Zero Recall (49 page)

“Before you kill me, I
have one more question,” the Huouyt said, his multi-colored eyes showing no
fear.  “After all, it is my turn.”

Lavik gave an irritated
flick of his claws.  “What difference does it make?  You’ll only take the
information to the grave with you.”

“This is a desperate
attempt to delay my death as long as possible because I fear the consequences
of my actions in the afterlife.”

Lavik laughed, despite
himself.  “We both know that’s not true.”

“Nevertheless, I have a
question.”

“Very well.  Ask.”

“Do you realize you’re
being used?”

#

“
This is turning into
a Takkiscrew.
”  Joe concentrated on his anger to keep thoughts of the
tunnels at bay.  “
Where the
soot
did they all go?  It’s like they’ve
got burning Houdini working for them.
”

“
We’re still alive,
”
the Grekkon noted.  “
That is a good sign.
”

“
Jer’ait could be
rotting in a slave tunnel for all we know,
” Joe replied.  “
Goddamn this soot. 
We haven’t seen a Takki for three hours.  It’s like they know exactly where we
are.
”

“
What if they do?
”
the Jreet asked.

“
Then we’re well and
truly charred.
”

No one felt like adding
to that.

“
All right,
” Joe
said after another twenty tics passed without a single victim for their trap, “
Let’s
assume they know where we are.  How’d they figure it out?
”

“
They got Jer’ait,
”
Galek said softly.

“
Jer’ait’s got no idea
where we are,
” Joe said.  “
He took off without us, the cowboy sootbag.
” 
He was still pissed at that, and would be having a polite conversation with his
Second about it just as soon as they got back to the barracks.  A polite
conversation probably involving a plasma pistol and pruning shears.

“
Say they found him
and interrogated him,
” Daviin said.  “
If they’ve got a detailed map of
their tunnel systems, they could probably pinpoint the most logical route we’d
take to get to the deep den.
”

Joe thought on that a
moment.  “
So you’re saying we’ve gotta do something illogical?
”

“
We need to take a
path we wouldn’t normally take.
”

“
While sticking to the
slave tunnels,
” the Grekkon added.  “
If we don’t, and you’re correct, as
soon as we leave the slave tunnels, the Dhasha will ambush us.
”

Joe rubbed his clenched
fist against his knee.  “
Okay.  Galek, you lead.  Find us a tunnel that you
wouldn’t normally take that connects to a main passage.  Doesn’t necessarily
have to lead to the deep den.  I want to test a theory.
”

Galek took the lead,
unhesitatingly leading them through a maze of slave tunnels until they crouched
at the entrance to a main hallway, this one large enough to fit three Dhasha
abreast.

They waited three hours
and saw nothing.

Joe’s mood deteriorated
as the time passed without seeing a single enemy.  Finally, Joe said, “
So
they know where we are.  And it’s not Jer’ait.
”

“
They knew where we
would land,
” the Ooreiki reminded them.  “
Maybe the Trith are still
helping them.
”

“
Shut up about the
Trith,
” Joe snapped.  “
They don’t help anyone.
”

“
What are Trith?
”
Daviin asked.

“
Never mind.  Bones.
” 
Joe considered their options.  Their presence had been compromised, and right
now, the only thing keeping them from getting their asses handed to them was
the fact they had millions of lobes of dirt squeezing them in on all sides,
making it impossible for the Dhasha to reach them.

“
I could go in alone,
”
Daviin suggested.  “
My energy level raised.
”

“
You’d have no
protection if you ran into more than one,
” Joe replied.

“
We’d have a better
chance of succeeding if we split up,
” Daviin insisted.

“
We’d have a better
chance of
dying
if we split up.
”  Joe took a deep breath, eying the
tunnel.  “
It’s either—
”

“
Something’s coming!
”
Galek interrupted.  “
Behind us!
”

Joe twisted around and
brought up his weapon to face the tiny crevice that he had somehow managed to
crawl through three hours earlier.  He saw nothing.  “
Where?
”

“
Getting closer,
”
Galek said.

