Mindlink (16 page)

Two people had died because of his actions. He’d become like
the Telhada, sacrificing others to further his own goals. Prongs of grief
stabbed at him, behind his eyes, deep in his belly. For the first time, he did
not enjoy the link heightening this experience.

* * *

When exhaustion threatened to pull him to the ground,
One
finally called a halt to the group. They
sank down in a clearing without a word, uncharacteristically quiet—likely
fatigued and fearful of what might be chasing them through the bleak forest at
their backs.

He did not have to guess what The Redhead—Ashley—felt. All her
images portrayed death, interlaced with abject terror and absolute exhaustion.
He could not allow her to sleep, which might ease her distress. She must take
comfort in the sense of protection and safety he provided through the link.

Ashley’s images slowed and turned a less murky color.

Ashley
.

He liked the intimacy of calling her Ashley. Thinking of her as
Ashley.

This part of the forest resembled the rest—formidable. Weak
daylight peeked out of the storm clouds to reveal gnarled tree trunks twisting
from the ground, reaching for the obscure angry sky. Rain trickled through the
thick vegetation to splat on the ground in large drops and wet them thoroughly
in a nasty water torture which pasted his clothing to his skin.

The doctor sat mired in the swampy undergrowth, huffing. He
recovered enough to instruct the tall, useless human how to channel water down a
large tree leaf and into his mouth. Heads turned in interest once the process
became clear enough to replicate. The doctor had finally registered the horrors
of their situation and extended his cooperation. Excellent.

One
could not do this alone.

He allowed the group adequate time to slide a few drops into
their mouths. Natalie had pulled a branch low for the boy and ensured he drank
before doing so herself. It was not the first time she’d seen to the boy’s
welfare and
One
accepted this as her
contribution.

“We must navigate toward the river.” He met each human’s gaze
to impress upon them the wisdom of accepting what was likely to be a
disheartening announcement. “Security will have a difficult time tracking us
this far into the Badramun and the banks of the river will allow easier
passage.”

“Any fish in the river?” the tall one asked. “We need food.
I’ve been looking for edible plants but don’t recognize anything in this
godforsaken place. I don’t suppose you’ve got any botanical knowledge, do
you?”

“No, I do not,” he responded. “Creatures live in the river. It
is likely they are edible.”

“We’ll have to start a fire eventually to cook.” The doctor’s
acerbic commentary had vanished and if nothing else, the incidents by the
perimeter seemed to have facilitated the group’s trust and confidence in
One
.

A fitting dichotomy, to have done so within the same action
which caused him to lose confidence in himself.

“Oh, a fire would be lovely.” Ashley sighed, blissfully. “I’m
frozen solid.”

—
Ashley’s
cold
body
shivering
.
White
,
flaky
material
falling
from
the
sky
and
collecting
on
her
eyelashes
.
Painfully
cold
...
Her
bright
hair
a
sharp
contrast
to
her
unnaturally
white
face
.
So
cold
—

“We must go,” he said in an attempt to stave off the image
since he could do nothing to warm her.
Helplessness
.
He did not care for the way it tightened his fists.

“What’s the hurry?” she asked. “Here. River. It’s all the same.
Nasty and wet. We don’t even have a final destination, do we?”

“I am uneasy anywhere I cannot see what approaches. No, I do
not have a specific destination, but we must spend time fortifying ourselves and
regrouping. Then we may devise a plan to return you home.”

Neeko posed a far different problem but one just as difficult
to resolve. As difficult as the one he faced regarding his own
impossible-to-discern future. His path had been mapped out quite a long time ago
and the lack of a clear direction caused the sense of helplessness to return. He
banished it with the firm control he’d spent years developing.
No
dwelling
on
fixed
circumstances
.
No
stray
thoughts
.
Focus
only
on
the
task
at
hand
.

At last, he could appreciate his secret skills.

“Let’s do the plan to get home now. Are your buddies following
us?” Ashley’s hair flashed in the dim light as she jerked her chin in the
direction they’d come.

“I retained the High Priest’s handheld and no other worker
present had access to deactivate the current.” The handheld device was useless
outside the city. He settled into the muddy, moss-covered clearing, muscles
protesting as he rearranged his legs. A comfortable position didn’t exist so he
picked the least uncomfortable and tossed the handheld to the side. “We may rest
here for a few moments.”

