Chapter Thirty-Two

 

“When we were by that pool, and he knew he was dying, Ball said there was something going on on this planet that didn’t add up. He didn’t get the chance to elaborate about–” Brill’s words cut short. He’s looking behind me, at Chestla, who’s standing now, staring at the hologram.

“What are you two looking at?” The small part of white visible around her cat-like pupils has gone solid red from crying, pero her face looks half-angry and hard.

Does she understand what she’s seeing? If it really is Pure275, this implicates her people in a number of illegal activities that could cause sanction from the Galactic Court. Not the least of which is aiding in war crimes on another planet. People have been killed to keep smaller secrets.

Like Papá had, over two vials of liquid. I guess every planet does have its own Serum Green.

And Chestla – if she’s in on the secrets here – just realized that we’ve found out about hers. Which makes her dangerous.

Unless, of course, I’m reading her body language wrong, and she’s just as confused as we are.

“Is Ball…?” Brill just said dying. Why can’t he say dead?

“He’s got a pulse. For now.” Chestla’s covered in foam and blood, but she’s still heavily armed. She sniffs and rubs her arm across her nose, and when her hand falls to her side, it’s not far from the sword strapped at her hip.

A shiver goes through me as an echo of the prey response. My body has been afraid of Chestla before, pero this is the first time I’ve felt it in my heart. We’re isolated here, and if Chestla is involved in the secrets Brill has been uncovering on the computer, she could keep us from leaving this room. Ever.

She’s always seemed like such a solid amiga. I want to give her the benefit of the doubt.

Still. She hadn’t wanted to come into this lab, not until she realized there was no other option. And she’s been watching me like a hawk since we got to Evevron.

Pero, she’s the one who asked us to come here, on this hunt.

“Ball didn’t get a chance to elaborate about what?” she asks.

Brill swallows hard, and his hands move to the bottom edge of his jacket, shifting it, so that if he has to, he can draw his gun. “I was going to say about who we can and cannot trust.”

No y no y no. Chestla’s one of my best friends. And yet, her eyes are intense as she studies Brill’s hands. Is it possible she knows her people’s secrets – and is willing to do violence to keep us from uncovering them? Or that she’s infected by the mindworms?

Chestla tilts her cabeza. “And now you’re not sure if you can trust me? Just because I’m Evevron?”

Brill shrugs. “Family and homeworld’s a strong indication of where most people’s loyalties lie.”

Chestla looks at me. “Have I ever once given you reason to doubt my loyalty to you, cesuda ma?”

“How did you know about this lab?” Brill asks Chestla. “How’d you know there would be medical supplies in here?”

Chestla blushes. “I didn’t. When the air conditioning kicked on, I smelled henikix coming from inside the tunnel. Which means there was probably a first aid box. It’s an analgesic with a particular odor.”

“I don’t smell anything,” Brill says.

“You wouldn’t. You’re not Evevron.”

Brill looks at me, his eyes questioning and shifting colors.

I turn to Chestla. “No, mi amiga. You’ve never given me a reason not to trust your word.” I look from her to Brill. “You two have been good sparring partners, shared drinks, risked your lives for each other – and for me. Let’s step this down un poco, muchachos.”

“I’d be happy if nobody died today.” Chestla unstraps the scabbard from her hip and lets it fall to the floor, the sword hilt clattering not far from Ball’s shoulder. He doesn’t so much as flinch. Pero, he is still breathing.

“Me too.” Brill pulls his jacket back down and turns again to the computer. It’s almost like it never happened. Almost.

For the first time, I truly understand how the First Contact Riots – people attacking former friends and neighbors with the belief that at least one hidden alien had been left behind after the Krom First Contact – had gotten so out of control, and I can see why the Evevrons decided to try to stop this mindplague without telling anyone about it. Because the last thing anyone needs is this kind of standoff on a galactic scale.

Chestla studies the molecule. “Why are you looking at Pure275?”

Brill explains his theory about Evevron’s probable role in Earth’s First Contact War.

Chestla’s mouth falls open, displaying her sharp lower incisors. “And you thought I might be involved in the cover-up?”

