The trip back should have been as easy as he’d told Siobhan, but his sense of urgency was increasing, and he swam with the current to make faster progress.
He was back in the river in a third of the time it had taken him to leave it, but did not feel the relief he expected. Instead he swam as quickly as he could upstream. No ice impeded him here, because of the warm current from the hot spring. He turned his head toward the spring and the cave, but something pulled him back into the current and he continued to swim upstream until, as he neared the village, the ice closed in from both sides of the shore and he finally was forced to dive beneath it, knowing he’d have to claw open a hole when he wanted to emerge.
Underwater in the dark, he still knew his way using his sonar. There was the boat ramp right outside Kilcoole—he knew it by the posts sticking through the ice. But what pulled him onward was still ahead of him. His signals preceded him, bouncing, returning, telling him the lay of the river bottom, banks, the ice, and what was in between.
Up ahead, between the village and the spaceport, something large suddenly entered the water, sinking, flailing, then rising beneath the ice. Two legs, a body, something human.
A soldier who had inadvertently fallen through the ice? A villager? It didn’t matter. He had to help, of course. He had been pacing himself, but now he pushed forward, pumping his long gray body in a smooth continuous series of powerful undulations.
It would take him only a few minutes to reach the victim at this rate, but he also knew that immersion in the frigid river had a good chance of killing the hapless human, or if not that, then frostbite would likely injure him beyond even Clodagh’s ability to heal.
Suddenly above him the ice groaned and cracked and the water sloshed beneath it as if the river were being shaken. A quake? Possible, though they were less frequent once winter set in.
He drove himself forward. The body was upright in the water and seemed to have found an airhole, but with the quake, its movements changed from feeble to frantic. The ice would probably be cracking around it too, threatening it with submersion again. Sean was now swimming as hard as he could, but he didn’t see how he could possibly reach the person in time to save him.
As he passed Kilcoole, however, he suddenly became aware of a thin stream of warm sulfurous water like that from the hot spring shooting down the middle of the river. That was different!
A little farther on and the area between the ice and the flowing water was filled with steam. Ice cracked and parted with the new heat. He sent his sonar signals forth at faster intervals, so as not to lose the victim in the steam, but the noise of the breaking ice confused his senses.
He only knew he’d reached his goal when a heel connected with the top of his head.
CHAPTER 12
BIEN! MON AMI, Zuzu told her new partner in crime, we seem to have begun a four-legged underground in this place of despair. We are a two-creature Résistance. But the man will return and finish his evil work. How shall we further deter him?
We could bite him.
Other men would come and chase us, possibly kill us. And me, I am not ready to die. The universe still has need of such a cat as Zuzu. As it is, I fear we must vacate this ventilation passage tout suite before those evil men pump into it vapors of a nature most poisonous to our kinds.
But your friend who is not a cat remains caged.
Vraiment. She raised and lowered her ears and whiskers to signify that there was little she could do about such a hopeless situation.
Sky squeezed around her and looked into the room at her poor Adrienne bound so helplessly to the chair. The otter leaned against the grate with his body. Zuzu heard a creak and a crack as it gave under his weight. This door would open for the right otter.
By all means, be my guest, she said graciously. She backed away to give him room, careful to keep her back paws and tail free of the pile of scat.
The otter chittered and squeaked and shoved and heaved, and presently Zuzu heard a cracking sound and a triumphant “Hah!”
He then proceeded to use his teeth and front feet to tear an even larger hole, and slid himself into the room. Zuzu daintily followed.
“Zuzu!” Adrienne’s whisper bordered on the sort of hiss that the cat, as her esteemed companion, might have found offensive had it not been so laden with concern for her welfare. “Oh, sweetie, they mustn’t catch you here. They would kill you in some awful way just to torment me.”
Zuzu hopped onto her shoulder, purring comfort and reassurance that she could be back in that hole and out the other side before those clumsy oafs saw so much as a single hair on her curly tail. Meanwhile Sky used his big sharp otter teeth to attack the tapes binding her friend’s hands and feet.
Adrienne sagged with relief as her limbs were freed but jerked to alertness, putting her wrists and ankles together again as the door to her room rattled.
Allez, M’sieu Sky! the cat warned, and sprinted back through the opening, barely clearing the pile of poo as she raced for the exit. The otter was almost as swift as she and was halfway through the opening when the door opened and a voice cried, “Gotcha!”
Zuzu did not see what happened next because her view was blocked by a shrieking otter. When he suddenly disappeared back into the room, her tail twitched twice before she sprinted back through the pipe and out into the corridor for the brief dash to the rat hole.
ADRIENNE’S TORMENTOR HAD carelessly left a tray containing implements for the infliction of pain near her chair. When he barged into the room and saw the hind end of the otter, he disregarded his prisoner to try to capture the animal. Adrienne’s feet were asleep, but she grabbed the back of her chair with one hand, planted both feet on the ground, grabbed the tray with the other hand and began flinging instruments, pointy end first, at her captor. Her hands weren’t in much better shape than her feet, so her aim was off despite the nearness of her target, and most of the instruments bounced harmlessly off the man.
