Encrypted (46 page)

The footsteps stopped near the intersection,
and lantern light bobbed on the wall. She drew the bow, but no one
burst into sight.

More footsteps, these ones softer and
slower, reached her ear. She tensed. They were coming from behind
her somewhere. Trap. And she had only the darkness to hide in.

Then the lights blinked on. It happened so
abruptly, she squinted, half-blinded. She almost missed the
movement ahead—someone slipping around the corner and dropping to a
knee.

Tikaya loosed an arrow without waiting for
her vision to clear. As soon as it flew free, she dropped to the
floor. A pistol cracked.

She rolled to the side, cursing herself for
getting caught in such a bad spot. She scrabbled for another
arrow.

“
Tikaya, this way,” Agarik
urged, not from behind but from ahead.

She cursed. Had she just shot at him?

By the time she lunged to her feet, her eyes
adjusted enough to see the intersection. Bones lay on his belly,
blood pooling beneath his head. Agarik waved for her to hurry.

“
What the—” Ottotark
blurted, a hundred meters or more down the tunnel behind
her.

Tikaya sprinted for Agarik. His pistol, not
her bow, had felled the doctor. He pulled her around the corner as
another shot fired. The pistol ball clanged off the corner and
ricochetted down the tunnel.

“
Traitor!” Ottotark
screamed.

“
No time to reload,”
Agarik said as they ran toward the intersection that could take
them back to the cavern. “You’ll have to shoot if he catches
up.”

“
Understood,” Tikaya said
grimly.

She glanced back to see if Ottotark had
rounded the corner yet and missed the reason Agarik skidded to a
stop, cursing. He flung his arm out to halt her as well.

A cube hovered in the intersection
ahead.

She slammed a fist against her thigh. She
should have known—the whole reason for turning the lighting back on
had been to power one of the cubes. With the mess from the
explosives, all of them would probably respond.

“
Maybe it’ll go on to the
cavern,” she whispered.

It rotated, and its crimson orifice came
into view.

“
Back, back.” Agarik spun,
taking her with him.

Tikaya ran at his side. They would have to
take their chances with Ottotark.

“
Zag,” she barked on a
hunch.

She pushed Agarik one way and ducked against
the opposite wall. A red beam seared the air between them.

As soon as it faded, they sprinted off
again. Tikaya nocked the bow as she ran. Any second—

Ottotark lunged around the corner, pistol
pointed at them. She fired without slowing, and it threw off her
aim. The arrow skimmed past his head, stirring his hair, but doing
no damage.

He must have seen the cube coming, for he
looked between them and cursed before choosing a target.
Tikaya.

Agarik hurled a knife at Ottotark. It bought
them a second as the sergeant dodged the projectile. She yanked
another arrow from her quiver, but Ottotark recovered before she
had it nocked.

He fired. There was no room to dodge, no
time to duck. Agarik leaped in front of her, grunting as the pistol
ball slammed into him.

“
No!” Tikaya
cried.

She jumped around him, took the split second
to aim, and shot. The arrow spun into Ottotark’s eye.

She dropped the bow and whirled back to
Agarik, catching him as he slumped. His hand gripped his chest, and
pain ravaged his face. The cube continued its inexorable advance,
but she tried to pull him down the aisle.

“
Leave me.” Blood spilled
from his lips. “Help Rias.”

“
It’ll get you,” she
choked, refusing to accept the inevitable.

“
Yes,” Agarik rasped.
“Give you...time.”

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw it:
that cursed glow intensified. She stumbled away as the beam fired.
It burned into Agarik and started its deadly work.

“
Go,” he
gasped.

Tears blurring her vision again, Tikaya
grabbed the bow and sped away. She leaped over Bones’s body and
kicked Ottotark on the way past. She should have lit that bastard
on fire when she had the chance. Agarik’s death was her fault.

She found the corridor Ottotark had used to
circle around behind her and cut over toward the cavern. It would
take time for the cube to clear away all three bodies, but she
recalled the multiple units in that cavern closet and knew others
would be about.

