The Caverns of Mare Cetus (52 page)

   "And that happy little meeting is supposed to prove something?" asked Aris. "She's an empathic. A DTI Empathic. Do you know what a fucking empathic can do? I lost five of my team to one a month ago."

   "Hey!" exclaimed Fallingwood. "You never said she was an empathic." He whispered to Garrett. "What's an empathic?"

   "I'm not sure," whispered Garrett. "I've never heard of an empathic."

   "It's nothing either of you need to personally worry about," said Kori. "Or Keyes. Empathy has no bearing on you. Trust me."

   "Yeah, fucking trust me," said Aris.

   Statliss glanced at Aris, appearing displeased. "My apologies again, gentleman. Major Aris is a bit on edge as you can tell. She's going through quite a nasty separation right now, aren't you, Alexa?"

   Aris lowered her gaze. "Payat, you don't need to apologize for me, and they certainly don't need to know about my personal problems. I'd appreciate it if you didn't spill them to the universe."

   "Well, Kori and I believe this is going to work," said Statliss. "The Council believes this is going to work. It will work."

   "That is if one has beliefs," said Aris. She looked up and glanced over her shoulder, then looked directly ahead, her brow furrowing. "Let me warn you, Garrett. If this woman harms her in any way, I'm going to come out there and cut out her fucking eyes…"

   The screen immediately went blank.

   "What a bitch!" exclaimed Richelle. "Who the hell does she think she is? Who is she talking about? It had better not be you, Rene. That fucking bitch comes out here to hurt you, I'll rip out her heart…"

   "There's something behind them," said Renata, trying to ignore Richelle's rantings. She immediately backed the streaming image up part way, then let it run forward, freezing the screen at the point when Kori stepped back.

   Renata stepped into the image, pulling Richelle in with her—she was still mouthing off about Aris. The others stepped in too. Renata began moving the streaming image forward, trying to see if there was something behind Kori; she had noticed an occasional flash of light behind Kori's right side as the stream had played. At once Renata saw a face being partially shadowed by Kori's skirt—a light-skinned face framed with dark hair. Someone was sitting at the table. Renata began moving the stream forward again. Kori shifted on her legs slightly, allowing more of the face to show.

   "Devon!" exclaimed Renata when she saw the full profile. "Oh, my God. It's Devon." As she continued moving forward through the stream, she noticed something bright as Devon moved her left arm off the table. Devon was looking down at a razor-thin screen that was laying flat on the table, and on it was a picture of Renata—her Explora security badge image. Renata pulled Devon's screen right up in front of her face and moved the stream forward a few steps. At once another image came to the screen—it was a portrait pose of Trent and Renata, taken shortly after they had first met.

   Renata pushed the stream forward a bit more, and another picture formed on Devon's screen. It was Renata again—a picture Arielle had taken of her at Novia's Senna beach. Renata was standing knee-deep in the water, numerous whitecaps behind her, her right hand held behind her head as if posing, her left holding up the skirt of her long, colorful dress to her thighs, keeping it from getting wet.

   Renata pushed the Vimap image away from her a short distance, seeing a smile on Devon's face, her eyes appearing to be keenly focused on the picture of Renata. Renata suddenly felt sick. She slipped the Vimap into Arielle's hand and backed up from the others, pulling Richelle with her. Then she stumbled and fell to one knee.

   Edison stepped out of the image and grabbed her, pulling her up and steadying her. Trent and Arielle stepped out of the image as well.

   "I've been sold out all right," said Renata, her hands shaking again.

   "I am so sorry," said Richelle. "I'm sorry she's dead." She smiled.

   "I've been sold out to Devon," said Renata. "And it's too late to do anything about it. Garrett! How could he do that to me?" She fought to hold back her tears.

   "Why is it too late?" asked Arielle, appearing puzzled. "Devon's dead. Remember? Whatever she wanted with you, and frankly I don't like the way she was looking at you—it's not going to happen now." Her voice became tentative. "Right?"

   "It already has," said Renata. "Can't you tell?"

   Arielle shook her head in bewilderment.

   "I think I know why Garrett did that," said Trent. "It's something he told me, but until now, it didn't make any sense."

