“Mommy, there’s too many!” Kendra protested in alarm.
Jenna gritted her teeth and prepared to jump onto the oncoming horde of roaches when Kendra clutched at her hand. “Wait,” she gasped. Her gaze turned inward for just a moment. Then she exhaled. “Dina’s got them, Mommy! Now smoosh them!”
The entire mass of roaches suddenly stopped moving toward her. They clustered together in a tight clump, clambering on top of one another until there was a single, roiling black mass in the center of the room. A couple of stray roaches even hurried from the shadows and joined the group. Jenna’s stomach twisted.
“How?” she breathed.
“Just smoosh them, Mommy!” Kendra insisted urgently. “Dina can’t keep them much longer!”
Deciding she’d unravel Kendra’s newest mystery powers later, Jenna gathered her courage and stomped down on the pile of roaches with all her might. Five mutant roaches met their squelchy deaths. She swallowed and then jumped up and down on the writhing lump before she could lose her nerve. Bug guts splattered in every direction. When the horde had been thoroughly flattened and the contents of last night’s dehydrated meal were threatening to make a reappearance, Jenna drew a deep, shuddering breath of relief. Kip popped in the doorway, brandishing a handheld UV emitter.
“Are there any more?” he demanded.
“I don’t think so,” Jenna answered, fighting back the bile that rose in her throat as she prodded at the now-still mass of dead roaches. There was no movement of any kind.
“Mommy got them all,” Kendra confirmed confidently. Kip gave Kendra a speculative glance and then made a circuit of the room.
“It does look like you got them all,” he confirmed, after sweeping his wand near every dark corner and under the desk.
“What were those?” Jenna asked haltingly, backing away from the putrid remains.
“Wattenwil roaches. One of the most unusual insects in the jungle. I’ve been studying them for a while—they seem to be some mutated strand that lives only in this area of the rainforest. Usually they leave people alone—they are scavengers, not predators—but these particular roaches secrete a toxin that will burn the skin if they touch you.”
“Ew,” complained Kendra. “Why did they attack us?”
Kip hesitated, his eyes darting from Kendra to Jenna. “No idea,” he hedged.
Jenna knew he was lying, but she decided not to call him on it. They were running out of time. “What about Lenata?” she asked. “Is she all right?”
“She’s rinsing off the toxins right now. Hopefully she’ll be ready to go in a second. You need to get out of here before your pursuers arrive.” He didn’t waste time on any more words but strode back into the insect room. Jenna grabbed her pack from the floor and followed him. In the insect room, she stopped short at the scattered pieces of glass and the trampled plants from the roaches’ large terrarium.
“What in the name of the stars?” she exclaimed blankly, looking from the mess to the huge empty spot on the shelf where the roaches had been housed. “How did it fall?”
Kip rubbed at his bristly jaw. “No idea.”
Jenna spotted Lenata’s full pack on the ground, right where Lenata must have dropped it when the terrarium had crashed. She slipped an arm through a strap and hefted it, shaking off the shards of glass that rested on the top.
“We need water,” she reminded Kip. He gestured her to follow, and she trudged through the insect room into the kitchen. Water packets were stacked on the counter, enough to last the three of them for probably a full day. Hopefully they made it to this hidden village before that.
An alarm suddenly blared again, and Jenna dropped the handful of water packets she had just scooped up. Kendra ran into the kitchen with her ears covered, and Kip groaned. “They’ve hit my final perimeter alarm. We only have five minutes to get you out of here.”
The door to the bathroom swung open, and Lenata staggered out. Her short hair was plastered to her forehead, and her eyes were wide and bloodshot.
“I can’t see!” she bellowed.
“What?” Jenna’s voice was hoarse.
“My eyes!” Lenata’s voice was tinged with panic. “I can’t see! At first everything was just blurry, but now I can’t see anything at all! It’s all dark!”
“You must have got the toxins in your eyes,” groaned Kip.
“What am I going to do?” she screeched, the hysteria building.
Jenna strode forward and grabbed Lenata by the shoulders. “You need to get control of yourself, now,” she ordered. “Your life is on the line. All our lives are on the line. We need to leave now.”
