Industry & Intrigue (51 page)

Atira wondered what they must
have thought of Falco.
Probably think he’s a misshapen freak of
nature
she
thought.
His
mechanical arm was covered in armor to hide it, as were his other
manufactured parts. Most folk assumed he had been born with a
mutated arm, no idea of the power and strength that lay
underneath.

Atira led the way out of the
tent
towards
the south-west quadrant, with Falco walking behind the two
professors, to ensure their compliance. It took them a ten minute
walk to reach the tunnel entrance.

Her father’s men had
set-up numerous
lanterns to light the quadrant up. All they had to do was enter the
tunnel. Atira hoped they would find a way to the sphere soon. She
wanted to be done with this and back at her father’s
side.

“
Over here
,” shouted Atira. “We need
plenty of light, we’re going in deep.” The men hurried over,
bringing more lanterns and stringing them up at the
entrance.

A scream cut through the night
air and everyo
ne stopped moving and stood in silence. It had not been the
sound of someone stumbling in the dark and sustaining injury. No,
this was a scream of deep, instinctual terror.

It sounded as if it had come
from the western edge of the quadrant.
A scent hit Atira’s nose. It was the
sweet smell of blood. She had stationed three men at the edge of
the site. The men murmured slightly and she saw a few of them make
small prayers to the Endless.

“
What in a
ll the hells was that?” one of
them said, his voice fearful.

“
Quiet
,” she said in a commanding tone. She
sniffed the air. Mixed in with the smell of blood, was something
else, animal sweat and a strong pheromone she didn’t
recognize.

“
Falco, take
them
,” she
said and pointed to three other guards. “Find out what
happened.”

He lifted up his scythe and nodded,
before moved off without a sound, the other three following in his
wake.

Atira turned to Farrin. “Anything you
want to tell me?”

He stammered
, “Uh, we had trouble with a
mountain lion recently, but the guards killed it shortly before
your arrival.” He shrugged, “It’s possible it had a mate and your
men ran afoul of it.” She detected a hint of pleasure in his voice.
He was glad to see his captors having trouble.

“
Don’t get your hopes
up
,” she
replied. “They know how to deal with mountain lions.” She gestured
at the remaining men and they continued with the lanterns. She
sniffed lightly. “It’s no lion,” she said. “I know a mountain
lion’s scent and this is different. But I’m sure it’s nothing Falco
cannot handle.”

Atira looked on as the men
established a longer line of light into the tunnel. She was
impatient to get down there. Getting her hands on the sphere was an
important step in her father’s plans.
Before she could step inside though,
more screams echoed through the air.

In the name of the Endless,
w
hat is
going on?

Her
men had their weapons out and were
scanning every direction. The pounding steps of something heavy
could be heard from the same direction as the screams. Atira pulled
up her shotgun, ready for whatever was coming.

As the sound came
closer
, she
could hear a loud clicking alongside it. Falco burst out of the
darkness and stopped in front of her. The armor along his arm had
been ripped right off and exposed his mechanical parts, though the
internal workings were undamaged.

In addition
, his chest armor, which
attached to his body, had also been pulled off, exposing his
flare-rock powered heart and all of the intricate mechanics keeping
him alive. Atira heard the shocked reactions of the two professors
from behind her as they saw Falco’s inner workings.

“
By the Creator!” said
Farrin.

Xerin said,
“
Shi
horen
” in a
fearful voice.

A
Wei phrase no doubt, but outside the
few smatterings of Wei that she understood.

She igno
red them and looked over at
Falco. His chest armor had been fused directly to his skin and
muscle. Flaps of pale skin hung at the edges where it had broken.
The sheer strength it to do that was beyond that of a mountain
lion.

She cursed Falco’s inability to
vocalize. She needed to know what they were dealing with
a
nd he was
the only one who had seen it. He gave off several urgent grunts, as
if, was he afraid? Atira had never once seen him afraid since his
transformation.

As that sunk in, a
terrible
sounding howl pierced her ears. Then there was a rushing
sound, a second howl and one of the men was hit by something huge.
It dragged him back off into the dark, letting off another howl.
She had only been able to glimpse wiry, black fur, huge claws and
pale eyes like glass.

“
Back to the building, all of
you
,” she
ordered. They were too exposed out here. It would pick them off one
by one. A few of the guards ran as fast as they could, while others
surrounded Atira, aiming to keep her safe as they made their way
back.

“
You as well
,” she shouted at the
professors and they also moved.

Another ser
ies of howls rang out in the
darkness before them. There was a scream from one of the men who
had run ahead. Atira picked up her pace, she had no intention of
becoming the monster’s dessert.

They reached the tents and ran
through the middle. She hoped it would
give them cover. But no such luck,
the beast roared again and burst through the flimsy tent material,
snatching another man.

“
Fire on it, you
fools
!” she
shouted. The sound of gunshots echoed among the tents as they fired
at the beast. It had disappeared too fast for her to tell if they
had scored a hit.

They passed the last tents and
t
he building
and wall came into view. A howl sounded to the left and the monster
came barreling through the tents and smashed into two of her men.
She finally had a good look at it, the lighting here being
brighter.