   "What?" Renata bit her lip, continuing to hold back her tears.

   "I'm not trying to exonerate him by any means—what I think about what he's done to you, I can't put into words right now, but he told me the connection he hoped you'd make with Devon would help you."

   Her voice was choked. "Help me? How?"

   "In some big way. Like everything bad that has happened to you would somehow be rectified—by Devon…"

   "Rene doesn't need her anymore," interrupted Richelle. "She has me now. Right, Rene?"

   "Good God," said Arielle. She pointed a finger at Richelle. "I'm beginning to wonder about you, girl. Keep your hands off her, will you? Touch her in the wrong way, and I'll hogtie your ass and drag you out of here."

   Richelle sneered. "You're deranged. You know that?"

   Renata looked at Richelle with both disdain and apprehension. "As you were saying, Trent."

   "What I was saying was—no one ever felt your pain more than Garrett. I've seen him cry because of what's happened to you—and that man never cried."

   "Hate to stop this conversation, but we'd better do what Keyes said," said Edison. "The dude's got me worried." He looked at Renata. "Since you can't wear a pack now, I've transferred your personal stuff to mine. Do you want your hardhat?"

   Still in a daze, Renata shook her head slowly. She felt utterly used, betrayed, and violated. Garrett, Ben Fallingwood, and Abby Kensington had literally sold Renata to a Mendrax—to be her Sister, whatever that truly meant. All for some kind of velandrite deal with ARTEC. Was her life, her existence—worth that little to them? Still, despite the incredible anger and despair spilling through her, Renata longed for Devon in a way that made her hurt. Whatever Devon had done to her—it wasn't going away. Devon was never going to be out of her life—ever!

   Within minutes, Arielle and the men had their packs on, and the group was hurriedly hiking down the Long Hall, Edison in the lead, limping as he pushed the others forward like a drill sergeant. The group spoke little as they hiked, in fact it appeared as if they were going out of their way "not" to ask Renata anything about what they saw for fear of hurting her more than she had already been hurt.

   Time passed. After hours of strenuous hiking and several rounds of OPPs, the group came upon the Small Robotic Collector Two, which was sitting in hibernation mode in the middle of the passage. SRC2 looked like one of the Robotic Transports, only smaller, and it had three pairs of appendages instead of four. Since the women had started to complain about being hungry and tired, Trent thought it was a good idea to take a short break, despite the urgency of their hike.

   As soon as Renata and Richelle were situated, Arielle handed them some plates of assorted hot foods she had quickly whipped up in their small food-prep unit, which Edison had picked up at the Long Hall camp. Almost immediately Richelle pulled her left hand toward her, bringing Renata's with it, causing her to spill her cup of juice.

   "Thanks a lot," said Renata as she watched the juice run into the cracks in the rocks. She looked up. "Hey, Ari. I need to take a pee."

   "I do too," said Richelle.

   "Goofball," whispered Renata. "I want them to cut us free."

   "But I don't mind being cuffed to you anymore," whispered Richelle. "Besides, I know as soon as they uncuff you, you're going to run. That's not going to happen, girl. Wherever you go, I'm going with you."

   Renata yanked her right hand, pulling Richelle toward her, causing Richelle to dump her plate of food and to fall into Renata's lap.

   "Bitch," growled Richelle. She sat up and yanked her arm the other way, pulling Renata into her shoulder.

   Arielle, who was sitting across from them, set down her plate and stood up. Edison and Trent were beside her, Trent not even acknowledging the fracas—he seemed engrossed with something on his Vimap. "Okay," said Arielle. "Stop the games, will you?" She motioned to Edison with her hand.

   He stood up and helped Renata and Richelle to their feet.

   With Arielle and Edison behind them, they walked down the passage until they found a spot where several limestone boulders afforded some privacy.

   "Stay here," said Arielle. "I'll stand on the other side with them."

   "Gotcha," said Edison.

   "You know, I think Rene's going to try to run," said Richelle when they had moved to the other side of the boulders. "You aren't going to shoot her if she does, are you?"

   Renata yanked her right arm in front of her, pulling Richelle off balance, causing Richelle to stumble and almost fall.

   "What's this all about?" asked Arielle. "Have you two been planning something?"

