Encrypted (44 page)

“
The screwdriver thing,”
he muttered.

Tikaya handed him a long tool with a
magnetic hook on one end and a tiny flat-tip head on the other. She
had finished her work, gathering supplies for Rias’s smoke bombs
and translating the schematic and the numbers Sicarius had given
her. The latter had proved to be another Skiltar Square. Now she
handed Rias tools and tried not to feel useless.

“
Close,” he said. “It’s
just a switch that modifies the level of ‘cleaning’ to be done, so
it’s easier than I thought, but reaching it without taking
everything else out is the problem. Also...I’m afraid if I take
everything out, I won’t be able to get it back in correctly without
breaking something. The insides are much more fragile than the
outside.”

“
Take your time,” she
said, wishing it didn’t sound so inane.

She was not sure how many minutes—hours?—had
passed since Sicarius had left the lab, but she was beginning to
think he must have run into a distraction. As uncharitable as it
was, she hoped for a nice arrow or pistol ball to the chest.

Rias grunted and held out his hand for
another tool. The kit of precision implements they had found ranged
from knives and scalpels to repair gizmos, most of which she could
only guess at. Some were too large for human hands, but all were
well-made, the craftsmanship amazingly sturdy for such fine tools.
A pair of black knives, in particular, had caught Rias’s eye, and
he had stuck them into his belt.

“
There,” Rias whispered.
“I think I got it.”

“
Is there a way to test
it?”

“
Not here.” He started
replacing the innards. “We’ll have to get into the tunnels on the
other side of the cavern. That’s where I found the panel to cut off
the lights. I’m guessing that whatever powers them powers these
cubes and that’s why they’re inert.”

Tikaya realized how lucky she had been when
the blasts brought down all that rubble. If power had been running
to the cube, it might have cut her down after all.

The door hissed open.

They spat silent curses at the same
time.

“
Distract him,” Rias
mouthed, waving at the mess still on the table. If Sicarius caught
them with the cube, he would figure out their plan right
away.

Tikaya grabbed the sphere and her notes and
sprinted to the top of the stairs. Sicarius was halfway up. No bag
of guano dangled from his grip.

Though her instinct was to keep space
between her and him, she jogged down several steps so she could
stop him before he could see Rias.

“
We figured out the code,”
she said, waving the pages. “It’s a puzzle with
numbers.”

“
Where is the admiral?”
Sicarius asked.

“
We made smoke bombs, and
he’s packing them. We did find some potassium nitrate, so we won’t
need the guano after all. Which is good, since you seem not to have
gotten any.” She winced at her inane babbling. “What’s going on
outside?”

Sicarius watched her, impassive eyes
betraying nothing of his thoughts. He knew they had sent him on a
useless errand. He had to. And he probably knew they were not on
his side. They were going to have to kill him or incapacitate him
somehow.

“
Cat and mouse,” Sicarius
said. “I killed one of the wizards. Some of Colonel Lancecrest’s
men are proving elusive, and they’ve set traps. Captain Bocrest’s
team has split them up, brought a few down, and taken others
prisoner.”

Down. Dead. “Parkonis?”

“
What?” Sicarius
asked.

“
The man who...kidnapped
me against my wishes. Do you know if he’s alive?”

“
He dropped to his knees
and begged for his life when we came upon him. He bore no weapon,
so the captain took him prisoner.”

Tikaya closed her eyes, thankful Parkonis
was not the heroic type. He had no weapons training, and bravery
only would have gotten him killed. Being a prisoner was no
guarantee of safety, but there was still a chance she could help
him.

“
Where is the admiral?”
Sicarius asked again.

“
Here.”

Rias appeared at the top of the stairs,
rucksack on his back, and what looked like ceramic globes with
fuses in his hands. She had been busy with the translations and had
not watched him assemble the smoke bombs. She thought of the vast
cavern and hoped four would be enough.

He did not give her a wink or nod, not with
the assassin watching, but she thought Rias’s rucksack appeared
lumpier than before. He slipped two globes into pockets and handed
the other two to Sicarius.

