CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

 

“That’s it,” Nathan muttered. “They’re splitting up.” He looked at BinRal. “Time to divide our efforts.”

BinRal nodded and headed off to the right. The Shifter waiting for them to separate immediately covered the entrance to the tunnel BinRal took, blending seamlessly with the main wall.

Nathan grinned. He pulled out his comm-link and messaged James. “Monroe, you’ll have company in another fifteen. No heroics. Just track their movements. Make sure they go where we want them to.” He got a single beep in acknowledgement.

With the soldiers split, he was now dependant on the web he’d spread around the city to keep track of them. He’d still be able to use his scanner on the group following him, but soon they’d be down to only two or three men. The others would have to track the remaining soldiers as best they could. He watched the group following him a moment, then moved out, teasing them with his presence.

If Ti’ann hadn’t been in the city, he’d really be enjoying this game.

*****

“What the fuck was that?” Jackson spun in a circle, swinging his weapon at the empty air.

“Calm down. You start blasting everything that flutters in the breeze and you’ll be out of power before we find anything living to shoot.” Lieutenant Wgreal’s voice was calm and at ease, as if this were just another training exercise and not an incursion into enemy territory.

Jackson snorted. “They could be anywhere, lieutenant. How can you be so calm?”

“They aren’t dangerous, you idiot,” Wgreal said, his tone full of disgust. “They won’t fight or attack. They’ll just try to hide.”

“You’re acting like a pussy, Jackson,” Hanlon snorted. “Forget everything you learned in training?”

“Fuck off, Hanlon. When was the last time you went into a Shifter city?”

“Shut up, both of you,” the lieutenant snapped. “They hide, all right, Jackson. They don’t attack.”

“How do we know for sure though, lieutenant? What if these Shifters are different?”

“Have you seen one yet? Have we been attacked yet?”

“No, but…”

“But nothing. The only thing down here we have to worry about are the humans and Binneans. I don’t know what the fuck they’re doing here, but they’re the only ones in this city besides us that will—”

Jackson, focusing on the empty darkness behind them, spun around when Wgreal fell silent. “Lieutenant?”

The lieutenant was standing perfectly still, his blaster relaxed at his side. Hanlon moved closer to him, weapon up, searching the dark tunnel in front of them. He pushed a button on his night goggles and Jackson followed suit. The rest of the company did the same, scanning the tunnel with heightened vision.

“What is it?” Jackson hissed, searching behind them as he moved in closer to the rest of the team.

“Lieutenant?” Hanlon said. He reached out and touched the man’s shoulder, nudging him around. Jackson turned in time to see the gaping holes that had once been Wgreal’s chest and neck.

“Fuck,” Hanlon shouted. “Jesus fucking Christ.” He started firing into the dark tunnel ahead of them. “Mother fuckers! Come out and face us, you chicken shit cock suckers!”

“Hanlon,” Dobavich, the med-tech and second-in-command, shouted. “Hanlon, goddamn it, hold your fire!”

The big man yelled one last curse, fired one last time and stopped.

“You’re wasting power,” Jackson hissed. “Like the lieutenant said.”

“Anyone see anything?” Dobavich asked. “Anything showing up on the scanners?”

“I got a blip,” Veunre said. “Two hundred meters ahead.”

“Human or Binnean?” Hanlon’s voice was calm again, deadly calm.

“Neither.”

“What is it then? Shifter?”

“No, not Shifter. The detector in this thing still isn’t working right. We’ve got thousands of Shifters all around us according to it.”

“Then what the hell is it, Veunre?” Hanlon stepped away from the lieutenant’s body as it fell against the wall and slid to the floor.

“Don’t know. But it’s not Binnean or human.”

“You telling us there’s something else down here?” Sweat trickled down Jackson’s back and his hands started to tremble. “What the hell could do that?” He motioned with his blaster toward the lieutenant. Dobavich was leaning down next to him, running a med-scan over the wounds.

“Got me,” she said, standing up again. “Whatever it was, ripped those holes out in two strikes, throat first then chest. His heart and lungs aren’t there anymore. Whatever it is, it’s strong as hell and moves faster than anything I’ve heard of. The lieutenant never had a chance.”

“Hey,” Veunre said, “the blip is gone.”

“What? Where?”

“It disappeared. Just now. Like it wasn’t there.”

“Fuck.” Jackson’s gut clenched. He scanned the tunnel, including over head, leading with his blaster. “Now what?”

“We go on. Our mission is to destroy this city and everything in it,” Hanlon said. “If we do that, we destroy whatever the fuck that thing is.”

The big man’s rage was now carefully controlled but it still tainted his voice. Jackson could appreciate the rage, but his own was layered with fear.

“Stick closer, stay in formation,” Dobavich said, taking up command. “Xavier, message the others that the lieutenant’s down and we’re going on. Keep your eyes open.”

