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Crossing the cavern, with an armed outpost at my back wasn’t as easy as it seemed. For one thing, I had no guarantee that any one of those boys would open fire, if I was attacked. As far as I could tell, their duty was to protect the mines, not me. And, for a second thing, whatever stim Mack had given me seemed to have worn off, and I could no longer access the map in my head, while navigating to where I wanted to go.
Life can be a real bitch, sometimes.
I didn’t let that stop me, just kept a good, close eye on the dark, and moved carefully over the unfamiliar terrain. This part, the floor was mostly smooth, with just the odd bit of rubble or debris lying on the floor. Those bits were enough to stub a toe, or roll an ankle, on, but they were nothing to what I expected to find in the caverns proper. Those suckers, after all, didn’t need to have roads for mining vehicles, or men; they just were.
I moved swiftly and easily towards the tunnel Easrick had indicated, my ears aching as they strained to hear anything beyond the sound of my own footsteps. When I’d reached the other side and eased my way just past the tunnel mouth, I stopped. There was another alcove here, similar to the ones the workers had used as duck-ins to let us pass in the mines proper. It would give me shelter enough to check the map.
“Of all the self-licking, auto-gyrating, fuck-twisted, love-nutted, ass-wiping paranoid fucktards in a universe of paranoid self-licking fucktards!” I muttered, keeping my voice down to an outraged whisper—and even then it felt too loud in the tunnel’s confines.
“What,” but Tens wasn’t asking a question, and I couldn’t hear his voice echoing through the dark around me.
“The map doesn’t match.”
“What?” Now, the man sounded upset—but at least he was upset for me, and not at me.
“The map doesn’t match,” I repeated, glad I could keep the realization in my head, and the outrage I felt firmly behind my teeth and out of the dark. “The fucking map doesn’t fucking match the fucking tunnels. The fardnardling fuck knuckle gave me shit, and now I’m fucked six ways to stardust and haven’t got a fucking clue as to where the fuck I am!”
There was a moment’s silence, and then Tens spoke.
“That was rather uninspired.”
“So, shoot me. I’m having a bad day.”
“Honey, you don’t know the half of it,” and there was a phrase I didn’t need to hear.
“What is it, Case?”
“I can barely get a scan off the level you’re on—and even then it’s dirty with the levels above it, so I can’t be sure of what I’m seeing. Tens is doing his best to calibrate it, but it’s still going to be a bit dodgy round the edges...”
“And...” I couldn’t help it; I was drumming my fingers on my arm, again.
“I know from his lordship’s maps that the mines go down at least another twenty levels, but the next level’s a complete blank. We’re trying to hack a path through one of the satellites that passes over the Carafakt, but, unless we get the right angle, you’re going to be running blind as soon as you go down.”
“Who says I need to do that?” I asked, pushing aside the double meaning that layered her words. I was pretty darn sure she hadn’t meant to add it in—and if she caught that thought, Case didn’t try to enlighten me.
I took a moment, closing my eyes to block out the tunnel’s darkness, and taking in a long, deep breath. Letting the breath out just as slowly, I thought about what I had to do next. ‘Down’ was pretty obvious, since that was the way the servant woman had taken, and it was sure as shit the way the tracker pointed.
“Well,” I said, out loud and quiet, as I opened my eyes, “sucks to be me, then, doesn’t it?”
Neither of them had an answer for that, so I kept talking.
“Just tell me if the teleport lock gets wobbly.”
This time, I didn’t wait for a response. I pushed off the wall, and checked the tunnel for company. It stayed as empty as it had been, before, so I stepped out and followed the trail Barangail had given me, all the while, trying not to think of exactly how much he’d lied to me. If the trail he’d laid was false, if the tracer he’d tagged the maid with wasn’t working, then I was just as much in the dark as she was.
Maybe even more so, since she had seemed to have half a clue as to where she might be going. Which reminded me... I stopped, again. This time, I didn’t bother finding a duck-in, since it wasn’t like I’d have to get out of anything’s way. I tapped Tens and Case, again, sending them the image of the woman in the image Barangail had supplied.
“This is the woman who stole the bracelet,” I said, and then passed them up the image of the bracelet, “and this is the bracelet. Why don’t you see what you can pull on both of them, since our patron doesn’t seem to have a good relationship with the truth.”
Turns out it was a good question to ask.
I’d been trotting through the tunnel, towards the slant-wise cutting that would take me down a level, when Tens and Case called me back.
“That wasn’t the maid,” Tens said. “It was the concubine.”
“Figures.”
I slowed to a walk, found an alcove, checked it for creepy crawlies, and stepped inside.
“Go on.”
“And it’s a slave bracelet.”
“A what?”