Tikaya wondered how they would detour to the
lighting panel with Sicarius tagging along. And would the cube fly
up to the weapons room of its own accord, or did they need to get
it up there and lock it in somehow? For that matter, would their
modifications even work?

Footfalls sounded in the corridor, and gear
jingled.

Rias reached for his pistol, but Sicarius’s
hand blurred, landing on his wrist in a firm grip.

Rias twitched an eyebrow, the only
indication he felt things might not be going according to plan.

“
The captain sent
reinforcements.” The steely gaze Sicarius leveled at Rias was far
too knowing for comfort. “To watch you and guard our backs while we
retrieve some rockets.”

“
Watch us?” Tikaya asked
innocently. “Why?”

Sicarius did not bother to look at her.

Agarik strode through the door, and Tikaya
lifted her head. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad.

Then Ottotark and Bones clomped in. She
tried not to let her chagrin show. Even before Ottotark spotted
her, he wore a self-satisfied smirk. Bruises from his fight with
Rias still mottled his face, and a bandage wrapped his head, but he
appeared delighted at this new turn. Bones ignored Sicarius and
Rias in favor of glaring at Tikaya, an angry jaw-clenched glare. No
delight there. She guessed Ottotark had buzzed in his ear, letting
him know who killed his brother.

Tikaya looked at Agarik, but he avoided her
eyes.

“
Evening, Admiral,”
Ottotark drawled. “We’ll relieve you of your weapons now.” The
smirk widened. “Captain says you’re back to prisoner status.” He
ambled up to the step below Rias and held out his hand.

Rias neither moved nor spoke.

Ottotark launched a punch at his belly. Rias
blocked it and slammed his knee into the sergeant’s diaphragm.
Ottotark’s heel slipped off the step, and he nearly tumbled to the
landing, but he caught himself on the railing. Tikaya started to
back away, to give Rias room to fight, but Sicarius stepped in. He
held a knife she had not seen him draw in one hand and splayed the
other against Rias’s chest. His eyes were icy in warning.

Rias froze.

Ottotark found his balance. Fury contorted
his face, and he snarled as he snatched Rias’s weapons. He lifted
the musket, as if he might slam the butt of it into Rias’s head.
Tikaya stepped down with a vague notion of grabbing the weapon, but
Sicarius stopped Ottotark with a word.

“
Enough.”

The men dropped their arms. While punching
Ottotark had won Rias nothing, it concerned Tikaya that none of
that defiant spirit came out against the assassin. Had his last
meeting with Sicarius disillusioned him so much that he would not
move against the youth again? If so, that did not bode well for
their success.

“
Lead on, Admiral,”
Sicarius said. “You two will get us into the weapons
cache.”

And then what?

* * * * *

The pair of kerosene lanterns the marines
carried did little to push back the darkness in tunnels that had
fallen silent. Eerily so. Tikaya began to feel as if their tiny
group represented the only people left alive in the stygian
passageways.

She and Rias walked side by side, leading
the others. Ottotark and Bones kept their pistols trained on their
backs. Agarik walked behind them, and Sicarius ghosted along in the
shadows, rarely seen, rarely heard, always felt.

Tikaya checked symbols and peered down dark
cross tunnels, hoping for inspiration. As soon as the marines had
the weapons, they would likely shoot her. She wondered if Rias was
expendable at this point too. At best, he could expect a trip back
to Krychek. He would probably prefer death.

Rias caught her eye. “Sorry.” He spoke in
Kyattese, which she had not realized he knew, though the words that
followed proved he was far from fluent. “I was engineer. Picked
where explosives go. Had chance.”

The slowness with which his words came out
gave her time to puzzle over the meaning behind his choice of
language. Bones, Agarik, and Ottotark probably knew no Kyattese,
but hadn’t Rias warned her that Sicarius did? He had certainly
seemed to be reading that journal.

“
No talking in codes.”
Ottotark jabbed Rias in the arm.

“
Had chance,” Rias
repeated, brow furrowed as he groped for words. “To drop roof on my
people. End it all. Could not.” He shook his head and
sighed.

