The Caverns of Mare Cetus (37 page)

   "There are some ledges over here," came Trent over her com. "I'm going to use them to get a rope to you. I'd swim out to you, but I'm not much of a swimmer."

   "Neither am I," said Arielle over her com. "I wish I was now."

   Renata was shocked. "Damn coms," she said into her com. "Why are they working now?"

   "Because I'm running Line of Sight Coms through a Vimap relay," said Trent. "Good for punching coms short distances with an unobstructed view. But you have to have the Vimap, and you have to have the view."

   "G-g-getting back to your swimming," said Renata into her com. "How did you t-t-two clowns ever get through t-t-training then?" She tried to crawl along the rocks, but her right foot was stuck in the foothold.

   "It's kind of embarrassing," answered Arielle, chuckling. "I was sleeping with the instructor at the time—he knew I hated the water— so he waived my final skills test. But don't take that wrong though. He was taking a geology course from me at the same time, and I gave him an 'E' even though he didn't have a clue. A freaking scandal, don't you think?"

   Renata pulled on her foot again. It wouldn't budge.

   "And I was so busy at the time," said Trent, "I missed most of the classes. I couldn't take the final skills test either, so I broke into Explora's database and changed my course result to completed. You wouldn't believe how easy that was to do."

   "I can't b-b-believe you t-t-two shit heads," said Renata as she continued to work on getting her foot free. "Damn it. My f-f-foot's stuck."

   "That's not good," replied Arielle.

   "On my way!" exclaimed Trent. He began working his way along a series of thin ledges.

   Renata started taking short, rapid breaths, trying to stay warm. At once she heard a loud beep from her CTU. "C-c-crap. I'm already dd-down to 97º. Damn. Why is that f-f-function still working?"

   After she spent several minutes more trying to work her foot free, she twisted it just the right way, and it popped out of the foothold. As she clung to the rocks, shivering, she told them she had freed her foot. She started crawling along the wall, gripping whatever rock holds she could find.

   After a short distance, she bumped her left leg into something. She moved her leg and bumped into it again. It didn't feel like a rock. She looked down through the water but couldn't see anything. As more shivers set in, she moved her leg again, immediately bumping into the object, which was definitely not a rock.

   "Keep coming this way," said Trent over her com.

   "Hold on a m-m-minute," she said. She reached down and tried to feel what it was, but she couldn't reach it. It was right against her leg though, and it felt soft. She slipped down in the water and stretched out her left arm as far as she could. Something brushed against her hand. It was a strap of some kind. She grabbed it and tried pulling on it. It was attached to something heavy. She pulled on the strap again, but the object wouldn't budge.

   At once her CTU beeped again. "Christ," she moaned. "I'm d-ddown another d-d-degree already? How c-c-can I be losing heat that fast?" Maybe the water was colder—it certainly felt like it. And she was never known to carry much weight. That had to be contributing too.

   Arielle and Trent began frantically calling to Renata, telling her to keep moving forward.

   "I've f-f-found something," she said, her shivers continuing to assail her speech. She took a deep breath and slipped under the water, pushing herself down using some rock holds. She shined her lights downward, seeing them reflect off a green bag wedged in the rocks. Then she saw the distinctive Explora emblem. Garrett's backpack? She grabbed the strap and tried to pull it from the wall, but it didn't budge. She tried again—it seemed to move a little. She needed a breath.

   "…water's a lot colder in this channel," she heard Arielle say over her com when she surfaced. "It's only about 3º! Keep coming toward us! Stop what you're doing…"

   Renata took a deep breath and went under again, this time pushing herself down as far as she could. She grabbed the strap as tight as her numb hands would allow, and as she wedged her feet between some jutting blocks below her, she yanked on the backpack. It moved again, slightly. She pulled again—hard—and it came forward just a bit more. Immediately she heard the loud beep of her CTU even through the water.
Christ! She was down to 95º!
At once the CTU began to chime furiously, her body temperature sending its warning alarms into a frenzy.

   "Just one more pull," she thought, despite the warning. She yanked as hard as she could…the pack came loose with a jerk, and she fell back, the pack riding over her.

