The Seek (26 page)

Kyn considered the horror of it, the intimacy. ‘To keep the secrets of the place?’

Symon made an agreeing noise in his throat. ‘And it doesn’t matter that there are no records, because no-one can escape.’

‘But you did.’ Kyn felt like almost every moment she was spending with him she was revising her understanding of who he was.

‘It’s a good system,’ he said, sounding a little impressed. ‘It only has one flaw.’

Kyn considered his words. ‘You only have to kill one.’

‘Yes.’

A thousand questions hammered at Kyn’s brain. ‘But how?’

‘I made friends with her.’

Something about his voice; Kyn knew. ‘You fucked her.’

‘That too,’ he said, his voice dark.

Kyn tramped on, trying to imagine the horrors of it. He had been twenty, and in that place.
Imagine it. Trying to hide who you were
. She thought about those solar whip scars — all that pain. And then — to become close to the person who had hurt you. It must have taken a supreme effort of will; a supreme belief in the need for survival.

‘How did you cope?’ Kyn worked hard so that her voice would form the words without cracking.

He looked over at her then. She felt him doing it, and she couldn’t resist meeting his eyes. They were very dark, almost black, and they bored into her accusingly. ‘I thought about you,’ he said. ‘That girl, that little girl back in Sweetheart. All that you coped with, alone. What you saw.’ She didn’t want him to list her hurts, but he did. ‘Your ma. Losing the twins. Your dad.’

Kyn wanted to put her fingers in her ears and say,
lalalalala
like she might have when they were kids. But she let him say it.

‘I thought about you, and I knew I could cope. There are worse things than pain.’

Kyn knew it was true. He swung a little closer, and she punched him lightly on the arm. ‘And they’ve never found you?’

‘No,’ he said. ‘Not yet. No-one really knew me there. Except her.’

There was a loaded tone in Symon’s voice when he said
not yet
that spoke volumes. He was still doing it, whatever he had been doing. He was still in danger.

But why?
Why why why
?

That was what she wanted to ask him. She wanted to scream at him, out here in this forest. Remind him that he had survived. That he had a good life, and no business putting it in peril. For what? Some idea? Some people power crap?

Then she thought about what he had said. A reminder. Of the people who are left.

‘Do you think about them, a lot? Earth Three? The ones still in chains?’ It was cruel of her to ask, but she had to know. What was in his head? What was he doing?

‘Oh Kyntura,’ he groaned, kicking a rock away with his foot as he marched. ‘They aren’t the only ones still in chains.’

Kyn didn’t want to hear it. She didn’t want to hear some rant about how they were all prisoners of the system — the repopulators, the Avengers, the poor souls on Earth Three. She had a job to do today, and to do it she needed to be sharp and clear and focused. She needed to believe. She couldn’t let the doubts that were crowding her mind press in on her.

Darkness was upon them again and Kyn flicked down her visor and switched on her infrared, hearing the low click as various Avengers followed suit around her.

She tramped along silently with Symon for a while before he spoke again. ‘Kyntura, what will you do?’ His voice was low and quiet. The grey darkness pressed in on them, sobering the mood all around them. ‘After this?’

Kyn stopped, holding up her fist to those around her. The jungle was about to taper off into the gentle ascent that led up the ridge and to the cave system that sheltered the pod.

They’d made it; they were alive.

Kyn had been sure Haitites would come at them in the forest, but they must have other plans.

‘There is no after this,’ she said, turning and standing close enough that he could see her clearly in the dim light. She didn’t know what he wanted from her, what he wanted to hear. But she did know one thing — if they were indeed in chains, there was no escape. ‘There is only this.’

***

It had been too good to be true that they might make it to the pod without incident. The Haitites had chosen the moment the Avengers emerged from the forest to launch their attack. They were up on the ridge, raining hell down on them with long-range spears. Kyn’s stomach turned to water as she considered why they might have chosen that particular spot. Did they know the ship was in there? Had they already found Krysto, and those she had left to guard it?

Kyn ordered the group back into the forest.

‘We have to advance,’ she said. ‘We need the ship, and we have to get through them to get to it. But regardless of whether we do it out there or in here, it’s going to be tough.’ Twelve faces regarded her. She felt sad that her boys — and Mirren — did not look afraid. They looked tired, and ready.

