“What else could it be?” Kanto said.
Rikki saw what Sherlock was getting at, and grew troubled. Since the radio had just worked when A.l.v.i.s let them know it was safe, he tried to reach the Home again but couldn’t. All that came out of the speakers was static.
“Another coincidence, sir?” Sherlock said.
Rikki frowned. “From now on, we’re not to let A.l.v.i.s out of our sight. One or another of us is to always be with him.”
“How come?” Crom said.
“A.l.v.i.s is indispensable to the mission,” Rikki hedged. “We can’t let him be damaged.”
“It’s a sad day when a bucket of bolts counts for more than we do,” Crom said.
Rikki let the comment pass. He had more important matters to worry about. For starters, reaching the Valley of Shadow.
“I wonder if our loved ones at the Home are thinking about us right now,” Eleanor said. “I miss my parents terribly and it hasn’t been a full day yet.”
“Focus on the mission,” Rikki said.
“Haven’t you ever been homesick on any of the many runs you’ve been on?” Eleanor asked.
“Of course. But you learn to contain your feelings or they’ll crop up when you least want them too.”
“We can’t help how we feel,” Eleanor said. “Besides, what’s the worst that can happen?”
Rikki gave it to her straight. “They can get you killed.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
When Rikki-Tikki-Tavi announced that according to the SEAL’s GPS they were less than ten miles from the Valley of Shadow, everyone broke out in smiles. Except Sherlock.
Eleanor playfully nudged him and said, “Why so glum? The sooner we get there, the sooner we can return to the Home.”
“I’ll celebrate after we’re safely back,” Sherlock said.
“Do you even know how?” Crom said. “You too serious all the time. You need to learn to lighten up.”
“Is that what barbarians do?” Eleanor teased.
“A flagon of ale, a wench on my knee, and I’m there,” Crom replied with a smirk.
“Will you stop with the wench talk,” Eleanor said. “And you shouldn’t pick on Sherlock. We’re supposed to try and get along, remember?”
“Are you his mother now?” Crom said.
“Crom,” Rikki said.
“You heard her,” Crom responded. “I can’t hardly say anything without her getting on my case. You ask me, she has something against my barbarian ethos.”
“Do you even know what that means?” Eleanor said.
“See?” Crom said to Rikki-Tikki-Tavi. “I try to play nice but she’s always putting me down. Not her boyfriend, though. He can’t do anything wrong.”
“Sherlock isn’t my boyfriend,” Eleanor said indignantly.”
“There’s someone else?”
“For your information,” Eleanor said, “I’ve given myself to the Lord, heart and soul.”
“How’s that working out?” Crom said. “The two of you go on a lot of dates, do you?”
“Enough,” Rikki said, then suddenly sat straighter. “What’s A.l.v.i.s doing?”
They were following a highway, or what was left of one after over a century of neglect. Cracked and pitted and worn by erosion, the road climbed toward the crest of a low ridge.
A.l.v.i.s had reached the summit and then turned and floated back down a short way. Moving to the side of the road, the synthezoid hovered and waved its pincer at them.
Rikki braked and stuck his head out. “Something?”
“Over the ridge,” A.l.v.i.s chirped. “Whatever it is, It defies my attempts at analysis. I suggest you come take a look. And I further suggest you leave the SEAL here.”
“Why?” Rikki said. “We’re safer in here than out there.”
“The object might pose a threat to the vehicle. You need to see and evaluate for yourself.”
Rikki picked up his katana from off the console and opened his door. “Sherlock, you’re with me. The rest of you stay put. I mean that, Crom. Don’t step foot out of the SEAL.”
“I know how to follow orders,” Crom said.
Rikki stuck his katana through his belt, then reached back in for his Howa Type 64 auto rifle. Manufactured in Japan long before the Big Blast, it was specifically developed for shooters who were small in stature, and was fitted with a special muzzle brake to lessen the recoil. Rikki rarely used firearms, but when he did, he preferred the 64.
Sherlock checked his BXP and worked the bolt. “All set.”