A snore interrupted his capitulation. The others had fallen
asleep—except Ashley. She wasn’t consciously sending images, but the invisible
leash between them remained tangible. He focused on her. “You are frightened of
me. Why?”

She rested her forehead on her up-drawn knees. “I’m not scared
of you,” she said, voice muffled.

“Yes,” he corrected. “You are. It is in your pictures.”

Her head sprang up, lips parted. “Because you’re such an expert
on me?” Her harsh laughter startled something in the bush behind her and it flew
away in a flurry of water droplets, wings and verbal admonishment. “It’s not
fear, it’s resentment. For bringing us here. For lying to us. For pretending to
be someone I can trust, who’s on my side.”

“Resentment?” He weighed the translation in his mind, comparing
its meaning to what he received through the link. Fear, he understood. Could he
have incorrectly cataloged other emotions as fear? “What does that mean?”

Regardless of the potential for error, the link provided a
precious wealth of understanding, foremost that Ashley felt many of these
emotions herself. She did not believe they made her broken or flawed. He no
longer believed that about himself either.

“Are you kidding? You don’t know that word?”

“I am familiar with the definition, but not what it means to
you.”

She sighed, a long, drawn-out, dramatic sound complete with
hand gestures. “I’m tired. Can’t we play this game another time, like when I’ve
slept for more than five minutes in forty-eight hours?”

“You could be sleeping now,” he pointed out. “Why are you
not?”

“Geez. What are you, the alien Gestapo?”

—
Ashley
strapped
to
a
chair
.
Terror
.
Coppery
hair
gleaming
in
a
bright
white
light
.
Darkness
beyond
...
Sinister
shapes
circling
the
chair
and
hurling
questions
.
Struggling
to
loosen
the
bindings
—

Puzzled, he asked, “Is this a common incident for people on
Earth?”

This time, her laugh was more of a snort. “Only in the
movies.”

Color, the one close to red, but not quite red, flashed through
the link again and her reticence in answering his questions sharpened his thirst
for understanding. “What is the name of the color in your thoughts?”

“I’m not thinking about anything.” Her dishonest denial was
rushed and impatient, both verbally and through the link. “Leave me alone.”

He allowed her to drop her head back on her bent knees and bit
back the legion of questions pleading to be asked. First and foremost, he wished
to understand why Ashley lied about being afraid.

He let the others sleep as long as he dared and then roused
them with firm shakes. “The rain has stopped. It is time to go.”

“That’s all the rest we get?” The doctor sighed as he heaved to
his feet.

One
judged the question to be
rhetorical and held out a hand to Natalie, which she took after a hesitation
long enough to communicate her fear. Apparently she didn’t share Ashley’s
compunction to pretend otherwise.

Natalie smoothed stray hair from her cheeks and whispered
something unintelligible in the direction of the ground as she edged toward the
nearest tree. He took it to mean she needed privacy and turned his back to her.
“Does anyone else require a moment?”

The others shook their heads and he repeated the question to
Neeko, who kept his eyes down but shuffled toward the tree line in an
affirmative response.

A moment became two. They needed to increase the distance
between themselves and Kir Barsha. The barges couldn’t traverse the forest, but
Security could follow on foot, once reinforcements who did have correct access
to the fence’s controls arrived.

Two minutes became five and his feet sank lower into the mucky
ground the longer he waited. He’d clearly be required to retrieve Natalie and
Neeko.

A scream cut through the suddenly still forest.

Natalie.

One
raced through the undergrowth
at the base of the tree she’d disappeared behind. Vines twined around his ankles
and fallen branches rolled under his boots.

Ashley followed him before he could order her to stay. Her
breath rattled in his ear, competing with the sound of his own hammering pulse.
Her images of workers surrounding Natalie and Neeko matched his. As did her
murky anxiety.

A flash of Natalie’s hair, shiny against the dark trunks,
caught his attention. There she was. She was running through the forest.

Something dark and low to the ground chased her.

