Jungle (Colony Book 2), page 98
“Or removed from them,” Anna said, setting a reassembled rifle aside. “Anything else?”
He shook his head. “We don’t have access to much here. Aside from a few searches, there’s not much that I can do.”
Anna nodded. “Fine, then here’s what I want you to do. Queue up another couple of fuel tanks for the throwers. Yellow, plus one orange. I’d consider letting you bring the Uno, but that’s a support weapon, and I want us all sticking together, so if you’re still good carrying a Rezzer …?”
“I am.”
“Then I’ll make sure we’re ready. You should go get some sleep.”
“Botha—”
“When she arrives, I’ll set her up. I’ve got this.” She gave him a smile. “Just get some sleep and some food, and be ready in the morning.”
She hefted another reassembled weapon. “Because tomorrow’s going to be a long day, one way or another.”
Chapter 29
Anna found the commander in the botany hab once more, adding her skills to those of the team members already present. The door shut with a faint hiss of air as she closed it behind her, the negative pressure of the room working to seal the entrance without much effort on Anna’s part. A few of the team members looked up, if only for a moment, and Anna didn’t miss the look of angry disapproval they shot her way at the sight of her. Likely they were still testy over the way she’d pulled a gun on them at the meeting the night before.
They can deal with it, she thought, folding her arms and waiting for Ikeda to finish what she was working on with Lankiss. The pair were huddled over one of the machines, speaking quietly but quickly about something on one of the displays. Had one of them cracked, they would have understood why. Then again, maybe not even then. People who—for the lack of a better term—were sheltered from some of the harder aspects of life often had a difficult time actually accepting them once they made an appearance in their own lives. They knew they existed—she doubted that any of the team weren’t aware what sort of shadowy things went on around the corners—but facing them so abruptly sometimes had a tendency to slide off.
It was telling that the only team member who seemed to bear no resentment at all for her actions was Lankiss. Then again, the microbiologist was from Hades, so it was understandable. Of the group, she was the only one that had probably been held at gunpoint before, and not just by random thugs either. By official ones.
Anna took a quick look around the botany hab while she waited, letting her eyes slide over the various hard light displays and large, expensive-looking pieces of equipment. The place looked, smelled, and felt sterile, the white sheen of the walls almost matched by the crisp quality to the air. Here and there she could see small samples of plant material held carefully behind thick security glass, manipulator arms hanging above and below them like predatory insects. Blinking lights atop each containment unit showed that the vessels were being powered—apparently to keep them cool. A nearby unit held row after row of small sample vials containing what looked like a gooey ichor.
That must be the goop that some of those earlier samples broke down into, Anna thought as her eyes came full circle back to the commander. She and Lankiss were still discussing something, though from the way Lankiss’ eyes had narrowed, it wasn’t in any sort of agreement. The commander shook her head, followed by Lankiss, and Anna, keeping her face flat, focused in on their conversation, picking out a few words over the hum of the lab’s equipment and the other inhabitants.
“—the eye to look again. None of those readings made any sense!” Lankiss was saying as she adjusted something on the display they were standing by.
“I’m sorry, Naomi,” the commander said. “But we need to move the eye to give us a better view of that city and check the valley around here on any chance that we can pick out the thermal signatures of those cocoon trees from orbit. Yes, anomalous readings in general are not a good thing, but if we tried to figure out everything anomalous on this planet at once we’d overload even an AI. There’s just too much that doesn’t make sense, and those mountains readings don’t rate very highly right now on our list.”
“Commander,” Lankiss said, shaking her head before her eyes widened and she pointed at something on the display. “Oh, hang on, try narrowing in on that—yes, that part. But commander,” she said, her eyes snapping back to Ikeda. “I’d argue that of all the possible anomalies we should be looking at, this should be one of them.”
“You’ve clearly got a reason you believe in,” Ikeda replied. “Let’s hear it.”
