Chapter 18

CHAPTER

EIGHTEEN

TRENCH

I look up from the tablet in my hand and manage to bite back a groan. Jess stands at the top of the stairs, morning light filtering in around her… and the sheet that is clearly the only thing she has on.

“I haven’t asked, because I didn’t notice that they were disappearing, but did you hide all my clothes?

I laugh and set the tablet aside. “No, I just haven’t brought the laundry up.”

She starts down the stairs to me. “I don’t think I’d mind walking around naked, but I can’t really do my work without some sort of barrier.”

“I’ll show you where the clothes wind up after we drop them down the chute.”

She follows me, still clutching the sheet to her, but I pick her up and carry her down the flight to the lower level. I don’t want her feet to get tangled and make her fall.

It’s always eerily silent down here, and the rooms on the side of the hall opposite those with the view of the sprawling tundra are always dark. But the light in the laundry room flicks on as soon as we pass the threshold, and she lets out a low whistle when I set her down.

“That looks like an industrial oven, not a washing machine.”

“It’s not like the ones you have back on Earth. It’s better. Or at least that’s what I’m told.” I point to the return handle and she steps forward, cautiously, pulling it out.

The basket housed there slides out and she looks from the clothes there to me.

“They’re folded…” she says, and it feels like a question. “Laurel told me it did all the work for you, but damn. That’s a dream come true. I loathe laundry.”

She drops the sheet as she plucks a sweater from the pile and pulls it on, snuggling into the fuzzy fabric. Smiling, she hugs herself, but she doesn’t pull on any other clothing.

“I’ve been thinking about something,” she says. “Something I’d like to do.”

“Okay.”

“Okay, we can do it?”

“Tell me what it is first, then we’ll see if I agree.”

I’d think she was using her bottomless state to sway my judgment, but she considers me for a moment and then pulls out underwear, leggings and a thick pair of socks.

“Hear me out before you automatically say no, okay?”

“That makes me think I should definitely say no.”

She rolls her eyes at me, but keeps smiling as she tugs the rest of her clothes on. “It snowed like six feet last night.”

“A little more.”

“Which will make a perfect cushion.”

“Cushion for what?” I already know. Her previous request jumps immediately to mind.

“I want to see how far you can throw me.”

“I thought we already had this conversation.”

“I don’t think we finished this conversation.”

“There are rocks.”

“I mapped it out.” She drags me to the front door and stuffs my coat into my chest before she opens it. “If you throw me there, it’ll be fine.”

She points toward a thick bank of snow on the far side of the courtyard, looking up at me with wide eyes.

“Pleeeeeease. It’ll be fun, the risk is minimal!” She smiles up at me, biting her tongue, and jiggling as she gets into her coat. “Pretty please? I’m willing to barter.”

“And what,” I ask, noting the small flurries that have started to spin around us again. “Do you think it’s worth it?”

That wicked smile is back, and she reaches up to pull my face down to hers. “You already know there’s a whole lot I’d be willing to do for free.” She kisses me. “So what’s your price?”

Eyes narrowed, I consider that. “Why don’t we figure that out after the toss. If you survive.”

Her smile is all teeth and joy. “I’m going to be fine.”

“I will throw you, but only once.”

“Deal.” She pushes up on her toes and kisses me once more. “You’re not going to regret it.”

“I might.”

“Well, I won’t.” Both brows raised, she watches me, a hopeful brightness in her eyes.

I know she knows I’ve given in when she does a little jiggling dance and takes her glasses off, setting them on the table by the door.

I leave the door open and check that she managed to put on boots before I step into mine and follow her out into the small space cleared by the heaters in the cobbled courtyard.

“No backing out now!” She jiggles as she turns to me.

Hands around her waist, I pick her up, lifting her off the ground first. I keep her close, and she kisses me again. “I like when you hold me.”

“And apparently, you like when I throw you away.”

She’s about to say something, but I don’t give her the chance.

Her squeak of surprise disappears on the wind.

