Zero Recall (27 page)
Authors: Sara King
“Yes.”
The Human moved away,
saying nothing else.
They found the first
Takki body a few tics later. The Baga paused a moment, hovering over it
curiously, so Daviin heard a clear picture of the Takki’s throat ripped open.
They had never heard a sound.
“Here we go,” Joe
whispered. “Daviin, you burning furg, you’re getting a chip as soon as we get
back.”
“I know.”
“Stay close.” Then, like
a wraith, the Human followed the Huouyt into the brush.
Up ahead, something
screamed.
#
“Abandoned, my ass,” Joe
said, eying the twelve Takki corpses lining the ground. Two still oozed blue
slime from plasma wounds—the Huouyt and the Jreet had gotten the rest.
“Scarab, get us underground before the Dhasha come looking for them.” Fighting
Dhasha in tunnels, where the huge scaled creatures had no room to maneuver, was
one thing—fighting them on the surface was suicide.
The Grekkon backed up to
the site they had chosen to bypass the blocked entrance, then hesitated. As
Joe watched, the skin of the creature’s bulbous head—or butt, considering it
had a set of eyes at each end of its body—began to excrete a pitch black
substance that seemed to eat the light itself. Everyone near the Grekkon took
a nervous step away from it.
The Grekkon lowered its
rear into the ground.
Not
onto
the
ground, not
atop
the ground, but
into
the ground. The back end
sank into the dirt as fast as the front legs could push it, leaving a perfect,
circular tube of earth wide enough for a man to walk through if he bent over.
The Grekkon disappeared at an angle parallel to the main shaft, at an easy
slope for them to follow. He was gone from sight in less than three seconds.
Everyone stared down at
the hole with a mixture of unease and respect.
Through the headcom chip,
the Baga voiced what they were all thinking. “
So what happens if he
accidentally brushes up against one of us with that stuff?
”
“
You make up a will
yet?
” Joe asked, falling back into the familiar routine of silent,
chip-to-chip communication.
“
I’m serious,
”
Flea insisted.
“
So am I.
”
The Baga stared at the
hole in silence. Finally, it said,
“I bet Congress would just love to get
that in ammo form.”
“
They tried. Can’t
figure the stuff out. Kinda like the Dhasha’s scales and the Jreet’s
invisibility.”
“And my abbas.”
“And your glue, yeah.
Help me get these out of sight,
” Joe said. He grabbed a dead Takki by the
wrists and began dragging it into the tunnel. Moving their dense, static
bodies—probably two, two hundred fifty lobes each—was a struggle even with the
aid of his biosuit. Joe tried not to wince as Galek and Daviin both grabbed a
Takki in each fist and began casually throwing them into the tunnel as if they
weighed no more than pillows. Jer’ait and Flea had already followed the
Grekkon into the tunnel.
Joe had the Jreet slide
deeper into the shaft while he and Galek disguised the entrance with a hologram
of the spot as it had been before the Grekkon had disturbed it. Then Daviin
and Galek stood back as Joe triggered a minor collapse, sealing the tunnel
behind them to trap the smell of dead Takki inside, where it wouldn’t attract
attention from the surface.
“
Let’s go,
” Joe said
mentally over his head-com, breaking into a bent-over trot. “
Air is short.
”
Though the Jreet did not
pick up the thought, Joe heard him slither along behind them, moving a pebble
here, a clod of dirt there as he followed them. Here, bent over as they were,
the Jreet actually had an advantage. Where Joe and Galek could outrun him in
an instant on the surface, here the Jreet could keep up, if not pass them
entirely.
Once again, Joe wondered
if changing his mind about the Jreet had been a bad idea. Without
communications, the Jreet wasn’t going to do them any good as a scout. He’d
have to stay with Joe at all times.
Probably exactly what
he wanted,
Joe realized, disgusted he hadn’t seen it earlier.
Jer’ait’s call broke him
from his thoughts. “
The Grekkon broke through a downward shaft. The Baga
and I investigate.
”
Joe hurried his step.