Rikki grabbed the binoculars, then started up the grade. He was impressed by how silently Sherlock moved at his side. The younger man was a continual source of unexpected ability.
Near the top, Rikki dropped to his hands and knees. At the summit, he flattened.
Sherlock imitated him.
A.l.v.i.s had followed them, and hovered. “What do you make of it?”
Rikki-Tikki-Tavi was at a loss. Raising the binoculars, he adjusted the focus.
Below, the highway ran straight for more than a mile. At one time, heavy forest had flanked both sides. Now most of the trees lay in decayed heaps, their leaves long since withered away. It was as if a gigantic blast of wind had flattened them at a single stroke.
Half a mile off, in the exact center of the highway, sat the object A.l.v.i.s had alluded to. It was a metallic container roughly the size of the SEAL. There were no external parts, no visible seams. It looked for all the world like a giant silver box.
Rikki racked his brain for an explanation, then held the binoculars out to Sherlock. “Here. Give me your assessment.”
Raising the binoculars, Sherlock studied it, then said as if to himself, “Fascinating.”
“Is it me or do you say that a lot?” Rikki said.
“Habit, I suppose.” Sherlock tweaked the diopter. “I can’t tell much. Obviously, it’s an artificial construct. Equally obvious, it was placed in that location either as a lure or to block the road or both.” Sherlock scanned the toppled forest on both sides. “I draw your attention to the state of the adjoining woodland, which makes it impossible for vehicles coming either way to give the construct a wide berth. We’ll be forced to drive right by it.”
“To what end?”
“That I can’t say beyond the supposition that I suspect it poses some sort of threat.”
“Tell me,” Rikki said. “If you were in charge, what would you do?”
“Is this a test?” Sherlock said, and motioned. “No. I have no right to ask.” He stared at the silver block. “Our options are limited. We can’t avoid it if we go on. We can turn around and seek another route but that would delay us and time is of the essence. I would advance with the utmost caution, keeping A.l.v.i.s on point, as before. If the mystery box should prove hostile, it will focus on the AI first, giving us a slight warning.”
“Need I remind you we need A.l.v.i.s to help find the journals his lunatic master kept?”
“As A.l.v.i.s keeps reminding us, the synthezoid is largely impervious to harm.”
Behind them, A.l.v.i.s chirped, “From most conventional weapons, yes.”
Rikki gave the strange silver object in the distance a last scrutiny, and turned. “A.l.v.i.s, stay here and watch that thing. We’ll bring the SEAL up.”
“As you wish, sir.”
Rikki waited until they were almost to the van to pose a question that had been nagging at him. “What do you think of our synthetic friend? Be honest.”
Sherlock gazed toward A.l.v.i.s, then slid a hand into an inner pocket on his tweed coat and pulled out a notepad and a pen. He wrote something and held the pad up for Rikki to see. “I suspect he can hear us. Are you sure you want me to say?”
Rikki took the pad and pen. “Write it, then,” he replied.
Nodding, Sherlock wrote at some length. “I do not entirely trust A.l.v.i.s. Based on the string of seeming happenstances we have suffered, a logician like myself can’t help but infer that something is amiss.
”
Rikki wrote, “Happenstances?”
“A.l.v.i.s showing up of its own accord, claiming our Leader decided to send him after we had already left the Home. Then not being able to contact the Home, although until A.l.v.i.s showed up, the radio worked fine. Then there were those mutated felines. And the giants. To say nothing of the chemical cloud. Coincidences? Possibly. Even probably. Yet there remains another possibility, namely, that A.l.v.i.s led us into their vicinity.”
“Hold on,” Rikki said aloud,, and wrote, “We ran into the mutates before we ran into A.l.v.i.s”
“My suspicion stands. Taking all these events into account, I have to wonder if A.l.v.i.s has our best interests at heart.”
Rikki thoughtfully rubbed his chin, then wrote, “Keep a close eye on it. If the thing has turned against us, our entire mission is at risk.”
Sherlock nodded and slid the notepad into his pocket.
They climbed in. Rikki threw the SEAL into gear and drove to the crest. He instructed A.l.v.i.s to take point and let the synthetic get well ahead before he started down the other side.