Tikaya slowed at the cavern entrance and
tried to peer out without revealing herself. No shadows remained,
though, and the assassin was already looking down at her when she
spotted him. He crouched on the ledge, his shirt off and tied about
his nose and mouth. His back was to the closed door. None of the
symbols had been moved. He dropped his head to focus on the floor
at his feet—or something on it. Paper and pencil, she guessed from
his movements. He was trying to solve the new Skiltar Square.

But where was Rias? Smoke still wafted from
the noxious globe, but it had thinned, and she would have seen him
on the cliff if he remained there. His rucksack lay on the floor
where he had left it. Dread crept into her as she continued to
search the area without spotting him. If he had fallen, the beams
could have incinerated him before he reached the ground.

Two cubes worked in the cavern, eating away
the piles of rubble. They reminded her of the one in the tunnels
behind her. As soon as it finished with the bodies—she forced
herself not to dwell on Agarik, not now—it would head this way.

Tikaya eased out of the tunnel and kept her
back to the wall. Sicarius kept track of her as he figured. Her
hand ached where she gripped the bow. If Sicarius had killed Rias,
he was not getting off the cliff. Agile or not, he could not dodge
arrows while he climbed down past those lasers. She removed an
arrow and nocked it with steady hands. Cold controlled anger made
her movements sure, free of fear. Even if he had not killed Rias,
he was the Turgonian emperor’s assassin, someone who had tried to
murder her president. The world would be better off with him
dead.

She drew the bow. No sense of alarm widened
Sicarius’s eyes, but he stood. Balanced on the balls of his feet,
arms relaxed, he appeared unconcerned by the weapon pointed at him.
Even on that small ledge, he could probably dodge an arrow. But if
she bumped one of the numbers, and he could not solve the problem
on time, he would either have to climb down, where she could shoot
him in the back, or he would be incinerated.

Yes, then why hadn’t she fired yet?

Killing Ottotark in self-defense was one
thing; shooting someone in cold blood... Could she do it?

Motion across the cavern saved her from
having to answer the question. Rias burst from a tunnel, diving and
rolling as a red beam lanced the air over him.

“
Rias!” she
shouted.

He scrambled to his feet and zigzagged
toward the butte. He chopped a wave her direction, but lifted his
head to shout a stream of numbers at the assassin.

The solution to the door. Sicarius’s head
tilted, and he gazed upward—calculating. Not trusting enough to
enter them without checking for himself. And why should he be? Rias
had no reason to help, to get the assassin inside with the weapons.
What was he doing?

“
Is that...” She thrust
her bow toward the cube chasing him.

Rias dove over a fallen stalactite. A beam
struck the rubble, and rock and dust flew. He came up, racing
toward the camp this time, and a wild grin lit his face. He pressed
a finger to his lips and mouthed something. Distract it?

Sicarius was punching in the door code.
Tikaya cut toward the cube from the side. As soon as she was closer
to it than Rias, it rotated toward her. She ran toward a pile of
rubble and ducked behind it without any of the grace Rias had
managed. Her shoulder clunked against a boulder with a painful jar.
She peeped around the edge.

Rias reached his rucksack and tore open the
lid. He dug out the cube, still inert, the lid still off. So the
one following him—her now—was an extra.

She circled the pile to avoid its approach.
A beam bit into the rubble, and shards of stone rained upon
her.

Overhead, the door slid open. Rias thumbed
something inside his cube. Sicarius entered the chamber. Rias
hurled the cube toward the top of the butte.

The one at ground-level was nearing Tikaya
and she had to sprint to the next pile of debris. She glanced
upward as she ran, fearing pieces would fly out of the open cube or
the beams would incinerate it, but it reached the top unharmed. It
caromed off the transparent wall, and Tikaya thought it would
bounce away from the butte, but it righted itself. Hovering in the
air, the cube approached the door.

Inside, Sicarius whirled at the noise and
dropped into a crouch.

“
Get out!” Rias
called.

He dug a familiar jar out of his rucksack
and raced at the cube stalking Tikaya around the rubble pile. She
let it get dangerously close to keep it occupied.

