Chapter 7

Min-Ji

I blinked my eyes slowly, still caught in the cobwebs of sleep and the remnants of dreams. I wasn't cold, but I distinctly recalled shivering myself to sleep last night. Was it even morning, or was it still dark outside? Trapped beneath a giant mountain, I had no clue of the passage of time. Another reminder of why I hated being underground.

When I lifted my head and took a look around, I instantly understood why I wasn't cold. Corin's much bigger fur had been spread on top of mine, and a little space heater stood next to me. That meant he was up. I searched for him but the room was empty, no sign of him or Triff. The room was also spotless. Even the tops of the crates were free of dust, and I wondered how the cleaning bot had managed that.

I rolled from the furs with some reluctance, but I didn't want to be the cause of a delay. Kalani, Iave, and the rest of the warriors were still trapped, as far as we knew. Parts from the robot dog spread out on top of one of the crates beside the lantern. I could easily picture Corin hunched over them as he tinkered. That man never slept. Even after he'd passed out from exhaustion and injury, he'd already been up and doing all kinds of things.

The parts on top of the crate had been precisely lined up like little soldiers, a pile of tiny screws in one spot, a dozen straight pins in another. I couldn't figure out what I was looking at. It certainly didn't resemble the electronic part he'd pulled from the dog robot any longer. Maybe it was something else; he always had a hundred projects. I'd seen the inside of his apartment once. Every shelf and table, even the floor, was covered with some electronic device in a state of deconstruction or reconstruction.

I headed for the doorway to peer out. Corin wouldn't have gone far, but I was worried that I hadn't seen or heard him yet. What if he'd collapsed again? Or had another run-in with one of those robot hounds? Farah and Zeidon hadn't mentioned them, but there could be more.

The tunnel outside the old storage room was empty, the floor shiny until it gleamed, and even the crystals in the ceiling glowed brighter. I wasn't sure if that was all Triff, or if Corin had been part of the cleanup, too. They certainly made a very cute pair last night. Corin a haphazard sprawl of tail and coils and limbs; Triff tucked away in one loop as it went into sleep mode. I'd stared for quite some time before settling down to sleep myself.

"Corin?" I called out softly. He wouldn't have abandoned me, he wouldn't. But I couldn't help but remember that I'd forced my company on him by following him down here. He hadn't protested, but only because he knew how stubborn I was. Was this payback? Or had he left me here so he could quickly rescue the warriors before coming back to fetch me?

I was beginning to wonder if he was ever coming back when I heard a voice muttering from very far away. My skin broke out in goosebumps, worry skittering up my spine. Was that Corin or someone else? My hand went for the laser pistol, but it was empty and I had no way to charge it. Casting around, I settled for picking up a knife left behind on a crate nearby. It was Corin's; had he left it on purpose or forgotten about it?

"I'm warning you, silly bot. No more scale polishing, please!" That had to be Corin, and he sounded exasperated by the small cleaning bot. Nothing new there. I risked sticking my head out the door again, the knife clutched in my fist and watched them approach. Corin looked much better than last night, and his silvery-blue scales shimmered; definitely polished.

I loved how the leather straps he wore accentuated his biceps, and the leather cord and metal disk around his neck drew the eye down his pectorals. They made me linger on the defined ridges of his abs. He had hair some girls I once knew would kill for: a deep, luscious blue. Thick, silky strands with a slight curl at the tips. Add to that his mercury eyes, and you had a beautiful, mysterious, and sometimes surly package that ticked all my boxes.

"Morning," I said with as much cheer as I could muster. Naga had a great sense of smell; I hoped he wasn't going to flick that freaky, split tongue at me. If he did, he'd know how turned on I was from watching him approach; that would be embarrassing. He came to an abrupt stop just as I thought that, and I started to freak out, but all he did was raise a hand and wave.

"Ah, you're awake. Good. We need to pack up and get moving. I want to find the others today, as soon as possible. I don't think they have much food left." He didn't tell me where he'd been; he didn't tell me good morning either. I shouldn't be surprised when he slithered past me, carefully making sure we didn't touch, and started packing our supplies. He always did that, pretending I was one of the guys, or not there, or not worth looking at. It made me want to throw things, and it made me want to prod him until he reacted.

"Thank you for the extra fur and the heater," I said. "Cuddling to keep me warm would have been my preference, but this worked too." A smirk pulled at my cheeks when Corin dropped the tools he was picking up with a noisy clatter. His shoulders twitched, and I could see the scales along his spine tremble. They made a soft whispering noise as they clattered together.

The only response I got was a narrow-eyed glare from behind a hunk of pretty lapis lazuli-blue hair. As far as taunts went, I was satisfied with the result: I'd made him drop what he was holding. I smiled and whistled a tune while helping with the packing; my mood was much better knowing I could startle him that way.

Not much later, I was following Corin and Triff back into the warren of tunnels. My stomach rumbled with hunger, but I wasn't going to complain, since we really did have to hurry. "What was in those crates? Did you look?" I asked my Naga companion as we walked. He was holding the leather map and checking it carefully each time we came to a crossing, his nubbed brows lowered in concentration.

"Parts," Corin said, and I muffled a laugh behind my hand at the monosyllabic answer. So that was his mood this morning, we'd see about that. I was always extra tempted to keep prodding him when he got that way, until he told me all about his latest project or idea. It usually worked.

I opened my mouth to ask a question, but snapped it shut when something came sailing toward me. I caught it by reflex, my hands almost fumbling with the small, leaf-wrapped package. A ration bar, neatly cut in half so it was the right size for me. "Eat," Corin said without looking at me, and my smile grew. I knew he liked me.