It had two powerful hind legs,
with sligh
tly skinnier forelegs. Atop of its body were two large
wings, like a bat’s. Its face was covered in bone exoskeleton and
two large horns sat atop its head with a smaller one on each side
of its forehead. It was a deepone, the underground dwelling beasts
of Jaefia, this particular one was as large as a Ferosian
elephant.

It snapped its jaws and they
entrapped the human professor. “
No, no, nooo!” he screamed as its teeth
pierced his flesh.

She took aim and fired her gun,
hitting it directly in the head.
It did no good, the shot ricocheted off
the bone with a loud noise. She cursed. Shooting it in the body
wouldn’t do much good either. It was so large, she and the guards
could unload every bullet they had and it would still be
kicking.

It dragged off the professor,
with him still screaming. The drakon called out
her friend’s name, as the
deepone disappeared among the tents again. If they didn’t hurry it
would come back for them.

“
Unless you want to
die
, I
suggest you come with us,” she said to Xerin. The drakon turned to
her and nodded. They all ran as fast as they could for the
building.

Falco used his mechanical arm to lift up
the door barrier and they stepped inside. Atria doubted that the
stone walls and barred doors would be enough to stop the beast. She
needed to find a way to kill it, before it broke through and tore
them to pieces.

Chapter 50

When
he heard the guards leave, Reese
peeked through a small gap in the door. There was one guard left in
the thin corridor. The man was stationed about halfway down. Reese
turned back and began investigating the room they were confined
in.

It
appeared to be a kitchen and pantry,
although it was sparse. He started opening cupboards and one of the
excavators, Hilda, asked him, “What are you doing?”

“
I’m looking for something
useful, but this kitche
n is woefully under stocked,” he said.

“
What were
you planning to do? Cook for
our captors so bad you make them sick?” She laughed at her own
joke.

He
ignored her and continued searching
but there was nothing of value. There weren’t even sharp knives.
Their captors were smart enough to take precautions before
imprisoning them here.

He opened up the double doors
to the pantry and walked
inside. There were still supplies in here. He saw
a large bag of flour and recalled something Michael had once told
him about flour. If you spread a concentrated enough amount in the
air and had the right ignition source, it could explode. The
corridor outside was a small enough space, it would not be hard to
spread. But where could he get an ignition source?

He went back to the kitchen and
checked underneath the cooking
plates. Opening it up, he found a small
flare-rock igniter. That was all he needed, now he had to get it
out. He grabbed one of the butter knives and started undoing the
screws. It was hard work, but he slowly unscrewed them and the
igniter came loose.

“
What are you doing?” asked
Cassandra,
standing behind him. He jumped in surprise and dropped the
igniter.

“
Shit
,” he said and picked it back up. He
carefully looked it over, to check that nothing had been knocked
out of place or damaged.

“
If we can get the guard to open
the door, we can hit him with the bag of flour
in the pantry and use this
igniter to create a small explosion,” he explained. “He’ll be
injured or stunned long enough for us to get away.”

“
Th
at sounds like far too many if’s
hinging on a risky plan,” noted Cassandra. “What about the other
guards? And we can’t leave without Professor Xerin.”

“
Do you see anyone else thinking
of anything to get us out of here?”

“
I
thought you said they would let us
go. Why would you want to provoke them by trying to
escape?”

“
I’m sick of being cooped up in
here. I’m so damn close to my father’s legacy, but I can’t get near
it.” His voice had risen
and Cassandra drew back. He dropped the igniter,
forgetting his plan and marched over to the door.

“
Let me out!’ he yelled. “Let me
out of this damn room, I’m sick of being
trapped in here like a rat!” He
banged on it as hard as he could, the wood shaking from his
blows.

The sound
of the guard undoing the lock
could be heard and the door swung open. The man stood there and
held out his revolver, the barrel aimed at Reese’s head.

“
I suggest you sit down and stay
quiet
,” the
man said. "Unless you fancy having your brains splashed over the
wall.”

Then they
heard the sound of voices and
the main doors slamming shut. The guard stepped back and relocked
the door. Reese put his eye up to see what was going on. Other men
came into the corridor. They looked panicked and exhausted. Pushing
past them was the agorid, with Professor Xerin in tow.

What in the hells happened out
there?
He
watched as they came closer and he stepped back from the door. It
unlocked once more and the tigress pushed Xerin back in the room,
before closing it up again.

The professor was soon surrounded by
the staff and students, prodding her with questions.

“
What
happened?”

“
Where’s Professor
MacShim?”

“
Are they done with
us?”

The professor stood up
straight, she lifted her held her head up and in a loud tone
said
,
“Quiet, all of you. Give me room and let me explain.” They stepped
back and gave her space.

She looked around the room at
everyone.
“We are all in terrible danger,” she said.

Ree
se already had guessed that from the
expression on the faces of the agorid and her men.

“
The losses
you have experienced over the
last few weeks has been the work of a terrible predator. It was not
a mountain lion as Professor MacShim led me to believe. It is a
deepone, one of the underground scourges of Jaefia. And not a
normal soldier or worker deepone, this was an exiled
king.”

Reese felt goose-bumps
ripple
on
his skin. Deepones had a regimented and structured behavior. They
maintained hives in the deepest of caverns, at the center of which
was the enormous queen, who lived for nothing other than to produce
offspring. Along with the queen, was the king, a regular deepone
that had managed to fight and kill his way to the top of the pack
for the privilege of mating.