Chapter Nine

Sam skidded to a halt and Ashley slammed into a solid
wall of muscle. He threw up a hand to keep her from charging around him to save
Natalie from whatever made that awful
whoo
-
whoo
sound. With ease, she ducked under his arm and
was sorry.

Two huge, black creatures with wiry catlike bodies and sharp
teeth had cornered Natalie against a tree. They hooted like owls to each
other.

“What are those things?” Ashley asked and almost bit her tongue
when Sam slapped a hand across her mouth. He backed up, dragging Ashley through
the mud and decaying leaves by the waist and then shuffling her behind him. As
if Sam’s muscular frame might make a difference when there were two creatures
twice his size. Their claws would rip through his flesh as easily as hers.

The movement—or the talking—drew the attention of one and he
slowly turned his meaty head to stare at Sam, salivating. Intelligence radiated
from his dark eyes as he swiveled back and forth between Natalie and the new
prey. She could see him calculating and figuring out this new development, even
from a hundred yards away.

“Khota Marong,” Sam whispered. “I did not believe they were
real.”

Sam’s images shimmered through the link, one of hulking
nightmarish creatures with glowing eyes and a second image of the real version
she could see with her own eyes. The pair stank like rotting roadkill and the
smell drifted through the trees and mixed with the heavy odor of rain and
rot.

“They look pretty real to me,” she whispered. “What are they
waiting for?”

Hooting from behind them answered that question. She whirled.
Four more were slinking through the brush, coming toward her and Sam in a kind
of formation. Involuntarily, she leaped back and stepped on Sam’s foot.

“Climb a tree,” Sam said and edged in a circle to keep an eye
on both sets of Khota Marong. Rain trickled down into his face but he didn’t
wipe it away or shift his focus.

“What are you going to do?”

Images of him tangled with the creatures—grappling across the
forest floor, teeth gleaming and blood spilling—filled her head.

“Keep you safe.”

Heaving cries from Natalie’s direction punctuated the end of
his sentence. She darted a glance over her shoulder. “Who’s going to keep you
safe?”

His hand warmed her shoulder blade. Then he pushed her toward a
tree, hard. “Climb. I cannot protect both of you.”

The link spilled over with his need to concentrate on something
other than her. She muttered under her breath, but headed for the trunk.

Natalie screamed, freezing Ashley midstep. A Khota Marong had
Natalie’s arm clamped in his jaw. Sam sprinted toward the frightened woman,
yelling in his garbled, alien language. In slow motion, Ashley watched the other
cat leap at Sam and knock him to the ground, pinning him with his massive
weight.

What would happen if Sam died while they were linked?

The four monsters behind her burst into motion, jaws snapping
as they charged her. She ran. Away from the creatures and toward Sam. Bitter
fear coated the inside of her mouth. Repeatedly, she watched the Khota Marong
attack Sam in dizzying alternate viewpoints—hers and Sam’s.

Good. Images meant Sam was still alive. She clung to that.

There were too many of them. Too many teeth and claws. They
would be slaughtered, flesh ripped from their bones with carnivorous efficiency.
Recycling seemed humane in comparison.

Death chased her on heavy cat paws.

She raced the four Khota Marong and adrenaline got her to Sam
first. With a rebel yell, she leaped and kicked out. Her foot connected with the
thick body pinning Sam to the ground. The creature yelped as it flipped
sideways, flinging blood from his jaws.

“Holy cow. I didn’t expect that to work.” Heaving, she flinched
as he scrambled to his feet and gathered up his haunches to attack.

This
is
it
.
I’m
dead
.

Her mom would never know what happened or how sorry Ashley was.
For everything. How much she wished she’d gotten that chance to make her mom
proud again.

The Khota Marong twisted and scooted away, its hindquarters
tucked like a dog that had been spanked on the rump. It was
leaving
. Backhanding tears out of suddenly blurry eyes, she spun.
One down, five to go.

She blinked. All of the creatures ran pell-mell from the
clearing, as fast as their legs could carry them, spitting mud and leaves in
their wake. Natalie’s attacker too. A low-hanging branch thwacked one right
between the eyes but he didn’t slow. The last of the short black tails
disappeared into the dense leaves. The clearing went quiet except for the sound
of heavy breathing.

