And their ubiquitous suits. Especially in the high-level posses—those serving the regional
drozhar
or even the Septs Prince, leader of them all. High sheen, beautifully cut...always just a little bit
I think much of myself.
Not that this man was any of those things any longer. His black hair had gone dry and brittle; his skin taut, dry walnut stretching over bone. His clothes had been woodsy enough, the camo jacket over fatigue pants and a black T. But whatever else he might have had to tell them, they’d lost it when his tongue dried up. All they’d ever know was that this place wasn’t quite as abandoned as they’d thought it to be.
“He’s safe,” Ian said, coming to inspect the man now that he’d cleared the installation’s entrance of security workings. “I’ll leave the rest of it to you.”
Ruger hadn’t expected Mariska to display any squeamishness over the chore, and she didn’t. She leaned over to search the man, displaying her truly fine ass in the process. Ruger watched until he realized the riveted nature of his gaze, and scowled as he moved off across the swale. “I’m going to take a look inside with the AmSpecs. Let us know what you find.”
“Nothing so far,” she said, all business, her voice muffled as she bent to her task—and as he put distance between them. “Whatever he was up to, I don’t think he’s going to give us any clues.”
One of Ian’s poorly introduced AmSpecs waited by the entrance. It turned out to be a substantial door set within the rocks at the base of the opposite slope, obscured by light and shadow and a truly clever camouflage of combined paint and netting. Of course, Forakkes wouldn’t expect anyone to get this close, given the deterrent workings he’d had set in the area—and likely no one had, until now.
“Jack Ivers,” the man said, as Ruger approached. “AmSpec grunt. Glad to meet you.” He grasped the inset latch and twisted, and then put enough effort into shoving the heavy metal door that Ruger propped a hand over his shoulder and pushed, speeding the process considerably.
Of course, then he had to duck. Not even the Core, with its typically lavish appointments and luxuries, would dig an underground hallway any larger than it absolutely had to be.
This one sloped sharply downward, with fourteen-inch circles of solar tube lighting overhead—eventually they’d find the discreet plastic domes that served to collect and amplify the light. Darkened LED lights also lined the sides of the hall and the center of the ceiling. Wire mesh served to reinforce the packed dirt walls, anchored and slightly concave. The good, clean scent of dirt went a long way toward cleansing Ruger’s head of the inevitable stink of Core workings.
The stink when they entered the installation was another thing altogether. Harrison, the other AmSpec grunt, stood off to the side, his complexion gone a little gray. “All clear so far,” he told Ruger. “We’ve checked the amulet station and the animals.” He nodded at the place, a cavernous Quonset structure also lit by solar tubes, subdivided into distinct areas, and full of such dim corners and visual clutter that Ruger couldn’t immediately make sense of it all. “This is where they work; they don’t need to trip over their own amulets every time they turn around.”
Ruger merely made a noise deep in his throat, an absent acknowledgment. He understood, for the first time, what they faced in this newly emerged rogue—Forakkes, a man who currently defied his own Core as much as he defied the Sentinels. And he understood, for the first time, the truly terrifying nature of Katie’s vision. The pain of this place hit him in a miasma of feeling—all the wrongness, all the misery, all the reeling desperation, striking hard against his healer’s perceptions.
And I can’t do a damned thing about it.
He stood rooted, all his energy focused on just one thing—filtering out the
need
of this place so he could think.
“I left our friend outside the door,” Mariska said, speaking from behind him before she reached his end of the tunnel. “I didn’t find anything, but maybe a closer look— Oh, hell.” She came up beside Ruger and stared, openly stunned, at the structure spread out before them.
Crates lined the wall on the far end; in the corner stood shelving stacked with aquariums and terrariums. Additional shelves bore bags of esoteric kibble, and one organizational niche held a sophisticated and complex computer station while another held autopsy tables and a third held a wooden worktable and a series of wood cabinets. Closer to the entrance, several completely enclosed spaces looked as if they’d once been private quarters, and a large cage of stout bars still held not only straw and troughs, but the notable stench of javelina.
“What is that
smell?