“I already told you I’m not used to working with people I can trust.” Brill’s eyes are deep purple, still brainstorming. “But maybe you can give us some context. Did your planet have any unexpected gains forty years ago? Is there any partnership now with HGB?”

“Not that I know of. This is dangerous information. The Galactic Court sanctions executions for those convicted of war crimes. If entire villages of civilians were destroyed – if whoever built this place finds out we know what they did, they’d probably kill us to keep us quiet.” She retrieves her sword from the floor and moves over to me, takes my arm. “Come on, Bo, we have to get you out of here, right now. You too, Brill. Before someone else comes to tell us it’s time to go. I can’t believe I busted the lock on that door.”

She’s digging for something in her pocket. She gets it out and crushes it between her nails, and suddenly the room smells like someone broke open about a dozen gallons of pine-scented cleaner.

Brill puts a hand over his nose and mouth. He sounds muffled. “Shtesh, you could warn a su.” Pero, he shuts down the hologram and wipes his fingerprints off the screen with the sleeve of his jacket.

Over near the test tubes, Chestla sucks in a breath.

“Que?”

She gestures at the microscope slide. “I recognize that handwriting. Nobody else writes their hets with an extra swirl the way Leron does. He’s one of the medics who came on the hunt today. The guy who glued my shoulder back together.”

Dios mio! That means he’s one of the people coming down to help Ball.

Chestla picks up Ball. “There’s no hiding what I did getting in here, but if you use that bleach on the floor in here and we cover the blood spots in the dirt outside, no one will be able to prove for sure it was us.”

I help Brill clean the floor. Well, I help a little. He’s moving at Krom speed, and the rags are in the lab’s biohazard incinerator before I’ve done much more than wipe my own hands.

“I’ll cover the blood spots,” he volunteers.

I catch up with Chestla, who’s still carrying Ball close to her chest.

“The medics should be here any minute.” Chestla rushes us toward the cave proper. We’ve barely made it out of the tunnel when an Evevron steps over the rubble at the cave entrance, calling, “Chestla? Where’s Ball? Did I make it down in time?” before his eyes adjust enough to the dimness for him to see us at the back of the space.

He’s wearing the bright green neck pouch that marks him as a medic, over his hunting habit. It’s Leron, and he’s alone.

Chestla freezes as the guy looks from us to the tunnel behind us. She takes a shuddery breath. “Yeah, Leron. He needs you. I’ve done everything I can.”

The medic looks from us to the tunnel and back again. There’s an odd look on his face. Has he figured out we’ve seen the lab? “What were you guys doing back there? You should have tried to get back up the cliff, to the medics with the ground vehicles. A child would know that.”

He drags a lev-cot over and takes Ball from Chestla, laying the guy on it. Ball groans again. This time it’s a little louder. That’s a good sign, no?

Brill grabs my hand, and his heartbeat feels super-fast, even for him. I think he’s still afraid Chestla’s going to sell us out.

Pero, Chestla runs both hands over her face. “I was hiding in the dark. My cesuda ma came in to tell me not to feel bad about failing my test. Again. This time, I got somebody else hurt.” Chestla’s pupils are almost round in this dim light, and glittering with all the charm of Puss in Boots in the tooncasts. “You’re not going to tell anybody I just couldn’t face it, are you?”

Leron’s eyes look sympathetic. “Of course not, Stala.” Still, he takes one more long look at that corridor, and my heart starts thudding harder. He squints. “Did you set off a scent mask in here?”

She nods, shows him the crushed capsule still resting on her palm. “I didn’t want to have to smell the blood.”

That makes enough sense to Leron that he turns and escorts us to a small flying transport. Once we’re in the sunlight, he stares down at Ball, examining Chestla’s handiwork. “Where’d you get all the first aid supplies?”

My chest goes frío. How are we going to explain that?

“You know, su,” Brill says. “Ball had a basic kit in the vehicle. I brought it down with me.”

“Where is it now?” The medic looks skeptical.

