K’ebero quickly strode over to him, dropping to one knee. “Yes? Are you finally ready to stop lying?”
Berhanu’s bloody lips moved, but Estelle couldn’t make out any words. K’ebero raised a hand and snapped her fingers. One of the guards approached, handing her a canteen, and she pressed it to Berhanu’s lips. Most of the water spilled over his chin, but his throat worked to swallow some.
After a few seconds she pulled the canteen away. “Now. Tell me.”
“The…the Ark…” His voice was mushy and barely a whisper, nearly lost beneath the cracks coming from the shooting range. “We told the Kohen to hide it.”
“We,” K’ebero repeated. “You and the American who came before?”
Berhanu nodded. Estelle felt her breath catch. What?
“Where is it hidden?” K’ebero demanded.
“Dungur.”
“The palace,” K’ebero breathed. “Of course.” Then she frowned. “But we searched --”
“There is a chamber, a cavern. It cannot be found if you do not know where to look. It is there…hidden.”
“Let me get this straight,” Rick said loudly, sounding annoyed. “You knew the Ark wasn’t going to be at the church, and yet you let us go there anyway?”
Berhanu lifted his face, not to look at Rick, but to squint at Estelle. It was hard to read any sort of expression beneath the swelling, but his voice was full of remorse. “I am sorry. I -- I did not know if I could trust you. I had to see…”
Estelle swallowed, unsure of what to say, still trying to make sense of it. All this could have been avoided, if only Berhanu had been truthful from the beginning. Why did everyone feel the need to lie to her?
K’ebero drew a deep breath, standing. “Thank you, Berhanu Abraham. Today you serve the true people of Ethiopia. Today, you have freed yourself from the shackles of your masters.”
“Please,” he said. “Let them go. You have what you want.”
“These people are trespassers. Outsiders, come to steal from my kingdom. That cannot go unpunished.” She paused. “But I am not unfair. Once the Ark is in my possession…I will consider sparing their lives.”
Berhanu’s head dropped to his chest.
“Still,” she continued, turning towards Rick. “I no longer need your services.”
“You do if he’s lying,” Rick said at once.
“If he is lying, then you will all die, one after the other, until I get the truth from him or put a bullet in his own brain.” Her eyes narrowed. “I do not think I will be letting you out of my sight, however. You and Berhanu Abraham will come with us to Dungur, to help us find the Ark, and to be where I can easily keep you on a leash.”
She turned to Estelle and Booker. “You will remain here, watched by my soldiers. Should any of you make trouble, the others will suffer for it.”
“And Kai?” Rick said. “I’m not going anywhere until I’ve had a chance to see him.”
At this K’ebero smiled.
* * *
She led them to the outskirts of the camp, north away from the hill and the noise of the shooting range. Here was another complex of shipping containers, arranged in stacks three-high. As they drew closer, Rick realized it wasn’t a solid block of the things but a ring. There was an opening in the side facing them, currently barred by a gate, that led to what looked almost like an arena. He didn’t like the look of it.
“Kai’s here?” Rick asked.
K’ebero didn’t answer. They rounded the ring complex clockwise, until they came to a second entrance that had been created by removing the ends of a container that sat perpendicular to the rest, pointing inwards. A single soldier stood guard outside it; he saluted as K’ebero approached and stepped aside, eyeing Rick, Estelle, and Hopkins as they passed.
The interior of the container was strung with lights. At the far end it opened onto a small space between the inner and outer walls of the arena. Facing them were another pair of containers laid perpendicular to the walls. The one on the right looked much as their own prisons had; the one on the left, however, appeared to have been reinforced with extra sheets of metal welded onto the door and heavy chains draped across it.
It was then that he noticed the smell. It reminded Rick of something he couldn’t quite place. A farm, maybe. Was this arena a pen of some sort? Was she keeping Kai with the livestock?
“Where is he?”
In answer, K’ebero pulled a large ring of keys from her pocket and undid the lock on the door of the right container. She pulled it open, revealing a large shadow slumped against one wall.
“Kai!”
