Zenn Scarlett (31 page)

Zenn’s mind was blank. Then it was filled with all the reasons Liam shouldn’t be here.

Why isn’t he running, hiding someplace? Why is he pretending to care what happens to me
?

“Scarlett,” he said. “Is there anything in here?”

She stared dully at him.

After a few seconds, she seemed to finally come fully awake. “Yes. The kit, bring it here.”

He brought the pack, and held it up so she could reach into it through the fencing.

After a few moments she pulled out the items she wanted: a small spray vial and a pair of heavy metal forceps.

“Stand back.”

Liam gathered Katie in his arms and moved back.

“What’s that stuff?”

“Super-cooled nitrogen, for freezing dermal growths.”

“What good will that do?”

She didn’t answer, but sprayed the freezing nitrogen onto the lock securing the chain, shielded her eyes with one hand, and swung the forceps. The lock shattered like a china plate. She stepped through the door, free.

“Whoa,” Liam said. “Nice work.”

She picked up her vet kit and signed to Katie. The rikkaset hopped out of Liam’s grasp and into the pack.

It was at this point Zenn noticed her teeth were chattering. She was freezing. Looking down at herself, she realized the reason: she was barefoot, and dressed in the faded, yellow cotton pajamas she’d had on when the intruder took her.

She went to the wall where the workmen’s coveralls hung, grabbed what appeared to be the smallest pair, and pulled them on over her pajamas.

“Liam, what are you doing here?” she said, as she rolled up the coverall pant legs.

“Uh… it isn’t obvious?” He gestured at the broken skylight. “Rescuing?”

“No,” she said, slinging one of the vet pack straps over her shoulder. “How did you find me?”

“I was watching your room last night, alright?” he said sheepishly. “I needed to talk to you. Anyway, I saw the skirni go in through the window, then he came out, carrying you. I followed him here.”

“The skirni? The same one who was out at Vic’s?”

“Yeah, same one. Listen, Scarlett, can we have this talk later?”

A skirni. Of course. In her room, the intruder’s shuffling gait, but not moving on three legs; walking with two legs and a tail.

“We’ll never reach the skylight,” Liam said, looking at the ceiling. He went to the door in the far wall. “We’ll have to leave this way.”

Slowly, carefully, he eased the door open and peeked out, then signaled for Zenn to follow.

Was Liam telling the truth? Was this a trick of some kind? Should she trust him? It really didn’t matter. There were no other options.

The room beyond was cavernous and filled with shipping containers, barrels and boxes, all piled one on top of the other. There was a door at the far end of the building, and they started for it.

As they passed one of the biggest shipping containers, something alive roared loudly and threw its body against the container’s inner wall.

“What
is
that?” Liam said.

“Sandhog…” Zenn said, peering at the container. A bright yellow label read: “Caution. Live Animal.”

“It’s Gil Bodine’s,” she said, reading the label. “He said he was going to ship it back to the seller on Sigmund’s Parch. That means we’re in a warehouse at the launch port in Pavonis.”

“I coulda told you that,” Liam said.

With Liam’s hand poised to open the door to the outside, they heard the sound of shuffling footsteps approaching.

“Damn.” Liam whispered. “He’s coming back. He’s wearing a weapon, and it’s alive – some kinda shell thing on his wrist. I saw him take down Hamish with it. We can’t let him spot us.”

Zenn whirled around, took a few steps back into the room, eyes darting. They had to hide. Now. Where? Where?

Zenn’s gaze settled on the sandhog’s shipping container. She dashed to the dumpster-sized crate, tossed her vet kit up onto its flat topside. A muffled squeak came from her pack.

“Sorry, Katie,” she said softly, then pulled herself onto the crate. A second later, Liam was next to her. They both lay flat on the cold metal, and waited. The sandhog snorted and rumbled beneath them.

The sound of the building’s door creaking open was followed by shuffling footsteps going quickly to the room where she’d been kept. She heard the inner door being opened, followed immediately by an inhuman howl of rage.

“No! Gone? No. No no no. The nexus. The nexus, gone. How? Devilry. Sorcery.”

The skirni’s anguished wailing continued, first from nearby, then farther off, as the sound of his footsteps retreated and advanced from one part of the building to another. At last, he was silent, and she heard only the footsteps running, then slowing to a walk and, finally, the sound of something electronic being switched on. The skirni began to talk, using the com device again.

