by Sarah Noffke
“And Penrae,” Verdok sputtered out, coughing. “When we go in, don’t screw anything up like you did the last time.”
Penrae gritted her teeth; well, the teeth of the human she’d shifted into. She didn’t say a word, only strode off to give the order.
When the agents began reporting locations, Julianna and Eddie set off into Area One-Twenty-Six. The quicker they located the Tangle Thief, the better. Eddie wasn’t afraid to admit that something creeped him out about the storage facility, and that was saying a lot. He’d met the foulest aliens in the galaxy and frequented dives that would make most shiver with disgust.
He followed Julianna down a corridor, knowing she saw the map with Hatch’s directions in her head. If they got separated he had the instructions on his pad, but he hoped it didn’t come to that.
“Hey, let’s stay together while we’re in here,” Eddie said, striding through the frigid blue-lit hallway. It felt like they were walking through a refrigerator, which only increased the fright factor.
“Because?” Julianna asked.
“Because I have a feeling separating will only lead to confusion and chaos.”
Julianna made a sharp turn and trotted down a set of stairs that led to the basement. The hallway the stairs emptied into was exactly like the one they’d come from. It was lined with doors and crisscrossed by multiple other hallways.
“This place is a maze,” Julianna observed.
“Just as Hatch said.” Eddie gave her a meaningful look. “Stick together, cool?”
She nodded, the dim blue light casting dark shadows under her eyes and nose, making her look ominous.
“What was it again? Right, second left, two rights, and two lefts?” Eddie asked, trying to remember the directions.
“And then third right,” Julianna confirmed, her gaze to the side like she was focusing on the map projected in her retina and not the daunting stretch of hallway in front of them.
“Okay, we got this. Let’s do it,” Eddie stated, ignoring the agents listing their locations in his head. It was easy enough to send them to the back of his mind, like static he could ignore. He wondered if that was what Julianna did with Pip when she couldn’t pay attention to him.
“There’s our first right,” Julianna stated, striding forward. It was roughly ten yards down the seemingly never-ending corridor. The intersecting hallways, Eddie noticed as they passed one on the left, weren’t Ts. Instead they cut across this hallway at strange angles, making them harder to spot in the dim lighting. You’d think the Federation would invest in better lighting in their storage facility.
“Are you able to ignore Pip?” Eddie asked, for some reason needing to fill the silence. It was a strange thing for him to need, since he was a person who valued silence and required much decompression time. Most wouldn’t have guessed that based on his outgoing personality, but that was just the thing. Extroverts expended a lot more energy, and needed much time to recoup.
Julianna’s eyes were full of laughter when she gazed at him. “I wish. He’s pretty…persistent.”
“Is he always talking?” Eddie asked, not sure why the AI intrigued him. It must have been the prospect of being integrated with him, and also giving him control of his body.
A sadistic smile crossed her lips. A conversation was transpiring between the two now, he could tell.
“What is Pip saying?” Eddie asked, curious.
“As usual he’s talking smack,” Julianna said. “And although it feels like he never shuts up, it’s about like what you experience with Ricky Bobby or ArchAngel. He’s quiet, but always there.”
Julianna laughed suddenly.
“What did he say to that?” Eddie asked.
“He keeps threatening to get a life of his own,” Julianna responded.
Eddie tucked his head back on his neck, confused. “How would that work?”
“Exactly the same way an AI would put on a pair of shoes. They wouldn’t.” Julianna stopped at the first right.
“Here’s our first turn,” Eddie stated, noticing how eerily quiet it was. He’d expected to run across one of the Special Forces soldiers, but it appeared strangely deserted.
Julianna started forward, then halted, grabbing Eddie by the forearm. He looked at her and then to where she was pointing. Five feet back the way they’d come was another hallway.
“Wait, is that the first right?” Eddie asked.
“I think so,” Julianna stated. “This would be the second.”
Eddie looked between the hallway in front of them and the one behind them and shook his head. “Was that there before?”
