"If this is anything like the last time they went missing, Vallory will need to go into the station service tunnels. She shouldn't go alone," Damien said, leaning against the back of an enclosure.
"We will need to use the backup enclosure," Vallory said. She doubted the daubpups would go back into this one willingly. Not because the show would kick them out, or their attempt to find the missing pets had so far failed. More because the enclosure had gotten too hot twice now, and the daubpups would remember.
"You just volunteered," Arthur said with a grin. One that Damien did not echo, and how she wished he would. "Find them, see if they found anything on their travels."
"Good point." Officer Redsong nodded at Damien. "Contact us if you find anything. You can proceed now. I won't be able to let you near the controls for a repair until my people are done with their investigation."
"Understood. We'll be in contact." Damien led the way out of the pet show with his bot trailing behind, the repair cart left behind. The poor bot. It kept looking first at Damien, and then back at Vallory. As for Damien, he hardly spoke or looked at her as they descended to the first layer of the station near Hotel Circle.
He continued on, clearly with a destination in mind, but not voicing it. Still not speaking or looking at her, much less consulting with her, turned the feelings of sadness and frustration to anger. She stopped, watching him walk away from her, glaring into his back. She stood there with her hands on her hips, just waiting.
He nearly reached a bend in the wide corridor before stopping. He half-turned towards her, frowning himself. "Aren't you coming?"
"You assume you know where you're going," she shouted down the corridor at him. "Do you have the tracking system? Do you know the daubpups? Do you know which one to go after first? How nice of you to just assume."
With one last glare, she turned to the right and stomped off down an intersecting corridor. She shouted over her shoulder, "Start talking, buddy. You have a problem with me, then say it. Otherwise, I'm leading the way, with or without you."
Maybe one of the repair bots would appear to help her again if he didn't follow. Yet, she knew he would. Didn't doubt it for a second. He might be angry about it, but he would.
Ready to follow the signal to the left, she paused at another corridor intersection. There he was, advancing quickly on her with his bot in tow.
He stopped, towering over her even though he wasn't all that much taller than her. It wasn't his height. It was the shear magnetism he exuded. It made him appear bigger than he was.
All apart of the reasons she loved him, even while angry at him. Really, how dare he assume.
"Ready to talk?" Vallory demanded, refusing to take a step back. She was sure even her chin was jutting forward like her father used to admonish her about.
"Talk about what? I thought we were finding lost animals."
A hint of amusement. Better than complete cold indifference.
It spurred her to go on. "Maybe we need to find something else that was lost? Like how you used to enjoy my company, even indicated it meant more than friendship, and all of a sudden you decided you wanted nothing more to do with it?"
She took in a long breath, his attention never leaving her face. "You do like to get straight to the point."
"It's the scientist in me. Now, what about it?" She put her hands back on her hips, one still holding the pocket computer. Waiting for the next move.
If he was willing to make it.
With the way time kept ticking forward with no word, her nervousness began competing with her anger. Was he really going to deny this special thing? Although, was it a 'special thing' if only one of them felt it? With that thought, the sadness returned with a vengeance.
"I don't see this having a future," he finally said into the elongating silence.
"I figured it was something like that." She poked him in the chest with a finger. "You should have talked to me. There may be possibilities."
His eyebrows pushed together. "What sort of possibilities?"
"Thought you would never ask." She turned and started walking, following Penny's trace. As she did, she started talking about the new lead. Of what it could mean. What it could mean to her future ability to change locations.
"It will give me flexibility. It's a good start. If they have a good habitat they can adapt to, then it means not all my time is spoken for," Vallory continued.
He wasn't as enthusiastic as she'd hoped, but at least he started talking. Asking about the location, about the grant, about how the daubpups might do there. Nothing about her coming back to Redpoint One, but that could come in time. At least they were moving in the right direction, and she still had a little bit of time to work on it.
Damien started taking the lead as they moved down several levels and into the maintenance corridors. Penny really took off this time. But then, all of them did this time. Yes, time bring them together into their new enclosure. Before they moved further into the depths of the station.
"I hope the baby didn't have trouble traveling this far," Vallory said, looking up from the computer. "Penny is rather hard-headed, and might be a new mother."
Damien turned again, the bot now trailing behind both of them. "She's attentive, isn't she?"
"Yes, but then, I don't know what an attentive daubpup mother is like. No one does."
"I don't think you'll be able to leave them."
The comment came out of nowhere, said with a mixture of sadness and regret. It told her more than he probably realized. That he wished they didn't pull so much of her attention.
"I want a life of some sort for me," Vallory said with conviction. "Right now, I have none. Still can be worked out."
As with many things, it was all in the details. She got things done others didn't because she refused to take no for an answer and refused to give up. She could do it with this. Her heart depended on it.
Thankfully he didn't argue. Just kept leading deeper into the station. She was glad he came with her. She was totally lost, and hadn't seen a free-roaming repair bot in quite some time.
Damien turned another corner, only here the pipes ended in a plain solid wall. It looked so much like the bulkhead door that once tried to trap her that a cold shiver went over her.