Lenata visibly shuddered and she squeezed her eyes shut. Then she drew a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I can’t lead you to the village,” she said in a slightly calmer voice. “Not without my eyesight.”
“You’ll have to do it, then, Kip,” ordered Jenna.
“No way!” Kip refused.
“They will be here any minute, and if they catch us here with you, they will kill you,” warned Lenata, her voice shaking. “They’ll kill us both.”
“Besides, Kip,” added Jenna quietly, “if you send us out there alone, with Lenata injured and those scum right on our tail, you are condemning us to death—or worse. Do you know what will happen to my daughter if they catch us? Can you live with that?”
She held her breath, hoping against hope that he wouldn’t just throw them out to stumble around blind in the jungle with the kidnappers right behind them. Her instinct told her that Kip was basically a decent man. But even a decent man might balk at abandoning everything he possessed to lead a small party of desperate women into the deep jungle in the hope that they might, by some miracle, find a safe haven in a village of outsider-hating Rorans.
“Oh, fine,” he snapped. “Put one of those packs on Lenata. You can’t carry them both. Then meet me at the trapdoor in the bug room. You have one minute!” He stormed out of the kitchen.
Jenna didn’t waste any time stuffing the rest of the water packets into the bag and then helping Lenata swing it onto her shoulder. “This is impossible,” complained Lenata.
“No, it’s not. Take my hand, and I’ll lead you,” Jenna snapped, in no mood to coddle her.
Lenata muttered something that Jenna hoped Kendra didn’t catch.
“Kendra, meet us by the trapdoor,” she instructed. Then with Lenata grasping her hand in a death grip, she slowly guided the woman through the kitchen door and into the bug room. It was clear that Lenata didn’t trust her. She resisted Jenna’s guidance, waving her free hand in front of her and holding back while Jenna tried to get her to move.
This is never going to work, she ranted to herself. I can’t drag her around every tree and rock and overgrown shrub. It’ll take forever, and we’ll get caught for sure!
Finally they reached the trapdoor, and Jenna joined Kendra, leaving Lenata to shuffle around and position herself on her own. Lenata brushed her fingertips against the glass display wall of a terrarium and flinched back. Kendra was staring thoughtfully at the broken glass on the floor, and then she cocked her head to one side, looking up at the terrarium. “What is it?” asked Jenna warily.
“There was someone else here,” Kendra whispered anxiously. “Someone like Dina, but not nice. Dina says she was mad at Lenata and shoved the roach case at her. She doesn’t want Lenata to go to the village.”
Jenna stared at her daughter in dismay. Was Kendra now making up stories, unable to tell reality from the imaginary people in her head? Or was it possible that Kendra was actually able to communicate with some kind of . . . creatures . . . that no one else could see? A shiver of fear shot down her spine. Were there malignant forces lying in wait for them as well as kidnappers pursuing them?
She shoved the thought away. It was ridiculous; she was just scaring herself. And the situation was dire enough w
ithout bringing angry spirits into the picture.
“What did you say?” Lenata croaked.
“I didn’t say anything,” Jenna replied nervously. The last thing she needed was Lenata wondering about Kendra’s unusual talents. Jenna too clearly remembered Archer, who had wanted to kill Kendra out of fear.
“No, not you,” Lenata snapped, sounding more like herself. “Your daughter,” she clarified, with a blind wave in the wrong direction. “Kendra. You said someone shoved the case at me to keep me from going to the village.”
“Yes,” Kendra responded, her high voice defiant. “She did. Dina says she was your shadow.”
“That doesn’t make any sense,” Lenata whispered, her voice trembling. Jenna tugged at Kendra’s arm, moving her farther away from Lenata. Going with Lenata to the village sounded like a worse idea by the second. Would Lenata turn on Kendra? “She should want me to come back. I’m bringing you.”
“What are you talking about?” Jenna demanded, fear making her angry now.
She was interrupted by the beep of an intercom speaker.
“Is anyone home? Hey, Bugman, are you in there?” The nasally voice echoed around the room. Jenna couldn’t tell where it was coming from.