“What is that thing?” Eleanor marveled, pressing between the bucket seats for a better view. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“Join the club,” Kanto said.
“Be ready for anything,” Rikki cautioned, his hand close to the toggles that would activate the SEAL’s armaments.
“Let me out and I’ll go have a closer look on foot,” Crom offered, and patted his .50-caliber. “Any trouble, and I’ll turn it into a sieve.”
“We stick together,” Rikki said. While he appreciated the younger man’s enthusiasm, once again Crom wanted to do it all himself instead of meshing as a team.
“Kind of you to want to protect us,” Eleanor said to their barbarian.
“Kind nothing, wench,” Crom said. “I’m bored.”
Rikki-Tikki-Tavi sighed.
* * *
Kanto was beginning to wish they never brought Crom along. The man had no sophistication. Apparently it didn’t take much intellect to be a good Hunter.
Kanto was longing for a chance to show the others what a true killer could do. He would particularly like to impress Rikki-Tikki-Tavi. It had bothered him when Rikki took Sherlock to the top of the ridge instead of him. Now that he thought about it, he realized Rikki hadn’t said much to him the entire trip. Could it be, he reflected, that Rikki didn’t like him?
As the SEAL neared the giant container, Kanto put all else from his head. Someone had clearly placed it there on purpose. What that purpose might be was anyone’s guess.
The short hairs at the nape of his neck began to prickle as they sometimes did when he intuitively sensed a threat.
Crackling loudly, their radio flared to life.
“My sensors are still unable to penetrate the object,” A.l.v.i.s’s voice came over the speakers. “This is most unusual.” The synthezoid stopped and swung toward them. “I could attempt to breach the housing using my diamond drill or acetylene torch.”
“Do nothing for now,” Rikki commanded. “I’m coming out.” He reached for his 64.
“Begging your pardon, sir,” Kanto said before he could think better of it. “One of us should go instead of you. Anything happens to you, none of us can drive worth a damn.”
“Are you volunteering?”
“Why not?” Kanto said. If nothing else, it might put him in Rikki’s good graces.
“Be careful,” Eleanor sai.
Throwing his door open, Kanto wedged his AR 70 to his shoulder and stalked past A.l.v.i.s. He slowed as he neared the object. Up close, it was unnerving. There were no openings, no slits, no apertures or holes. No buttons or switches or toggles. Warily, he made a complete circuit, and it was the same all around.
Rikki-Tikki-Tavi stuck his head out his window. “Anything?”
Shaking his, Kanto edged close enough to reach out and touch the silvery surface. It wasn’t metal. It was something different. He ran his fingertips up and down. The sensation reminded him of running his hand over glass. More puzzled than ever, Kanto carefully pressed an ear to the side. Nothing. No sounds at all.
Taking a several steps back, Kanto turned and called out, “Beats me! It seems to be harmless, though!”
Inside the SEAL, Eleanor suddenly shouted “Behind you!”
“Look out!” Rikki bellowed.
Kanto whirled, his mind screaming at him that he made a mistake in turning his back to the strange whatever-it-was.
His mind was right.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Jenny was losing sleep and losing weight and didn’t care. Her man, the love of her life, the one with whom her heart was entwined, hung on the cusp of death, and there was nothing she could do but wait, and pray.
Jenny never felt so helpless. As a Healer, she had dedicated herself to saving others. Whether a patient was stricken by illness or a wound, she was always ready and able to go the extra mile to see them healed.
In this instance, the most important of her life, she was unable to do a blessed thing—-except wait. Normally, she was a patient soul, but since Blade was laid low, her patience seemed to have flown with the wind. She fretted constantly. During the day she seldom left the Infirmary. When she wasn’t hovering over Blade, she was checking and rechecking Hickok and Yama in the desperate hope that one or the other might show some degree of improvement, which would hold promise for Blade doing the same. At night she tossed and turned and couldn’t get to sleep. Eventually, through sheer exhaustion, she would succumb for a few hours. Always, she woke up with a start, and as often as not, covered with sweat.
