Industry & Intrigue

by Ryan McCall

  Her father’s men had set-up numerous lanterns to light the quadrant up. All they had to do was enter the tunnel. Atira hoped they would find a way to the sphere soon. She wanted to be done with this and back at her father’s side.

  “Over here,” shouted Atira. “We need plenty of light, we’re going in deep.” The men hurried over, bringing more lanterns and stringing them up at the entrance.

  A scream cut through the night air and everyone stopped moving and stood in silence. It had not been the sound of someone stumbling in the dark and sustaining injury. No, this was a scream of deep, instinctual terror.

  It sounded as if it had come from the western edge of the quadrant. A scent hit Atira’s nose. It was the sweet smell of blood. She had stationed three men at the edge of the site. The men murmured slightly and she saw a few of them make small prayers to the Endless.

  “What in all the hells was that?” one of them said, his voice fearful.

  “Quiet,” she said in a commanding tone. She sniffed the air. Mixed in with the smell of blood, was something else, animal sweat and a strong pheromone she didn’t recognize.

  “Falco, take them,” she said and pointed to three other guards. “Find out what happened.”

  He lifted up his scythe and nodded, before moved off without a sound, the other three following in his wake.

  Atira turned to Farrin. “Anything you want to tell me?”

  He stammered, “Uh, we had trouble with a mountain lion recently, but the guards killed it shortly before your arrival.” He shrugged, “It’s possible it had a mate and your men ran afoul of it.” She detected a hint of pleasure in his voice. He was glad to see his captors having trouble.

  “Don’t get your hopes up,” she replied. “They know how to deal with mountain lions.” She gestured at the remaining men and they continued with the lanterns. She sniffed lightly. “It’s no lion,” she said. “I know a mountain lion’s scent and this is different. But I’m sure it’s nothing Falco cannot handle.”

  Atira looked on as the men established a longer line of light into the tunnel. She was impatient to get down there. Getting her hands on the sphere was an important step in her father’s plans. Before she could step inside though, more screams echoed through the air.

  In the name of the Endless, what is going on?

  Her men had their weapons out and were scanning every direction. The pounding steps of something heavy could be heard from the same direction as the screams. Atira pulled up her shotgun, ready for whatever was coming.

  As the sound came closer, she could hear a loud clicking alongside it. Falco burst out of the darkness and stopped in front of her. The armor along his arm had been ripped right off and exposed his mechanical parts, though the internal workings were undamaged.

  In addition, his chest armor, which attached to his body, had also been pulled off, exposing his flare-rock powered heart and all of the intricate mechanics keeping him alive. Atira heard the shocked reactions of the two professors from behind her as they saw Falco’s inner workings.

  “By the Creator!” said Farrin.

  Xerin said, “Shi horen” in a fearful voice.

  A Wei phrase no doubt, but outside the few smatterings of Wei that she understood.

  She ignored them and looked over at Falco. His chest armor had been fused directly to his skin and muscle. Flaps of pale skin hung at the edges where it had broken. The sheer strength it to do that was beyond that of a mountain lion.

  She cursed Falco’s inability to vocalize. She needed to know what they were dealing with and he was the only one who had seen it. He gave off several urgent grunts, as if, was he afraid? Atira had never once seen him afraid since his transformation.

  As that sunk in, a terrible sounding howl pierced her ears. Then there was a rushing sound, a second howl and one of the men was hit by something huge. It dragged him back off into the dark, letting off another howl. She had only been able to glimpse wiry, black fur, huge claws and pale eyes like glass.

  “Back to the building, all of you,” she ordered. They were too exposed out here. It would pick them off one by one. A few of the guards ran as fast as they could, while others surrounded Atira, aiming to keep her safe as they made their way back.

  “You as well,” she shouted at the professors and they also moved.

  Another series of howls rang out in the darkness before them. There was a scream from one of the men who had run ahead. Atira picked up her pace, she had no intention of becoming the monster’s dessert.

  They reached the tents and ran through the middle. She hoped it would give them cover. But no such luck, the beast roared again and burst through the flimsy tent material, snatching another man.

  “Fire on it, you fools!” she shouted. The sound of gunshots echoed among the tents as they fired at the beast. It had disappeared too fast for her to tell if they had scored a hit.

  They passed the last tents and the building and wall came into view. A howl sounded to the left and the monster came barreling through the tents and smashed into two of her men. She finally had a good look at it, the lighting here being brighter.

  It had two powerful hind legs, with slightly skinnier forelegs. Atop of its body were two large wings, like a bat’s. Its face was covered in bone exoskeleton and two large horns sat atop its head with a smaller one on each side of its forehead. It was a deepone, the underground dwelling beasts of Jaefia, this particular one was as large as a Ferosian elephant.

  It snapped its jaws and they entrapped the human professor. “No, no, nooo!” he screamed as its teeth pierced his flesh.

  She took aim and fired her gun, hitting it directly in the head. It did no good, the shot ricocheted off the bone with a loud noise. She cursed. Shooting it in the body wouldn’t do much good either. It was so large, she and the guards could unload every bullet they had and it would still be kicking.