“You heard the man,” Case told me. “A slave bracelet. You know, the kind of thing that stops folk from running away, or lets their masters track them.”
“Uh huh. So why does he need me, then?”
“That would be the thing to ask.”
I huffed out a sigh.
“No point. He probably wouldn’t tell the truth, anyway. What I want to know is why he hasn’t sent a squad after her, and why he needs someone from off-world. And it would be good to know I wasn’t’ going to be retrieving a person, because you know the contract’s breached nine ways to Hell, if he expects that. I’m not taking anyone back to slavery under that asshole.”
“Literally,” Case said, and I rolled my eyes.
Not what I needed to hear.
She snickered.
“That was not intentional.”
Uh huh, sure it wasn’t.
“It wasn’t, but whatever,” Case grumbled. “The thing is, if we want to take the bracelet back to his lordship, we’re going to have to work out a way to remove it, because I think it might still be attached.”
The thought had already crossed my mind, but I didn’t need to point it out. We had to find the bracelet, first.
“I’ll keep looking. Let’s hope the tracker he gave me is actually what we need.”
“Nope,” Tens said. “That’s the real deal. I’ve checked the bracelet model. It looks pretty, but the tracking waves are unique, and the trace you’re following is the right kind. Now, I just have to hack his lordship’s database to match the waves on record to the waves your tracking—make sure you’re following the concubine, and not someone else. If they don’t match, he’s in breach.”
I was listening with only half an ear, following the direction of the trace for a few feet, and then stopping to make sure I was on the right track. It took a few minutes for me to realize I’d gone past the cutting leading down to the next level. I stopped.
“I’ve gone past the down ramp.”
“Don’t sweat it,” Tens said. “There’s nothing to say she stayed in the mines any longer than she had to.”
“And there are breaks into the caverns just ahead,” Case added. “Has to be more than one way down, right?”
She was right, but I didn’t feel like admitting it. I took a moment to scan the trace, and fix its path in my head, and then I headed back into the tunnel. The floor was a lot more uneven, here, as though this section had been abandoned a lot longer than where I’d just been. I trotted forward, using the night-vis to avoid losing my footing. I twitched the resolution and added in another light level, to see if that enhanced the view. I knew if I raised the goggles it would be like trying to look through ink...kinda.
I also scanned the tunnel walls, remembering to look up at the ceilings, too. I remembered the arach coming over the ceilings, figured they weren’t the only ones who could do that, and wasn’t taking any chances. I couldn’t even tell myself that there weren’t any arach on planet. I’d seen at least two, and then two dozen, and they’d wanted to be seen. There was no telling exactly how many more there might really be.
“Cheerful, Cutter.”
Yeah, well, Tens would know.
I reached the end of the path I’d memorized, and stopped to pull up the trace. This time, Case provided an updated overlay. I’d moved out from under the upper layers of the mine, and the foundations of Barangail’s house, so the ship could get a cleaner scan of where I was. My day was looking up.
“Not likely,” Tens cut in. “Heads up. You’ve got company.”
Well, damn.
I took a couple of seconds to memorize the next section of the trace, and hoped I’d remember it well enough, to kick clear of whatever Tens had seen approaching. It took a couple of sweeps for me to pick the movement at the edge of the tunnel walls, and then a few seconds more for me to realize the mines had cut into a large, open cavern whose ceiling rose some thirty feet over my head.
Double damn.
I tracked the rising wall, and saw movement high up and off to my right. Hoping that was all there was, I quickly picked my way through the debris towards the long, narrow crevice the maid...concubine, had taken to get out of the mines.
“Looks like that will take you down a hundred feet or so,” Case said. “Watch your footing.”
Like I needed to be told, but I didn’t argue. I hustled. A quick glance at the critters on the wall showed they were descending. They also showed they might be the giant ants Easrick had said roamed the tunnels. Were they why this section of mine had been abandoned? Or was there something else?
“There’s always something else,” came from Tens, and I resisted the urge to tell him to shut up if he didn’t have anything more helpful to say.
Those bastard things were fast.
I was only half-way to where I needed to be, by the time the first one hit the floor.
Not good.
I took the risk, and ran, cursing as I stumbled over shards of stone, pebbles, and some kind of growth that squished beneath my boots. The smell that rose from that little experiment left a lot to be desired. Keeping my footing was difficult, but not impossible, and I slipped into the crack, just as the sound of a myriad feet grew loud enough for me to really worry about.
“Keep running,” Case said. “They can fit.”
They could?
Well, fuck me sideways, that wasn’t good.
“Shut up and run.”
Easy for her to say; she wasn’t the one trying not break her neck.
