Page 60 of Challenged

The fire in her eyes blazes. “Because there’s no shot Mercenia learned the merka beast territories. Too dangerous, too time consuming. They’d do what they always do - take the easiest path. A chemical deterrent. A substance they’d spray around the area. Something that would keep the creatures away from the immediate area of the base, at least. That way, they wouldn’t have to constantly be on high alert for big cat attacks.”

“A substance that might cause irritation to the skin,” I say, the pieces connecting in my headspace at last. “You think the trees are being poisoned.”

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Angie

It’s the tanks that give me the idea.

Low level warning: Tank B.

That’s what the error message on Farrow’s computer said. Whatever the tank was storing, it’s almost run out. Maybe even has run out by now, the error messages weren’t dated. Because the casing has cracked and the substance has leaked out into the soil? Or because it has been sprayed around the forest by some automated system every so often for the last twenty years?

“It’s not blight,” I say, feeling more sure about it the more I talk. “The trees are dying from exposure to a chemical. One that probably wouldn’t kill them in small doses, but has been building up in the soil for years. Spreading over a wider and wider area thanks to the rain. That’s why it’s worse near the base - because that’s the source of it. The further out you go, the more dilute, the less impactive it gets. It makes sense. It’s…”

“Simple,” Rardek says. “Except that there have been no humans here to do the spreading.”

“No need. There will be an irrigation system. A series of pipes under the ground that the chemical would have been distributed by. It probably runs on a timer. A quick spray every few weeks to keep the monsters at bay.”

Rardek’s expression remains grim.

“This is good news,” I tell him. “It’s poison, not disease. No need to map it, no need to do any sort of burn to contain it. We stop the poison at the source and things will resolve themselves over time. There’s probably no saving the trees nearest the base, but the ones further out will recover. And the rain will gradually spread the poison in the ground so far that there isn’t enough of it in any one place to cause any issues.”

His expression doesn’t shift. When he responds, it’s with heavy reluctance.

“I like this idea, my Angie. More than anything, I would like to tell Gregar that a burn is no longer necessary. But there is a problem with this theory. Three seasons ago, a tribe moved into this base. A bad tribe. Raskarrans are usually good natured, but the sickness took away our chance for a future. Living without any hope - it is a terrible thing. It twisted some of our heartspaces, turned some of my brothers from Lina’s path. Basran, the chief of the tribe that lived here, was cruel, lazy, selfish and many more things besides. But I do not doubt he wished to live. The males who did not - they returned themselves to Lina’s embrace many seasons ago. So the trees could not have been sick, dying, three seasons ago. The creatures could not have left the area. Basran would not have moved his tribe here if there was nothing for them to hunt.”

He braces himself for my disappointment, but instead I grin. He arches his brows at me, just a hint of a smile curling upward at the corners of his lips.

“That’s not a problem,” I say. “It actually makes the theory even better.”

“Oh?” The smile broadens. He can’t see the reason yet, but he trusts in my confidence. It’s a heady feeling.

“Yeah, because it takes away the one problem I have with it - the fact that everything took so bloody long. Twenty years is still a really, really long time to kill a tree, even with accidental poison. But three years…”

“Basran would not have known how to use human machines.”

“He wouldn’t have had to. He wouldn’t have had to do anything. The base was probably on some sort of power conservation protocol - only the most vital systems running. Enough power trickling in to keep the cryostasis pods going, the freezers, to keep Farrow’s computer monitoring everything. It would have shut down everything else. Lights, air conditioning, the rest of the lab equipment. And the irrigation system distributing a chemical deterrent. No point keeping the wildlife away from an empty base, right? But then Basran and his tribe arrive and start moving around inside the base. Triggering all sorts of sensors. The base would have started powering back up, turning on a few more things. The stuff that would keep the newly returned humans safe while they got the place fixed up and back to fully operational.”

Rardek starts nodding part way through my explanation. By the end of it, he no longer looks grim. I doubt he fully understood everything I was saying, but apparently he understood enough.

“So the hut thinks that Basran is a human who needs protecting, and starts spreading the poison when he arrives?”

“And over the next three years, the level of poison slowly builds up in the ground, spreading out through the forest.”

The rightness of what I’m saying fills my chest. It all makes too much sense to not be true. Rardek clearly feels the same way - the grin he gives me now is blinding.

“You can confirm this? As with the underground rooms?”

“Yeah,” I say. “Easily. Because we know exactly where to look for proof.”

I quickly pull on my old clothes when I wake. If I’m going to be mucking around with chemicals, I’d rather do it in the heavy trousers and scratchy t-shirt, not the lovely raskarran things I’ve been given. I head downstairs, intending to go straight outside, when a thought occurs to me.

PPE. I just happen to know where Mercenia has stashed some.

I go down into the basement and the storage room. It’s already been quite thoroughly ransacked by the girls - for clothes and shoes, but maybe some other useful things. I know there are some tools. Spades, saws - even some machetes. Useful for traversing wild forests.

I root through the boxes until I discover the hazmat suits. They’re way overkill for a chemical that isn’t lethally toxic to people, but also, why suffer awful skin irritation if I don’t have to? I pull one on, probably not following any sort of proper protocol, but it just needs to keep the gunk off my skin. I don’t need to be hermetically sealed in for that.

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