  It dragged off the professor, with him still screaming. The drakon called out her friend’s name, as the deepone disappeared among the tents again. If they didn’t hurry it would come back for them.

  “Unless you want to die, I suggest you come with us,” she said to Xerin. The drakon turned to her and nodded. They all ran as fast as they could for the building.

  Falco used his mechanical arm to lift up the door barrier and they stepped inside. Atria doubted that the stone walls and barred doors would be enough to stop the beast. She needed to find a way to kill it, before it broke through and tore them to pieces.

  Chapter 50

  When he heard the guards leave, Reese peeked through a small gap in the door. There was one guard left in the thin corridor. The man was stationed about halfway down. Reese turned back and began investigating the room they were confined in.

  It appeared to be a kitchen and pantry, although it was sparse. He started opening cupboards and one of the excavators, Hilda, asked him, “What are you doing?”

  “I’m looking for something useful, but this kitchen is woefully under stocked,” he said.

  “What were you planning to do? Cook for our captors so bad you make them sick?” She laughed at her own joke.

  He ignored her and continued searching but there was nothing of value. There weren’t even sharp knives. Their captors were smart enough to take precautions before imprisoning them here.

  He opened up the double doors to the pantry and walked inside. There were still supplies in here. He saw a large bag of flour and recalled something Michael had once told him about flour. If you spread a concentrated enough amount in the air and had the right ignition source, it could explode. The corridor outside was a small enough space, it would not be hard to spread. But where could he get an ignition source?

  He went back to the kitchen and checked underneath the cooking plates. Opening it up, he found a small flare-rock igniter. That was all he needed, now he had to get it out. He grabbed one of the butter knives and started undoing the screws. It was hard work, but he slowly unscrewed them and the igniter came loose.

>   “What are you doing?” asked Cassandra, standing behind him. He jumped in surprise and dropped the igniter.

  “Shit,” he said and picked it back up. He carefully looked it over, to check that nothing had been knocked out of place or damaged.

  “If we can get the guard to open the door, we can hit him with the bag of flour in the pantry and use this igniter to create a small explosion,” he explained. “He’ll be injured or stunned long enough for us to get away.”

  “That sounds like far too many if’s hinging on a risky plan,” noted Cassandra. “What about the other guards? And we can’t leave without Professor Xerin.”

  “Do you see anyone else thinking of anything to get us out of here?”

  “I thought you said they would let us go. Why would you want to provoke them by trying to escape?”

  “I’m sick of being cooped up in here. I’m so damn close to my father’s legacy, but I can’t get near it.” His voice had risen and Cassandra drew back. He dropped the igniter, forgetting his plan and marched over to the door.

  “Let me out!’ he yelled. “Let me out of this damn room, I’m sick of being trapped in here like a rat!” He banged on it as hard as he could, the wood shaking from his blows.

  The sound of the guard undoing the lock could be heard and the door swung open. The man stood there and held out his revolver, the barrel aimed at Reese’s head.

  “I suggest you sit down and stay quiet,” the man said. "Unless you fancy having your brains splashed over the wall.”

  Then they heard the sound of voices and the main doors slamming shut. The guard stepped back and relocked the door. Reese put his eye up to see what was going on. Other men came into the corridor. They looked panicked and exhausted. Pushing past them was the agorid, with Professor Xerin in tow.

  What in the hells happened out there? He watched as they came closer and he stepped back from the door. It unlocked once more and the tigress pushed Xerin back in the room, before closing it up again.

  The professor was soon surrounded by the staff and students, prodding her with questions.

  “What happened?”

  “Where’s Professor MacShim?”

  “Are they done with us?”

  The professor stood up straight, she lifted her held her head up and in a loud tone said, “Quiet, all of you. Give me room and let me explain.” They stepped back and gave her space.

  She looked around the room at everyone. “We are all in terrible danger,” she said.

  Reese already had guessed that from the expression on the faces of the agorid and her men.

  “The losses you have experienced over the last few weeks has been the work of a terrible predator. It was not a mountain lion as Professor MacShim led me to believe. It is a deepone, one of the underground scourges of Jaefia. And not a normal soldier or worker deepone, this was an exiled king.”

  Reese felt goose-bumps ripple on his skin. Deepones had a regimented and structured behavior. They maintained hives in the deepest of caverns, at the center of which was the enormous queen, who lived for nothing other than to produce offspring. Along with the queen, was the king, a regular deepone that had managed to fight and kill his way to the top of the pack for the privilege of mating.

  Then there were soldiers and workers, they were in many ways similar to ants and termites, so much that biologists had thought them divergently related to insects. But they had internal bones, red blood and other characteristics of mammals, so they remained within that classification.

  The kings were often challenged by other strong males and if defeated, they were killed. But the occasional king had been known to escape death and leave the hive. They were known as exiled kings and would live closer to the surface. They experienced madness in exile and attacked everything they came across. Reese had never heard of any coming this far east, Jaefia was thousands of leagues to the west.

  Xerin continued, “An exiled king deepone will see anything as prey. It will kill far more than it needs to, out of sheer rage. The one out there is larger than I have ever seen before. We need to prepare to defend ourselves before it gets in.”