"Oh, right. We'll have to go around." Damien turned to head back to the corridor they'd just left.
"Is it another dead area of the station?" Vallory eyed it, forcing herself to move past the memory of the other door. "It doesn't quite feel dead."
"It's not." He motioned for her to follow him. "You know that Redpoint One is of alien origins? Well, we don't know how every part of it works. Some parts of it we've never seen, as the station keeps it sealed off. This is one of those spaces. Not dead, just not accessible to us."
"And Penny is on the other side of it. How big is it?"
"This one is rather big. It will take a good walk to get to the other side."
Hopefully Penny would still be there. When the daubpups went exploring, they could travel great distances.
With time needed to walk around the area, it meant she could talk about something else. She put the computer back in her pocket, taking advantage of a wider than normal maintenance corridor to move up next to him.
Before she could say anything, he took her hand and tucked it under his, his other hand laying over hers where it rested on his forearm. Just like the other times. So automatic that it hurt her heart.
Oh yes, no matter what happened, she needed to do something to bring to rights this part of her life. She wanted more of this. More of the quiet moments. Even the arguing. He didn't back down from her like others. Stood his ground and said what he wanted to say. She loved every part of it.
"I'll figure out a way to make it work. You are too important." She lightly squeezed his forearm. He didn't say anything, but the subtle clues on his face told her he would like that. "In the meantime, what are we doing for dinner tonight? Even if you have to work late, I'll wait up until you
are finished."
"Take what time we have?"
"Well, I do need to get things set up, so yes, enjoy the time we have here. Then we can make plans for when I come back for visits, and maybe permanently when the time comes."
She let him mull on that in silence. Finally, he said, "You sound so confident."
"I'm willing to go after what I want."
He squeezed her hand, one side of his mouth quirking into a smile. "As do I, so yes, time for a serious talk once we can concentrate on it."
She could accept that. More than she hoped to get him to admit to today, so doing well. Then she would need to get down to business and figure out the daubpup issue. Make it happen, and do it fast. If she intended to eventually come to Redpoint One, that meant she needed to find someone who was as interested and caring about the daubpups as she was. Maybe that would silence the disquiet in her about leaving them behind. With the proper grant money, it should make the study attractive enough to choose from a field of candidates.
"Good. We're agreed." Vallory glanced back at where his bot trailed after them. "Have you named it yet?"
"No, and yes, I have been trying."
"I've been trying with the baby, too. No reaction so far."
A flash of silvery gray, and a solid wall flew across the corridor, slamming into the other side. Damien's bot disappeared from sight, caught on the other side.
Vallory's heart thudded in her chest as she jerked her hand out under Damien's hand. "It's feeling like the old place!"
A closing in. A sense of something wrong, coming from all sides.
Damien grabbed her hand and jerked her forward. "Run!"
She didn't need any other encouragement. She took off running, only a step behind Damien.
The same type of door slammed shut in front of them, almost right in front of their noses.
No sounds, no movement of air. Just them with closed bulkhead doors in front and behind them, with a short dead end blocked by the station. A small area to become trapped in. More like an odd shaped closet than a section of corridor.
Vallory swallowed hard, reaching out to grab his arm, just to feel something warm and solid. "See a hatch?"
"There isn't one in this area."
"No, not a big one. A small one for a bot. Something we can squeeze through."
"None of those, either."
"How can you be sure? You haven't looked around yet."
"Because I work with the station for a living. I know things instinctively. There isn't one."
Not something she wanted to hear. Her heart beat even harder, her lungs threatening to seize up. She whispered, "Please tell me your bot can get us out somehow."
He smiled. A genuine one without any inhibitions. The first one she'd seen since the day before. One she'd missed tremendously.
He lifted his wrist, showing the wide communication computer band around it. "Do you really think we would be out here repairing an alien space station having issues without additional protection?"
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
"SO, I WENT to investigate quick," Rachel was saying over Arthur's communicator. Officer Redsong stood nearby as a forensics team continued to comb over Vallory's former daubpup enclosure.
He scowled down at it. "I don't care about the reasoning behind it, Rachel. You are still on sick leave. You should not be doing anything related to the station."
"It's more complicated than that," Rachel started.
"No excuses. Let us deal with it." He knew Rachel after working with her for years. If he gave in on this, she would soon be 'unofficially' back at full hours fixing little things as she came onto them. Sick leave or no sick leave.
"Will you just listen for a second? The reason my bots insisted I look was that I'm at Ignacio's house right now, and it has to do with the waste water systems in the same industrial area. A clog. To be honest, we all thought it might be Irvine getting loose again. Ignacio brought him back to the warehouse to prep him for shipment to his new home with a rare breeder who is heading home early from the show. Only, it wasn't Irvine. That's why I'm calling you."
"Fine, I'll set someone else down there. Thank you for letting me know of the issue," Arthur started to lower his arm. Time to get back with the show officials about the findings from the police.
