Vari's Choices

by Laura Jo Phillips

  He smiled back, relieved that she understood, then went to work on the door. He used Air to destroy the device over the door first, then crushed the lock. He started to step back, but he'd just had a sharply pointed lesson in underestimating the Doftles, which Vari had warned them against repeatedly.

  He sent a stream of Air under the door and began searching the door frame on the other side for another boobie trap. He didn’t find one over the door where the others had been, but he continued his search anyway. Just before pulling back he found one a couple of feet up from the floor beside the door rather than above it. He destroyed it the way he had the others, then checked the entire area once more before withdrawing.

  “There were two devices,” he whispered to Vari after stepping back from the door. She nodded grimly before taking his place in front of the door.

  Vari lowered her shield almost all the way and focused on the nearest, loudest voices coming from beyond the door. It was difficult to tell with the way they overlapped each other, but she thought there were nine. She looked for the strange, off feel she got from those engaged in dark deeds and immediately found one quite close by. She continued to search and found one more, further away.

  Returning her attention to the closest one, she focused on the thoughts themselves. Nausea hit her so hard and so fast that she gagged. Slamming her shield back into place, she forced herself to breathe slow and deep.

  When she was sure she had control of herself she looked up into Declan’s worried eyes. “There are two minds in there that are unlike anything I’ve ever experienced before,” she whispered so softly that he read her lips more than heard her. “I’m almost positive they’re Doftles, and I think…,” she trailed off, hesitating when she remembered the cam on Declan’s shoulder. But if they failed, she wouldn’t get another chance to share her impressions, and they could be important.

  Decision made, she forged on. “I think they’re insane. I’ve never touched a Doftle mind before so I could be wrong, but that’s what I think.”

  “Both of them?”

  She nodded. “The nearest one is amusing himself by torturing a man.”

  Declan’s grimace of disgust came and went so fast she nearly missed it. “How close?”

  “Just a moment.” She lowered her shield carefully, reaching for the Doftle’s mind again. His pleasure in the pain and fear he was inflicting made her skin crawl, but this time she held fast. Once she had her nausea under control, she paid more attention to what the Doftle was saying and thinking. She frowned, then shifted her attention to the victim for a few moments, her face hardening at what she learned.

  She returned her focus to the Doftle and found something in his thought patterns that she spent a few moments exploring. Then she shifted her attention to the Doftle that was further away. She thought she sensed the same oddity, but would have to get much closer to be sure.

  She reached for the six men being forced to work under threat of death. More than ever she wished her telepathy worked both ways so that she could tell them help was coming. When she was finished she raised her shield enough to quiet the nearby voices, but not enough to block anyone approaching.

  “Sound shield?” she whispered softly. Declan nodded, then used Air to surround them in an invisible capsule of hardened air.

  “They’re definitely Doftles,” she whispered. “I confirmed it through the minds of some of the men in there. But there’re only two. I searched, but couldn’t find a third and that troubles me.

  “The first one is about a dozen feet from this door. The second is further away. He’s watching over six crewmen as they work.

  “The men are afraid, but they’re angry too. A couple of them are trying to think of a way to disable the guard without getting themselves killed while there’s only one of them. Another one is thinking that getting killed would be worth it if he could distract the Doftle long enough for the others to overwhelm it.”

  “Could they do it?” Declan asked.

  “No. They think if they hit it on the head enough times with a heavy tool that they can kill it, but they can’t. They possess no weapon that can seriously harm a Doftle, let alone kill one. Well, unless they stab something into its eye, and none of them are considering that. We have to make our move before they get themselves killed.”

  “Agreed,” Declan said. “What of the man being tortured?”

  “He and two others are responsible for getting the containers holding the Doftle onboard. They bribed customs to clear them without an inspection. The other two are already dead. This one will be soon if we don’t stop it.”

  Declan’s eyes flashed with dark fury. “Why should we stop it? Such a man deserves such a death.”

