Suyef and Colvinra remained locked in a stare for a few breaths before the Nomad nodded. The Seeker turned his gaze to me, eyes narrowing. He shook his head and left without another word.
"I don't buy that for a second," I whispered once the door was closed.
Suyef held up a hand, eyes on the panel. We waited in silence until Colvinra's blip on the map had joined one of the others. After a few moments, all five blips retreated to where they'd been. Only then did Suyef speak.
"I'll admit it is suspicious, but it gets us to the settlement a lot faster," the Nomad said.
"Gets us there faster?" I retorted, snorting. "And puts us under the watchful gaze of a Questioner."
Suyef spread his hands, this time at me. "I'm not sure how to avoid it."
"We disappear now. Make Colvinra think we've left already. Maybe he'll go on without us."
Suyef frowned at me. "You don't seriously believe he's going to let a couple of Seekers suddenly go rogue, do you?"
"We can plant alternate orders showing we contacted our superiors and they altered our directions so as to avoid associating with him."
Suyef laughed, shaking his head. "There's no way to word that without raising suspicion," he said, holding up a hand to forestall my response. "I'm more interested right now in this daughter he's going after. Did you open the report?"
I held the padd up, tapping the orders document closed and opening the only other file stored on the device. "It's a standard arrest warrant. Well, not an arrest warrant. Simple detainment for questioning in relation to possible illegal network activity."
"That doesn't sound simple," Suyef said, his voice soft and low.
I nodded in agreement. "Sounds the exact opposite. Look here in the justification clause. This girl who is being detained? The Seekers already have the father. This also says she has two male siblings. Why wouldn't they have taken them all into custody when they detained the father?"
Suyef shrugged. "I haven't a clue. Maybe the father wasn't taken in under suspicion but later came under it." He looked down at the document. "Any mention of a mother?"
I scanned it and shook my head. "Just mentions the three." I looked up at him. "Why?"
"No reason," he said, shrugging. "I wonder what that means, ‘illegal network activity.’"
I looked up at the panel, then at Suyef. "You don't suppose they're the ones we've been noticing, do you? Accessing the network files?"
"That, or they attempted to but didn't succeed and then the father got arrested because someone noticed their attempts."
I felt my breath quicken. "You don't suppose we got them arrested, do you? I mean, they were just looking for information. We found it. What if the censors couldn't tell them apart from our meddling?"
"How long ago was the father detained?" Suyef asked
I scanned the document one more time. "It doesn't say. It has his name, Allyn. We could look him up."
Suyef jerked his head at the panel. "Get to it. I'm going to replenish our supplies."
He returned a short while later to find me staring at the panel.
"You find anything?" he asked, breaking me from a momentary reverie.
"Not much," I answered, shaking my head.
"Where were you?"
I frowned. "Honestly, who knows? Mind spaced." I pointed at the panel. "Managed to find his detainment date. It predates our arrival, but not by much."
"So, he wasn't arrested because of our snooping."
I nodded at the screen. "Look at the issue date for her father's detainment order. Now, look at hers."
Suyef took the padd from me and read the data. "These were sent on the same date."
"I tracked the delivery. Her father's went to the right station. Hers went to the other side of the shell."
The Nomad cocked his head to one side. "That seems ... inconvenient."
"I'd say suspicious. Like someone was trying to prevent her from being detained sooner."
Suyef nodded. "Keep that tidbit for later. It might come in handy."
"How?" I asked.
"I don't know," he replied. "There's a lot we don't know. At least we know the father wasn't detained because of our work."
"If he's been in Seeker control since before we arrived, who do you suppose has been accessing the files?"
Suyef turned a silent gaze to me, one eyebrow elevated. I stared back at him. His eyes darted down to the padd in my hand.
"The daughter?" I asked, holding up the padd.
"It does say she's being detained for illegal network activity."
I shook my head. "Possible illegal activity."
