21 Shades of Night, page 122
“She jumped. Confirm, she jumped. Looks like she hit the lifeboat on the way down... but she might have landed there, too. Bring the boat around, have them check the water on the port side. And if anyone’s close, have them check deck...” He must have been counting. “...Four. If she made it onto the lifeboat, she would have tried to get back in there.” A pause. “No, there’s no blood. She might have bounced right into the water.”
Seconds later, the balcony door above me closed.
I was still standing there, fighting to keep from passing out, when the light came on in the room behind me. I turned my head, terrified out of my mind.
A little old lady stared at me, her wrinkled mouth ajar as she gaped at a face I could barely see reflected in the glass. She clutched a pearl handbag, still holding the drapery cord she must have pulled to get a view of the night sky out her west-facing balcony. I had what looked like two blackening eyes, a swollen cheek, cut and bleeding lips. I touched my forehead, forgetting her briefly as I focused on my reflection. My hairline was bleeding too.
I contemplated a story to get her to let me in, then simply turned, limping for the opposite balcony wall. Gripping the glass divider, I climbed, fighting not to cry out as I put part of my weight on my swollen knee to boost myself up.
Gripping the glass divider, I slid around it with one leg, then eased down until my butt rested on the railing of the next balcony over. I placed my feet on the terrace floor and staggered to the glass door. After trying the handle and finding it locked, I walked the length of that balcony and did the same on the other side.
I repeated this again seven more times.
Finally, I had to rest. I leaned on a glass door leading into a darkened stateroom... worried I could pass out from the pain in my knee.
As soon as I’d regained my breath, I yanked myself up, teeth gritted, shielding my light more thoroughly than I could remember doing.
It occurred to me that I hadn’t tried the door yet.
I gave it a tug. The glass slid smoothly on its track, unlocked.
My brief elation flattened as I thought through my options once I was back inside the ship. I had no way to get off, short of trying to drop one of the lifeboats, which didn’t seem like a realistic option. Whether I left the cabin or stayed, I ran the risk of being caught by roving bands of infiltrators... or clubbed to death by Frank and Norma Jean from Great Falls once the Rooks convinced them I’d tortured and killed their pet poodle, Mr. Bigglesworth.
Giving a dark kind of laugh, I eased through the gap in the balcony door.
The room was empty.
For a moment I just stared at the darkened space, fighting to catch my breath. Even if there was a way to do it safely, I couldn’t leave the ship. I needed to find Chan, or Eliah. I needed help.
I’d take the stairs.
If they already had Revik—
But I couldn’t think about Revik yet.
* * *
TERIAN STARED AT the VR shadow of the squad leader.
“I am confused,” he said. “Please explain, ‘you lost her’... I am not following.”
“Sir.” The squad leader grew audibly nervous. “We made visual contact and she rabbited. We tracked her to a stateroom—” He cut himself off, sensing the other’s impatience. “We’ll find her, sir. We’re doing thermal scans of the wake now, in the event she jumped or fell—”
“Fell. As in, fell off the ship.” Terian’s lips twisted in puzzlement, replicated in painstaking accuracy by his virtual avatar. “Really. So that’s a possibility? The planet’s only living telekinetic seer may have accidentally ‘fallen off’ a moving vessel into freezing cold salt water... to be chopped into small pieces for the seals to eat? We are exploring that option, yes?”
“Sir, I—”
“Do you have any idea what I will do to you, if that scenario eventuates?”
The infiltrator’s shadow fell silent.
Terian said, “Yes. Good. Now, I would like you to explore options other than the ‘falling off’ one you seem so fond of...”
“Yes, sir. Of course, we—”
Terian terminated the link.
As his physical vision cleared, he found himself staring around at a damaged segment of corridor on the fifth deck, illuminated only by the sickly glow of an organic yisso torch.
It looked like what it was—the scene of a prolonged gunfight in a relatively tight space. They’d locked him down in one segment of corridor, but it took more than an hour to subdue him from there. The pastel and gold ship’s interior was barely recognizable.