   "No," said Renata, a look of guilt on her face. "Where would we run to?"

   "She's been telling me all about how she's going to escape," said Richelle. "She's using this piss excuse as a chance to make a run for it."

   "Shut up!" exclaimed Renata. She yanked her arm toward her, pulling Richelle into her shoulder.

"Damn you!" exclaimed Richelle.

"Edison!" called Arielle. "I need you."

He came around the rocks. "What's up?"

   "There's something going on between these two. I need you here to make sure they don't try to run when I take off the cuffs."

   "Okay," he said, then turned his back toward them.

   Arielle took out her Vimap and entered the code to release the cuffs. She looked up, then entered it again. The handcuffs were still on. "What the hell?" She called on her com. "Trent. I can't get the cuffs to release."

   "Be right there," he replied.

   Within a moment, Trent hurried up to them. He began trying to get the cuffs to release with his Vimap, but after a number of attempts, he groaned. "I have no idea why this isn't working. We'd need a laser at the very least to cut these things off."

   Richelle flashed Renata a triumphant smile.

   Trent walked around the boulders, Edison following.

   "This is utterly ridiculous," said Renata as she began fumbling to get her pants down with only her left hand.

   After Renata and Richelle had finished, they began walking back to the break spot, the men in front of them, Arielle beside them.

   Renata suddenly felt an itch on her back. She tried to reach it with her left hand but couldn't. "Well, this really sucks." She pulled her hand back, hoping the itch would go away, but it seemed to get only worse.

   She and Richelle sat down, and Arielle helped them get their plates back together. As Renata rubbed her back against the passage wall, the itch seemed to migrate higher on her back.

   Arielle sat down in front of them and started into her food.

   Renata rubbed her back against the wall again, then reached into her right pocket with her left hand, looking for her foldable straight edge.
Squish!
She pulled out her hand, her fingers covered with a warm yellowish-orange gelatinous gunk. "What the hell is in my pocket?" She spread her fingers as she looked at them. "Ari, can you scratch the itch on my back? And something in my pocket broke open." She held her hand out toward Arielle.

   As Arielle looked up, she gaped, her eyes becoming so big they looked like they were going to pop out of her head. "Oh, my God." She pulled out her Iravano and aimed it at Renata.

   Renata flinched. "Ari, what are you doing?"

   Arielle pointed at Renata's right side. "Rene! On your shoulder!"

   As Renata turned her head to the right, her eyes bulged, and every hair on her body stood on end. A small "something" with numerous short black legs was on her shoulder, staring at her with an insect-like face that had six very un-insect-like orange eyes. There were scores of antennae poking out from its head, and four spiky metallic-looking appendages were protruding from beneath its body. Her mouth dropped. "What the fuck is that?"

   Richelle turned her head toward Renata. "Jesus!" She jumped up, pulling Renata toward her and causing Renata to fall on her outstretched arm, then continued forward, dragging Renata down on her face. Immediately Richelle went down too with a thud, Renata's weight stopping her forward motion.

   Richelle began frantically crawling on the ground, dragging Renata with her. As Renata slapped at the creature, just missing it, it ran across the back of her neck, then quickly down her back, toward her waist.

   Trent, Edison, and Arielle, who were all on their feet, were completely dumbstruck.

   "Get up!" cried Richelle as she got to her feet and yanked hard on Renata's arm.

   Renata worked her way to her feet, and Richelle began pulling her down the passage, away from the others.

   "Stop!" cried Edison. "Richelle!"

   As Richelle continued to pull Renata with her, Renata could feel the creature moving all over her back. She started wildly slapping at it with the back of her left hand. "Richelle! Stop! Stop! Hit it! Get it off me!"

   Richelle glanced back but continued moving.

   Renata suddenly pushed her shoulder into Richelle and knocked her toward a wall, causing Richelle to stumble. As Renata hit into her again, she pushed her into the wall, Richelle crying out. Then Renata stumbled and fell, taking Richelle down with her. Renata began frantically rolling back and forth, trying to get the thing off her, but it continued to scamper across her body as if guessing every move she made.

   Richelle pressed her back against the wall, her eyes wide with fear. "Get it away! Get it away! I don't want that thing on me."