She had a point, though. The crevice wasn’t as narrow as it had looked from the other side of the cavern, and there was enough room for someone to have run on either side of me. Easrick, and his squad would have loved it... maybe. I was pretty sure they wouldn’t have loved the creatures scrambling along behind me.
“You’re not going to be able to outrun them,” Tens said, just as I reached the same conclusion.
I bolted past an opening in the chasm wall, before I’d fully registered it was there. It looked a Hell of a lot narrower than what I was running down. Maybe I’d stand half a chance if I took it.
Turning back, showed me just how close the ants had come—and they were ants. I was wrong about them being bigger than the arach, though. Must have been a trick of light and distance that had made me think that with the last lot I’d seen. These critters were almost as big as the arach—and that was quite big enough.
I eyeballed the distance between us, and the distance to the hole in the wall, and I ran towards it.
“No, don’t!” and “Stop!” rang out in an alarmed duet, just as something the size of a very large dog came blurring out of the hole.
Well. Fuck. Me.
I did one of the least elegant reverse-full-thrust maneuvers I’d ever pulled, and backed up several hasty steps, pulling my blaster, as the thing bolted into the open. I tried to fire, and realized that Easrick and his boys had stored the damned blaster properly—with its safety on. I kept my eyes on the multi-legged beast as I thumbed the safety off. And, that was all it took for things to go from not-so-good to bad.
At first, the new arrival seemed focused on me, but then it noticed the ants, and swung towards them, sending out a series of curious chirring clicks as it did so.
It wasn’t alone?
“Well, fuck,” Tens said. “Get back to running, Cutter, or you’re lunch.”
Lunch, huh? Well, wasn’t this like the old times we’d had on K’Kavor.
“You have no idea.”
And I didn’t want one, either. I quit backpedaling, and turned around—just in time to catch a glimpse of movement further down the crevice. Funnily enough, those shapes were human. I wondered if I could be that lucky, but didn’t stand in one place while I did it. Friendly or not, humans were something I could actually deal with.
If they decided to help, or just let me pass, then great, but if they decided to try and take a piece of me? Well, that was fine, too, even if I wouldn’t be sticking around to play with them. They’d be going down just as hard and fast as I could make it happen. Who knew how long, Mr. Blurry Legs and Attitude was going to occupy the ants?
More stinky stuff squashed underfoot, and I really hoped it washed off and wasn’t corrosive. I liked these boots, dammit! A rock rolled underfoot, and I rode the shift, even as I sprung off it. That had been close, and I really didn’t want to be turning an ankle, or falling on my face, right now.
A screech echoed out behind me, but I didn’t look back. The screech was followed by a several others, all sounding like they came from different parts of the crevice wall. Also behind me. That was a good thing. I ran, my feet sliding and skittering over the rough terrain, my fist wrapped around the blaster’s grip.
It made it awkward to run, but I wasn’t going to be caught without it in my hands and ready. The next thing to try eating me was going to find itself rapidly dead. The humans, on the other hand...
“Don’t shoot first,” Case said, as if I needed to be told... Actually, she might have had a point, there.
I kept the weapon angled away from the oncoming humans, except for when I had to shift my arms to help keep my balance, and I kept running towards them. It took me a few meters to realize they were running towards me, too—and they didn’t seem the least bit fazed by the blaster I was holding. Behind me, the screeches were accompanied by clicks, and high-pitched squeaks that rang through the tunnel. The sound of claws scrabbling over rock was a constant, rattling shuffle in the background, but at least it didn’t sound like it was getting any louder.
I kept an eye on the incoming humans, and an ear on the battle raging behind me. It sounded like the creature from the hole wasn’t alone, and that the ants had their claws full. I figured I’d put as much distance as I could between us, and hope the ants found multi-legged-aggressor bugs an acceptable hunting outcome.
The humans ran past me, and then stopped. When I looked back, I could see them pouring something from the flasks pulled from their waist belts, onto the ground between them and the fight raging further back. I kept running. None of them looked like the woman I was looking for, and none of them were trying to do me harm. That was a novelty in, and of, itself.
I might have stopped to see who they were, but I figured the bug fight wasn’t going to last forever, and I didn’t want to find out what the victors would do to any stray humans who stuck around. This might have been a good plan, if the stray humans who’d arrived had had any intention of letting me go off on my own.
The ones that were following the first rank, turned and followed me. One reached out and grabbed my arm, pulling me to one side of the crevice, and down another tunnel I hadn’t seen. This one was a bit wider than the hole I’d been going to hide in—and it didn’t seem to be occupied by anything more than the people rescuing me. It also got me out of sight of the battle, which was a good thing.
“This way,” he yelled, letting go of my arm, and running slightly ahead like he expected me to follow.
