CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

 

Ti’ann watched the preparations with only a vague idea of what was going on. She’d never played war games or games of strategy. She didn’t even play chess. The efforts were mesmerizing. Nathan commanded like a general, using Val and Zim as translators to deploy Shifters from each line around the city to set traps. The Shifters not involved in the defense were evacuated to an area nearly twenty kilometers from the main part of the city—hopefully at a safe distance if anything went wrong.

And according to Nathan, so much could go wrong. He had less than two hours to organize everything, and only that much time because BinRal was still above ground distracting the soldiers, keeping them away from Ti’ann’s campsite and the city simultaneously. Yet, Nathan managed to come up with a decent plan. At least Ti’ann thought the plan was good—they’d corral the soldiers in an isolated spot and hold them prisoner until negotiations with the government could start and knowledge of the city was made public. But then, she was way out of her depth with all this.

To her surprise, when Nathan started handing out the weapons BinRal had sent down for the humans, a large number of the city Shifters took them up as well, even making Nathan explained the higher, lethal settings above stun. She wasn’t entirely sure she wanted to know how to shoot anything worse than a stun shot. But the Shifters didn’t flinch.

James’ people flowed into a defensive, military-like precision. They’d probably had to face similar situations before, but their efficiency still impressed her. Each carried a number of weapons and followed orders without question with James acting as Nathan’s second.

When Nathan mentioned making the Shifter city public, Clare jumped at the information. “I know the perfect person to help with that,” she said. “Name’s Riley.” Looking around the extravagantly decorated meeting hall, which had become their central command, she put her hands on her curvy hips and laughed. “Riley will love giving this story to the planet.”

After they’d done as much as they could to prepare, and the evacuation of most of the Shifters—including Sar and her baby—was underway, Nathan sent the humans off to their stations around the city, charged with making sure the soldiers went where they were supposed to go.

Before sending her off with Krin, he handed her a blaster, somehow managing to pass her the weapon without touching her. Back to not touching again. She sighed. How could he do that? Move from affectionate one moment to all-business-like and impersonal the next. She handled the blaster gently and studied the settings to hide her hurt feelings. She hated this distance he put up between them during the day. Hated more that he wouldn’t even touch her. But she wasn’t sure she had any right to that response. He’d never promised her anything.

“You’re not afraid to use that?” he asked, his tone hard and steady.

She stared at the weapon in her open palm. “Not afraid to.” Well, maybe a little, but she wasn’t going to admit it to him. “I just hope I don’t hit the wrong button and shoot off my foot or something.”

“Keep it pointed away from your body,” he said in all seriousness.

She grinned, or at least tried to. When she looked at his stern expression, the grin slipped away. “I’ll be careful,” she assured him. “Besides, Krin will be with me. He knows how to use these things.”

Nathan grunted and turned away. She watched his back for a minute. Not so much as a “see you soon” or “don’t get killed” from him. She supposed the last comment was as close as she’d get to concern for her health. With another sigh, she trotted after Krin.

What did she expect? Nathan was trying to organize a combination defensive/offensive action against a group of highly trained soldiers who outnumbered them.

Unless they counted the Shifters. She glanced at the two accompanying her and Krin, there to help even though they couldn’t use words very well yet. Though the city Shifters hadn’t said they would kill, they were obviously open to the possibility. The two with them both had blasters. Left to their own devices, Ti’ann wasn’t sure they’d leave any of the soldiers alive. While that might save the city now, it would only bring down more military action and spark more human fear. She really hoped they’d be able to keep the soldiers alive. Living, they were more dangerous but also more valuable. Would the city Shifters realize this?

She shivered as she and Krin took up opposite sides of the tunnel where they were stationed. As she pulled out the comm-card Nathan had given her team to check in, she realized, really knew, for the first time that they stood on the brink of war.

*****

Nathan watched the main entrance into the city. They hadn’t made it too easy on the soldiers. Wouldn’t want to give away the game and make them suspicious. So they’d closed the gate and set traps just inside the first tunnel—a distraction from the bigger traps ahead. BinRal made sure the soldiers got into the city at the right entry point, then join Nathan’s group through an alternate entrance.

