Zero Recall (28 page)

“Yes, sire.”

“Could one of them be a
Huouyt?  I was told we would have thirty-nine teams with Huouyt on them.  How
many Huouyt have we recovered?”

“Forty, sire.” 

“Forty?  One had two?”

His heir looked
embarrassed.  “No, sire.  Two teams had two Huouyt on them.”

Tevval swiveled to frown
at his lieutenants.  “So only thirty-eight teams had Huouyt?”

“The slaves easily could
have made a mistake in the count.”

Tevval snorted.  “There’s
a Huouyt loose in the tunnels.  Are you certain one of your Takki monitoring
the entrances is not actually a Huouyt masking his companions’ approach?”

“Our slaves are using
closed-circuit chips, same technology as the Congies, sire.  It can’t be an
intruder.”

Tevval began to pace
again.  “Tell me which species you recovered thus far.”

A Takki dutifully held
out the list for his lieutenant.  The lieutenant cleared his throat.  “Sire,
there were seventy-two species represented in this attack.  The main components
were Ooreiki, Ueshi, Jahul, and Jikaln.”

Tevval snorted.  “They
send Takki to fight warriors.”

“The list also consists
of a few Grislek, Dreit, Hebbut, and Grekkon.”

Tevval grunted.  “At
least you found both Grekkon.”

Instantly, his lieutenant
looked stricken.  “We only found one Grekkon, sire.”

Tevval twitched.  “You
missed one?  They should have been your
first
priority.  A Grekkon can
penetrate our tunnels.”  He began to pace again.  He was not liking this.  The
final team had a Grekkon and a Huouyt.  A bad combination.

“Perhaps we should
contact the Vahlin, sire.”

“The Vahlin will contact
us,” Tevval snapped. 

“But it’s been over a
week since we’ve heard anything from him.  Perhaps he was wrong and another of
the teams stayed behind.”

“The team is here, you
leafy furg,” Tevval said, his voice low.  “Do not make me repeat myself again.”

None of his lieutenants
would meet his eyes to ka-par.  Not one. 
Cowards
.
  Declawed, bony
cowards.
  It put him in the mood to kill one of them.

“The Vahlin has never
been wrong,” Tevval continued, irritated.  “A week ago, I was told they would
attack today, midway through the third hour.  They did.  In that same conversation,
I was told to watch for thirty-nine teams with Huouyt and two Grekkon.  We
already have one dead Grekkon and forty Huouyt.”

“The Vahlin said nothing
about Jreet?”

Tevval swiveled to face
his heir with growing irritation.  “I think the Vahlin would have found that
fact important enough to mention, don’t you?”

His lieutenants seemed to
relax.  Tevval gave a disgusted snort.  They were all descaled by the thought
of an oversized worm.  “Get out of here, vaghi.  Go patrol the shafts.”

His heir bowed his head
slightly.  He stood at Tevval’s shoulder, but he still did not have the courage
to challenge him.  “Sire, wouldn’t it be wise to leave a few of us here to
guard you?”

Tevval roared and slammed
the smaller Dhasha across the room, tearing away scales in a rainbow shower. 
As his heir slowly picked himself from the floor, Tevval said, “I can protect
myself.”

His heir retreated in
silence, leaving Tevval alone.  Even the Takki had departed while he’d been
distracted with disciplining his heir.  A shame.  Tevval had been looking
forward to a meal.

#

“
He’s got eighty-two
adult young,
” Jer’ait said. 
“I’d say the oldest six will have to be
killed, including the prince.  We can let Congress bury the rest.
”

“
You learned all that
in thirty seconds?”
Joe asked the Huouyt.  “
I’m impressed.
”

“
I’m a professional.
”

“
Describe the prince,
”
Joe told his Second.

“He’s a large one,”
Jer’ait said.
  “Less than a rod at shoulder.  Probably five hundred turns.
”

Smaller than Bagkhal. 
Joe took a deep breath, relieved beyond measure.  “
Flea, what about you?
”

“
They’re looking for
us,
” the Baga said.
  “I’m spending most of my time clinging to the
ceiling now.
”

Joe cursed.  “
What
gave us away?
”

Jer’ait was utterly calm
when he said, “
Nothing.  The Vahlin has an agent inside PlanOps.  The prince
not only knows how many teams would be attacking, but he also knows which
species to look out for, and how many of each.  Further, the Dhasha prince has
had this information for over a week.
”

Joe’s heart began to
pound.  “
We haven’t even been on Jeelsiht for a week.
”

“
So it would appear.
”

What in the ninety hells
was going on?