  “I want to know exactly how many containers, and how many Doftles they let onto this ship,” Vari said. “That man is the only one left alive who can tell us that with certainty. There’s always a chance he knows something about the Doftle, too. Information is critical at this point. We need every scrap we can get.”

  “Agreed,” Declan said reluctantly.

  “The first Doftle is directly across a wide corridor from us. He’s inside a small room of some sort. It’s nothing fancy, just an enclosed space with a desk, a couple of chairs, and some kind of control panel.” Declan nodded, knowing exactly the type of space she meant.

  “It’s a foreman’s booth.”

  Vari nodded and bit her lip, a sure sign of indecision.

  “What troubles you?”

  “The Doftle is enjoying torturing the man, but he’s also on guard duty. He keeps looking up through a big window that overlooks this door and the corridor in between. I don’t think he could ignore his duties even if he wanted to, which seems strange.”

  “Yes, it does,” Declan agreed in surprise.

  “If we open this door, that Doftle will see us immediately, and we’re too far away to stop him from warning his friends about us. Even if you use Air to get there really fast, he’ll still see the door open, and you’ll still need time to break into the room.”

  “Demii,” Declan breathed. He could open the door, break into the foreman’s booth and kill the first Doftle, then go after the second one using Air. Within a minute or less both Doftles could be dead, and they could secure the engine room.

  Vari’s assessment was right, though. Even using Air it would take a few seconds for him to get to the first Doftle, and that would give him time to warn the others. Not ideal, but if that’s what they had to do, then that’s what they’d do.

  He glanced down at Vari, remembering what she’d said the Doftles would do to the passengers if they were discovered. He’d never even seen a Doftle yet, but he no longer had any doubts about anything she’d said. He clenched his teeth in frustration. There had to be another way to do this. A way that didn’t risk the lives of everyone on this damn ship. “Any ideas?”

  Vari looked him in the eye, took a deep, fortifying breath, and said, “I can kill it from here using the Kunian steel dairi.”

  His brows shot up. “This is an armored door, Vari.”

  “That doesn’t matter. Kunian steel will cut through it like it isn’t even there.”

  “What is it that troubles you?”

  “Two things,” she said. “If I lose control of this dairi, it’ll cut through people, walls, engines and anything else in its way. Including the hull.”

  Declan smiled. “I’ve seen what you can do with zentsu. I have faith in you, Vari. You won’t lose control of your dairi.”

  She stared into his dark eyes for a long moment and saw only sincerity. She swallowed hard, trying to ease the sudden lump in her throat. “You have faith in me?”

  Declan saw the hope in her eyes, and wondered at it. “I have absolute, unwavering faith in you, and so do Jay, and Kai.” He placed his fist over his heart and bowed briefly. “This I promise.”

  Vari was stunned. Her family, Aunt Lari, and the Uncles Dracon had always had faith in her, but they knew her. They knew almost every
thing about her. The last person in the world she expected to hear those words from was Declan Dracon-Bat. Especially after the way he’d spoken to her that morning.

  “I’m not sure what to say,” she whispered shakily.

  “You needn’t say anything, Miraku. What’s the other problem?”

  She shoved her emotions to the background and ordered her scattered thoughts. “I’ve never actually killed anyone before,” she said. “Fought, restrained, bruised when necessary, but I’ve never had to take a life. I’m going to do this, so you don’t have to worry about that. I just need a moment.”

  “It’s never easy to take a life, Vari,” Declan said. “Nor should it be. If I could do this for you, I would, but I do not possess the skill necessary to get us beyond this point without being seen. I’m sorry.”

  Hearing that it wasn’t supposed to be easy helped Vari more than just about anything else he could have said. She took another breath and nodded her head firmly, just once. “I can do this.”

  “Yes, you can,” he said, then moved back to the stairs to give her as much room as possible.

