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I hit the surface of the dock hard, purple water and lifeless bartoks gushing out of the container with me. There was a splashing sound as some of the contents hit water beyond my head. Without thinking, I slithered out of the tube and followed, headfirst, off the dock.
The cold water was a shock after the warm contents of the cylinder, but I managed to control my gasp reflex as I flailed for something to catch on to. The fingertips of one hand scraped slime-covered rock. I lunged toward it, thrusting my fingers into the shallow crevices of the wharf, and pushed upward to keep my face clear of the water. The lid from the container bobbed, top down, an arm's length to my left. For a second I thought about trying to shelter under it, but I lacked the swim skills to stay afloat. The light source for the chamber was somewhere high above and off to one side, throwing the water directly beneath the stone lip of the wharf into dark shadows, so I cringed close to the rough surface and waited.
A few more flashes of silent, deadly red played over the arched stone ceiling as the attackers finished their murderous task. Seeing the chamber's surfaces and dimensions in the flickers, I realized the place was another ancient stone cistern similar to the one we'd passed through on our way to the Cheel. My toes curled at the thought of how deep the water lay beneath my feet.
The lifeless body of a bartok sailed off the dock to plop into the water a meter out to my left.
"Filthy rot," a scratchy voice said above me.
"Ser?" My translator said the word inside my head, but my ears picked up the creaking, chittering sound in the echoes of the vast chamber.
Endar.
"Leave it all," the being standing over my head ordered. "Let it remind the skulking vermin the Endar Primacy controls what happens here."
A thin, intense beam of light sliced the container cover in half. The clicking above me sounded extremely satisfied as the pieces bobbed on the surface of the water. "We go."
I slid beneath the water and waited, fingers clawed into the cracks until I thought they had enough time to leave. I re-emerged to silence. After waiting another couple of minutes, I worked along the wall to a small jetty and pulled myself up. Eight mounds of lifeless cloth, mixed with dead eels, smashed crates and equipment littered the stone surface.
Red meant the Endar weapons were set to kill, making it pointless to check for survivors. I sighed as I looked around. This place was probably another maze of tunnels. How the hell was I supposed to find the way out with my escort dead?
I should go the opposite direction of the Endar. Unfortunately, I had no idea which way that was.
Realizing the Endar must have picked up the ragpiles' activity on some type of monitoring equipment, I crawled across the surface to the mounds beside the overturned bartok cylinder. Every moment I lingered increased the possibility of someone returning to find me, but if I planned to wander these tunnels as innocuously as possible, I needed something to cover the cobalt blue of my shipskins.
Tazers do not break the skin, so there was no blood on the ragpiles' clothes, and the cleanest ones would make the best disguise. I tugged and pulled, wrestling with the Frairy boss man's body while I vowed to buy a more discreet color of shipskins when I got back to Human space. Gray or nude—or something.
I salvaged several loose garments to envelop my body from head to foot, including a voluminous hood. Flicking that over my head, I stood up and shook the long sleeves down to cover my hands. I nodded once at the biggest ragpile in appreciation for blocking my presence at the start of the raid and saving my life.
Then, skin prickling with the thought of hidden monitors drawing another murderous Endar response, I scurried over to the opening in the wall farthest from the dock and peered cautiously out into a passage that stretched unbroken in both directions. The smooth gray floor looked surprisingly clean, with no dust to indicate which direction the Endar had come or gone. Everything was quiet except for the soft lap of the water behind me. I swore under my breath and rolled back against the wall inside the chamber and steeled my nerves.
I still had a schedule to maintain. None of the people waiting to pull me out of a barrel of purple-blooded fish, except Saura, put my survival at the top of their priority list. I only hoped that if I didn't make the rendezvous, bringing the kid in safely remained their primary focus.
Feeling like a moving target, I took a left out into the hall and followed it to a T-intersection.
The wall in front of me was smooth, finished construction, while the cistern chamber and tunnel walls up to this point were natural stone. Recalling the immense structures I'd seen on Jerk, I was willing to bet I was inside the Zone, staring at the foundation wall of one of those immense buildings. The nice, clean, well-lit hallway also meant someone actually used this area.
Endar? A chill ran over me as I took another left and followed it up to a heavy security door that firmly blocked the passage.
Well, crap. The door had an official look, which seemed a reasonable precaution, considering the ragpiles had access to this area. I doubted anyone would give them an entry code. Which meant I took a wrong turn when I exited the cistern. Cursing under my breath, I turned to retrace my steps.
Two Endar security guards were walking up the passageway, their eyes riveted on me.
I crumpled with my back against the door. Burrowing into the rags, I waited, my only hope that they mistook me for a skinny ragpile and killed me before they discovered I was Human. A cowardly way out, yes, but better than what would happen if they took me alive. I didn't want to think about how my response under torture would add to this mess I had created.
As the chirring, creaking sound of their conversation approached, words began to run through my translation software.
"By the ... fire!" one exclaimed. "What ... are doing here?"
"It ... ill-used," the second one agreed. "Robes ... dirty."
My cringing reaction was genuine when bony claws closed on my arm.
Shiny black-lacquered nails glinted millimeters from my eyes as one caught the edge of my hood and flipped it back off my head.
I know my eyes were glassy with terror as I stared up, expecting an eruption of strange curses or shrills of triumph.
Instead, I met stunned silence.
"By great apocalypse!" the one gripping my arm finally exclaimed. "What happened to scalp growth?"
"How this happen? Who do this?" The exchange sounded heavy with rising concern and urgency.
For a supposedly non-existent language pack in my head, my chips were doing a strangely proficient job of interpreting Arpi since my arrival on this world.
The Endar who held my arm pulled me to my feet with surprising gentleness. "Are you injured, Minder?" he asked as he leaned over me.
What? I had expected them to bash my head against the wall, but they were only concerned with finding me in that location and in that condition.
The shudder that ran over me, standing so close to them, only added to an effect they seemed to accept without question. "Someone has failed their task," one hissed.
"Careless," the other one agreed. He placed the hood back over my head.
"Bad time," the first one creaked. "Who is in charge of Minder division?"
"Walglike."
There was a long moment of silence.
"No report of missing Minders, but concern over some intrusion at entry post..."
"Such carelessness can greatly damage a clan," the Endar gripping my arm said.
"But good for clan who makes the fix," the other countered.
"High Jerak Seok will elevate Clan Veragtelike."
I heard a soft clatter of chitin surfaces and wondered how high in status Clan Veragtelike would soar if I didn't escape these two.
"Do not put out security alert at this time. Could be viewed as distraction. Call Captain. Let her decide." The guard tried to position me to face the door.
How was it these beings, who hated Humans so passionately, were reacting so counter to what they should? My mind spun with disbelief as long fingers reached past me to key a code into the pad on the door.
I felt sure the Endar held control of the space beyond. If I entered, chances were high I would not come back out. Worse, the Endar would discover everything I, and the others, had done.
I turned, trying to push past them, to run back down the corridor, my thought being they would consider dragging a dead, escaping whatever-they-thought-I-was before the High Jerak adequate enough to elevate their clan over the of risk of losing me completely. Again, cowardly, but I knew dead, for me, was preferable to what I faced once they figured out who I was.
It was like pushing against some tall, deep-rooted planetside growth. The Endar did not yield.
A hand gently pulled me about and guided me through the door.