she’d been on or heard of. She did not want to walk into that tunnel. She hoped it was just a stop on their way…somewhere else.
No such luck.
Both Stits that flanked her stood up, taking hold of her arm and pulling her up. She stumbled after them as they led her to the door, dragging her feet as much as she could. The Stits seemed not to notice at all, just continued to propel her forward until the darkness enveloped her and the transport was left behind.
She stumbled along, bumping into first one of her guardians then the other. They didn’t seem to mind her clumsiness or inability to walk straight in the dark. There was no indication of irritation or impatience from either one of them. It was annoying.
“Where are you taking me?” she asked at last.
“Hush hybrid,” one of the Stits said, much to her surprise.
<
br /> Chapter Fourteen: The Thing
A door opened at the end of the long harrowing hall, opened into bright light much to Zorica’s relief. She hadn’t known until now how jittery she still was since her experience in the maze with the imps. She could feel her skin crawl with just the remembered feel of slime and malice that had coated the air.
This room, in spite of its brightness, gave her the same feeling of impending dread and fear. Zorica was no coward but she could feel her skin jumping with the need for flight. She really hoped AX was still tracking her.
“Ah, the hybrid. Good.” A man-shaped thing wearing a long multi-colored robe was walking toward her. Not walking, gliding. His gait was entirely too smooth for putting one foot in front of the other. Zorica was heavily regretting this plan she’d come up with. She should have just gone with Epone and the other when she had the chance.
The man thing came to a stop in front of her, regarding her from within the depths of his hood. She could feel waves of ice emanating from him and only just managed not to cower like prey in the face of a predator.
“Tis good to have you with us,” the thing said and gestured for her to go ahead of him into the rest of the room that looked like a distorted copy of a research lab. As if it was designed from a picture that was out of focus. There was a console with screens and keyboards but the screens looked more like portals into other realms; filled with screaming anguish and despair depicted in versions of black and red and purple Zorica had never seen before.
The bed that stood in front of the console was flat and metallic, no doubt cold as ice to lie on. The difference with a normal bed were the metal restraints that lay negligently at neck, waist and ankle level as well as the shackles for both hands and feet. Whoever was strapped down onto that table could expect a world of pain. Zorica just knew it.
Her knees went weak and she could not have taken another step to save her life.
Mage Marine Misfits: Book 01 Page 11
