by Chogan Swan
“That bothers you?” said Tiana.
ShwydH shook his head in disgust. “Are you such a fool as to think ze had any part for me in hir new empire except as a sacrificed pawn? DuGwaedH wanted no rivals. I disagreed with hir too often. Why else would I have destroyed my own genetic strands? I was dead anyway, and now my revenge will die too.”
“Is there another way to catch hir besides follow? Do you know where ze is going?” Tiana said
ShwydH motioned no with his finger.
“My sister will follow hir to the trap,” Tiana said. “We will find the trap and break it open from an oblique course.” She made a circular pass with her fist and showed her teeth. “It has been one branch of MY plan all along. This time we won’t have to go around the moon. You are coming with me. Bring whatever you would need to try finding or breaking in to any hideout ze might have.”
ShwydH turned to one of the women bodyguards, “Kate, I need the yellow, hard-shelled case in the middle safe; the combination is 23-42-19-7.” Kate took off, running for the staircase to the mezzanine. Tiana motioned to Amber who signaled two of her team to go with the woman.
ShwydH rose to his feet. “There is one more thing I’ll need,” he said. “I expect you will want to see this as well.” He walked to the laboratory doorway and stepped over the rubble. Tiana followed him. Inside the room, he clicked an icon on his phone three times, moving the phone by a few feet after each click. The phone beeped twice. He hissed in triumph and moved to the right several paces then repeated the procedure. This time the phone beeped once, and he moved forward and toward the middle of the room.
Triangulating.
“What are you looking for?” Tiana asked.
“A case with an old tissue sample of DuGwaedH’s. It’s too old to use for reproduction, but if it’s still here, I can use it for a biometric hack to get us past hir alarms and locks. I put back doors into all the security systems I developed.”
“DuGwaedH never checked the code?”
“The hack hides in the logic of the biometrics. It wasn’t hir strong suit. Ze thought of me as… what human executives call… a code monkey.”
His lips quirked in grim humor as he moved to new spot. “DuGwaedH was a chimera and was more concerned with using hir dead twin sister’s genetic code to grow ovaries. Ze was very impressed with hir own success. You’d almost think ze had created those genes ex nihilo.”
In the center of the wall, a case held a large container. He slid a Styrofoam box into an opening at the bottom of the container and punched a code into its control pad. A moment later, something dropped into the box. He pushed another button, and the box slid out of the container revealing a Nalgene vial, fog formed from the air as it brushed the cold surface. He took a pair of tongs and moved the vial into a small, heavy case about the size of a car battery.
He picked up the case and looked at Tiana. “If you can get us there, I can get us in.”
Kate arrived with the case as they left the laboratory, and ShwydH took it from her, “Well done,” he said, putting his hand on her shoulder. He paused by his bodyguards. “Cooperate with these people. I hope they can help. Good luck.”
As he was turning, Kate touched his arm, “Good luck to you too, sir. I wanted to say thank you for protecting us.” The rest of his guards murmured agreement. Kate gave him a quick hug. Tiana noticed the base of his tail jerked in surprise under his loose shirttail.
“Let’s go,” said Tiana. “Chopper’s waiting.” She took the yellow case from the bodyguard and ran out the door. She switched her microphone to reach Jonah on their private full-duplex channel. “Jonah, I can’t let you come on this one. The work you’re doing is too important to risk. We have a good chance of stopping this threat now, but I have to try to save my Symbiana too.”
“Tiana…” his voice was tense. “I can be an asset because of the connection between us. I can’t lose you.”
“Jonah, your world is on the brink and they don’t even know it. You can’t reduce the risk to me on this mission, because I will put protecting your life ahead of mine. Amber’s community needs you. This is my job. I can’t let down my friends who have died to get me in reach of this goal.
I. Will. Come. Back.
We’ve got this bastard outgunned and outnumbered.”
She swung the case onto the chopper and switched to Amber’s frequency. “Amber?”
“Yes, Tiana.”
