It gave him some warning there was something confronting on the next level, made him more wary as he took the final few steps.
Behind him, Fiona gasped, and he felt the tug as she grabbed the back of his shirt again, and then the pull as she twisted it.
Transparent boxes were set, one on top of the other, right near the stairs. But while he had the sense of a place once filled to capacity, it was now less than half empty.
Perhaps the boxes near the stairs were waiting to be taken up top, because most of the other occupants in the room were in large cages, not the boxes that looked more for transportation than long-term use.
A creature in a box stacked at chest level looked at them and then opened its mouth, bared teeth, and threw itself at the wall of the box.
There was no question it was screaming, or snarling, but the box must be soundproofed.
He had never seen anything like it before.
It was a pale green, with mottled brown running down the fur on its back, but its chest and stomach looked like they were covered with gray leathery plates. It had really long teeth in a slender snout, so even though it probably would have come no higher than his shins, it looked like it could give a nasty bite.
It tried to claw at the wall with its front paws, snapping at them, with pure hate in its eyes.
The box beneath it looked empty, and in the one above, a different creature, bigger, broader, and either very dark brown or black, was curled up tightly on itself, as if asleep.
Fiona stepped out from behind him, eyes dark pools in the silver camouflage of her face.
“The storage room.” Eazi's voice was a low murmur in his ear. “This is where they've been keeping the specimens the Class 5s have found.”
“How are you seeing this?” Hal frowned. Eazi was using a runner to look down on them, but as far as he knew, he couldn't see four stories underground.
“Lens on Fiona's shirt,” Eazi told him. “I'm having difficulty getting into their systems. I am trying to get into their lens feed but I haven't managed it yet. Don't make any sudden moves. Your camouflage should make it hard for security to spot you, and when I have control, I'll loop the feed to make you disappear.”
A lens on Fiona's shirt.
It was a good idea, but he didn't like that he was only finding out about it now. Didn't like that he wasn't in full control of this mission.
Hal watched the glimmer of movement that was Fiona taking a step past the boxes, deeper into the room. His eyes found it hard to focus on her, even though the lighting here was slightly better than down in the tunnels. She was near invisible, even when you knew where she was.
He tapped his earpiece, to connect to the closed system Eazi had set up between himself and Fiona before they'd gotten into the drone. It helped to be able to whisper to her, wherever she was.
“Fiona. Stop. We don't know if there is someone in here.”
“Not anymore,” she whispered back. “But there was.”
There was something in her voice, something tight and close to cracking.
She stood beside a cage big enough to hold an adult Grih. When he reached her, he saw there was bedding on the floor, and what looked like one of the portable toilets most armies took into battle or out on maneuvers.
“They were using this as a prison, as well.” He shouldn't be surprised, but he wondered who they could be holding here, given it was a secret base.
“No.” She pointed to some writing scratched into the dirt floor. “They were keeping another specimen. Looks like Rose McKenzie and I aren't the only humans they took.”
27
The relief she'd felt earlier, that Sazo had destroyed all mention of Earth, evaporated. At least one other captain and crew knew where it was. The evidence was right in front of her.
Imogen Peters was here for . . . Fee bent closer to count how many groups of ten——nine lines crossed through with a tenth——were written in the sand. Four and a half, so forty-five days. Depending on when she'd been taken out of this cage, Imogen Peters had to have been taken soon after Fee was herself, if she was transported all the way here, and then sat in this cage for a month and a half.
“Why did they take someone else right after they took me?” She crouched by the bars, pressed her face between them to look deeper into the shadowed space. There was nothing to see. Imogen Peters had had a bed, a toilet, and what looked like a bucket with water in it. The question was, where was she?
“I think . . .” Eazi's voice was subdued. “I think it was because there was such a fight over who would get another specimen after Rose McKenzie. Captain Flato won the right, but then almost straight afterward, he and his med team refused to work on you. From the little I'm finding in the system, Imogen was taken and dropped off personally, by someone wanting to score a point against Flato.”
“She was taken to score a point.” Fee's fingers curled tight around the bars. “So what did they do with her? Why isn't she still here?”
She pushed away and stood, looked carefully at the rest of the cavern-like space.
A parrot eyed them from its perch halfway up a bar of its cage. Fee remembered the flutter of wings, the flash of color, and the calls which had dragged her from her drugged sleep more than once when she'd been on the Class 5.
“Was this the parrot that was taken with me?” She remembered red, yellow and blue, but this one was a blue and yellow macaw, the blue such a shimmering, caribbean blue, it almost glowed as it caught what little light was available. It watched them with white, beady eyes.
“No. That one died onboard after you were handed to Tak. All the animals and birds died. But then, the med team had something to prove, after they refused to work on you. It looks like whoever took Imogen Peters used the report Flato must have sent back, and programed the Class 5 to take exactly what we took. The probabilities of them also taking a parrot by chance is too small.”
The macaw fluttered its wings to balance itself on the bar.
“What is it?” Hal whispered, awed, and Fee realized she'd reverted to English with Eazi.
