Lindsay Buroker - Encrypted

Tikaya stared at the fine pile.

“ The kill zone starts about twenty feet up,” Lancecrest said, “and extends to the walls. You see that door in the chamber up there? And the symbols by it? My brother has- had — goggles that make it easy to see them. He got in once by randomly pressing them with that wizard shit he learned on your island.”

“ Telekinetics?” Tikaya suggested.

“ Yes. He lowered a rocket out, but the code changed before he could get back in, and he wasn’t able to find another combination that worked.”

“ How could you let him use that weapon on the men in your fort? The men who trusted you to command them?”

Lancecrest’s jaw clenched. “I didn’t know. Atner just sent a note to get out of the fort with my best men and meet him at the canyon. I still can’t believe he-I know why he did it, but I can’t believe he made that choice.”

“ Why’d he do it?”

“ Keeler.” Lancecrest waved toward the camp, and she guessed he meant the practitioner who had come out to bestir the bat. “Keeler can see what’s happening elsewhere. He found out Starcrest was coming and my brother panicked, figured he had to do anything to delay you all.”

“ Rias isn’t even in charge.”

“ Doesn’t matter. He’s there. And the other man-a captain, isn’t he? — doubtlessly had orders to requisition half the fort to help flush the archaeologists out of the tunnels and get the weapons. Atner probably figured I wouldn’t disobey those orders, even for him.”

“ Would you have?”

“ I don’t know. It doesn’t matter now. Come.” Lancecrest led her to another panel. “What’s this one say?”

“ Temperature and…” Not water, but similar to water. “Humidity,” she realized. “Controls for modifying the cavern atmosphere.”

He sighed. “I was hoping for more from these panels.”

“ I doubt the instructions for disabling the security system are going to be on the wall in the same room as the security system.”

Lancecrest grunted and strode to the last panel of symbols, this one on the backside of the butte and situated fifteen meters from a tunnel entrance. Tikaya did not have to ponder long, for she had translated these exact symbols just a couple days earlier. Her stomach clenched. Rias was not here with his acidic concoction this time.

“ Don’t let your people touch anything on this one,” she said.

“ Security?” Lancecrest perked up. “Weapons?”

“ Cleaning service. What’s down that tunnel?”

“ Labs. What do you mean, cleaning service?”

Tikaya nodded. “We’ve seen them so far near the labs.”

Despite her own words, she prodded an “open” symbol. An invisible door swung outward, and her breath caught. Four stacked cubes waited inside, their deadly orifices pointed her direction.

Lancecrest cursed and jumped back. Tikaya stood frozen a long moment before her thoughts could push past her first instinct of fear. The cubes were dormant for the time being. A complicated drawing on the inside of the door caught her eye. A schematic? A label on top, a grouping of numbers and symbols, nagged her mind. There was something familiar about the arrangement. Oh, it looked like the codes on the instruction sets in the sphere.

“ Can I get some paper and copy this?” she asked.

“ If it’ll help. I can get you the goggles, too, if you want to take a good look.” He pointed at the top of the butte.

If she wanted to take a look? Strange, Lancecrest was treating her better instead of worse since Gali blabbed.

“ Do I have a choice?” Tikaya asked. “I’m used to Turgonians threatening me or my family to ensure my help.”

Lancecrest studied her for a moment. “Starcrest’s a tricky devil on the water, but he’s no asshole who would play mind games with a prisoner. If he says you’re his woman, you are.”

“ And that means something to you?” she asked, not sure whether to be hopeful or not.

“ I respect him. If he’s between me and getting out of here alive, I’m still going to shoot him, but I’m not going to torment you.”

“ Is that a Turgonian tenet? It’s fine to shoot a man you respect, but you don’t mess with his lady?”

A faint smile stretched his lips. “Something like that. My little brother…destroyed things for our whole family. All I’m hoping to do at this point is get out of here alive with some weapons to sell. Ideally, I’ll get those weapons and get out of here before Starcrest shows up.”

“ What happens to Parkonis and the other archaeologists? I assume selling weapons isn’t what most of them signed on for.”

Lancecrest’s jaw tightened. “This isn’t what I signed on for either, but we’re all stuck in this together now. My brother didn’t make his choices alone. Everyone here is going to be wanted for crimes against the emperor. We’re all working for a split of the profits. And if you want Starcrest-and Parkonis-to walk away from this unharmed, you’d best get to work opening that weapons chamber up there. You can make sure there’s no bloodshed.”

No bloodshed. Right. Until whoever he sold the weapons to used them.

Better to let him think she would go along with him though. “Get me the goggles.”

“ Lancecrest!” someone called from the other side of the butte. “The Turgonians are over the chasm!”

“ Already?” Lancecrest cursed and jogged toward the speaker.

As he trotted away, Tikaya eyed the tunnel near the cube cabinet, wondering if she could slip away before someone caught up with her. But, no, it would not take Lancecrest long to notice she did not follow, and for all she knew the tunnel dead-ended. Besides, she wanted to copy that schematic, examine the door symbols, and talk to Parkonis.

She jogged after Lancecrest. He disappeared ahead of her, but she expected that by now. She kept going and between one step and the next, the camp appeared. Crates, backpacks, bedrolls, muskets and bows, and food sacks sprawled about her. The scent of stale sweat mingled with the pervasive guano stench.

Twenty people, several wearing marine uniforms, stood around the wispy-haired fellow, who hunkered over a bowl of water. A clairvoyant, she realized when she spotted images of Bocrest’s men moving on the still surface.

“ How’d they get across?” someone asked.

“ Built a catapult.”

A marine whistled.

“ I wouldn’t have joined this team if I’d known we’d be against Admiral Starcrest,” a woman muttered.

“ Isn’t he dead?”

“ We’ll be dead if we tangle with him.”

“ He’s just a man,” Lancecrest growled. “We’ve laid your wizard traps, and we know the terrain best. The advantage is ours.”

Tikaya edged closer to the bowl, hoping to catch sight of Rias. She wished she could communicate with him somehow, let him know everything that mattered. For the moment, the clairvoyant showed them Bocrest and Ottotark as they removed their parachutes and gathered their gear.

“ Find Starcrest,” Lancecrest said. “Let’s see what they’re planning.”

The image shifted, focusing on Rias and Sicarius. Tikaya wrestled with the urge to kick the water bowl over. Even if she did want to see Rias, it was better if Lancecrest did not know what he planned. She took a step toward the bowl. Lancecrest gripped her forearm to keep her back.

“ How was the ride?” Rias asked.

“ Exhilarating,” Sicarius said in a monotone.

“ I thought we might get a yell of excitement or at least a smile out of you, but I see the emperor has trained you well.”

“ Yes.”

It was like conversing with a rock. Tikaya wondered why Rias bothered, especially when he ought to be worried about her. Not that she wanted him to fall apart, but a little agitation would have been flattering.