Mateer Page 2

  “I was busy, concentrating on other things.” His gut churned with unease because worries over Lily had kept him from receiving a message from his alpha. To not ‘hear’ Aydarr was unprecedented. This situation was grating on his nerves in more ways than one.

  The humans had set up what they designated as a ‘conference room’ in a large open section of the biggest cavern. It was now equipped with a table and chairs salvaged from the destroyed lab, and warmed and illuminated by the alien Artificial Intelligence MARL’s robot manifestations, as he called them.

  The shiny metallic ovoid alien AI was a game changer, but the fact MARL insisted on sticking so closely to Jill was a hindrance. As Mateer took his place at the table next to Aydarr, he pondered the strange device. Was it designed to be so tied to one person? Or was MARL’s insistence on proximity a result of having been left alone on standby for 10,000 years after its original owner died? No matter. Either way MARL was a valuable member of the team. The AI’s ability to protect the valley from observation or attack was the only security the Badari and escaped humans had.

  As the others assembled for the briefing, Mateer sipped the mug of hot tea he was given and pondered how much had changed since the day Jill was dumped into the Preserve by the Khagrish scientists to “see what the Badari would do to her”. Those Khagrish were all dead now and the Badari walked as free men, so the joke was definitely on them.

  Jill took the floor. “According to MARL’s search of the Khagrish records we found stored on their computer system when we hacked in, our missing humans were sent to the other labs in batches. Not all to one place.”

  A murmur made the rounds of the meeting participants seated at the table.

  She nodded. “Complicates things, I know. The biggest single contingent, seventy-five people, went to the northernmost facility. Show them, MARL.”

  The AI projected a globe of the planet in midair then rapidly morphed the display into a flat map, showing their river valley haven, a glowing dot for the destroyed lab that had been their prison, and another dot hundreds of miles to the north.

  “Do the records show what the Khagrish planned to do with the humans?” Mateer asked.

  Jill shook her head. “No, but I’m assuming it has to do with the experiments the Chimmer overlords wanted carried out. We probably don’t have much time to attempt a rescue.” A catch in her voice, she added, “People may already be dead.”

  Mateer’s leader, Aydarr reached over to clasp Jill’s hand while he addressed the meeting. “Due to our limited resources we’ve decided to prioritize this selected target where we can do the most good.”

  Jamokan, the alpha of the only other known Badari pack, frowned. “Are we sure there are no facilities with genetically engineered warriors such as ourselves? Finding another set of imprisoned soldiers to liberate and assimilate might alter the priorities and potentially increase the resources we have to work with.”

  Aydarr drummed his fingers on the table. “Not necessarily. Remember the reptilian Tzibir were prisoners just like us, and they chose to escape and leave all the rest of us to our fate.” He rose and Jill yielded the floor, sinking gracefully into a chair and sipping tea while he launched into strategy. “The facility’s AI is our key to taking the place down, and MARL is the secret weapon to hacking the systems.”

  “Hey, I can hack just as well as he does. Well, almost ,” Jill said. “I opened the back doors for MARL in the first place.”

  Aydarr dipped his head to acknowledge her point. “Duly noted. I had no intention of minimizing your abilities and contributions. But we’re not risking you anywhere near another Khagrish facility. Not without a compelling reason.” Addressing the rest of the assembled men and Flo, he said, “We’ve decided to send a small team in to hack the AI. Gabe will fly them in with one of our captured aircraft, staying low and landing far enough away to remain undetected. The team will then get within the required range to make electronic contact and penetrate the AI system.”

  Mateer looked at MARL, floating in the air close to Jill, pale green washing over its shiny ovoid surface. “Has MARL agreed to go along then?”

  “I’ll send a small handheld unit capable of hacking into the system,” MARL said in ‘his’ smooth voice. “I must remain with Jill.”

  “If for any reason the hack can’t be accomplished remotely, then the team might have to attempt entry into the complex,” Aydarr said. “And bring MARL’s unit to the AI hub, which we assume is in the basement of the main building, as it was at our own lab. The two facilities appear on the surface to have been built out of prefab materials to the same design.”

