The Broken Cage (Solstice 31 Saga Book 2) (9 page)

***

Hagan was alone. He lost track of time. Days blurred into weeks. He scratched his beard. His beard was his primary time measurement tool now.

His drop ship sat on the top of a tall ridge, waiting, as two automated search drones looked for the wreckage of the
Memphis
. He hoped he could salvage enough to set up a warning beacon of some kind. The drones had already covered an area that was roughly the size of Texas but had only, so far, discovered the site of an ejected reactor core.

Wes dug into the computer file system, out of boredom, one day. He did anything to distract himself from his inevitable death by starvation, in about a year.

“ECHO, what is in this encrypted data archive?” Wes Hagan asked, as he dug into the onboard data store. He sat in the copilot seat, trying to find out why this lifeboat was really a drop ship with sixteen Warmark combat drop suits. That, in addition to several tons of weapons and explosives.

“It is mission data. Orders and background for the operations team. Now obsolete,” AI~ECHO relied. ECHO was the lifeboat’s AI. ECHO stood for Extreme Combat Hellfire Operations.

“Wes, we may have found something.” ECHO activated several displays, showing the maps of the drone search areas. It highlighted one area, specifically. A live video feed also opened.

“What am I looking at here, ECHO?” Wes asked.

“This.” An area on the horizon was circled by a bright yellow line and a slow zoom began.

Eventually, he saw it. It was the tip of an antenna, just peeking over the horizon.

“ECHO. Plot a course.”

Eyes watched the ship go from shadows on the ridge less than a kilometer away. As the lifeboat glided toward the peek on the far horizon, lips moved, cursing him, silently, in the vacuum.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Rand Gets Allies

“Sometimes events just unfold. At the time, I thought I was the one being followed. I had no idea Barcus was the demon they were talking about.”

--Solstice 31 Incident Investigation Testimony Transcript: Master Chief Nancy Randall, senior surviving security member of the Ventura's crew.

<<<>>>

“Who are you?” Vi asked, as she entered the small stone cottage. Her bow was still in her left hand and her right rested lightly on her knife’s handle.

Almost apologetically, Tannhauser added, “We can see you are not from these parts.” He squirmed out of his pack and set it on the floor. He closed the door.

“How do you know our names?” Vi added, with chin held high.

Rand stirred the stew, one more time, as she sat on the low, three-legged stool.

“As I said, my name is Rand. Who am I?” She paused, looking into the fire. “I am many things. Some call me a Keeper, some call me a witch.” She held her hand up and sparks arced between her gloved fingers. “I’m a tracker far from home. Mostly, I'm hungry. And, tired of hiding.”

Tannhauser spoke then, but she could not understand him.

“Forgive me. I don't understand,” Rand said.

Vi and Tannhauser stared at each other for a moment.

“Is High Tongue your only tongue?” Vi asked.

“No. I can speak four other...tongues.”

She spoke a few sentences in Spanish, German, Farsi and, finally, Chinese. None of these registered with them. They looked at each other, again.

“High Tongue, it is.” She stirred the stew, again.

As if she made a decision, Vi said, “Give me that. You'll wear out the spoon.”

She dropped her pack with practiced ease and hung her bow and cloak on pegs by the door. Taking the spoon from Rand, she adjusted the pot on its hook, farther from the flames, gave it a stir, and covered it with the lid. Using a small shovel leaning there, she banked a pile of coals beneath the pot and put another log on the fire.

Rand slowly stood and backed away. Tannhauser realized, at the same time as Rand, how much taller she really was.

“You’re very tall,” he said.

“Thank you,” Rand replied. It was not what Tannhauser expected.

Vi looked over her shoulder, as she crouched before the fire. Rand moved to the table and sat down. Vi lifted the lid and tasted the stew.

“You have salt!” she called out.

She moved to her pack and withdrew a damp bag that contained a few dozen wild onions. Then, she took out another that contained some tubers that resembled small, knobby potatoes and one comically large carrot. She had them chopped and in the pot, with a few dry flakes of some spices, and the cottage smelled like heaven.

“Where going, Rand?” Tannhauser asked, in imperfect High Speech.

“I have not decided.” She was unwilling to give too much away.

Rand looked down at Vi as she worked. Her hair was very long but entirely French braided. She had not washed her own hair in weeks, combing it with only her fingers.

