CHAPTER 26
“Where’s Lex?” That’s one question
sure to snap Keri out of the March-induced daze she
currently enjoys. Lex is the big lug she’s supposed to marry as
part of the clan merger. To say she hates him would be an
understatement.
She spears me with an
icy stare and bares her teeth in what would be considered a hostile
act on some worlds. “War council. You came at a bad time,
Jax.”
What else is new?
“What’s going on?”
March asks.
I recognize his
solicitous tone and barely manage to keep from rolling my eyes. He
thinks Keri is delicate and needs his protection. I’m sure he feels
some obligation as well, given that Keri’s grandmother took him in
when his gift had ravaged him and taught him to be human again. And
Keri is all that his mentor left behind. I guess he doesn’t know
that Keri whipped my ass without breaking a sweat.
Beside me, Jael sizes
up Keri’s men, as if he suspects any situation I’m involved in
could turn ugly on a moment’s notice. I didn’t realize he knew me
that well.
“It’s bad. I’ll tell
you about it on the way. I’m sure Lex will want to see you.” With a
definite proprietary air, she takes hold of his arm. “Saul,” she
adds over her shoulder to Doc. “Can you get everyone else settled
for me? Thanks.”
Her honor guard, or
whatever the hell they are, spins as a unit and follows her down
the left hallway. None of them said a single word from the time we
met her outside the ship, until now. Fucking
creepy.
“They move like
military,” Jael murmurs. “Well trained, too. I wonder what’s
happening on this backwater world.”
I shrug. “Hard to
say. They’re always fighting over something here. I think it cuts
down on boredom.”
Doc favors me with a
piercing look. “Don’t be flip, Jax. When two clans join, it’s time
to strike. It’s well-known here, both clans are weak, or they
wouldn’t need a merger. Waiting until things are stable doesn’t
make good tactical sense.”
“What’s the point,
though?” Jael asks. “From what I saw, the whole planet is pretty
bare. What the hell is there worth fighting over?”
“Gunnar-Dahlgren
controls the magnesium mines on planet,” Doc answers briefly. “I
probably don’t need to outline all the goods that
encompasses.”
In my case, he does.
But Jael nods, ticking them off his fingertips. “Flash grenades,
imaging technology, pyrotechnics for festivals, certain metal
alloys, which translates to machinery that needs to be strong and
lightweight—”
“It’s used in some
medicines as well,” Doc says with a nod. “And if we can’t defend
the mines, they’ll wipe us out.”
Us? I didn’t realize Doc was from Lachion. Based on
his friendship with Ordo Carvati on Gehenna, I would’ve guessed he
came from the Outskirts somewhere.
I sigh. “I didn’t
understand what I’d done the last time I was here.”
Not really, anyway. I
didn’t have anything like the big picture, even when we left. Keri
has been fighting her own uphill battle ever since we left. And by
the look of things, it’s not getting any easier.
“When do you ever
know what you’re doing, Jax?” Dina grins at me.
Ignoring that, Doc
tries to herd us toward the stairs. “You can pick out the rooms you
like best. Perhaps you’d like the one you occupied last time,
Jax?”
Yeah, I like the Blue
Room, very serene, and it has handmade rugs so soft I sink into
them. “Sure, that sounds fine.”
At this point, I
notice that Vel has disappeared. I wonder if he has camo that I
don’t know about because he has a habit of doing that: there one
minute and gone the next. He can take care of himself,
though.
“I don’t care. Assign
me whatever.” Dina sighs. “If I can find parts and mod kits, I’m
heading back to the ship. I have work to do.”
Jael surprises me—and
evidently Dina as well, judging by her expression—by asking, “Need
help?”
She narrows her eyes
on him for a long moment before shrugging. “The ship needs a lot of
upgrades. So if you know how to handle your tools, I won’t say no
to an extra hand.”
The merc risks his
life by draping an arm about her shoulders. “Darling, I’m expert with my hands.”
She shocks me when
she doesn’t immediately drive her elbow into his stomach. I can’t
believe he still flirts with her, even knowing he has no shot.
Maybe he suffers from a chronic disorder. I expected he’d stick to
me like glue after the lecture he just gave me, but I’m glad to get
rid of him. As they go back out into the cold, I hear her reply,
“Your own opinion doesn’t count, dumb-ass.”
That just leaves Doc
and me. To avoid the questions in his very kind eyes, I head up the
stairs. I should have known that wouldn’t matter.
“What’s wrong,
Jax?”
I pause on the fourth
step, but don’t turn. “I was hoping you
could tell me. That’s part of why we’re here. Tarn cooked up this
other nonsense.”
“I deduced as much,”
he tells me.
