by K. Gorman
Found him, it said. Waiting on extraction procedures.
Then, just as the last message switched to ‘read’ in her display, another one popped up from Soo-jin.
Keep the engines warm. I’m not sure there are extraction procedures.
Her stomach did another flip.
Great, she thought. I’m going to have to go in there and help them, aren’t I?
She glanced back up the street. The Nemina wasn’t visible from where she stood. She’d nestled it into a dark patch of concrete where the corner of two exterior walls kept it largely inconspicuous from anyone looking at it on the ground. With its nose tucked in, the two aft storage crates made it look more like a small freighter than the ex-military ship it was.
Hopefully, no one would give it more than a passing glance.
No one was really around to do more than that, actually. The streets were deserted. So far, the only soldiers she’d seen were the two at the gate and a couple wandering around on the inside of the prison’s perimeter, looking like they were heading somewhere rather than patrolling. She hadn’t seen any patrols outside the walls.
Marc was right. The military was stretched about as thin as it could get. Even thinner, considering the exhaustion she’d seen on the faces of the men who had inspected the Nemina in orbit.
And whoever had a coffee business must either be making huge amounts of cash, or have had their stock requisitioned for military use.
Movement caught her eye, and instincts made her jerk her head up.
New fear spiraled down into her nerves as a Shadow detached itself from the darkness behind the other side of the street where a row of low houses sat, walked up to the fence, and osmosed through the gate.
As it turned to walk up the street, keeping to the sidewalk, her breath caught. She took another step back into the darkness behind her.
Shadows didn’t move like normal people. She knew this, had realized it intellectually from the very first encounter she’d had with them, but it still raised all the hairs on the back of her skin to see it again—to actually witness it.
Its steps were too long, too lanky, its legs too flexible. They didn’t seem to react to solid ground, or gravity, for that matter. As she watched it move, its feet seemed to skate on the ground. It reminded her of a puppet supported by strings, but keeping the facsimile of human behavior.
It also made no noise. No scrape or tap of a shoe against the sidewalk, no rustle of clothes. The night around her was quiet, but that quiet wasn’t absolute. It was city quiet. She could still hear things happening.
Watching it here, walking like that, making no sound, doing something so urbane as keeping to the sidewalk like any normal person might, was absolutely eerie.
Then, as if feeling her stare, it stopped. Without dimension, it was hard to tell how it moved. Its head fluctuated and twisted.
Its stare found her under the concrete awning of the convenience store.
Her heart froze.
In her mind, she caught the image of black numbers on skin, an ink snake eating its tale. Light coming up from the sea in globs and droplets, spinning and shimmering light constellations.
And, under it, the whisper of a name.
Eos.
The netlink buzzed in her hand and gave her a start. Without taking her attention away from the Shadow, she thumbed the button for the screen, watching it unroll in her peripheral vision. She took a quick peek.
On second thought, any chance you could distract the gate guards for us?
Her gaze returned to the Shadow. It was still staring at her from across the street, its body wavering slightly in that way they did. Her heart skipped.
It felt almost as if it were waiting for her to do something. To make a move.
Blindly, without taking her eyes from the monster, she thumbed what she hoped was a ‘yes’ back to Soo-jin and Marc.
Then, making sure she was well out of sight of the guards at the gate, she pulsed a flash of light onto her left hand, then waved at the Shadow.
Its entire body recoiled, shivering like a black flame as if it forgot to be solid for a second.
Then it jerked from the curb and streaked toward her.
Her heart froze in her chest. She didn’t have time to think. Her legs jumped to life, a rush of adrenaline flashing through her system. Taking great gulps of air and fighting a sudden constriction in her throat, she doused the light and sprinted for the end of the walkway.
“Help!” she choked on a sudden constriction in her throat. Her bad knee gave under her and she staggered, but by then, her feet were slapping hard against the road. She didn’t hear the Shadow behind her, but the hairs rose on her back and arms. Her injured knee began to scream, feeling like a rusty nail drove itself further into the joint with every step. Her sprint listed as she was forced into a limp, boots scraping against the ground.
A shout of alarm came from the gate. She flailed a hand at the soldiers.
“Help! Please!”
The Shadow caught up with her.
A shove sent her forward. She crashed into the ground.
She hit hard. Pain shocked up from her elbow and flooded her bones. She skidded on the concrete, then rolled, kicking to get away from the Shadow. Raw wounds flared up where she scraped the heels of her hands, burning against the cool night air. Panic flared as the Shadow stretched up over her. She sucked in a hard breath and scrambled back.
“Get down!” A blaster bolt streaked through the air above her, sailing right past the Shadow’s head and hitting one of the houses across the street. Boots trampled on the street, racing for her.
The Shadow bent over her, reaching down. She shoved herself back, trying to keep as flat as possible against the ground.
The next two bolts didn’t miss.
She cringed at the sudden flare. The first bolt struck dead-center in the Shadow’s chest. The second winged the edge of the creature’s head.
It froze.
At the back of her mind, a voice whispered her project name again.
Then, with an inhuman shudder—like it was made of sentient smoke rather than anything solid—the Shadow shivered apart.
