Delight, in the meantime, worked her magic, and Alice was talking to her as soon as she’d dropped. They’d coded their chat so I couldn’t understand it. This normally wouldn’t have bothered me, except they were having their conversation in my head, and it was making it hard to focus.
“Do you bloody mind?” I asked, and they stopped.
“It’s not for you to know,” Alice informed me, and I turned to Delight.
“I don’t want to know, but I need to concentrate, if I’m to get these people out of here, alive.”
Delight considered that, and Alice waited. I’m pretty sure she’d finally recognized me, and wasn’t impressed. I took another glance towards the door, and around the room.
The women in the cages were silent, now. They’d worked out I wasn’t one of their captors, and they’d heard me say I wanted to get them out of here, alive, so they were waiting. I looked at Alice, and tossed her the Glazer.
“I have to check the rest of this place is clear.”
She caught the Glazer out of the air, checked the safety, checked the clip, checked the charge, and checked the setting. When she was done, she turned toward the door.
“And I have to find Ty.”
“Tyson?”
“He was my muscle.”
“Some muscle he was, if you ended up here.”
“Pretty sure you have no idea exactly how off-base you are, with that.”
I figured she might be right, and shut my mouth. Just because I didn’t like the man, didn’t mean he wasn’t good at his job.
“He brought you in, didn’t he?” Delight said, as if I needed reminding.
Alice’s lips twitched, but she still didn’t seem impressed.
“Delight says you’re in charge of this operation—at least until we get back to Taraquil.”
“Where?”
“The settlement the arach attacked,” Delight explained, and I realized I didn’t know any of the city names for this world.
“You might want to do something about that. Tara’s one of the oldest human settlements on the planet, fourth to be established after the capital.”
“Ta,” I said, not at all interested in intel I couldn’t use, right now.
Sliding past Alice, I walked around the room, checking on each of the prisoners, and making sure my implant recorded them all. Once I’d done that, and I was sure Tyson wasn’t among them, I returned to the door.
“We’ll come back for you,” I promised, and was greeted with silence.
Those words would just have to do, because I didn’t know what else to say. The building wasn’t yet secured, and I had one more section to check, before I doubled back to make sure this one was still clear. There was no telling what might have come through that last door while I’d been letting Alice loose.
I stepped out into the corridor, checking that the door to the outside was still bolted, and listening for any sound that might alert me that we were no longer alone. I even remembered to sweep check the ceiling, leading with the Blazer, and was aware of Alice covering the ground behind my back. It was nice to have a partner.
“I’m here,” Delight protested.
“Yeah, but Alice is actually right next to me; you’re just the pain-in-the-ass in my head.”
I couldn’t see her, but I was pretty sure Delight was pouting. Whatever. She wanted to adjust my attitude? She’d have to wait until I got back to Taraquil, and then she’d have to get Mack’s permission—and I couldn’t see that last bit happening.
“You’re awfully sure of yourself,” she said, and I grinned, scanning the corridors leading away from the intersection. Even from here, I could see the doors at each end were still bolted, and that all the rooms I’d left closed were still closed.
I wanted to take a closer look, maybe check them all again, but I didn’t think we had the time. Delight hooked me up to Alice.
“You hold the corridor,” Alice said, when she saw my dilemma. “I’ll go back and check these are still clear. “No way we want one of those bastards creeping up our tailpipes.”
Well, on that much we were agreed.
“Don’t kill the Corovan,” I said, and Alice shrugged.
“Whatever, Cutter.”
It didn’t take her long to go back over the rooms I’d already checked—although she took a little longer in the toilets than I expected. It made sense, though. I didn’t know how long she’d been tied up to that wall. If she was as privy to my head as Delight and the rest of them, Alice didn’t grace that with an answer, when she returned.
“All clear,” she said, “—and don’t worry, I even left that Corovan alive. Delight ordered it so.”
I wondered exactly how forceful Delight had needed to be, because I was tempted to go back and tangle the life out of him, myself—and I’d only seen the prisoners; I hadn’t been one. That sort of outrage didn’t help, though. We had one more door on this side of the final entry to the corridors, and then we had the rest of the plant to check.
I wondered what was through that final exit, and Alice shivered.
“The slaughterhouse,” she whispered, but didn’t elaborate.
I didn’t push her. I didn’t want to know, but I knew I was going to—and that I’d probably have a whole new set of nightmares to add to the ones already on file. Pushing that thought away, I moved up to the door on the right.
This time, when I turned the handle, it didn’t move. I shot a glance at Alice, and tried again. Again, it didn’t move, so I swung the Blazer around, and blew the door handle away.
“Well, that’s one way to do it,” Alice said, but she was looking past me, making sure the door into the next area of the building remained closed, while she left me to check
