by T. F. Grant
Bookworm stopped, took a few breaths, and scanned behind him into the gloom. “What’s that?”
“Jhang’s mark, we’re getting close to his domain.”
“Jhang? This another gang boss or something.”
“Nope. Nothing like that at all, but let’s not worry about that right now. Distance, my friend, we need it. This way.”
Tai took the right turn. At least he knew where he was now. The stench that tickled at his nostrils, carrion and decomposition, guided him. It was a risky decision, but going left would only take them to an area various laggards used for secure lockup. Going this way would bring them closer to doom, but right now, it was preferable to being shredded.
“They’re gaining,” Bookworm said. The howls echoed after them.
“Run faster,” Tai said. “Shit, jump.” A gaping hole in the floor nearly caught them out, but they leaped and landed on the other side. Landing with a slip, Tai spun round to investigate the hole.
“What are you doing?” Bookworm said, lifting his auto-shotgun to cover Tai. The boy learned quickly.
“This shouldn’t be here and looks man-sized.”
“So what? Oh, freck, one’s coming.”
Bursting out of the gloom, muscles ripping, and froth falling from long fangs, a gen-modded vul roared and leaped for them.
Tai fell back, drew his Dorian, and emptied the revolver into the bastard creature’s chest. Bookworm screamed as he launched the heavy slugs from the auto-shotgun, each one tearing fist-sized chunks of meat from the vul. A slug struck the beast in the face, tearing its head clean off its body.
The corpse flopped down, limbs hanging lose. Bookworm dropped his gun and pulled Tai back before the vul crushed him. Screams and roars increased as the rest pounded down the tight corridor to them.
“I’m out of ammo,” Bookworm said.
“Ditto, now, get down the hole.”
“What?”
Tai stood up and pushed Bookworm down the hole and followed, dragging a part of the vul corpse over it to hide their exit as he dropped. Even if the chasing vuls discovered the ruse, they wouldn’t fit in the aperture, buying Tai and Bookworm time. Tai had no doubt the strength of these things would soon tear the metal flooring apart until they could fit, but it’d give Tai and Bookworm a chance to get more distance on their pursuers.
The pair of humans fell in a heap of tangled limbs to the level below.
“Get off me, man,” Bookworm said. “Your foot’s crushing my balls.”
“Sorry,” Tai grunted as he rolled off.
Tai looked around to get his bearings. He hadn’t been in this section of the dark levels for quite a few cycles, having not wanted to be devoured by Jhang. The stench of carrion was stronger here, indicating the beast’s lair was close by.
Bookworm dusted himself off. Bone dust covered his uniform and face. Tai was also covered in it. Seemed Jhang had been busy gnawing and sharpening those ridiculous fangs of his.
“What’s that?” Bookworm said.
Tai and Bookworm fell silent, listening.
“I hear nothing but the heavy footsteps of a pack of vuls above our head,” Tai said in a whisper.
“Ssh! Listen.”
Seconds ticked by. Tai wanted to get out of there. All he could hear were the grunts of the vuls above him, wondering where they’d got to. The corpse must have masked their scent, but they couldn’t bank on that for long. But as he was about to say something, he did hear it.
An explosion far off into the darkness, but definitely on the same level. “That’s an auto-cannon.” He heard a second explosion. “Only person I know who’d wield one of those here is Tooize. What the hell is he doing?”
“You mentioned Jheng?”
“Jhang,” Tai corrected. “Yeah, that’d be a good frecking reason.”
“And hey, look.” All around them were footprints.
Tai took his small torch from his coat pocket and took a closer look. “Well, I’ll be damned.”
“What is it?”
“Kronac and two human women. One’s injured, look, the kronac carried her away, Footprints scuffing the surface, ghosting.” Tai scanned forward. “But from here, the stride length shows that they had to run.”
“Ghosting?” Bookworm said. “Like we were doing?”
“Yeah, Kina taught me how to do that.”
“Kina, Tooize, and… Sara?”
“Probably, and Sara is most likely injured.” Tai glanced up. “Uh-oh. Time to go.”