  “I’ll go,” Mateer said. Being close to Aydarr and Jill, watching them interact, on top of his encounter with Timtur and Lily earlier, made him crave action and distance from the whole topic of mates. Give me a mission, let me do what I know how to do. He didn’t broadcast the request, but Aydarr must have caught an echo.

  After giving him a speculative glance, the alpha said, “Very well. Any preferences for your partner?”

  “I’ll go.” Reede volunteered.

  Aydarr shook his head. “I’m not sending both of my enforcers on one mission.”

  “I’ll take young Pratym,” Mateer said. “Should be an easy enough job, as long as Gabe gets us there in one piece.”

  “You can count on me.” The human soldier glared at him.

  “Pratym needs experience in the field, and this should be a fairly simple mission.” This choice felt right and logical to Mateer. Pratym had a good head on his shoulders and mentoring the younger Badari males was part of an enforcer’s job.

  “All right, it’s decided. I want you to go in under cover of night,” Aydarr said. “Meeting adjourned.”

  As the rest of the team wandered off in small groups, discussing the new developments, Jill lingered a moment to talk to Mateer. “You doing ok? You seemed upset when you walked in.”

  “I’m fine.” He’d talk to Aydarr about his tangled emotions after this job was done. Relief over having an excuse to postpone examining his deeper feelings made it easy for Mateer to smile and reassure his alpha’s mate.

  A tiny frown on her face as she patted him on the arm signaled her disbelief of his smoothly delivered assurance but nevertheless Jill allowed the subject to drop. “Be careful, all right? I want you and Pratym back in one piece.”

  Gabe set the flyer down in a wooded area several miles to the west of the Khagrish facility. He kept the engines running as Mateer and Pratym debarked and lifted off as the exit door was still closing. The flyers were an important asset to the Badari-human rebel group, not to be risked unnecessarily and he and Mateer had already discussed the procedures for calling in evac when the job was done.

  Mateer set off at a ground-eating jog toward the lab complex, Pratym on his heels. When they got closer to the brightly lit buildings, the two Badari moved with heightened caution, sticking to cover in case the Khagrish had vids aimed at their perimeter. Mateer and Pratym scaled a large tree and, from a vantage point in the leafy foliage, they surveyed the place with their genetically enhanced vision.

  “Looks unnervingly like the lab where we were kept,” Pratym said.

  Mateer grunted agreement as he got out the hacking device MARL had created for them. The controls were simple, but he got no response when he activated the beam. Pratym peered over his shoulder as Mateer tried again but offered no advice. The lights on the device blinked, but the one indicating a connection remained stubbornly unlit. “Something’s blocking MARL from penetrating the system remotely. Jill told me the AI was afraid this might happen.”

  “You’re not going in there, are you?” Pratym’s eyebrows rose nearly to his hairline.

  “I have to. The only way we can take down a Khagrish facility is to penetrate their AI, gather intelligence, then sabotage and attack their systems from within.” Mateer clapped the younger man on the shoulder. “And this place is our priority target because there are so many humans being held here. I’ll be ok, the facility is huge, and we haven’t seen much activity since we arrived. I’ll sneak in, plant this toy of MARL’s in the main AI system room, and rejoin you in no time.”

  Pratym shuffled his feet, forehead wrinkled in a frown, but he didn’t protest the decision. Mateer was so far above him in the pack’s structure, it would probably never occur to the soldier to object to Mateer taking risks and the enforcer was following the contingency orders they’d been given.

  Securing his pulse rifle across his shoulders to leave his hands free, Mateer left the tree and made his way slowly to the perimeter of the lab. It was almost identical to the one where he and his packmates had been raised so he was aware of the building’s vulnerabilities. The Khagrish who’d built these facilities worried about keeping their prisoners under control, not about external attacks. The planet was uninhabited, the only sentients from offworld were their own allies and the humans the Khagrish had recently kidnapped from a Sectors colony. Mateer and his alpha were counting on the known fact all the Khagrish at their lab had died in the final rebellion, and the complex destroyed, so the other installations would think it was a one-time event.