Almost absently, Rand asked, “Vi, can you show me how to braid my hair like that?”

Vi snapped her head around to look at Rand and then Tannhauser. She laughed. She stood, looked at Rand's knotted hair and laughed even harder. It was infectious. Tannhauser laughed, too. Rand's own smile became laughter.

A corner of trust had been turned, somehow. As the stew simmered, Tannhauser went to collect wood and Vi untangled Rand's hair. It took a long time. Vi produced from her pack a white comb and a coarse hairbrush. It took over a half hour to untangle her hair.

Vi chattered the entire time about a wide variety of things. Salt was a rare item in recent months. She complimented Rand on the workmanship of her clothes, careful to never ask where they came from. She talked a lot about her love of the autumn and the changing of the leaves. She talked about how wonderful the stew would be, and her other favorite foods, like fish that she never seemed to get anymore.

Rand watched what Tannhauser was doing, through a HUD window via the Fly. She watched as he finished processing the deer. He cut some of the meat into strips and some into chunks that he dropped into a pot he produced from his pack. He also stretched the hide out between two bent saplings and scraped it with a special tool.

What Rand had initially thought to be a simple cairn of stones was, in fact, a small smokehouse. One chamber was a firebox and the other worked like a chimney. The strips of venison hung in there, now.

All this in less than an hour.

By then, Rand’s hair was combed out and perfectly braided. If felt glorious, in addition to being practical. Vi even unbraided her own hair, so Rand could watch as she did it, expertly, by feel.

Tannhauser came in with news that the well was almost dry and would probably freeze, solid, this winter.

They produced their own bowls and spoons to eat with. Tan’Vi had carved white spoons that Rand realized were carved from bone. She made a mental list of these things; they would help her blend in. They ate in silence, for the most part. Compliments about the stew were the main conversation. There was a lot of stew. Everyone had three bowls, and there was still more left, even after they were full.

She decided to take a chance and be a bit more candid.

“Look, I’m not from around here. I don't know the common language, the customs, the rules. I could use your help.”

Before she could say another word, AI~Poole spoke, in her mind. “
Riders coming in fast from the west. Seven of them. ETA, seventeen minutes
.”

A window opened in her HUD. The Fly had started a standard recon patrol by performing a high altitude sweep. The seven riders moved fast, directly toward their position. Another window opened with a tactical display that had their position, the position of the stone cottage and the whereabouts of Poole, as well.

“There are riders coming in fast from the west. Seven of them. They will be here in about fifteen minutes.”

Vi and Tannhauser looked at each other in alarm.

“They are not trackers.”

In thirty seconds, Vi and Tannhauser had on their packs and their bows were strung. They looked like they were ready to run. Rand now realized that their packs were always kept ready for a fast evac. It was more than just being tidy. Rand had her dirty bowl packed and her leather pack on in short order, as well.

“Where are you going next? If you can, make your way to Falls Keep.” It was one of the few waypoints labeled with a name. “I'll leave word there.” She touched her hair. “Thank you.”

Vi came forward, reaching into her pocket, she withdrew the comb. She handed it to Rand. “Tan will make me another. We're sorry. We thought we'd lost them.” And, they were gone at a run.

Rand was confused but still moving. There were traces of them everywhere. Stew was still in the pot. Venison was still in the smokehouse. It looked like they had just stepped away.

“Aha...good idea.” She exited the cottage as Poole silently walked up, opening the driver’s door.

“What good idea?” AI~Poole asked.

“Leaving the cabin like this will make them think I will be right back.” She climbed in. “Carefully, escape-and-evade. I don't want them to track us, but let's have the Fly keep an eye on them. We need to assess what kind of weapons they have and how they’re tracking us from the west. We’re going that way.”

The spider moved off into the dense part of the forest. Rocks and small, thorny shrubs made it impossible for them to be tracked. They moved about a kilometer away and halted in an excellent hiding place on the top of a stony ridge. Pines gave them cover, but their view was still very good.

They remained still. There were about two hours of daylight left. It was safer to hide during the day.