   Suddenly long hair of some kind seemed to have wrapped all around her head, and there was something on her face. It was hard and cold. Her eyes opening wide—she realized. It was a hand—a white hand, and its fingers were up against her face, beneath her hardhat. She gasped, the rest of her air leaving her in a flurry of bubbles. She let go of the pack and began flailing her arms, trying to get away, but this thing seemed to be all over her. As she clambered to get to the surface, she grabbed onto hair, a head, an arm, a body…every move she made, it seemed to be blocking her way, and the more she touched it, the more she panicked. Her arms moving wildly, she realized she had only seconds more to get a breath. She began kicking her legs as hard as she could.

   Her head popped up above the water. She gasped, then screamed for help. Her CTU continuing to violently chime with its warning sound, she gasped again and fell back into the water and into the grasp of the hairy thing.

   But it wasn't a thing. There was long brown hair. Human hair. And a head, and a face—a woman's face. It was a body. A woman's body. She frantically kicked her legs again, trying to get to the surface and away from the body. She reached the surface again just to fall back in—her swimming prowess seeming to have been sucked away by the icy waters. Another resounding chime spilled through the water.
Another degree!
She was burning herself out. Everything suddenly seemed weird, distorted. She felt confused. She continued to move her arms and legs but was going nowhere…

   At once hands grabbed her beneath her arms, pulling her torso up and out of the water. "Don't pull me down," said Trent, his voice filled with anxiety. "Don't pull me down." As her CTU continued to fill the air with its frightful warning chimes, he began fastening a rope around her chest, just beneath her armpits.

   "Pull, Arielle!" cried Trent. "Pull!"

   As Renata lay on her back, her head just above the waterline, her body trembling, she was yanked back through the water with a hard jerk, then another and another.

   "Jesus Christ!" she heard Trent exclaim.

   Renata was jerked again, then again; Arielle seemed made of iron with the speed with which she was pulling her toward her. Renata tried to move her fingers—they wouldn't respond. She tried to kick her feet—they wouldn't respond either. As Arielle continued to pull Renata through the water with a succession of heavy jerks, Renata's body became instantly caught in a violent spasm of shaking. As she felt herself passing through the outflow from the side channel, and as water spilled over her head, she couldn't do anything except close her mouth.

   There was another jerk, then another. Arielle grabbed Renata's arms and pulled her into the upper passage. "I'm going to get you out of here," she said. She began hurriedly dragging Renata through the water. After a short distance, she took off Renata's backpack and let it drop in the water. She held Renata's body, and with considerable groaning she managed to get her onto a projecting ledge that was above the waterline. She felt Renata's face. "My God. You're like ice."

   As Renata lay on the ledge, which was barely wide enough for her thin frame, her entire body shook unrelentingly, her CTU continuing to squawk out her dangerously low body temperature.

   "We don't have a pill for this!" lamented Arielle. "How am I going to get you warm?" She pulled Renata's backpack out of the water, opened it and found two thermal blankets. She covered Renata and turned them on.

Despite her oppressive shaking, Renata closed her eyes.

*****

   When Renata opened her eyes, she was still on the ledge, but her trembling had stopped. And it was quiet. Dead quiet. Arielle was caressing her face. At once Renata felt a series of pulsating waves of warmth flowing through her body, one after another. They felt good, very good. She looked at Arielle and smiled weakly.

   "You're going to be okay," whispered Arielle. "The thermal blankets—now I know they can be used for hypothermia. Plus your damn CTU started working again just minutes after I got you out of the water. Go figure."

   Renata turned her head.

   "How's my girl doing?" asked Trent who was standing a short distance away. "You're one gutsy, strong-headed woman. You know that? How you managed to pull her out with as cold as you were, I'll never know. One thing's for sure, you're no quitter."

   Renata sat up quickly, nearly falling off the ledge—it was that small. Then she saw the body partially submerged in the water nearby. But it wasn't just a body anymore. It was an attractive woman, even in death, despite her abrasions and tattered clothing. "What's she doing here?" asked Renata. Then she recognized the face. "Danielle Ambrose? She was part of Sid's expedition." Renata's stomach suddenly turned, and she put her face over the ledge and threw up into the water.