That was nearly half an hour ago. Either these soldiers were dumber than he thought, or they were a lot more cautious. He was sure they’d scanned the gate, or tried scanning through it and found it nearly impossible to breach. Thanks to the use of ground elements from the area with the Shifter bodies to build the outer walls, standard scanning equipment had trouble penetrating very far. That was one of the few advantages Nathan had. Their hand scanners would even have a limited range once inside.

He stared at the gate, his impatience carefully controlled. He wanted this done, he wanted Ti’ann and the rest of them safe. But he knew it wouldn’t be easy. Or quick.

As he watched, the gate began to shudder under a weapons assault. Finally. He raised his blaster, intending to wait until they got through before falling back. His job was to lead them in the right direction, leaving a tantalizing trail. A shaky plan at best, he knew. A lot relied on luck and the Shifters’ preparations. They’d moved fast when he set them a task. He admired their efficiency. But they’d never had to fight before. Not like this.

The gate vaporized under the laser cannon fire. They’d brought out the heavy equipment early in the game. Nathan sighed. He knew this was going to be a tough fight, especially as they were outnumbered in weapons and experienced manpower. The soldiers came in crouched, weapons raised, moving in cover formation. Forty, forty-one, forty-two. Forty-two of them. Could have been worse. He couldn’t make out faces behind their helmets and vision goggles, but he didn’t need to know what they looked like. A swift inventory of the weapons they carried was enough to let him know what he was up against.

He moved back, taking care not to make noise until he was safely out of weapons range. Then he let a pebble roll. He heard the click of weapons and the hush of orders. With a feral grin, he trotted silently to his next position.

Their hand scanners would track his movements, but the sensors wouldn’t show how many individuals they were tracking thanks to a pin-sized disrupter clipped to his shirt. The disrupter was one of BinRal’s brother’s inventions not yet on the market. Handy, given the high-grade of the soldiers’s equipment. Unfortunately, BinRal only had two with him. That meant the other humans in the city were going to be relatively easy to track once the soldiers were within range. He only hoped by then the soldiers would be so confused and disoriented they wouldn’t notice the difference.

He settled on his haunches at his next station and listened. Silence. He pulled out his hand scanner and called up a mini-holo image of the position of the soldiers. Each looked like a blue ghost moving across the three-dimensional, topographical location grid. They were indistinguishable from each other but their numbers and movements were clear.

The soldiers were forced to follow the main corridor through a series of tunnels where no alternative routes were available. At the first place where the tunnels diverged, one of the Shifters formed a psuedo-wall to cover one direction. If the soldiers had detectors, and used them, they’d discover the Shifter immediately. But since up to that point the tunnels hadn’t split, Nathan hoped they wouldn’t use their detectors yet.

Unfortunately, in the scratchy, distorted image of the mini-holo, it looked like every other one held a detector out, scanning in a wide arch. Damn.

He started to signal the Shifter covering the tunnel, using a code of flashes and flickers from a penlight, when he noticed something strange about the miniature soldiers on his scanner. First one, then another, shook the long rectangular box that was the detector. Though it was hard to tell on the image, it looked as if several others slapped them on their hands or thighs and shook them more before continuing to scan.

He frowned and tried adjusting the image to clear up some of the interference. The holo was still too fuzzy. He switched to screen imaging. The picture remained distorted but was now in flat, two dimensions. He couldn’t monitor their movements as well, but he could focus in on one individual blue ghost better. That one shook his detector like it was a snake. He held it up in front of his face then tossed it aside.

Nathan sat back and let out a long, slow breath. Their detectors weren’t working. He looked at the walls, all those Shifter bodies. The detectors probably hadn’t been designed to filter out dead Shifters from live. And who would guess they’d built an entire city out of dead Shifters. He looked up, grinning. They couldn’t tell what was and wasn’t a Shifter.