Lenata swore. “They’re here. Sounds like Finn at the front door intercom.”
Kip poked his head in through the door. “You need to get down in that tunnel now. I’ll pipe the intercom there so you can hear. If they go away, I’ll let you know it’s clear, and you can come back in here. If they don’t, I’ll provide a distraction, and you can escape through the jungle hatch. Find some cover and hide.”
“The hatch is still shut,” reminded Jenna anxiously. Kip gave one curt nod and disappeared back into his office. The heavy hatch door hissed and started to swing open.
“Bugman! Answer us!” Finn no longer sounded friendly.
“Hurry,” breathed Jenna. Kendra clenched her hand tightly, her small fingernails digging in Jenna’s palm.
When the hatch door locked into place, Lenata started to shuffle slowly toward it. “You’re going to have to help me get onto that ladder,” she said grimly.
“How?” Jenna asked, putting aside her argument with Lenata for later. She took two strides forward and beat Lenata to the hole in the floor before she could stumble into it.
“Maybe if you just guide my foot onto the first rung. I should be able to do it by feel after that. But let me go first so that if I fall I don’t land on top of you.”
“All right.” Jenna knelt down, and so did Lenata. Jenna turned Lenata’s shoulders so that her body faced away from the hole and gently tried to maneuver her feet so that one went down onto the first rung. After that she watched as Lenata made her way carefully back down the ladder into the dank tunnel, very slowly at first, but faster as she got into a rhythm.
“All right, Kendra, you’re next,” Jenna encouraged. Her daughter let go of her hand, but her eyes were wide with fear. She took a deep breath and then clambered onto the ladder. Jenna readjusted her pack straps and started after her. The climb was easier this time. She’d had even more time to recover from the medical capsule, and her legs were not so stiff. They burned with soreness, though, worse even than that one time she’d joined a fitness class taught by an Armada drill sergeant. Every step made her wince.
Down in the tunnel, Kip’s voice echoed from an invisible speaker. “I tell you, I haven’t seen anyone in weeks!” he insisted.
“I don’t believe you.” Finn sounded fierce now. “One of my men found a strip of red cloth near the back of your place. One of our girls had her hair tied back with a strip of red cloth.” Jenna’s eyes darted to Kendra. He was right. Kendra’s hair had been tied away from her face with something red. It wasn’t there anymore. When had she lost it? Why hadn’t anyone noticed?
“That could have been dropped by anyone,” scoffed Kip.
“Get a lot of visitors here, do you?” sneered Finn.
“I told you, I haven’t seen anyone in weeks.” Kip’s voice sounded more desperate now. Jenna looked ahead—Lenata had found the ladder at the far end of the tunnel and was just starting to climb.
“Yeah, you said that. But this cloth isn’t even that dirty. I’d think that with a hurricane coming through it would be filthy and covered with muck. Send them out, Kip. We don’t care about you. We just want the three of them. Two women and a girl. They’re nothing to you.”
Silence from Kip. Lenata had reached the top of the ladder and waited at the exterior hatch. Jenna nodded at Kendra, and she started up the ladder next. Whatever distraction Kip was planning to provide, she hoped it came soon.
“Well, it’s not very neighborly of you to refuse us.” Finn’s voice was ice cold now. “We warned you.”
Jenna had just stepped onto the bottom rung of the ladder when an explosion shook the tunnel. Kendra cried out and lost her grip on the ladder, sliding down and landing on Jenna. They both collapsed into a heap on the damp tunnel floor. Sharp pain flared in Jenna’s tailbone, and she grimaced. Above her, Lenata’s feet had slipped off their rung, but she had the side rails in a death grip, so she hung on. Jenna watched her fumble her feet back onto the ladder and sighed in relief. Dust drifted down in clouds, and Kendra sneezed violently.
The speaker crackled to life again. “My men are on their way in, Bugman. If you resist, they will shoot to kill.” Then suddenly shouts of pain echoed from a distance. Then a loud cry and a stream of shouted invectives.
