The Crimson Claw

by Deborah Chester

  “How ’bout some grub?” Paket asked gruffly.

  Niruo tilted his head. “Hungry, are you? So what? This time I eat first, instead of waiting on you lot. In fact, I’m going to treat myself to real Viis rations.”

  “Hey!” Matiril said, shaking the front of his cage.

  Ampris was afraid his door might swing open if he wasn’t careful.

  Niruo yipped at him, and the sound was ugly with derision. “For all I care, you can starve tonight.”

  Turning on his heel, he left.

  The moment the doors shut and locked automatically, Matiril tilted back his head and yipped himself. “Can you believe how stupid that nolo is?”

  “Never mind,” Ampris said, swinging open her cage door and carrying her cubs out.

  “Mama, where go?” Foloth asked. “Hungry.”

  “Me hungry more!” Nashmarl declared.

  She hushed them. “We’ll eat soon. You must be quiet now. Be good for Mama.”

  The others left their cages. Robuhl pointed at the animal cages on the other side of the room. “What about those poor creatures?”

  “Forget them!” Matiril said impatiently.

  Ampris glanced around. She hadn’t planned for this. “Paket, prop your cage door open after we go through. I’ll open their cages. It’s up to them if they choose to follow us.”

  “They’ll be in the way,” Matiril argued.

  “No. You’ll all be out by the time I’m finished.”

  Paket nodded. Everyone stood there awkwardly, looking tense and anxious.

  “You hit it good?” Paket asked. “The pipe?”

  Ampris hesitated, wondering what to tell them.

  Before she could reply, Paket said, “What happened? What went wrong?”

  Groans went up, but Ampris shook her head at them. “The Zrheli are going to tamper with the main line—”

  “The Zrheli!” Matiril said in horror. “They won’t help us.”

  “Why’d you go to them?” Paket asked. “We said don’t warn them, but you wouldn’t listen—”

  “See?” Matiril was yelling. “I knew it would go wrong. Always wanting to save folk. What they ever done for us? We can toss this idea good-bye—”

  “Silence, all of you!” Ampris said sharply. “I think they will do what needs to be done.”

  “You think,” Paket said, his eyes wide with disappointment. “Why—”

  Robuhl coiled his tail around his leg. “Should we return to our cages and wait?”

  “Stay where you are,” Ampris said, but they were looking at her with resentment now, as though she had betrayed them. Ampris stared at the ceiling, willing the alarm to sound. “Come on. Come on,” she muttered.

  They waited, tense with anticipation, but nothing happened. Ampris swore silently to herself, and Nashmarl began to fuss. She licked him, trying to make him hush. The plan was that when the zeron gas escaped into the facility, the evacuation automatics would engage, unlocking all doors, including those to their outside runs. Paket’s fence was rusted and weak. He had managed to break some of the wires and make a hole. If all went as planned, they would exit via Paket’s cage and slip outside through the hole in the fence. Then they would only have to get themselves over the compound wall and head for the mountains in the falling twilight, hoping to be well-concealed in the wilderness before their absence was discovered.

  But nothing happened. The plan was falling apart. Ampris wanted to howl.

  “Come on,” she whispered, trying to believe she hadn’t been a fool for leaving this in the hands of the Zrheli.

  Matiril growled restlessly, pacing back and forth. “It’s not working. It’s not working!”

  Paket pulled him close and nipped his ear so hard Matiril yelped. “Shut up,” he snarled. “We panic, and we be lost for sure.”

  They looked at each other, despair filling their eyes.

  Ampris drew a deep breath, giving up. She’d been a fool. The Zrheli were probably laughing in their rookery at the trick they’d played. It was time for a contingency plan. “All right,” she said. “We’ll—”

  A Klaxon blared, startling them all. Foloth and Nashmarl wailed with fright, burying their faces against Ampris’s shoulders. The overhead lights flashed, went out, then came on red, bathing all of them in an eerie glow. The Klaxon continued blaring, an ugly, deafening sound that made the little animals go mad in their cages.

  “Warning,” a computerized voice announced over the speakers. “Hazardous conditions have been detected. All personnel to clear the facility. Warning. Hazardous conditions have been detected. Personnel have eight minutes to clear the area.”

