Lindsay Buroker - Deadly Games

“He gave me his word,” Amaranthe said. “He’snot trying to turn me over to the military any more.”

“No.” Maldynado snickered. “He’s just tryingto date you now.”

Sicarius threw a sharp look at him.

A snap sounded, and a hairline crack formedin a wall seam next to Amaranthe. A bead of water appeared at thebottom.

“We better go.” She grabbed Maldynado andSicarius by the elbows, trying to hustle everyone down thecorridor. “There’s a lot of pressure down here. I don’t want to bearound if anything implodes.”

Sicarius strode forward, breaking free of hergrip. He led them around two corners and past a massive bulkheadsealing off a corridor. Water pooled on the floor before it.

“Must be that wing they closed down,”Amaranthe said. Too bad nobody was left in the navigation room todrop more doors in case other sections flooded. “Is it possiblethese ballast tanks won’t be enough to lift us if too much of theinterior has taken on water?”

“Very possible.” Sicarius stopped before apanel filled with levers and smaller versions of the wheels thatopened the hatches. Though it looked like Turgonian technology, thewords etched on plaques were nothing she could read.

Sicarius handed her the manual, turned awheel, and twisted one of the levers in a half circle. A grindingnoise came from behind the wall, followed by a muffled hissing. Airbeing forced into the tanks? Her thoughts tangled as she tried tograsp the science-or perhaps Science-behind the system.

“It’s working.” Sicarius tapped a gauge. “Butthere’s another tank along the other main corridor, and then twomore used for leveling the ship. We may need to open the floodvalves on those, too.”

Before he finished talking, he was joggingagain. Amaranthe and Maldynado hustled to catch up.

“What happens if we’ve taken on too muchwater and this doesn’t get us off the bottom?” Maldynado asked.“Everyone without diving suits drowns down here?” He seemed torealize he was talking to someone without a suit, for he added,“And, er, just so you know, this wouldn’t fit you, Sicarius, sothere’s no need to stab me in the back for it.”

“I wouldn’t do that,” Sicarius said as theyturned into another corridor.

“That’s a relief,” Maldynado said.

“It would compromise the suit.”

Maldynado grew pale, as if he were imaginingSicarius forcing him out of the suit at knife point and then stabbing him.

Amaranthe elbowed him. “I think that was ajoke.”

Maldynado shook his head. “Given the source,I doubt it.”

They reached a set of controls identical tothe first.

“How deep are we?” Sicarius asked as hechecked the gauges.

“Books estimates three to four hundred feet,”Amaranthe said.

“I’ve studied free diving. I can make itout.”

“What’s free diving?” Maldynado asked.

“Employing mind-body control techniques tomaximize the effectiveness of the mammalian diving reflex.”

Maldynado’s brow furrowed and he mouthed,“What?” at Amaranthe.

“I think it means he’s good at holding hisbreath,” she said.

“Oh.”

Sicarius twisted a wheel, turned a lever, andthey moved on.

Amaranthe was about to ask him if the vesselshould be lifting yet when they rounded a corner and entered anoccupied corridor. Two guards stood before a set of controlssimilar to the other ones.

The men carried pistols, but Sicarius neverslowed. He strode toward them as determined as death. One of theguards reached for his firearm, but he took one good look atSicarius and backed away. Both men turned and ran.

Sicarius must have deemed them no threat, forhe stopped at the controls without bothering to hurl knives intotheir backs. Maybe Amaranthe’s influence was mellowing him. Right.Or maybe their situation was so dire there was no time for knifeplay. As far as she could tell, the vessel had yet to budge.

“How come no guards turned and ran from uswhen we were infiltrating the place?” Maldynado asked.

“Their employers were conscious,” Amaranthesaid, “and their ship wasn’t half-destroyed, so they had highermorale.”

“Oh, good. I’d hate to think that even naked,Sicarius is scarier than us.”

Sicarius finished with the controls and tookoff.

They threw the last lever in the forwardsection of the vessel and returned to the transition chamber wherethe team had first entered. Akstyr, Books, Basilard, and some ofthe athletes waited there. All of Books’s charges had foundclothing, if only the white jackets the practitioners wore, whichleft Sicarius as the soul nude member of the group. He did not seemto care.

“Are the practitioners subdued?” Amarantheasked.

“You mean those stinking wizards?” oneathlete asked with a sneer. “They’re taken care of.”

“They’re strapped down so the marines canpick them up when they board,” Books said. “We weren’t sure how tooperate the drugging mechanism, but we tossed a couple more ofthose vials into the room before we left.” He shrugged. “Best wecould do. I left a couple of women there to warn us if anyonestirs. I didn’t know if one of us should stay or if you’d need usfor the next phase of your plan.”

The next phrase of her plan. That soundedvery official and organized. If only that were the truth.

“Thank you, Books. Sicarius, how long shouldit take for air to fill the tanks and for us to rise?” If they were going to.

“Soon,” Sicarius said.

Some of the athletes stirred again at themention of his name. They were probably wondering why the city’smost notorious assassin was helping them. Maybe it was time to makesure her charges could tell the journalists about theirrescuers.

“I’m Amaranthe Lokdon,” she told them. “We’rean outfit called The Emperor’s Edge. I bring this up in case youwant to mention it to someone later on.”

Books chuckled. She wondered if she shouldfurther tout their merits. There wouldn’t be a chance once theywere on the surface and the marines were swarming onto the foreigncraft. Amaranthe certainly wasn’t planning to stick around then.Just because Deret had talked his brother into checking out thelaboratory did not mean-

The floor tilted.

Amaranthe caught herself on the wall. Was itanother attack? No, she had not heard an explosion.

“We’re rising,” Books said.

The floor titled further, and Amaranthebraced herself.

“Lopsided as a drunken marine,” Maldynadosaid. “Who’s driving this boat?”

Basilard signed, Are there still people innavigation?

“No,” Amaranthe said. “We convinced them tocome out and join the others on the deck in front of your hatch. Itseemed logical at the time.”

Convinced? How?

Amaranthe twitched a shoulder. “A littlepalavering.”

Basilard lifted an eyebrow at Sicarius andsigned, No eyeball required.

Amaranthe frowned, wondering if she hadmisread a sign. Eyeball? That did not sound right.

Sicarius’s eyes glinted though, and he signedback, As predicted.

It felt strange to be on the outside of ajoke between Sicarius and someone else. More than strange-a twingeof jealousy reared its head. She stomped it down. It was good forthe men to bond, those two especially.

The vessel left the lake bottom with ascrape. Amaranthe checked the nearest porthole.

The orange exterior lights still shone, but acloud of sediment was rising with them, and dust swirled about. Astartled school of fish flitted close enough to the porthole tosee, but more than a few feet away, the haze obscuredeverything.

Amaranthe started to return to the group, buther men had come to join her. She rapped her knuckles on herhelmet. “Everyone with suits, get ready. We’ll assume the kraken istroubling the marines and take the harpoons out to help with it.We’ll exit roughly twenty feet before reaching the surface.”Assuming the dust cleared and they could tell when thesurface drew close. “Based on what I’ve seen of this place from theoutside, it’s the sort of craft most sane people would shoot at onsight and wait to investigate until it’s capsized and dragged up ona beach. Any questions?”