Shift (The Pandorma Adventures Book 1) (27 page)

Chapter 20

A magnificent golden eagle lands in front of us—its beak coming to my snout. The eagle’s feathers are sepia brown and there’s a golden sheen to the feathers. Its talons and beak, if not lethal already, are enhanced with the metal.

“I see you have come with a specimen.” The female eagle’s voice is harsh, as if it suffered from scraping out commands all day. She lifts her wing, placing it under Ryan’s chin and moving his head back and forth. The eagle drops her wing and circles Ryan.

“Very good, very good,” she murmurs. Then to me she says, “You did very well Reaper. Perhaps you will get a reward for bringing back such a fine specimen. Carry on.” She flaps back to her post.

I squint my eyes against the dust that rose with the gust of air she created. I turn to Ryan. He looks just as bewildered as I am.
Specimen? Where am I supposed to take him?

“We’d better get moving. She’s watching us,” Ryan whispers.

I glance up. Sure enough, she is watching through attentive eyes. I make a guess and head to the mountain’s mouth. Inside the air is thick with scorching smoke. The smoke lies in several layers; the top layer so thick I can’t see where the ceiling is. The bottom layer is thinnest but the smoke is still clearly visible and suffocating. Animals yell back and forth in words and in their natural language. The clang of metal being pounded and scraped is almost deafening.

My senses go into overdrive and it takes every ounce of sanity I have not to flee. I strain to see through the smoke and after several heartbeats, I can make out the wooden bins Ruze had mentioned. I steer Ryan toward them, butting him with my snout, trying to seem gruff while not toppling him over.

The orange glow from the torches that light the walls cast eerily off the objects inside the bins. I warily peek inside. The bins are filled with armory. Armory shaped to fit any animals’ weaponry. Claws, beak tips, hoofs, antler points, and teeth. The sound of more armory being dumped into a bin further down is deafening. I have to fight the urge to drop to the ground and cover my ears with my paws. I push Ryan with my snout and we continue heading along the wall.

It takes us forever to make our way around the cavern because we are unable to walk very fast. We’re constantly jumping out of the way of passing animals or tripping over various objects lying on the ground. But finally we find the stairway leading down. The steps are about two feet wide, five feet long and layered with an inch of concrete.

“Where did they get concrete?”

“Shhh!”
I hiss. We are the only ones on the stairs, but I still feel the need for silence.

A passageway opens up to the left of us.

“Halt,” commands a bored voice.

Ryan and I had been about to pass it by but stop at the command. I back up, unable to turn around. A Tasmanian devil watches us through beady black eyes.

“He goes here,” he says in a flat voice.

My mind blanks for a minute before realizing he means Ryan. My scattered thoughts strain to think of an excuse not to drop him off.

“Come along,” he says exasperated.

I share an uneasy glance with Ryan.

“We might as well play along,” Ryan whispers.

The Tasmanian devil leads us down a short hallway then through an open door. The room we are led into looks like a crudely built lab. On the left is a thick wooden door. Messily carved tables lean against parts of the wall. The tables are crammed with test tubes, liquids, and papers. The rabbit I had seen earlier sits atop an uneven chair. The rabbit’s back is to us, leaning over a clipboard.

“Iru, a new specimen has arrived,” the Tasmanian devil announces.

The rabbit, Iru, turns around. His black eyes scour up and down Ryan in one quick motion. Iru hops off his chair and begins circling Ryan.

“Brilliant! He’ll make an excellent addition.”

The rabbit looks at me, winks and adds, “Magnificent find. I’ll put in a good word for you with Medusa.”

“Where will the . . .” I hate calling Ryan something so degrading, but I say the word with as much indifference as I can, “specimen be taken to?”

“The holding kennels of course. Don’t worry.” Iru chuckles. “The lesser being won’t feel much after the first test. I know some Reapers feel, “sympathy” for the specimens they’ve brought in, but I assure you he will be fine. For the greater good right?” Iru chuckles again then turns to the Tasmanian devil.

“Escort him to kennel five. First confiscate those things he’s carrying.”