  The building had external vidcam monitors but they had blank areas of coverage. The Khagrish guards at his lab had been lax about monitoring the vids, but Mateer prudently allowed for the possibility whoever commanded this place might have elevated surveillance. He broke into a small maintenance door in one of the areas where the vids were blind and closed it behind him. He crawled through the maze of pipes and cables until he reached a door giving access into the lab itself.

  Wish I could crawl through the ventilation shafts the way the humans can. Amused at the idea, he rose to his full height, just under seven feet and flexed his broad shoulders. No way an adult Badari warrior would ever fit into the shafts. It was stealth for him tonight. He checked the corridor and found it empty, as he’d expected. Moving quickly from doorway to doorway for cover, he reached the stairs leading to the lower levels of the complex, where the computer servers and other support equipment were located. Too risky to take the elevator, which might attract attention. Pulse rifle at the ready, he descended three levels of stairs in the dark, his night vision excellent.

  The server room was in the center of the subbasement, and the door wasn’t even locked. Mateer slipped inside and searched for a likely port or orifice to offer MARL’s hacking device. He found one at the rear of the huge server unit, where the equipment met the wall and rested the device over the oddly shaped port. MARL’s unit lit up with colors and emitted a low pitched hum for a moment before self-destructing in his hands, vaporizing into dust with a poof. Swearing as he brushed the dust from his uniform, because no one had told him to expect that result, Mateer hoped the job was done and MARL could now access the network. It was either think positively or accept there’d been a catastrophic failure and he had no backup plan.

  Device destroyed itself. It either worked or it didn’t, nothing else I can do here. He sent a mission update to Pratym via the telepathic link this generation of Badari had developed as a result of further Khagrish genetic tinkering. Exiting now.

  Be careful. The younger warrior’s response was laconic. Still no external activity. The way is clear.

  Mateer cleaned his hands on his pants, grabbed the pulse rifle, and retraced his steps out of the basement and up to the ground level. There he encountered his first setback, as a trio of Khagrish guards marched through the hall he had to traverse to access his utility closet exit. It was a random patrol, he hoped, as he waited for a few minutes after they’d moved on. Emerging into the hall, he was making good progress toward the exit when he heard a shout behind him.

  “You there—halt! This is a restricted area. Stop or we’ll shoot!”

  Mateer broke into a run, diving into a cross hall then bolting up one flight of stairs. Footsteps pounded behind him and he moved even faster. This part of the lab wasn’t as familiar to him and, when he turned a corner, expecting to find an exit to an upper level terrace from which he could have safely jumped, he was met with a dead end corridor and a blank wall. Reversing course and opening fire, he ran straight at the shocked guards, who fled in fear and confusion. One man went down, struck by a blast from Mateer’s pulse rifle.

  Alarms blared and he knew the next thing would be the closing of various internal doors. Sure enough, a portal lurched into its ponderous slide to block the hall ahead of him. Sprinting, he managed to barely squeeze through the remaining opening, scraping his arm in the process. He took a left, only to find more guards running at him. He hoped he might reach the outer door and escape into the wilderness but, at the last second, a squad of Khagrish cut off his intended route.

  He ducked into a doorway, shot out the lock and took refuge in a messy office. There was no other exit. I’ve been seen, about to be killed or captured. Get clear, meet Gabe for extraction.

  Pratym’s response was immediate. Negative. I’m not leaving you behind.

  That’s an order. Too many of them for you to help me. Now go.

  The guards breached the door with an explosive device. Rifle at the ready, he waited, planning to pick off the guards one by one as they tried to extricate him. There was no way to win this battle, but he was going to take as many Khagrish with him as possible.