Kyn squatted down in a small clearing and the group took a knee around her. ‘To the east and west are embankments we can use to skirt around to the front of the cave. But we’ll need to create distraction up the centre, and try to access the ship from the damaged cave mouth.’ Kyn started firing off codes and pointing at pairs. Then she turned back to Tabi. ‘You’ll come with me,’ she said. ‘I’ll get you to the ship.’

‘No.’ Asha’s mouth was a grim slash. ‘She comes with me.’

‘I need you to create the distraction,’ Kyn countered, motioning up the slope in front of them. ‘And hold it long enough. Without it, none of us will make it.’ It was true; he was the only one she knew was seasoned enough to do it.

She motioned the others away and spoke quietly to Tabi and Asha. ‘You know I’m right, Asha; it’s the only way.’ She studied him. Asha, an Enforcer? She knew them to be vicious and zealous. It was hard to see it in him. He was a fighter. An Avenger.

Asha turned to Tabi, who was shaking her head violently. The Explorer rounded on Kyn. ‘I’m no rarefied scientist, Kyn. I can hold my own. Tell her. Tell her, Asha.’

He shrugged at Kyn. ‘It’s true. She saved my ass on Tyver, when the ice vampires came calling. I was injured, badly, and I would have died on the snow in that pod.’

Kyn nodded. ‘I have no doubt.’ And she didn’t. Tabysha was Pietr’s oldest child, and one of Kyn’s best friends. Kyn knew exactly how tough she was. But she wasn’t as tough as Kyn. And she didn’t know about real battle. ‘I’m not treating you like a liability; Tabi, I just need you safe. You’re all we’ve got now to explain all of this’ — She waved her hand to indicate the planet around her — ‘to The Council.’

Tabi blinked a couple of times, and nodded.

Kyn waved a hand at them. ‘Say what you need to say,’ she said.

She tried not to listen, she really did. She withdrew as far as she could, but she couldn’t go and re-join the others lest they ask where Tabi and Asha were. So she heard them. Every word.

‘Be careful, baby.’ The break in Tabi’s voice cut into Kyn’s heart. ‘I’ve only just found you again.’

‘Hey, girl,’ Asha said softly all Southern charm and easy sweetness. ‘I’m indestructible, remember?’

‘Ha,’ Tabi laughed, without sounding like she meant it. ‘You sure looked pretty destructible when you crashed on Tyver.’

‘Mm,’ he agreed, and then they were quiet so Kyn figured they were embracing one last time.

She waited a moment; she would have to tell them soon that it was time.

‘Tabysha.’ Asha sounded brittle and desperate. ‘Stay close to Kyntura. Do exactly what she says. If anyone can keep you alive, she can.’

‘Be safe, darling,’ she whispered to him.

‘I’ll see you soon, my best girl,’ he said.

Then they were back with Kyn, who had busied herself preparing her pack.

A minute later, they were all ready. ‘Go,’ Kyn said, motioning them to begin. ‘Group One.’

Asha took one last look at Tabi, and pushed out into the thick of it, Rexas by his side. Mirren and Kendis went with him, along with four of the other pairs. The noise of furious Haitites rushing the group was deafening.

Kyn tried to shoot a thought into Asha’s head, knowing he couldn’t pick it up but unable to stop herself.

Mirren. Watch out for her
.

Kyn swallowed hard. The order to go was always the most difficult to give. Go. Go and die. Because I say so. ‘Group Two.’

Symon stepped forward with three of the remaining pairs.

‘Remember,’ Kyn said, trying not to meet Symon’s eyes, ‘take the east. We’ll head west under cover of the diversion. We’ll meet you up top, at the cave mouth.’

Symon reached out and took Kyn’s hand. His grip was strong and warm, but his hand shook a little. ‘Go well, Primo,’ he said.

‘You too, Nav,’ she said, squeezing his hand and wondering if she would ever see him again.

And then he was moving, and he didn’t look back.

‘Group Three,’ Kyn barked at those left. ‘Follow me.’

***

It had been worse than she had imagined. Kyn did not know where the Haitites were holed up, or how many of them were, but the creatures felt like a sea of angry, brutal life, covering them with fury.

She tried to focus on making it around and to the top without thinking about how the groups she had sent out could possibly survive it all.