” Mariska asked, wrinkling her nose.
“Collared peccary times ten or so,” Ruger told her, absurdly pleased to find he had complete control of his voice. “The creature Maks fought must have lived here. But there’s a lot more here than that.”
She nodded. “Death, for one.”
“Death, for one,” Ian echoed. “No kidding.” Then he pointed out the wooden worktable to his assistants. “That’s where we’ll want to start. I don’t want to touch anything today—it’s enough to see what we have to work with. We’ll make a plan and come at it tomorrow.” He headed that way, glancing over his shoulder at Ruger. “I suggest you do the same. Go slow.”
Mariska watched him—hesitating, for once, before she charged forward.
Then again, so was he.
“Look,” Mariska said, as they closed in on the rack of stacked crates; she nodded to the shelving that held the small animal cages. “Fresh bedding. They all have water. Maybe our guy was here to take care of them.”
“Doesn’t make sense.” Ruger pulled his thoughts together, pushing away the assault of misery. No wonder it had grabbed him so hard from the outside looking in—demanding help, demanding mercy—drawing him past the perception of the woes and into a subconscious attempt to
fix
them. “If this is an active installation, where is everyone?
Anyone?
” He looked back to the largest cage where the mutated javelina had stayed. “It’s been weeks since Maks killed that thing, but someone’s been tending these animals.” He paced the length of the stacked crates, finding them empty—albeit with obvious signs of past occupancy.
“It’s as though they’re abandoned and yet still part of some experiment,” Mariska said, and frowned as they approached the aquariums, slowly coming to a stop, her entire body a signpost of reluctance. “Ruger—”
“Yeah,” he said, his voice gruff—agreeing with her, seeing what she saw. This, then, was part of the reason for the odor that permeated this place, interlaced with the misery he’d felt until he could barely tell them apart. It wasn’t an odor of death so much as it was an odor of dying.
The first aquarium held a flat rock that barely rose above several inches of water. A limp form sprawled on the rock, its fur mattered and coming away in patches; sections of rotting skin peeled away from beneath. The animal’s head was under water, its eyes huge and dull, its gills expanding and contracting as if it gulped for air, never quite getting enough.
“Is that...” Mariska’s voice grew tentative; she blew out a breath with an uncanny resemblance of sound to the frightened black bear in Katie’s vision. “Is that a squirrel?”
Ruger made a noise deep in his chest. ::Yes,:: he said between them, not quite trusting his physical voice. An Abert’s squirrel with gills, trying not to drown and trying not to rot in the unrelentingly watery environment it hadn’t been born to manage.
“But,” she stammered, “but...
why?
”
He almost reached for her hand, wanting to wrap it up in his and offer the best comfort he could. And then he remembered that she was here because she’d thought herself ready for it—so ready for it that she’d used his situation as an excuse to be here, never mind that her maneuvering had torn away the one unique thing he’d had left to offer brevis.
So he kept his hand to himself. “Because it’s who they are,” he said shortly. “It’s what they do. It’s what you got yourself into when you talked yourself onto this team.”
“I—” The word came hot out of her mouth, her temper rising to the moment—and then, with visible effort, moderating into restraint. “That still doesn’t answer the question. No matter how wretched the mind behind this, there was also
reason
behind it. The Core bends people—and animals—to its purpose without consideration, but it does have
purpose.
”
Zing.
She had him there. He scrubbed a hand over his face, still somewhat surprised to find smooth skin where the beard had always been. “In Tucson,” he said, “Gausto’s purpose was to create a working that allowed those in the Core to change shape—to put them on even ground with the Sentinel field agents.”
Mariska snorted. “Even if they could change to a bear, they wouldn’t
be
the bear. Not like us.”
“No, not like us.” Ruger stepped on to the next aquarium, found a snake with stumpy legs and tentacle toes twisting itself into a knot of confusion, and found himself looking at Mariska instead. “But as close as they could come.”
“I read the details on that,” she said, her expression troubled. “The instability of the working...that’s how Fabron Gausto died. They still haven’t replaced him with a new
drozhar,
either.”