“Because the only sort of geologic corollary we have that can explain these changes,” Lankiss said, her voice growing slightly quieter. “Is a volcanic eruption.”
Ikeda paused, and Anna noted that she wasn’t the only one. Silva’s hands had frozen for just a moment.
“How many mountains—?” Ikeda began, but Lankiss spoke before the woman could finish.
“Over six-hundred,” she said, her voice solemn. “I don’t have complete data, however, due to the eye’s orbit and other priorities, so it could be more. A lot more. The entire chain circling the planet’s equator.”
“Well,” Ikeda said after a moment’s stunned silence. “I wish you had led with that, rather than simply telling me the mountains were becoming anomalous.”
“Then I have erred, commander,” Lankiss said. “And must apologize. On Hades everyone understands that when someone says a geological fixture massing in at upwards of a billion tons is acting strange, that’s generally all anyone needs to know.”
“An understandable point,” Ikeda said, pulling her hands away from the display. “Damn. Another dead end. But fine.” She brought her head up, her attention turning toward Lankiss and sending her long, blonde braid bouncing across her shoulders. “Permission given. Get everything you need on the belt and then check the mountains around us. The hab’s hardy enough to survive an ashwinter, but it won’t survive being buried under molten rock. Get what you need.”
“Thank you, Kaori,” Lankiss said, gathering up a datapad. “I’ll update the eye now.” The conversation over, she turned and walked out of the lab, passing Anna without a spare glance.
Volcanoes. Only years of careful practice kept her face from showing any of the emotions running through her at the moment. Lovely. One more thing to worry about then, behind an empty city and a jungle that seemed to be pulling new, very-likely deadly surprises out of its branches at every available opportunity.
Worry later, Anna thought as Ikeda turned to look at her, one corner of her mouth taking a slight downward tack. There are more vital things to worry about at the moment.
“Ms. Neres,” Ikeda said, and there was no mistaking the cool tone undercutting her voice. “I thought you would have been in the armory, getting Botha outfitted for your walkabout to Livingstone?”
“I’m wearing my skinsuit,” Anna said, tapping at her shoulder with one hand. “I can be in full kit in a minute. Jake is currently leading Botha through an explanation of the functions and capacities of her new security suit. He can also educate her on the finer points of her armament in case I don’t return in time to do so.”
“I see,” Ikeda said, giving a faint nod. “So I assume I have the open sky of it that you need to talk with me?”
Anna clasped her hands behind her back. “Yes s—ma’am, I do. In private, preferably.”
Ikeda’s faint frown grew more pronounced. “If it’s an apology for last—”
“Respectfully,” Anna said, trying not to grit her teeth. “It’s not. It’s important, commander.”
Ikeda pursed her lips, definitely displeased, but then nodded. “Very well, we can speak in the hall.” She turned away from the display she’d been working with and stepped past Anna without a further glance.
Another burned bridge, Anna thought as she followed the commander out, feeling the faint rush of incoming air sweeping across her face as she left. The door sealed behind her with another sucking rush of air. But better a bridge burned than a team dead.
“All right,” Ikeda said, wasting no time with pleasantries. “What do you need, Neres?”
Part of her wanted to say something about the cold treatment, but there were more important matters. She opened her mouth.
“The bio-hab’s defenses were probed last night,” she said, folding her arms across her chest.
“What?” Ikeda’s expression of displeasure vanished in a heartbeat. “How? When? Why I haven’t I heard about it?”
“Well, for starters,” Anna said, her voice flat. “Because a ‘probe’ is not the same thing as an ‘attack.’ And to be more clear, because I myself didn’t notice until I was going over some of the footage from last night and noticed the pattern, so you are hearing about it. And lastly, if I had held it back—which I haven’t—I would do it because I had a reason. By counterpoint, last night is one of the reasons I can trust to come to you with something like this.”
“But can I trust you?” Ikeda shot back, anger finally breaking across her delicate features. “You pointed a loaded weapon at my face! Threatened to kill me!”