Evidently he was a single-minded kind of guy, because he was so determined to capture the otter that he ignored her. He had hold of the creature’s tail and was yelling threats about skinning it alive. The otter turned, teeth bared, and sank them into the man, who tried to take aim with his sidearm. Adrienne was steady enough to grab her chair and crack him over the head with it. He went down, but his arm came back up with something pointy in his hand. He stabbed at the otter but immediately had a face full of spitting Zuzu, who had erupted from the duct like an avenging demon.
He tried to pry the cat away from his face with the hand that was not being chewed on by the otter. Roaring as Zuzu’s claws dug into him, he pried her loose and flung her across the room. Grabbing the nearest sharp implement, Adrienne stabbed him in the neck and he went limp. Sirens were sounding and footsteps were running down the hall. She was free, but how was she going to get out? And Zuzu…
The otter crossed the room in one slinky motion and nudged the cat, who raised her head, shook it, and with another nudge was back on her paws and racing behind him into the vent.
Adrienne, gripping her torturer’s gun, stood beside the door, waiting for it to open.
DIVE! THE TWINS told each other in unison as the pointy prow split the water between them.
They did, swimming around the boat on either side, intending to meet at the stern.
But as Murel swam halfway the length of the craft, something dropped on top of her, and when she tried to dive lower to evade it, it went with her. Her flipper was caught in it. It continued dropping on top of and all around her until she found herself enveloped, unable to move. A net! Ro, I’ve been netted.
Her teeth snapped down on the nearest section, but the material didn’t give and the boat’s forward motion trapped her upper jaw in it. She pulled backward to try to free herself, shaking her head, and snared something else.
Hold on, sis. I’m coming.
No, no! Don’t! she began. If her teeth couldn’t free her, his wouldn’t be able to either, and he could be caug
ht as well. Better if they wait until the boat docked wherever it was going to dock. He might be able to board, turn human, and use fingers and tools to free her.
Her sonar was confused by the boat’s noise and motion, and she knew Ro’s was too when she heard him swear, Fraggitall anyway! They got me too. Can’t bite through this stuff either.
Don’t try, she warned him. She calmed down enough to slowly maneuver her head free of its square rope prison and put her jaws back together. Ah, better. If they don’t haul us up again before long, we could drown.
I know. Nets aren’t made for flippers to climb, but maybe if we can find the middle so we’re not entangled, we could surface inside the net. Mine’s a whole lot bigger than I am.
This one too. It’s worth a try.
But the nets closed over their heads as they were dragged up out of the water to dangle on either side of the boat.
Whiskery faces peered through the nets at the catch of the day.
“Well, well, lookee here. Seals! I didn’t know we had any in these waters.”
“Me, neither, Captain. You think they killed those squids?”
“Doesn’t seem likely. They’re not all that big. Some species are larger than others, though, I know that. Not a heck of a lot else, though. Not many planets have them anymore.”
“Are they good eating?”
“Not especially. They were hunted for their fur coats a long time ago and were practically exterminated back on Terra because they eat a lot of fish and ruined the waters for commercial fishermen.”
“You think we ought to just kill them, then?”
The twins shivered in nets still too wet for them to change. And if they did change, then what? That didn’t bear thinking about either.
“Did I say that?” the captain asked. “They were only a threat because there were too many of them—and frankly, too many fishermen too. My mama’s side of the family had this kind of hereditary hatred of any nonhuman thing that took the fish, but on my daddy’s side, they would have just as soon killed the fishermen for taking the fish away from the wild critters. My folks had this kinda Romeo and Juliet-type courtship without the suicide.”
Murel, who was the seal he was regarding while discussing their fate, tried to look as big-eyed and adorable as possible, to appeal to the instincts from his father’s side of the family.
The captain grinned at her suddenly. “Cute little thing. Go below and grab my camera, Lloyd. Let’s get some pictures of them and the dead squid, mark the bearings, and release the little buggers. The two of them aren’t going to take enough fish between them to upset anybody. And we sure don’t have any use for fur coats around here.”
“But how’d they get here, Captain?”
“I dunno.” The captain shrugged. “Nobody mentioned anything to me. Maybe the company is introducing a new species. Maybe something else is.”
“Something else?”
“Well, I’ve heard that on some of these worlds the company terraformed to use for one thing or another, unauthorized species have popped up and nobody can figure out why. Maybe the same thing is happening here.”
“Won’t the brass want to examine them, then?” Lloyd called as he ducked into the cabin and emerged with a little waterproof orange package.
“Maybe so,” the captain said, holding the package toward Murel and clicking a button that made a little whirring sound. “If they do, we can probably recapture these, or if there are more, catch them too. On the other hand, if these guys were planted here as part of some new program by the company they’ve neglected to tell us about, they’re not going to be real happy about us disturbing their seed stock.” He crossed to the other side of the boat, his seaman’s legs maintaining their balance on the rocking deck. He took several photos of Ronan too. “I’ll try to suss it out with the brass, but meanwhile, don’t say anything about this.”
“Aye aye, Cap’n, sir,” Lloyd said, flipping him an exaggerated salute. “My lips are sealed.”
