by Blaze Ward
“I would be quite interested in reading your proposed constitution, Eha,” Lazarus decided to drop a live explosive into the center of her coils. At least metaphorically.
“Our what?” she asked, head cocking to the side in confusion that seemed to cover all intelligent species.
“A constitution is a legal document that forms the basis of organized government,” Lazarus said. “What powers each body has. What things they cannot do. How each serves as a check on the other.”
“Oh, the Charter of Dreams,” her face suddenly lit up. “Addison should have showed it to you.”
“That’s a statement of principles, Eha,” Lazarus fired right back. “Not a governing document. If the Innruld vanished today, what would you do to govern yourselves tomorrow?”
He wanted to ask more. This woman had suddenly revealed a side that Lazarus hadn’t been expecting. He had come here planning to deal with deceptions and spies, not young turk revolutionaries. That sounded too much like the Rio Alliance on a good day.
Thunk.
Somebody had just bashed something extremely heavy into the outside of the door to the tea shop. Everyone leapt to their feet, or whatever. Lazarus accidentally knocked the table over in such a way that nobody was wearing scalding hot water in the aftermath, as he set the table down in its side beyond the two women.
A second heavy blow and Lazarus saw seams start appearing around the edges of the door, where the frame itself was starting to give way. The Vaadwig bouncer was standing around lost. Probably never actually been raided by cops with the brains to bring a big enough hammer.
An almost big enough hammer.
Eha was as shocked as Addison and the tea-master. Aileen grabbed one of Eha’s unresisting, skinny arms and twisted it around behind the Churquen woman’s back. Not necessarily the worst thing to do, but unnecessary.
Lazarus turned to the two Churquen. Both were starting to realize that a trap had sprung. It only remained to see whose, but Lazarus didn’t want to be here that long.
“How do we escape this room?” he asked Eha in a sharp voice.
“What?” she stammered.
“The authorities are about to kick that door in,” Lazarus pointed. “We need to not be here in three seconds.”
“This way,” Addison spoke up, flowing out of his coil and heading towards the door Eha had emerged from.
Rather than argue, the Churquen woman followed.
Lazarus took a step and then turned to Aileen.
“If we have to run, there is no way you can keep up,” he said.
She nodded grimly.
“Leave me behind,” she offered.
“No,” Lazarus said. “May I pick you up and carry you instead?”
“Can you do that?”
“As long as you don’t tickle me, yes,” he smiled.
She smiled back and stepped close.
“Promise,” she said quietly as he lifted her in both hands. “For now.”
“Come on, you two!” Addison yelled.
Eha had already vanished through the rear door. The front was coming apart now as a third blow stove something in. Others were waking up to the trouble and headed this way, but Lazarus grabbed Aileen like a child and used his size and long legs to outrun most of them and hipcheck somebody to the side.
Addison was ahead. Eha was just headed into a door. Lazarus would have liked to have closed and barred this door, but too many folks were following on stubbier legs. Hopefully, he’d be able to outdistance them enough to slam something in their faces yet.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Addison
Addison slithered as fast as he could snap his coils back and forth, aware that the human’s incredibly long legs gave him a tremendous advantage in that realm, too. Churquen were stealth hunters, not chasers.
Eha was right behind him, steering him with flicks to his tail.
“Right here,” she said also. “Through this door.”
Addison turned and was in an office of some sort, largely abandoned, or just used for transients and not personalized.
Lazarus carried Aileen through the door a moment later.
“Dead end?” the human turned an angry face on Eha.
Addison would have normally stepped in to protect her, but he was feeling some level of betrayal and rage himself.
“No,” she snapped. “Do you take me for a fool? Close the door and lock it.”
Addison didn’t answer what he hoped was only a rhetorical question. He just stayed out of the way as Lazarus slammed the door shut with a heel and then set the lock.
“Help me,” Eha turned to him and began shoving a cabinet to one side.
Addison put his coils into the corner and pushed horizontally against the wall. The cabinet moved and revealed a gap in the deck plates with a ladder on one side and a coiling pole down the center. Everyone except Ereshkiki Nisab would be able to escape this way, if they found it.
“Down,” Eha ordered.
Lazarus started to move the desk, but only to slide it back to where it was originally as Addison watched.
“You lead,” Addison told Eha. “We’ll be right behind you.”
He looked up at the tall, angry human and tried to gauge the lethality that was sitting on the surface of that smooth, pink skin.
“Thoughts?” he asked.
Lazarus looked down the hole for a moment and came to a decision.
“You two go next. I’ll come last,” he said. “I think I can pull the cabinet back into place long enough to buy us some extra time.”
Addison wanted to say something that even his own mind determined was monumentally stupid before it came out. Churquen were all lower-body strength, with no shoulders to speak of. Yithadreph like Aileen could not lift any significant weight above their head because their arms were so short.
Only a human could do something like that.
