“Then we’ll transport to the Facility, find Salene, and bring her back here,” Landor said.
“No, you can’t,” Rayne said as icy fear raced through her veins at the thought of her men in the Doftle’s hands. “It won’t work.”
“Why not?”
“For starters, they’ll track your transport signal the moment you send it. It has to be me.”
“Absolutely not,” Landor said, fear making his words harsher than he’d intended.
“Of the four of us, which one is capable of making herself virtually invisible? Which one of us is familiar with the Facility, and the Doftle? Which one can communicate with Wolef?”
“The answer to all of those questions is you, Rayne, of course,” Landor said, making an effort to gentle his tone. “But it doesn’t change the fact that you will not go into that hellish place again. We are incapable of sending you there.”
“I’ll send myself,” she said. “I know the way to the transport room and I know how to run the console.”
“I’m sorry, Rayne, but no.”
“This is not your decision to make,” she said with tears of frustration in her eyes.
“As Commander of this ship, it is,” Landor said.
Knowing there was nothing she could say that would change his mind, she spun around and left the observation deck without another word. She walked quickly up the corridor to the elevator, her mind racing as she tried to think of a way to do what she knew she had to do.
“I believe that I have the strength to bring you here, since you’re so close,” Wolef said.
Rayne stopped in her tracks. “Really?”
“Why do you always say that?”
“What about the shields they’ve woven around me?” she asked, ignoring the question. She heard a door open behind her and immediately raised her partial shield, blocking her men from sensing her emotions. Without looking back to see who was following her, she pressed the elevator call button and waited. A moment later she was in the elevator and the doors were closing, cutting off her momentary view of Ari’s worried face. She waited until she was in the room she’d used when first arriving on the Armadura, with the newly replaced door locked behind her, before reaching for Wolef again.
“Can you get through the shields?” she asked impatiently.
“They are well woven, but they guard against technology, not magic. They pose no problem.”
“Were you able to send the hand terminal and the card key back in time to yourself?”
“Of course,” he said. “I have the pain baton as well.”
Rayne reached up to touch the pendant that Landor, Con, and Ari had given her, then wrapped her hand around it, blocking the micro cam’s view. “Okay, let’s do this.”
“Close your eyes and hold onto your stomach,” Wolef warned. “I’m afraid that this may be somewhat rough.”
She closed her eyes and clenched her jaw tightly just before the world began twirling around her at stomach churning speed. The door opened, Ari shouted something that she didn’t quite catch, and then her senses were filled with the familiar scents and sounds of the Facility.
When the sensation of moving ceased, she opened her eyes and blinked back instant tears at the sight of the horrifically mutilated dragon before her, releasing the crystal so that her men could see what she saw. “Thank you, Wolef,” she whispered softly, reaching out to touch the tarnished scales on his enormous head.
“You’re most welcome, of course,” he replied. “I do hope that your bears will be able to transport you out of here when you find your sister. I expect this place, along with myself, to be vaporized long before I can possibly regain the strength to repeat that exercise.”
Rayne heard the question hidden in his words and immediately sought to reassure him. Touching the crystal around her neck lightly, she decided to continue speaking out loud so that her men could hear. “I haven’t forgotten my promise, Wolef. I’m very grateful that you told me about Salene so that I can try to rescue her, but whether I succeed or not, I will keep my promise to you.”
“I know you well enough by now to know that,” Wolef said stoutly. “Please excuse my curiosity, but how long has it been since you returned to your past?”
“Six days.”
“I’m very impressed,” he said, surprised. “The difference in your overall physical health in so short a time is remarkable.”
“I was fortunate enough to be healed by men who have a very strong talent for it,” Rayne said as she walked around to the front of the once magnificent creature, her boots crunching in the dry straw. “How long did you have to wait before you were strong enough to send these things back to yourself in this time?” she asked, reaching in between Wolef’s great clawed toes for the items she’d hidden there a year in the future.