“It's a bird from my planet. A macaw.” She took a step closer to it, and it shuffled a little, nervous. “It's probably wild, but they can be taught to talk.”
“Don't let the bastards grind you down.” Its harsh words echoed in the room. “The bastards.” It threw back its head and cawed with manic glee.
Fee crouched down. “She taught it!” She lifted a hand toward it. “Who's a pretty polly?” she crooned.
The macaw snapped at her fingers and she had to snatch them back.
“Polly wants a cracker.” This time, it sounded forlorn. “The bastards.” It dipped its head up and down.
“What's it saying?” Hal's words dragged her focus back.
“Just some things Imogen taught it. To keep her spirits up.”
She realized a few of the cages around them contained other creatures, and that since the parrot had started speaking, they'd started moving around a little more, as if their fear of the new intruders had worn off.
She didn't see any other animals from Earth, but then, three quarters of the cages were empty.
“They probably died down here.”
Hal put a hand on her shoulder, and squeezed. “I would guess yes.”
“And Imogen, too?”
Hal's grip tightened. “I don't know. But when we can, we'll find out.”
When Eazi finally got into the facility's system, he must surely be able to find out where they'd taken her, and when he did, they'd find a way to rescue her. Or use the United Council Hal was always talking about to force the Tecran to let her go.
“I don't want to leave the macaw here.”
“We can come back for it,” Hal said.
They could.
She rose to her feet. “Chin up, polly. I'll be back.”
The macaw didn't answer her, it just stared at her coldly.
“We need to go.” Hal looked back to make sure she was coming, walking to
ward the stairs with his shockgun in a two-handed grip.
The sound of feet running down the stairs stopped her dead, and Hal melted into the shadows four cages in front of her.
She wanted to catch up to him, hide with him, but there wasn't time, and she slid between two cages, moving back until she was up against the wall.
People were in the room now, and by the sound of it, there was a crowd of them, arguing with one another.
The universal grunting and wheezing of people taking strain when lifting something heavy came floating toward them, and then the sound of footsteps on the stairs again.
They had to be moving the animals in the transparent boxes upstairs.
Fee waited a beat, nervous to move until she was sure it was safe, and just when she was about to push off from the wall and find Hal, he whispered in her ear.
“Stay.”
She froze, and then she heard it, the scuff of boots on the floor, and then a Tecran soldier walked past her.
The lights flickered and then brightened, shrinking the dark corner she was hiding in to nothing.
“I'm trying to dim the lights or short them, but I just can't get in to anything but the surface of this system.” Eazi's voice, low and urgent in her ear, made her jerk.
The soldier walked up to the macaw's cage and flicked the bars with his fingers.
“Bastard,” the parrot hissed at him and snapped at his fingers.
Fee felt a fierce swell of pride. She had the feeling she would like Imogen Peters. She hoped she one day had the chance to find out.
The Tecran said something to it and flicked his fingers once more, but Fee noticed he didn't touch the bars again. Then he turned and walked straight to her.
He looked unhurried and calm, and so she stayed absolutely still, because he gave no indication he could see her. He may have switched on the lights, but the cages still threw a small shadow, and she was wearing camouflage.
He stopped in front of the cage to her left, looking toward the far right corner.
Fee turned her head just a fraction and tried to see what he was staring at.
It looked like a kind of monkey, except it had six limbs instead of four. Either that, or it had a split tail that had evolved some kind of gripping functionality at the ends that roughly resembled hands.
Its hair was shaggy, unkempt, and an interesting shade that looked like dark blue at the base, fading to pure white at the tip, which seemed to blur its outline.
It crouched at the far corner of its cage, looking at the Tecran with such intensity, Fee shivered. Had it been looking at her like that, while she'd been completely unaware it was there?
The Tecran unclipped something from his belt, and pointed it at the creature.
It moved, leaping from its corner to the top of the cage right beside Fee in absolute silence, bottom two limbs supporting it from below, upper limbs holding it up, and the middle set were curved, revealing long, sharp claws.
The speed and the deadly silence was far more frightening than any growling or display of aggression would have been. Fee pressed back against the wall.
The Tecran said something, probably swearing, and she made herself look away from the monkey thing and see what he was doing.
Hal stood right behind him, shockgun raised.
She had to gulp down the tiny squeak of surprise she had at the sight of him, looming like the wrath of God behind the soldier, the strange sepia outline of his camouflage giving him an otherworldly glow.
She made herself take small, quiet breaths and as she did, Hal ghosted back a little, so that he was just within the shadows cast by the cages behind him.
She gave herself permission to check the creature again, and noticed a red tip buried deep in the fur of one of the creature's top limbs. It pulled it out and threw it back at the Tecran, and in answer, he fired at it again.
The creature dropped from the ceiling back to the floor, and then seemed to fly to the other side of the cage.
It was so fast. And, she saw for the first time, as it opened its mouth to pant, its teeth were so big. So very big.