  Someone in their group started sobbing while the red lights flashed over them. Paket reached out and gripped Ampris’s arm so hard he nearly crushed it. She didn’t care. Her heart was thumping in hope.

  A hissing noise came from overhead. They all looked up and saw a white mist descending from the ceiling.

  “Containment gas,” Robuhl said. “Try not to breathe it.”

  They began to mill around. “We can’t get out!” Matiril yelled.

  Ampris wanted to bite him. If he panicked the others would also. “Keep your head, fool!” she shouted. “Paket, try your door. See if you can budge it.”

  “It’s still locked,” Matiril said furiously. “This isn’t working. You’ve killed us, Ampris.”

  Paket, however, was already stepping into his cage. He put both hands on the latch of his outside door and yanked with all his might. But the door was not locked, although they had not heard the locks disengage. It sprang open so readily that Paket went sprawling.

  Matiril yipped in excitement, forgetting his pessimism. He plunged into Paket’s cage without heed for the others, who also tried to crowd inside.

  Ampris grabbed at some of them, pulling them back. “Wait, wait,” she said. “There’s plenty of time. Remember the plan, and each of you take your turn.”

  They slowed down, but overhead came another announcement over the blaring Klaxon: “Warning. Hazardous conditions have been detected. Personnel have seven minutes to evacuate.”

  Ampris swung away to unlock the animal cages. The little creatures were hurling themselves about from side to side, harming themselves in their panic. One of them knocked open its cage door and went flying out. Others clawed frantically to follow suit.

  Ampris stepped into one of the middle cages to open another outside door. The animals might not escape entirely, but at least they would be safer outside in the run than inside.

  Then the doors to the wing opened, and Niruo stood there, screaming.

  Ampris turned to face him with a growl.

  His eyes were wide with fear and outrage as he bared his decayed teeth. “You can’t do this!” he shouted. “You can’t escape! I’m in charge!”

  “We’re going,” Ampris told him. “There’s a zeron gas leak. We’ll all die if we stay here.”

  “Then die!” he snarled. “I’m in charge. They’ll blame me if you escape.”

  “Not if you go with us,” Ampris said.

  Robuhl, who was at the end of the line exiting through Paket’s cage, glanced back at her as he overheard. He opened his wide mouth to protest, then fell silent. Admiration for Ampris filled his eyes. “Mercy, even in the face of danger. Truly you do know the meaning of civilization.”

  Niruo didn’t even hear the Myal. He shouted, “Join you? Become an escapee? Be caught and punished with you? Why should I?”

  “Warning,” the computer intoned. “Hazardous conditions have been detected. Personnel have six minutes to evacuate.”

  “Better to live as an escapee, than to die of radiation poisoning,” Ampris said.

  He snapped his teeth at her, growling with hatred. “The Viis trust me. They left me in charge. For the first time I have importance—”

  Ampris felt pity for his illusions, but she had no time for kindness. The inmates were still filing outside. It was almost time for her to follow. With Foloth
and Nashmarl tugging at her fur and wailing, she bounced them in her arms and said, “Niruo, face reality. You’re in charge of nothing. This place has been left on automatic. You’re as much a prisoner as we are. I know you want to feel important, and I’m sorry. But stop deluding yourself.”

  “You think I am not important?” Niruo yelled. “You think I can’t call for help and bring patrollers from Lazmairehl?”

  “Why bother?” Ampris said scathingly. “The computer will have already sent an emergency distress signal to the town. By the time help gets here, the place will be hot with radiation. No one can enter the site until it’s decontaminated. By then, they’ll think we’re all dead. And we’ll be gone where no one can find us.”

  “If I call Director Ehssk, you won’t get away. They’ll come and hunt you down and make you beg for death.”

  “Niruo, don’t—”

  Her cubs began to squabble for possession of the ball, distracting her. In exasperation, Ampris tried to take it from them, but the ball dropped to the floor. Foloth squirmed down from Ampris’s arms to get it. She reached for him, but Niruo darted forward and grabbed up the cub so fast Foloth screamed in fright.

  Ampris roared at him. “Niruo!”

  But the Kelth whirled around with Foloth in his arms and ran back the way he’d come. Before Ampris could stop him, he was gone, taking what was more precious to her than life.

