Chapter 7 #3
As he folded the tripod legs, he realized they’d still be sucking increasingly stale air if Taz hadn’t salvaged the cutter from the regular military trash heap for repair.
She’d even cleverly etched the GSAR logo over the cutter’s serial number in case someone asked.
When, not if, he saw her again, he’d thank her.
Po eyed Rylando with suspicion. “Why didn’t you tell us it had a laser? We could have been cutting our way out.”
Unexpectedly, Stramlo answered. “It’s not a beam, it’s a pinpoint array. It’d take half a day to cut enough holes to make a one-meter slice.”
Po threw his hands up and stomped toward his perch. “Fine. Get back to digging.”
Rylando got Pelvannor’s attention, then pointed first to the cutter, then to the airsled. When she nodded, he carried it back inside and stowed it in its case.
He took the opportunity to subvocalize to Hatya. “If you have a choice, get Taz out first. Being trapped underground will be hard on her. And if there really are explosives, she’s in danger.”
“Working on it. I know she’s important to you.”
Hatya’s half-teasing lilt gave him an out, but the words cut through his defenses. He couldn’t lie to himself any longer. “Yes, she is.”
Shen sat down in front of the sixty-fourth Kem-X packet and barked twice, then barked twice again.
“Good job,” said Taz as she approached. She and the dog had worked out a steady rhythm, marching up and down the aisles, decommissioning every timer. Seventy-five minutes later, per her suit’s chronometer, here they were.
“Jhidelle,” she said, letting her suit do the amplifying. “Last one. Any outliers?”
“Moyo and Lerox say no.” Between the dog’s fantastic nose and the weasel’s fearless sense of curiosity, they would have uncovered anything interesting, especially with Jhidelle guiding them. “The cats found a door. It’s marked exit, but it’s heavy and coded.”
Taz’s audio sensors identified the girl’s location as near the northwest corner. “On my way.”
She disabled the last timer, scanned it to be sure, then turned to Shen. “Find Moyo.”
Shen yipped twice, then turned to trot down the aisle. On impulse, Taz picked up the now-harmless Kem-X packet, then followed.
While she’d been working, she’d been pondering several questions.
First, if her military-grade comms were blocked, how did Po and Pelvannor expect to get through with just commercial comms to trigger the timers?
Second, if they’d known what type and how many Kem-X packets to get, why had they needed to kidnap Stramlo?
When she reached the corner, all the animals were there. The crates, too, because Jhidelle had dragged them down from the other entrance and opened their doors.
Taz set down the packet and stepped out of her suit. Overusing her teke talent to speed up the timer decomms left her ears ringing like bells.
The chilly air of the facility momentarily felt good on her sweat-soaked skin as she turned to face them with a tired grin. “Good job, all of you.” Shen’s and Moyo’s tails wagged. The cats’ ears pricked forward. Lerox chose that moment to lick his butt.
Taz laughed. “Is anyone thirsty?” She patted her thigh pocket. “I have extra water pouches and a collapsible bowl.”
Jhidelle’s eyes drifted a bit. “No, they’re good.” She pointed to the packet. “What’s that for?”
“Evidence.” That sounded better than muttering about instinct and curiosity. “Let’s take a look at the door.”
The substantial metal slab looked more like it led to a vault, similar to the one that was now a storeroom in the financial firm on the first floor.
Still, the door and jamb had the standard bright colors and the word “exit” printed in a dozen languages.
It also had a formidable code lock on the wall.
Whoever designed the exit had evidently decided security was more important than safety.
“I need my suit for the scans. If the exit is blocked above us, we’ll have to go back to the lower basement. Either way, we need to crate the team. It’s the only way I can protect them.” She snapped her fingers. “Before I forget. Is your father a telekinetic minder?”
Her eyes widened in surprise. “No. Why?”
Taz shook her head. “Nothing, just a passing thought.” She climbed back in her suit to check the architectural records and run scans while she poked at the door controls with her GSAR magic.
After three long minutes, the lock begrudgingly accepted her codes. The door slowly irised open to reveal a small anteroom with a standard-sized lift at the end.
“Okay,” said Taz. “If I’m guessing correctly where we are, and the lift takes us up instead of down, and the building above is still standing, and the architectural records are correct, we’ll be in a space labeled ‘Recycling Overflow.’”
“That’s a lot of ‘ifs.’”
Taz paused. “Want to go back down instead?”
“No.” Jhidelle motioned Moyo toward the crate. “The animals don’t, either.”
As Taz hooked the crates to her suit again, she hoped the undisturbed dust in the anteroom and the wallcomp for the lift meant Po and Pelvannor hadn’t lined the lift shaft with explosives.