She turned to Cook, who was standing nearby with his chopping knife. “Get Einar’s axe, please.”
They kept it hanging in a place of honor on the wall, so the chef jogged across the room. The axe was a huge weapon, crafted especially for the big man who had fallen just before the battle with Grigor, out of scrap metal and honed to razor sharpness. The steel haft had leather wrapped around it to make it easier to hold, and it was stained dark from so much blood. She suspected the cost of rebellion must be sinking in when the old man pissed his pants.
Cook made a production of the retrieval, pulling it off the wall with great ceremony, then he lofted it a few times, just so the spectators had a sense of how bloody huge the thing was. Dred took it without revealing how much the weight pulled at her injured arm. Hope I’ve got enough range of motion to see this through. She’d lose credibility if she had to summon someone to perform executions, now that Einar was gone.
Miss the big guy.
“Hold him for me,” she instructed Cook.
In reply, Cook forced the old man down and shoved a chair under his cheek to serve as the chopping block. Dred took a couple of practice swings and then cut clean through the old devil’s neck in one slam. The head bounced away in a red streak while his neck jetted blood all over the floor. She kicked the body down, then raised the weapon.
“Anyone else want to debate immigration policy with me?”
14
Burying the Dead
After leaving Ike and Cook in charge, Dred convened a meeting. Jael, Martine, and Tam followed her to the training room, currently unoccupied. That was likely a good call, as four aliens came with them. Her quarters weren’t big enough to comfortably accommodate everyone, and circumstances had changed. The room smelled like sweat, but it was reasonably clean; Calypso insisted.
Jael closed the door after them. There was no lock, but he doubted anyone would be crazy enough to snoop so soon after the execution. In fact, that was all anyone could talk about as they left the common room. They’d set a few of Cook’s assistants to cleaning up the blood and disposing of the body. With luck, it would be done before the late meal.
“Let me introduce my lieutenants,” Katur said. “You can trust them.” He gestured to the tall Ithtorian with a speckled mud carapace and triangular head with a notched mandible. Jael noted the particular scarring on the thorax, as if it had survived a bombardment, or fought in numerous battles at bleak odds. “This is Brahmel Il-Charis, my first.”
For the first time, Jael stared directly at the Ithtorian, nearly drowning in a wash of revulsion. For so many turns, he’d heard nothing but the chitter and hiss of their native tongue, known nothing but the company of Bugs, if it could even be called that, given they were all confined to separate caves. He fought off the tide of memory, rooting himself in the present instead. Intellectually, he knew it wasn’t fair to dislike Brahmel Il-Charis strictly on the basis of his species, but Jael did not have fond memories of Ithiss-Tor.
“Just Brahm,” the Ithtorian corrected. “I’m not permitted to use my father’s name.”
Jael frowned, wondering where he’d heard the name “Charis” before, but he dismissed the curiosity as Katur went on, indicating the Rodeisian female on his other side. “This is Alaireli. She’s our best warrior and my second.”
“You can call me Ali,” the female said in a deep rumble of a voice.
“I wish I could say it’s a pleasure,” Dred said, “but under the circumstances . . .”
Keelah inclined her head. “We feel the same. This isn’t how we’d have chosen to deepen our acquaintance.”
“How long ago did you leave the Warren?” Jael cut in.
There was a reason for his question. If it hadn’t been too long, the merc unit might still be exploring down there, checking for hidden resources or survivors in hiding. With a quick enough reaction, it was possible they could retaliate before Vost saw it coming.
Katur answered, “A few hours, give or take. We fled when it became clear we couldn’t win, but they couldn’t tell how to follow us.”
“Who wants to see if we can do some damage?” Dred asked.
“Me,” Ali said at once.
Brahm inclined his head. Both Katur and Keelah took a step back, so Jael guessed it was too soon for them to return to the Warren—too many dead bodies, too many memories. Tam and Martine both nodded, and the spymaster was healed up enough that he shouldn’t slow them down. Dred’s burned arm would have been an issue for anyone else, but by today, she should be sound enough to fight.
“Let’s stop by the armory and move,” she said.
“I’ll show you how we got from the Warren inside your territory without passing your borders,” Brahm said.
Tam frowned. “I’ve done a complete survey, and I was sure there was no shaft access inside our perimeter.”
“You were wrong,” Ali told him.
Martine chuckled. “I think I’m going to like her.”
At the armory, Dred passed out weapons, though both Brahm and Ali opted to use their natural defenses. Then Tam locked up, and they rolled out. The Ithtorian led them toward the eastern barricade, but then he turned off, moving down a corridor that Jael was pretty sure ended in a blind. He had surveyed the zone fully when he first arrived, looking for weaknesses, and he hadn’t seen an exit this way.
“There’s no—” Tam started.
Ali held up a hand to shush him. Then she said, “None of you sees it?”
Jael skimmed the walls, ceiling, and floors. “It’s dented right there.”
“So it is.” The Rodeisian female reached up, flattened her hands on the wall panel, then pulled with pure brute force. The metal folded inward, revealing a hollow behind the wall where pipes and wires had been ripped out.
Jael was stunned into silence. Leaning forward, he peered into the tunnel that had been excavated and shook his head. “That’s not on the original plans.”
“I get bored,” Ali said.
Tam slipped inside and followed it back a few meters. “It continues on, joining the natural gap between the walls.”
Brahm stepped in and signaled with four long talons for everyone else to do the same. “Ali will come last to close it up. She’s quite remarkable. Once she’s done, a cursory inspection won’t reveal the passage.”
Dred frowned. “I need to know if there are more passages like this. If the mercs stumble on them from the Warren . . .” She trailed off, but Jael knew what she was thinking.