For one horrible moment, he didn’t move. Then, with a snort, Kai awoke. He shifted and stretched like a dog, then stood laboriously and shuffled into the light. Rick heard Estelle gasp. Splotches of sickly yellow and deep purple covered his face. Still, he didn’t look half as bad as Berhanu had.
“Hey,” Kai rasped. “Was wondering when they’d trot you out here.”
“Trust me, I’ve been trying. The service is awful.”
Kai managed a smile, which became a grimace of pain. “Ah, shit. I feel like a mushy banana.”
“You look like one, actually.”
“As you can see,” K’ebero said, “he is quite alive.”
“Yeah.” Rick rounded on her. “Barely.”
She regarded him coolly. “He killed two of my men. Had I placed him anywhere else in the compound, it is likely he would have been torn apart by now. Instead, he is here, safely where my soldiers know they cannot touch him.”
Kai grunted. “So I should be thanking you?”
“You should. I have been quite generous. You are alive. You will remain so for as long as you and your friends behave. But should you do anything to disrupt my camp, or should your friend sabotage our search for the Ark, I will have him --”
“Yeah, yeah.” Rick mimed putting a gun to his head and pulling the trigger. “I get how this works.”
K’ebero’s expression became a smile. Rick didn’t like that. “Actually, you do not.” She moved towards the second shipping container, the one that was reinforced. “You, I will shoot. Berhanu Abraham, I will shoot. Eventually. But your friends --” She gestured to Kai, Estelle, and Hopkins. “Will suffer a different fate. One you will be forced to witness.”
K’ebero unlocked a small window slot in the door and drew it open. She beckoned them closer. Hesitantly, Rick approached. That smell grew stronger, wafting from the interior of the container. At a motion from K’ebero he peered through the slot.
Only a few beams of light pierced the darkness, shining through the air holes that had been punched into the container. By their light he could see something -- something big. It was curled up on the floor and appeared to be sleeping. He could hear its breath, a rumbling sound. The smell coming from inside the container made his eyes water.
“Several months ago,” K’ebero said, sounding almost conversational, “I intercepted a shipment that was intended for the criminal who calls himself the Prime Minister of Ethiopia. I did not know what to expect, but when I opened it I could hardly say I was surprised. It was a symbol of all that is wrong with this nation, this world. Frivolous excess and ostentation, for no reason other than the pleasure of those few who hold all the wealth. She frightened some of my soldiers. They wanted to kill her, said she was an affront to nature. I decided to put her to better use.”
In a small voice, Rick heard Estelle ask, “What is it?”
“Adanyi,” K’ebero said. “My huntress.”
She banged the butt of her pistol against the door, a loud clanging that made Rick jump. The thing inside snorted grumpily, and then got ponderously to its feet to see what was making all that noise. It was roughly pony-sized, if ponies had a coat of dark brown-and-white striated feathers, two powerful hind legs, a tail as thick as a tree trunk, and a neck like a serpent. The head at the end was shaped like an arrow’s point, red plumage flaring along the top of the skull. The ground shook beneath it
s footfalls, glistening black claws clicking sharply against the metal. One large yellow eye flashed in the light as it turned towards the door.
“An aviraptor,” Estelle breathed, appearing at his side to peer through the slot. She sounded both terrified and awed. “We make them, but I’ve never actually seen --”
With an ear-splitting shriek it leapt at the door, clawed forearms reaching, jaws stretched wide to reveal needle-like teeth, hissing in a way that made Rick want to find a solitary corner to curl up in and piss himself. The door visibly bulged as the aviraptor slammed against it, snarling. Estelle screamed and they both stumbled backwards. The shipping container continued to shake and rock as it thrashed around, seeking a way out. It seemed only a matter of time until it found one.
“Rick,” Kai said tonelessly, standing just outside his own container.
“Yeah?”
“Is that a dinosaur?”
He nodded, heart galloping in his throat. “Sure is.”
“You’ve gotta be kidding,” Hopkins breathed.
