Encrypted (35 page)

“
No.”

“
Nor,” Rias said, “does he
suffer fort commanders who share top secret orders with little
brothers. Or little brothers whose actions result in the deaths of
hundreds.”

“
But he didn’t know about
the Lancecrest involvement when he sent you,” Tikaya said to
Bocrest, “did he?”

“
No,” Bocrest said. “But
Lancecrest—both of them—would have known they’d be in an ore cart
full of shit as soon as their roles came out.”

Rias nodded. “It would have been more than
their deaths. For a disgrace like that, the emperor could take away
the entire family’s warrior caste status and wipe their ancestors’
deeds from the history books.”

Tikaya raised her eyebrows at Rias,
wondering if his act of disobedience had created a similar backlash
for his family. He seemed to guess her question, for he hesitated,
then shook his head. She took that to mean not as drastic a result,
perhaps, but some backlash, yes.

“
I don’t get it,” Bocrest
said. “The family’s wrecked, but why make things worse by killing
everyone in Wolfhump and Fort Deadend?”

“
To delay your party?”
Tikaya guessed. “If Lancecrest knew he was dead if he stayed in the
empire, maybe he wanted to get the weapons out so he could sell
them to the highest bidder. Maybe his family would forgive him if
they could all live the life of luxury in some remote
paradise.”

“
But he got himself
killed.” Bocrest nodded to Sicarius. “So, now all we’re dealing
with is a confused bunch of science twits with no leader.” He
appeared pleased at the prospect.

“
And possibly Colonel
Lancecrest and an indeterminate number of his men,” Rias
said.

Tikaya nodded, thinking of the half-eaten
marine they had found in the lab with the creatures.

“
What?” Bocrest asked.
“He’s dead. I saw his body.”

“
Are you sure it was him?”
Rias asked. “Or was the skin melted by the gas?”

Bocrest opened his mouth, shut it, then
spat. “You’re right. I saw a body in his office and a jacket with
his name on it on the chair, but it could have been anybody. Bloody
ancestors, he’ll be a pain to deal with if he’s in here. Pissed his
little brother slagged things up so badly and left him to endure
the aftermath.”

Tikaya listened bleakly. She had been hoping
for fellow archaeologists to ally with; instead she might have
another cursed Turgonian military commander waiting. She looked to
Rias, hoping for some comfort there, but his face was inscrutable.
She still had no idea what he thought about his emperor’s desire to
obtain these weapons.

“
But his team is stuck,
right?” Bocrest said. “If they could get to the weapons, they’d
have taken them and disappeared by now.”

“
Correct,” Sicarius said.
“They lack what we have.” His gaze came to rest on Tikaya
again.

Her bleakness increased.
When this had started, she had worried her skills would not be
enough to keep her family safe. Now she worried her skills
would
be
enough.

“
Valuable intelligence,”
Rias told Sicarius. “Good work.”

Tikaya jerked with surprise. Was he actually
complimenting an assassin on the bounty his torture session had
yielded?

“
Yes,” Sicarius said,
apparently unaffected by the praise.

* * * * *

The tunnel opened into a cavern with a
ceiling that disappeared into darkness. A chasm over a hundred feet
wide yawned across the center, cutting through walls as well as the
floor. A multistory building perched near the edge on their side,
and eagerness quickened Tikaya’s step—finally, a chance to see
something more than a lab. A plant for distributing water, she
guessed. Pipes ran vertically and horizontally from the structure,
and a smokestack rose as far as the eye could see. A reservoir
adjacent to the building held driftwood-littered water, which
trickled over the edge on one side, flowing into the chasm.

Tikaya peered over the edge. Darkness and
distance cloaked the bottom—if there was one. The black floor ended
at the lip and started again on the other side. The tidy
cobweb-free tunnels made Tikaya forget how much time had passed
since this place had been created, but this chasm, which appeared
to have formed after the complex was abandoned, reminded her that
thousands of years, maybe tens of thousands of years, stood between
then and now.

“
Looks like we’ve caught
up with the other team.” Rias pointed at a tunnel entrance on the
far side. Tikaya froze. Two men stood in it, and one had shaggy
red-blond hair and a scruffy beard. She could not make out features
at the distance, but they reminded her of Parkonis and sent a
painful jab through her mind. Though her islands did not have the
only blonds in the world, that hair coloring combined with the
likelihood this was an archaeologist made her suspect this was one
of her people. The second figure, dark-haired and dark-skinned,
wore black and carried a musket. He could have been one of
Bocrest’s men. The pair stepped back into the darkness when they
noticed the marines watching them.

“
How’d they get over
there?” Bocrest asked. “And how do we follow?”

“
Assuming they have a
practitioner studied in telekinetics, they could have floated
across,” Tikaya said.

Bocrest’s expression turned sour.
“Starcrest, you know any other tunnels that lead over to that
side?”

“
No. I don’t know what’s
over there. We were desperate to escape by the time we got here. We
climbed those pipes and got out through a vent
mountainside.”

Bocrest growled and gazed about. Two other
tunnels left the cavern on their side.

“
Karsus,” the captain
said, “take your squad through that one and see if there’s a way
across the gulf. Everyone else with me. We’re checking this
one.”

“
I’d prefer to stay here
and study the journal,” Tikaya said. “Not to mention there’s
probably much I could learn in that building.” And maybe, if she
was alone, those archaeologists would come visit her and she could
find out more.

“
You’re not staying
alone,” Bocrest snapped.

“
I can stay too,” Rias
said.

“
Oh, yes, I’m going to
leave you two alone to conspire.”

“
Bet they want to do more
than conspire.” Someone snickered.

Bocrest silenced the commenter with a
glare.

“
It’s possible there’s
something in the pumping house that could get us across,” Rias
said.