“A few months,” he replied. “I expected to be transporting them to you, not transporting you to them, however.”
“I know,” she said. “I’m just glad they’re here.” The first item she removed was the key card, which went into a pocket of her jeans. The second item was the pain baton. She dialed it all the way up to Kill, then slipped her hand through the loop of cord at the end. She gripped the handle tightly enough to depress the switch hidden there, and touched the end to the floor briefly. The resultant shower of sparks indicated that it was still fully charged. Relieved that she had a functioning weapon, she released the handle, letting it hang safely from her wrist, then removed the hand terminal from its hiding place. Just before she turned it on Wolef stopped her.
“You might want to reconsider turning that device on.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s from an alternate timeline. There may be information in it that can aid you in discovering what the Doftle will do in the coming year before they actually do it.”
Rayne was stunned by the magnitude of the idea, and mortified by how close she’d come to destroying what might well be priceless data the moment the device updated itself from the Facility’s mainframe. She slipped the hand terminal into her pocket with trembling hands. “The only problem now is, how do I find Salene?”
“I overheard someone say she’s on Level 3,” Wolef said. “I’ve no idea how you can reach that level, but perhaps you can procure another hand terminal. You’re so much stronger now than you were before, so it shouldn’t be too difficult for you with your shield fully up.”
“Excellent idea, Wolef. That’s exactly what I’ll do,” she said, then switched to silent communication. “Do you know where the other version of myself is being kept?”
“I do not recommend that you approach your past self too closely, Solin.”
“I don’t intend to,” Rayne replied. “I only want to know so that I can better avoid such an occurrence.”
“Good,” Wolef said, relieved. “As far as I can determine, it’s either in the same cell you occupied, or very close to it.”
“That’ll be easy to stay away from,” she said. “Wish me luck, Wolef.”
“I do not believe in luck, Solin, as well you know,” Wolef said. “However, I shall happily wish you all the positive energy the universe can send your way.”
“That’ll do,” she said. She stepped up close to Wolef’s head, raised herself up on her toes as far as she could, and kissed him on the cheek, just below one of his eternally closed eyes. “I can never thank you enough for all you’ve done not only for me, but for my bears, and for all Jasani. All I can do is renew my promise that you will soon be freed from the prison your flesh has become.”
“That is all the thanks I desire,” Wolef said. “Now, off with you, and be careful.” Rayne patted him once more, then crossed the room, removed the key card from her pocket and slid it through the reader.
The lock on the door thunked, causing chills to raise along her arms. She returned the card to her pocket and raised her shield fully before stepping through the doorway. Realizing that she was hunched over, she forced herself to stand up straight. She was not a prisoner any
more. She was here to free her sister, and if she didn’t believe in herself, she would not succeed.
“Just so,” Wolef said in response to her thought. She nodded, her confidence rising at the knowledge that he was with her. Raising the pain baton to a ready position, she walked quickly and quietly up the corridor. When she reached the point where the two corridors intersected she turned left and walked past the cell that had once been hers without a glance, continuing on to the end and turning once again, leaving the cells behind her.
She approached a Doftle sitting at his post, arms crossed, eyes closed, proving to her that they did have eyelids after all. She spotted his hand terminal lying on a table near his elbow so she picked it up and turned around, retracing her steps until she rounded the last corner. The moment she touched the hand terminal it became as unseeable as she was, but the first hand terminal she’d used had chimed when she booted it up, and she couldn’t hide sound.
Hoping she’d gone far enough to prevent the sound of the hand terminal’s chime from being overheard, she turned it on, wincing at the soft electronic beeps even though she’d expected them. She remembered how she’d broken through the security on the first device, so it didn’t take long for her to do it again. A few moments later she had full access to the hand terminal, and by extension, the Doftle’s mainframe. She muted it, then pulled up a floor-plan.
“I’m not far from the elevators,” she said to Wolef. “With my shield up I shouldn’t have any trouble getting to Level Three, but it’ll take time to discover which room she’s in. Do you know that by any chance?”