“Adyani is my most loyal soldier,” K’ebero said as the aviraptor continued to throw a fit. She stepped towards the door and reached a hand through the window slot. Almost immediately the dinosaur calmed down and began to make a soft cooing sound. “She was bred for it, you see. A genetic toy created by your scientists to imprint upon just one person. I made certain that person was me.”
K’ebero spoke in a soft, soothing voice, apparently for the benefit of her pet. Without raising it she said, “You will help me find the Ark, or your friends will be placed into the arena with my Adyani. It has been some time since she was allowed to hunt.”
Twenty-One
NPAFE Camp
Axum, Ethiopia
K’ebero’s army mobilized with a speed that shocked Estelle. It was like watching a massive ant colony, previously sedentary, explode into frenzied activity. The exercise yard and shooting range emptied as soldiers joined either the expeditionary force or the contingent remaining behind. Trucks and military Humvees emerged from shipping containers, loaded down with equipment. All of it seemed to be self-assembling, requiring no barked orders from K’ebero, as if the entire NPAFE had been training for this exact moment.
Estelle was only able to briefly observe this, however. Not long after the frenzy began, she and Booker were rounded up by a group of guards and herded back to the large arena-like structure where Kai was being kept. Before leaving the main camp she glimpsed Rick and Berhanu entering one of the Humvees. They were at gunpoint, and Berhanu still looked miserable, but she couldn’t help suspect Rick was right where he wanted to be. She wished she could have spoken to Berhanu, to ask him why he had lied -- but then the vehicle door slammed shut, and he vanished from view.
“Inside,” said one of the guards, motioning towards the open shipping container. Booker gave the man a long searching look, but offered no resistance. Estelle followed before she could be prompted.
“Welcome to my pad,” Kai said as they entered. He was seated at the far end, one leg stretched out before him. He seemed far too large for the container. “I’d offer you a drink, but -- oh.”
The guards had tossed three bottles of water after them, one for each prisoner. It spoke to an exceptional degree of cruelty, that she and the others would be kept alive only so they could be fed to K’ebero’s pet. Still, Estelle seized on one of the bottles at once.
“Easy,” Booker said as she drank with abandon. “We don’t know how long we’ll be in here. Might need to make these last.”
“I don’t think time is anything we need to worry about,” Kai said.
The door was slammed shut, plunging them into a stifling darkness. It seemed to flip a switch in Estelle’s brain. All at once she was keenly aware of her body, of the beating of her heart and the sweat on her skin. She could smell the air inside the container intensely, the musk of the others -- and the stench of the aviraptor being kept next door. A memory of flashing teeth and claws bulled its way into her mind, unbidden.
“Kai,” she said, whispering for no reason she could understand. “Can we trust Rick to not give K’ebero any reason to feed us to her pet?”
“Sure. Not intentionally, at least.”
Both she and Booker turned to look at him. “What does that mean?” Booker asked sharply.
Still seated on the floor, Kai shrugged. “Rick’s got a different way of thinking. He’s not an idiot, but if he sees an opportunity to settle things on his terms, he’ll take it. Pretty sure he won’t do that unless he’s absolutely sure it won’t get us eaten, though.”
Estelle let out a long, shaky breath, settling down into a squat. “Great. No offense, but I really wish I’d never met either of you.”
“I get it. If it makes you feel better, we were promised a bonus if nobody got killed during the job. And Rick really wants that bonus.”
“That -- doesn’t make me feel better. At all.”
“All we have to do is keep our heads,” Booker said. He was clearly trying to sound more positive than he felt. “If the worst should happen, we work together. Maybe we’ll be able to confuse the thing, outsmart it.”
A snort came from the aviraptor’s container, and they felt it shift against the wall. Nobody spoke until it had gone still.
“You said you made these things,” Kai said to Estelle. “You mean Radical Dynamics?”
She nodded. “Bioengineering division. We actually pioneered de-extinction through the creation of genetic chimeras.”
“I’m so glad,” Booker muttered.
“Well I didn’t know I was going to be fed to one someday,” she snapped. “Or that they would fall into the hands of crazed warlords. The thinking was that, by resurrecting animals from extinct eras, we might be able to gain insight into biological adaptations from more extreme climates and apply them to biomimetic technology.”
