Lois Bujold - Captain Vorpatril's alliance

“We can’t get past,” said Tej.

“It’s rising,” said Ivan Xav.

“Can it get this high?” asked the Baronne, coming up behind Dada in time to hear this. Her hand clutched his shoulder; his hand rose and pressed hers.

“It might,” said Ivan Xav. “I suppose it depends on how many of those damned random Mycoborer branches lie below our level. And how hard it’s been raining out there tonight.”

Dada moved quickly through the doorway, and bent down to examine the oval slab of wall that had been removed. “Hm.” He called back over his shoulder, “Amiri made most of his cuts angled inward, good boy. If we can find something for sealant, we should be able to boost this back up in place; the pressure of the water on the outside will hold it. If it comes to that.”

“I guarantee,” said Ivan Xav, “that we have ImpSec’s full attention right now. I expect they’ll find that access well in the garage pretty quick. If anyone can get through from that side…well, they’ll get to us somehow. Sooner or later.”

“Does—I hate to bring this up—but does anyone out there actually know we’re in here?” said Pidge, joining the circle collecting around the aperture.

“Star,” said Tej after a minute. “Ser Imola’s men.”

“If they didn’t just toss her in the back of their van and all take off, when the job went up,” said Emerald. “If they had half a brain among them, that’s what they should have done.”

“They likely just about did have that,” sighed Dada. “Damned cheap rental meat.”

“Ivan Xav,” said Amiri, looking around at him in fresh hope. “Surely they’ll miss you .”

“When I don’t show up at work in a couple of days, sure,” said Ivan Xav. Then stopped. And said, “Ah. No, they won’t. I’m on leave. Nobody’s expecting me.” He walked over to the still-unconscious man he’d stunned, bent, and stripped him of his wristcom. Stepping out through the aperture, he looked up, then began trying to punch through a call. Nobody tried to impede him.

Unfortunately, no one had to. Nothing went through. He came back and parted the protesting Imola from his fancier one, and tried again.

“We’re pretty far underground…” said Tej, watching over his shoulder.

“Cheap civilian models,” he growled, shaking it and trying again. “ Mine would have worked here.” Still no signal. “Damn.”

“Simon will figure it out,” said Tej, trying to inject a note of confidence as she followed him back inside. “Wouldn’t he?”

“Simon,” said Ivan Xav, rather through his teeth, “for some reason—you might know why, Shiv—is under the impression that you all haven’t even started to tunnel yet. Let alone arrived at your goal. All the Arquas suddenly disappearing off the face of Barrayar…might have more than one hypothesis to account for it. In Simon’s twisty mind.”

“And you, too? Without a word?” said Amiri.

“I’ve been kidnapped before,” said Ivan Xav. “You would be amazed how many memories tonight is bringing back to me. All of them unpleasant.”

Tej would have held his hand, but she wasn’t sure it would be taken in good part, just now. He was looking a bit wild.

They all were. And maybe she was, too, because Ivan Xav reached out and gripped hers, and gave her a tight grimace that might have been intended for a smile.

“No sign of Rish and Jet?” said Em, in a constricted voice.

Tej shook her head, throat too thick to speak.

“They might…maybe they were on the other side of it, when that explosion went off,” Em tried. “Maybe they got out. Maybe…ImpSec will find them over there. Or—Imola said he didn’t see them, and they can’t have got past him, so maybe they went to hide up one of the other branches.”

Or down one. Tej had an instant and unwanted flash of it, freezing water pouring into some Mycoborer side-channel, knocking the two off their feet, making the slope too slippery to scramble up…

“Or maybe…” Em ran down, which relieved Tej of the urge to slap her silent. But for a snap decision on Dada’s part, it would have been Em out there with their youngest brother, Tej reminded herself.

Ivan Xav hesitated, then said, “Couldn’t you use the Mycoborer to tunnel out ?”

Tej was briefly thrilled with her Barrayaran husband’s simple genius, but Grandmama frowned; she said, “It consumes oxygen as well…at a rate of…hm.”

“Don’t bother trying to calculate it,” sighed Amiri. “The box is back at the entryway with the rest of our supplies.”

A sickly silence. All around.

“How many cold lights do we have?” asked Pearl, patting her pockets. She came up with a single spare.

This triggered a general inventory. Most of the Arquas were carrying one or two extras; Ivan Xav harbored a double-dozen, plus a couple he quietly palmed to an inside pocket when almost no one else was looking.

“Rather a lot,” the Baronne concluded. “But space them out. Don’t start any others till the ones we have run down.”

The eight cold lights presently providing their bright chemical glow made the lab seem a well-lit workspace. Tej imagined it with only one or two, and the word that rose in her mind was haunted . And not just with all the history.

“Water?” said Pidge, and gestured inarticulately when Tej gave her a look . “I mean water that’s safe to drink.”

“I might find something to filter some,” said Grandmama. “Boil…no, likely not.”

“We brought plenty of food to keep everyone going all night,” said Pearl glumly. “Too bad it’s all back at the entrance with everything else.”

Em swallowed, and said, “Air…? These walls are pretty tightly sealed.”

Perfectly sealed, as Tej understood it, except for their new door and maybe the old one, filled with rubble.

“The rooms are rather large,” said Amiri, his voice thin with a worry that undercut the actual sense of his words. “And there are two of them.”

“And the tunnel,” said Tej. “And…there might be some oxygen exchange through the surface of the water out there?”

“Works till we have to seal the door on it,” said Pidge. “But there are twelve of us in here breathing.”

Quite a few Arqua gazes swiveled to Imola, still sitting on the floor beside his unconscious hirelings and listening in growing horror.

“Nine would last longer,” said Pearl, tentatively.

“Premature,” growled Dada, “though tempting. Very tempting.”

“Yes, but if we were going to do it at all, sooner is better than later,” argued Pidge, in a tone that attempted to simulate lawyerly reason. Tej was almost glad that she quavered a little.

“Nevertheless,” said the Baronne. Her tone was cool; her gaze calculating; her word mollifying; yet Imola shrank from her more than he had Pidge. No quaver there.

“Those two,” choked Imola, with an abrupt gesture at his snoring followers. “You could have those two.” He contemplated the inert forms, then offered, as if by way of a selling point, “They’d never know…”

“I’ll be sure to mention you said so,” purred Dada, “when they wake up.” He strolled away to look over the contents of the chamber some more; scouting for ideas, Tej suspected, rather than treasure. Dada had never run short of ideas that she knew of; he merely made more.

Ivan Xav looked at Imola and just shook his head. He leaned over and murmured to the man, “Look on the bright side. With all these other constraints, it’s unlikely we’ll have time to work around to the cannibalism.” He bared his teeth in an unfriendly smile.

Imola flinched.

“Still, probably better not to indulge in, um, too much heavy exercise,” Amiri offered. “Just…sit or move quietly.”