   Seeing that, Arielle threw up as well.

   "Good God, women," said Trent. "You're going to have me heaving too."

   "What a waste of good chocolate," said Renata as she watched her stomach contents sink into the water. She wiped off her mouth with a handkerchief, then took a long look at the woman's face, which appeared remarkably well-preserved. "God, she's so beautiful. How can that be?"

   "My thoughts exactly," said Arielle. She wiped off her mouth on the back of her hand, then waggled her hand in the water. "I'll bet I don't look that good right now. Trent. Answer—please."

   "Part of it is certainly the cold water she's been lying in," he answered. "Plus all the normal processes that lead to decomposition are stopped on Mare—there's nothing here to attack the body. I will admit though, her appearance is not what I would have expected."

   "Her. Danielle—right?" asked Arielle. "What is she doing here?"

   "Yes. Danielle. I verified her identity with an ID program."

   "But I thought we buried her?" asked Arielle. "We all went to her funeral. If this is Danielle, who did we bury?"

   "That's an excellent question," said Trent.

   "How did she get here?" asked Renata, her queasiness subsiding. She sat up again and gazed at the beauty of the woman in the water.

   "I just don't understand this," said Arielle, sounding flustered. She began turning the rings on her fingers, one after the next.

   "When you see what else I found," said Trent, "you'll have your answer." He held up an orange tri-pronged sampling claw with a very short part of an appendage attached to it. "This was around her ankle."

   "A goddamn Kalo did this?" exclaimed Renata. "Explora never found the body because a Kalo dragged her down here?"

   "I suspect they held the phony funeral," said Trent, "because they never found her body, and it was too embarrassing to explain."

   "Goddamn Explora!" exclaimed Arielle. "What a bunch of assholes."

   "Damn Kalo," said Renata. "Pathetic piece of crap…"

   Trent shook his head in amusement. "Save your swearing for when we get out of here. We need to get moving. I'll try Edison again, but I think something damaged the FOC with all that's happened here. I'll bring Danielle's body. It's the moral thing to do. Get to Edison and have him help me with her."

   Renata slipped off the ledge and into the water, gasping loudly as she did. Almost immediately she could feel her CTU working again.

   Arielle stuffed the blankets in Renata's pack, then took Renata by the arm, holding Renata's backpack in her other hand as they began making their way through the passage. As Renata glanced back, seeing Trent behind them pulling Danielle's body through the water, Arielle suddenly shifted into a runner's pace, dragging Renata forward.

   It wasn't long before they saw the lights in the enclosure. They began calling out to Edison. As they stepped into the enclosure, they stopped. Something was wrong. They looked around. Richelle was nowhere to be seen; Edison was lying face down, his hardhat beside him, a bloody spot on the back of his head.

   "That bitch!" Arielle dropped Renata's backpack and threw off her own, then took out her electra.

   They ran up to Edison and knelt beside him. Arielle checked his head while Renata took his vital signs. As Renata expected Richelle to jump out of a passage at any moment, she kept taking apprehensive glances around the room—then her eyes were drawn to something else—there was a thin knife blade buried in the side of Edison's left thigh.

   "Shit!" she exclaimed as she leaned over his legs to look at the knife. "She stabbed him!" She quickly inspected it, seeing only a small amount of blood around the blade and on his pants. "Get the clotting agent." She placed her fingers around the knife's ornate handle and waited for Arielle to search through Edison's backpack. Once Arielle had the clotting agent, Renata gritted her teeth, then began slowly pulling the knife out of his leg, her stomach turning as the blade seemed to keep coming and coming, blood billowing out with it. When she got the blade out, Arielle sprayed the clotting agent on his leg like she was trying to kill a tarantula with bug spray, then threw a T-shirt over his wound, pressing down.

   After Arielle was certain his bleeding had stopped, she took the shirt off his leg and began to point her electra at one passage opening after the next. "I'm going to kill her. He was the one person who stuck up for her. How could she do this to him?"

   Renata shook her head. "We should have tied her up." She turned, hearing Trent calling to them from the passage.