As the torch panned, the swath of light illuminated holes in plaster walls. One still smoked, but they had finally gotten the last of the guns away from him, too.
Terian’s extraction team stood in an uneven half circle now, staring down at a being that was finally on the ground, although still not fully unconscious. Two of the med techs hunched over him, trying to assess the damage to his nervous system, if any, from the third dart they’d finally hit him with.
“He wasn’t to be killed,” Terian muttered. He looked at the leader of the extraction team. “He wasn’t to be killed, Varlan... I said two darts. No more.”
“He was threatening to kill himself, sir,” Varlan replied. “It was a calculated risk.”
“He threatened to kill himself...?” Terian stared at his lead infiltrator, fighting to incorporate the new piece of information. “Why? Why would he do that?”
Varlan didn’t answer. Turning, he focused his eyes back on the downed seer.
Terian watched as Dehgoies raised his head, groping for a med tech, his eyes glassy from the drug. The young seer blanched, backing off. All of them had been unnerved by Dehgoies’s apparent imperviousness to the darts.
But Terian was familiar with his friend’s biological quirks.
Impatient, he pushed his way forward, kneeling by the dark head. He listened briefly to his muttered words, then clicked his fingers at one of the seers in the back.
“You... Legress. You are from Asia, yes? What language is this?”
A different voice answered, from closer. “Magadhi Prakrit, sir.”
Terian’s gaze swiveled. The male tech knelt behind the two working on Dehgoies’s abdomen. They lay a patch on his bare skin, trying to stop the bleeding.
“Is that a human language?” Terian said.
“Yes, sir. Old, though. Very old.”
“From where?”
“Nepal.” The Sark paused, seeing all eyes on him. “I recognize it from the camps, sir... they used some of the older languages as codes.” He smiled wryly. “That one was a particular favorite with the kneelers.” Seeing Terian’s gaze sharpen, the tech let his smile fade. “...It was supposedly the language the Buddha spoke. When he was alive.” He looked down at Dehgoies. “He must have learned it while he was imprisoned there. He’s about the right age.”
Terian raised an eyebrow. “Imprisoned? Why not a slaver, like yourself?”
The tech caught the edge in Terian’s choice of words.
Losing the smirk, he met Terian’s gaze. Swallowing, he glanced around, noting the flavor of hostility from the seers around him before he said,
“Smugglers didn’t use the language, sir. The prisoners did... so we couldn’t understand them. We learned enough to prevent them from organizing, but it was never in common use in the barracks.”
Terian motioned him forward. “What is he saying?”
The Sark crouched by the floor, lowering his head as Terian indicated.
After a pause, he said, “He’s apologizing to someone, sir. Saying he’ll do better... something about wanting to serve, that he’s ready to serve now.” The man lowered his ear to another broken stream of words. “No cave... he doesn’t want to go to the cave. A name... Merenj? Merenged? And something about wanting light, to touch light... I don’t fully understand that phrase sir, iltere ak selen’te dur... that’s old Prexci. I think something about the old God...”
The man leaned closer, straining to hear.
“He’s mixing languages... arendelan ti’ a rigalem... destiny is harder... isthre ag tem degri... to lead is... I think the word is sacrifice. It’s some kind of scripture.” Giving Terian an apologetic look, he said, “I’ve heard things like this before, from more arcane versions of the myths. I wouldn’t swear by the translation, though. It’s likely something local.”
“And you say Magadhi Prakrit is a human language?”
“Yes, sir. Human. The other is a bastardization of old Prexci... but I don’t think they spoke that at the camps. He must have gotten it somewhere else.”
Terian focused back on Dehgoies.
Slave camp. That didn’t fit anywhere in the biography of Dehgoies Revik he’d read, and Terian had read them all. Nor did he really believe his friend would have worked in one, either. Whatever Dehgoies’s ability to adjust ethical systems when it suited him, he never would have aligned with the worms to that extent.
Not for any amount of money.