“…it is not Pokt’s fault,” he barked. “I was outside for seconds, mere seconds. When I returned, the human was gone. I searched the building. The gate-lock was broken. And there is a hole in the roof-glass, as if the girl flew away. As if by witchery.” A pause, the other, unintelligible voice, then the skirni again. “Oh? A superstitious savage? I am not. I told you before. The nexus is awake, inside the human. I know this.”

Liam turned his face to her. He mouthed the word: “Nexus?” Zenn just shrugged.

The other voice said something, then the skirni, “I know because I… felt the nexus, felt it reach into my mind. It reached into my thoughts in her room at the Ciscan stronghold. And it permitted me to see, see into this human. She is unaware. I saw this in her. She has no idea what is happening, that the fate of worlds lives within her. How could I know all of this, unless the nexus is waking?”

A pause, the skirni pacing. “No. I cannot risk remaining on this planet. The goat-woman has been apprehended. The man Dokes attempted to escape. I am told the local enforcer Jakstra confronted him. This Dokes failed to comply and was shot in his leg with a gunpowder weapon. They will both be imprisoned, I am sure. They have been told of the consequences if they speak of me, but I cannot trust in their silence. I must leave.”

Another pause, then the skirni: “No, this does not matter. If the boy is found, he knows nothing… Yes, he told me of the girl and her communing with the animals, but he knows nothing of the nexus. He is of no importance.” It was Zenn’s turn to give Liam a questioning look. He didn’t meet her gaze.

The skirni went on: “I will return to the
Helen
. We will decide then what to do.” A short burst from the other voice. The skirni stopped his pacing, shouted, “I am not to be blamed for her vanishing. It is not Pokt’s error.”

No further words were spoken. The skirni’s footsteps receded, the door opened and shut.

“Any idea what that was all about?” Liam said as he helped lower Zenn down from the crate. “Something… inside of you?”

Zenn shrugged. “It’s… nothing I can really explain.”

“Yeah, fine by me. Less talking, more leaving.” He was at the door again. He opened it, scanned the area outside. “He’s gone. Come on.”

“No,” Zenn said. He turned back to her.

“What do you mean,
no
?”

“I mean… I’m staying.”

“Staying? Here?” Liam said, incredulous. “You can’t
stay here
!”

Zenn walked back to stand next to the sandhog’s shipping crate.

“Gil’s hog is being shipped back to Sigmund’s Parch on the
Helen of Troy
.”

“So?”

“Liam, before you got here, I heard the skirni say they… have my father.”

“Warra? Why would they have Warra?”

“They took him. Kidnapped him. On Enchara.”

Liam gave her an indulgent smile. “Yeah… um… why would anyone kidnap your father?”

“I don’t know. But they’ve got him. And my only chance of helping him is to follow that skirni.”

“Alright. Let’s say you’re not as looney as you sound, and that these guys have your dad. How are you gonna…” Zenn turned to the hog’s container. “No. Scarlett, you aren’t serious. You are
not
gonna…”

“The skirni said he’s going back to the
Helen
. This crate is going up there. I’m going with it.”

“This is crazy, Scarlett. Wait, what about Otha? We’ll go to him. I’ll go with you. He could help.”

“My uncle wouldn’t believe me.”

“Sure he would.”

“Liam, I told you about what’s been going on with me lately, the… mental thing with the animals at the cloister. Otha thinks I’m… Wait a second.” She reached out and took the boy’s arm, turning him to face her. “What the skirni said just now. About you telling him about me and the animals. What did he mean?”

Liam turned his face away, then back to her, his expression pained.

“Scarlett… Pokt, the skirni…”

“So you know his name?”

“Yes. He…was asking lots of questions, right? About all kinds of stuff. Some of the questions…”

“Were about me? About my linking with the animals? Is that it? You told him about
that
?” He nodded, and she dropped her hand from his arm, fury rising inside her. Fury and regret. “Then that’s how he knew I had it inside me. This… nexus thing. I can’t believe you did that.”

“Scarlett… Zenn, I didn’t know! I told you. He was asking everybody at the ranch about all kinds of stuff.”

“It doesn’t matter now. It’s done,” she said, staring hard at him, then turning to look up at the crate. “And I don’t have time for this. Once the
Helen
leaves orbit, that’s it.”

