Encrypted (22 page)

Before she could ask for details, an officer
yelled, “Corporal Agarik, get over here!”

He saluted Rias before hustling off.

“
You should hug him next
time,” Tikaya said.

That bewilderment returned. “Marines don’t
hug.”

“
Have you talked to him at
all?”

“
Not as much as you,
apparently.” He tilted his head and arched an eyebrow.

It took her a moment to match his concerned
expression to the hug she had given Agarik. She almost laughed. As
confident as Rias was about military and mathematical matters, she
was surprised he did not share that confidence when it came to
women. As if anyone here could offer notable competition.

“
Pack it up!” Bocrest’s
voice floated across the hill. “We’re moving out!”

Tikaya laid her hand on Rias’s sleeve before
he could turn away. “Agarik wants your attention, not mine.”

Rias stared at her. “Oh.”

“
You two prisoners want to
join the group or you going to stay out here and work on your sun
tans?” Bocrest shoved a rucksack into Rias’s arms as he stomped
past.

“
I can’t imagine that man
having a wife,” Tikaya muttered as she headed off to retrieve her
own pack.

“
I’ve not met the woman,”
Rias said, “but I’ve heard she’s as obnoxious as him and the
undisputed master of the household.”

Tikaya would have been content to march at
the end of the squad—the going was a lot easier when numerous
snowshoes had tamped down a trail—but Rias strode through the
drifts with his long legs and overtook the men. Determined to keep
up, she forced her own strides to unnatural lengths. Sweat soon
plastered her clothing to her body and soaked the fur lining of her
gloves. She removed her wool cap and stuffed it in a pocket.

Rias made it to the gates ahead of the
marines, and Tikaya trailed close behind. The twenty-foot-tall
wooden doors stood open, offering no sign that the fort had been
attacked, but two men lay dead at their guard post. At least,
Tikaya assumed they were men.

She thought the night spent with the corpses
in Wolfhump would have inured her to death, but these were worse.
Blisters and burns had seared flesh and muscle to the bone,
mutilating the marines beyond recognition. Pustules even coated the
bloated, protruding tongues. The eyes had popped like blisters
themselves.

She was glad she had not had lunch.

Agarik caught up and walked between them.
Sweat dampened his face too. “This way, sir, ma’am. Captain said
it’s all right to let you go first.”

Tikaya snorted. As far as she could tell,
the shackles meant little to Rias and it seemed he had already
determined that he was going in first, captain’s wishes
notwithstanding.

Inside the fort, snow had been plowed into
piles, so they unstrapped their snowshoes. Sand coated the icy
cement. Agarik led Rias and Tikaya past wooden barracks, office
buildings, and a couple of cavernous vehicle structures that housed
plows, trucks, and other steam-powered transports. If not for the
silence and the dead men, she would have guessed it a normal work
day at the fort. People had been caught on errands, while
practicing combat in an arena, and, in one spot, driving a snow
plow that had subsequently crashed into a barracks building. No
smoke wafted from the stack, but Tikaya paused to open the furnace
door. The fire had gone out, but when she removed a glove and stuck
her hand inside, a hint of heat remained in the ashes.

“
People were alive here,
no more than a day or two ago,” she said.

But Rias, following on Agarik’s heels, had
gone on and did not seem to hear her. His head was tilted back, and
she followed his gaze. A two-story office building rose ahead, a
large corner of its roof sheered off. Splintered wood and sheet
metal roofing shingles scattered the cement around a sleek black
cylindrical object embedded in the walkway. Tikaya’s step slowed.
It was made from the same material as the artifact in Wolfhump.

She joined the men around the rubble. The
landing had not dented or even scraped the cylinder, though it had
gouged a hole in the cement, and jagged cracks radiated in several
directions. Strips opened like flower petals on one end of the
device, and dozens of square indentations lined the insides.

Rias produced one of the cubes and slid it
into a slot. It clicked. Perfect fit.