“Shoot you,” Anna said, fighting the urge to roll her eyes.
“What?” Ikeda pulled back, confusion poking through the veneer of anger on her face.
“Shoot you, not kill you,” Anna said. “I said nothing about kill, though the option was on the table. A tap of the trigger, one bullet to the leg … Nothing fatal. Just debilitating. Though I didn’t even need that.” She narrowed her eyes, locking them with Ikeda as she took a step forward. “Even if someone in that room had been a plant, which would have meant they likely would have been augmented, I would have been able to take them down in hand-to-hand combat, provided I got to them before they took a hostage.”
“You threatened us with a deadly weapon,” Ikeda replied. “You—”
“Commander, let’s get something straight,” Anna said, shaking her head. “I am a deadly weapon. Do you understand that? Because I don’t think you do. You’re used to having regular people as your security. Do you know what I’m capable of?” She spun abruptly and drove her fist into the wall, a loud bang echoing through the hab as her fist plowed into the metal. By the time the shock of the impact had registered on Ikeda’s face, Anna had already turned back to face her.
“That is what I can do,” Anna said, pointing at the sizable imprint her fist had left. “That might leave me with a bit of a bruise.” In truth, her hand stung, but she ignored it. “I don’t need to carry a gun into the conference room to be capable of killing everyone in there. I’m that capable all on my own. Unarmed. Without a skinsuit on.”
“Why bring a gun in and point it at your head?” She took a careful step forward, not wanting to trigger too much of a fear response from the commander, but enough to hopefully get her point across. “Because a gun is something you recognize. You know what a gun can do, and on some level respect it. You don’t know what I can do, nor respect that.”
“I needed to know I could trust you,” she said, narrowing her eyes. “And everyone else in that room. And I needed to know right then. I couldn’t be in there explaining how I’d found what looks like a plan to kill us all without knowing if someone else in that room was part of that plan.”
“And maybe there still is. Jake is good, but he’s not perfect. He can’t watch everyone. Neither can I. But after last night, while you may be upset with me, at least I can trust you a lot further to not stick a knife in everyone else’s backs at the worst possible moment. I still can’t say that the possibility isn’t there. For all I know you’re augmented too, and just a really good actor. Or Silva is. Or someone else on the crew. But right now? That gun got most of you to go right to panicked compliance and a little bit of frantic truth. So I understand that you’re upset with me about it. You don’t like being threatened, or made aware of what sort of situation you’re really in. But at the end of the day, commander, if I wanted any of you dead, there’s not one of you that could stop me. So if you don’t want deadly weapons in your conference room, then you’re going to have to ban me from entering it.”
She leaned back, giving the air a moment to clear before speaking again. “But personally, commander, I wouldn’t advise that. The fact that you and most of the team are upset with me just goes to show how out of your depth you are. You’re scientists, not warriors or covert operatives.”
“But Jake and I are,” she said, stressing the word. “And you need to trust us. Even if you don’t like our methods, understand that we do what we do because we have a lot of experience doing it. We did what we did last night because we needed to see the shock, to see who really was caught completely by surprise when everything came crashing on them at once … and who wasn’t. Do you understand? Jake and I—and especially me—we make hard decisions. Decisions normal people hope to never have to deal with. And right now, our hard decisions are made with the goal of getting as many of you home safely as possible.” She took a deep breath, the air filling her chest and sending a welcome rush through her body. She let it out slowly, then looked at Ikeda’s shocked face.
“Do you understand now, commander? Disagree with what we do, but right now I can’t afford to have you letting your anger cloud your judgement, and neither can you.”
The hallway went quiet as she finished speaking, her brief tirade over. The commander opened her mouth once, then twice, but didn’t speak. Instead, she put the tips of her fingers together, palms facing each other, elbows out straight, and then gave Anna a slow nod, her eyes cast downward.