The Tasmanian devil gives a hard nod then jerks its head at Ryan. Under different circumstances I would’ve found it funny, a little animal like him trying to lead Ryan to a kennel. But right now I’m in a panic trying to come up with an excuse for Ryan to not be put in a kennel.

I stare at the rabbit. I wonder if I have to address him in a certain way—I can tell my rank is lower than his. I don’t want to mess up, but I don’t have time to stand around pondering this.

“Iru?”

“
Ih!
Not I.
Ih
ru.”

“Okay,” I say hesitantly. I don’t see much of a difference, but I don’t want to upset him. “Iru,” I pronounce his name carefully, “could I please see where my specimen will be taken?”

Iru frowns.
Uh oh.

“Because,” I add swiftly, “I was asked to report back to—Xavier. On the, uh, condition of the specimens and the progress. The golden eagle said so.” I hold my breath hoping Iru will buy my lie.

The rabbit’s nose twitches. He scratches his head then replies, “Xavier usually sends Nile down for those reports.”

“Nile is unwell. So I was sent to do it instead.”

The rabbit shrugs. “I suppose.”

My shoulders slump with relief. The Tasmanian devil, who had soundlessly come back, shoves open the large door; waiting for us to pass through before letting it slam shut behind us.

Nothing could’ve prepared me for what is on the other side of that door. One ‘kennel’ is made up of two stone sides, a wall of dirt at the back, and a wire mesh at the front. A small board hangs on a nail on the left stonewall it reads:

Failed

Discarded Specimen.

I hold down the revulsion rising in my throat. Behind the wire mesh are humans, or what’s left of them. One disfigured man in the back is chained to the wall; his naked body has thick ugly hair growing in spots like mange. His back legs are distorted, caught between man and wolf. Thick yellowish drool spills from his mouth. His hands are painfully contorted and his face has a vicious hunger to it, his tongue lolling like a dog’s.

Another man curls into himself, his eyes hollow and hands eternally clutched together. All his teeth are gone.

A woman’s fingers bend unnaturally upward while the tips bend forward, claws painfully sprouting instead of fingernails. Her nose is gnarled into the shape of a snout, her feet bony with talons instead of toenails. Two other people, horribly disfigured, hide in the corners of their prison, the shadows hiding their bodies.

The kennel beside it is fairly empty except for a hairless ape with a head like a wolf’s. A mangled coyote lies on the floor, its body twisted beyond recognition. A red wolf drags its useless back legs across the floor to an empty puddle. A Pitbull, skin stretched taut and every bone visible, lay with dead eyes on the floor. Their sign reads:

Futile results

Discarded

My heart twists with pain for the creatures being subjected to these wicked experiments. I don’t want to see what the other kennels contain, but I force my legs to move forward.

The third kennel contains animals—dogs to be specific from housedogs to wolves and foxes. I frown and look closer. These animals seem smaller than the ones here and don’t have that cunning look about them that I have started associating with Pandorma animals. Except for a bit of rib showing, the dogs look generally healthy. I glance at the sign.

Earthly animal specimens

Unused, Prepared Subjects

Disgust curls my lips. So they’re using animals from Earth instead of their own? I just barely keep from crying out how twisted this whole thing is. But it fills me with staunch determination to end this. We move onto the fourth kennel, and my mouth drops open. The kennel holds about ten people. They all have ghostly skin, thin dreadlock hair, and dead, bulging eyes. When they catch sight of us they cup their bony, papery hands and stretch them out to us, a moan filling the air. Panic washes over me and threatens to overwhelm me.

When we don’t move, their creepy moan grows louder, a hint of excitement showing in their eyes. With weak limbs they struggle to crawl toward me. I feel my stomach drop. If Ryan stays here long enough, he’ll become one of them. I force myself to look at their sign.

Human specimen

Unused, Prepared Subjects

We quickly move to the last kennel and their disturbing moans quiet to a mournful whisper. Ryan is in this one. I expect ghastly creatures to be in it, but instead there are five humans. Healthy, normal looking humans. A white cloth is bound across their mouths. The same white cloth fastens their wrists, but it seems unnecessary. They are worn, beaten without a trace of fight left in them. Two women and three men—all have to be in their late teens or early twenties. Their clothing is tattered and they look thin but not severely underfeed.
I wonder how long they’ve been here.