Over the years, worrying about Blade had become a matter of course. He was a Warrior, after all. Early in their courtship, one lovely evening near the moat, he had mentioned his belief that everyone was their brother’s keeper. Curious, Jenny had asked where turning the other cheek fit into his philosophy. To which Blade replied that turning the other cheek was well and good, but not if it got you brutally murdered or those you cared for ripped to pieces.
“In a perfect world,” Blade had said, “everyone would live in peace. No one would ever try to hurt anyone else. But this isn’t a perfect world. And those who do want to live in peace need to protect themselves from those who don’t, or those who don’t will wipe them out.”
“So you’re a Warrior because you care for others?”
“Can you think of a better reason?”
Now, checking her husband’s vitals for the umpteenth time, Jenny bit her lower lip and fought down an upsurge of tears. She must be strong, she told herself. It was how Blade would want her to be.
Since Rikki-Tikki-Tavi and the trainees left, the hours had crawled by. That radio contact had been lost with the SEAL added greatly to her unease.
“Any change?”
Jenny nearly jumped out of her shoes at the question. Pressing her hand to her throat, she exclaimed, “Socrates!”
“My apologies.” The Family Leader smiled warmly. His long hair and beard, and the robe he favored, lent him the aspect of the historical figure whose name he’d taken. “I didn’t intend to sneak up on you. You were engrossed in your work. ” He stood next to the table and stared down at the immobile giant figure of her true love. “Still the same?”
“Unfortunately,” Jenny said, struggling with tears again. “Any news at your end?”
Socrates frowned. “For some reason we still can’t contact them. Tesla doesn’t understand it. The SEAL’s radio was checked before they left and it functioned flawlessly.”
“Any word on A.l.v.i.s?”
“Alas, no,” Socrates said. “The Home has been searched from top to bottom, but no sign of it. We know A.l.v.i.s. didn’t use the drawbridge or someone would have seen it leave. Which leaves us with the likelihood that A.l.v.i.s went over a wall.”
“Why? Did he go after Rikki, do you think?”
“That’s Tesla’s supposition,” Socrates said. “As to the reason, we can only
speculate. Either A.l.v.i.s believed he could help Rikki survive the Valley of Shadow and find the journals that much sooner, or.....”
“Or?” Jenny prompted when he didn’t go on.
Socrates hesitated, then said, “Who can say?”
Jenny gestured at the next table, where Hickok lay. “Nathan never did trust that thing. He said A.l.v.i.s was too friendly for its own good.”
“As A.l.v.i.s was programmed to be,” Socrates said. “Without it, we could never have reassembled Thanatos’s transport device.”
“Is that what you’re calling it now?” Jenny said bitterly. “It used to be a time machine.”
“That was our chief Scientist’s assessment based on your husband’s account of his earlier clash with the Dark Lord. Now, to be honest, we don’t know what it is. A.l.v.i.s tried to explain but even Tesla says the concept is beyond him.”
“Blade should never have used the damn thing,” Jenny said angrily.
“He thought he was doing the right thing.”
“For the Family, yes,” Jenny said. “He always puts the rest of us above all else.”
“He was our best Warrior ever.”
“He still is.”
Socrates coughed, then said, “No one could have foreseen this. The complexities of the device are beyond our ken. Tesla has confided in me that he thinks Thanatos was the single most intelligent hybrid to ever live. Perhaps the most intelligent being this planet has ever seen.”
“And we tinkered with his toys.”
“What choice did we have?” Socrates said, not without sympathy. “The Lords of Kismet are as dire a threat as any the Family has ever faced. Blade gambled he could use Thanatos’s device to stop them. Alas, he was wrong.”
A lump formed in Jenny’s throat and her eyes moistened. “I hope you’re right about A.l.v.i.s. I hope it hasn’t turned on us.”
“That would be a calamity of the first order,” Socrates said. “The chances of Rikki-Tikki-Tavi succeeding would be markedly reduced.” He caught himself, and said softly, “I’m sorry. I keep putting my foot in my mouth.”
“That’s all right,” Jenny said.
But it wasn’t. She began to cry.
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