Jackson fell back into position at the rear, sucking in a curse as he passed the lieutenant’s body. “We coming back for him?” he shouted up to Dobavich.

“If we can.”

Jackson watched the tunnel with his heart pounding in his throat. “If we can,” he murmured. “If we survive.”

*****

“I don’t know what happened,” BinRal said to Nathan over the comm-link. “But his throat and chest are ripped out. He was dead before he knew what hit him.”

Nathan cursed quietly, keeping a close eye on the figures on his scanner while he digested BinRal’s news. “You thinking E?”

“I’m thinking no one else in the city is capable of this,” BinRal said. “And if E is capable of this, I’m just glad he’s attacked the soldiers and not us.”

“Doesn’t mean he’ll stick to the soldiers.” Shit.

The group Nathan was keeping track of had split and split again. Monroe was trailing one, Juanita another and Glen another. No one else had reported finding a body. “Warn the others to look out for E,” he told BinRal. “I’ll send Val a message to spread to the Shifters. In the meantime, if all he does is concentrate on the enemy, leave him to it. I’m not gonna object to him making our job easier.”

“I just hope he sticks to the soldiers.”

Nathan couldn’t agree more.

*****

“Ti’ann,” James’ voice came over the comm-link. “You’ve got a group headed your way now. They should flank you and Krin. Val is relaying a message to the Shifters with you to cover the tunnel until the groups pass. If they continue to split up the way they have, you should each only have three to follow.”

“Thanks,” Ti’ann answered and took a deep breath. Finally. Almost over. She hated all this waiting. But then she’d always sucked at hide-and-seek as a kid. And that had never been life or death like this.

She trotted down to relay the message to Krin. He took out his short-range comm-link and keyed it up. It wasn’t a secured link, but he could send out a code of beeps and trills to communicate with anyone near enough. He could also monitor any other links within its limited range, which would include hers, James’ and Claire’s.

“You ready for this?” he asked, settling a hand on her shoulder.

“No,” she said. “I was ready a couple of hours ago. Now I’m scared.”

He smiled. “Me, too. Be careful. Remember, no heroics.”

“Don’t worry. I’m a scientist, not a mercenary.”

Krin nodded and squeezed her shoulder.

The Shifters were already moving in opposite directions to the tunnel entrances when she returned to her position. “Will I be able to see them pass?” she asked the Shifter at her side of the tunnel.

She stared at Ti’ann a minute, her copper eyes whirling like melted metal. For a moment, Ti’ann didn’t think she understood.

Then a mouth formed in the Shifter’s face. “No,” she said with obvious difficulty. “I will dissolve—reform?—when they have passed.”

“Thank you.”

She held her breath as the Shifter formed a barrier filling in the tunnel entrance. If she didn’t know better, Ti’ann would swear she was staring at a dead end. The light from outside cut off abruptly when Krin’s end was sealed up too. She felt panic rising and knocked on her penlight to give her the allusion of light. It was so pitch dark she couldn’t see a thing beyond the tiny beam. At the opposite end of the tunnel, a second beam of light was visible, but it didn’t cut any of the blackness in between.

She sucked in a breath, then another, and still couldn’t get enough air. She started to pant, taking in shallower breaths, and closed her eyes. Spots danced against her eyelids.

You’re going to hyperventilate, she told herself. Calm down. It’s just darkness. Nothing in here but you and Krin. In fact, she was probably safer now than she’d been a minute ago since the soldiers wouldn’t be able to see through the Shifters’ camouflage.

She concentrated on inhaling one deep, full breath at a time before letting it out slowly. There was plenty of oxygen here. More than enough. Her breathing slowed, along with her heartbeat.

In the moments that followed her near panic, she noticed the utter silence. She didn’t dare call out to Krin because the sound would probably carry through the wall formed by the Shifter. But she had an overwhelming urge to shout into the darkness just to make noise. She listened to the silence until her ears hurt. Would she be able to hear the soldiers pass?

She hesitated then pressed an ear against the wall of living Shifter. It felt just like the other walls. For some reason, she’d expected it to be warmer, or colder, or different from the surfaces made of dead Shifter bodies. The fact that it wasn’t different disturbed her. How would she know if this Shifter died? Would she and Krin be trapped if the two Shifters were hit with blaster fire and killed while they still blocked the tunnel? The thought made her shudder.

To her surprise, a place on the wall against her cheek warmed, warmed until it felt like the soothing kiss of hot water in the shower. She pulled back and stared at the spot, focusing her penlight on the area. It still looked normal.

Then a small mouth formed in the circle of light. “You will not be trapped,” the mouth whispered and was gone.

Ti’ann stepped back and stared. After several quiet seconds ticked by, her muscles relaxed and her shoulders slumped. It was weird, talking to a mouth in the wall, weirder yet that the wall seemed to understand her fear. But knowing the wall wouldn’t trap her was an immense relief.

She pressed a hand to the Shifter, hoping she understood her gesture of gratitude, before leaning against the side wall to wait.