Human specimen

Unprepared Subjects

“There he is.”

Iru’s voice startles me. His face has remained unfazed despite the appearance of the people and animals. I suppose mine would too if I saw it every day, yet how could someone become so unaffected at sights so horrible?

Ryan leans against the mesh. His eyes tell me to stick to our plan—I need to go dig up some information, find some way to impair their army. I give a tiny nod. I stare into his eyes with the promise that we’ll get him out—alive. The trust he has in me feels like the weight of a thousand pounds. I square my shoulders and look him directly in the eye. I’m not going to shrink away now.

I turn to Iru and ask, “How long before he’s prepared?”

Iru scratches his chin. “I just got a new shipment of supplies so I’d like to begin in about an hour, hour and a half. I think I’ll start with this one,” Iru says, pointing to Ryan. “He’s quite handsome and in good health—he should be able to withstand the treatment’s repercussions better.”

“Curse your good looks,” I mutter and despite the situation he lets out a short, soft laugh. I sigh.
Great, so I have an hour, hour and a half tops to gather information
and
break Ryan out.

The Tasmanian devil and Iru start heading toward the door. I tear my gaze away from Ryan and follow. The clock starts ticking now.

Chapter 21

I walk out of the lab and head further down the tunnel.
Fox.
Less conspicuous. When I reach the bottom of the stairs my stomach sinks. Two doors stand on either side of me, and the main tunnel is cut into several others. My whole hour could be used up just trying to find the right door.

A lynx passes inches from me, stopping before going far. It turns to me, narrowing its eyes.

“Who are you?” she asks, her voice cutting.

“A Reaper.” I just barely keep it from sounding like a question.

She narrows disbelieving eyes further. “Where’s your ward?”

“I’ve already dropped him off.”

“Then what are you doing down here? This is a private sector.”

“I was—am to report to Xavier. Iru’s orders,” I add hastily.

A little suspicion is shed from her eyes, but she retorts stonily, “We’ll see about that. In the meantime you can report Iru’s words to me and
I
will carry them to Xavier.”

Suddenly I realize who she must be: Nile. The second it registers, I know I’ll have to think of something brilliant to keep her from going to the lab and getting the supposed message herself.

“I can't do as you request. Iru explicitly ordered that I deliver the message to Xavier. He was extremely—excited over a recent, uh, development. He also ordered that no one enter the lab for an hour. He doesn’t want to be disturbed.” I hold my head up and put as much authority in my voice as I can. Nile is rock still for a few seconds before muttering, “Must have finally done something right.”

Nile faces me. “Very well then. Xavier is in his
‘plotting room.’
” Nile says the last part so sarcastically I can taste it.

“To the right,” she adds then gives me a stiff nod before pouncing up the stairs.

Seriously.
To the right? There are several rights. I draw in a deep breath and force my nerves to calm. I’ll just take the first tunnel and stick to the right. I trot around the corner. Pass one door, then another and make another right. At the end of the hallway sits a faded, heavy-looking rock-red door. I pad up to it then flatten myself against the wall when the door bangs open. A saber-toothed cat stalks out before turning out of sight. I slip through the door before it fastens back into place. The door clicks behind me, catching some of my tail fur, but I ignore the slight pain and steal myself into the nearest shadow.

In the middle of the pocket-sized room is a large wood table; a small cabinet hangs on the wall behind. Above them hangs a large Eternal Flame. On one side a bald eagle sits on top of the table, next to it sits a giant cheetah; on the other is a Dire wolf. At the head of the table, hunched over, stands a man.
Xavier.

It’s strange, finally seeing one of the people who has caused so much damage. I expected someone evil looking, maybe with a disfigured face or a permanent sneer fixed to his lips. Instead he looks completely normal, handsome even. Except for his remarkably dark green, soulless eyes, which I glimpse when he looks up for a second. He has a jagged scar running from his elbow up his arm before being covered by his sleeve. Xavier is tall and has a moderate build but I can feel strength pulsing from him.