Addison nodded instead and clung to the coiling pole, rotating down it into another office on a deck below. What kind of bribes had been necessary to create such a false access? But then, the organization was old. This trapdoor might have been built decades ago, and been in use for people like Eha who needed to come and go.
How much of the organization itself was at risk right now? If those were Innruld soldiers above them, had they been stalking Eha or Lazarus?
Still, he moved with all the speed he could. At this point, Addison was facing execution if the authorities even suspected him of what he was really doing. Hopefully, they were just trying to capture a dangerous human for questioning or imprisonment by trapping him in a tea shop.
Aileen came next, moving slowly down the ladder set to one side as Addison joined Eha at the door. In his mind, he knew he would need to stop her from just abandoning them all down here in whatever labyrinth she had uncovered. Addison didn’t know this level of the station, itself being mostly places for Systems Mechanics to go.
On the one hand, perhaps it could get them safely back to the ship without them encountering guards. On the other, where would he find a map without Eha?
Lazarus started down the ladder, but only far enough to get below the upper deck. Eha reached to trigger the hatch, but Addison caught her hand and held it in both of his as she rounded on him angrily.
“Shh,” he said simply, nodding upwards. “Not yet.”
Overhead, Lazarus had grabbed that cabinet and was working it across the floor until he had to withdraw his hands from the gap. Then he lowered himself one rung and got under it.
Addison knew he would keep to his dying day the image of the human lifting that incredibly heavy cabinet on his neck and shoulders enough to slide it back into place. He knew how substantial the thing was, and yet the human did it and wasn’t even apparently breathing heavy.
And hopefully, this one still considers me a friend.
Then Lazarus simply grabbed the coiling pole and wrapped himself around it, sliding to the deck with a fast thump that caused Eha to jump even more than Addison
did. Humans were infinitely adaptable creatures, weren’t they?
Aileen’s grin did nothing to aid Addison’s peace of mind.
“Now we go,” Addison turned to Eha and said shakily.
Eha scowled at him briefly, but she was just as shaken. He could see that in the way her scales were ruffed up from the skin on her neck. She triggered the hatch and slithered out far enough to peek both ways down the corridor.
“It’s clear,” she whispered back to him, obviously trying not to stare at the dangerous human as Lazarus picked Aileen up again.
“Go,” Addison ordered her.
Lazarus and Aileen would defer to him as Director. Eha would need to get them away, but he could see the seeds of panic in the way she moved. This woman was an analyst, not a field agent. She ran agents in the field, but returned safely home to her invisible life behind a desk.
Nobody has ever shot at her.
Eha turned left and started to move, her scales hissing and swishing against the deck even louder than his. Addison had to check behind him to make sure Lazarus was still there.
And the human moves as silent as any predator, even carrying a Yithadreph in his arms. Scary.
The corridor they were traversing was dim with spare light. Greasy on the walls with old stains, but the deck was generally clean. The air smelled stale. Addison tapped Eha on the tail as they approached an intersection.
“We need to get to my ship,” he said simply as she looked at him.
“What?” her voice started to rise.
“The cargo has been delivered,” Addison spoke sternly, trying to use his voice as a lifeline to her fragile psyche, although Aileen might be a better one to do that.
Addison knew he had personal issues that might be clouding his judgment.
“He’s right,” Lazarus spoke up. “We need to get off this station.”
“If the authorities are really after one of you, do you think they’ll just let you go?” Eha snapped, some color coming back into her voice.
“No,” Lazarus was calm, deadly certainty as he replied. “But I’m willing to blast my way out of here if I have to. And I cannot imagine that there aren’t things we can do that don’t damage anything permanently.”
“Such as?” she demanded.
“Get us to the ship so we have options,” Addison tried to deflect her rage back onto him, someone she had known for years, as opposed to the frightening apparition that had brought her to Zhoonarrim. “We’re in the mechanical tunnels under the dock level, correct?”
“We are,” she said finally. “This way.”
Addison let her move, flowing into her wake. He expected Lazarus to set Aileen down, but realized that the human had the endurance to carry her as well, now up on his shoulders with her legs on either side of his head.
Addison had an image of a human child being carried thus, and knew that humans could do yet another exotic thing so few other species could even envision. And the corridors down here were scaled to Innruld size, so Aileen had the space to ride safely.
What have I gotten myself into?
But it was far too late to take that question seriously. Greed and curiosity had gotten themselves wrapped around his tail. Now he needed to see if they could help him escape with the prize that the human represented.
Eha led them down another corridor and looked all directions before pausing. From the coiled stance, she was trying to count bulkheads to the right one.
“We’re under dock three,” Aileen spoke up now, drawing Addison and Eha’s eyes to her.
She pointed up at a sign painted on the roof of the intersection, and then forward.
“Six is that way,” she continued with a smile.
At least one of them wasn’t lost. Or verging on panic.
Eha started forward with the others in her wake. Quickly, they crossed under part of four and then turned left to circle under five.