He almost laughed out loud. He coded a message to BinRal then sent a secured update to all the comm-links he’d distributed to the various groups throughout the city. The soldiers would break that communications code soon. But for another hour, they could send messages without being overheard. After that, they’d switch codes. The message was simple. “Gnats in the city. Detectors don’t work.”

Fucking hell, they could take the soldiers at any time now. The Shifters could converge on them at will without having to worry about getting shot before they got near. But would the Shifters kill them outright if they were turned loose? Before he would have said no. Now, he wasn’t so sure.

He flicked on the holo-image again and started moving. They’d have picked him up by now. The detector chips in their scanners may still work, so they probably knew he was human, or at least the group of people he represented on their scanners was made up of humans. He moved off to his next station at a trot. The holo-image flickered and went flat when he moved out of range. They wouldn’t be able to see him now either. Time to meet up with BinRal and discuss their next step.

*****

Ti’ann nearly collapsed when the first message came through. The soldiers were inside the city, but the good news was that their detectors weren’t working. Just that fast the soldiers were at a disadvantage. Even with all their weaponry. They couldn’t shoot everything just because they didn’t know what to shoot. At the very least, they wouldn’t want to run down the power cells in their weapons.

She left her post at one end of the tunnel she was stationed in to relay Nathan’s message to Krin at his position at the opposite end of the tunnel. She nodded to the two Shifters as she passed. Hopefully, Val was spreading word through their ranks about the detectors because Ti’ann didn’t think they’d understand her if she tried to explain. She did say, “Soldiers in the city” as she passed. They stared at her for a moment then the copper-eyed one formed a mouth and said, “Thank you.”

When she told Krin the news, his eyes widened. He looked around at the walls and smiled. “Probably didn’t expect to be surrounded by Shifters. Any other news?”

“Not yet. You think they’ll change the plan?”

His smooth forehead wrinkled in thought. “They could pretty much give the Shifters free rein now. But more of them might get killed that way than following Nathan’s original plan. And they may kill the soldiers.”

“You thought of that too? You think they would?”

“I don’t know. They’re more capable of violence than Shifters like Val. But I don’t know if they’d kill easily. They might to protect the city.”

“They’ll bring on a war if they do. If they avoid killing, they’re in a better position to negotiate with humans.”

“Maybe. Shifters able to kill would definitely terrify some people.”

“But…?” Ti’ann asked.

“But it might also provoke the government into real negotiations. If they can’t just simply destroy Shifters anymore, they’ll have to find a way to make peace.”

“Or there’ll be a resurgence of support for the exterminations. It’s a pretty terrifying thing to know Shifters can be anywhere, anytime, and are capable of killing you.”

“A lot of people already think that.” Krin’s voice was quiet, but his words were heavy.

“Which is why the exterminations are still legal, despite the debates and the efforts of the Shifter support groups. This might confirm fears that were just starting to be alleviated.”

“You think we’re facing war?”

She shrugged and glanced back at the Shifters still crouched in the center of the tunnel. Their heads were tilted close together, their hand gestures hinting at an intense conversation.

“I sure as hell hope not,” she murmured. “If it’s war, there’s a very good chance we’ll lose.”

*****

“They’re going where we want them to.” Nathan watched BinRal study the fuzzy figures of the soldiers moving through yet another tunnel. So far, they’d triggered one trap, released a series of blaster shots at nothing, and moved on. “Looks like they’ve completely abandoned the detectors, too.” BinRal shook the scanner in a rough attempt to clear up the picture. “Good for our decoys. They’ve got to be wondering about the handful of Binneans running around with you now.” He grinned.

“At this rate, we’ll have them in the cage within a couple hours,” Nathan said.

“We should plant some eavesdropping monitors along the route. See what they have to say. Too bad the Shifters can’t understand them.”

“Yeah.” Though Nathan wasn’t so sure that really was a bad thing. “You have eavesdroppers with you?”

“I do.”

“Great. Around the next cavern we should be able to set them up. We probably won’t get much. They’re moving pretty fast.”

“I’m surprised they’re not destroying as they go.”

“We haven’t given them an alternate escape route. They don’t want to cave in their only way out.”

