thesurface.” He opened the manual to a diagram. “They’re located here,here, here and here.”
Straight to business. No hug or, “Thanks forcoming for us.” Professional as always. But then, she was the onewho had sent him on a task that resulted in his capture. Maybe hewas holding a grudge.
“Do you know how to do it, or do you needBooks?” Amaranthe asked him.
“I can do it,” Sicarius said.
“All right. Books, do you want to take yourteam to handle the practitioners?”
“My
“Akstyr and Basilard, go with him, please.Maldynado, you’re with Sicarius and me.”
“Double lovely,” Maldynado said after aglance at Sicarius’s nude state, or perhaps at the streaks of driedblood smearing his arm and shoulder.
“Wait,” Books said. “The plan is to go to thesurface in this? The enemy vessel? With the marines sitting upthere with all their weapons firing?”
“We’ll surrender,” Amaranthe said.
“We could swim out before we get to the top,”Maldynado said.
“With the kraken waiting out there?” Booksasked.
“Kraken?” Sicarius asked mildly.
“Er, yes,” Amaranthe said. “Did you not knowabout that?”
“I thought you’d have to slay it to get inhere.”
“No, the kraken-slaying is still on my to-dolist.”
Sicarius’s eyebrow twitched.
“Don’t worry. We have a plan. Sort of. Books,meet us back at the transition chamber once you have these peoplesecured. Sicarius, let’s go see to these tanks.”
CHAPTER 17
Basilard led the way to the laboratory fromwhich he and Sicarius had escaped mere hours earlier. Books,Akstyr, and the athletes followed, grunting and panting as theytoted the unconscious practitioners. Clunks and thumps sounded aslimbs-or heads-collided with pipes and bulkheads. Despite thedamage the vessel had taken, the barrier remained in place,blocking the laboratory entrance.
“Do you know how to get past?” Booksasked.
Basilard stared at the eyeball-readerthoughtfully. He had no desire to try Sicarius’s method.
“Akstyr, do
“That work’s beyond me,” he said.
“Can we hurry up?” a man asked at the rear.“This bloke’s stirring. I think they’re going to wake up soon.”
Basilard pointed at an unconscious womanstrung between Books and Akstyr.
“That’ll work?” Books asked skeptically.
“Let’s…make the first thing work,” Bookssaid. “And please don’t tell me if you know for a fact the othermethod works.”
He and Akstyr jostled the woman into place.Basilard used his good arm to pry her eyelid back and held hisbreath. Nothing happened. The iris was rolled back in her head.Grimacing-and worried she would wake up-he used his finger to slideher eyeball downward.
The barrier winked out.
Before he could let his breath out in relief,something tinkled to the deck inside. Basilard had no idea how manyof the crew had been accounted for. Not everybody, apparently.
He drew his knife and motioned for the restof the team to wait inside the threshold.
Only tables and equipment occupied the firstaisle. Basilard tiptoed toward the second and paused at a tank onthe end.
In case someone waited around the corner witha pistol, he stuck his hand out as a decoy, then whipped it back.No shots fired. He listened but heard nothing. Knife in hand, hepeeked around the corner….
Only to find it empty. He ducked to see ifsomeone might be hiding beneath the beds. Nothing. The hairs roseon the back of his neck, and some instinct told him to look up.
A pair of black boots swung toward hisface.
Basilard dropped into a crouch so low, hisrump smacked the deck. He bounced up instantly, whirling as agray-haired soldier hanging from the ceiling pipes swung past him.Taloncrest. Before he could release the pipes and drop down,Basilard jammed his knife into the man’s kidney.
Taloncrest snarled as his boots hit the deck,and he whirled, a pistol in hand.
Basilard dropped again, this time hurlinghimself onto his back. He kicked up, sending the pistol flying withsurprising ease. Taloncrest stood there, face slack, a bulky toteslung over one shoulder, papers fighting to escape the flap.
His eyes grew glazed, and he toppledforward.
Basilard scrambled backward in the tightaisle and barely avoided having the man land on top of him. Asecond knife protruded from his back.
Akstyr stepped forward and removed it.“You’re welcome.”
“This goon’s waking up,” someone said.
A loud thump sounded.
“Never mind,” someone else said.
Books stuck his head around the corner intime to see the message. “Do you know how to sedate them?”
Basilard pointed to one of the globes thatperched beside each table.
“So, that’s a yes?” Books asked.
Basilard hesitated.
“This should prove interesting then.”
After retrieving their swords, Amaranthe andMaldynado wound through the corridors, following Sicarius. Shefocused on carrying her helmet, not tripping over her oversizedboots, and watching for guards; she most definitely did not focuson Sicarius’s bare rear end as he jogged ahead of them.
“If Deret’s on board the
“Why would Mancrest be there?” Sicariusasked, his tone as friendly as the edge of that black knife ofhis.
“His brother is the captain of the marinesalvage and rescue vessel dropping explosives on us,” Amaranthesaid. “I had to chat with Deret to make that happen.” Anothercharge blew nearby, and the corridor trembled. “Which has been aboon and a bane, I’ll admit.”
A second blast went off, this time rightoutside the wall. The floor heaved, pitching her sideways. A lighton the wall bounced out of its holder and shattered on the deck.Sicarius caught Amaranthe before she smashed against thebulkhead-nothing so mundane as a shock wave would throw him off hisfeet-and she nodded a thank you. It was good to have him back evenif the return look he gave her was on the cool and disapprovingside. She hoped it was because of Deret and not due to her ownclumsiness.
“Don’t worry about Mancrest,” she said. “You
If anything Sicarius’s gaze grew cooler.
“He gave me his word,” Amaranthe said. “He’snot trying to turn me over to the military any more.”