She risked another glance upward. If the
modified cube started destroying rockets while the door was open,
they would all be dead in seconds. But it focused on Sicarius
first.

A beam shot out. Tikaya held her breath.
Sicarius ducked, and the beam splashed against the wall without
hitting a rocket.

Her own cube almost skewered her when her
heel caught a rock, and she ripped her attention back to the closer
danger. Rias scrambled over the pile from the side and splattered
the air with his concoction. He and Tikaya split and raced away
while the cube was deciding where to focus its beam.

As they met on the other side of the pile,
an earsplitting shriek echoed from all around. The weapons chamber
door started to shut. Sicarius dove under the cube and rolled
through the entrance. The door sealed. His momentum took him to the
edge, and Tikaya thought he would fly over the side, but he twisted
and caught the overhang.

Smoke rose behind Tikaya. Their cube was out
of action. She leaned forward, willing the one caught inside the
chamber to do what they wanted.

Rias gripped her hand. He had lost the crazy
grin and stared at the chamber, as if he could will the cube to
work with the intensity of his gaze.

Then the first beam shot out. Tikaya could
not see the target from where they stood, but a green haze filled
the air in the weapons chamber. A bone-shaking rumble emanated from
the butte—the ventilation system firing up. Smoke whirled and rose,
drawn into the ducts at the top.

Sicarius hung on the cliff, his chin over
the edge, staring at the display. A blue gas joined the green,
mingling and merging as it too was sucked upward. Tikaya hoped some
sort of filter existed, so everything in the mountains at the other
end of that vent did not die.

“
It’s working.” Rias
smiled and wrapped her in a hug.

She could not bring herself to return the
smile, not with Agarik’s death haunting her thoughts, but she did
return the embrace. She smashed her face into his shoulder and
hugged him with all her strength. And then released him. She would
cry later, when they were safe.

A pebble clattered down the cliff. Sicarius
was climbing down.

“
We better get out of
here,” she whispered.

Rias nodded, grabbed his rucksack, and
jogged to the camp. She followed him, but when he started gathering
food and gear, she shifted from foot to foot.

“
Do we have time for
that?” She jerked her head toward Sicarius. Even with the beams to
navigate, his progress going down was faster than it had been
climbing up. “He’s going to be irate.”

“
I know,” Rias said, but
he continued his preparations, unhurried. Black powder tins and
ammo pouches went into his rucksack. “It’s weeks to get across the
mountains and back to civilization. We’ll need supplies to survive
the trek.”

“
I need to find Parkonis
and make sure he can get away from the Turgonians,” she said. “And,
Rias? Agarik didn’t make it.”

His jaw tightened, but he kept himself to a
curt nod.

“
He saved my life,” Tikaya
said, “so I could come back to help you.”

Rias grabbed a second rucksack and started
filling it for her. She glanced at Sicarius.

“
He’s almost down,” she
murmured. “If we want to take him out, this may be our last
chance.” That weeks-long trek would be arduous enough without an
assassin hounding them. “If he comes after us...after you... We
can’t waste the gift Agarik gave us.”

Rias finished packing. “We won’t.”

Sicarius jumped the last ten feet, landing
lightly. Even in defeat, that same stony mask hid his thoughts, his
feelings.

Rias handed Tikaya her pack and a fresh
quiver of arrows for her bow. He picked up a rifle but did not
bother to load it.

“
Ready.” He pointed to a
tunnel, a tunnel they would have to walk past the assassin to
reach.

Metal rang softly as Sicarius pulled a
dagger from his belt and stepped into their path.

Tikaya grabbed Rias’s elbow when he did not
slow. “Are you mad?”

Rias removed her hand gently and strode
toward the tunnel. Tikaya nocked an arrow, but did not fully draw
the bow. Rias had to know what he was doing. Didn’t he? Shaking her
head, she followed him.

Sicarius’s grip tightened around the dagger
hilt. “You never intended to help. You had the chance to redeem
yourself, but you betrayed the emperor again.”