She flies far enough to get her into the powder but… Saints I hope I haven’t thrown her too far.

I start after her before she’s landed and when she does, she completely disappears in a puff of blue.

The powder is too soft and too thick. I slog through it, feeling heat suck away faster than it should. But it’s the chill in my blood. She hasn’t sat up.

Shit.

I shouldn’t have said yes.

When I finally get to her, she’s laying in the middle of a Jess-shaped hole, laughing. Her smile is so wide, I think I might be willing to throw her again if she asked.

“I didn’t hurt you, did I?”

“No.” Her smile puckers as though she’s trying to scowl and is too full of joy to manage it. “I’m just sad I promised to only make you do it once.”

She reaches for me. “Come here.”

She barely tugs, and I fall into the snow with her, loving every giggle.

Kissing me, so sweetly, she sighs against my lips. “I’ve wanted to do that for days.”

She shivers. And even though I don’t think it’s from the cold, I slip one arm under her, ignoring the ice that slides into my sleeve, and pull her up as I stand.

She laughs as she wraps her legs around me and lets me carry her back into the house.

“I won’t ask you to do it again,” she kisses my jaw, my cheek, her lips brushing my ear. “But if you want to toss me around, I am always up for it.”

I let her down inside, and watch her as she strips off her coat, shaking off the snow that clung to her.

“Now,” she says, pulling her sweater off too. “How would you like me to pay for that bit of fun?”

I kiss her, because I don’t want to ask her for anything. I don’t want to take. I want to give.

She sighs and melts into me, turning to deepen the kiss.

Her tongue slips into my mouth…

And the comm rings through the wall speakers.

“Damnit.” She curses under her breath, face screwing up in a fierce scowl.

Pulling her sweater down more firmly, she crosses to the other side of the couch and I stand behind it when I accept the comm from CSS headquarters.

Riann turns to us as soon as the screen flares to life. “Thanks for answering.”

She glances at me and, low enough that Riann won’t be able to hear, asks, “Have been other times that you didn’t?”

I don’t answer her.

“What’s up?” I asks, and wonder if Riann can hear my frustration.

“I was calling to let you know that I can’t unblur the footage from outside the Zurgle Zone. The scratch doesn’t qualify as assault, so there’s no legal reason for us to compromise his privacy.”

“Can you tell me who he is?”

“No. He’s a member of the community in good standing, with no criminal record and friends in high places. But nothing in his file makes me think he’d have done it on purpose.”

“He seemed kind of obsessed with my blood.” Jess interrupts him.

Riann looks at her for a long moment and then shrugs, “Sorry I can’t give you what you’re looking for.”

“Can you tell me who his daughter-in-law is?” she asks.

He blinks at her. “He doesn’t have a daughter-in-law.”

“That’s who he said he was at the cafe with…” Jess lets her thought fade, and a moment later there’s no point in continuing this dead-end conversation.

Perimeter sirens go off overhead.

Grimacing, Riann replies, “I’ll leave you to that.”

When he disappears from the wall, Jess stands. “Go. I’ll be here waiting for you when you get back.”

She pushes me down toward the cabinet where I have a suit stored and pulls her sweater back on. She sighs in frustration and I hurry through the process. I want to get this over with and get back.

She’s been here for fifteen days. If her stay is measured in Earth months, I only have her for another seventy-five.

That might seem like enough, but every moment I’m away from her feels like it’s a waste.

She’s gone back to her work and I look at her for a long moment before I go. All that happiness is gone. Replaced with pinched brows over her glasses and a scowl.

I know how that feels.

The snow is bitterly cold without her.

As I follow the sensor to the incursion, I have to force myself to remain present. Have to remind myself that being distracted is the easiest way to keep myself from getting back to her.

But the cavrinskh isn’t a threat in the usual way.

It doesn’t even notice I’m there for the first minute that I observe it.

I could have killed it already, but it’s not a threat to me.

Not right now.

It’s caught.

And it’s struggling.

One leg is tangled in the cabling of an old, broken boundary marker someone left in the snow.

