too heavy,” I say.
His other eyebrow joins the first, but he doesn’t ask me to clarify. Without another word, we connect and use my escape tunnel to worm deep into the Q-net. As expected, Jarren is hidden behind a mountain of protections, alarms, and hidden traps. It reminds me of the game world of Mutant Zombies from Planet Nine. Every blind corner could lead to certain death. Well, not that dramatic, but still…
Worming through his defenses is like climbing up a slope filled with loose rocks and dirt. One wrong move and the entire thing will avalanche. Snail speed is too fast. After four hours, we’re no closer to Jarren. We’ve no idea how many people are with him. Nothing.
We disentangle.
Beau swigs a couple of painkillers and hands me the bottle. “I felt like I was walking a tightrope the entire time. One slip and… Pow!”
I stretch my back. “I think we need another approach. Instead of hitting him straight on, maybe we can loop in behind his defenses.”
“What are the odds that he’s going to leave a gap for us to exploit?”
“Not very good.” I gesture to the terminal. “I need to be—” No. Not going to say it.
Of course Beau asks, “Need to be what?”
Sigh. “Asleep.” I rush to explain. “When I’m sleeping, it’s not worming. It’s flying. I have no difficulty going anywhere.”
“Even the star roads?”
“I haven’t tried. Nor will I. Even my subconscious knows not to mess around with them.”
“But you don’t have control.”
“Not at first. Not to connect to the Q-net, but once I’m there and I realize what’s going on, I have full control of where I go and what I do.”
“It’s still dangerous.”
“I’m not planning on doing it on purpose, but if it happens, I’m going to take full advantage.”
Beau walks me back to my unit. Radcliff’s still awake even though it’s oh-one-hundred hours. He waited up only to hear we were unsuccessful.
“Report to Dorey’s office at oh-nine-hundred hours,” Radcliff says to me. “I’ll inform Officer Keir you won’t be training for the next few days. Gathering information about Jarren is your and Officer Dorey’s priority right now.”
“Yes, sir,” I say. Nodding good night to Beau, I go to my bedroom.
Resting my pounding head on my pillow is a small slice of heaven. I’m asleep in seconds. No dreams or invitations to fly through the Q-net interrupt my sleep. The next day, Beau and I spend eight hours getting absolutely nowhere. We break for dinner and try again. Then it’s bedtime. I wake up and repeat.
I lie in bed and stare at the painting of the Chinese guardian lion. It’s been three days of utter failure. Three days of frustration. Three days of discovering I’m not as good at worming as I thought. Eventually, I fall asleep.
Radcliff wakes me at oh-three-hundred hours. He’s wearing a jumpsuit. Never a good sign.
Fully awake, I sit up. “What’s wrong?”
“Get changed. We’ve a situation.”
“Jarren attacked.” It’s not a question.
“No. The HoLFs.”
Sixteen
2522:239
By the time I wiggle into my security jumpsuit and clip on my weapon belt, Radcliff is gone. I slow to a stop. The emergency lights are on, which means the base has lost its main power. Weak orange-ish-yellow light illuminates the room. Not near bright enough. Lots of shadows everywhere.
We’re so dead.
A mind-numbing fear freezes me in place. The shadow-blobs are going to slice everyone on this base into little pieces. When the Protector Class ship arrives, they’ll find bits of us scattered all over the floor.
“…Ara!” Elese shouts from the open doorway. “Let’s go. You can have your freak out later.”
I snap from my paralysis and join her. We run through the hallways, encountering no one.
“See? All those laps you complained about. They came in handy,” Elese says, breathing easy despite our speed.
“Groaning is not complaining.” But I gotta admit it’s nice not to be gasping for breath. However, I am sucking in more air by the time we reach the stairwell that goes down to the archeology lab. It’s the only lab that is below ground level so it’s easier to access the Warrior pits.
Other members of the security team are already at the entrance to the stairwell along with a big battery-operated floodlight. Everyone has their flashlights in hand. I pull mine and check the beam.
Radcliff spots me and says, “Any HoLFs in the vicinity?”
I search the shadows as I test the air. “No. What happened?”
“They attacked the officers in the lab. Tora escaped, but…”
There’s always two on duty and guess who has