Chapter 21
Fiona had put her silver rod away earlier because the injuries it inflicted would have been difficult to explain if she and Hal were caught in the warehouse by the Balcoan authorities, but that ship had sailed.
Getting away was more important than covering her ass.
The Balcoan who had grabbed her, so quick and sure it seemed as if he’d known exactly where she was as the door opened, lifted her off the ground and began carrying her down the stairs into the tunnel.
The silver pendant had gotten twisted around her neck in the struggle and her abductor had a hold of both her arms, so it took until he made it down into the tunnel for her to successfully get a hand free, yank the necklace around, and pull the silver rod out.
She flicked it to extend it, the sound a satisfying whip in the air. The Balcoan was holding her in front of him, at an angle across his body, so she flung her hand up and back so the strike would land on his shoulder.
He screamed, right in her ear, and she gave a cry of pain herself as she twisted out of his hold and fell to the ground.
Both of his hands went to his injury, coming away dark with blood, and Fiona rolled a few times to get some distance from him and then came up on her feet.
The tunnel floor was hard-packed soil, compacted, and the walls were squared off with some kind of chain fencing as if to strengthen it and keep it from collapsing. The ceiling, too, she noticed as she glanced up at it.
The Balcoan fell to his knees and Fiona edged around him, back toward the stairs.
The gash in the Balcoan’s back was deep.
Concerningly deep. She would need to get him to a hospital.
Footsteps sounded above her and she turned to look, rod in hand, then relaxed when she saw it was Hal.
He looked grim-faced, but that eased a little when he saw her.
“All right?” he called.
She nodded. “He needs a hospital.”
Hal’s eyes widened a little. “Yes.”
“Eazi, have you got everything that belongs to Paxe from here?” Fee asked.
“Yes.” Eazi’s drone appeared at the top of the stairs.
“Then we’ll close ourselves in here and follow where the tunnel leads, if you can call in an anonymous tip about seeing people entering the warehouse after your drone leaves so Security comes.”
Eazi seemed to hesitate. “I don’t want you out of my sight.”
“Hal’s with me, and I’ve got protection.
” She waved the rod. She looked back over at the Balcoan who’d grabbed her, found he was half-unconscious, lying on the floor.
“This guy needs a hospital and if we call Security with the tunnel open, they’ll flood the place, take us for questioning, and we’ll lose the chance to see where this leads. ”
Hal walked over to the Balcoan, looked down on him. “He’s going into shock. Let’s move him into the office and then we can close the tunnel up. If Security didn’t find it before, I don’t think they’ll find it now.”
“You’re still getting lens feed from my lens?” Fiona asked.
“Yes.” Eazi moved the drone back. “I will also inform General Olna, so she knows where to come rescue you, if that’s needed.”
Fiona smiled up at the drone. “Deal.”
She walked over to the Balcoan’s other side, and she and Hal carried him up the stairs and laid him near the door into the warehouse. “Are you going out the back window?” she asked Eazi.
“I think that’s better. Less obvious,” he said.
She waved as the drone left, and then she and Hal moved down the stairs and looked up to see how the hidden entrance worked.
“Here.” Hal leaned over and hit a button on the wall and the floor just above their heads moved, turning silently as it fitted itself back into place.
Fiona stood halfway down the stairs and looked along the dimly lit tunnel, then turned to Hal. “Like old times,” she said.
He blinked, then followed her gaze. “The secret Tecran base near Kyber’s Arm, you mean?” He took a few steps down and stopped again. “Yes. Now you mention it.”
When he turned back to look at her, she had taken a few steps down as well, and they were nose to nose.
She took advantage and kissed his forehead. Smiled at him.
He pulled her close, and kissed her deeply, and she felt the tension in his shoulders.
“He grabbed you and ran,” he said when he finally pulled back.
“Like he knew where I was,” she agreed.
“He obviously had access to his friend’s lens feed, because when I managed to subdue the other one who came through with him, I saw one of the two I’d tied up had come to and had angled himself so that he could see us. I think they have a similar lens feed system between them as you do with Eazi.”
That explained how he seemed to know exactly where she was.
She walked down the last few steps into the tunnel and eyed the light fittings.
“It’s not just that it’s a tunnel that reminds me of the Tecran facility. These are the same lights.” She crouched beside one, as they were all set at knee level. “Back me up here, Eazi. Aren’t they identical?”
“Let me retrieve that footage—” Eazi stopped. “They are identical.”
She twisted her head to look over at Hal, who was frowning at the lights. “Whoever built this tunnel, built the one near Kyber’s Arm.”
“Oh, things begin to make a lot more sense,” Eazi said quietly.
“This is . . .” Hal shook his head. “We thought the Tecran had carried all the building materials to Kyber’s Arm themselves and built the facility. But of course it would have been a lot easier for them to have bought everything they needed from the Balcoans.”
“Maybe they even had some Balcoans to help build the facility. After all, they couldn’t always use a Class 5 like Eazi to come and go without someone noticing.” In fact, she couldn’t believe she hadn’t considered that before.
Too much going on, she realized. The Tecrans had been ramping up the aggression when Eazi had destroyed the facility, and then Paxe had attacked Larga Ways and she and Eazi had saved it.
The questions about who had helped the Tecran build their secret Balcoan base had not even been a consideration.
“Whoever helped the Tecran conveniently didn’t tell Baruke or anyone else in authority,” Fiona said.
“No.” Hal began to walk down the tunnel. “Unless whoever helped them was in authority.”
Fee winced as she caught up with him. “That won’t go down well.”
He grunted in response, because that was an understatement, to say the least.
“So what do you bet the head of that manufacturing association, Halarian Bost, is behind all this?” Fee asked.