It seemed like a good option, so, of course I went after him. After all, he knew the tunnels and I didn’t. It also crossed my mind that I could stop following Barangail’s dodgy tracker, and just ask if anyone had seen the concubine. I wondered if Case and Tens had found a name for her, yet.
“Celia,” Case said, “but I don’t think you should go asking after her just yet. We don’t know why these people were in the tunnel to start with. They might have been waiting for someone, and I doubt it was you.”
I hated it when Case was right, but that still didn’t mean I could try a different direction. There was still a bunch of angry ants and antsy aggro bugs somewhere behind me, and I was nowhere near far enough away from to be sure they wouldn’t track me down. I figured I’d follow the humans for a bit, and then maybe break away and head out on my own until I found a quiet place where I could reacquire the bracelet’s tracking signal.
“Don’t worry about that, yet,” Tens said. “It looks like you’re running in the right direction, so you’re not going to lose a lot of time getting back on track.”
If I hadn’t been focusing on keeping my feet and keeping sight of my guide, I might have sworn a blue streak. As it was, I didn’t even have time to think a blue streak. The ground in this tunnel was just as uneven as the ground in the last one, although I was no longer kicking over squishy stink bombs. It took another few minutes to register we were going downwards.
I worried about how long Case and Tens would be able to maintain their connection. We hit another open cavern, and my guide ran through. There were others running with us, but he was the only one that had spoken—and the others didn’t look like they were about to start trouble.
This cavern was lit by some kind of phosphorescent rock that ran through the walls in wide veins, and a variety of mushrooms and lichen grew in its dim light. It screwed with the goggles, blurring what I was seeing until they adjusted. The altering vision me stumble. In an instant, one of my running companions came alongside, reaching out a hand to steady me.
“Thanks,” I managed, just as my foot hit another rock, and I went down.
It made me doubly grateful for the hand wrapped under my other bicep. It tightened, pulling me up before I could hit the floor. My ankle gave a gut-turning wrench, and I hoped there were enough nans left from the last stim pack to put it right. In the meantime, I was going to have one Hell of a limp.
“You right?”
Stupid question.
“Any point in being otherwise?” I retorted, but the jolt of pain that arced through me the next time I put my foot down, made me falter.
I rode through that first wave, and tried to roll through the second, but didn’t quite manage it. Another hand grabbed hold of my other arm, and my two assistants helped me make it to the other side of the cavern. I tried to keep going, but they stopped me, pulling me into a walk.
“It’s okay. We’ve gone far enough.”
“Yeah, you can take a break.”
They guided me out of the cavern and round a corner into a small chamber. I was still registering the rough stone table, sided by two benches, and the plassteel door in the opposite wall, when there was a low hum, and static curled over my skin. Glancing back towards the source of the sound, I saw a faint haze dance to life across the door, and realized half a dozen other humans had come into the room with us.
My helpers settled me on a bench with my back to the table, and sat down, one on either side of me.
“How you feeling?” one asked, but I didn’t answer straight away.
I turned my head, eyeballing the hard-eyed faces of those with me—and, suddenly, I had a very bad feeling about things. I tried to push myself to my feet, still holding the blaster in one fist.
“Not bad,” I said, “but I have to get going.”
It wasn’t really a surprise when I was shoved back onto the bench, and the blaster taken out of my hands. Honestly, I’d thought I was holding onto it better than that. I watched as the safety was checked and left off, and the blaster was pointed back towards me. Well, that was interesting. I cocked an eyebrow and looked up at the guy holding my gun.
“I’m gonna want that back,” I said, and he backed up a step and smirked.
“Not gonna happen,” he retorted, mimicking me. “You introducin’ yourself?”
I rested my elbows on the table behind me, doing my best to look relaxed.
“This is your house,” I told him. “Why don’t you go first?”
He looked around, and more weapons appeared.
Now, why was I not surprised?
“What are you doing down here?”
I crossed my good left leg over my bad right and tried for nonchalant. Pain shot up my right leg as my boot brushed my ankle, and I uncrossed them, again, all too aware that I was the center of attention. The dude asking the questions was not amused, but he didn’t push. He just waited for me to get settled, and raised an eyebrow.
I raised one in return, and decided today wasn’t a great day to start being cooperative. I waved my hand, inviting him to continue.
“Like I said, it’s your house—and I didn’t know I was expected. What was with the welcoming committee, upstairs? And thanks, by the way.”
I heard movement on the other side of the table, but I didn’t take my eye off the guy in front of me. After all, he was the one most likely to hurt me. The dudes sitting on either side of me hadn’t made a move—and whoever had come in on the other side of the room, hadn’t come near the table.
I wondered where Tens and Case were, and why they were so quiet.