“We’ll strike here.” Xavier chortles, “Should be an easy battle, especially with the new troops Medusa will be bringing.”

The eagle shakes its head. “How can we trust those animals? They are dumb.”

A sinister look comes over Xavier’s face and completely transforms it. I suppress the need to shudder.

“Anyone can be taught to kill with the right motivation. Any more
doubts
Storfen?”

The bald eagle gives him a piercing look before giving a single, forced nod, his wings twitching once.

“Good.” Xavier claps his hands together. “Let's get on with things then. The sooner this war is over, the better. As long as I win, of course.” Xavier gathers a few pieces of paper then leaves.

The animal’s heads follow Xavier out. When the door closes I can feel their relief, it’s so strong.

“If we don’t do something—” starts the wolf his hushed tone cutting with anger; “he is going to run this war into the ground. We’ll never win using
Earth animals
!” the wolf spits out the last two words.

The animals freeze as if they expect Xavier to come blasting back in, the fate of their lives following closely behind. When the door stays shut they let out a collective breath.

“We have no choice,” the cheetah whispers heatedly.

There’s a pause then, together the animals push through the door. I wait five seconds before coming out of my hiding spot. They must’ve been preoccupied with their thoughts, otherwise I’m sure I would’ve been detected.

Lissa.
I walk over to the table and let my eyes roam over the papers lying on it. A list of earth animals: showing the number of them collectively, what kind of animal and how many of that kind. The animals at the top of the list and most numerous are: bears, large cats, elephants, and rhinos.
As if Earth wasn’t short on animals already, now they’re going to be mass murdered.
I shake my head. They must be using Earth animals as a kind of shield. Our warriors will have to waste energy killing the shield animals instead of killing the real threat.

I scan over other papers: a list containing the amount of finished weapons, a list of warriors, and a description of every seized land on Pandorma. I rifle through more of the papers, but see nothing else that strikes me as important.
They are
way
more coordinated and ready than Cobalt.

Beneath the mess of papers is a very intricate map of Pandorma. I shake my head slightly in disbelief. Red lines mark what I guess to be the land they control. Two land masses—the one I stand on and the one left of it—are inked red, plus a few other locations. Every place is clearly named and sketched.

I lean closer and squint to read the small print on the continent to my left. B . . . o . . . m . . . b . . . s, I jerk up.
Bombs! No way.
I read it again, but the word hasn’t changed. The bombs are located in the middle of a forest close to the ocean. I scrutinize over the rest of the map for any more bombs and find four more.

I groan inwardly. How would we collect them all before they can be used? I jump at a distant thump. Remembering that I’m running out of time, I cross over to the cupboard. The bottom shelf has a small pile of blank papers and one full inkwell; the top contains several books and two three-inch high boxes. I shuffle through the books. Several are on army strategy, one is about lycanthropy, and just as I crack open the spine the door creaks open.
Cat.

I jump into the cupboard and claw the doors closed behind me. I peek through a sliver in the doors. The cheetah stalks in. It sniffs the air, tail tip twitching and spine ramrod straight. On silent paws its sleek body moves toward the cupboard. I shrink back, my rapid breaths tickling the papers I’ve ducked behind.

The cheetah begins to nose open the door. I picture a thin, tiny snake then shift.
Snake.
My brain is frozen with panic but my body responds to the command and I shrink into a snake. I hear the cheetah breathe deeply. It noses open the doors, softly places its paws on the edge of the cupboard and begins carefully rummaging through the things inside.

My body goes around the inkwell and I let myself plummet over the edge. I make a soft plop when I hit the ground and the cheetah’s whole body goes still. I hurriedly slither around the table. The cheetah settles itself back down and places its nose exactly where my body fell.
Darn.
This place isn’t exactly brimming with hiding places.

“Livid! Have you gotten the papers yet?” The Dire wolf appears in the doorway, fur standing on end in anger.

“I smell an intruder,” she hisses.

“Intruder my fur! Xavier will have both our lives if we're not out there this second!” The wolf’s bark is furious, but I can detect strong underlying fear.

Livid grits her teeth before jerkily moving to the table. She collects some papers, carefully slipping them into a flat leaf sack the wolf had picked up. She slides the strap around her neck then leaves, the Dire wolf mere inches behind her.