Natalie climbed to her feet, brushing twigs and a dead leaf
from her clothes. Her face had no color and she weaved. Bracing herself on the
nearest trunk, she asked, “Why did they leave?”

“I guess they were scared off by my Karate Kid move.” Ashley
surveyed Natalie and flung her arms around her own torso to stop the shivers.
“Why aren’t you bleeding?”

Grimly, Natalie shook her head. “He only got my sleeve. But he
still managed to throw me to the ground. That sucker was strong.”

Ashley limped two steps to where Sam lay motionless on the
ground and fell to her knees. Did he have a pulse and if he did, what would be
the normal rate for an alien? She settled for lightly cupping his chin and
shaking, hoping to rouse him. He was hurt and he’d tried to save Natalie.
Nothing else mattered but making sure he was okay.

Near his shoulder, teeth had punctured his gray uniform in a
bunch of places and blood stained the fabric. Her heart stuttered. It was red.
Not alien green or purple, and it looked nothing like fake blood used on the
set.

The link crackled, so he was still conscious. He coughed and
his eyes fluttered open, pupils resizing as he focused on her. “Where—”

“They left. Don’t try to talk,” Ashley advised, trying to think
of what the heroine in an action movie would say next. “Where are you hurt?”

His jaw worked. “Neeko. Where...is...Neeko?”

An image of the boy freight-trained into her mind, almost
snapping her head back with the impact. The boy. Where was he?

Natalie jumped with a startled gasp. “Neeko. Is that that boy’s
name? I was looking for him. I couldn’t find him and I called out. Those things
slunk out of the bushes and I just ran. All I could think about was leading them
away from the last place I’d seen him.” Her voice broke as she glanced around
the clearing and she threaded a trembling hand through her filthy hair. “I don’t
even know where we are. We have to find him. He’s got to be terrified.”

Ashley frowned. Neeko was missing and Sam was hurt, both
impossible problems under these circumstances. Well, they had to figure it out
or die. “Sam, can you sit up? You’re bleeding, badly, by the looks of it. I
don’t have any sort of medical training, do you?” she asked Natalie, who lifted
both hands helplessly.

“I know how to splint a broken leg and if forced, could do
stitches on dogs and cats. People are not my forte.”

With effort, Sam pushed to a sitting position and examined the
arm of his uniform. “The wound is in my shoulder.”

Gently, Ashley drew back the shredded collar of his uniform and
winced at the jagged flesh along his collarbone. “It’s not that bad,” she said
brightly. “A scratch. Merely a flesh wound, as we say in Hollywood.”

“I can see it for myself through your eyes.” His mouth pressed
into a firm line, pain pulling at the corners.

Stupid link. Her mind was supposed to be pleasantly blank,
especially as hard as she’d been ignoring the fear, her own aches and pains and
how helpless she felt to see someone strong and capable like Sam laid out flat
and bleeding. What else had she communicated by accident?

Sam touched his neck above the gaping wound. “I have never been
injured so severely. I would like to avoid it in the future.”

A stress-induced giggle escaped. “It’s not funny, sorry. I’m
just...I don’t know, tired. I hate to ask, but can you walk? We have to look for
Neeko. And Sid and Dr. Glasses.” She rolled her eyes. “I mean Dr. Glasson. You
can lean on me. I won’t break.”

But then they’d be touching and she didn’t know how much of
that she could take.

Sam stood, with both her and Natalie’s help. Kicking that Khota
Marong hadn’t exactly been a cakewalk and her ankle and toes throbbed. How was
she going to support him? Well, it wasn’t like she had a choice. If she did,
limping through a scary forest smooshed up close to an alien who could read her
mind and might die, leaving her without a prayer of getting home, would probably
be last on the list.

Those black creatures might come back at any time. She pictured
the Khota Marong exploding from the bushes, surrounding them on all sides, jaws
open, and it motivated her to lift leaden feet again and again to pick through
the forest. All her attempts to channel an energetic, take-no-prisoners heroine
fell flat. This was a reality show gone way too wild.

Except it wasn’t a TV show. And it wasn’t going to get
better.

Hooting echoed eerily off the tree trunks and bounced around
until she couldn’t tell from which direction it originated. She wrenched her
neck trying to see behind her.