Fortunately for her nerves, she didn’t have to wait long. Just as she settled into the dark, her eyes adjusting enough so she no longer strained to see beyond her penlight, the wall dropped away. Blinking in the sudden brightness, Ti’ann smiled at the Shifter standing where the wall had been. She smiled back. Without trying to talk, she gestured down the tunnel taken by the soldiers and indicated three of them with her fingers.

Ti’ann placed a hand on the Shifter’s shoulder and mouthed, “Thank you.” She glanced back into their hiding spot to see Krin disappear down another corridor, following his assigned group, and then she moved off after her quarry.

She didn’t have a scanner but her eyes and ears helped her keep track of the soldiers. The only thing she had going for her was the confusion Nathan and BinRal had created and the Shifters hiding along the tunnel ahead of her. The soldiers should be picking her up on their scanners, but hopefully, they’d think she was a shadow.

So far, according to the messages being relayed, only Juanita had been fired on. She did as instructed. As the soldiers tracked back to find her, she retreated behind a wall and was hidden by a Shifter already stationed in the corridor. When they came against a solid wall registering as a human, they moved on. Juanita had giggled over the comm-link when recounting their curses. It was the first time Ti’ann could remember hearing Juanita giggle.

Clare and Glen both reported similar experiences without blaster fire. From what she could tell, the soldiers were confused as hell and jumpy. There was also the issue of E and the way he seemed to be hunting and killing the soldiers, a number of the soldiers so far, but she didn’t want to think about that too closely. So long as he wasn’t hunting any of her people or the Shifters, he could do as he pleased.

Ti’ann had heard Nathan’s voice a couple of times, relieved beyond reason just to know he wasn’t hurt. He never addressed her directly in communications. Given the circumstances, he didn’t have to, so long as she knew he was okay. After the report of the first dead soldier, she’d had to force herself to stop thinking about Nathan or terror would get the best of her. If E didn’t distinguish between the soldiers and Nathan…

Even now, she had to block those thoughts. So far, only soldiers had been killed. They didn’t know how many exactly, but they’d found five bodies. This was probably the only time in her life when her curiosity didn’t demand details.

She trailed far enough behind the soldiers so she could just hear the sounds of their boots on the stone floors and the occasional hissed comment from one to the other. Were they scared now, too? They’d lost at least five of their companions to something they couldn’t track or understand. They must be terrified. She felt a twinge of sympathy for them. They might not even know why they were here beyond destroying the city. Maybe they didn’t know Shifters were harmless and peaceful—at least most of them. They were probably subjected to the same propaganda as the rest of the planet. Maybe worse. They probably thought they were protecting humans.

She edged closer, careful to stay in shadows and around corners, but she wanted to hear what they were saying.

At one cavern, they paused and she was able to hide in the tunnel and actually watch them. Their voices carried loudly in the small chamber, despite their attempts to keep quiet.

“This is stupid,” one hissed. “We’re letting ourselves get picked off one at a time. I say we get the fuck out of here and blow the place from the air.”

“You know we can’t do that, Jackson. Now shut the hell up already.”

“Listen, Hanlon, I don’t want to end up like Wgreal. This mission has gone nova. We need to leave. Now.”

“We’ve got our orders,” the third solider said. She was watching the tunnel they’d just come down, the one Ti’ann was hiding in. Her night vision goggles were pushed up into her short-cropped hair, useless in the bright lights of the cavern. The green camouflage paint covering her face made it difficult to see what she really looked like. “We do what it takes to destroy this place quietly. Pretty useless blowing the thing so loud it registers on every satellite and monitor on the planet.”

“Yeah, Jackson, you dumb shit. We’re here to keep this quiet, not announce it to everyone and their dog.”

“Why the fuck do I care anymore, Hanlon, huh? These fucking Shifters are supposed to be harmless. They’re not supposed to fight back.” Jackson’s voice dripped with sarcasm. “They only hide.” He sounded as if he were mimicking someone else. “Fuck that. We’ve got seven down. Peaceful my ass.”

The other two shifted from foot to foot. No one made eye contact.

“So what do you want us to do?” the woman asked.

“Get the fuck out of here, that’s what.”

“You’re a coward,” Hanlon said. “You’d abandon your duty just like that?”

“Fuck you, Hanlon. I will not end up like the others.”

Hanlon snarled at him, stepping close to the smaller man. “You’ll do your duty, Jackson. You’ll follow your orders. Even if I have to break every bone in your body to make you.”

A sudden beeping broke the tense stand-off. The woman reached into a vest pocket and pulled out a comm-link. “Dobavich.”

The sound was too quiet for Ti’ann to hear, but the look on Dobavich’s face changed from concentration to surprise to anger. “Goddamn it.” She disconnected and pointed her blaster toward the tunnel where Ti’ann stood. “You’re not gonna believe this,” she said to the two men. “It’s a trap.”