He studied the angular face, noting its pallor. The blood on his hands shone a dark red, almost black in the light of the yisso. He’d lost so much his skin looked gray. He likely wouldn’t last the night, no matter what the techs did.
Still, caution seemed warranted.
Reaching into a pouch under his cloak, Terian pulled out a thick, organic, sight-restraint collar he’d commissioned specially for the purpose. Catching hold of Dehgoies’s hair, he lifted his head, sliding the collar around his neck. He clicked the ends together at the base of his skull, then bent down, opening a thumbnail latch to access a retinal scanner. He let the device scan his eyes, which it did, turning the skin of his friend’s neck briefly red.
When it clicked off, Terian tugged at the collar briefly, checking that the lock activated.
Feeling the stares, Terian looked up.
The lead tech looked affronted. “Sir, he’s hardly in a position to—”
“Continue to listen,” Terian told the other, ignoring the tech. “I want a record of everything he says. Translated and original. Every word... understood?”
The Sark gestured affirmative.
Terian started to rise to his feet when Dehgoies caught hold of his wrist. The long fingers clenched, ghostly white with streaks of blood.
“Terry.” He swallowed thickly. “Don’t hurt her.”
Terian could only stare, his jaw slack.
“Please, Terry. Don’t hurt her...”
Terian grinned. He couldn’t help it. He patted the other seer’s arm.
“Now, now, brother Revik. No need to beg this early in the game. We’re all friends here. I won’t hurt your best girl...”
The light eyes met his. His voice half-filled with liquid, a near whisper.
“I’ll kill you. Turn if I have to. Rip you apart. Feed you to yourself...”
Terian flinched, drawing back in spite of himself.
“I’ll remember,” the pale-eyed seer breathed. “All of it. I’ll find Feigran. You were afraid of me once...”
But Terian had heard enough. Using his headset, he activated the pulse.
Two, needle-like prongs slid out of the collar around Dehgoies’s neck, sinking wetly into the flesh at the base of his skull. The sensor lit up, the metal vibrating against white skin. Dehgoies blinked rapidly, wincing in pain as the prongs dug deeper into his neck. He tried to move his jaw.
Then he cried out.
The irises of his eyes ignited, like a spark to a pool of gasoline. The faint, almost invisible glow brightened rapidly to a shocking hue, turning a sharp, pale green that flickered like candle flames in the dim hall.
Cries sounded in the corridor as the other infiltrators reacted.
Terian heard yelled instructions, movement as guns were raised, but he couldn’t take his eyes off the glowing eyes of his downed friend.
Just when it occurred to him that the collar might not hold...
Dehgoies collapsed, as if all of his muscles in his arms and shoulders unclenched in the same instant.
The silence in the narrow hall grew deafening.
Terian glanced up. White faces stared at him from against the corridor walls. Several hunters stood with guns raised, fingers frozen near triggers.
“His eyes,” one said. “Did you see his eyes?”
“He’s mate to the Bridge...”
“He can’t be Sark, not with eyes like that...”
Mutters erupted from the group. Terian saw a few gestures warding off evil. He snapped his fingers at the techs.
“Stabilize his vitals. Now,” he added sharply, when they didn’t move.
Movement erupted around him as his words sank in.
Terian rose to his feet, glaring around at the group until guns lowered, and the murmuring ceased as they went back to work. The seer medical techs hunched back over the unconscious Dehgoies, fighting to keep him alive.
Terian watched as Varlan approached where he stood. An older seer, he had a wide, Asian-looking face that sported a long, jagged scar in a diagonal line from his chin to his almond eyes. He was one of the old ones, an infiltrator since before the time of humans. Terian had even heard rumors that Varlan was once trained by the Adhipan.
“General Advisor, sir.” Varlan eyed Dehgoies’s crumpled form. “You must be aware. Galaith had a particular interest––”
“Tell him he’s dead.”
Varlan didn’t blink. “And if he survives?” he said.
Terian gazed out over the group of infiltrators clustered by the far wall. His eyes came to rest on a tall Sark who stood at the back among the rest of the extraction team. Squinting up at the seer’s body proportions, he motioned him forward.