"In the Seeker world, possible is probable, and you know that," Suyef retorted, moving behind the panel. "If they're taking her in, she's either guilty in their eyes, or at least they can make her look guilty."
"It might not be her," I said, looking down at the document. "It could be her father is the guilty party and she's being brought in to be a witness."
"Then who's been messing with your files?"
I shook my head and stated with a bit more force than intended, "Anyone. We don't know it's them."
Suyef raised a hand to calm me. "I know, but one way or the other, she, the Seekers, and we are all connected, even if only by circumstance." He looked up at the panel. "Close out what you've been doing here and mask it. We need to rest." He turned to go up the walkway to the living quarters and paused. "By the way, what's this girl's name?"
I looked up at him, blinking away some random thought. "What?"
"Her name? What's her name?"
I frowned. "Who?"
"The daughter, nitwit," Suyef hissed, shaking his head and frowning. "You okay?"
I nodded. "Yes, I'm just distracted," I replied, tapping the padd back on. "Her name is Micaela." I looked back up at him. "That mean anything?"
"Yes. Now we know what to call her when we find her first," Suyef stated, smiling as he disappeared upstairs.
I sighed, muttering to myself while hiding our work on the control terminal. "Great, so now we're going to go find a girl a Questioner is after before he can get to her." I glanced up at the ceiling and yelled, "You're crazy, you know that?"
"And you're stuck with me," came the answer.
"Don't I know it," I whispered. "Don't I know it."
My eyes drifted back to the padd. I read it three times over but it revealed nothing more. I stared at the daughter's name a moment more before shaking my head to focus and finish my work.
"Guess we'll find out soon enough if you're the guilty party or not, Micaela."
Chapter 16 - Shadows
After that, we went straight for the settlement, only now under the watchful eye of the Questioner. Needless to say, our staff practices were a lot different and we hardly ever talked about the same stuff. I didn't even touch my padd to research for fear Colvinra would intercept my work and figure us out. Suyef, for his part, played the perfect Seeker and kept me on my toes as a freshly graduated rookie.
The odd thing is, the Questioner enjoyed watching that part. I couldn't say how many times we caught him watching us, particularly me. That gaze of his sent shivers up and down my spine, even when I wasn't aware he was looking. My spine would feel tingly and he'd be nearby, always watching. Once, on the occasion of an embarrassing training session, I found him smirking at me.
That smirk never touched his eyes. Nothing ever did. Cold, hard as steel, and black as a room absent all light. When he watched, I swear it felt like ice touched me. It wasn't clear if he hated us or me in particular, but something was up with that man. He never spoke to us after that meeting in the control station. He left that to his squad leader, who would let us know when we were leaving and stopping. Beyond that, all five of them ignored us, and we were all happier for it.
It took a few days to reach the settlement. Once we got close, Colvinra finally spoke to us. Well, to me, really. We were just preparing to leave a control station we'd stopped at. It lay near the mountains in th
e north along the same water line that led to the settlement. Suyef, being his normal distrustful self, had moved on ahead to look at what was coming to the south. Colvinra used that moment to come see me.
He loomed over me and said words I would never forget. "I don't know what game you're playing at, but I'll figure it out. Mark my words, I'll stop you, if it's the last thing I do."
There was no doubt after that he knew we were fake. Why he didn't detain us, I'm not sure. I got the feeling he was using us, playing along to see what we would turn up, in addition to detaining Micaela and her brothers. First chance presented to me, I told Suyef, and his feeling was the same as mine. The time to part ways with the Questioner had come.
That proved far simpler than I thought it would be. We volunteered to scout the outer control stations. As he was convinced his targets were inside the settlement and this kept us out of the way, Colvinra readily agreed. This also kept us pursuing our supposed mission, as checking each of those control stations along the line continued the ruse.
And that's how we found them first. Dumb luck, that was, and it didn't help much, as he got to them just after we did. Still, it gave us a few moments and that little bit of trust would prove to be very important for what followed.
#
“What happened next being you finding them at that tower?” I asked.