  The small window near the ceiling of the room smashed in and a few of the students gave out screams of shock. A large black claw burst in and moved around, trying to find something to grab. Not having any success, it withdrew and moments later, the deepone’s howling could be heard.

  Reese had fallen back in fright when the window had smashed in, but he picked himself back up. He wasn’t sure what they could do. If their captors couldn’t defeat it, they wouldn’t have much chance. There was the sound of another window smashing elsewhere in the building and gunshots went off, followed by blood-curdling screams. The deepone had found a way inside.

  The students were starting to panic and wail. Xerin waved her hand in front of them. “Quiet, all of you. Noise will only attract it. Deepones hunt using sound waves, so we have to be as silent as possible.”

  She looked over Hilda, who was the next most senior excavator after Professor MacShim. “Is there nothing in here we can use to get out?” asked Xerin. “The guards will be too distracted to stop us while dealing with that beast. We may be able to make a run for the carriage.” The drakon turned her head as more shots could be heard, this time from the right.

  Hilda shook her head, “I don’t know, it’s a kitchen not a thieves’ warehouse. Why don’t you ask your student over there?” She gestured at Reese. “He was rummaging around before.”

  Xerin approached him. “Reese. Did you find anything useful? Something we could at least pick the lock with?”

  “A few basic food supplies in the pantry, a flare-rock igniter under the stove. Not much else.”

  His professor tilted her head in thought. “Bring me the igniter,” she said. He nodded and ran over to grab it. He placed it in her scaled hand.

  “Thank you.” She then put her other hand into her robe and produced a small bottle of clear liquid.

  “Dragonwater,” she said. “Only enough for a small flame but it should be sufficient.” She emptied the bottle into the lock and smeared the liquid around the outside. “Stand back,” she said and Reese did as she asked. She clicked the igniter and a small blue flame appeared. She turned her face away and slowly lifted it to the lock.

  There was a loud popping and fizzing, followed by a cloud of black smoke. Reese could see that the metal of the lock had turned an ugly black. Xerin put her hand in the handle and pulled hard. The lock came off with a snap and fell to the ground. The drakon poked her head out briefly and then turned to the others.

  “It’s clear, our captors are occupied. Make straight for the front exit,” she said.

  Xerin led the way out, followed closely by Hilda and the other dozen excavators, then the students.

  Chapter 51

  Her soldiers were dropping like flies and there was nothing Atira could do about it. The deepone was too fast and powerful. They may as well have been throwing water at the beast for all the good bullets did.

  She had hit it several times and seen blood streaking its hide, but that didn’t slow it down. Falco had managed to slice one of its wings with his scythe, but he had lost his left arm in the process. He still had his mechanical arm however and held his scythe strongly I the one hand. They couldn’t kill it so they had to get away somehow. She was smart enough to retreat when a situation called for it.

  I need to distract it, so we have a chance at making it outside.

  The prisoners. She would let them run free and while it was busy chasing them, she and her father’s faithful could escape. Atira fired off another shot as the deepone grabbed two more men. They went down screaming, like the others. She said a quick pray to the Endless for their souls as they died.

  “Falco, this way,” she said and exited the room. He followed her, along with the surviving men. She sprinted down the corridor and reached the kitchen where they were locked up only to find that the door was already open.

  She stepped i
n and cursed. They prisoners were gone. She hit the door with an orange and black clenched fist. Then she noticed a book lying open on the ground. Curious, she examined it. The page lying open had detailed notes, regarding possible colossi fossil locations. She thumbed through and then stopped suddenly when she saw a page detailing exactly what she had been looking for.

  “Fuck,” she swore quietly. She was angry at herself for missing this. One of the prisoners had this the whole time and she had been wasting time on the site for days. She didn’t have time read any further. The howls of the deepone were getting closer and she didn’t want to be cornered here.

  “Go,” she yelled at the others. “Get to the exit.” They ran and she followed. There was a howl and the man at the front fired his gun, before screaming and being dragged down the corridor to the left. Atira, Falco and the remaining three turned right. They passed through several more open doors. The prisoners had already come this way.

  The main exit doors were ahead and the sight gave her a burst of adrenaline. Then from the corridor on her left there was howl and the deepone rushed at her, knocking her back into the wall.

  The blow left her breathless and she struggled to her feet. The remaining guards stopped. The enraged deepone was blocking their path. Falco charged in before it could strike her again and his scythe slashed down at its armored head. The sound of meal scraping along the bone rang in her ears. The beast screeched and reared back.

  Atira looked up, Falco had managed to take out one its eyes. The deepone howled again and jumped at Falco, its jaws trying to close around his head. He placed his metallic fingers at its throat, keeping the sharp teeth away from enclosing on him.

  Its jaws rapidly snapped several times, trying to make a killing blow. Two of the men fired at its flank, but the deepone paid no attention to the shots.

  Atira heard the sound of straining metal as Falco put all his unnatural strength into his arm and pushed. He managed to push it back down the corridor, clearing a path for Atira and the others to get out.