Joe relayed the Huouyt’s
report out loud for Daviin’s benefit.

The Jreet nodded, but
offered nothing.  He’d been almost demure since the confrontation in the
shuttle.  The perfect soldier.  Except, of course, for the fact he didn’t have
a chip.

That still rankled on
Joe.

“
It is possible that
the Dhasha said that for my benefit,
” Jer’ait offered.  “
He might have
sensed my disguise.
”  Joe heard the intense reluctance in the Huouyt’s
voice—he didn’t want to admit he might have been outed.

“
No,
” Joe said, “
You
probably misunderstood him.  Even if he had an agent in headquarters, there’s
no way the Vahlin could have known which den we’d be assigned to.  No one knew
that until three hours ago.
”

“
Perhaps,
” the
Huouyt said. 
“I’ll be there soon.” 
He said nothing more.

They were hiding in a
short side-shaft Scarab had dug into the side of a Takki tunnel and Joe had
masked with a hologram.  Daviin lay somewhere in the main shaft, waiting.

Eventually, a Takki
scurried up the hall toward them.  When he came within reach, Daviin lashed out
and wrapped him in a coil.  The Takki jerked and left the ground, seemingly
held by the air itself.

“Release me, Sentinel.” 
The Takki’s words were cold, utterly unafraid.

Thankfully, Daviin did. 
Joe was acutely aware of the fact that that moment would have been a perfect
time for the Huouyt to ‘accidentally’ get crushed to death.  And, considering
how Daviin had quietly overlooked his order to get chipped, Joe was doubly
concerned that the Jreet would find an unfortunate way for the Va’gan to meet
an untimely end.

Jer’ait brushed himself
off, looking completely unconcerned that a massive predator had just held him
in a death-grip.  Calmly, he told Joe, “The tunnel is safe for fifty rods. 
However, it doesn’t connect to a main shaft until we pass the Takki nesting
area, which is full of females and young.”

“Should we attempt a
different approach?” Joe asked.

“Yes,” Jer’ait said. 
“Too much traffic for even the invertebrate to go unnoticed.”

Joe heard Daviin snarl,
but the Huouyt did not even bother to look.

“
Flea, can you get
back here?
” Joe asked.

“
We’re leaving?
” 
The Baga almost sounded…disappointed.

“
Finding another way
down.”
Joe said. 
“This one’s got too many faces.
”

“
Coming.
”

“There’s something I want
to talk to you about before we go further,” Jer’ait said out loud.  For the
Jreet’s benefit, no doubt.  Which meant it was important enough for the Huouyt
to overlook his disdain for the Sentinel.

Joe scanned the tunnel
behind them with his eyes.  “What?”

“This place.”  Jer’ait
gestured vaguely at the walls of their tunnel.  “There’s something wrong here.”

“How so?”

The Huouyt’s scaly
purple, Takki-patterned face strained to find the words.  Finally, he said,
“I’m not sure.  They killed
every
other team before they even had a
chance to enter the tunnels.  They were waiting for us.  Not just waiting for
us, but
ready
for us.”

“Because they have an
inside man,” Joe agreed.  Nothing really weird about that.  Irritating, but not
weird.

“It’s more than that,”
Jer’ait insisted.  “They knew everything, down to the hour we would appear. 
We
didn’t even know that until this morning.  No one did—except, it seems, the Dhasha
Vahlin.  And yet, despite knowing the exact moment we would arrive, the Vahlin
did not give out our team specifics.  The prince has no idea we have a Jreet
with us.  He had no idea which tunnel we would be assigned to penetrate, which
should have been much easier information to obtain than our arrival time.”  The
Huouyt paused, his Takki-blue eyes shimmering like polished sapphires.  “I’m
finding the situation odd.”

“Which means,” the Jreet
said from thin air, “It’s scaring the piss out of him.”

Jer’ait made a rude
gesture at the Jreet with one clawed Takki hand.

“I saw that, Huouyt.”

“No you didn’t,” Jer’ait
said.  “You’re blind when you’re invisible and you’re too Takki slavesoul to
ping.”

“You’re one to talk,”
Daviin snorted.  “Considering.”