“What is your height, Endre?”
“Six-foot four, sir.”
“You have a clan tattoo?”
“Yes, sir.”
Terian plucked Varlan’s Mossberg casually from his fingers. Pointing it at the tall, black-haired seer, he shot him in the chest.
The hollow bullet blew out the back of his spine, spattering the wall with blood and bone, right before the seer crumpled, falling to his back.
One of the techs cried out in shock.
They stifled their own cry, getting a hard look from Terian. The others moved quickly out of the way, leaving Endre’s body alone in a cleared space of floor.
Terian handed the rifle back to Varlan.
“You have your answer,” he said. “I’ll take care of the labs, just make sure you destroy his face. Remove his teeth, if you can... and his hands.”
Terian saw Endre’s fingers convulse for his weapon. Stepping forward, he kicked away the gun, motioning to one of the other seers, who raised his own weapon, shooting Endre in the head. The seer’s arm stopped moving.
“Make sure he’s got the clan mark,” Terian added, glancing over his shoulder at Varlan. “That’s documented somewhere... and the sun and sword too.”
Varlan bowed, his eyes expressionless. “Yes, sir.”
Terian looked down at Dehgoies, frowning at the blood, the pallor of his skin.
He faced the others.
“Get him ready to be moved.” His eyes darkened as he stared around at faces. “I’ve decided my friend will survive this ordeal. You will make certain that he does.” His voice grew cold as ice. “If he dies... you all die.”
Chapter 21
FIRE
I LIMPED DOWN a darkened aisle, head low. I’d picked the movie theater because it was dark, and close to where the crew stairwell let out on the first floor deck.
Now I felt a little too Lee Harvey Oswald.
I reached a side exit, glancing up at the movie playing on the white screen as I grasped a door handle. I opened it, only remembering then that the light on the other side would make my outline visible to every person sitting in the dark theater.
I needn’t have worried. The attack didn’t come from behind.
Strong hands grabbed me, pulling me through the opening before my eyes could adjust, swinging me around and slamming my back against the wall. I heard the door close behind me with a bang.
The seer holding me turned me around, shoving my chest against the wall to bind my wrists. I jerked my elbow back, missing his face and he smacked mine against the same wall, stunning me. I managed to kick backwards a few seconds later, but he grabbed my leg and deliberately bent my hurt knee the wrong direction.
I screamed. Before I could get very far, he clamped a hand over my mouth, shoving me to the floor. I fell hard to the deck, sucking air.
It all happened so fast I couldn’t move at first.
Standing over me, he reached over his shoulder, pulled out a black metal rod. An arc of current sparked from one end.
Staring up at it, I gave a kind of choking laugh. “Jesus...” Gripping the floor with my fingers, I tried to crawl away. He kicked me in the stomach. As I crumpled to a fetal position, gasping for air, he lowered the prod, aiming it for my back.
Shots echoed in the small corridor.
Two volleys followed, one after the other, barely a breath between them.
I flattened myself to the deck, flinching as bullets pushed air in a rush over me. The guy who’d been on the verge of jabbing me with a cattle prod lay sprawled on his back. I didn’t have to look for long to know he was dead.
Down the hall, another seer lay on the floor, one I hadn’t seen, although he must have stood there, watching as I failed to fight off the first guy. He lay on the floor too, holding his chest, making choking sounds. I stared at his blood-covered hands.
Then I turned. Briefly, my heart lifted, sure it would be him.
But the man who lowered the gun had two different colored eyes. His full lips curled into a frown as he released the empty magazine from the still-smoking Berreta, replacing it with a fresh one. Locking it into place, he motioned for me to get up, holding out a hand.
“Come on, love,” Eliah said. “No time to get teary.”
I tried to comply, but my knee wouldn’t cooperate. I got halfway up before it crumpled, and I let out an involuntary cry.
Walking closer, Eliah slid a shoulder under my arm, still holding the gun. He brought me to my feet, then through a side door marked “Crew Only.”
