Rayne's Return (Hearts of ICARUS Book 3) (32 page)

“I’m not far from the elevators,”
she said to Wolef. 
“With my shield up I shouldn’t have any trouble getting to Level Three, but it’ll take time to discover which room she’s in.  Do you know that by any chance?” 

“No, I’m afraid not,”
Wolef replied. 
“I don’t think you’ll need that information though.”

“Why not?”

“I’m sorry,
Solin
, but I’m afraid that you’ll be able to hear her
.”

Wolef’s words summoned a memory that had her fighting back sudden nausea.  “
Then it’s a good thing I’m here to get her.”

“Indeed.”

She tucked the hand terminal into another pocket of her jeans, suddenly glad that they were still a little too big for her.  When she was transported back to the
Armadura
, the hand terminals, along with all the information they contained, would go with her.  She walked around the corner again, passed the sleeping Doftle with just a quick glance, and kept going up the corridor and around yet another corner.  She entered a large area that contained a long circular counter.  Behind the counter sat two more Doftles, both working industriously at their vid-terminals.  She walked around the counter to the elevator on the opposite side, wondering how she’d call it without attracting their attention. 

After a moment she shrugged, reached out, and pressed the call button.  The doors slid open almost immediately and she stepped inside, not even bothering to look at the Doftles to see their reaction.  She suspected that they’d be confused, perhaps assume that the elevator was suffering some sort of glitch.  But it didn’t matter.  Whatever their reaction was, it wouldn’t stop her.

She pressed the button for the third level and waited for the doors to open again.  When they did, a startled Doftle looked up from a desk, then frowned and muttered something too softly for her to catch.  She stepped out of the elevator and turned right, then left, then another left, allowing the increasing volume of Salene’s screams to guide her, growing angrier and more determined with every step.  

She finally reached a corridor lined with doors, but she knew immediately which one Salene was behind.  There were two Doftles standing guard in front of it, both smiling at the sound of Salene’s screams, a sudden and graphic reminder of how sadistic the Doftles were. 

Rayne had to force herself to take slow, deep breaths in order to shake off her fury, reaching instead for the cold calm she’d been taught since childhood to attain before battle.  Of the three Dracon sisters Tani was the undisputed warrior, and Salene the undisputed brain, while she’d always been considered the artsy one.  But they’d all been taught how to handle themselves in case the need ever arose.

She raised herself up on the balls of her feet, gripped the pain baton firmly, and moved up the corridor in absolute silence.  When she was just a few feet away from the Doftle guards she paused to study their positions.  Then she took two quick steps forward and jabbed the first Doftle in the neck with the end of the baton and held it there. 

His mouth opened in a silent scream, his eyes rolled up in his head, and he fell heavily to the ground.  The second Doftle reacted in a way she didn’t expect.  Instead of surprise, or concern for the sudden and unexplainable collapse of his fellow guard, he immediately stepped away, crouching warily as he reached for his vox instead of his weapon.  Rayne hurried forward and jabbed him in the neck with the pain baton just before his hand touched the vox.  The Doftle stiffened, then fell to the floor, joining his companion. 

Rayne knelt down beside the first Doftle and began searching his pockets, noting with some surprise that he was still alive even though the pain baton had been set on KILL.  She collected his hand terminal, then moved to the second one, wondering why the pain baton hadn’t killed them.  As soon as the question entered her mind, she knew the answer.  Doftles were always very cognizant of their own safety.  They’d never use weapons that were capable of killing them in the event one of their
samples
got their hands on one.  Like a scalpel.

She stood up and stuffed one of the two newly acquired hand terminals into her last empty pocket, and the other under the waist band of her jeans.  Then she removed the card key from her front pocket and slid it through the reader, but it didn’t work.  She tried again, but nothing happened.  She knelt back down beside the guards and began searching for their card keys.  She didn’t find one on the first Doftle, so gave up and tried the second.  When she found one, she allowed herself a tiny sigh of relief.  She stood up again and started to slide the card through the reader when she suddenly realized that Salene’s screams had stopped.  A heartbeat later the doors slid open. 