“No, I’m afraid not,” Wolef replied. “I don’t think you’ll need that information though.”
“Why not?”
“I’m sorry, Solin, but I’m afraid that you’ll be able to hear her.”
Wolef’s words summoned a memory that had her fighting back sudden nausea. “Then it’s a good thing I’m here to get her.”
“Indeed.”
She tucked the hand terminal into another pocket of her jeans, suddenly glad that they were still a little too big for her. When she was transported back to the Armadura, the hand terminals, along with all the information they contained, would go with her. She walked around the corner again, passed the sleeping Doftle with just a quick glance, and kept going up the corridor and around yet another corner. She entered a large area that contained a long circular counter. Behind the counter sat two more Doftles, both working industriously at their vid-terminals. She walked around the counter to the elevator on the opposite side, wondering how she’d call it without attracting their attention.
After a moment she shrugged, reached out, and pressed the call button. The doors slid open almost immediately and she stepped inside, not even bothering to look at the Doftles to see their reaction. She suspected that they’d be confused, perhaps assume that the elevator was suffering some sort of glitch. But it didn’t matter. Whatever their reaction was, it wouldn’t stop her.
She pressed the button for the third level and waited for the doors to open again. When they did, a startled Doftle looked up from a desk, then frowned and muttered something too softly for her to catch. She stepped out of the elevator and turned right, then left, then another left, allowing the increasing volume of Salene’s screams to guide her, growing angrier and more determined with every step.
She finally reached a corridor lined with doors, but she knew immediately which one Salene was behind. There were two Doftles standing guard in front of it, both smiling at the sound of Salene’s screams, a sudden and graphic reminder of how sadistic the Doftles were.
Rayne had to force herself to take slow, deep breaths in order to shake off her fury, reaching instead for the cold calm she’d been taught since childhood to attain before battle. Of the three Dracon sisters Tani was the undisputed warrior, and Salene the undisputed brain, while she’d always been considered the artsy one. But they’d all been taught how to handle themselves in case the need ever arose.
She raised herself up on the balls of her feet, gripped the pain baton firmly, and moved up the corridor in absolute silence. When she was just a few feet away from the Doftle guards she paused to study their positions. Then she took two quick steps forward and jabbed the first Doftle in the neck with the end of the baton and held it there.
His mouth opened in a silent scream, his eyes rolled up in his head, and he fell heavily to the ground. The second Doftle reacted in a way she didn’t expect. Instead of surprise, or concern for the sudden and unexplainable collapse of his fellow guard, he immediately stepped away, crouching warily as he reached for his vox instead of his weapon. Rayne hurried forward and jabbed him in the neck with the pain baton just before his hand touched the vox. The Doftle stiffened, then fell to the floor, joining his companion.
Rayne knelt down beside the first Doftle and began searching his pockets, noting with some surprise that he was still alive even though the pain baton had been set on KILL. She collected his hand terminal, then moved to the second one, wondering why the pain baton hadn’t killed them. As soon as the question entered her mind, she knew the answer. Doftles were always very cognizant of their own safety. They’d never use weapons that were capable of killing them in the event one of their samples got their hands on one. Like a scalpel.
She stood up and stuffed one of the two newly acquired hand terminals into her last empty pocket, and the other under the waist band of her jeans. Then she removed the card key from her front pocket and slid it through the reader, but it didn’t work. She tried again, but nothing happened. She knelt back down beside the guards and began searching for their card keys. She didn’t find one on the first Doftle, so gave up and tried the second. When she found one, she allowed herself a tiny sigh of relief. She stood up again and started to slide the card through the reader when she suddenly realized that Salene’s screams had stopped. A heartbeat later the doors slid open.
She froze in surprise at the sight of a Doftle unlike any she’d seen before. It looked normal from the hips up, but instead of the usual short humanoid legs that other Doftles possessed, it had ten shiny metal legs that eerily resembled the legs of a spider.