Bocrest’s gaze landed on the assassin. “Will
you keep an eye on them?”

“
Yes,” Sicarius
said.

Tikaya grimaced. A babysitter who was young
enough to be Rias’s son. Lovely.

Before the marines reached the tunnels, Rias
was already checking out the reservoir. An underground stream fed
the pool, and the current had pushed logs and branches to the
nearest side. He gazed thoughtfully at the wood.

Though eager to explore the building, Tikaya
dropped her rucksack and joined him at the edge. She could not
remember her last bath, but dipping a finger in the icy water stole
her fantasies of immersing herself. Maybe she could heat some up
for washing later.

“
Getting an idea?” she
asked as Rias pondered the driftwood.

“
Perhaps.”

“
You don’t think the
marines will find another way around?”

“
If that rift is a result
of a fault line, it could run a long way.” Rias tapped a finger in
the air toward the building. “The last time I was here, I found a
fantastic cutting tool in there. It burned through stone, wood, and
metal like a knife slicing apple custard. If those archaeologists
didn’t find it...” He dragged one of the logs out of the water and
nodded to himself.

Tikaya waited for him to explain further,
but the assassin appeared at Rias’s shoulder. Tikaya jumped. She
had not seen or heard the youth’s approach.

“
Ah, good,” Rias said,
less discombobulated. “I’ll need some more muscle.”

Sicarius had to be curious, but his
expression never changed.

“
What do you think, young
man?” Rias asked. “Ever want to fly?”

Sicarius gave the faintest hint of an
eyebrow twitch.

“
Let’s get this wood out
of the water,” Rias said.

“
Can I help?” Tikaya
wondered what he planned.

“
How are your carpentry
skills?

“
Er. I helped my father
build a birdhouse once.”

“
An impressive project.”
Rias smiled and pulled another log out. “But don’t you want to
explore the pumping house and look for language clues?”

“
Yes.” Though her
curiosity would have to wait for satisfaction, she would rather
translate runes than hammer nails anyway.

“
Be careful in there.
Touching things is how my team got in trouble. Multiple
times.”

“
I won’t touch anything,”
she said. “Unless I can read the label and know what it
is.”

With journal in hand, Tikaya headed to the
structure. Though dwarfed by the cavern, it rose more than fifty
feet and sported three rows of windows along each side. She paused
inside the threshold, patting down pockets until she located a
pencil. Before she headed deeper, Sicarius spoke to Rias.

“
I bring you a message
from the emperor.”

Her ears perked.

“
Oh?” Rias
said.

“
He believes you’ve been
sufficiently punished for your transgressions and is willing to
return everything to you—your name, your rank, your land—if you
cooperate with Bocrest and myself and we’re able to accomplish this
mission.”

Tikaya pressed a hand against the wall. She
barely saw the vast room she had stepped into as she waited for
Rias’s answer. When it came, it was so soft she almost missed
it.

“
My ship? My
command?”

“
Yes,” Sicarius said. “You
can return with Bocrest, in command of the
Emperor’s Fist
until you can be
transferred to the
Raptor
and resume your full duties.”

Say no, Tikaya urged. Tell him and your
sprite-licked emperor to fall on their swords.

“
What
is
the mission exactly?” Rias
asked.

Tikaya clenched a fist around her pencil.
What was he doing? He couldn’t possibly be considering this offer.
He had to know it was only coming because the war had gone badly
after he disappeared. Disobeyed orders or not, the emperor must
have realized he overreacted and come to regret ousting his star
admiral.

“
Kill the terrorists
mucking around in here,” Sicarius said, “obtain the weapons for our
use, and seal the tunnels.”

There. All her suspicions confirmed. She
wished she had been wrong.

“
And what of Tikaya?” Rias
asked.

“
She’s only here to help
with the translations.”

“
Bocrest has orders to
kill her.”

Tikaya nodded to herself,
thankful Rias cared enough to be concerned. He might be tempted by
the promise of getting his command—his
life
—back, but she did not believe
he would throw her to the wolves on the way. She might even be the
sticking point in this insidious proposition.

“
Bocrest’s orders were to
ensure her cooperation by whatever means necessary,” Sicarius said.
“If we complete the mission, you’ll outrank him again, and you can
choose who lives or dies. If you own her loyalty, perhaps you could
convince the emperor that it would be more desirable to employ a
gifted cryptographer than kill her.”

Own her loyalty? Presumptuous ass. But he
was good. Curse him, he was good. Bocrest never could have swayed
Rias, but this seventeen-year-old kid had all the right
answers.

“
I will consider your
offer,” Rias said, giving away nothing of his thoughts. “For now,
let’s get working.”

“
Agreed.”

Tikaya headed into the room. Her interest in
exploring had diminished, but she did not want to be caught
eavesdropping. She forced herself into work mode. If the others
came in, they would expect her to have made progress.

Tanks and pipes dominated the back half of
the vast room, but she gravitated toward rows of black panels where
more symbols than she had seen in one place marked the faces. A
large oval glowed softly, displaying what she guessed were
schematics or diagrams monitoring the station. She copied symbols,
but her mind dwelled on Rias’s conversation with the assassin, and
she struggled to concentrate.

“
Focus,” she muttered to
herself.

She tilted her head back to massage her neck
and noticed only two rows of windows. There were three outside, so
there had to be another story up there. No stairs, ladder, or
anything similar led upward. Turgonians had steam-powered lifts in
their taller buildings—might this advanced race have something like
that too?

She circumnavigated the interior, finally
spotting a pale blue circle glowing on the floor in one corner.
Thinking it might mark a place where a lift would descend, she
waved a hand above it. Nothing happened. She pressed her boot into
it and pulled it out. Nothing. Finally, she stood in the center
with both feet planted.