Chapter 27
Osid
My vision swam as Blair’s voice crackled somewhere near me. What happened after the Biwban snatched me from Blair’s arms? Just before I could feel her lips on mine. The Biwban would pay for this indiscretion with their lives.
“Osid? Osid, focus up, you hoofed bastard! I’m kind of in a situation here!”
I squeezed my eyes shut as I tried to will the dizziness to fade.
Struggling to my hooves, I noticed her voice was coming from a strange feather tied to my forearm.
Around me, humans bustled in every direction, dragging wheeled cases behind them, their voices a meaningless buzz as they zipped around the strange, overly bright room. The air smelled stale and artificial.
“Blair,” I called. “What’s going on, where are you?”
“Strapped to a fucking chair on this godforsaken airplane. Come get me!” Her voice was high-pitched with rage. Beneath it was the tremor of fear as clear as day, and the sound of it set my blood on fire. If they had hurt her in my absence…
A voice came over the loudspeaker.
“Subjects 12 and S 52, welcome to Floor Five of The Crucible. Now that your affection meter has risen, we will move on to another form of human bonding called ‘pining,’ where humans long for the return of the person or persons they hold dearest.
“To that end, you will be separated for most of this challenge. We have simulated a popular human mating ritual called the Airport Chase. To win this challenge, Subject S 52 will need to navigate through the airport to reach Subject 12’s plane before takeoff.
Normally in these situations, if the male cannot reach the female in time for her plane to take off, they are separated by long distances and may never see each other again.
To maximize the success of this project, we have taken the liberty of upping the ante.
Instead of the plane taking off, we have strapped a bomb to the engine.
Should you fail to reach your mate in time, you will never see her again, as she will be dead. ”
“What?!” Blair and I roared in unison.
Blair’s voice came out in a terrified shriek. “Did they just say bomb? Weren’t they not supposed to kill me because I’m too expensive? What the fuck?!”
“Under normal circumstances, yes. The total cost of a human subject is 6,783,210 credits. Just the thirty specimens we obtained consumed over 40 percent of this year’s budget.”
“And how much of that budget did the director squander?” Blair snarled.
“I’m afraid I am unaware of any squandered funds.
What I do have is a projection of your future expenses.
Before your arrival, Subject S 52 was already considered a high-risk individual due to his long history of violence against both the BCI and the other species on this planet.
Due to the loss in equipment, personnel, and other subjects, Subject S 52 has a higher operating expense than most other Sankado.
We expected those numbers to rise if he obtained a female to protect.
What we did not expect was for his female to be even more destructive. ”
I didn’t need to see her face to know the venomous glare she threw to the announcer. “You are so full of shit! This guy literally leads armies to battle. How am I more destructive than him?”
“At present, the damage you have caused totals around 26,300 credits.”
“Damage? What damage?”
“One deceased Titanoboa, two Hatzegopteryx, four personnel injuries, Parasaurolophus remediation expenses, and finally, the recurring repair costs to The Crucible. Given the risk profile of both you and your mate and potential for enclosure damage, the annual risk-adjusted allocation you would need far exceeds budget expectations. But fear not. Above all else, we here at the BCI are committed to as many successful pairings as possible for the future success of the Sankado species. While you may have had a terrible start with your love match, your pairing still scored the highest in our entire matchmaking database at 99.73! While all us carbon life-forms are fallible, numbers are not. Both humans and Sankado have been proven to form deep pair-bonds after experiencing what you would call a ‘near-death experience.’ This is due to your brain flooding with chemicals like adrenaline, dopamine, and oxytocin when it thinks it may die. Hence the bomb.”
“This is bullshit!” Blair howled. “How can you just decide to potentially kill us off like that?”
“I just told you.”
My tail lashed, smoke billowing from the tip. Snarling at the loudspeaker, I vowed, “When I get my hands on you, I will shove each of your feathers down your beak until your stomach explodes.”
“We understand your frustration, Subjects 12 and S 52, please understand that all we do is for the sake of the Sankado species and to further scientific advancement. The experiments we test here will go on to help future couples maximize success. While we try to avoid the deaths of our subjects, sacrifices must be made for the greater good. You have approximately one Earth hour. Begin.”
“What the fuck?” Blair screeched through the feather’s speaker. “Shit, shit, shit, fuck, what the fuck do we do?!”