Without looking at
him, I confide the droid’s diagnosis. I expect him to laugh or tell
me it’s ridiculous. Instead I receive silence that lasts until I
wheel and gaze down at him. He looks troubled.
“I wish I could say
I’m surprised, but I found a number of anomalies in your test
results that puzzled me. If my hypothesis holds true, then this
would explain everything. Let’s get you to the lab then.” Doc tilts
his head toward the right corridor, opposite from the way March
went with Keri.
Hypothesis? This is my life, not a science project. I like Doc, but
sometimes I think he doesn’t realize that I’m more than an
“interesting specimen.” He’s the only one I trust to help me,
though, so I have to accept his bedside manner.
I come down again and
fall into step with him. As I recall, the house is laid out in
wings. We move off toward his research facility, but before we’ve
gone ten paces, the lights flicker, as if somewhere, someone has
drawn an absurd amount of power.
Doc breaks into a
run. “Hurry, Jax. We don’t have much time.”
“Before
what?”
He doesn’t pause to
answer. I trot behind him nonetheless because Doc isn’t one to
manufacture crises. We’ve just reached the door to his lab, which
is oddly—and ominously—made of reinforced metal, when I hear
screaming.
“Doc?”
“Get inside.
Now.”
I do, and he seals
the door. “You want to tell me what’s going on here?”
“Teras,” he says
briefly.
Just the word alone
sends a cold shock through me: hideous subterranean creatures you
can’t see coming. Just hear the rush of their wings through endless
night. And once the dying starts . . .
With some effort, I
shake myself out of it. I rub my hands together, trying to warm
them. We survived them once, and we’re safe inside this time. It
should be fine.
“What about
them?”
“I haven’t deduced
how, but Clan McCullough has figured out a way to train . . .” He
pauses, listening to the distant sounds of combat, cries of rage
and pain. “Well, if not train, then use
the Teras. They seem to strike on command now. It’s not safe to
leave the compound. They hit us at all hours, no rhyme or reason to
it.”
“Doesn’t the shock
field help?” I remember the way they fried the monsters. The smell
the next morning nearly did me in.
“We can’t keep it up
all the time,” he says tiredly. “Not enough juice. We run on solar
panels and wind turbines, mostly the latter during the winter.
Gunnar-Dahlgren is officially at war, Jax. Clan McCullough wants
everything we have, and with the Teras on their side, they think
they’ve figured out a way to get it.” He sighs. “I’m not sure
they’re wrong.”
No wonder Keri said I
came at a bad time.
“I guess jump
research isn’t at your top priority at the moment.”
He manages a wan
smile. “No, they’ve got me trying to sort out why the Teras are
attacking like this instead of their usual feeding patterns. We’re
weakening by the day, and I don’t think the McCulloughs have lost a
single man.”
How do you fight when
you can’t see your enemies? It would take bioengineered poisons or
type-three battle droids to clean this planet out. I have no idea
how the loss of the Teras would impact the planetary ecosystems
either.
“Do you have the
resources to build battle droids with heat imaging?” Lame, I know.
I remember the way the Teras dismantled the Rover. Could they find
their way into the main house as easily? Are there weak
spots?
Doc shakes his head.
“That’s not the way things were done here. The McCullough has
changed everything. He doesn’t risk his own men or his own life for
a hostile takeover. Instead he’s killing us by
centimeters.”
Again, I find myself
cowering while others take the risks on my behalf. That stings like
nothing ever has. No. I won’t do this. Not again.
March is out there.
Jael. Dina. March. I have to help them.
I stride over to the
door, tap on the panel. “If it’s that bad, I should go see what I
can do.”
“You can’t get out,”
Doc tells me. “The doors are sealed until the attack ends. And I’m
not going to release you when you’re clearly ill.”
Bastard. Is he trying
to make me feel useless? My hands curl into fists, but who am I
going to hit? Doc? He won’t fight back. Nothing like impotent anger
to make you feel ineffectual.
“Fine,” I bite out.
“If I’d known, I wouldn’t have come in here with you, though. I
can’t believe you tricked me into hiding out.”
Again. I hate this.
I’ve got to find some way out of here, or I’ll never be able to
live with myself. I can’t devolve back into the selfish bitch who
doesn’t care whose ass is on the line so long as it isn’t her own.
I won’t let fear become my mistress.
“I know,” he says
gently. “That’s why I didn’t tell you. Try to ignore the noise.
It’ll be over soon. They never stay long; not sure why that is
either. If I can put the pieces together, we might have a chance,
even weakened as we are. At any rate, let’s get started on your
tests.”
“Then cure me. Or
kill me. Because I can’t live like this.”