“No”, Wolef whispered. “Those are the legs of a Xanti.”
She shuddered in disgust and fear, but managed, barely, to hold back the gasp that rose to her lips. The Doftle had to turn sideways and straighten some of its legs to get through the door, which gave her just enough time to step back out of the way, carefully avoiding the Doftle behind her.
“What is this?” the strange Doftle asked when he spotted the guards lying on the floor unconscious. The familiar sound of the Doftle’s voice forced Rayne to bite back another startled gasp. She couldn’t place it, but she’d heard that voice before. Many times.
“It’s Weeble,” Wolef supplied. “Be very careful, Solin.”
Two more Doftle, these with normal legs, followed him into the corridor as the first one spoke again. “We have either an intruder, or a traitor. Dwee, contact the Facility Captain and tell him to move to a new site within the hour.”
“It’ll take that long just to fire up the engines, Lord Weeble,” Dwee said.
“Which is why I’m allowing him so much time,” Weeble snapped coldly.
Dwee bowed deeply, his hairless blue head nearly touching the floor. “As you command, Lord Weeble,” he replied shakily, then straightened and took off at an odd shambling run.
“Fool,” Weeble muttered. “Mewell, remind me to recycle him later.”
“Yes, Lord Weeble,” the other Doftle said, bowing nearly as deeply as the first one had. Weeble stared at the unconscious guards for a moment, tapping his chin thoughtfully with one thick finger. Then he turned and began walking up the corridor in the direction of the elevator with Mewell a careful step behind his rear legs.
Rayne hesitated, struggling between getting to Salene, and finding out what this Weeble creature was planning. After a moment’s debate she decided that learning what Weeble was up to was
worth the risk. She followed them on silent feet, listening carefully as Weeble continued speaking.
“I suspect that the Facility is no longer completely safe for an important personage such as myself,” he said. “Nor is it safe for my samples. You will personally transport them onto my yacht, Mewell.”
“Yes, Lord Weeble, at once,” Mewell replied, then started to turn back toward Salene’s room before Weeble stopped him.
“I am not finished, Mewell,” he warned in a tone that caused Mewell to turn nearly purple with fear.
“First, inform Cuwell that my yacht will depart the moment I transport aboard and give the order. If it isn’t ready, I shall recycle him alongside Dwee. After you do that, see to it that my other samples are transported to my yacht before I get there. Except for the little princess. I will see to her personally.”
Rayne watched as Mewell bowed again, then hurried away, while Weeble turned and headed back the way he’d come, straight toward Rayne. She backed up carefully, keeping her eyes on him.
So this…thing…is Weeble, she thought. The one responsible for both her and Salene’s abductions. The one who would create monsters from her eggs. The one responsible for all of the pain and horror she’d suffered for an entire year. And now, as she watched, he was moving back toward Salene, intending to take her somewhere else. If she didn’t stop him, it was unlikely she’d ever see her sister again.
Before she knew it, she was running straight at him, holding the pain baton as though it was a sword. She leapt upward since his legs made him so tall, and jabbed it at Weeble’s neck, but something warned him at the last possible moment and he ducked the blow while at the same time raising two of his metal legs to knock her backward. She stumbled sideways, fighting for balance, and smacked her head into the wall hard enough to cause her vision to gray out for a moment. Then Weeble reached down and grabbed her arm in a grip so tight that she feared her arm would break.
He gave her a hard shake, then lifted her effortlessly to his level so he could get a better look at her. She didn’t know if it was because of her anger, or her head hitting the wall that caused her to drop her shield, but it was too late to do anything now. Or, was it? she wondered, realizing a little belatedly that she still held the pain baton in her right hand. She raised it up and swung with all of her might at Weeble’s face. It was a glancing blow, but it delivered enough of a jolt to force him to release her other arm. She fell to the floor and immediately struggled to stand while she fumbled for her shield.
Rayne's Return (Hearts of ICARUS Book 3) Page 24