The sound cut off, and Kip’s breathless voice replaced it. “That’s it. I’m opening the outside hatch. Get hidden—I’m coming right behind you.” A motor whined, and the metal door above Lenata started to lift. Kendra scrambled to her feet, and Jenna pushed herself to her knees. She didn’t even have to say anything to her daughter; Kendra was already hopping back onto the ladder. Above her, Lenata was awkwardly pulling herself out of the tunnel. Jenna hoped desperately that there were none of Finn’s men standing guard up there. It was too late to do anything about it if there were. Lenata wouldn’t spot anything until it was too late. Jenna staggered to her feet, ignoring the throbbing pain radiating from her lower back, and started up the ladder behind Kendra.
Ten seconds later, she was pulling herself out of the hole. A little of the early-morning sun filtered down through the trees, but it was still shadowed enough to make it difficult to see. Hopefully that would work to their advantage. Kendra had taken Lenata’s hand and was hurrying her through the clearing to the twisting trunks of the overgrown trees only a couple feet away. Jenna noted that Lenata seemed to have more trust in Kendra as a guide. She didn’t resist Kendra’s lead, though she still moved a little slowly over the uneven ground. Creeping after them, she glanced back at the hidden hatch door standing wide open. Was Kip going to close it? Could he close it, or was he busy dodging the kidnappers? If Kip didn’t make it, that open hatch was going to be a sign clear as the skies of Krati that they had gone this way. With Lenata unable to move quickly, the kidnappers would probably track them down in minutes.
Jenna shrugged off the worry. She couldn’t shut the hatch automatically, and she didn’t have time to figure out how to shut it manually. They would just have to trust in Kip’s distraction and hope they could hide in the shadows and dense foliage. She caught up to Kendra and Lenata, eyes darting all over for somewhere to hide. Kendra kept moving, putting more distance in between them and Kip’s house. She did pretty well at moving quietly, but Lenata couldn’t see what she was stepping on, and though she tried to be careful, she was making too much noise. To Jenna it sounded like she was crashing through the bushes. Any kidnappers who came around the back of the house would almost certainly hear them. But without any other options, they continued moving on into the forest for another ten minutes before Kendra stopped. “The river is just ahead,” she reported.
Jenna stepped around her, and sure enough, through a break in the
trees she could see a strip of muddy movement only a short way forward. If she concentrated, she could hear the rushing over the mad cacophony of the billion insects swarming around them.
“Do you see anything behind us?” Lenata whispered anxiously.
“No sign of our pursuers. I don’t see a good place to hide either, though,” Jenna admitted.
“OK. Let’s climb a tree then. Do we have one nearby with low enough branches?”
“Here,” said Kendra, pointing to a large tree to their left. The trunk was thick with large rounded protuberances starting at about Jenna’s waist and occurring every meter or so around up the length of the tree. The first real branch was about five meters off the ground and extended to the left so far that it entwined with the branches of the next tree. It looked possible to climb, and they should be able to find safe places to wedge themselves. However, the leaves weren’t thick at this level; they would be easily visible to anyone who looked up. Also, the entire tree was covered in green moss; it was going to be a slippery climb. Could Lenata do it?
“This is crazy, but I don’t have a better idea.” Distant shouts echoed from the other side of Kip’s house. “We’d better get up it quickly.”
“You go first, Forrest,” Lenata ordered. “And keep your eyes out. There may be other creatures hiding out in the tree besides us.”
Great, thought Jenna. Instead of being shot by crazy kidnappers or sold to a sadistic pervert, I’m going to be strangled to death by some kind of snake that calls this tree home. She didn’t let the fear stop her, though. When she reached the first branch, she found that it was wide enough to stand on without worrying about losing her balance. She braced a hand on the trunk and helped Kendra navigate the last little bit, nudging her a bit higher until she settled into a crook slightly above where Jenna stood. Then she waited for Lenata. Lenata’s progress was agonizingly slow. She couldn’t see where to place her hands and had to do everything by feel. But the first time she reached her hands up to grab a branch, Jenna spotted a gun tucked into Lenata’s waistband. Lenata was armed? Jenna’s hopes rose. She could pick them off from the tree if nothing else. Especially if she shot at least one before they realized where they were.
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