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In Basement 1, Ludor stood with Debrov, Captain, and the four trievers, wondering what they were looking at. Inside a cell, something white and fluffy slept huddled in the corner of a dirty and blood-stained mattress.
‘What are we doing here?’ he asked Captain. ‘Where’s our ride?’
‘In front of you,’ Captain replied with an eyeroll.
‘Mutt!’ called BRISK.
Startled awake, the hound lifted its head. Upon seeing the Gorgons, it flinched then pressed itself into the corner of the wall, quivering as if trying to shrink or become invisible. If it had eyes, they weren’t apparent. One ear was black like half of its face. A grey strip ran from somewhere near the top of its head to a tiny nose. A tail emerged from billowing fur to sluggishly waggle.
‘Is that a hound?’ Debrov asked.
‘Mostly. Sometimes is portal,’ said SHARP.
‘It’s a portal host?’ Ludor had heard of bioportals but had never believed they were real, especially one that was part hound.
Debrov took a step forward. ‘How does it work?’
‘Not well very,’ said FORCE. ‘Lots we’ve tried, from whipping to belt beating on noggin, though not wants to obey. Instead pees, bleeds, and whimpers.’
‘What does work then?’ Debrov asked but no one answered. The mood in the basement turned awkward.
Ludor sighed. ‘We don’t have time for this, so someone tell me how we get this thing to... open?’
‘You does must be nice,’ said SHARP quietly, and no one spoke for several long moments until Ludor demanded, ‘Unlock the farking cell!’ When it was open, he stood with nothing but space between him and the hound to see what it would do. It turned out to be nothing.
‘Does it have eyes?’
‘Yes.’
‘Will it attack me?’
The trievers laughed. FIERCE said, ‘It’s a weakling boofhead.’
‘Come here,’ Ludor said to the hound in his usual forceful tone.
Its ears disappeared behind its fluffy head.
‘Here, Mutt,’ said Ludor in a softer tone, using the name BRISK had called it. The hound sat up on the bed and offered a demure expression but still avoided eye contact.
Ludor slapped his thigh. ‘Come here. Come on,’ he said in a friendlier tone.
Mutt’s ears pricked. A tail waggled timidly. With caution, the hound stepped off the mattress and approached Ludor who knelt and patted the ground. ‘That’s it,’ he encouraged while fighting an urge to add, ‘I won’t hurt you.’
It took some coaxing but eventually the hound crawled to Ludor who held it while Captain attached a chain to a collar that had metal balls dangling from it. They took the hound into the courtyard where SHARP unhinged one of the balls from the collar, put dirt in it, then closed it again.
‘What’s with the dirt and balls?’ asked Debrov.
‘To open spacegate, hound needs scent of departure site and coordinates of destination site,’ SHARP explained.
Ludor accessed a map on his aide and recited the coordinates to SHARP who turned tiny dials on the active ball with her large hands. When it glowed piercing light blue, Mutt grew agitated and didn’t calm until he got to sniff it. SHARP let him off his chain. ‘Go! Go! Go!’ she said and the trievers all threw soft things for the enormous pooch.
‘What lame level of farkery is this?’ Debrov said and continued to curse over the situation though no one paid her any attention. Not that she cared.
‘Have to play to open.’ FORCE’s scowl was part embarrassment and part anger.
‘What the fark is happening?’ Debrov grumbled. ‘We’re watching a bunch of trievers act like Leffels to get a hound portal open so we can go steal a farking toy. It’s shameful, Commander. Farking shameful.’
Ludor wondered if playing with a hound was fun until its mouth grew so large it took over its face. Its hair grew long and twisted around a face that was more of a gaping hole with a tongue for a walkway.
‘What the farking fark?’ Debrov said.
‘Let’s go!’ said Captain.
The trievers heaved their weapon sacks on backs and looked to Ludor to give the order.
‘Through that?’ Debrov pointed in disgust. The bioportal was a slobbery and slippery vortex that smelled like wet dog.
Captain ignored her. ‘You’ll want to give the order soon, Commander, otherwise it’ll close.’
‘Let’s go!’ said Ludor and led the squad through the bioportal.