  Vari moved a couple of feet back from the door to give herself room to move. Then she closed her eyes and embraced the total darkness that the light block provided. Her other senses opened, allowing new information to flood her mind.

  Beneath the roar of the engines and the creak of the walls that surrounded them, she heard the beat of Declan’s heart, and the rush of blood through his veins. She felt the faint heat of the recessed light overhead and the passage of air against her face.

  Her senses spread out bringing her the smell of hot metal, lubricant, sweat, blood, and fear. She heard the harsh breathing of the man in the foreman’s booth, the sound of his blood dripping onto the floor, and a strange, unfamiliar sound that she couldn’t identify.

  She focused all of her senses on it. It was a heartbeat, she realized, but unlike any heartbeat she’d ever heard. It beat too slowly, the blood passing through it thick and heavy, and there was an echo to it. How strange.

  Moving her attention from the heart she went upward, seeking the regular pulse and throb of a carotid artery, or the Doftle equivalent of one. Again it was too slow, too sluggish and heavy. But it was there.

  All of this she identified and sorted through in less time than it took her own heart to beat twice. Her target chosen, Vari didn’t hesitate. She flexed her wrist and the dairi around her waist flew into her hand, no longer a chain belt but a straight, slightly flexible length of metal. She changed it from black to silver with a twitch of one finger, ejected the hidden blades of Kunian steel along the top and bottom edges with another, aimed and threw it all in one smooth motion. She followed the dairi with her senses as it whipped through the armored door, then through the thick plasti-glass window of the foreman’s booth before sliding through the target.

  It moved so fast and with such ease that she barely reacted in time to recall the weapon before it did unwanted damage. The dairi returned to her hand through the same thin cuts it’d created through plastic and armored steel when she’d thrown it. She relaxed her stance, blew out a slow, carefully controlled breath, and opened her eyes.

  Declan shook his head slowly. Barely five seconds had passed from the moment she'd closed her eyes to when she'd opened them. Even though he’d seen it before, he was still stunned by her speed. It didn’t occur to him to wonder whether or not she’d hit her mark. Impossible as it seemed, he knew she’d succeeded.

  He was more shocked by how easily the Kunian steel blades had cut through the armored door. When they got back to Jasan, the first thing he was going to do was obtain Kunian steel weapons for the Bihotza.

  He approached Vari and touched her lightly on the shoulder. “You all right?” he whispered.

  “Yes, I’m good,” she said, returning the dairi to her waist with steady hands. Declan pulled the door open and started to step through. He caught himself at the last moment.

  “Maybe a check would be a good idea,” he suggested in a soft whisper.

  “Agreed,” Vari said with a shudder she couldn’t hide. Logically she knew it was safe since her dairi hadn’t been vaporized. But she still needed to check. She grasped the last small bit of plastic left over from the first door between her fingers and tossed it through the open doorway. It landed with a clatter on the floor and they both relaxed just a little.

  Declan checked to be sure the corridor was empty, and stepped through the doorway, his dracon senses alert. He approached the foreman’s booth and looked through the window, confirming that the Doftle within was most definitely dead. He looked for, and found, the human man lying on the floor in a pool of blood. Vari came to stand beside him, looking through the window as well. He created a sound shield around them.

  “The human is not in good shape, Vari,” he said. “You may not get another chance to ask your questions.”

  She nodded. It was dangerous to do this when the area was unsecured, but they needed information too much to let the chance slip away. She walked to the entrance of the foreman’s booth and waited for Declan to crush the inner workings of the lock. When he pushed the door open they both grimaced at the strong odor comprised of blood, pain, and fear.

  Vari approached the man lying on the floor. He was wearing what had once been a green jumpsuit that was now drenched in blood, and slashed to ribbons across his arms, chest and shoulders.

  Kneeling down beside him, she noted with some relief that he was breathing, and seemed to be conscious. She was surprised that anyone could lose that much blood and still live. “Can you hear me?” she asked softly.