Dear God. Maybe the sound actually came from all directions.
Maybe they were surrounded. She imagined those intelligent eyes burning into her
skin, watching her through the leaves, blending with the charcoal-colored bark.
Eventually, the sun would set and plunge them into blackness.

Calming ripples drifted through her. Sam again, with his alien
mind-meld. She hated him knowing she was afraid. Hated not being able to hide
behind Ashley V, who would have tossed danger over her shoulder with a laugh and
a wave.

“Stop it,” she hissed. “Next time, link with Natalie.”

“I do not...like it...when you are afraid. It makes
me...uncomfortable.” His voice barely penetrated the cacophony of hoots and
rustles. Then the forest went quiet, which she liked less than the sounds of the
Khota Marong. Silence meant they could be surprised.

She shushed him and turned an ear toward the last echo of
hooting. And heard whimpering. Human whimpering. Just ahead.

The Khota Marong had the others surrounded.

Please
,
God
,
not
Neeko
. His whole head would fit inside one’s mouth.
Someone should have stayed with him every second. Why hadn’t she thought of
that? Why hadn’t someone else? She sped up, feeling an awful lot like she and
Sam were participating in one of those requisite three-legged races if the movie
had a scene at a county fair or family reunion.

They broke through the trees, Natalie right behind. Neeko, eyes
wide with terror, scraped a tree trunk with his back. Two creatures snarled at
him from less than a foot away. On the other end of the clearing, two more
pinned Dr. Glasses against another tree.

Where was Sid?

Her stomach lurched when she located the last two Khota Marong,
fangs dripping with blood. Their giant paws dug into Sid’s chest. What remained
of it...

“Neeko!” Natalie shouted.

In unison, all six cat heads swiveled to fixate on her.

“Shh!” Ashley hissed.

Natalie pushed past them and edged around the creatures to leap
in front of Neeko.

Stupid, stupid! Ashley dragged Sam into the clearing, totally
not sure what she planned to do, but after surviving the creatures once, she
wouldn’t let Natalie lose the second round.

The moment she and Sam got within a few yards of Neeko’s two
monsters, they scattered, yelping. Like before. Weird. But she’d take it.

The exodus of the first two caught the attention of the others.
The pair of creatures who’d attacked Sid wheeled and advanced on Sam and Ashley
but skidded to a halt as if they’d smacked into an invisible brick wall. With
almost human expressions of surprise, they whirled and followed their pack mates
out of the clearing.

“Boo!” Ashley flicked a hand at the last pair.

From their position at the other end of the clearing, they
snapped their jaws, snarling, and stood their ground—one on either side of Dr.
Glasses.

Oops. Why weren’t they running off?

With the attention of the Khota Marong diverted, Dr. Glasses
began edging away and tripped over his own two feet.

One monster advanced, stalking Ashley, and the other headed for
Sam. She took a step back, but Sam didn’t. He went down hard, pulling Ashley
with him into a tangle of bodies and limbs. She braced for the crush of a Khota
Marong on her back, but it never came.

She popped an eye open to see them both disappearing into the
brush, tails between their legs.

“One of you have a raccoon repeller in your pocket?” Natalie
squeaked as she held onto Neeko. They both trembled and Neeko clung to Natalie,
his face hidden in the crook of her arm.

“A what?” Ashley shimmied closer to Sam and rearranged him off
his wounded side. His eyes were closed and his face ashen, but his chest rose
and fell with staggered breaths.

“I had to get one. A repeller. The device emits a frequency
they don’t like, and if you put it in your yard, the raccoons stay away.” She
shrugged. “It’s better than traps or poison because my dogs and cats could get
into those instead of the raccoon. It reminds me of how they sniff around until
they hit that space where the frequency reaches and then it’s like they got
stuck with a cattle prod. There’s something about you or Sam they don’t
like.”

The
link
.

She cursed. Would she never be rid of the evil thing? Natalie
was right—the creatures had run away as soon as she and Sam landed in the same
spot at the same time. She cursed some more just because. Everything on this
godforsaken planet revolved around the octopus. Couldn’t the aliens come up with
something else?