“Take care of him.”
“I already said, yes.”
“Thank you.”
Tiana took the copilot seat in the lead chopper, glancing back to see if ShwydH was ready. Edward sat there too. She frowned at him, exasperated.
“Don’t even think about trying to leave me behind.” He shook his finger at her. “I need to take care of your mother. You know how she is, always getting in trouble without me.”
“Let’s go, Davy,” she said. “God help us.”
“Aye, Aye Captain,” said Davy, running up the rotor then lifting the Scout skyward.
The ground scrolled by them as they flew. Ahead, the water of the Chesapeake Bay gleamed like burnished silver.
Edward reached up to touch her arm.
Tiana turned.
“I’m not getting anything from Symbiana’s radio anymore. It just now cut out. She was updating me on her pursuit. The last thing she said was that she was going into a tunnel.”
Tiana punched in the frequency of Symbiana’s full duplex frequency into the Scout’s radio to boost the signal. “Symbiana, are you receiving?”
“Tiana, bad...nal... going deeper... water....” The transmission deteriorated to a hiss.
Tiana checked the map display on her screen. Symbiana’s path showed on the map where it had changed from solid to dotted and then cut off abruptly. “Davy, change from our intercept course and go straight to here.” She tapped the screen. “That’s where we lost the signal.”
“The funnel trap closing,” said ShwydH, voice bitter. His hands were busy assembling equipment from the case.
When they arrived at a wooded hill near where the signal had disappeared, Tiana leapt from the chopper before it landed and ran, following Symbiana’s scent into the woods.
She heard Edward pumping up the slope behind her. About fifty yards into the woods, the trail entered an old mine tunnel in the side of the hill. Tiana moved cautiously to the entrance and sniffed. The entrance would have been well-hidden until DuGwaedH had torn a passage through the underbrush. Not even animals had tried to use the opening for years. An empty gun magazine by the hole caught her attention. She took it from the ground. It held Symbiana’s smell.
Edward caught up and stepped past her to shine his helmet light into the hole. Tiana grabbed his arm as he tried to climb into the passage.
“I can see something,” he said.
“Edward, this is a trap, and she knew that too,” said Tiana. “She wouldn’t have wanted you to follow her into it. We’ll look for another way. That’s what she wants us to do. I can’t follow you in there if you get in trouble and I can’t take the time to wait for you to come back either. We need to get back to the chopper. Now.”
She reached in her pack and pulled out an electronic sensor. “I’ll give you a head start to the chopper while I set an alarm that will notify me if anything comes in or out of here. A team is on the way to find what they can and close this exit. Go now. If you aren’t at the chopper when I get there you’ll stay behind till the team gets here.”
Edward put his hands over his face and squeezed in frustration, obviously torn between staying and continuing with her.
“Shit!” He took his hands from his face and sprinted back down the hill.
Setting the alarm took only a few seconds then she sprinted after Edward. Tiana caught up with him just before the treeline. Instead of leaving him behind, she grabbed his hand to speed him back to the chopper, hoping he wouldn’t get killed and leave her to regret it. They passed the team arriving to cover the min
eshaft on their way.
“Thank you,” he said as they scrambled back into the Scout.
“Thank me if you make it through this,” she snapped at him.
“I will,” he promised.
“I hope so.”
Tiana turned to ShwydH. “They went underground,” she said. “It looks like an old mine shaft, probably an old gold mine. There were a number of them in the area operating since before the Civil War.”
“I know. I was here,” he answered.
Tiana grimaced. “Of course you were.”
“I’m checking for any of my locks in the area, but don’t see any yet,” said ShwydH. “Your sensor suite looks pretty sophisticated. Can we run the sweep through it?”
“You’re just pinging a radio transponder, right?” said Tiana.
“Can we use a patch cable to send the signal” said Davy, pointing to a bank of ports below the dash. Then just tell us how it will respond to the ping.”
ShwydH passed a cable up from his case and Tiana found the correct port in the bank then adjusted the output for his equipment.