When it finally sees me, it freezes, eyes wide, pupils fully dilated.

Something is very wrong.

Teeth bared, it tries to back away from me. But that cable doesn’t let it go anywhere.

It is a look that is so Sian , it leaves me unsettled. The cavrinskh doesn’t want to be here any more than I do.

When I step forward, it lunges, snapping its trisected jaws.

I’ve been bitten before. It wasn’t fun.

I don’t want to do it again.

I could shoot it. I could end this excursion and untangle a corpse instead of worrying about the living creature. But if I get it free, it looks like it would flee back into the caldera.

It’s trying to go home, not break out.

The behavior is too odd to ignore.

I know what Drift would say to do. I know that he’d argue that as soon as it gets that leg free, it’s going to come after me.

But I don’t think so.

I walk a long circle around it, working my way to the point where the cable starts. It takes no time at all to cut through it and release one side of the thing.

But that only makes it worse.

It’s still struggling to get away, but I’ve widened up its options with a whole new range of motion. Getting to the other side of the cable won’t be half as easy.

It’s not.

Three steps in toward the other side, I must have come too close to it, because it jumps for me. Training kicks in.

The sound of the shot makes me flinch.

The cavrinskh drops to the snow, and I can’t help but feel a little disappointed.

It’s just another corpse in the snow now.

Another failure too many people would count as a victory.

But it was a clean kill. The leg mangled by the cable looks like the only other wound.

I tear the tarp off the back of my bike.

Frustrated, I squat down and untangle the creature’s leg from the cables. The hair and skin were worn away in the struggle, and the gore shouldn’t bother me as much as it does. But watching it struggle, even for as little time as I did…

I heft the corpse up and drop it onto the tarp.

And that’s when I realize.

The skull.

It’s intact.

Cursing, I wrap it up and strap it to the bike, not bothering to clean up the cabling.

I need to get it home to Jess. And I need to get it there, now .

JESSICA

When he left, I took a moment to get the outpost system set up to alert me when he got back. Even so, the chime makes me flinch.

“The garage door has opened,” it announces in a mechanical voice.

I leave my research where it is and hurry out, stepping into the garage before the bike’s engine dies. I glance at the open ramp and shiver.

Trench looks up at me with a smile, his eyes wide. “You aren’t going to believe this.”

He pulls back the tarp covering the creature, and I nearly trip over my own feet.

The creature has a hole burnt through its chest, but, “Its skull!”

I shiver, and not because of the icy air coming in through the still-open ramp to the Zone.

“I’ve never gotten one that was this clean.” He starts to untie it, but when he lifts the thing, I hear a sharp hiss and both of us turn toward the open ramp.

“Oh god.”

I freeze at the site of another— living —cavrinskh.

Trench doesn’t.

He drops the carcass, grabbing me by the waist and throws us both, bodily, into the outpost, kicking the door shut.

At least, that’s what it feels and sounds like. I can’t see anything.

Trench holds me in a death grip, and there’s no sign he’s going to release me any time soon.

His chest heaving, I hear his heartbeat drowning out my own.

“Trench?” I angle my head up as much as I can and wait for him to look down, but I have to say his name three more times before he does.

“We’re okay.”

He looks at me like he doesn’t see me and I worm my hand out of the vise his arms have created.

Pressing my hand to his cheek, I watch his face ease, watch his eyes flutter closed and he leans into my palm.

“We’re inside. We’re safe, right?”

He doesn’t nod like I want him to.

“You told me they couldn’t get me in here when you’re out hunting them, so either you were lying to me, or…”

He seems to exhale all of himself, and his grip relaxes, just a little bit.

I don’t try to get away from him, but I do want to make sure I wasn’t lying either. The door appears shut.

“Are you okay?”

He looks down at me again, his brow ridges pinched and a scowl on his face. “I am never going to forget the look on your face when you saw it. I’m never going to forgive myself for putting you in harm’s way.” He drags me up his body, but he doesn’t kiss me. He presses his forehead to mine. “I don’t know what I would have done if it had maimed you.”