Soon, nothing but empty air lay in front of her. And the vague smell of something burned.
She breathed out.
Okay, definitely something weird and psychic going on with them. Either that, or I’ve gone fucking nuts. Which, technically, was more than possible. The scientists had fed them a lot of hallucinogenics when they were messing with their heads.
A soldier’s boot stepped into her vision, jolting her back to the present. He squatted down as she blinked up at him, offering her a hand. “Are you all right, miss?”
Miss. For a second, she’d half-forgotten why she’d had to be rescued at all.
Right. Time to play her part.
She stirred with a grimace. Unfortunately, it wasn’t necessary to fake her vulnerability. She’d hit the pavement hard and, by the raw pain that throbbed on her palms and elbows, she had a feeling she would need yet another visit to the Med bay before the night was over.
Road rash. She turned her hands to look at the scraped skin. That’s what this is called, right?
“I think I’m all right.” She took his hand with a few tentative fingers. Her tears were more for the pain, but she forced a waver into her voice as she looked up into his eyes. “Better than I could have been. I—” She clutched at him, casting a hopefully fearful gaze about the street. “It’s gone, isn’t it? You… shot it?”
“Yes.” He cleared his throat. “We both did, miss.”
She blinked up at the other soldier, who stood behind her. He had his back to the gate and, as his gaze slipped from studying the streets around them and down to her, she made sure to catch it.
“Thank you,” she said. “Thank you both.”
Gods. Good thing this isn’t being recorded. She’d never live down this damsel-shit if Nomiki got a hold of it.
In her peripheral vision, she
caught movement by the gate. Marc and Soo-jin walked out, leading Cookie behind them.
She turned her attention back to the first soldier, quickly accepted his offered hand, then hissed with a grimace as he pulled her into a sitting position.
“Are you all right?” he asked again, his attention fully on her now.
Luckily, the massive, bleeding red scrapes on her forearms, though not exactly severe in terms of actual injury level, were showy enough to keep his attention. The night air pricked them with cold, the pain coming in numbing throbs. Now that she was looking at them, the pain seemed to intensify.
Yes. Just road rash and bruises. Nothing a little CoolSkin and some time won’t cure.
Instead, she said, “I… think so.”
Suns.
Her hands shook as she lifted them up. Slowly, she flexed her fingers.
The soldier took one gingerly and flexed her wrist. Then he looked up at his companion. “You think we should have Med take a look at her? I mean—that was quite a fall she took, and it’s just up the hall.”
Shit. She didn’t want to be anywhere near the prison, let alone inside of it.
Fortunately, a familiar voice cut through the air.
“Karin? Is that you?”
Marc, coming up the street from just past the convenience store where she’d been hiding, quickly turned his lanky walk into a jog. “Oh my gods, what happened? What are you doing out here? I thought I told you to wait in the ship?”
She gave him a weak smile. “I got worried when you didn’t come back. Thought I’d check.”
“We were fine. I—” He shook his head as if to cut himself off, then glanced to the two soldiers. “I’m sorry. She has this—well, never mind. All that matters is that she is safe. Thank you.”
She stared at him. By the way he acted, he was implying there was something wrong with her—probably mentally.
Well, whatever kept them out of detention.
“Just doing our duty,” the first soldier said. “She was lucky, though. Got herself into a tangle with one of them Shadows. If she hadn’t been close to the gate…”
“They saved me,” she said.
“Gods. If you hadn’t have been here…” Marc shook his head again, then offered his hand to the first soldier. “Thank you. She’s very dear to us.”
“No need to thank us,” the man repeated. “Like I said, we were just doing our duty.”
“Still, thank you.” After giving both their hands a hearty shake, he looked down at Karin. “Let’s get you back to the ship, take a look at those wounds. Think you can walk?”
“Yes,” she said. “Though I’ll be a bit slow.”
“That’s all right. Soo will wait for us.” He pulled her to her feet, pausing with a slightly concerned look as the motion caused her to do more than hiss through her teeth this time.
“I’m fine,” she said weakly, patting his arm. “Just banged up.”
“You’ve got a good Med facility?” The first soldier rounded her shoulder, putting himself back in her field of vision. “’Cause we don’t mind taking her in and having the doc take a look.”
“Thank you for the offer, but we’ve got a nano bay.” Marc nodded to him, then squinted up at the bright face of the prison. “’Sides, they looked a little… busy in there.”
The soldier shook his head. “They probably are. Even more than us.”
Marc gave him another nod, then guided her around. “Well, try not to work too hard. Stay sharp. And, again, thank you.”
They hobbled off, Karin leaning against Marc’s arm for support, making a beeline for the convenience store.
As soon as they got out of earshot, he made to pull away, but she squeezed his arm. “I actually do need your support. I didn’t mean to fall.”
He paused. “Should I carry you?”
“Gods, no,” she said. “If you did, I’m not sure I’d have any dignity left.”
He patted her shoulder. “There, there. You took one for the team.” He glanced back. “Thanks to you, we got past no problem. Soo should have Cookie at the ship now.”
“Good. I can’t wait to get out of here.”