Julianna sighed. “Of course it was. We were just distracted and nearly missed it. No more talking. One wrong turn and we’re screwed.”
Eddie scanned the area with a discriminating glare. “I don’t know. I don’t trust what I see in this place.”
He could have sworn that a moment ago there were more left hallway intersections. After making a full rotation, he noticed that Julianna was wearing a similarly paranoid expression.
“Maybe one of the protections Jaslene Corporation uses is visual illusions to confuse trespassers,” she stated.
Eddie nodded minutely. “That would explain this.”
“Come on, let’s go.” She grabbed him by the arm again and led him to the hallway they’d nearly missed.
Not surprisingly, this hallway looked exactly the same as the others. Where were the doors or compartments, like in the other facility? How could there not be units? This was a storage facility, but it felt like a catacomb of confusion.
“What? I did what I thought was right. Get over it,” Julianna stated, looking back at Eddie with an incredulous expression.
He halted. “I didn’t say anything.”
“Yes, you did.”
Eyes wide and unblinking, he gave her an expression that said, “You’re losing your damn mind.”
“Eddie, I heard you just now.”
“What did I say?” he asked.
She growled and charged off faster.
“Eating a meal with you can be highly annoying,” Julianna stated matter-of-factly.
Eddie paused, wondering if he heard her right. “What does that have to do with anything?”
Julianna whipped around. “What does what?”
“My table manners. I get that I ate all the dip without asking when we were at that pub on Kezza. I apologized already.”
Julianna’s face was covered with confused outrage. “Why are you bringing that up right now?”
Eddie took two steps and leaned into her. “Because you just threw it up in my face. You’re obviously still mad.”
She laughed. “I didn’t bring it up. And speaking of being mad, you’re the one still pissed about me risking my life for the bunnies.”
“What? I’m not either. Why would you say that?” He did think that about the animals, but had promised to let it go.
“Because you just brought it up again,” she said in a tight whisper.
“No, Jules, I didn’t,” Eddie stated.
They both paused, their eyes moving to the side. When their gazes connected there was a new intensity in them.
“Something is messing with us,” Julianna said.
“It’s in our heads,” Eddie said in a hush. “How else would it know that stuff?”
“And it’s trying to make us fight.”
Eddie realized now exactly what Hatch meant about this place. He’d faced danger, explosions, bullets, and mortal peril, but nothing like this—a mind-fucking-game.
“Okay, we have to stay where we can see each other’s mouths,” Eddie instructed. “That way if I don’t see you talk but hear your voice, I know it’s not you.”
“Or we split up,” Julianna offered.
“NO!” Eddie said, his voice louder than he’d expected. He sucked in a breath, trying to stay calm. This place had him more flustered than he would have thought possible. It was dark, cold, and confusing. Well, and it had weird science magic that me
ssed with their heads. This proved that sanity was easier to lose than most realized. Only a few factors drew the line between stable and crazy.
“I just don’t think it’s a good idea to split up. Too much could go wrong, and we’re both trying to accomplish the same thing,” Eddie said, his voice full of conviction.
Julianna nodded. “Although I’m unsure how we’re supposed to find the Tangle Thief if we’re staring at each other.”
Eddie sighed. “Good point. Maybe we just have to ignore the negative things we hear.”
Julianna raised an eyebrow, giving him a challenging look. “You sure you’ve got thick enough skin for that?”
Eddie scoffed. “Of course I do. I’m a real man, Jules.”
She nodded, unconvinced. “Fine, let’s try that and hope this fight instigator leaves us alone soon.” Turning around, she sighed and said, “Because we’re already lost. I think we passed our turn. Let’s backtrack.”
Eddie agreed with a nod, leading off.
“Your lack of knowledge of alien cultures is incredibly embarrassing. I wished you’d brush up on that,” Julianna said loudly at his back.
Eddie continued to march forward. It’s just an entity trying to fuck with us, he told himself.