She froze in surprise at the sight of a Doftle unlike any she’d seen before.  It looked normal from the hips up, but instead of the usual short humanoid legs that other Doftles possessed, it had ten shiny metal legs that eerily resembled the legs of a spider. 

“
No”
, Wolef whispered.  “
Those are the legs of a Xanti
.”

She shuddered in disgust and fear, but managed, barely, to hold back the gasp that rose to her lips.  The Doftle had to turn sideways and straighten some of its legs to get through the door, which gave her just enough time to step back out of the way, carefully avoiding the Doftle behind her.

“What is this?” the strange Doftle asked when he spotted the guards lying on the floor unconscious.  The familiar sound of the Doftle’s voice forced Rayne to bite back another startled gasp.  She couldn’t place it, but she’d heard that voice before.  Many times.

“It’s Weeble,”
Wolef supplied. 
“Be very careful,
Solin
.”

Two more Doftle, these with normal legs, followed him into the corridor as the first one spoke again.  “We have either an intruder, or a traitor.  Dwee, contact the
Facility
Captain and tell him to move to a new site within the hour.”

“It’ll take that long just to fire up the engines, Lord Weeble,” Dwee said.  

“Which is why I’m allowing him so much time,” Weeble snapped coldly.

Dwee bowed deeply, his hairless blue head nearly touching the floor.  “As you command, Lord Weeble,” he replied shakily, then straightened and took off at an odd shambling run.

“Fool,” Weeble muttered.  “Mewell, remind me to recycle him later.”

“Yes, Lord Weeble,” the other Doftle said, bowing nearly as deeply as the first one had.  Weeble stared at the unconscious guards for a moment, tapping his chin thoughtfully with one thick finger.  Then he turned and began walking up the corridor in the direction of the elevator with Mewell a careful step behind his rear legs. 

Rayne hesitated, struggling between getting to Salene, and finding out what this Weeble creature was planning.  After a moment’s debate she decided that learning what Weeble was up to was worth the risk.  She followed them on silent feet, listening carefully as Weeble continued speaking. 

“I suspect that the
Facility
is no longer completely safe for an important personage such as myself,” he said.  “Nor is it safe for my samples.  You will personally transport them onto my yacht, Mewell.”

“Yes, Lord Weeble, at once,” Mewell replied, then started to turn back toward Salene’s room before Weeble stopped him. 

“I am not finished, Mewell,” he warned in a tone that caused Mewell to turn nearly purple with fear.

“First, inform Cuwell that my yacht will depart the moment I transport aboard and give the order.  If it isn’t ready, I shall recycle him alongside Dwee.  After you do that, see to it that my other samples are transported to my yacht before I get there.  Except for the little princess.  I will see to her personally.”

Rayne watched as Mewell bowed again, then hurried away, while Weeble turned and headed back the way he’d come, straight toward Rayne.  She backed up carefully, keeping her eyes on him.

 So this…thing…is Weeble,
she thought.  The one responsible for both her and Salene’s abductions.  The one who would create monsters from her eggs.  The one responsible for all of the pain and horror she’d suffered for an entire year.  And now, as she watched, he was moving back toward Salene, intending to take her somewhere else.  If she didn’t stop him, it was unlikely she’d ever see her sister again.  

Before she knew it, she was running straight at him, holding the pain baton as though it was a sword.  She leapt upward since his legs made him so tall, and jabbed it at Weeble’s neck, but something warned him at the last possible moment and he ducked the blow while at the same time raising two of his metal legs to knock her backward.  She stumbled sideways, fighting for balance, and smacked her head into the wall hard enough to cause her vision to gray out for a moment.  Then Weeble reached down and grabbed her arm in a grip so tight that she feared her arm would break. 

He gave her a hard shake, then lifted her effortlessly to his level so he could get a better look at her.  She didn’t know if it was because of her anger, or her head hitting the wall that caused her to drop her shield, but it was too late to do anything now. 
Or, was it?
she wondered, realizing a little belatedly that she still held the pain baton in her right hand.  She raised it up and swung with all of her might at Weeble’s face.  It was a glancing blow, but it delivered enough of a jolt to force him to release her other arm.  She fell to the floor and immediately struggled to stand while she fumbled for her shield.