Only, Rachel was apparently not finished. "It's a clog of some sort, only I don't know of any industry in this area that could cause this type. Then Ignacio mentioned he'd seen a little activity at a warehouse I know is not in use. Then I thought about the pet-nappings happening up there and how close this is. Getting my drift here?"
"A stolen pet might be clogging up the pipes? So far only rare breeds of felines and canines have gone missing. Nothing aquatic."
Rachel laughed. "No, not them in the pipe. Their fur in the pipe. Since the warehouses are shut down, so are their main pipes. The only thing that would still be working without being turned on would be a bathroom. I think that's what is clogged."
Officer Redsong appeared at his side. "Where is this? We can match it with the animal movements."
"See? This is why I called," Rachel said smugly. Arthur could mentally picture the matching smug smile.
With no choice, he led Officer Redsong to the industrial area housing Ignacio's breeding operation. An area around three-quarters full of tenants, meaning activity was normal. But, Ignacio would know who to expect to see. He had to trust that observation.
It didn't stop him from glaring down at Rachel once they arrived outside Ignacio's door. She stood tall as he told her point-blank. "Off-duty means off-duty. No quick investigations until cleared by a doctor, either. I mean it Rachel."
She gave him a mock salute. "You got it, boss."
Just like Tish, grinning as she said it. No repentance at all. Ignacio grinned from behind her at the front door. Probably had seen this part of Rachel's nature plenty in the short time they'd been together.
"I mean it," he said for good measure.
Officer Redsong stepped forward, interrupting. "What warehouse is the problem located in?"
Rachel pointed to the right. "Two doors down. I've confirmed it's supposed to be vacant." She shrugged. "I know it's a small lead, but maybe something will come of it."
"A good instinct." Officer Redsong worked at her pocket computer. Over her shoulder, Arthur saw a combined map of the daubpups movements the night the cat reappeared and a map of the station. "It looks like an animal named "Frumpmuffin" traveled through the area."
Ignacio barked out laughter. "Frumpmuffin? This is the name of a pet?"
Rachel smiled at him. "The daubpups. Remember we went by to see Vallory Schist yesterday?"
"Right. And I set her up with meetings to help her out with them." He nodded slowly, looking down the row of warehouses. "Traveled through here? How? Another animal moving through the pipes? I don't recall her saying they were aquatic in nature."
"You'll have to ask her." Arthur walked down the sidewalk to stop in front of the warehouse. Nothing from the outside showed evidence of use, but then most warehouses didn't. Warehouses weren't designed to have front display windows or big showrooms, at least, not in this area. "We'll have to get permission to enter."
"The warehouse is empty," Ignacio said, having followed them.
"But privately owned." He smiled at Officer Redsong. "Sorry, but that means a warrant."
"Always legalities. Not as if I'm not accustomed to them." Officer Redsong inspected the full tall exterior. "However, I will need more than maintenance instincts to file one with."
A flash of dark blue and turquoise fur appeared out of a corner of a closed freight door. The daubpup yipped at them several times, shaking the longer hair along the base of its neck. Not that they could see all of it. Half of it was still inside the wall. Knowing the daubpups could travel through walls and seeing it do it was two entirely different things.
With a high whistle, a sharp bark, and chitter, it turned and disappeared back through the wall.
"I think we've just been balled-out," Rachel said with a laugh.
"Did that thing just walk through a wall?" Ignacio demanded, jabbing a finger at where the daubpup disappeared.
Officer Redsong didn't answer, but instead looked at Arthur. "I think this is enough reason for suspicion. I'll start filing the search warrant."
Officer Redsong stepped back towards Ignacio's warehouse as she worked out the details for the warrant with the help of the pocket computer and her comm-unit. The rest of them slowly followed, giving her space to have a private conversation with people back at her headquarters.
"Good catch, Rachel," Arthur said. He gave her a warning look. "But, I still mean it. No repair work. You are off-duty."
Ignacio put an arm across her shoulders and pulled her close before she could respond. "Don't worry. I'll make sure she pays attention."
Rachel dug a knuckle into his ribs. "Oh, you two. I don't need more people telling me what to do."
"You have us and more." Tish and Zane to be exact, with all their bots following behind them. Did Rachel call them, as well?
"Maybe there's another problem down here we don't know about," Rachel said, throwing that guess out the window.
Arthur paused to inspect the area, letting his mind open and drift along with his eyes. He spotted a few small things to fix. A vent system in the far warehouse. A door track needed replacing in one of the other empty warehouses. A light over the road running between the line of warehouses would go out soon. But, no more than that. Just small simple maintenance items.
Unless Zane sensed something he didn't. It just reinforced who among the two of them should lead the maintenance department. Something they would need to talk about soon if Zane decided to stick around for any length of time.
Tish came right up to Arthur, wrapping her arms around his chest. Arthur draped an arm around her small frame, hugging her back. Other than his bot, no matter what happened, he would have her. Something else he needed to do something about. To make sure it stayed that way
Once Upon a Pet Show (A Redpoint One Romance) Page 15