Page 41 of Vicious
What had the medical emergency been? And why wasn’t Ellison saying anything more over thetelecom?
I doubled over to catch my breath while the others sagged against the walls. Poh lit up the Mind-I map again, and we tracked the seventh dot down the hallway we’d just come then right toward the diningroom.
“If we can lure it to the cargo area where we kept the teralinguas, we can lock it up there,” Captain Glenn said betweengasps.
“With the consumectalons?” Poh asked. “Is that a goodidea?”
“Or we can surround it, try to take it out,” Masesaid.
“You saw how fast that thing is,” Poh said. “We could distract it somehow, but that’s not me volunteering to be bait. It’s smart. It switched my gun from stun tokill.”
“Shit,” Masesaid.
I glanced up at the air vent on the far wall close to the ceiling. The captain and Mase had blocked the vents in the dining room, kitchen, and stasis pantry, but maybe I could break my waythrough.
“I’m going up through the vents.” I strode toward the back wall. “Someone give me aboost.”
“Hell no, Absidy,” Mase said, jumping in front of me. “What’s keeping it from chasing afteryou?”
“The Vicious room. The air vent has no grating in front of it, so it would be easier than herding it into the storage area. I can lure it into there, and we can trap it. Now move.” I dodged to his side, but he caught me around the waist. “We need to find out what the medical emergency is withRandolph.”
“Do we?” Pohasked.
I shot her a look over my shoulder that snapped her mouth shutagain.
“You’re not going up into the vents, Absidy,” Mase said. “No oneis.”
“Rustedballs,” I said through clenched teeth. A telecom attached to the wall in the corner caught my eye, and I crossed toward it and pushed the green button. “Ellison? Do you hear me? Don’t open the door. Ellison? Is Randolph okay? What happened?Don’t open thedoor.”
The silence held weight, making it impossible to pull in anything more than panicked gasps. Tears burned the backs of my eyes. What had happened in the dining room? They needed us there with them. We were trapped, and no one in here with me was willing to do anything about it. Nothing could happen to them. We’d come too far, been through toomuch.
“Ellison!” I shouted, my voice breaking in half like the rest ofme.
Mase appeared at my side and took my trembling hands away from the telecom to wrap them in his. “Just wait. That’s all we can do right now.” He nodded down at me as if I would agree with him, but Icouldn’t.
“It’s on the move,” Pohannounced.
On the Mind-I map, the red dot that hovered outside the dining room slid down the hall toward the Vicious room. Slowly, barely moving at all. What was itdoing?
Outside the Vicious room, it stopped as if peering inside. Horrible wails lifted the hair on my arms and shuddered my soul. That had sounded like Saelis, a planet’s worth of mournful cries. A shivery wind crawled up my scalp. Not from the outside, but from theinside. I gasped, squirming as if I could get away frommyself.
“What’s wrong?” Mase askedme.
I shook my head, unable to answer, and stared at the seventh red dot. It stood in the Vicious room’s doorway for several beats, then rushed inside the room toward the opposite wall and the air vent. Somehow, despite its massive size, it squeezed through and zigzagged up the ninja vent with lightning speed. Gone. But not. It was on the third flooragain.
“We’re going.” I tried to jerk away from Mase, but he heldfast.
He looked to thecaptain.
Captain Glenn strode toward the door and shoved the container away. “We circle around past the cargo area. We’re not crossing in front of that…Vicious room in case it’s atrap.”
“And if it’s a trap, anyway?” Mase asked, aiming his gun at thefloor.
The captain opened his mouth, closed it again, then settled on holding up his hands. “I don’t know. We’ll make it up as wego.”
“Airtight plan. This will end well, I just know it.” When Poh noticed our glares, she shrugged. “I’m not saying I have a betterone.”
“Remember, we stick together. Grab hold of someone,” Captain Glennordered.