She managed to get to her feet, but her shield eluded her in her panic.  She took one step, and then one of Weeble’s metal legs kicked out hard, striking her in the back.  She flew several feet up the corridor, landing hard enough to lose her grip on the pain baton.  Weeble rushed her just as she got to her knees and kicked again, hitting her so hard that it knocked the air from her lungs and sent her sliding another few feet up the corridor.  She was on her stomach, both hands pressed to the floor, trying to focus so that she could raise her shield as the tap tap tapping sound of the metal legs came closer.  Using every last ounce of strength in her already depleted body, she pushed herself up to a crouch, only to have Weeble kick her yet again.  This time she smacked her head against the door leading into the room where Salene was being kept.  Her vision grayed out again but she gritted her teeth, refusing to pass out.  She raised her head high enough to see Weeble standing a couple of feet away from her, a grin on his face, his hateful black eyes fixed on her with cold malice.  Remembering that the pain baton was attached to her wrist by a cord, she fumbled for it without taking her eyes off of Weeble.

And then she couldn’t see Weeble at all.  Instead, she saw Landor, Con, and Ari standing with their backs to her, forming a wall of muscle that blocked the corridor between her and Weeble.  Con turned around to face her, his eyes so filled with fury that she flinched involuntarily.  He knelt down and lifted her as gently as he could, but the movement still caused a wave of nausea to roll through her. 

She took a slow, cautious breath, then gasped in surprise when Landor shifted into his bearenca alter-form.  He was so big that his sides pressed against the walls of the corridor, and he was forced to keep his head low so it didn’t crash through the ceiling.  His roar shook the walls around them. 

“I look forward to getting one of you to study,” Weeble said, causing her to shudder so hard Con had to tighten his hold to prevent her from tumbling out of his arms and onto the floor.  Landor roared once more, then shifted back into his human form. 

“Where’d he go?” Ari asked.

“I don’t know,” Landor replied.  “He transported himself away.”

“How are you,
Kisu
?” he asked, brushing her cheek with his fingertips.

“Alive,” she gasped breathlessly. 

“You will stay that way,” he ordered, then looked at Con.  “We have little time before that creature brings help.  I should not have allowed him to get away but the walls pressed too tightly against me for much movement.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Con said.  “They would have tracked our transport signal in just a few moments anyway.”

Landor nodded, then looked back to Rayne.  “Do you have a key for the door?”

“I think so,” she replied, reaching into her pocket for the card she’d taken from one of the guards.  She noticed a bit of weakness in her arm and wondered if Weeble might have damaged it, then forgot about it as she handed the card to Landor.  “Just slide it through the reader.”

Landor did as she said and much to her relief, the door opened.  He looked inside, then gestured for them to follow.  They entered the room just in time to see Weeble appear on the far side of the metal table that held an unconscious Salene.  He was clearly surprised to see Landor, but didn’t let that stop him from trying to get one hand on Salene.  He had something strapped to his hand that they all suspected was a transport device.  If he touched Salene and activated the device, they would lose her. 

Landor immediately leapt over Salene, his head and shoulders shifting at the same time.  He growled furiously and snapped at the hand holding the transport device with his long, glistening fangs, forcing the Doftle to stumble backwards.  Weeble hissed angrily, pressed the button on the device, and vanished from the room before Landor lunged again. 

“Let’s get out of here before anyone else decides to visit,” Ari said, reaching out to touch Salene.  Landor reversed his partial shift and placed one hand on Salene as well, then they all pressed the transport beacons on their wrist bands.  A moment later they felt the nauseating sensation of being transported across space, and then they were all blinking their eyes in the transport room aboard the
Armadura
.

“We have to destroy the
Facility
right now, before Weeble escapes,” Rayne insisted as Con set her down.  She was surprised to find that she felt wobbly and off balance, and wondered if those knocks on the head were responsible.