I'd pause the questions for now, but I was going to get more than one word at a time from him today. That proved to be a bigger challenge than usual as we traveled through the tunnels at a quick pace. As soon as I said anything, Corin would pick up the pace and urge me to hurry. Alternating between jogging and speed-walking didn't leave me with a whole lot of breath for talking. I was in good shape; I'd trained with Kalani on a regular basis, but after two hours of that, I was starting to feel the burn.

"There," Corin announced, flicking the tip of his tail toward a doorway in the distance. "The next hydro plant." That was technically more than one word, but I didn't think it counted. I crossed my fingers behind my back for luck and hoped fervently that we'd find the warriors behind that door.

When it slid open without hesitation to Corin's hand wave over the doorplate, my stomach dropped in dismay. That door wouldn't open unless the warrior had escaped, but more likely, it opened because this was the room Farah and Zeidon had been trapped in—the one the Naga robot had unlocked.

Corin pulled his blades free from the small of his back as he slithered inside. Rushing water greeted us, much louder with the door open than it had been in the tunnel. Light spilled out too; this hydro plant was brightly lit, unlike the last one. I was more cautious as I approached, peeking into the room with a hip pressed against the wall. If I'd had my gun, I would have led with it. As it was, I clutched a knife.

It took only a few seconds to conclude that the cavernous room was empty. Then, I took in the differences between this hydro plant and the last one. Bright lights weren't the only clue that this location was in much better shape. The control system was lit up, all the screens were clean and glowing, and the turbines were silent as they spun, propelled by the force of the water running through the straight, narrow channel. There was no rust, no clogging water plants, and no grinding noises.

"Look," Corin said. He'd approached the rushing water near where it exited the large room, and he pointed to the other side. Scorch marks marred the stone floor: one darkened, soot-covered spot, and several smaller spots farther away.

"Do you think that's where Farah threw Vrash's core onto the ground?" I asked. That's what the brave woman had done—threatened the robot so it would release a trapped Zeidon from beneath the metal gate that had blocked the rushing water.

Corin nodded, his expression grim. "Damn it, we wasted our time. And that core is gone. That's bad news." Ah, there were his words, but he sounded so worried that I refrained from gloating. I understood why he was worried. If that core was returned to the robot, we hadn't seen the last of it. Its time alone beneath the mountain for centuries hadn't done it any good; it was completely deranged.

"Do you think it's already fully repaired?" I asked. I wasn't entirely clear on the timeline. I knew Zeidon and Farah had been back with us for a few days before we'd set out on this mission, and I also knew that Zeidon had decapitated the robot body of the ‘Revenant,' as he called it. When that had taken place and how long it took to repair such damage, no clue.

Corin shrugged one shoulder, making it obvious that he didn't know either. "How far to the next location?" I asked him instead. That was the only thing we could focus on. We needed to find the warriors and free them before they starved. I turned in the doorway and glanced back the way we'd come. Would we have to backtrack much? I should have taken a peek at Corin's map.

"About the same as we've already traveled," Corin said. "I hope." He didn't leave the edge of the water, still staring at the scorch marks as if they held all the answers. My eyes were drawn from him to Triff, for the first time noticing what the little bot was up to. If it were a dog, I'd say it was sniffing around the corners of the room, but this was a cleaning bot… It was humming and spinning the cleaning disk, polishing the floor as it went, but its lights were also blinking in frantic, busy patterns.

It suddenly shot away from the corner with a squeak and raced for the water. I thought it was going to end up in the churning stream, but at the last moment, it swerved and clattered on top of a thin walk bridge across the top of a turbine. I clutched my fingers to my chest as I watched it cross, too fast to be safe. "Triff!" I called out, as if that would bring the bot back from whatever madness had hold of it.

While I had just frozen in place and stared, Corin leaped into action at the sight of the bot disappearing across the channel. He raced onto the turbine after it, hands outstretched to grab the robot, but he was too late. It managed to slip into a small hole in the opposing wall just as Corin dove for it with a shout. "Triff, damn it! Come back here…" Then his words turned into a storm of curses, and he came racing back over the water toward me.

It looked to me like he was about to pick me up and carry me, but at the last moment, he refrained. "Keep up!" he ordered as he ducked into the tunnel and pulled out his leather map. I broke into a run and chased after his rapidly departing form, confused about what was happening. There was no way that Corin would abandon Triff to its own devices, so he had to know of a way to locate the little robot.

"What happened?" I asked. I had to shout my question a second time to make Corin hear me. He was too fast for me to keep up, but I could see him in the distance. We were also traveling through a tunnel that had seen no visitors in a long time; he was leaving obvious tracks for me to follow.

"Triff went into a repair bot tunnel. I'm certain he's chasing after one of those bots. It might have been spying on us." Corin's words trailed off, softer and softer as he replied, and the distance between us grew. I felt a pang of worry when he swung around a corner and I could no longer see him. What if this was the plan? Separate us so we were easy targets? My empty gun meant I was defenseless if anything attacked me. I wasn't a warrior like Kalani, or brave and inventive like Vera and Farah.

When I reached the corner I'd last seen Corin, I was completely out of breath from running. A stitch in my side ached fiercely, and panic clogged my throat. I nearly missed it in my fear, but at the last moment, I realized Corin's trail had turned into a room instead of continuing ahead. I skidded to a stop, nearly tripped over my feet, but clawed myself upright by grabbing the doorjamb.

Then I saw what was inside, and it felt like my heart wanted to explode inside my chest; horror, fear, and disgust all combined in a powerful mass of emotions. Disgust won out, along with a wave of nausea that threatened to make me throw up. This wasn't what I'd expected to discover at the end of that mad chase.