Were all of the docks accessible secretly like this? In all the years he had been doing this, Addison had never given any thought to it. They just landed the ship on a tray that was withdrawn into a lockspace. The authorities pressurized the bay and then Aileen loaded everything onto the cargo sled for delivery to the bonding warehouse.
What sorts of smuggling could he be doing, if he didn’t have to walk all of his cargo through a customs inspection? What the hell had they been thinking, not to have told him about all this, long ago?
But Addison understood. Secrets leaked. If someone quit a ship in anger, it would be the work of moments to tell the authorities something like this existed. Only in an emergency could they be used.
And today counted.
“Here,” Eha finally stopped, breathing heavy from the exertion and stress. Addison was not much better. Lazarus boosted Aileen up and turned her in a front flip to land on her feet, like they had practiced the move.
Did Lazarus have children? The topic had never come up, but the human was also reticent about his personal past, for all that he had shared about Rio Alliance and Westphalia.
Looking around, Addison found a ramp for workers needing to access the underside of a landing slider. He moved quickly up it and determined that there was a hatch at the top, and the light showed that the chamber beyond was pressurized.
He returned to his comrades, focusing his eyes on Eha for the most part.
“Hopefully, we can sneak aboard the ship,” he said. “If they are here for Lazarus, it might be safe for you to remain on station, but if they knew to follow us to the tea shop, then you may be the one they were after.”
“Agreed,” Eha said, finally finding something upon which to base her emotions: logic.
She turned to the human and stared up at him for several seconds.
“You believe that you can free the ship, in spite of being in a contained dock?” she asked.
“And get away with it afterwards, yes,” he said simply. “There are emergency overrides that can be accessed on the big doors themselves, exactly for such a situation. We’re just going to use them in ways the designers never envisioned.”
She turned back to him now and Addison saw fear mingling with the logic.
“Your cover will be permanently blown,” she noted. “Many of your contacts will come under increased scrutiny.”
“And you yourself may be first on that list, if they know to question a Churquen director,” Addison replied. “At the same time, we may be on the verge of ending Innruld domination of the league of species. I am willing to go pirate under those circumstances. Will you join us?”
It was a simple enough request, on the face of it. Her eyes saw the deeper layers underneath. The running away with me parts that hopefully the bipeds missed.
They had danced around the topic for years, unwilling to give it voice. Addison knew he was smitten with the woman. He hoped that she felt something similar.
This was the moment where she would have to decide for herself. Join them, or break his heart.
Logic fled from those golden eyes for a second as he watched. Something else replaced it, but Addison was too fearful to give it a name until she gave it voice.
Eha turned to Aileen, then Lazarus, pausing longer to study the human. Finally, she turned back to him.
“Pirates?” she asked, sarcasm finally evident in her tones. “Why not explorers, Addison Wolcott?”
He shrugged to try to hide his elation.
“Because I expect people to be shooting at us more frequently, Eha Dunham,” Addison smiled.
She nodded, and the first hints of a smile appeared in those eyes.
“I believe that the league will need to be better represented than a mere Director can achieve, in that case,” she said, laughter appearing in her voice. “Of course I will come with you.”
Addison felt his heart start beating again. He hugged her briefly, both arms and coil, before turning to Lazarus.
“Okay, I’ve just done something crazy,” he smiled at the human. “How the hell do we pull it off?”
Lazarus grinned, the warm look without those frightening teeth appearing.
“We get aboard the ship as quietly and quickly as we can,” he said. “Then I get into my suit and commit breaking and entering.”
Addison nodded and slid himself back up the ramp, checking that it could be unlocked from this side, that there was air over there, and that the scanners didn’t currently register anyone standing in the bay itself.
Knowing the Innruld, there would be guards on the outside of the hatch, to keep anyone from approaching via the normal corridors. He wondered if they were as ignorant of the tunnels as he had been.
Probably, if nobody had been down here to meet them.
Taking a deep breath, Addison pressed the lock button and the system beeped to itself, and then to the room, announcing its intent.
The portal slid sideways into the deck and Addison peeked his head above the floor.
Wybert had been standing guard with that stupid powerspear of his. The noise had drawn his attention this direction, but he was still guarding the airlock ramp.
Addison got high enough that Wybert could see him, and then put a finger to his lips for silence. Wybert watched confused for a moment, then nodded.
Addison emerged onto the bay deck and started across the space, gesturing Wybert to board the ship immediately. At least the Ilount goofball took orders well, rattling noisily up the ramp.
Behind him, Eha emerged, followed by Lazarus. Aileen came last, triggering the hatch to seal itself back up in preparation for death pressure.
At least if they succeeded. Addison knew that an alarm had gone off somewhere when the hatch slid open. What he didn’t know what who would see it, and who they might tell.
How quickly would someone open the hatch to the hallway and walk in here to arrest him?
As soon as Addison made it to the airlock, he keyed the ship-wide intercom.
“This is Addison,” he said sternly. “Prepare the ship for immediate, emergency departure. Oh, and we might be about to become pirates.”