The seven men reached the cottage. The image was on the full HUD inside Poole now. Only one man dismounted and went into the cabin. He came out with the cook pot and handed it to the apparent leader, who smelled it, felt the bottom of the pot and threw it to the ground. He barked orders to the man, who began quickly searching the ground. After a few circuits, he moved in a single direction on foot. He moved, almost at a run, head down, looking at the ground intensely.

He followed the trail of Tan’Vi.

***

The other six men followed the tracker as he moved at a jog into the woods. Two of them took crossbows from their backs, two others drew swords. The leader brought a well-worn, leather-bound book out of a leather pouch and opened it.

“Rand, I am detecting a transmission. Powerful. I believe it is a satellite uplink. I cannot read it. It's encrypted.”

Rand’s brow furrowed. “Follow them, Poole. Send the Fly to find Tan'Vi. Track the source of that signal on a tactical map the best you can.”

Several windows opened on the display as the HUD returned to external view. The Fly view showed a larger tactical map with their position, proposed path and icons for the stone cottage, the Fly’s position, and the position of the men.

The spider moved, quickly yet quietly, through the forest. Rand checked her sidearm and then her rifle. Her cloak and tabard concealed her tactical vest and its various holsters, knives and pouches.

The Fly caught up to Tan'Vi far too quickly. It found them first with the infrared, then visually. They had no idea they were being tracked so carefully. If they had, they would have been running. As it was, they made the mistake of staying on the path to make moving easier, and quieter; but, they were also easier to track, at a run, and easier for horses to pass.

“How soon before the men catch up with them?”

“At the present pace, four minutes.”

“What is our ETA?”

“Six minutes at present speed.”

Son of a…

It was then that the Fly revealed that Vi heard them coming. Without saying a word, and with only a few hand gestures, they moved off the path into a field of boulders.

The tactical showed the men nearing them. The Fly heard the pounding of horse hooves now, as they approached. They overshot them on the path by only about thirty yards, before they doubled back.

Tannhauser quietly backed into a shallow, dark crag after Vi, and threw his cloak over them both. They made themselves still.

All the men, except the leader, dismounted and began searching for signs of passage. Three went to one side of the road and three to the other. The lead tracker moved directly toward Tan'Vi's hiding spot.

“Poole, ETA?”

“Two minutes, fifty-five seconds.”

“I want you to stop, here.” She indicated a location on the map. “And, I will continue on foot.”

She put on her black riot helmet and adjusted the neck armor before putting up her hood, hiding it all.

“Poole, I want you to stand by. If any of them flee, I want you to run them down and bring them back.”

She left the rifle in the spider. The trees were too close together for a decent long shot.

She moved quickly, and quietly, from boulder top to boulder top in the lower gravity. She saw, in a HUD window, the moment they were discovered.

A sword point drew them out. They were quickly disarmed, and relieved of their bows and packs, as they were dragged out to the path by their hair. The leader’s horse stopped, in the center of a group of large boulders with a flat space in the center. He spoke to them with harsh words Rand could not understand. Common Tongue.

The six men made a half circle around Tan’Vi as they moved to their knees. The leader spoke again, and Rand realized he was asking Tannhauser questions. Tannhauser answered, and without a word, one of the men landed a vicious blow to Vi's face, dropping her to the ground. Without pause, he grabbed her by her braid and lifted her, dazed, back to her knees. Blood flowed freely from her nose and her mouth, as well as from a gash on her cheek.

The man holding her up sheathed his sword, and took out his knife, as her eyes rolled up into her head. He held the knife under her nose, in a parody of a mustache; but, his threat was clear, answer or he will cut off her nose.

When Tannhauser moved toward her, three sword points pressed into him, two in the front just below either side of his collarbone, and one low in his back by his kidney.

The leader very slowly asked another question. Tannhauser answered quickly. He asked another question and Tannhauser hesitated a moment. Rand was sure it was because he didn't know the answer, not because he refused to answer.

The leader nodded to the man holding Vi. He smiled widely at Tannhauser, as he slid the slender point of his dagger up her nostril and, with a flick of the wrist, opened a gash that bisected her beautiful nose with a fountain of blood.

The scream Rand heard with her own ears was from Tannhauser.

Her last leap was to the boulder next to the leader's horse. Tannhauser was the only one that saw her coming. His low angle, looking up, made it seem like she was flying.

The leader never knew what killed him. His temple erupted with the first bullet before she had even landed. He was higher than all the rest.