“Still looking for someone with a balance of ambition and common sense. Gausto was all ambition, and look where that got them.”
One failed scheme after another, each one tipping the delicate detente between factions further out of balance.
He left the aquariums to check the larger crates, and should have known better. Mammals with feathers, birds with fur and creatures so mixed up he couldn’t be certain how they’d started. All of them sick and miserable. Their need hammered against him, an unending and plaintive demand for mercy. And the healer in him fought to respond, leaving Ruger with an aching head. He dabbed at the dampness on his upper lip, half expecting to find blood and relieved when it was still merely a cold sweat.
“Eduard Forakkes was behind that working,” Mariska said. “He escaped, came up here...and what? Kept developing it?” She nodded at the animals. “It doesn’t make any sense. Not with that Frankenstein javelina, and not with the animals here.”
“We thought that was his purpose, when Maks found the javelina,” Ruger said. “The question is, are these animals somehow a by-product of that same purpose? Or did he change what he was doing? Or...did we have it wrong all along?”
Mariska’s worry came through loud and clear. “What I want to know is how it ties into Katie’s vision.”
Ian’s voice filtered out from the amulet work section. “Get over yourselves,” he said. “We’re here to gather information. Leave the brevis analysts
something
to do, huh?”
Ruger growled out loud, an ominous sound in the cave-like interior, and Ian laughed. “Back atcha, fella,” he said without rancor.
“He’s right, I suppose,” Mariska said under her breath.
“He’s right,” Ruger said. “And he’s not.” He touched the crate where a bird with no beak flicked its tongue out at a cup of mashed seeds, its freakish little nostrils flat to the remaining face and twitching with distress. “I’m a
healer.
Gathering information...that’s not the half of it.”
“No one expects you to heal these animals,” Mariska said, her tone surprised and sharp.
“
I
expect me to heal them.” He thought he’d been ready for this—to be out in the field applying what medicines he knew, acting the part of emergency medic without relying on that lifelong innate ability to channel healing energies.
But he hadn’t realized how much he’d feel their pain. And he’d underestimated the ongoing impulse to do something about it.
“You must be kidding.” Mariska’s blunt voice held nothing but honesty—every bit the same lady bear he’d met the evening before.
Now those blunt words beat against him, one by one. “You could be one hundred percent, and you’d never be able to help these animals—to put them back the way they were. You sure can’t help them now—the only thing you can do is put them out of their misery.”
Ruger stiffened, turning away from the crates to find her close—to draw himself up so it became obvious how much he towered over her. Kodiak and black bear—so similar in nature, so different in effect. “I don’t need you here, little bear. I don’t want you here. I don’t even think you belong here. Do me a favor and don’t be in the way.”
Her eyes narrowed, darkened with emotion; her chin, surprisingly, revealed that emotion in a little tremble. But she said nothing; she merely turned from him, her shoulders stiff, and walked away.
Ian’s mind-voice found its way to Ruger. ::Bastard.::
Ruger shot back a quick response. ::Yeah,:: he said. ::But I’m not wrong.::
He’d taken care of himself outside the installation; he’d take care of himself in here. He had more hours in the field, as healer and fighter, than she’d even imagined. He didn’t trust her, and he didn’t need her.
He didn’t need her at all.
Chapter 6
B
astard,
Mariska thought, and didn’t care if she thought it loud enough for the world to hear. But no one sent any startled glances her way as she stalked away from the animals, heading for the office area simply because no one else was there.
She’d only meant to help. To
console.
And even if she’d done it in her blunt bear way, if anyone could understand that...
She muttered a growl between her teeth, her face burning with humiliation, her stomach a cold, hard knot around the hurt that wanted to make her throat ache except she damned well
wouldn’t let it.
::Hey,:: Ian said, low enough to be private. ::Look, little bear, I think you screwed up big-time, but we all know you didn’t deserve that. Take it easy.::
She send him back a silent growl, and heard him laugh quietly out loud in response. But, after a pause, he said, ::The man’s hurting. You walked right into that hurt and you played him for a fool while you were at it. Give him space.::