They found Scarab backed
into a side shaft it had created, poised like a trapdoor spider in its lair,
its two spearlike arms pointed outward. Looking at it, Joe realized that the
Grekkon probably didn’t need much protection. It could impale a Takki, and a
Dhasha wouldn’t be able to dig fast enough to catch it.
As Joe and Galek took up
positions on either side of the Grekkon’s hole, the Jreet slid out into the
rough, Takki-dug tunnel and waited.
A young Ooreiki voice
broke the silence in Joe’s headcom. “
First and Second Battalions, this is
Groundteam Two, Squad 43 of Third Battalion. We’ve reached the entrance to the
main shaft. No enemies encountered. Haven’t heard a peep from anyone in our
Battalion. Is everything all right out there?
”
Joe frowned. There were
six battalions assigned to the deep den. Five and a half thousand people
should have had
something
to say before this.
“
Can anyone hear me?
”
the request came again.
No one responded.
Though PlanOps teams were
not governed by the same ranking rules as normal groundteams, Joe determined
this was a good time to take control. To Second Battalion only, he said,
“This
is Prime Commander Zero. Someone open your burning mouth and say something.”
Silence.
Joe’s skin began to feel
clammy. He switched channels to all six battalions and repeated his call.
“
Praise the ghosts, we’re
glad to hear you, Commander,”
the young Ooreiki said.
“We can’t get ahold
of anybody. Think we mighta got some faulty com equipment.
”
“
It’s working fine,”
Joe replied.
“Keep your eyes open. We hit seven Takki before we reached
our shaft site.
”
“
So where is
everybody?
” the unknown squad leader insisted.
No one answered.
Joe did a quick mental
calculation. One hundred and fifty groundteams per Battalion. Six battalions
assigned to this deep den. That meant there should’ve been nine hundred
groundteams out there responding to him.
“
Listen,
” Joe
said, “
I want you to get into the tunnels as soon as you can.
”
“
We’ve got to blast a
way in. They’ve sealed everything, even the slave tunnels.
”
“
And you didn’t see
anybody coming in?
”
“
Affirmative, the
place is abandoned.
”
Joe felt a coldness
seeping under his biosuit. On the local channel, he said, “
Unless somebody
back at headquarters is screwing with us, everyone else in this attack is
dead. We’re not gonna get any help on the prince.
”
“
But I just heard a
team on the com,
” Galek said.
“
They’re dead,
”
Jer’ait said. “
Dhasha are closing in on them as we speak.
”
“
How do you know?
”
Instead of replying,
Jer’ait said, “
Downward shaft clear. Connects to a larger tunnel about six
hundred rods past the Grekkon’s puncture.
”
“
Flea, how’s the way
up?
”
“
We’re good. No other
connecting shafts for a long way.
”
“
How much of a way?
”
the Huouyt asked, sounding irritated.
Flea hesitated. “
Maybe
sixty ferlii lengths? A good long way.
”
“
Sixty
lengths?”
the Huouyt cried. “
You’ve only been down there twenty seconds!
”
“
I said it was a good
way,
” the Baga snapped.
“
Give us a
number
,
pest,
” Jer’ait snarled. “
There’s no way you went sixty lengths.
”
“
No?
” Flea
retorted. “
Then come down here and find out yourself, you wet-eyed
worm-tree,
” Flea retorted.
“
Perhaps I will,
”
Jer’ait said smoothly, “
And end your useless existence in the process.
”
Joe interrupted, “
Baga
have no sense of numbers, Jer’ait. Anything beyond six or seven and they’re
lost.
”
There was a very long
pause. “
You jest,
” Jer’ait finally said.
Immediately, the Baga
said, “
Is that something you do with yourself in the shade of the
miga
tree?
”
“
What is the pest
talking about?
” Jer’ait demanded.
Joe had no idea. “
It’s
an insult of some sort.
”
“
Well, obviously,
”
Jer’ait growled. “
What good is the little monster if his primitive brain
cannot comprehend numbers?