The friction of their anger doesn’t leave with them; it seems trapped inside the room by the door.

Lissa.
My knees shaky from that close call, I stand. I reopen the cupboard doors. The boxes above have a word inked on the side. One reads: Battles, the other, Plans. I take the second box. As I’m taking it off the shelf a pile of books falls down.
Of all the times . . .
hastily I pick them up while simultaneously reading the titles. One catches my eye and stops me dead. Written across the cover is: Experiments, Results & Future. M.

M as in Medusa?
Definitely a keeper.
I open the lid of the box and slap the book on top. The rest of the books are worthless. I put the box under my arm and cautiously open the door. How long did that take?
I really wish I had a clock right now,
I growl to myself. I run down the hall and carefully peek around the corner. The smilidon is sitting with a female lion and a pronghorn, their heads bent closely together.

I look around for a different way I can leave, but there is none. I need to get rid of them. And I think I know the best way to do it. I just have to hide the box. Seeing no hiding places I set it down.
Badger.
I furiously start scraping at the ground, carving a hole big enough to fit the box.
Lissa
. I cover the box back up, smoothing the dirt as even as I can. Now for a disturbance and a few acting skills.
Leopard.
I pant a few breaths.
Think exhaustion and . . . fear.
I dash around the corner. The animals’ heads jerk up at my abrupt entrance.

“Oh, thank goodness I found you!” I stand panting in front of them, making my legs quiver for added affect.

“What’s wrong?” the smilidon’s voice reeks of distrust, but I ignore it.

“There’s—been a—a breach! Enemy warriors are attacking! Xavier ordered everyone above!”

“Who are you?” the lioness hisses. She begins stalking around me, carefully sniffing my pelt.

“What does it matter who I am? We're under
attack
!”
I screech for extra measure.

“Untrained soldier,” mutters the pronghorn.

The smilidon ignores the pronghorn’s remark and demands, “What sector?”

“Uh,”
Great.
“Sector . . . Ocean?”

“Severely under trained,” growls the pronghorn.

“You mean sector—”

“For crying out loud does the name of the sector really matter? Sound the alarm! Bring out the army!” I quickly snap my jaws shut before any more lines come out.

The smilidon flicks his ear before instructing me, “We’ll go assess the enemy. You go tell Absalom to be on alert and be ready.”

I nod my head vigorously. The others take off up the stairs. I wait several heartbeats before charging after them. I fly through the cultivation area and outside. I faintly wonder how far the others have gotten before I take in a huge breath.

“We’re under attack!” I shout. “Run! Fight! We're under attack!” I bellow with as much fear as I can. I race back and forth screeching the words like a broken record.

Panic ensues from every corner of the clearing—just as I’d hoped. Animals start racing around relaying the message, furthering the chaos. They jet about looking for the enemy so they can eliminate the threat. Satisfied, I tear back down the stairs, sliding into the lab. Iru whips around at my unexpected entrance.

“Who are you?”

“That question is getting tiring.”
Lissa.

Iru’s eyes widen with shock. He picks up a nearby syringe and points it at me.

“Really?” I walk over to the door with the kennels behind it with steely determination.

“Guards!” shrieks Iru.

No one comes. I place my hand on the door. As I'm beginning to push it open I feel a slight jab in my leg and look down. Iru is sliding that syringe in me. I yank the syringe out, throw it away and put several feet in between the rabbit and me.

“I could have warriors down here in seconds. You’ll be dead in minutes.”

I don’t bother telling him that everyone is busy looking for an imaginary enemy. “Or I could shift and kill you in seconds.”

“True. But you already have a smidgen of that in you. It's lethal,” he says, pointing to the syringe.

I shake my head, unimpressed, though my heart starts beating faster. I take a few steps toward him and a glint of fear flickers in Iru’s eyes before vanishing.

“What do you want?”

“A human. One specific human.”

“There’ll be warriors down here in fifteen minutes. The lab is a top priority on the ‘keep safe’ list.”

“Then they’ll be here to see your mangled body. Unless you let me take the person of my choice
in peace
.”