  CHAPTER•NINETEEN

  She stood there, paralyzed with shock and horror.

  “Ampris, come on!” Paket called. He gestured at slow old Robuhl to come outside. “We’re all out! Come on!”

  “He’s got Foloth,” she said, frantic. Knowing she had no choice, she set Nashmarl on the floor. Screaming, he clung hard to her, and she had to pry his little hands loose. “Robuhl, take care of Nashmarl for me.”

  Robuhl looked around in startlement, his mane swinging back from his face. “Ampris?”

  Nashmarl wailed louder and reached up his arms to her, but Ampris was already running after Niruo and Foloth, desperate to get her other son back.

  Robuhl and Paket both called after her, but Ampris didn’t hear them. She thrust through the doors with her shoulder and plunged down the corridor toward the main reception area, limping on her crippled leg. Niruo had a head start on her, and she was too slow. She would never catch him in time. But she had to. The idea of his hurting Foloth, risking Foloth’s life, enraged her past all caution or thought. She’d lost one cub to the evil in this place. She wasn’t going to lose another.

  From overhead, the computer’s voice said, “Warning. You have five minutes to evacuate. You have four minutes and fifty-nine seconds to evacuate. You have four minutes and fifty-eight seconds to evacuate.”

  Panting and ignoring the ache in her leg, she half ran, half hobbled, making her way toward the main section of the facility, knowing that Ehssk’s office lay on the other side of it.

  But before she reached the end of the corridor, she met a group of Viis clad in rags and ill-fitting body armor. Hooded and masked, they carried side arms, stun-sticks, bludgeons, and daggers, and were kicking in doors, smashing open storage bins, and yanking the security scanners off the wall in reception, causing great bursts of sparks as the wiring was snapped.

  Bewildered, Ampris was knocked aside as more ran past her. She thudded into the wall and pressed herself against it to avoid being hit again. Who were they? Viis Rejects? Raiding the place?

  She thought of riots and looters, and how the recent newscasts had been full of such trouble. Well, it didn’t matter. She had to get to Foloth.

  Limping past the entry air lock, she found it smashed and standing wide open. A blast of icy air and snow spilled inside. Ampris wondered if Niruo had gone that way.

  Roaring in frustration, she paused long enough to sniff the air. No, his scent and Foloth’s went the other way, toward Ehssk’s office.

  More bundled-up figures passed her, brandishing weapons and dragging loot. Someone had set fire to the padded benches in the reception area. Flames flared and grew, hungrily licking at the walls. More of the looters appeared, dumping their finds on the floor in front of the open air lock.

  Pushing and shoving her way through them, Ampris ignored the mingled shouting of Viis and abiru voices. She got to the opposite side of reception and headed up the hall, oblivious to its fine carpeting and the awards of distinction hanging on the walls.

  A Reject pushed past her, grabbing the awards and throwing them into a crude sack.

  “You!” a gruff voice called to her as she went on. “Stop!”

  An argument broke out behind her, but Ampris didn’t pay it any heed, nor did she slow down.

  Gritting her teeth against the pain, she forced herself on and reached the expensive wooden door of Ehssk’s office. She could hear Foloth wailing inside and Niruo’s voice, shrill with hysteria as he called for help on the linkup. Trying to open the door. Ampris found it locked.

  Fury swept her like flame. Throwing back her head, Ampris roared and hurled her shoulder at the door, breaking through and falling inside as splintered wood rained down on top of her.

  Niruo yelped and leaped back from the ornate desk, panic wide in his eyes.

  Picking herself up, Ampris roared at him again and advanced. She barely saw Foloth sitting on top of the desk, wailing with all his might. She barely heard him. All she could focus on was Niruo, who had tried to harm her cub. Her blood burned in her and she bared her fangs, then leaped at him.

  Her crippled leg threw her off balance, and Niruo was able to scramble away from her. He scuttled around the end of the desk, keeping it between them, and grabbed Foloth by his thin arm.

  Ampris roared and lunged bodily across the desk, but her fingers missed Foloth by centimeters. Clutching Foloth against his chest, Niruo cursed her and ran, only to collide with a looter in the doorway.

