Page 104 of Bride of the Enemy Alien

“If they built a machine that learned my routes by listening through Rhazek, I’m not rewarding them by putting my hand on the door.”

Syin gives one sharp satisfied nod. “Around.”

I nod back, agreeing, and we climb.

The ridge is hot, steep, and loose enough to punish every careless step. We do our best to keep stone between us and the open sky, moving along the seam’s line without touching it. Renn finds the occasional manufactured tread where someone crossed exposed rock, enough to tell us the buried structure continues beneath the ridge.

Before we reach the far side, I feel the wrong rhythm.

Once.

Pause.

Again.

I stop immediately. Syin stops with me.

Renn whispers, “What?”

I lift a hand for silence, tilting my head and listening. Or feeling.

It’s not exactly sound. More of a pressure than noise, pushing through the line the fragments opened between Rhazek and me.

Once.

Pause.

Again.

Underneath it is a softer beat. The one I used to pull Rhazek out of the fragment’s grip. My voice. Somehow, that became an anchor for him, but now it seems the enemy has polished it and turned it into bait.

“They’re using me,” I whisper.

Syin looks toward the far side of the ridge. “Can they see us?”

“I don’t know.”

“Can they feel you?”

That answer is worse. “Maybe.”

Renn grimaces. “Then we don’t give them anything clean.”

I nod and point toward a shelf of broken stone above the far slope.

“We stay high. No touching anything green. No blood if we can help it. Look before you move.”

Syin studies me. “And when we find him?”

“I can be sensible for several consecutive breaths.”

“That is not what I asked.”

“It’s what you’re getting.”

We climb the last stretch in silence. At the final rise, Renn touches my ankle with his tail and points at movement below. All of us drop to our bellies and work our way forward.

I work my way forward until I can crest the ridge and can see.