Zenn hoisted herself back atop the hog’s crate. A moment later Liam had joined her. She told herself she didn’t care if he followed her, she didn’t care if he left to save his own skin. She knew what she had to do and she was going to do it. Liam Tucker was no longer part of the equation.

She knelt next to a square, metal plate at one corner of the container’s roof.

“What’s that?” he asked.

“Feeding chute hatch. All crates like this have them.” She tugged at it. “It’s jammed. Help me open it up.” He stood looking at her, swiped the hair out of his face.

“You’re insane. That hog’ll rip you to shreds.”

“You going to help or not?”

With both of them pulling on it, the door finally flipped open. As soon as the hog spotted them, he launched himself to crash against the ceiling of the crate, shaking the container so violently they both fell to their knees.

“There. Now he’s really mad,” Liam said, getting to his feet. “Convinced? Can we get outta here now?”

Zenn said nothing, but went to her vet kit. Katie had buried herself inside, and she gave Zenn a small “yip” of annoyance when Zenn nudged her to one side. She pulled out the portable seda-field unit. Not bothering to extend the dish’s tripod, she held it in one hand, aimed it down through the open feed hatch, dialed it up to seven and switched it on.

The sedation took effect, and the sandhog’s body drooped backwards on its tail, the enormous digging claws folding inward on its belly. Finally, it sagged to the floor of the crate, and fell over on one side. It lay there in a slowly heaving heap, emitting a gurgling snore.

“I shoulda known you’d have something like this up your sleeve,” Liam said. “Damn you, Scarlett. Guess now I got no excuse
not
to go with you, huh?”

Zenn wasn’t sure what she’d expected of Liam. But she realized this wasn’t it… This was more than she could ask, even if she didn’t care.

“Liam. You don’t have to do that. I never meant you had to do that.”

“Who cares what you meant?” He was smirking his familiar, annoying smirk. “What?” he said, “I don’t get a vote? Look, Graad is pinched. He’ll do time at Tharsis. I stick around here and… well, we already hashed that out. Nope. Mars isn’t a safe place to hang around. A free trip to Sigmund’s Parch?” He walked over to the hatch. “That’s just what the doctor ordered. Doctor.”

Zenn almost smiled at this, but didn’t.

“Liam, I…”

“Yeah yeah, save it. Let’s go before I lose my nerve. Or Tiny down there wakes up.”

“Alright.” There wasn’t time to discuss it. “Go ahead.”

“Oh sure. Send the dumb towner in. He’s expendable.”

“I need to keep the seda-field focused. Go on. He’s asleep.”

“Easy for you to say…”

Liam sat down, scooted his legs over the edge of the hatch and with an apprehensive glance back at her, disappeared from sight.

“I’m fine,” he said from the darkness. “Thanks for asking.”

“Here.” She handed down her vet pack. Then, trying to hold the seda-dish steady, she sat down at the hatch and angled her legs into the feed chute opening. Gripping the inside hatch handle with her free hand, she slid down into the darkness, pulling the hatch door shut as she fell.

She landed in something soft – the hog’s most recent ration of sandy soil.

They both retreated to the corner of the crate farthest from the hog. Zenn kept the dish aimed at the slumbering animal while Liam gathered bedding straw for them to sit on.

“Whew.” Liam complained as they settled into their respective mounds of straw. “That’s one rank animal.”

“You’ll get used to it,” she said dryly.

“Damn, I hope we’re not in here that long.”

Any further conversation was cut short by the clanking sound of the building’s large, metal loading door being rolled open. This was followed by the putter of an engine. The engine noise got very close, and there was the grating of metal beneath the crate, the sensation of being lifted into the air and moving. Some kind of forklift? After a series of bounces, sharp bangs and more screeching of metal, the crate came to rest.

“We must be inside a ferry’s cargo bay,” Liam whispered. Zenn shushed him.

She wasn’t sure how much later it was that the ferry’s engines ignited, but the noise made Katie spring awake and scurry up out of the pack into her arms.

“Whoa,” Liam muttered as the ferry’s engines powered up. “Here we go…”

THIRTY-FOUR

At first, the launch wasn’t as loud as Zenn had feared, but the sound quickly built to a frightful roar, making crate vibrate alarmingly. She felt the ferry lift from the ground, and quickly an invisible force began to press on her body.