“That is a thought exercise neither of us needs. We’re okay.”

He sighs and nods, and then he gets to his feet before pulling me up too.

“Any chance you have a camera in the garage that we can use to see what’s going on?”

He takes my hand, even though I’m not leaving his side. He leads the way into the living area and opens up a control panel. The wall screen breathes to life and the camera projects a gruesome scene.

“What’s it doing?” I ask, tipping my head to the side, trying to figure out through the distortion.

“It’s eating the other one.”

“What?” I look closer and it’s clear that is what’s going on but, “They’re cannibalistic?”

“We’ve never had any reason to think so.”

I dip my head to the side, watching, despite the gruesome display, cringing as the live one mauls the other.

“Maybe they aren’t.” I try to point at the dark spot on the live one’s forehead, something that I’d noticed on the carcass’ undamaged skull. “What is that dark mark?”

“Your guess is as good as mine.”

I watch the screen. I observe as it bites and claws and tears at the dead one’s forehead. “It’s only going after that spot on the dead one. What are they trying to hide?”

I step a little closer to Trench when the thing draws back. I know, logically, that it can’t get inside, but still.

Trench wraps his arms around me while we both look. It sways and drools and it starts to move away before it collapses.

“Do you think it’s trying to get us out there so it can attack us?”

“No.” He looks toward the garage, but his focus is at a middle distance. “It’s dead.”

“What?”

“No heartbeat, no respiration.”

“You can hear that through the camera feed?”

“I can hear it through the door.”

Still, he grabs that strange electric spear and asks me to wait while he steps out.

I do, impatiently, until he opens the door again.

This time, the ramp is firmly shut, and there are two dead cavrinskh on the ground. He dragged the other back in.

“That one certainly did a good job of destroying the skull.”

“And its own.” Trench says, glaring down at the second one.

I go to his side and look down. Its skull has caved in too.

“The thing is gone.” I squat down and look at it, feeling a little queasy. “What happened to its mouth?”

The iridescent beak-like structure is cracked and broken. What’s left is dotted with pock marks. “Let’s get this one inside first. I think I have an idea of what’s going on, but I have to test it first.”

Trench carries the first inside and I pull on gloves and a face shield as he brings in the second.

I pick through the pieces of the first one’s brain, trying to find the part of the frontal lobe that would have been below that spot on the creature’s head.

“Something detonated here.”

“Like a bomb?”

“Maybe? It looks like it imploded.” I lift the thing, turning it back and forth. “The bone is eaten away the same way the beak is, almost like there’s an acid contained in that piece that you can never get your hands on.”

I grab swabs and take samples from both skulls, and the beak.

“It doesn’t look biological.” I get the swabs into the analyzer and look back at them. “I think whatever we saw… whatever that one was here to destroy. I think it’s like the equivalent of a cyanide pill. Do you know what that is?”

He nods. “I’ve seen Earth spy movies.”

“Okay, good.” Saves me from having to explain it. “What are they trying to hide by keeping you guys from finding out what’s at the front of their brains?”

A sickening thought flutters across my mind. “Or—and this is a scarier question—who’s putting these things in them to keep you from finding out?”

“I don’t know.” Trench helps me get both cavrinskh into the cold storage and then says, “I need to update Drift.”

“Yeah.”

I glance at the analyzer. It’s got an hour or more before it will tell me if it knows what the substance that melted their heads so thoroughly.

“I think I need some water and a moment to think.”

Listening as he fills Drift in, I glare at the work station’s surface.

None of us are happy as he disconnects the line.

“What is it?” Trench asks when he joins me.

“If it’s biological, why would they evolve that way? If it’s not and we assume they don’t have the ability to make and place that themselves, who’s doing it, and are they the ones who send them out to attack you? To attack women and more recently those Company men?”

Trench picks me up and sets me on the counter before he presses his forehead to mine. “I don’t know. And if we can’t get one that’s intact, I don’t know how we’re going to find out.”