The sound of bending, screeching metal came from above them. Tai switched the torch off, grabbed Bookworm by the arm, and sprinted off after the human footprints. If that was Tooize with an auto-cannon, he didn’t fancy going that way. There’s only one reason someone would be firing such a weapon here: Jhang, and if he was right and the set of female footprints were Kina’s, then he had to go to her. She was more than crew; she was his best friend on Haven.
The more he thought about it, the more it seemed to make sense. They must have split up. Tooize must have distracted the beast. What the hell were they doing here? That didn’t matter at the moment; he just had to get to them in time. Tai followed the footsteps up stairs, through passageways and came out into an open area. A scream pierced the air.
“That’s Sara,” Bookworm said as the rest of his words were swallowed by an earsplitting roar that rattled the organs within Tai’s body.
“And that’s Jhang. Come on.”
Tai and Bookworm continued forward. The stench of sulphur and carrion made Tai’s eyes water. Mid-step he nearly lost his footing in his haste. The floor was slick underfoot. Bookworm grabbed him. “Easy, man. What the hell is this place?”
“Exactly that, Dylan. Hell.”
In response to the dragon roar, the howl of the pack answered. The vuls had their scent again, even among the filth and corpses.
“No breaks will be caught today,” Bookworm said grimly.
“Keep going.”
As they slip-slided through, Tai noticed a blue glow coming from around a giant mound of pulsating corpse flesh and precious valuables. It grew brighter as the light’s spread lengthened, illuminating more of Jhang’s lair. Skulls with boley worms crawling from the eye sockets lined the walls. Ribcages of myriad species littered the shadows.
“Okay,” Bookworm said, coming to a halt by the mound. “This place gets worse by the cycle. Just no surprises left. No more frecks to give.”
“Wait, is that?” Tai reached for his Napier as two figures, silhouetted in the blue light, came running around the mound. “Kina! Sara!”
Tai and Bookworm dashed forward.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Kina said.
“I could ask you the same thing.”
“Can it, guys, we don’t have time,” Sara said. She held a large AI crystal under her splinted left arm and pointed over Tai’s shoulder with her right. From the look on her face, Tai knew it was nothing good. He turned round.
Tooize came sprinting in long strides, his feet slipping and struggling for grip, the auto-cannon slung around his back, his arms flailing for balance.
Behind him, the pack of vuls burst around the corner of a passage, their snouts snarling and snapping.
Behind them, the colossal shape of Jhang, his massive head roaring, gouts of flame lighting up the space.
“I was wrong,” Bookworm said. “I have many more frecks to give.”
Tooize sprinted for all he was worth, yet the vuls, now chasing on all fours like colossal hell-dogs, bore down on him. Tai knew they’d get him soon. He knelt and drew his Napier. He aimed and took a slow breath to steady his hand. He fired. The bullet struck Jhang on the side of its massive head. Although the shot bounced harmlessly off its tough hide, it was enough to grab its attention.
When the dragon noticed the vuls running into its lair, the beast roared. A cloud of flame billowed out, filling the passageway and curling up to the ceiling as it rolled forward. The burst of fire struck the vuls cl
osest to Tooize. They reared up with a terrible high-pitched keening.
As one, the dozen-strong pack turned their attentions on Jhang, leaping at it with no fear or trepidation. They clawed into it, thrashing against its armor-like scales, clambering upward toward its eyes. Crazy bastards.
“Tooize, over here,” Tai said and then to the others, “Follow me. I know a way out.”
Jhang launched one of the vuls, minus its head and half of its chest, at the fleeing humans and singular kronac. The corpse landed a few feet in front of Tai and the group, making them halt and dash out of the way. A vul leg, chewed and broken, flew over their heads.
“Is that really a dragon throwing pieces of oversized werewolves at us within a space station lair?” Bookworm asked.
“Yeah, Dylan, problem?”
“What? No, it’s perfectly reasonable. It’s silly of me to question it.”
“Less talk, more running the hell out of here,” Kina said.