Hal glanced at her in the gloom and shook his head. “No bet.”
She flashed him a grin, but before she could say anything, he was suddenly focused down the tunnel, and his shockgun was raised.
There was a staircase ahead, leading upward, and Fee reckoned they’d maybe walked across the back of the block the warehouse was on, to the street beyond.
She would not be at all surprised if they came up inside the building where they’d parked the hover.
She knew something was weird about it.
They climbed the stairs together. The entrance above was closed, but there was a button on the side, just like there had been on the other end, and Hal pushed it.
Fiona took a step up and stood above him.
There wasn’t a sound from above and she ran up the stairs lightly and stood at the top, looking around.
The office she was standing in was dark.
Hal joined her, shockgun still raised.
“They watched us arrive, and I’m guessing came straight over using their tunnel.” Hal moved to the wall and switched on the light.
The office looked very similar to the one in the other warehouse. “Same chairs, same desks,” Fee said. “This is the same organization.”
Hal opened the only door in the room and they both stepped out into a corridor. The door to the outside was to their left, and she knew if she opened it, she’d see their hover parked across the street.
To the right it was as gloomy as it had been inside the office before Hal switched the light on, and she couldn’t hear any noise.
“Do you think the whole gang is over at the other warehouse, regretting their life choices?” Fiona asked.
Hal gave a chuckle. “Let’s hope so.”
He started down the narrow passage, and Fee followed.
“I heard from Lieutenant Crin earlier,” Eazi said into her ear.
“She, Trayla and Natta found more of Paxe’s supplies at the market, and bought everything they could.
I had a courier grab what they had purchased, and they were going back in to see if they could find any more and ask some questions about where the traders found the items, but Crin says she hasn’t caught sight of either Trayla or Natta in over twenty minutes. ”
Hal stopped at that, turned to look at her.
“If they’ve been taken, I doubt it will be back to the warehouse. That building is compromised for them now.”
“Even if they were tempted to,” Eazi said, “Security responded really quickly to my anonymous message about intruders. You might be able to hear the sirens from where you are.”
“Oh, yes, I can.” Fiona realized she’d tuned the far-off wail of sound out.
“Don’t forget they were transmitting visuals, as we found out when that Balcoan grabbed you,” Hal said. “If Trayla and Natta were grabbed, their abductors may know exactly what’s going on, including where we are right now.”
That was true. And not a good thought.
By now they’d reached the end of the corridor, and had the choice of three doors. One in front of them, one to each side.
Hal opened the one on the right, and found a bathroom.
They both looked at the left one, Hal shoved it open, and Fee stepped into the doorway, reflector bracelet at the ready.
It was a relatively large room, and had clearly been furnished to be a meeting room, with a long table with chairs to the left, and a small lounge area near the door.
The window looking out over the street was uncovered, and Fee could see their hover. The natural light made it the least gloomy place they’d encountered here so far, and she didn’t know whether it was because it was so much lighter that her eye initially passed over the body on the couch.
Her gaze snagged on the boot sticking out from under a blanket, though, when she did a second sweep.
“Hal.”
“I see.” He moved forward cautiously, shockgun ready.
Fiona pulled the blanket down, revealing the man’s face, and she couldn’t help her gasp.
“Who is it?” Hal asked.
“Lieutenant Grogan.” Natta’s missing handler looked terrible. He had clearly been beaten, and for an awful moment she thought he was dead.
Hal crouched beside him, then tapped his ear. “Eazi, can you connect me to General Olna?”
Eazi must have done it right away, because Hal quickly explained Grogan’s injuries and gave the address. “They’ll be here in less than half an hour.” He straightened.
“I’ll look for a med kit,” Fee said. “There might be one somewhere here.”
She went to the line of waist-high cupboards along the wall and opened them, but there was nothing but crockery, cutlery and assorted table cloths inside.
She moved to the door. “We never looked in the door at the end of the passage.”
Hal’s lips thinned. “Be careful.”
She nodded, detached her silver rod, and opened the door.
As she stepped into a room that was clearly the kitchen, someone else stepped through the door opposite.
Fee just caught a glimpse of a back parking area and a hover before the Balcoan woman stepping inside closed the door with a bang and then froze at the sight of her.
“Have you got two of my friends in that hover parked out back there?” Fee asked.
“I told Hal what’s happening. He’s going out the front and he’ll circle around.” Eazi’s voice was a quiet whisper in her ear, as if he didn’t want to distract her.
The woman’s eyes widened. “Who are you?”
Before Fee could respond, there was the sound of shouting beyond the back door, and the woman spun back and flung it open.
She had been holding a shockgun close to her side, and she raised it.
Fee launched herself across the kitchen, shouting as she went.
The distraction worked. The woman half-turned to her, swung the weapon around and fired.
The shot went straight back at her and she reeled, then slid down the door frame, dazed.
Fee scooped up the shockgun and checked the setting. Winced. “Shoot to kill, is it?” The only reason the woman was alive was because of her shockgun protection.
Fee dialed down the shockgun’s lethality and wedged herself into the doorway, looking out.
A Balcoan was edging back toward the door, his shockgun aimed at the corner of the building.
Fee shot him in the back.
He spun, surprise clear on his face. He took a step toward her.
Unlike the Balcoans at the warehouse, he wasn’t wearing a ski mask, and as he took a second step toward her, shockgun fire flared at the back of his head. He crumpled to the ground.
“I had it on the lowest setting,” Hal said, walking out from behind the side of the building. “He’ll have a headache, but he’ll survive.
“Well, that was pretty decent of you,” Fee said. “Theirs were set to kill.”