“Oh, and if you offer me unsolicited advice on my flying again I’m going to kick your ass,” the imposter Julianna stated.
Eddie ground his teeth. What if this fucker was pulling out the things they really felt and hadn’t said? The complaints they were too afraid to voice?
“Everyone thinks it’s cute, but you can be incredibly immature,” the impersonator said.
Eddie couldn’t help it. He halted, clenching his fists by his side. “Enough!” he boomed.
“Hey, dumbass! You’re going the wrong way,” Julianna said from behind him.
Eddie spun around, expecting to see Julianna standing there. She wasn’t. The hallway was empty.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Area One-Twenty-Six, Nexus, Tangki System
Penrae, in the form of a crew member on the shore, waved her hands overhead. They’d intentionally docked on the back side of the island where the Special Forces soldiers were fewer. One of the men in uniform ran through the sparse trees, his rifle in hand.
“You can’t land here,” the soldier yelled, slowing as he neared. “This island is closed to outsiders.
“Right, I get it,” Penrae said, her voice deep. The man she’d shifted into was stocky and smelled like fish and sweat. “I saw the no trespassing signs on the way in, but I didn’t have a choice.” Penrae threw her meaty arm at the ship, which appeared empty since the Petigrens were below decks. “My ship hit something and I need to…” Her voice trailed away as she caught sight of another soldier pushing through the trees.
“Kendrick,” a woman in uniform said. “It’s all right. I gave him permission to dock.”
The man turned around. “You what? Nona, you heard the Lieutenant’s orders.”
“I know, but the boat is wrecked. What else is he supposed to do?” the woman said.
The soldier named Kendrick shook his head. “I don’t know. I’m calling this in. The Lieutenant needs to know about it.” He lifted his hand to his ear, but before he made contact the soldier behind him pulled up her weapon and shot him twice in the back. Shock filled every feature on the man’s face. His mouth fell open. His hand pressed into this chest where one of the bullets had exited. He stumbled. Fell. Landed face-first in the sand.
Penrae wasn’t granted a moment to experience the remorse that welled up inside her.
“Grab his arms and drag him into the water,” the woman soldier said. Her appearance didn’t deceive Penrae. She’d recognized the way Verdok spoke to her. Like she was beneath him. He’d apparently managed to sneak up to the facility and gain the identity of one of the soldiers. They only had to be in close proximity to take on someone’s appearance.
She did as she was told, finding the job of pushing the dead man’s body into the sea exceptionally easy in her current form.
“Assume his identity. We don’t have much time,” Verdok barked.
“I think you meant to say ‘please,’” Penrae said bitterly.
“What did you say?” he asked, his voice high-pitched but with the normal heat still present.
“Nothing,” she said, shifting into the form of the male soldier. The timing couldn’t have been better, because just then two more soldiers sprinted through the trees, worry flecking their faces. Penrae cast a look behind her. To her relief, the body of the soldier had drifted out with the tide and was probably bobbing behind the boat. Still, they didn’t have too long before it materialized on the other side.
“We heard gunshots,” the first said. “Are you all right?”
Penrae nodded. This body was much cleaner than the previous one, and easier to tolerate. “We’re fine. I think they came from over there.” She pointed to the bank on the far side of the island, away from the entrance to the facility. “We’re going to search this boat. It was just discovered.”
The other soldier, a young male, stepped forward and looked at Verdok’s form, perplexed. “Nona, what are you doing down here? You’re stationed at the entrance.”
“I ran over, same as you,” Verdok said, injecting confidence in his tone. Penrae had to hand it to him. He knew how to pull off a role, never giving a hint that he was an imposter. “You two check out the disturbance on the other side of the island. I’m going to report this to the Lieutenant.”
That had apparently been the right thing to say, because the two soldiers nodded and sprinted in the opposite direction. When they were a safe distance away, Verdok shifted into the form of the young male soldier. He didn’t grant Penrae another look, only strode toward the entrance to the storage facility. “Bring the Petigrens. It’s time to get what we came for.”