While Jhang continued to clean house, Tai ushered the others up a set of half-broken steel steps, the treads barely attached to the wall. Gang graffiti littered the charred walls around them. The only light available came from the AI crystal and Tai’s small torch, giving the place an eerie feel. But for each corner they turned, the corridor ascended; Tai got his bearings and within his head mapped out where they were in relation to the regular levels.
“Here,” Tai said, stopping at an empty shaft. “The elevator, we can climb up to the next level from here.”
Tooize wasted no time. He jumped into the shaft, grabbing the thick metal cables with one pair of hands. He held the other two hands out to Sara. “Come with me,” he said. “You hold onto Telo.”
“Best of chums now, are we?” Tai said as Sara climbed onto the kronac’s back.
“Jealous?” Kina asked with a smirk.
“Nah, I’ve got a new bestie right here. Ain’t that right, Dylan, my good pal?”
Bookworm just nodded. “Sure. Um, I don’t mean to upset this little friendship party, but can we get a move on before that frecking thing burns us to a crisp?”
“We’re all right here,” Tai said. “Next level up is the Scholars. Even Jhang isn’t suicidal enough to want to mess with them.”
“What, a huge space dragon that tore those dogs limb from limb would be scared of some walking, talking shrubs?”
Tai let out a genuine guffaw. “Dylan, my man, you really have no clue. Those shrubs, as you call them, are the most deadly force on this station, if not this little pocket of universe of ours. I told you, they’re freakin’ immortal, man. And when they go on the attack, they’re so lethal that even Jhang would be dead before he could blink. I’m serious when I tell you don’t underestimate them. Ever.”
Kina arched her eyebrow at Bookworm before hauling up the cables. Bookworm and Tai followed, but Tai held him back until they had some distance. “Listen up,” Tai whispered, “you cannot say anything about those books, right? Not a hint. If the Scholars catch on that you withheld paper, well, let’s just say it won’t end well… for either of us.”
“I got it,” Bookworm said.
Tai held his gaze for a second and nodded. “Good.”
Tooize had climbed out of the shaft onto the next level above. He helped Sara and Kina through and held a pair of hands down for Tai and Bookworm. “Good job, big fella,” Tai said, slapping the kronac on the back. “All good with the Gift of Language, then?”
“Yes. It went well,” Tooize replied.
Tai felt a tension between the two of them. He’d worked with the kronac for a good while and learned his demeanor and body language. It seemed like there was a wedge between them now, something to distance the kronac from him. Tai shrugged it off. The four-armed beasts weren’t really known for opening up. As long as he did the job Tai paid him for, that was all that mattered.
“What now?” Sara asked as they huddled into the hallway of the Scholars’ library.
“Depends on what you intend to do with that,” Tai said, pointing to the AI crystal.
“That’s what we need to talk about,” Kina said. “Somewhere private.”
“Right, to my apartment, then.”
The elevator came to a stop in front of them. “Handy,” Tai said as he waited for the doors to open. “While we’re up there, we can discuss the Venture and—”
The doors opened. Haggard, along with five heavily-armored human security officers and worse—a pair of Drifts. “Tairon Cauder, you’re under arrest,” Haggard said.
TWENTY-FIVE
Sara shifted Telo to under her right arm. It had been hard carrying the matrix wedged under her splinted left arm. It wasn’t heavy, but it was bulky and sharp edged. While she did this, she glanced around at Kina and Bookworm and Tooize. None of them moved. None of them even seemed to think of raising a weapon to defend Tai. What was going on here?
Tai had saved them, again, with his mad dramatics. Sara still did not trust the man, who seemed to live and breathe double-dealing and wild actions, but he always seemed to appear when Kina or Tooize needed him. And he also always seemed to have that stupid grin on his face.
Just like now.
“Why am I under arrest, Haggard, my old son? Whatever for?”
“Books,” hissed Sweet-Sap. “You hid them from us.”
“I have no knowledge of which you speak.”
The other Drift, shorter than Sweet-Sap, with leaves as black as Old-Leaf, said, “Thousands upon thousands of books, of paper, hidden from us in contravention of the law.”