  “Hey!” shouted the looter. “Watch where you’re going, you lop-eared—”

  “My cub!” Ampris yelled in desperation. “Get my cub away from him!”

  The slight figure in the doorway was shoved aside by a taller Reject, who hit Niruo with a stun-stick.

  Screaming, Niruo toppled over, and Foloth’s wails went abruptly silent.

  Ampris’s heart stopped. She came around the desk, flinging aside the slim Kelth who was kneeling over Niruo, and ignoring his startled, “Goldie? That you?”

  Ampris rolled Niruo’s paralyzed body over and pulled Foloth out from under him. The cub was alive. His eyes were huge in his misshapen face, and although his mouth stayed open he made no sound. Ampris sniffed him and felt his arms and legs rapidly, finding no injuries. She thumped him on his back, and heard the air whoosh back into his lungs.

  Foloth screwed up his face and yelled with all his might.

  Relief overwhelmed her. She clutched his little body tight and rocked him, weeping with joy.

  The Kelth gripped her shoulder, shaking her, spinning her around. “Goldie! Goldie, you’re alive!”

  She stared at Elrabin, unable to believe he was there. Surely she was hallucinating. Maybe the zeron was starting to get to her; she could smell the companion gas, thick enough now to make her choke and sneeze. Elrabin could not possibly be here, not now, not when she most needed him. Yet it was his narrow face she saw. It was his hand gripping her arm. “You,” she said in amazement, staring up at him over the top of Foloth’s head. A broad grin parted her jaws. “You!”

  Elrabin yipped, his eyes dancing. “Hey, Goldie. Looks like you didn’t need no rescue after all.”

  “Rescue!” she said, her astonishment growing. “You came for me?”

  Behind him she glimpsed more shadowy figures bustling back and forth. One of them ran inside the office, brandishing an emergency ax. “Anything worth stealing in here?”

  Ampris opened her mouth, but Elrabin glanced around and said, “Lots. This be the jackpot. We’ll clear out, see, and let you get to it.”

  As he, Ampris, and Foloth went outside into t
he hallway, the computer blared overhead: “Warning, you have two minutes and nine seconds to evacuate. Warning, you have two minutes and eight seconds to evacuate.”

  “What’s happening here, Goldie?” Elrabin asked, his gaze darting around while one Reject ripped out the linkup with a shower of sparks and the one with the ax started hacking open the desk.

  Ampris drew in a rapid breath. “Zeron gas leak. We have to—”

  “Zeron!” Elrabin yipped. He yanked her away from the door. “We gotta get out. Now!”

  Ampris clutched Foloth tight, praying the others were safely away. She started limping down the hallway as fast as she could while Elrabin darted back to Ehssk’s office.

  Elrabin leaned inside. “Ruoyon!” he yelled. “Tell Sollusk it’s a zeron leak. The whole reactor may go.”

  Then he caught up with Ampris and put his hand in the center of her back to move her faster. “Come on, Goldie. Let’s pick it up.”

  “Warning,” the computer said. “One minute and two seconds to evacuate. One minute and one second to evacuate. One minute to evacuate.”

  Ampris’s leg gave under her. She stumbled, grunting heavily, and barely caught herself from falling. Elrabin gripped her arm with both hands and pulled her upright, while she hung on to Foloth.

  “Come on,” he panted. “Gods, zeron! Come on!”

  Ampris staggered forward, panting with pain. Her leg was dragging, failing to support her.

  “Go on,” she said, trying to hand Foloth to Elrabin while the cub spat and snapped at him. “Save my son—”

  “Save him yourself,” Elrabin said, putting his shoulder under her arm to support her and moving her forward. “You think I been through what I been through just to walk out on you now? What kind of stupid nolo you think I am?”

  Tears stung her eyes, and she wanted to hug him in gratitude. But there was no time for that. Gritting her teeth against the agony, she struggled on as fast as she could while the computer continued relentlessly:

  “Forty-nine seconds. Forty-eight seconds. Forty-seven seconds.”

  “Get out! Get out!” Elrabin yelled at the looters as they reached the reception section. But no one paid him much attention except to curse at him. Shrugging, Elrabin headed for the double air locks, urging Ampris on with every struggling step. He squinted against the snow blowing into their faces. “You do this?”