“You think they’ll take the chance we’re giving them to split up?”

“Definitely. Have you cracked their intra-group comm-links yet?”

“No. They’re as good as we are at jamming up the links and coding messages. And they’re not using them much yet since they’re still in one group. Doesn’t give me much to work with.”

Nathan sighed. That was one of the few benefits of letting the group split up, but as soon as they did, he’d have a more difficult time tracking them. That was why his people and the Shifters had to be deployed around the city. But it couldn’t be avoided. They’d get suspicious if they never came across an alternate route. The last thing he wanted was this group pulling out all guns blazing, moving in full retreat.

“You know, this would have been easier on them if they just blasted the mountain all to hell and back from the air,” he thought aloud, not for the first time. “Why come in on foot?”

“Would have made a lot of noise and drawn a lot of attention to destroy it from the air. They can’t just blow up an entire city these days without someone knowing about it. And you’re pretty sure they don’t want the public to know this place exists. That kind of cover up would have been a lot easier in the frontier days of settlement. So they’ve chosen a riskier but quieter destruction.”

“But humans were on this planet for a generation before we knew about Shifters. The press would have been up and running by then. Why didn’t they pick up on the other cities getting destroyed?”

“You humans have expanded a lot more in the last seventy years. The first fifty were still settling years.”

Nathan grunted at BinRal’s assessment. How the secret was kept wasn’t a mystery he needed to solve. He didn’t really care. He did care about making sure everyone—including as many of the soldiers as possible—survived this encounter.

They were a ten-minute jog from their next station, and they need time to set up the eavesdroppers. “Let’s get moving,” Nathan said, watching the soldiers inch closer.

*****

E monitored the movements of the soldiers and the way Nathan Longfeather directed them. As Nathan Longfeather had a lot less weaponry, his tactics were sound. He could slaughter them all in the single spot he was sending them to without risking many of the others. This technique he was using appealed to E.

E smiled. He liked Nathan Longfeather. He was a good opponent. Tricky and smart.

Nathan Longfeather had said something… He only hunted to defend. He was hunting now. So he was defending. The city? The humans maybe. Or Ti’ann Jones. He’d watched Nathan Longfeather around Ti’ann Jones. He would hunt to defend her.

E thought about that a moment. Dr. Ripley said E was supposed to hunt Shifters to protect humans from them. He hunted to defend too. To defend humans. But these humans defended Shifters. That didn’t make sense. Why would he be sent to hunt Shifters to defend humans who were defending Shifters? Nathan Longfeather wouldn’t defend Ti’ann Jones by sending someone to hunt her.

So did he really defend humans by hunting Shifters?

He watched the soldiers pass beneath him, each with blaster raised, unaware of him hanging just above their heads in the luminescent plants lining the tunnel. They didn’t speak much. They were jumpy and turned to point their weapons at any sound. But they didn’t know he was here. He could hunt them as easily as he could hunt Shifters. Yet Dr. Ripley and the senator sent these inferior fighters to destroy the city. Poor tactics.

They’d sent E a message to avoid the soldiers and stay out of the way. They didn’t think he could help? Dr. Ripley said it was for his own safety, because he was so new and superior. But that wasn’t the reason. He wasn’t in danger from the soldiers. They didn’t want the soldiers to know he existed. Why? If he were superior, wouldn’t they appreciate his help destroying the city? Perhaps they thought him flawed? But Dr. Ripley told him he was advanced. Perfect.

Dr. Ripley lied to him.

Nathan Longfeather hadn’t lied. He had been afraid—he recognized E’s superiority. But he hadn’t lied.

E studied the last soldier passing beneath his hiding spot. The soldier was walking backward, keeping an eye on their rear. E allowed himself to flutter to the ground near the wall, a loose bit of plant life. The soldier turned his blaster on the movement, cursed and lifted the weapon. “Getting fucking jumpy in this place,” he muttered. Then turned to walk faster, catching up with the others.

E waited to shift until they were around the corner. Then he followed.

Time to hunt.