  The man nodded. It was almost imperceptible, but her shield was down enough to hear his thoughts so she knew it was deliberate. She started to ask another question when Declan reached over from the other side of the man and tapped her arm.

  “Broken jaw,” he mouthed silently when she looked up. Vari nodded, then leaned down so that her lips were close to the man’s ear.

  “I can hear your thoughts,” she whispered. “I’ll ask questions, you think your answers clearly.”

  “Okay,” the man thought back without a moment’s hesitation, giving her the impression he’d done this sort of thing before. “Did you just kill that crazy rat bastard?”

  Vari wasn’t at all sure what a rat bastard was, but she got the gist of the man’s question. “Yes, I did.”

  “I’ll tell you anything you want to know.”

  “How many containers were brought onto the ship with Doftles in them?”

  “Two. Six in each.”

  “You’re sure there weren’t more?”

  “Positive.”

  “How many are down here, in the engine room?”

  “There were three, but one left. I don’t know if he came back but they take turns and I haven’t seen him since before Mit died last night. I think it was last night. Could’ve been longer.”

  The man paused, but before she could formulate her next question, he spoke again. “We didn’t know. I swear. We didn’t know.”

  “Didn’t know what?”

  “Who was in the containers.”

  “Who did you think was in them?”

  “Fugitives from Pilorat.”

  “Fugitives looking to sneak onto Jasan?” she asked doubtfully.

  “We knew it wasn’t possible. Not our problem.” Vari wanted to point out that it was certainly his problem now, but kept her opinions to herself. It was a little late for wrist slapping.

  “Tell me what happened.”

  “We agreed to open the containers and check on the occupants the day after we loaded them. You know, just to make sure they had water and food. When we saw who was really inside we didn’t like it a bit. Then they told us they meant to hijack the ship.

  “I decided to go straight to the Captain. My friends did too, I found out later. Smuggling a few poor people who can’t pay passage is one thing. Hijacking was more than we bargained for.

  “Before we closed
the containers back up one of them said that if we told anyone about them, they’d kill every child under six on the ship and make us watch. He said our puny weapons couldn't harm them, but we were welcome to try. He sounded like he was daring us to do it, too. We believed him.”

  The man gasped, then panted hard for a few moments. “Were we wrong?” he asked plaintively. “Would they have done it?”

  “No, you weren’t wrong to believe him," Vari said. "And yes, they would have done it. Never doubt it.”

  “At least we got one thing right. That weighed almost as heavy on us as knowing we brought the damn things aboard to start with.” He breathed in slowly, then out again a few times. "Are you gonna try to put the bastards down?"

  "Yes, we are."

  "I can help."

  "I'm listening."

  “They told us they had a device that would destroy the ship's security system and all the comms. They ordered us to monitor the comms, and to come let them out immediately after they went down.

  "We knew they talked back and forth between the containers so I found what frequency band they were using and built a disrupter. As soon as the ship's comms went down I activated it. They think someone on their end made a mistake and their device took out their comms along with ours.

  "They're spread out around the ship, but they got no way to talk to each other. Maybe that'll help you. But if the disrupter I built is destroyed or shut off, they’ll have comms again.”

  "Where is it?"

  "In my pocket.

  Vari checked three pockets on what was left of the man’s jumpsuit before she found the device. She held the small gray box where he could see it. “Yes, that’s it.”

  “We’re going to have you transported to another ship now so you can get some medical attention.”

  “Don’t trust them.”

  “What’s your name?”

  “Borat Jorgan.”

  “Thank you, Borat, for the information, and especially for the disrupter. You couldn't have given us anything more helpful than this. And don’t worry. We won’t trust them.”

  She nodded to Declan who placed a transponder on the man, and another on the Doftle. He waited for Vari to get to her feet and step back, then he activated the transponders. A moment later Borat vanished but the Doftle remained. They looked at each other and shrugged. They’d have to figure it out later.