The going was much slower for those on the side flanks, and it afforded too much time to think about the progress of the battle going on through the centre. Halfway up, the Haitites found them. Their commander had clearly seen the weakness in their vantage, and sent a small force around to cut them off. Kyn lost her first Avenger, one of the crew from HQ, before a single sabre was drawn. A Haitite stepped out nimbly from behind a tree and cut the boy down like paper. Kyn cursed herself for not registering the beast before it struck. She leaped forward, circling it in a wicked spin before slicing its head off with her sword and a bellow of outrage.

‘Behind me, all of you,’ she commanded.

Those that remained formed up behind her.

And then they were surrounded. At least a dozen Haitites circled them, spears aloft, making a dull cry that sounded like keening. They moved in slowly, carefully. Watching. ‘Laager,’ Kyn called gently, feeling the bodies behind her lock into a defensive circle. ‘And wait my call.’ The Haitites moved closer, until she could almost see the dull orange gleam of their eyes.

‘Now,’ she said, springing from her place to leap high into the air, vaulting over the heads of those ringing her and feeling the bodies beside her do the same. Even Tabi, who had learned leaping from the time they had cast off from the Earth, vaulted the Haitite closest to her. But she landed too close to it, and it swung around and brought its spear down on her. She rolled, but it narrowly missed her throat. Kyn reached for Tabi’s arm and dragged the woman behind her, cocking her sabre. All around her, pitched battles were taking place; the superior numbers of the enemy meaning it was mostly two on one. And this time, not in the Avengers’ favour.

‘Eyes,’ she reminded them all, although she had briefed them well after the previous incident. From the corner of her eye, she caught one smallish boy from the HQ slash madly at the face of a Haitite, only to be speared through the chest and lifted into the air and deposited behind the creature, like so much discarded rubbish.

Two creatures came at her, working as one formidable wall of muscle and intelligence. She realised they seemed to work in pairs, as Avengers did. Before she could stop her, Tabi darted out from behind her, her vientamite sword up. Kyn swore, but Tabi dashed behind the creatures, slashing their waists as she ran. Kyn attacked from the front, noticing that their eyes blinked rapidly when confronted with too much movement. Tabi forward-flipped back over their heads, and again Kyn watched their eyes struggle to keep up. A sudden thought occurred to her. She pulled Tabi close, dragging her body in front of her while pulling them both back, creating a little distance as their attackers sized them up. Then she stepped back and used Tabi’s back as a launching platform, shooting herself high over the creatures to swing from a tree above their heads. As they made to grab at her, she dropped onto them, bringing them to the ground with her weight, and taking her sabre to the face of one of them. It screamed in agony as she found the edge of an eye socket, and the noise cause the other one to rear up as though it too was in pain.

Interesting. Some kind of physio-psychic connection
.

The fraction of a second was all the time Tabi needed. She sprinted into the melee and drove her sabre into the face of the second one, missing eye but catching nose and mouth. Kyn swung back and finished them both off, taking their heads for good measure.

The two women stood. ‘No kidding,’ Kyn said, allowing her friend a small smile. ‘You really can fight.’

‘I know a trick or two,’ Tabi said, but she looked a little green.

As they looked around, they could see that almost even numbers of Haitites and Avengers had fallen, but the Haitites still outnumbered them badly. Kyn directed her attention to the nearest struggle, where one of her very own, a boy called Seren, was dodging and weaving as two Haitites stalked him. She strode up behind them and plunged her sabre into the backs of one of them. It squealed and Seren aimed a high kick at the other, bringing it down before plunging his sabre into its stomach. ‘Eyes,’ Kyn commanded and he finished it off with a sharp jab to the face.

As they turned back to the others, Asha, Kendis and Mirren arrived from the group that had been sent to cause the diversion. They were panting heavily but intact, and no sign of blood.

‘Where are the others?’

Asha shrugged, but his eyes were eloquent.

The three joined the fight.

And then Kyn ceased to be aware of who and how and when. It became just the battle — the music of the fight. After a few moments, she felt like she began to understand their rhythm, could anticipate their moves a little more. She slashed and leaped and feinted and kicked. She pulled Avengers back from the point of death, and lost others a moment too late. They were starting to make progress, but it was all a hazy whirl. Brilliantly clear and focused; but like a slow-motion replay.