I held the feather closer to my mouth and tried to keep my voice calm. “Wicked Thing, listen to me. I need you to look around and tell me anything that could give me your location. Stay calm and look around, can you do that for me?”
Her breath came out frantic. It took a few moments before she said, “Yes…yes! They have the concourse and gate number printed at the front of the plane. I’m in concourse D, gate 21.”
“Concourse D, gate 21,” I repeated. “What does that even mean?”
Blair growled in frustration. “That means you’re in an airport. Just follow the signs that say Concourse D. You should start to see signs for it just after you get through airport security.”
I looked around the bustling airport, but all the lettering was completely foreign to me. “I don’t understand your human symbols, how do I get to the security?”
“Oh, fuck me in the ass.”
“Now is not the time for that,” I scolded.
“Son of a—” She sucked in a breath. “Look, I can’t move my hands, but if they gave you the same kind of phone thingy they gave me, then there should be a video feature attached. Strum your finger along the feather and see if it does anything.”
I did as instructed, and nothing happened. I turned the feather over and did the same to the other side, and a screen appeared. In it, I saw Blair strapped to a chair and what looked like a metal tube with two rows of chairs on each side of her.
She smiled wide when she saw me. “Oh, thank Jimi Hendrix’s guitar strings, it worked! Okay, lift the screen around so I can see where you are.”
I held the feather above my head, letting the screen scan the surrounding area. One of the humans bumped into my shoulder, and I nearly dropped it. I kicked the bumbling idiot out of the way. None of the other humans bustling about even reacted and merely continued to their destinations.
“Is this…is this the Atlanta airport?” Blair asked.
“Have you been here before?”
“More times than I care to remember. You see that line of idiots to your left? Follow them, they’re headed to the security gate.”
My eyes locked into the snaking queue ahead—dozens of humans shuffled forward at a glacial pace.
I shoved past the first cluster of travelers, ignoring their indignant shouts.
A flimsy rope barrier herded them into neat little lines, and I leapt over it, trying to reach the front as quickly as possible.
Shocking pain erupted in my side, and I went down. A uniformed human stopped just in front of me, a sparking metal device raised in his hand. “Sir, you need to wait in line like everyone—”
I slammed my hoof into his rib cage, relishing the telltale sounds of cracked bone. The human went flying; his body landed in a twisted heap, entwined within the rope barrier.
“Holy shit, did he just tase you?” Blair asked.
“I’m fine,” I lied. The pain of the shock nearly had me doubled over. I gritted my teeth and kept moving. Alarms blared. More humans in matching uniforms tried to surround me on all sides, shouting and raising more of those electric weapons.
“Get out of my way!” With a deep breath, I shot fire from my hands, igniting three of them in front of me. But more seem to converge out of nowhere.
“You can’t fight them all at once. You’re already at the front of the line, so just go to the edge of the rope barrier and wait for them to call you forward.”
“This is ridiculous. You’re strapped to a bomb, and you want me to wait in the line?”
Blair’s lip curled. “You think I don’t know that? I’m the one sitting next to the goddamn ticking time bomb. Now get back in line!”
I bared my teeth at the uniform warriors—but did as instructed.
Shoving a light-haired man with a yellow suitcase out of the way, I took my place at the front of the line.
The security checkpoint was a maze of scanners and bends.
A stern-faced woman brought her attention to me and waved me forward.
When I approached, she placed a gray bin on a tray of metal rollers.
“Subject S 52, you must remove your coat and all metal objects, including any weapons, and place them in the bin.”
My horns burned. “I will not surrender my armor.”
“Osid,” Blair warned.
“A king without his armor is no king at all. To surrender it would mean forfeiting my position.”
“You get it back at the other end of the line.”
“It’s a disgrace!”
“You know what else is a disgrace?” Blair asked. “Letting me blow up and die just as I was starting to like you. Take off your fucking armor!”
A low growl rumbled in my chest, yet I relented.
I stripped off my armor piece by piece. All eyes in the room seemed to be staring at me unflinchingly as I placed my shame in the bin.
The only consolation was Blair’s offhanded confession.
She may have only said it to get me to comply, but I would wring the words from her again as soon as I got her out of this forsaken deathtrap.