“Very funny, Lloyd. Let’s lower the nets before these little fellas get sunburned. Then we can offload our cargo.”
They did that, lowering the nets so they were a foot or two beneath the surface, then opening them so the twins could swim out. Because the nets were so close to the surface, Ronan and Murel had to swim with their heads and backs out of the water to avoid being reentangled. It was lovely to be able to breathe without being bowed in two while the net cut a checkerboard grid into their hides. The captain was still snapping pictures of them.
Once beyond their nets, they dived and swam away from the bow of the boat.
Two near misses in one day! Murel said. Lucky for us the captain took after his da’s side of the family.
Seemed a nice chap, actually, Ronan agreed. It’s odd to find a fishing boat out here, though, don’t you think? Surely they don’t catch fresh fish for the prisoners.
Behind them there was a splash, and their sonar picked up something heavy plunging through the water. They turned and saw a naked gray-white body, its feet bound in heavy chain attached to a stone as large as its head. Its eyes stared blankly, and its thin hair waved like seaweed as it sank. Another human corpse followed that one, and another.
Far below, their sonar told them, the squids rose to snatch their prey.
CHAPTER 13
A SECOND BOAT PLIED the waters of Gwinnet’s sea. It left the main compound at the same time the twins were fighting the squid for their lives, so although a small dark figure stood on the bow with binoculars, and the exploratory boat’s sonar scanned the seas for large mammals swimming near the surface, it missed the twins. Instead, it landed at the island containing the children’s compound, where, with a disgruntled sigh, the small dark figure went ashore to find her grandson and see what he might accidentally tell her of her true quarry.
“Professor Mabo, what are you doing here?” Rory asked when he saw her in the visitor’s hut to which he’d been summoned by Lieutenant Bunyon. When Professor Mabo had taught at Versailles Station, she had insisted that he call her by the same title the other kids used. He’d learned to be wary of his grandmother, so even though she seemed to be regarding him with sadness and sympathy, he didn’t trust her.
“I am here not as your teacher but as your grandmother,” she said. “I know you feel I was harsh with you when I taught at the station, but I acted as I did for your own good. You would not have wanted the other children to feel that I singled you out for favoritism. Children can be very cruel, Rory.”
“So can family,” Rory retorted. She was not going to win him over so easily. It was her fault that he and his folks had been treated like criminals and brought here.
“I’m sorry you feel that way,” she said. “But since you do, perhaps it will make what I have to say easier. I’m sorry to tell you that my daughter and her husband did not survive the flight.”
“You’re lying!” he exclaimed, shocked. “Why wouldn’t they survive? You had them bring us here. I heard the soldiers talking about it before we were put on the ship.”
“Rory, prison duty changes people. Soldiers who have had otherwise exemplary records become hardened, even to their own people, and show no mercy. Your parents attempted escape—I feel certain they were trying to locate you. The guards overreacted. I have had them punished.”
“Yeah, you’re good at that,” Rory said. “What were you punishing us for exactly?”
“I had no intention of punishing you. On the contrary, I simply was trying to protect my loved ones from being implicated in the crimes committed by Marmion de Revers Algemeine. Your parents’ association with her has become hazardous for them and embarrassing for me.”
“I guess so, since you say they’re dead and everything,” he said bitterly. But the news was too new for him to truly grieve for the loss of his parents. He was just reacting to her with the distrust and dislike he’d learned she deserved. Later, alone, he’d think about what she said, but now he was not going to give her the satisfaction of
seeing him upset. “Good thing you took measures so we won’t embarrass you anymore.”
She opened her arms and reached for him, apparently intending to hug him, but he sat back in his chair. The two of them were alone in one of the huts, seated on comfortable cushioned chairs, with a pitcher of fruit punch and a plate of little cakes between them. He’d been wondering since they’d arrived how to swipe the cakes to use as bribes with the other kids.
“I’m sorry you feel that way, Rory. I have tried to tell you this as gently as possible, before you find out some other way.”
She sounded to him like she thought she was the one being abused. He would have been more upset if he hadn’t overheard the guards’ conversation aboard the shuttle from the mainland. They’d said nothing about his parents being killed, and he felt sure that that Austin guy would have tormented him with it if he could have.
“Oh dear, the other news probably will not be received any better.”
“What other news?” he asked in a skeptical tone.
“The people from Halau aboard the ship from Petaybee. None of them survived either. The prison officials had decided not to tell the children, but I feel that that is unfair to them. They should know that they’ve been orphaned so they can make choices appropriate to their status when looking to the future.”
“That’s real thoughty of you, Gran,” he said as disrespectfully as he dared. “How did they happen to die?”
“Well, dear, the elders were frail, and the young mothers, some of them, pregnant—you have been a very sheltered child and cannot possibly know what that prison is like. They perished very quickly.”
“Sounds like it. Any other good news?”
“Not for you, but I understand that children whose description matched that of Ronan and his sister were found on the space station and brought here at the same time you were. We did not part on a very good note, but I do think they should know—could you bring them here, please? The matron did not seem able to locate them.”
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