A warble of fear crept into Tai’s voice as he said, “Sharp-Thorn, didn’t see you there.” He rolled his shoulders and stretched his legs slightly, as though itching to run. Haggard shook his head slowly. Tai sighed. “I don’t have a single freaking clue what you’re talking about, Sharp-Thorn-Cutting-Through-Space-And-Time-In-The-Pursuit-Of-Knowledge-And-The-Detection-Of-Wrong-Doing-As-The-Liquid-Heat-Of-A-Forgotten-Sun-Warms-Your-Aching-Dreams.”
“He taunts me with my name.” The voice was cold and sharp in Sara’s ears, a whisper of sound below the level of human hearing. So how could she hear it? What had the weaver done to her? “We should kill them both now. Use our thorns. End their miserable short-lived existence.”
Sweet-Sap’s mental voice was quieter, calmer, warmer. “We must obey the law that we created. Or all will be anarchy.”
“He taunts me.”
“It has been too short a time since your rebudding. You are still filled with the sap of youth and … still, quiet, the human woman, the new one, can hear us. She has been given the Gift of All Language. The stink of the weaver is upon her.”
“The kronac gift. Given to a human. Did they not learn from the last time they did this?”
“Be silent. She can hear us.” Sweet-Sap’s leaves rustled, and the Drift edged closer to Sara.
She backed away slowly.
Tooize stepped in front of her and whistled, “Talk to Old-Leaf.”
“She has the Gift of All Knowledge,” Sharp-Thorn hissed in the same low register.
“I said silence!” There was a lash of ultrasound at the end of the sentence, a lash of pain directed at Sharp-Thorn, but it struck Sara too. She moaned.
Kina grabbed her as she swayed. “Are you all right?”
“Say nothing, Sara Lorelle,” Sweet-Sap warned.
“I’m fine,” Sara said. “Just my arm, you know?”
“We’ll have to get that sorted,” Kina said. “I know a bresac healer. He’ll fix it up for you. He owes me.”
“Why?”
“I didn’t kill him when I was supposed to.”
Tai was still talking. “I don’t know anything about any thousands of books. Where did you find them?”
“In the dark levels,” Haggard said. “A dead vul was splattered all over the deck plates there.”
Tai shrugged. “Nope, doesn’t ring a bell.”
“We found these.” Haggard pointed to the two gun cases carried by his men.
“Thank the stars,” Bookworm said. “Some bastard stole those. Glad you recovered them. Can I have them back now?” He reached forward.
“Don’t play cute.”
“They’re mine.” Bookworm was starting to sweat, his face twitching slightly. And Sara knew, at that moment, that they were his books. How had he carried so many on the Venture? Where had he hidden them? And what stupidity would he enact to protect them?
“They were found next to the books.”
A long silence. Tai glanced at Bookworm, Haggard glared at Bookworm. Both of them willing him to speak, to explain, to wipe away the proof.
Bookworm spoke, his voice halting and strengthening as he seemed to come to a decision. “Then… whoever stole them… stashed them with the… books,” he said. “They were found with the books, were they not?”
Haggard grimaced. “No. But they were close by.”
“And you call that evidence?” Tai said. “Sounds a bit random to me.”
Haggard responded. “You were seen.”
It was all a game to this man, Sara realized. He wanted to see what Tai would do.
“Were we?” Tai said with a sneer in his voice. “By whom?”
“Me.” Aleatra stepped forth from the shadows, with Chitaan beside him. “I watched what you did. I saw the kronacs carrying the bundled books into the dark levels. I saw it all.”
“You conniving cowardly spy,” Bookworm said, without raising his voice, his disgust for Aleatra overriding his love, his need for his books.
Was this part of the gifts she had been given, Sara wondered, this ability to see the minds of others in their actions. No, she just knew Bookworm too well.
Bookworm took a step toward Aleatra. The Crowner took a step back. Chitaan moved forward as if to protect him—like Tooize had stepped forward to protect her from Sharp-Thorn.
“What did you see?” Bookworm snarled. “What did you see? Precisely?”
“I saw the kronacs carrying the bundled books.”
“You saw the actual books, did you?”
“No, I saw the sacks they were carried in. The same sacks that Haggard found with them inside.”