Quentin shook, his body twitching as he pondered what I said. His head turned to one side and his mouth hung upon just a bit. Then, he shook his head.
“All of it. The tower, the raiders, and the prison.” He waved his hands around his head. “All of that and much more. So much more.” He frowned and focused his blue eyes on me. “This is taking so long. We’re not even to the good parts! Can’t you write any faster?”
I glared at him. “This moves as fast as you talk,” I said, pointing at the recording device. “You keep saying we can’t move to fast. Can’t ‘fly without wings’ I think were your words.”
He coughed a laugh. “That sounds pretentious. Suyef must have said that.”
I nodded. “He did as well.”
“Anyway, we’re wandering off the shell,” he blurted out, slicing a hand through the air. “Focus, we need to focus. There are important parts coming.” He pointed at me. “And not just for us, you hear?”
I waved at him. “I’m all ears. What important parts come next?”
He grinned, a wide, toothy thing that reminded me of nothing more than a young child happily regaling a parent with tales of his adventures.
“You get to hear about me being a hero.” He leaned forward, his voice dropping to a whisper. “I saved us all.”
“At the prison, yes? You don’t want to talk about anything else?” When he frowned again, I continued. “Meeting Micaela? Tailing them to the raiders? Going to the prison? Any of that?”
His brow furrowed. “Why? You already know that part. Just go read your notes.” He shook his hands at me. “No, no, time for the important part. My shining moment.”
I arched an eyebrow at him and nodded.
“So, when the walls began to buckle…”
#
When the walls began to buckle in around us, I knew we were in for some trouble. As much as I wanted to question Micaela as to how she was talking to us from that panel, there wasn't any time. Pieces of what many believed to be indestructible Ancient wall fell around us, sparks flared out from ruptured power conduits, and the entire room lay swallowed in shadows. Even when the lights came back on, flaring bright against the looming darkness, the shadows remained.
Only now they moved. I thought at first my eyes weren't seeing straight.
"Watch the shadows," Suyef called. "Something's in them."
"Shouldn't we worry about what's out there?" Donovan asked behind me as I shifted to cover our right.
A shadow lowered down from part of the fractured roof like a drop of water slowly stretching from a spigot. As it neared the floor in front of me, I heard Suyef grunt and a hiss enveloped the room. I looked to see something implode from sight in a ball of flame.
"Shadow assassins," I growled, my teeth grinding. "That's what you were telling us."
"That wasn't me," Micaela stated, her voice shaking.
"Sure looked like you," Donovan whispered.
I remained wary for the shadow I'd seen drip down even as I held a piece of the former ceiling in my hand, brandishing it. Another tremor shook the room even as more of the ceiling peeled away. Overhead, the night remained dark, making it impossible to see what was attacking the building. I had my suspicions, however.
Behind us, the door hissed open as someone finally entered. I heard footsteps stop behind me and a strained gurgling sound. Spinning, I found two guards caught in the grasp of a shadow, their feet kicking as they dangled in the air. I raised my make-shift weapon, but Suyef was two steps ahead of me.
"Down!" he cried out, swinging his flaming staff at the shadow even as Donovan and Micaela dropped to the floor.
The two guards crumpled to the ground as the creature imploded like the first under Suyef's strike. Neither of the men moved.
"Get out the door," I yelled at Micaela and her brother, kneeling to grab the men's firearms as I waved at them.
More shadows dropped into the room as another blast shook the structure, what remained of the outer wall peeling away as the room trembled. I backed toward the entrance, pulse guns up and firing at any shadows that moved. Suyef spun around the room, his staff ablaze, each strike dispatching another shadow.
"Move, move, move!" I yelled at the crouching pair behind me.
Once the siblings were on their feet and running down the hall, I darted out of the room, Suyef right behind me. Shadows fell as fast as my guns and Suyef's staff could dispose of them. I tried to focus on those nearest the fleeing pair. Ahead, I saw guards begin to fill the hall, their own pulse guns out and firing at the assassins. Above us, the ceiling ripped away, following down the hall as the siblings fled.
