Cyberdrome (31 page)

“We will not
hide from the enemy,” Kaido said when Alek approached him. He turned to leave.

“We are not
hiding, you idiot,” Alek yelled without thinking.

Kaido stopped
walking and the muscles along his back began to expand. Alek didn’t care; he
had just walked through fire—literally—and he wasn’t going to take any more of
the KaNanee’s attitude.

Kaido turned
slowly around and faced Alek. “So, the mouse has a voice after all,” he
growled.

Alek felt adrenalin
surging through his body. It gave him a confidence he didn’t know existed.

“Don’t give me
any more of your crap, Kaido,” he said with as much vile as he could muster.
“We are going to follow the CeeAut into the tunnels, and you’re going with us.”

“And who, pray
tell, will make me?” Kaido said, baring his teeth.

“The group of
Sentinels you see standing before you,” Alek said, trying to show as much teeth
as the KaNanee. “We are a team and we own HomeSpace. This is our domain. You’re
a visitor here and you will act accordingly.”

Kaido lunged—as
expected—but Alek was already moving forward, both arms outstretched and fists
clenched. The KaNanee’s teeth were centimeters from Alek’s face when his
stomach slammed into Alek’s fists. The impact knocked Alek backward, but he
rolled and recovered quickly. Kaido fell to his hands and knees on the tunnel
floor, gasping for breath.

Alek turned and
saw everyone staring at him, mouths open and eyes wide—everyone, that is, except
for Javid who walked over to Kaido and offered him a hand. Alek was about to
protest, when Javid spoke.

“I should have
warned you about Gray Sentinels, old friend,” he said to the KaNanee with a
straight face. “They are unpredictable and volatile. I would not attempt to
attack him again.” He lowered his voice and then added. “You might not survive
the attempt.”

Jas Kaido looked
up at Alek with a strange expression on his face. “He does appear to anger
quite easily,” he said.

“That, he does,”
Javid agreed, looking back at Alek with a slight gleam in his eye.

Alek then
realized what the Sentinel was doing. This is one of those “good cop, bad cop”
routines. They both knew that they needed the KaNanee’s help, but he would have
to work as part of a team. To do that, Kaido would have to change his attitude.

“You may return
to your people, if you wish,” Alek said, trying to sound as confident as he had
a moment before. With the initial dose of adrenalin dissipating in his body, it
was becoming more difficult.

The KaNanee
stood, but this time, his muscles weren’t flexed in anger. Even though he stood
almost a half-meter taller than Alek, the fierce warrior looked humbled.

“I have nowhere
to go,” he said quietly.

Alek was about
to ask what he meant, when Kay Broon, who had been standing back in the shadows,
stepped forward.

“My mate and I
will leave you now,” she said.

“What does he
mean he has nowhere to go?” Alek asked.

Kay Broon placed
herself between Alek and her mate and glared at him. Alek was sure that she was
about to attack him as well, when Kaido spoke up.

“My mate tries
to protect my honor,” he said. “But, it is no use. I am no longer the leader of
the KaNanee warriors. I was about to be replaced by my second when I left to
join your mission. If I had stayed, I would have been gutted by the tribe.”

Alek stood there
staring at the large man before him. His face had grown dark and sullen. He had
no tribe to lead, a small human had just humiliated him, and now his mate was
forced to defend him. He had nothing left to lose, and that made him more
dangerous than ever.

And, perhaps,
ready to evolve, Alek realized. Just as a soccer team needed players of different
size, speed, and talent, this team would need fierce warriors like the KaNanee.
They would also need the cleverness and the agility of the CeeAut. They were on
the verge of becoming a team, and Alek had to make sure Jas Kaido and his mate
would become a part of it.

Alek stepped
past the female KaNanee, and faced Kaido. Think of him as a really big dog, he
reminded himself. Dogs are pack animals. They need a sense of their place in
the community. Right then, Kaido had none.

“You’re a part
of this tribe now, Kaido,” Alek said. “You’re by far the strongest member among
us, and we might not succeed without you.”

Just then,
another explosion shook the tunnel. Kaido looked up at the tunnel ceiling and
then down at Alek. “There is no chance of success here,” he said. “All that is
left is to gut as many of the enemy as possible before we die.”

“There are other
ways to win,” Alek said. “But you have to be a team player. You have to trust
the Sentinels and listen to what Javid and I say.”

“I take orders
from no one,” Kaido said. Some of the fire was returning to his voice.

“We don’t give
orders,” Alek said, suddenly recalling an old speech his former soccer coach
used to give. “We will lead you, but we don’t want followers. We want you to
understand our path, and then choose to go there on your own.”

There was a long
pause and Alek began to wonder if his speech was too cryptic for the KaNanee.
Then Kaido bared his teeth and stepped forward grasped Alek by the shoulder.
Alek almost flinched from the pain but managed to stand still.