The second dart hit the wall at the back of the cage, an arm's length from her, and she almost went weak with relief that it hadn't activated the reflector. If the Tecran had had his own dart turned against him and collapsed, other soldiers would come to investigate, and someone might actually check the lens feed. So far, it seemed like a combination of their camouflage and the Tecran's laziness had kept them safe.
The Tecran shot a third time, and the dart lodged in the center of the creature's chest. It plucked it out with a clumsy movement.
The arm that had taken the first shot no longer held on to the bar, so it dangled by one limb, and even though it was still supported by the split tail below, it swayed a little from side to side, whereas before it had been perfectly still.
It looked at the Tecran with eyes that were absolutely blank, and then dropped heavily to the floor.
The Tecran muttered something under his breath, and pulled a small square from a pocket. He gave it one firm flick and it snapped into a barrel bag arrangement, but stiff, now, and shiny, like it was made of something metallic.
He waited until the alien monkey stopped moving completely and then opened the door and dragged it out, stuffed it into the bag with quick, frightened movements.
Perhaps the tranq didn't last long.
Fee didn't blame him for his fear. She'd never had such a visceral reaction to something. It was terrifying.
And still, she knew, like her, it had been minding its own business somewhere and they'd taken it. So they deserved to be frightened. It deserved to be free.
If possible, she'd see if Eazi knew where it had come from. Maybe the UC or the Grih could take it back home.
The Tecran finally got it sealed into the bag, and he lifted it, holding it away from his body by the straps. It was an awkward way to carry what was obviously a heavy load, but the Tecran didn't sling it over his shoulder or put it on his back.
Fee gave him kudos for carrying it at all. She wouldn't.
As he walked away from her, Hal materialized out of the shadows again, shockgun ready, his attention on the soldier.
Fee's heart gave a painful little skip at the sight of him.
“Ready?” When he turned to her, his face was grim. He was looking in her general direction, but not at her specifically.
“Yes.” She pushed away from the wall and joined him, saw him finally track where she was. “What's wrong?”
“That creature he just took was a grahudi. It's from a planet in Fitali territory.”
“You think the Fitali are in on this, too, now?”
Hal shrugged, but there was not even a hint of carelessness in the movement. “Let's find out.”
28
Fiona had handled herself well.
Hal led the way up the stairs, and looked back to check on her, saw she was following behind him, careful not to make a sound.
He hadn't been able to see her, even though he knew she was between those two cages, but when the grahudi had leapt close to where she must have been hiding, she hadn't made a sound.
The Tecran hadn't looked her way, his focus on the grahudi, but even if he had, Hal didn't think he would have noticed her. The camouflage Eazi had given her made her near invisible.
What the Tecran were doing with a Fitalian animal like a grahudi was anyone's guess.
Hal knew it didn't mean the Fitali were in league with the Tecran. The Tecran were here on Balco, too, weren't they?
So this could just be another example of Tecran disregard for the treaties and rules of the UC.
And, maybe, a desire to look where they hadn't been invited.
No one had been allowed on Huy since the Fitali had caught a smuggler trying to round up a troop of grahudi to sell on the black market about twenty years before. It was a planet with no advanced sentient life, but the Fitali kept up regular patrols and they had established a research station th
ere. Maybe the Tecran had wanted to find out what they were up to.
He'd been standing right behind the Tecran, ready to shoot if he noticed Fiona, but the position had also given him a direct line of sight to the grahudi. It had been staring at the soldier, but for one instant, it had shifted its gaze to him.
He didn't know if its eyes were capable of seeing through his camouflage, but it felt like it looked straight at him.
And there had been death in its eyes.
Hal paused just before the last turn of the stairs, listening, and frowned as he heard a faint sound, like a sustained scream.
“Any idea what that is?” he asked Eazi.
“I'm not in yet. It's like they expected me to try and break in. There are traps and dead ends everywhere.”
“Of course they prepared for the possibility of you trying to break in. They'd have been mad not to,” Fiona whispered, and Hal realized she was soothing the panic they both must have heard in the thinking system's voice. “You'll beat them. If they were lazy enough to use your code for the security at the tunnel entrance, they'd have taken short cuts elsewhere, too. Look for areas where you'd need to physically be here to override their code, like opening the tunnel door. They never thought you'd have boots on the ground helping you, like we are.”
“That is a good suggestion.” Eazi's voice sounded strange, the sound Hal would expect from an automaton.
And that, he had to admit, was how he saw the thinking system. But Fiona didn't. She spoke to him like a person; soothing, encouraging.
It was no wonder Eazi gave her gifts and searched his stores for ways to protect her.
“You're used to getting in easily, aren't you?” Fiona lifted her shirt away from her body and looked into the tiny lens attached to it, looking Eazi in the eye. “Those other planets didn't know you were coming, and most probably didn't have the tech to keep you out anyway. But these guys, they know you, and you can bet their worst nightmare is what is happening right now, with you in control of the Class 5 and no longer caged. Think of this as one more challenge, like all those work-arounds you did to get me off Larga Ways.”
Dark Deeds (Class 5 Series Book 2) Page 20
