That was significant. He hadn't shot the girl outright.
Bearded and emaciated, Shoat had not lost his daft grin. He was very pleased with himself. 'In certain ways,' he said, 'we're the same guy, you and me. Bottom feeders. We can live off other people's shit. And we always make sure we know where the back door is. Back at the presidio, I was ready, just like you.'
Ike's face ached from the rifle butt, but what hurt most was his pride. 'You tracked me?' he said.
Shoat patted the rifle with the sniperscope. 'Superior technology,' he said. 'I could see you from a mile off, clear as day. And once you netted our little bird, things were even easier. I don't know, Ike, you got slow and you got sloppy. Maybe you're getting old. Anyhow' – he glanced behind him over the precipice – 'we've reached the heart of the matter, haven't we?'
While Shoat talked, Ike gathered the few clues. A rucksack sat against the wall, half empty. Over near the watchful girl, Shoat had scattered the plastic refuse from a single military rations packet. It told Ike he had been unconscious long enough to be tied, and for Shoat to finish a meal. More important, the man had come alone; there was just one pack and the remains of one MRE. And the MRE meant he was not feeding off the land, probably because he didn't know how to.
Obviously, Shoat had foraged through the destroyed fortress and found a few essentials: the rifle, some MREs. Ike was mystified. The man had his ticket home; why pursue the depths?
'You should have taken a raft or just started walking,' Ike said. 'You could have been partway out of here.'
'I would have, but someone took my most vital asset.' He lifted the leather pouch that hung from his neck like an amulet. Everyone knew it held his homing device. 'It guarantees my exit. I didn't even know it was gone until I needed it. When I opened the pouch, there was only this.' He unlaced the top and shook out a flat jade plate.
Sure enough, Ike saw, someone had stolen his device and replaced it with a piece of antique hadal armor. 'Now you want me to guide you out,' he guessed.
'I don't think that would work very well, Ike. How far could we get before Haddie found us? Or you did me in.'
'What do you want then?'
'My box. That would be nice.'
'Even if we found it, what's that do for you now?' With or without his homing device, the hadals could still find the man. And Ike could, too.
Shoat smiled cryptically and aimed the jade plate like a TV remote control. 'It lets me change the channel.' He made a click sound. 'Hate to sound like Mr Zen, but you're just an illusion, Ike. And the girl. And all of them down there. None of you exists.'
'But you do?' Ike wasn't taunting him. This was a key to Shoat's strangeness.
'Yeah. Yeah, I do. I'm like the prime mover. The first cause. Or the last. When all of you are gone, I'll still be around.'
Shoat knew something, or thought he did, but Ike couldn't begin to guess what. The man had recklessly followed them into the center of the abyss, and now, surrounded by the enemy, had waylaid his only possible ally in getting out. He could have shot them from a distance at any time over the past several weeks. Instead, he'd saved them for something. There was a logic at work here. Shoat was smart and sane, and
dangerous. Ike blamed himself. He'd underestimated the man.
'You've got the wrong guy,' Ike said. 'I didn't take your box.'
'Of course not. I've thought a lot about it. Walker's boys wouldn't have bothered with any tricks. They would have just put a bullet through me. You would have, too. So it was someone else, someone who needed to keep the theft quiet. Someone who thinks she knows my code. I've got it figured out, Ike. Who it was, and when she took it.'
'The girl?'
'You think I'd let that wild animal close to me? No. I mean Ali.'
'Ali? She's a nun.' Ike snorted to deride the notion. But who else could it be?
'A very bad nun. Don't deny it, Ike. I know she's been playing hide-the-snake with you. I can tell these things, I've got good people sense.'
Ike watched him. 'So you followed me to follow her.'
'Good boy.'
'I didn't find her, though.'
'Actually, Ike, you did.'
Shoat grabbed a loop of rope and dragged him to the edge. He draped his binoculars around Ike's neck, and cautiously loosened the rope binding Ike's hands to his feet, then backed away, aiming his pistol.
'Take a look,' Shoat announced. 'Someone you know is down there. Her and our two-bit warlord. His satanic majesty. The guy who ran off with her.'
Ike wrestled to a sitting position. The news of Ali energized him. His hands were numb from the ropes, but he managed to paw the binoculars into place. He scanned up and down the canals and choked avenues and ruins lit green by the night vision.
'Look for a spire, then go left,' Shoat instructed.
It took several minutes, even with Shoat describing the landmarks while looking through the rifle scope. 'See the pillars?'
'Are those Walker's men?' Two men hung, slumped. Neither was Ali. Yet.
'Just taking a rest,' Shoat said. 'They've been getting some rough treatment. And there's another prisoner, too. I've seen him with Ali. They keep taking him away, though.'
Ike searched higher.
'She's there,' Shoat encouraged. 'I can see her. Unbelievable, it looks like she's writing in her field book. Notes from the underground?'
Ike went on searching. A hill of flowstone knobbed above the masses, enfolding all but the upper stories of a carved stone building. The walls had collapsed on Ike's side of the building, exposing to view a spacious room with no roof. And there she was, sitting on a chunk of rubble. They had freed her hands and legs; why not? Two stories below, she was surrounded by the hadal nation.
'Locked in?'
'I see her.' They hadn't started her rites of passage yet. The branding and shackles and mutilations were usually started in the first few days. Recovery could take years. But Ali looked whole, untouched.
'Good.' Shoat yanked the binoculars away. 'Now you've got your scent. You know where you need to go.'
'You want me to infiltrate an entire city of hadals and steal back your homing device?'
'Give me some credit, man. You're mortal. There are some things even you can't do. Besides, why sneak when you can make a grand entrance?'
'You want me to just walk in and ask for your property?'
'Better you than me.'
'Even if Ali has it, then what?'
'I'm a businessman, Ike. I live and die by negotiation. Let's see where we can get
with them. A little bit of old-fashioned bartering.'
'With them? Down there?'
'You'll be my proxy. My private ambassador.'
'They'll never let Ali go.'
'All I want is my box.'
Ike was truly mystified. 'Why would they give it to you?'
'That's what I want to talk to them about.' Shoat reached over to his rucksack and pulled out a thin, battered laptop computer embossed with the Helios logo. 'Our walkie-talkies are all gone. But I've got a two-way comm device set up with my laptop. We're going to have a video conference.'