“
I can hear it,
”
Daviin said after a moment.  “
It’s a Takki.  I can hear its scales grinding against
the stone.
”

“
Damn it,
” Joe
said, “
What if it’s Jer’ait?
”

“
If it’s not, and you
don’t shoot it, it can run to alert the others,
” Daviin said.

“
The others already
know we’re here.  You just proved it,
” the Grekkon reminded them.

At that moment, a Takki’s
head popped into Joe’s field of view and Joe got an immediate rush of
goosebumps.  Holding his gun trained on the Takki’s face, he growled, “Name
yourself, sootwad!”

“Shoot me, and you’ll
have to carry my remains back to Va’ga yourself, Human.”

Joe frowned at the
Huouyt.  “What the hell are you doing?  I told you to burning stay with us!”

“I did some scouting. 
There’s a good access point behind me.  Slave tunnels all the way to the deep
den.  Low head count.  That whole section of the den is deserted.  Prince is
all alone.”

Joe glanced at the others
behind him, then said, “Okay, let’s go.”

The Huouyt led them back
through the tunnels, taking tunnel after tunnel with confidence.

At his last choice, Galek
suddenly grabbed Joe’s ankle and held on.

“What the…?”  Joe turned,
frowning.

The Ooreiki was peering
past him, at the Huouyt.  He cleared his throat, glanced at Joe, then loudly
said to Jer’ait, “Are you sure this is the right way?”

The Huouyt gave the
Ooreiki an irritated look.  “Of course.  I memorized the route.”

“
He’s wrong,
”
Galek told them.  “
Joe, he’s about to lead us into the biggest tunnel I’ve
ever seen.
”

Joe frowned back at the
Ooreiki.  “
You haven’t seen it.
”

“
I can feel it.  It’s
huge.
”

Joe peered at Galek. 
“You
feel
it?  Is that some kind of joke?”

“What’s going on?” the
Huouyt demanded sharply.

“
Listen to him,
”
Flea insisted.  “
He can cheat at dice.
”

“
And you’re absolutely
positive we’re about to get dumped into a huge tunnel?
”

“
Yes,
” the Ooreiki
said.

“
You’re
sure?”

“
Yes!
” Galek said,
frustration and anger edging his thoughts.

Joe considered that. 
Then, “Dor’iet,” Joe called, watching the Ooreiki’s face closely, “You’re sure
you didn’t take a wrong turn somewhere?”

Even as the Ooreiki was
frowning, the Huouyt snapped, “I’m sure.  I’m not a furg.”

Joe turned.  “Yes.  You
are.”  He raised his gun and fired.

#

They sat in a circle
staring at the body the Ooreiki had dragged back through the tunnels with
them.  No one spoke.  Behind them, the Grekkon had sunk itself into the wall
and was guarding the only entrance to the tunnel it had made.

“
Since when did they
start using Huouyt?
” Daviin finally said into the silence. 
“Dhasha hate
the Huouyt.  They hate them almost as much as they hate Jreet.”
 

The corpse remained in
the form of a Takki, except with a large portion of its chest exposed to air
where Daviin had ripped it open posthumously.  It had no chip.  It did,
however, have
zora.
  The only thing that remained of a Huouyt after
taking a pattern. 

Joe turned on his PPU and
did a search for Jer’ait’s chip, but he found nothing.  Even dead, it would
have showed up on the screen. 

The enemy had shorted it
somehow.

“
Dhasha wouldn’t use a
Huouyt,
” Joe muttered, but he wasn’t sure.  He stared down at the dead
alien.  Had it been Jer’ait, who simply hadn’t been quick enough to catch his
slip?  Had Joe killed their groundmate because his claustrophobia had made him
trigger-happy?

“
So this means Jer’ait
is dead?
” Galek asked.

Grimly, Daviin said, “
We
haven’t heard from him since the surface, so I’d say that’s a safe assumption.
”

“
This still doesn’t
explain why they know where we are,
” Flea said.

“
They tagged us,
”
Joe said simply.  “
Somewhere, the bastards tagged us.
”

“
I thought Dhasha
didn’t use tags,
” Galek whispered.