“Me, too. We’ll find a hide-out and put him to work.” He glanced back. The two soldiers still stood on the concrete where they’d left them, having a quiet conversation. He rolled his eyes. “Just doing my duty,” he quoted. “Can you believe that? Just how much cantina soaps has he been drinking?”
“He said the same thing to me, too,” she said. “Maybe he couldn’t think of a better line—he did look tired.”
“I hope so.” He shook his head again. “Clio.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
Marc’s blaster crackled in her ear, and a bolt of light slammed into the Shadow dead-center, freezing it to the spot in a death-motion she was beginning to recognize.
A few seconds later, it was nothing but quickly-fading shreds of black fog.
She relaxed and let go, feeling her power ebb. Cookie lay across the main Med table, thoroughly strapped down. His eyes were closed. There hadn’t been much of a fight this time. He’d gone rigid, inhaled a big breath, and the Shadow had seemed almost surprised when Karin had forced it out of his body.
His head tipped to the side as he relaxed, mouth lolling open with a barely audible groan. Beside her, Marc holstered his blaster and reached for the straps on the table. They’d need to roll him over before the side effects happened.
She took a step back, rubbing her wrists. Cookie had been her first priority, and her untreated road rash felt like a burning heat whenever she touched anything or moved it. There was still grit and dirt inside the wounds.
But she could deal with that later, somewhere else. She certainly didn’t need to be in the room when Cookie threw up.
Grabbing a pack of CoolSkin from the open Med bag on the counter, along with a chemical ice pack and some cleaner, she retreated from the room and made for the sani room.
A few minutes later, she stumbled into Soo-jin in the hall.
“Can you believe this?” Soo-jin made a disgusted gesture at the spare cabin. “We still have Senton’s shit.”
Karin peered in. To her, the neatly folded clothes on the bed and the suitcase on the corner didn’t look like excrement, but opinions were subjective. “Guess he forgot to take it. Any word from him?”
She still technically owed him a couple cures, if he found that his wife and child had been turned into Lost. Frankly, she wasn’t sure quite how much she cared about that. The military already knew about her. What could Senton really do to her?
And he had been a bit of an asshole about it.
On the other hand, if she could help people…
She shook her head, then grimaced at the movement, moving the ice back to her forehead.
Now wasn’t the time to think about that. She had a sister to find first.
Then she could go help people. If the people weren’t going to be assholes and try to trap her into servitude or medical experiments or something. The fear of that had faded somewhat, now that she’d seen just how desperate the situation was.
The light shifted behind her. A moment later, Marc peered over her shoulder into the room. His gaze glanced over Senton’s belongings with brief interest.
“I vote we ditch it somewhere, then comm him the location,” he said.
“Isn’t that kind of irresponsible? What if someone steals it?”
“We’ll hide it well. Besides, our circumstance has changed. I’d bet he’d rather have his stuff than have us swan off with it, right?”
“Yeah,” she agreed, moving the ice pack over her wrist. “I bet the inter-planetary mail system is a bit shot up these days.” She changed her gaze from the trunks and bags still piled in the room to Marc. “How’s Cookie?”
“Still out. The machine’s monitoring him.” He glanced back toward Med. “I might have you lift off somewhere soon. Get us a more secure place to hide out.”
“I vote we go to another beach,”
Soo-jin said. “Didn’t get to enjoy the last one much, and I’ve got a spare hammock if anyone needs.”
“I might take you up on that, actually,” Karin said.
A loud thump sounded up the hall, followed shortly by the sound of someone heaving.
“Right. That’s my cue,” Marc said. He looked like he wanted to pat her on the shoulder, but pulled the motion and turned it into a wave at the reminder of the CoolSkin visible on her arm. He gave her a small, two-fingered salute and jogged back up the hall, vanishing into Med.
She and Soo-jin exchanged a look.
“I’ll go find that beach,” she said, taking a step back. “Someplace in the southern hemisphere?”
“Yeah, but not too close to the pole, obviously—wait, scratch that.” Soo-jin made a face. “We better stick kind of close to the city. Keep within range in case… well, just in case.”
“All right.” She backed out of the doorway and turned toward the bridge. “I’ll see what I can do.”
Though the bridge was empty, the quiet hum from the computers gave it a sense of activity. She eased herself into the pilot’s seat, rocked it back, and swiveled it at an angle to the dashboard so that she could reach it without having to stretch.
They’d disconnected the ship from any satellite feed, so her query relied on its built-in memory of the planet—something perfectly fine for what she needed. Unless there’d been a major continental shift since the last time this map had been updated, there’d be no problem locating a beach. The only thing it wouldn’t show was real-time broadcasts of ship activity.
The reaction time was actually slightly quicker now.
She sat in quiet for a few minutes, narrowing the results and checking out beaches. Then, moving the ice pack from her wrist to her knee—she really should have nabbed two from the Med bay—she leaned back and stared at the map, thinking.
A small shadow passed behind her. She’d seen Ethan come in, so she wasn’t surprised when he quietly sat in the chair next to her, pushing himself back.
His gaze went to the screen. “What are you doing?”
“Looking for a place to hide.” She idly rubbed her thumb and index finger together. “You have any preferences?”