"Stay with them!" Suyef called out behind me. "Stay with them!"
A guard fell across my path. Just beyond, the siblings had paused to look back. I waved at them as I leapt over the guard, taking aim at more shadows as they fell. Suyef's staff whirled behind me, a dizzying swirl of fiery light dispatching shadows with hissing pops.
Suddenly, the hallway jolted to one side, sending my shots askew. The siblings tumbled down another hallway as another section of ceiling ripped in an explosion of tearing metal and electric pops. Sparks fell all around. I rushed toward the fallen pair, leaping over a guard.
"Look out!" Micaela screamed at me as my feet hit the ground.
I tumbled into a roll and heard a hissing pop just behind me. A quick glance showed Suyef standing there, staff outstretched. I jumped to my feet and we rushed toward the fallen siblings.
"Get up!" the Nomad hissed, rushing past me and grabbing at Donovan.
"I can't move my ankle," he said between clenched teeth.
I held out a hand to Micaela and pulled her upright.
"Get her out of here," Suyef whispered, nodding at us to go on. "I'll get him."
I tugged at her reluctant arm and moved down the hall as more shadows moved behind us. We rushed down the hall even as Suyef's staff reignited and a blaze of pops and hisses echoed after us.
"What are those things?" Micaela asked me when we slowed in a hallway junction.
"Shadow assassins. Not really sure where they come from. No one's seen hide nor hair of them for centuries," I whispered, leaning to look down a hall to the right and trying to get my bearings. "But we know of them. From Ancient times. Something made during a great war some have theorized led to the Splitting."
"How did they get here? And why?" Another tremor shook the building. "And what is doing that?"
Before I could voice my suspicions, the ceiling ripped away above us. Shards of metal and debris rained down in every direction. Acting on instinct, I shoved at Micaela's back, pushing her down the other hall.
"Don't stop!" I yelled. "Keep going."
The sound of shadows dropping to the ground, a soft thump followed by a hiss, echoed in every direction. Micaela bolted down the hall with more speed than I would have given her credit for. Shadows coalesced before me and I unloaded my pulse guns into them the instant they formed. As fast as I could dispatch them, more appeared. The hall behind us swarmed with shifting shadows, their dangerous hands reaching toward me. My guns hissed, filling every shadow with a pulse of air. As they imploded, more came.
"Quentin!"
I turned my guns forward and unloaded everything they had into the new shadows that had formed between us as the ceiling ripped away. Micaela rushed out of sight as I fired. As she ran, the shadows chased on after her.
Including the ones behind me. I froze as the assassins rushed past, ignoring me. Slowly, my guns lowered as they moved on, not one stopping to touch me.
"What the..." I whispered.
After a moment's pause, I raced on after them, my guns ready. Whenever a shadow showed even the slightest inkling toward looking at me, I shot it. Most ignored me. The hallway continued in a bend of massing shadows and twisted metal. Soon the shadows filled the passage, making any further progress impossible. I tried pulsing them out of my way, but more filled the gaps as fast as I could shoot. Worse, they started to take notice of me. A pair of shadows lunged out at me, making it to within inches of my neck before I downed them. Something clattered to the ground as they did and I dropped down to spy one of their weapons. On a whim, I grabbed it, took aim, and fired.
A blast of light shot out, a pulse of light that careened down the hall. The shadows melted away from it and it struck the wall several meters away. In the gap the shadows had left, I spied a grotesque, twisted suit of armor, layered pieces of hard metal folding around a giant body, standing over the prone figure of Micaela. A warped helmet sat atop the shoulders, sharp jagged edges sweeping out and upward from the crown. A slit of black glass covered the eyes and a smaller slit the mouth. The shadows shifted again, covering the monstrosity from my sight. I took aim and fired. This time, they didn't move.
Rise: Paths (Future Worlds Book 2) Page 15