“
They do now.  Goddamn
it.  We’ll never find the thing.
”

“
He tagged me,
”
Daviin said.  “
I was the only one who had contact with him.
”

“
Great,
” Joe
said.  “
So we’ve got sixty digs of scales to pry up looking for it.  And
that’s if he only planted one.  If he were smart, he would’ve planted one on
all of us before he took off.
”

“
If he were smart,
”
Daviin said grimly, “
He would’ve learned Jer’ait’s name before he killed
him.
”

“
Va’ga-trained have a
high tolerance to drugs,
” Joe said.  “
They only have a very small window
between ineffectual and lethal, and it’s likely this sooter had no idea where
that window was.
”

“
So we can assume
Jer’ait told them nothing,
” Daviin said.  “
Because, if I understand
correctly, it’s legal for a Congressional soldier to give his name once he is
captured.
”

“
It’s legal,
” Joe
agreed.  “
But Jer’ait probably knew the vaghi would use it against us.
”

“Would that matter to
a Huouyt?”
Daviin demanded.

“Yes, you furgling
Jreet,
” Flea said. 
“We’re his groundmates.”

Daviin swiveled to face
the Baga. 
“A Huouyt wouldn’t care if we all died down here.  He might even
give his name away on purpose, so that we all
would
die down here, if he
knows his own death is coming.
”

“Jer’ait’s different,”
Flea said. 
“He didn’t give his name away.  That proves it.
”

“You’re a fool, Baga,
”
the Jreet laughed, and for a moment Joe had the feeling the delicate
camaraderie they had developed was going to regress back to the dangerous,
rival bickering he had first seen as their commander. 

But then Daviin amended,
“But,
seeing how Jer’ait’s probably dead, it’s our duty to give him the benefit of
the doubt.”
  Daviin turned to Joe.  “
So what do we do?  The Huouyt’s
dead.  Our enemies know our position, and they might have other Huouyt they can
use against us.
”

“
Headquarters might
find information about this guy more valuable than the prince’s death,
”
Flea suggested, gesturing at the mangled corpse.  “
They’re really serious
about intel, now that almost everybody’s dead.
”

Joe glanced down at his
fist.  His hand had gotten better for a while, but ever since he had shot the
Huouyt, it had been shaking uncontrollably.  He tried not to look at the dirt
on either side of him, tried not to think about what would happen if the planet
suffered an earthquake.  He could feel the old fear, straining at the back of
his mind, clawing for release.  The last thing he wanted to do was stay down
here until the dam burst and he began crying like a little baby.

He opened his mouth to
tell them they were going home.

“Our mission was to
kill the prince,”
the Grekkon said to Flea, before Joe could speak. 
“The
prince is not dead.”

Joe took a deep breath
and tried not to gag on the stale, underground air.  The Grekkon was right.  He
couldn’t let his fear make his decisions for him.  That was the quickest way
for a grounder to meet his grave.  He squeezed his eyes shut and tried to force
his mind into some semblance of clarity.  “
Let’s suppose this guy only
tagged Daviin.  We could use that.
”

“
How?
” Flea asked,
clearly interested.

“
Scarab, how much
juice you got left?
”

“
I could tunnel back
to the surface if I had to.  Not much further.
”

“
All right,
” Joe
said.  “
Time to use a little reverse psychology.
”

CHAPTER 25:  A Lifetime of Loneliness

Lavik twitched.  “Of
course I’m being used.  I’m a soldier for the Vahlin to do with as he will. 
Not even a captain or a general.  That doesn’t bother me.  I understand I’m
giving my life for my people.  If I must die, so be it.  The Vahlin will not
fail.”

The Huouyt cocked its
penis-shaped head at him.  “If the Vahlin didn’t want to fail, why’d he combine
all his best forces onto one planet?” his prisoner demanded.  “You’re
completely blockaded.  He must know they’re going to use an
ekhta
eventually.”

Lavik snorted.  “You said
yourself the cowards of the Regency won’t use an
ekhta
.”

“They won’t use one
now
,”
the prisoner agreed.  “But what will they do when they find out the Huouyt and
the Dhasha are working together?  They won’t have a choice.”