Joe sighed and glanced
down the tunnel behind them.  For the last three hours, the same thought had
been tickling the back of his mind.  Something was definitely off about the
whole affair.  If they left now, headquarters would be satisfied with the
intelligence they had gained.  Escaping with the knowledge that someone in
PlanOps was leaking their secrets was worth leaving the prince alive.

The Baga arrived without
them seeing, crawling upside-down from the ceiling of the tunnel.  “What’s
scaring the piss out of him?  That he’ll see a Dhasha?”

“Silence, pest,” Jer’ait
said casually.

“You look good in that
pattern, Huouyt.  It compliments your character.”  The Baga dropped from the
ceiling to land on Joe’s shoulder.

Jer’ait’s borrowed Takki
eyes were glacial as he turned to regard the Baga.  “I think if we were to take
a poll, Baga, you would not win any awards.”

Flea made a disgusted
sound and took to the air again.  He landed a distance away, on the Grekkon’s
huge jumping legs where they were folded over its back.  If the Grekkon noticed
or cared, it made no indication.

“So what are we doing?”
the Baga demanded.  “What next?  Why are we still standing here like terrified
Takki?”  Then he glanced at the Huouyt’s patterned form.  Smugly, he said,
“Oh.”

“Joe is trying to decide
whether we should return to the surface or continue after the prince,” Galek
said softly, beside Joe.

“Why would we leave?” the
Baga said.  “We’re almost there.”

“Someone’s giving out
Planetary Ops intelligence…a week in advance.”  Jer’ait glanced at the Baga. 
“The Vahlin knew we were coming before
we
knew we were coming.”

“That’s impossible,” the
Baga said.

“It’s not,” Jer’ait
said.  “It just means it’s one of the higher-ups doing the talking.”

“It’s impossible,” the
Baga repeated.  “I was in the room when the Overseers decided to send us in. 
They all wanted different times based on their species’ strengths.  The
Ooreiki, for instance, wanted to wait for nightfall—their eyes are better in
the dark—while the Jikaln wanted the heat of the day, so they’d have faster
reflexes.  They ended up on a compromise.  Averaged it all out.  Big
calculation.  Had some Bajna work it out based on averages and numbers of each
species still left alive after all the infighting and other stuff I don’t
really care about.  That was this morning.”

Joe stared at the Baga,
stunned.  “Why’d they let you in the meeting?”

The Baga did not reply,
its faceted red eyes flat.

“You’re furging me,” Joe
cried.  “You
eavesdropped?
  On the
Overseers?
”

“It’s not my fault if
other species never take the time to look up,” Flea retorted.

“You stupid bastard,” Joe
growled.  “They’d have
executed
you.  They would’ve thought
you
were the traitor.”

“You don’t learn
interesting, possibly life-saving information twiddling your claws in a
barracks room.”  The Baga seemed to have absolutely no remorse.

“So you eavesdropped on
the burning Overseer battleroom,” Joe blurted.

“And I’ll do it again,
too.  It wasn’t boring.”  The Baga cocked its insectlike head at Jer’ait. 
“Like the rest of you.”

Joe opened his mouth to
tell Flea not to, then hesitated.  “So, basically what you’re telling me is
that there’s no way the Vahlin knew when we were gonna arrive, because the
Overseers
didn’t know when we were going to arrive.”

“Not a week ago,” the
football-sized alien confirmed, his faceted eyes glittering almost maroon
despite the Congie technicians’ darkening job.

Jer’ait’s theory that the
prince had said everything for his benefit was beginning to look more
plausible.  “Well, soot.  Jer’ait, if the prince knew you were a spy, why the
hell didn’t he kill you?”

The Huouyt’s response was
reluctant.  “Perhaps he wanted me to pass on wrong information.”

“That he knows we’re
here?  Why?” Joe demanded.  “To scare us out?”

“Perhaps his meeting with
his lieutenants was contrived,” Jer’ait replied.  “There might be three times
as many and they’re waiting for us to come out of hiding, so they can get us
all at once.”

“I suppose that’s
plausible,” Joe said.  “And he could have deduced that we had a Huouyt and a
Grekkon on our team after Takki started disappearing in the tunnels.”  He
frowned at Jer’ait.  “But, bones, he’s gotta be stupid to let a Huouyt assassin
go once he’s identified one.” 

“I couldn’t have said it
better myself,” Daviin said loudly.  Catching the reference, Joe scowled at the
empty air where he knew the Jreet to be huddled.