  A canister came hurtling through the ruined doorway, and Mateer held his breath after the first acrid tang of sleep gas. He wasn’t going to be taken alive. Rising, he ran at the entrance and leaped over the debris of the door, shouting defiance and firing in all directions. He was hit with paralyzing rays from front and back and fought to stay on his feet, trying to force them to kill him.

  His rifle fell from his limp hand as his fingers spasmed, and his arm refused to obey the orders from his brain. Mateer slumped against the wall, slashing at the air with the talons on his left arm, over which he had control. He snapped and snarled at the guards who approached cautiously but, when he lunged toward one, he fell on his face and realized he was now completely paralyzed.

  And in the hands of the Khagrish again.

  CHAPTER TWO

  With difficulty, Megan controlled her fear and anxiety as the nightmare continued. The Khagrish idea of processing involved a detailed physical exam, giving up her own clothing and dressing in ugly plain beige overalls, with flimsy shoes to slide onto her feet. Then she was reunited with the group. Once all the revived humans were assembled, Dregsorm, the lab tech in charge, who’d reluctantly given her his name as the price for her co-operation with the exam, said, “Now you’ll be taken to the holding cell to await further orders from Dr. Lampergg. You’ll be fed, after which it would be best to try to rest.”

  “And tomorrow? What happens to us then?” Megan asked.

  “It’s not your place to question me.” Dregsorm sniffed in disdain and walked away.

  The guards formed the prisoners into two lines and conducted them through the halls of the complex. Megan got completely disoriented as they went, trying to memorize the route without success. She was directionally challenged at the best of times. The layout was like the setting for a bad horror trideo—endless featureless halls, with firmly closed doors. Suddenly, an alarm sounded and the guards grew agitated, shoving Megan and the others against the wall.

  “What is it? What’s happening?” Megan asked, as the sound continued and the minutes passed.

  The nearest guard backhanded her, knocking her off her feet. “Quiet. You talk entirely too much, human.”

  Another woman helped her stand, and Megan put her hand to her aching jaw as tears of pain flooded her eyes. The guards had a lot less patience than the lab techs or even Dr. Lampergg.

  The klaxon cut off abruptly and a door at the far end of the corridor burst open with such force it hit the other wall. A squad of excited guards raced down the hallway toward where Megan stood. They were escorting an antigrav stretcher and, as the security detail went past her, she realized the soldiers were transporting a prisoner. The guard in charge of her unit stopped the leader of the squad and asked him excited questions in Khagrish. She eyed the captive, pitying him. A big man, he was obviously wounded, bound hand and foot and strapped to the litter as well.

  They must be scared of what he can do if he gets loose. She wished she could help him in some way, but the guard’s last violent reprimand had made her cautious. As she stared at the prisoner he opened his eyes and blinked hard, trying to get his bearings. His gaze met hers and his eyes opened wide as he whispered a single word, “Lily?”

  Megan recoiled at the sound of her twin’s name, wondering where and how this man had seen her sister. Transfixed by the intensity of his regard, she couldn’t look away, holding her breath, waiting for him to say more.

  He turned away from her and roared as he struggled with the restraints.

  The guards reacted with terrified violence, one shooting him twice with the Khagrish version of a stun gun. As he convulsed against the restraints, the squad took his litter and ran down the hall, leaving Megan’s guards speaking to each other harshly, obviously highly agitated.

  The guard who’d struck her grabbed Megan by the shoulder. “What did the Badari say to you?”

  “The who? The wounded man?” She shook her head. “I don’t know—nonsense syllables. Maybe his own language?”

  The guard stared at her for a moment longer before releasing her with a shove. Gesturing to the entire group with his weapon, he said, “Move out, prisoners. I don’t have all night to waste escorting you to your new home.”

  As they walked, Megan’s head whirled with speculation about the prisoner she’d seen and how or when he’d met Lily. Was his knowledge of her twin a good thing or a bad thing? Megan wished she could have a chance to talk to him. Even wounded and in the obvious grip of battle rage, he’d been compelling, his astonished expression when he looked at her intriguing. But she’d probably never see him again, not in this chamber of horrors.

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