”
Joe winced, hoping that
the Baga didn’t take it upon himself to stick Jer’ait next time he saw him. “
Can
it, Jer’ait. Everyone else, let’s go.
”
Joe led the others from
the Grekkon’s tunnel and took out another hologram to mask the entrance. He
took an image of the wall beside it and then set that same image over the
opening to the tunnel. He eyed his handiwork a moment before nodding. To see
it, one had to know where to look. He leaned down to mark the floor in front
of the entrance, but the Ooreiki caught his arm. Joe looked up, irritated.
“
I can find it,
”
Galek said.
Joe shook his head. “
It’ll
be different in six hours, when we’re running for our lives.
”
“
No. I can find it.
”
Galek’s sticky young eyes pleaded for trust.
Joe glanced back at the
unmarked floor, then at the entrance itself. He’d disguised it well. Without
a marking, he would never find it again.
He sighed and
straightened, leaving the floor unmarked. “
Our lives are in your hands,
Galek. Stay alive. Flea, get back down here.
”
The Baga complied, and in
seconds they heard the high-pitched hum of the Baga’s wings. He was moving
fast, at least forty lengths an hour. He passed by them without stopping and
soon was gone down the tunnel following the Huouyt.
Joe nodded toward the
others and began moving deeper into the tunnel.
Behind him, the Ooreiki
was all but oozing pride.
Ghosts, what I
wouldn’t give to be young again,
he thought.
God I hope Galek doesn’t
die down here.
“I was told there would
be five thousand three hundred and ninety-four. Six battalions minus one team
that destroyed itself in a fight as they were boarding their shuttle. Why are
six Congies unaccounted for?”
Tevval’s lieutenants
looked away, trying to do anything but catch his attention. Their iridescent,
rainbow scales glittered in the light of the lamps that Takki had installed in
niches along the walls, their blocky bodies perfect but for a few missing
scales from minor dominance scuffles. Not
one
of them had the balls to
ka-par.
Cowards,
Tevval
thought.
It had been six turns
since one of them had even physically challenged him.
That
fool still
carried his shame in his mangled jaw, the multiple rows of triangular black
teeth twisting in on themselves where Tevval had sliced apart his face.
Tevval growled and began
to pace. “Why have we only seen five thousand three hundred and eighty-eight
Congies? That is precisely the right number to constitute an extra groundteam
crawling through our tunnels as we speak.”
“Perhaps they held
another team back, my lord,” one of his oldest heirs said, his hard, egg-shaped
green eyes glittering hatred in the lamps. Aside from the one with the broken
jaw, he was the largest. His left horn was a deformed black mass where Tevval
had disciplined him as a child. Tevval decided it would probably be this one
to try his luck next. The heir continued on, oblivious of his appraisal.
“Maybe it destroyed itself like the first one. The experimental species
combinations are extremely volatile. It could have been a last-tic change.”
“Our information has never
been wrong before,” Tevval said. “They’re here. An entire groundteam. Why
haven’t we found it yet?”
The room fell into a
nervous silence. As he paced, a glimmering purple Takki skittered from a slave
tunnel and rushed forward, blue eyes betraying its panic at being in a room
filled with Dhasha. It stopped beside Tevval, head down, and waited.
“Speak!” Tevval roared,
resisting the urge to tear the beast apart for wasting his time.
“Twelve slaves are
missing from the surface, master,” the Takki said. Its voice quaked with
terror.
Bones.
“Which
entrance?”
“Entrance Six, master.”
“Scour the main shaft and
all the side shafts.”
“We already did, master.
We’ve found no markings. The tunnels are still sealed.”
“Then they haven’t
punctured yet.”
The Takki quivered, head
down. “Eight more are missing, master. Searchers we sent to scour the
tunnels.”
Tevval’s scales tightened
against his chest. “They’re inside?”
“The entrances are still
sealed,” one of his lieutenants rumbled. “I’ve got a Takki stationed at each
with com equipment. They tell me they’ve heard no attempts to open any of the
shafts since we killed the last team.”
“All are still in
position?” Tevval demanded.