“I’ll get some altitude to increase the range,” Davy said. The chopper spiraled higher while ShwydH told Tiana how to find the return signal from the electronic locks.
“I’ve got a response,” Tiana said almost immediately. “It’s getting stronger. Stay on this heading.”
Davy pulled out of the spiral and straightened their course.
Several seconds later, ShwydH said, “I’m disconnecting the patch. I have the signal directly now and my software can locate it better that way.” A few seconds later, he pointed northeast. “That way, one thousand meters. Set us down there.”
Davy dropped onto a small knoll on the side of the hill, managing to keep the chopper level on the skids.
“Davy, tell the other choppers to drop their teams here and land where they can cover us with the fifty cals,” Tiana said. “I don’t want any surprises coming over the horizon.”
She slid four extra magazines for her Glock 40 into her tactical vest and opened the door.
From her vest, she pulled out ShwydH’s handgun, a Sig Sauer P-210 9mm.“I figure you need to keep me alive if you want to survive after tomorrow, so you could probably use this,” she said.
ShwydH took the gun without comment and put it in the holster under his arm.
“Davy, drop the magnetic wave generator and send a pulse when I deploy it.” Tiana slid out of the chopper and ran to the front. The cable of the magnetic generator spooled down from the sensor suite bubble, and Tiana pressed it hard to the ground. She felt the thrum of the pulse and turned her head to Davy as he stared at the monitor.
Seconds ticked by…
Chapter 30 (Into Darkness)
“I’ll track it while you do that,” Symbiana said. Then, she sped into the laboratory, following the scent of the other niiaH.
“Ze will have laid traps,” the niiaH on the floor shouted as Symbiana followed the trail through the door to the right.
The spoor led her into a stairwell that dropped deep into the sub-basement then into a tunnel. Twice she needed to use shaped charges to blast through doors that her quarry had locked to bar the way.
The long, straight tunnel’s direction told her she was near the warehouse where they’d found an exit on a reconnaissance. One of the XYMBI teams was there to block it. Ahead automatic weapons rattled. The tunnel turned left. Symbiana peeked around the corner; a short hall led to a door held open by a man’s body wedged in the opening.
A MAC Model-10 automatic with a muzzle suppressor lay on the floor next to the body. She pounced on the gun, ducked back behind the door and checked the magazine. it was nearly full with about thirty rounds of .45 ACP still left. A search under the man’s coat revealed another full magazine.
The crude weapon was familiar, she’d used them once forty years ago. She wouldn’t be sorry about dropping it the second it was out of ammunition, but she needed firepower.
Symbiana tapped her microphone. “Max, can you tell the team at the warehouse not to shoot me when I come out the door, please. I don’t detect niiaH blood, so I expect it got past them.”
Max came on the line. “Tiana told them to stand down a few seconds ago, so you are clear to go.”
Symbiana peeked around the door then took off, running down the scent. She glimpsed the startled faces of the men in the warehouse as she tore through them and out the door.
Max continued talking. “It looks like we stumbled on an internal conflict. One of them was already trying to kill the other, but the target broke through and it’s headed north. We scrambled a Scout chopper, but the target is using overhead cover and we’ve already lost it.”
“I’ll keep you advised of my location,” Symbiana said. “I’m tracking it.”
She sped on, leaping fences and dodging cars as she followed parallel to the trail, watching for traps and ambushes. Her path took her out of the industrial section into wooded terrain, heading toward the Chesapeake Bay.
From the distance between the quarry’s steps, it was not moving as fast as she was. It bothered her that there had been no ambush attempts. It was as though this one wanted her to follow. She pulled her Sig out of its holster, in case she needed to be sure she hit the quarry at a distance then tucked the Model-10 into her harness.
The trail was leading up a slope now, towards even deeper woods. She held to the woods on the right of the path and increased speed. Ahead she caught sight of the fleeing niiaH, a flicker of movement, an upright figure running about thirty KPH through the woods. Tiana came to a sliding stop and timed a shot, threading it through the tree trunks. The niiaH’s head snapped to the right; it stumbled for an instant before running on, dodging now.