“
The delivery mechanism,”
he said.

Bocrest and a couple others approached,
though the captain had the sense to keep most of his men from
trampling around the artifact. He sent them off to secure the fort
with a few terse orders, then stepped closer.

“
What is that thing?”
Glass crunched under his foot.

“
Careful.” Rias flung a
hand up. “If some of the cubes didn’t release their contents in the
air, stepping on a full one could be deadly. For us
all.”

For once, Bocrest had nothing sarcastic to
say. He gulped, lifted his boot, looked around, like he might set
it somewhere else, then decided it was safer back where it had
started.

“
In the air?” Tikaya
asked. “You don’t think this is like the device in Wolfhump?
Something that distributes its deadly load from the
ground?”

“
No,” Rias said. “I think
it’s a rocket.”

The only rockets Tikaya was familiar with
involved fireworks, though she supposed Turgonians might have
experimented with more sophisticated fuel-powered projectiles. Rias
had studied ballistics in school, after all.

It took a moment for the ramifications to
sink in. Tikaya’s eyes widened when they did. “If this is a rocket,
that means someone fired it, someone with the knowledge to do
so.”

“
Yes,” Rias said
grimly.

Tikaya stared at the artifact. Was it
possible the original builders were still around? Or—she eyed runes
running down one side—had someone already been in the tunnels and
translated the ancient language? Such strong disappointment flooded
her that she sank to her knees. Surely she had not asked for this
gruesome mission, but all along there had been the promise of being
the first to translate a previously unknown language and share it
with the world. A feat that would earn her a place in the history
books.

Rias knelt beside her and put a hand on her
good shoulder. “Are you all right?”

Aware of the others, she said, “Yes, just
tired.”

“
Nurians,” Bocrest
growled. “Those cussed Nurians are responsible, have to
be.”

Rias arched inquiring eyebrows at Tikaya.
She guessed his question and nodded permission.

“
I don’t think it’s them,
at least nothing sanctioned by their government.” Rias explained
the orders he and Tikaya had found on board the Nurian
ship.

“
Then who?” Bocrest
demanded.

“
The Turgonians have many
enemies,” Rias said.

Bocrest tugged off his cap and scrubbed his
short steely hair. “This whole slag pile is giving me a
headache.”

“
There’s something else to
consider,” Rias said, tone grim. “We haven’t hidden our approach to
this fort, so it’s very possible whoever did this knows we’re
here.”

CHAPTER 12

Tikaya sat cross-legged next to the rocket
and finished copying the runes into her journal. Coldness seeped
through her trousers to numb her backside, and shivers made her
pencil hand shake. As if writing with gloves on was not bad enough.
She ought to move somewhere warmer. But, oh, there was another
symbol she recognized from the table of elements. And interesting
how each grouping on the rocket held thirteen runes. Could the
different prime clusters alter the meaning of—

Light splashed across her pages, and Tikaya
dropped her pencil.

Agarik stood beside her, holding a lantern.
Only then did she realize twilight had descended on the fort.

“
Thank you,” she said.
“When did you leave to get that? And where’d everyone else
go?”

He stared. “You didn’t notice people coming
and going, ma’am? Talking? Arguing?”

“
Er.” She vaguely
remembered Rias saying something about finding surveying tools.
“Not really.”

“
Half the men are
retrieving corpses for a funeral pyre while half are off on a
mission Five concocted. Looking for people who might have died
outside the fort and searching for more cubes and recording where
they landed. Seeing how it’s night, that sounds about as fun as
hunting for a wrench in a scrapyard. He says he can figure out
where the rocket was launched from, though, and Bocrest wants it
done tonight, so he can take a team up there at first
light.”

In case someone was up there preparing
another weapon to launch at the fort. Yes, that seemed wise.

Tikaya rose, an awkward movement with her
shoulder in a sling, and her injury twinged despite her care. A
noisy yawn escaped her lips. She thought of her bed back home,
though right now she would be tickled with a blanket in front of a
fireplace.