Brill gestures at Ball’s leg. “You’re looking at it. We tore up the bag to make more bandages.”

An alarm goes off on the cot.

Chestla turns toward Ball. Her voice comes out as a whisper. “No.”

Leron shifts his attention. “He’s crashing.”

“Give Leron the syringe,” Brill prompts.

The one Brill had said not to use unless Ball’s heart stopped? My chest feels light and sparkly as I take it from my pocket and hand it over. There’s not going to be any hiding where this came from, and we already lied and said we were never in the lab. But the only alternative is letting Ball die right in front of us.

Leron raises an eyebrow. “Now that doesn’t belong in a basic first aid kit.” Pero he’s already turned away, moving to administer the drug.

After a few seconds that feel more like hours, Ball gasps in another single breath and Chestla hugs Leron. The alarm fades.

Leron pushes her away. “We need to get this guy to the hospital, now. But we’re going to have to have a little chat later.”

Chestla grew up with this guy. Surely that has to count for something when she has to tell him she never touched his computers, because she was too busy saving one of his friends.

Once we’re all buckled in, Leron lifts off. He turns back to Chestla. “Have they officially told you you failed?”

Chestla cradles Ball’s hand on her lap. “Why would they have to? Not only did someone else have to save my cesuda ma, she wound up in danger a second time and had to save herself. And I nearly lost–” Her voice breaks, pero she forces herself to start again. “And I nearly lost a member of the hunting party.”

“But she’s still alive.” He jerks a thumb at me, then down at the cot. “And so is he. That’s going to count for something. Especially because she saved herself.”

Chestla nods like she’s considering his words, like that’s still the important thing.

 

It’s a quick journey back, and Leron lands the transport outside the hospital. We get to a relatively private waiting area where I check in on Tawny. The small gritfeed on my phone shows her moving way past the freshwater pool, towards a door that leads deeper into the complex. She walks down the hall with purpose, opening doors and not apologizing when they’re not the ones she’s looking for.

Kaliel’s not in any of the massage rooms. Tawny keeps going. There’s a sign that says something in Evevron above a stylized image of a person floating on a giant drop of agua. The float spa.

Tawny slides the door open, and there’s Kaliel, alone in a shallow pool in a dimly lit space, his eyes closed, something like headphones over his ears. He’s wearing one of the ridiculous swim outfits, and I want to laugh, pero then the camera shifts. He’s not alone after all. A figure steps into the agua, holding a folded-up shower curtain high enough that it obscures his – or her – face.

The drone catches Tawny’s tiny gasp, shifts to her as she looks around to improvise a weapon. She grabs a thick glass pitcher from the table.

The drone spins around. The figure in the pool is silently spreading out the shower curtain, as Tawny creeps closer to the edge. The figure swoops forward, enveloping Kaliel in the plastic and pushing him under. My stomach clenches, and my heart’s thudding.

“No!” I shout loud enough that both Brill and Chestla turn around to stare at me.

“Hey!” Holo-Tawny shouts.

The figure looks up, pero where the drone’s positioned, you still can’t see the person’s face. Tawny pegs the intruder between the shoulder blades with the glass pitcher. It’s confettiglass, which breaks into three pieces, the confetti-shards sparkling down the would-be killer’s back.

The person scrambles away. Kaliel’s thrashing in the water. The heavy salt content is buoying him up, pero he’s trapped inside the plastic, and there’s probably enough agua in the curtain to drown him. Tawny shouts again at the person making their way out of the opposite end of the pool, pero she has to let them go if she’s going to save Kaliel.

She jumps into the pool, shouting at Kaliel to stop fighting it, pero with those headphones on, there’s no way he can hear her. She’s fighting the plastic, and he’s fighting her, and she’s soaking wet with her short hair hanging limply against her scalp by the time she’s holding the balled-up shower curtain, and Kaliel is standing up in the pool. He pulls off the headphones and looks at her uncertainly.

“Did you just save me, or are you about to finish the job?”

Tawny closes her eyes and brings a hand to her forehead. “Can’t you see how much more of a headache it is for me if you’re dead?”