Tikaya glanced between Ottotark and Bones,
probing the shadows for Sicarius. Yes, he was there and close
enough to hear. Maybe Rias wanted Sicarius to know he had spared
the team. Tikaya could not imagine that or anything else winning
sympathy from the stony assassin. Maybe Rias just wanted her to
know without opening himself for sneering commentary from
Ottotark.

Tikaya gripped Rias’s forearm. She could not
condemn him for being unable to murder his own people, though it
would have been convenient if he had arranged an accident for
Sicarius when the men were catapulting over the chasm.

In the darkness ahead, four sets of symbols
glowed, marking corners of an intersection. Rias tried to walk
straight through it.

“
Right,” Sicarius said,
voice cold.

“
I can turn the lighting
back on if we go this way,” Rias said.

“
Darkness is tactically
preferable.”

Tikaya shook her head; the kid didn’t even
sound human. She and Rias had no chance if they couldn’t get the
cube powered.

“
What if the door on the
weapons room won’t open without the same power that operates the
lighting?” Tikaya asked.

“
The lab doors are
opening,” Sicarius said.

Good point. She sighed.

“
But it’ll be easier to
see what we’re doing in that weapons room if it’s lit.” Rias turned
to face Sicarius. “You were in Fort Deadend. You saw what happened
to those people. Do you want to risk dropping something? A single
broken vial could kill everyone in the cavern.”

“
Turn right,” Sicarius
said.

“
Why are you so against
turning the lights on?” Tikaya asked.

“
Because you two wish it.”
Sicarius jerked his chin to the right. “Lead.”

In other words, he did not trust them. No
news there.

A long moment passed before Rias headed
right. Even as a prisoner with everything going wrong, he remained
outwardly calm, and Tikaya reminded herself there was still
time.

Lantern light played over piled rock ahead.
This was a different tunnel than she had fled the cavern from, but
it, too, had been partially blocked. They clambered over the
waist-high rubble. When Agarik hopped down from the pile, Tikaya
tried to catch his eye again. But he seemed to be deliberately
avoiding them. In plotting to betray the marines, had Rias lost
Agarik’s respect?

Boulders and shattered stalactites cluttered
the cracked and uneven cavern floor. The illusion hiding the camp
was gone, revealing a mess of smashed gear and broken crates. A
pair of legs stuck out from a boulder, and Tikaya tore her gaze
away. Above, darkness sheathed the rockets, though the number panel
glowed, faintly illuminating the door area.

Sicarius detoured into the camp and grabbed
a coil of rope and a bow. He plundered quivers, some still strapped
to dead people, for arrows.

Tikaya waited to the side, not in a hurry to
be helpful. Rias too, wandered into camp, though he looked less
certain about what he sought. Inspiration, probably. Ottotark and
Bones followed him, pistols cocked. The expression on Ottotark’s
bruised face promised he would love to use his.

Agarik bumped Tikaya’s shoulder as he came
up to stand by her. He pointed his pistol at her, though his finger
did not touch the trigger. While Sicarius collected arrows and the
other two men guarded Rias, Agarik chanced a whisper.

“
Ottotark and Bones are
planning to kill you as soon as you open the door.”

It wasn’t unexpected, but hearing how little
time she had unsettled her nonetheless.

“
Does Rias have a plan?”
Agarik murmured.

Sicarius glanced their way. Fortunately,
Agarik still had the pistol aimed at her.

Rias bent to pick something up. “Ah, these
might help.”

Sicarius turned back to him as Rias hefted
Lancecrest’s goggles.

“
We
had
a plan,” Tikaya whispered back
to Agarik. “You people weren’t a part of it.”

“
Rias will have a backup
one,” he said. “If I act against the others to help you, I can’t go
back, or it’s the end of my career, probably my life.”

She feared they needed his help, but this
was their cause, not his. As far as the marines were concerned,
getting those weapons was a good thing. How could she ask Agarik to
risk his life when it meant betraying everyone dear to him?