Symbiana pushed forward faster; the odor of blood filled the air. A crashing from the underbrush ahead foretold the spoor passing through a thicket. A few steps later, she came to where an ancient mineshaft dove into the hill. Symbiana snatched the Model-10 from her vest and emptied a stream of lead, burping through the silencer, spraying bullets into the dark. She let the empty magazine fall on the ground and slid the last one into its housing.
The sounds of scraping and crawling came to her from the dark. She emptied the last magazine into the opening. When she finished, there was only silence from the mineshaft.
Symbiana bared her teeth in a snarl and flung the model-10 into the opening to hear it shatter against the rock walls. She tapped her microphone to Edward and Max’s channels. “It’s gone to ground,” she said. “I wounded it with one shot in its face. It’s crawled into an old mineshaft. I’m going after it.”
Symbiana flipped the microphone out of the way and snake-crawled into the hole. The scent led her to a smear on a rock. She sniffed it and touched a drop to her tongue then continued on, analyzing the sample.
Its body was nearly nine hundred years old, it was exhausted by its run and now wounded. The blood led to a pool of water where the tunnel ended. It had gone into the water.
She hissed.
“Symbiana, are you receiving?” Tiana’s voice came through her helmet scratchy and faint.
Symbiana toggled her microphone. “Tiana, I’m underground. It’s a bad signal, but I hope you can hear me. I’m going deeper, through a tunnel filled with water.” She listened for a return signal, but the receiver only hissed.
After a deep breath, Symbiana reached out to her surroundings: the dank of earth, mold and fungus, skittering sounds of roaches and rats in tiny side passages. Was she missing anything? She took off her boots, helmet and kilt, freeing her tail and dropping everything into a pile then turned and waded into the water. It reeked of blood and old chemical waste. She slithered into the water, feeling her way, using her tail to grip the rock behind her in case she needed to retreat.
She hoped it wouldn’t be too far.
Her crawl moved like an inchworm’s path. Four times, she changed her tail to new holds in the ceiling, memorizing every bump and crevice
in case she needed to retreat. Then, her fingers found an opening into air. With a flick of her thumb, the waterproof flashlight illuminated a hatchway in the wall ahead of her. She probed it with the flashlight, holding her Sig ready.
A jolt of fire crashed through her body—incredible burning pain that knocked her off her feet. The water was on fire for an eternity. Then the pain vanished.
Electric shock.
Symbiana floated in the, not moving, resisting the urge to show signs of life. It wanted her alive. Time crawled. Her oxygen dwindled. The sound of latches releasing and gears turning echoed through the water.
Door opening.
When the sound stopped, she lurched to her feet and dove toward where she guessed the door was. She landed halfway out of the water, draped across the wall below the opening. Her legs spasmed as the current grabbed her again. Her body shook as pain screamed along her nerves.
Helpless, burning, fire, eternal, hell.
Again, the pain disappeared, but she couldn’t move. She instructed her body to crawl out of the water, but it failed her.
A manacle, attached to a pole and chain slapped onto her left wrist, biting deep. Another manacle snared her right wrist. Symbiana tried to jerk the chain toward her, pull herself to her attacker.
The fiery pain enveloped her again.
The chains pulled her from the charged water as her body shuddered and jerked. When her feet left the water, manacles locked on her ankles as well; they stretched her, face down, horizontally suspended by her hands and feet, maneuvering her body over a metal table then lowering her.
When her stomach touched the table, a thick cable wrapped around her waist and tightened. Other shackles snapped over her arms, her tail and her right thigh shared another. The left thigh, her buttocks, her ankles, her arms, all ratcheted tight before the horrible tension from the chains went slack and impersonal hands removed the original manacles from her wrists. A metal cage surrounded her head and tightened, holding her skull motionless.