“Yes, yes. I
agree with this style of leadership,” Kaido said with a slight chuckle in his
voice. “I attempted to do something similar once with my tribe, but of course
they are too stuck in tradition.” He patted Alek on the back so hard it knocked
the wind out of him. “We will work well together, Gray Sentinel.”

Alek gasped for
breath and slapped Kaido on the back as hard as he could. It only made the
KaNanee laugh again and slap him even harder.

“We have a new
tribe now?” Kay Broon asked her mate.

Kaido grabbed
Kay around the waist with one arm and lifted her up. “Yes, my fierce and
beautiful mate. We are again part of a whole.”

A large chunk of
tunnel wall collapsed next to one of the Tracers.

“We need to go,”
Javid called out. “Kaido, Broon. Take the lead with the CeeAut.”

As the two
KaNanee raced to their Tracers, Alek ran back to the Rover and climbed inside
along with the others. Then they all held on as Cloudhopper powered up the
Rover and headed down the tunnel
.

FIFTEEN

A
s the Rover
began its slow descent into the Mole tunnel, Javid quietly slipped out the side
door and used an exterior ladder to climb up to the roof. He then crawled on
all fours to the rear of the vehicle and sat down facing backward. If the
transparent creature he had seen earlier was following them, he knew it would
not show up on scanners. A set of enhanced eyes like his might be their only
defense against such an enemy.

As he moved his
visual receivers up and down the spectrum, a subtle change in the background
gave the intruder away. It was staying over fifty meters back, just out of
normal eyesight, obviously on a mission of reconnaissance rather than attack.

He jumped off
the moving Rover and rolled when he hit the hard tunnel floor. He stayed low
and crawled off to the side of the tunnel, hoping to avoid detection by the
following creature. As the Rover rolled away down the tunnel, he slowed his
breathing and waited silently in the dark.

A few seconds
later, he felt a slight gust of air as something large moved past him in the
darkness. He leapt into the tunnel and landed on something floating in mid air.
After adjusting his vision a few times, he realized that the object beneath him
was completely invisible, even though it felt solid. This was no ordinary
creature, he realized.

As the object
below him continued down the tunnel, Javid began to feel around and discovered
that the object was the exact shape of a Tracer.
This is the pulsar turret
,
he thought as he catalogued parts.
Over there are the forward weapons launchers,
and in between is the top of the canopy
.

Just then, the
invisible ship came to an abrupt stop, sending him tumbling forward. He rolled
once on the tunnel floor, and then pivoted around to face the object. He still
saw nothing in front of him but an empty dark tunnel.

He was about to
call out a challenge to the object, when a Tracer materialized before him. At
least it
mostly
appeared, since he could still see through it in places.
Then a mop of copper hair rose out of the opening canopy, and his digital heart
nearly stopped beating.

“Elsala?” he
whispered. “Can it be you?”

The woman
climbed down from the Tracer and stood before him.

“Please do not
hinder me,” she said. “I must protect the Gift.”

“Elsala,” he
repeated as he reached out for her.

She backed up a
step as if she were afraid of his touch. “You are a Blue Sentinel,” she said.
“You will assist me in protecting the Gift.”

“I don’t know
what you’re talking about, Elsala. What happened to you? Where have you been?”

She looked to
her side as if she were addressing the tunnel wall. “He is a Blue,” she repeated.
“He can help me.”

“Of course I can
help you,” he said, wondering how long she had been like this. The detonation
of the intruder must have damaged her basic programming. “I searched for you for
so long. Now I see that I gave up too soon.”

She stared at
him wide-eyed, and then a half-smile appeared on her face. “You are Sentinel
Rho.”

“Yes,” he said
as he reached for her again. This time she stood motionless and his hands
passed through her. He stared in disbelief at the green glow left behind on his
palms.

“We are the
Lost,” she said, holding her hands out as if she were referring to a large
group. “We have returned to help the Gift find its home.”

“You were
deleted,” he whispered, “but for some reason your program was not recycled.” He
thought about what that meant. Programs were always recycled after
deletion—that was the balance of matter and energy in Cyberdrome. If the
initial attack on Cyberdrome had damaged that primary function, it could
explain why there were no new Sentinels being sent to HomeSpace. Perhaps there
were other deleted Sentinels like her wandering HomeSpace, half-visible,
half-alive.

He stared at her
with a new understanding. “You’re a ghost?” he finally asked aloud.

“Yes,” she said.
“However, there are no other Sentinels outside the Deletion Zone. I have come
to restore the balance, and I am alone.” She looked from side to side, and then
added. “Mostly.”

“You can read my
thoughts?”

“Of course,” she
said as if it were as simple as breathing.

“You led me into
the planetary simulation,” he said, realizing the truth of it just then. She
had caught his attention at the tunnel opening and led him into the Watchport
beam. “Why did you trick me like that?”

“The Gift had to
be returned to HomeSpace,” she said. “In my current state, I could not assist
it. Your help was required.”

He stepped
closer, but did not touch her—afraid he would spoil the moment. “Your current
state is my fault,” he whispered. “I’m sorry for sending you in alone to attack
the intruder.”