Agarik’s jaw dropped in a noisy yawn of his
own.

“
Sorry,” Tikaya said. “Are
you tasked with watching me again?”

“
I don’t mind, ma’am. Of
the jobs I could be assigned, it’s not a bad one.”

Men crossed a nearby courtyard, lantern
light bobbing at their feet. They worked in grim silence, bringing
wood for a fire. She looked away as others dragged a body from a
building and laid it at the end of a grisly queue.

Though tempted to ask Agarik about sleeping
arrangements, Tikaya wanted to search the fort for other language
clues first. If the marines feared an attack imminent, they might
march out at dawn. Somewhere, she hoped to find an artifact she
could slip into her rucksack to take home for study—and to prove to
her people this nightmare had been real.

“
Mind if we find the fort
commander’s office?” she asked.

“
I don’t think the captain
wants you wandering around.”

Tikaya started to object, but Agarik smirked
and spoke first.

“
But since you’ll
doubtlessly make arguments until you get me to change my mind, we
may as well go now.”

“
Good man.”

Thousands of stars glittering like ice
crystals blanketed the black sky above the fort. Tikaya almost felt
she could reach up and stir them with her fingers. Here and there
lanterns sputtered on lampposts or in sconces. Agarik hugged
shadows barely dented by the flickering light as he led her beneath
the ramparts and through an alley suffocated with piles of snow.
They stopped at the back door of a two-story building. She had the
feeling he was avoiding the other men and hoped he would not get in
trouble for escorting her around. Her desire to poke through the
commander’s office kept her from asking.

They slipped into an unlit kitchen where
copper pots and steel counters gleamed, reflecting the lantern’s
flame. Agarik led her around an island to avoid a body clad in
bloodstained cook’s whites. Tikaya ripped her gaze from the melted
flesh, glad the lighting did not illuminate too many details.

They passed through a mess hall lined with
tables. Plates of bread, carrots, and now-frozen meat waited for
someone to finish them. Bodies, some fallen across tables, some
sprawled on the floor, matched the place settings. One man had died
tending the coal stove in the corner, and the door stood open,
ashes spilled onto the wood floor.

“
Surprise attack,” Agarik
said, disgust hardening his voice. “There’s no honor in killing
like this.”

“
I can’t believe how
quickly the poison acts,” Tikaya said, chilled by the idea of
something that could kill a man before he could even get out of his
seat and wonder if something was wrong.

There were not any bodies at the tables
nearest the far door, and wet footprints suggested the marines had
started carting them out. Heavy footsteps sounded on the floor
above. Tikaya doubted she would make it to the commander’s office
without being spotted. She hoped no one would question her for
snooping about.

They entered a corridor, and Agarik led her
to a stairwell. Broad steps rose toward a second floor, while
narrow ones turned a corner and dropped into darkness. That made
her pause. A basement in a land where permafrost hardened the earth
inches below the surface?

Agarik headed upstairs, but voices came from
the lower level.

“
Wait,” Tikaya whispered,
cocking her head to listen.

“
I think...a Nurian,”
someone said.

“
...doing out
here?”

They had found a Nurian?
Had someone been caught nosing around in the carnage of the fort?
Her breath hitched. What if it was the person who had fired the
rocket? The person who knew enough of the language to know
how
to fire the
rocket?

She edged closer to the stairs. The men were
not whispering, so the discussion was probably not secret, and
nobody had forbidden her from exploring.

Agarik gripped her forearm. “Tikaya...”

She frowned at him. “What do you know?”

“
The cells and
interrogation chamber will be down there. It’s not...a fitting
place for a lady to visit.”

Tikaya almost laughed. Was he worried she
would see something more macabre than the legions of bodies around
the fort? She patted his hand before drawing her arm away. “I just
want to see if they found someone who knows more about what’s going
on than we do.”