Nona straddled the tree’s thick branch. She’d dreamed of climbing trees when she was a little girl. Dreamed of making a fort in one, and writing poetry there during the day and crafting imaginative ideas by night. Then she’d curl up with her flashlight and book and read under the stars until her eyelids were too heavy and she fell fast asleep in her treehouse.
Never did she think that she’d grow up to climb trees with a sniper rifle in tow and stand guard, waiting to pick off bad guys.
Sometimes we think we know what we want out of life. Treehouses and poetry. Nona sighed at the long-ago dream. It seemed almost comical. The one time her family had gone on a camping expedition, climbing trees hadn’t been on the itinerary. She was handed a pistol and told, “It’s time to learn how to shoot.”
Thinking back, there had never been another path for her. Nona was a soldier. A marksman. A sniper. And she was the fucking best.
She aimed her scope toward the entrance to Area One-Twenty-Six, scanning as she’d done regularly for the last hour. Standing watch could get tedious, but boredom was her worst enemy.
“Only the boring get bored,” her mother used to say. She probably didn’t realize that those words would save her daughter and many others. Nona still crafted poetry and dreamt of imaginative ideas in trees as she had once hoped to do, but now she did it while holding an M24. The ramblings of her imagination kept her alert, and that kept others safe.
Nona brought her scope to the left and caught two figures, Donny and Kendrick. What were they doing off their posts? she wondered.
Nona was about to zoom in when she caught activity behind them. She pressed the scope harder into her eye. Fuck!
She swept the scope to the left, taking in the strange sight. Roughly ten yards behind Donny and Kendrick were a dozen or more rat-men like the ones they’d fought in Area Eight.
Did Donny and Kendrick know they were about to be ambushed? Nona could pick off a few of the rat-men, but how many before they overwhelmed the rest of her team?
She pulled back slightly, blinking away from the scope. Wait. Could they be? It didn’t make sense that Donny and Kendrick were som
eone else—that someone had stolen their identities. When would they have had a chance? That would be as bizarre as someone having stolen her identity while she was perched ten feet up in the safety of the tree.
Nona pressed the scope to her eye again. In the ten seconds she’d taken to make sense of what she was seeing the rat-men had taken over, running past Donny and Kendrick. The men did nothing as the creatures ran past them.
They were shapeshifters, Nona realized. She released the safety. Got Donny in her sights. And then he disappeared. He had shifted into the form of a rat-man. She scanned the crowd of beasts as they sprinted for the entrance of Area One-Twenty-Six. Kendrick was gone too. They were charging the facility.
She pressed the button to activate the comm. The Lieutenant needed to be alerted right away. Then she’d join the battle that was about to ensue.
Fletcher’s hands shook. He couldn’t believe this. All these years after losing his father, he finally had a chance to say the one thing that had been stolen from him. He was going to get closure. Finally he’d have a chance to tell his father that he loved him. His death would feel final, because Fletcher would have gotten the gift of saying goodbye.
Too often the day his father had left and didn’t return played in Fletcher’s head. It still didn’t feel real. For years he had believed that his father would show up again. That was what had happened for that mechanic, Knox. Why couldn’t it happen for Fletcher? But he knew better. He’d read the reports. Cornel Fletcher was dead, and had been for some time now.
“Dad? Are you there?” Fletcher asked, speaking to the Family Tree. He realized that it was the source of the faint blue light.
“He’s here,” his grandmother said. “Give him a moment. Takes him longer to come through.”
“Dad!” Fletcher yelled. “It’s me! Chad!”
The comm crackled in his ear. “Sir, this is Officer Fuller,” Nona said in a mad rush. “Those rat-men are back, and there’s two shapeshifters. I had them in my sights but they disappeared.”
Fletcher stumbled back. “What? How did they get through the perimeter?”