“And how’s that going?”
“I don’t know, it’s not my field.” She paused. “Mostly I think we’ve just ended up selling them to zoos and theme parks. It’s provided Radical Dynamics with a lot of revenue, but…”
“Not a whole lot of scientific insight,” Booker finished. “I never understood your guys’ strategy. Just chuck stuff at a wall and see what sticks?”
“Pretty much.” Estelle sat, leaning against one side of the container, and removed her shoes. She wrinkled her nose. “Sorry. But my feet have been killing me. I suppose I’ll want these when I have to run for my life.”
Booker sat as well, his long frame filling the container almost as much as Kai’s. None of them spoke for a while, merely sitting in the heavy still air and contemplating what lay ahead. Estelle took a few more drinks of water, but was careful to limit herself to a sip. It was probably pointless to worry, as Kai had said, but in a way it kept her optimistic. If she could convince herself that water conservation was a pressing issue, then she could convince herself she’d be alive to suffer from dehydration later.
There was no way to track the time, which gave everything a dislocated, dreamlike quality. Had K’ebero’s caravan left already? Had enough time passed to find the Ark? Would it even be there?
The air continued to thicken, growing so warm it hardly felt breathable, amplified no doubt by the two extra bodies in here. Eventually Booker and Kai both removed their shirts. Estelle wished she could do so, then chided herself for worrying about something so meaningless as modesty at a time like this, and pulled her blouse over her head. Both men pointedly avoided looking at her, but she could hardly care. The faint breeze that wafted through the air holes felt wonderful on her skin.
“I have a dog,” Kai said eventually, speaking as if continuing a conversation. “Amy. She’s a pitbull. They get bad reps, you know, even still, but it’s bullshit. It all comes down to how they’re treated. People talk about dogs looking like their owners, but it goes deeper than that. They’ll reflect the personality as well. If an asshole owns the dog, then the dog becomes a monster. Deep down, though, it
’s just an animal looking to be part of a pack.”
Booker’s eyes were closed, his head resting against the wall. “And you think the aviraptor has been treated well by these rebels?”
“Probably not,” Kai said sadly. “Half of them see it as a freak, the other half some kind of weapon or fucked-up form of entertainment. It’s an animal, is all I’m saying. A living thing. It adapts to its environment to survive. Can’t help being what people made it.”
“I’ll keep that in mind when it’s chewing on my leg,” Booker said.
Estelle was watching Kai. His long hair hung over his face in sweaty strands, obscuring his eyes. But there was something in his voice that made her wonder if he wasn’t really talking about the aviraptor or his dog. Something inside his massive exterior almost seemed apologetic. Regretful.
It would have been easy to be mad at the both of them. To be mad at Berhanu, her father -- everyone, really. Including herself, for allowing herself to get caught up in something like this. Yet all Estelle felt right now was tired. Tired of looking back, of regretting. When facing the strong possibility of a very unpleasant death, what did it matter how she had gotten here? Regret was a luxury for the living.
Just survive, she told herself, closing her eyes against the heat. Survive the next minute. The next hour. The next day. Then you can worry about who to blame.
Softly, the aviraptor chirped.
* * *
The caravan travelled away from the camp, circling the large hill in a southeastern arc. It wasn’t a leisurely drive. They avoided roads, instead winding between copses of trees and bouncing in and out of ditches and dried river beds, tires chewing across gravel-strewn fields. Rick watched from the backseat of the Humvee through tinted windows as they rounded the large hills, houses dotting the slopes and shining white as limestone in the bright midday sun. Eventually they joined a narrow road that took them south through extensive fields of struggling farmland.
There was more life out here than there had been in the city, though admittedly that had been at the crack of dawn. Still, it surprised Rick to see people working the fields and guiding oxen across the road. He was even more surprised when many of those people waved at the passing caravan and, in the front passenger seat, K’ebero rolled down her window to wave in return.
A Covenant of Thieves Page 37