“I apologize,” she said, not looking up. “You’re right. I wasn’t thinking of the full sky. I ask for your pardon at my anger.”
“Uh …” It was clearly a formal method of apology from the commander’s homeworld. Am I supposed to respond in kind, or …? She opted for the simplest, most neutral response. “Given.”
“Thank you,” Ikeda said, her head rising once more. Her hands broke apart, arms once again returning to her sides with a shake of her head. Her eyes once again swept up to look at Anna, but the hint of anger was gone, replaced by something that looked almost like weariness. “All right, you were saying that the hab was probed?”
Anna nodded, her shoulders relaxing slightly. “Last night. Mostly while Jake was watching, but there were a few more during the night as well.”
“While Jake was watching?” Ikeda replied, surprised. “And he didn’t notice?”
“No,” Anna said. “Though to be fair, I almost didn’t either. It was clever … Very clever.”
“How so?”
“Last night, during the storm, there were several instances of branches and leaves breaking free of the canopy and being carried into the sonic fence.”
The commander nodded. “And?”
“See, that’s what almost got me,” Anna said, shaking her head. “And why Jake didn’t notice. But it wasn’t until I was checking the logs this morning that it occurred to me. Commander, how often after a storm—or during one—have we seen debris?”
“I …” Ikeda’s mouth snapped shut, her face coloring slightly. “We haven’t.”
“No,” Anna agreed, giving her a slow nod. “We haven’t. That’s one of those weird things about this place: No dead branches on the forest floor, no twiggy branches getting torn free by the storms … just one more bit of alien weirdness. Except last night, we had that happening.”
“It was a much stronger storm than normal,” Ikeda suggested, and Anna nodded in agreement.
“It was,” she said. “But I thought of that too, so I checked. Do you know how many branches and leaves were torn—or perhaps cut—free last night?”
“No.”
“According to the sensors,” Anna said. “Fifty-seven. Now guess how many of those found their way into our defenses or over them?”
There was a short pause, and then Ikeda answered. “All of them?”
“Yeah,” Anna said, watching as the words sunk on the commander’s face. “All of them. Not a single one went past us or ended up somewhere else in the clearing. All of them either collided with the fencing or went over the top of it. The clearing around us? Clean.”
“So …” Ikeda said, her forehead wrinkling. “It was deliberate?”
Anna nodded. “I can’t say how, because I went over that footage looking for signs of hoppers and couldn’t see any, so maybe it was something smaller. I don’t even know how they were all so targeted—I mean we’re talking gusts of wind, shears … Not one of those leaves or branches missed. Not. One. Some went right into the electric prongs, others into different locations on the fence. And never the same place more than twice. The hab’s computers would take some time to do that, and they’d need some very precise measurements beforehand to get a tumbling leaf through that kind of storm.”
At that, Ikeda’s expression changed, a look of perplexed curiosity coming over her face. “What?” Anna asked.
“I … I’m not sure,” the commander said. “Wells was talking about something a little while ago, something to do with how something she was looking at had given her an odd response from the computers. Something about rapid-fire calculations. I’d need to ask her about it, since don’t know the full details of what she was talking about, but …” Ikeda shook her head. “It was something new she found this morning. I was working on another part. I’ll ask her about it.”
“Well, do. Either way, though, I think last night we were definitely probed somehow. Something was testing our defenses. And I don’t know if you’ve looked outside …”
“I haven’t.”
She nodded. Makes sense. She’s been busy. “Well, I have, and so has Jake. And while neither of us can see anything …”
“You feel like something’s watching?” Ikeda finished.
Anna nodded. “Yes. No proof. Just a gut instinct.” And a creepy, crawling sensation moving down my spine, she added mentally. “Anyway, I need to get going, but I wanted you to be aware of it. If something happens, lock-down the hab—total isolation—and arm up. And activate the distress beacon. I’ll pick that up before anything else when we’re coming back.”
