Page 112 of Bride of the Enemy Alien

For one heartbeat, I let myself feel it. His pain, his anger, his protectiveness wash through me like a cooling wind. Unseen, but definitely there. Then I keep moving.

The passage bends twice before it opens above a larger chamber. We crouch behind a low shelf of broken stone and metal, looking down.

The transport rig is below us, pulled off the descent rail and locked into tracks running across the chamber floor.

Rhazek is still inside the cage and for one second that’s all I see. I have to force myself to look at everything else.

The cage is fixed to the transport frame with heavy locking arms. Rhazek’s wrists are restrained and one wing is pinned low beside him. Green-black metal disappears beneath the plates at his throat and wraps his burned forearm. Blood streaks one side of his face and darkens his chest.

He is awake.

A cracked black console sits several body lengths from the cage. Green light moves across its surface and gathers above it in thin shifting lines. Beside it, a narrow rod pulses with the false version.

Once.

Pause.

Again.

A glass basin beneath the lights holds something that glows faintly blue-violet. The moment I see it my stomach drops.

No, no, no. Shit.

Epis.

Four guards are spread through the chamber. Two stay near the cage. One stands beside the console. Another watches the outer passage. None of them are looking for us, they’re waiting. But for what?

“I do not like this,” Renn whispers, shifting.

“Neither do I.”

Syin studies the chamber. “They know we are here.”

I look at the open stretch of floor between our position and the receiver. There’s cover on either side. A route toward Rhazek. Another toward the console. It’s all too convenient. It has to be staged.

Then I see it.

“Yes,” I whisper. “And they want me to choose.”

Syin adjusts his grip on his lochaber.

“Then let’s disappoint them,” I answer.

I study the room, specifically not focusing on Rhazek. The noise in my head when I see him trapped isn’t helpful.

There. The receiver is the problem. It’s a cracked black console that sits between us and the cage. It’s close enough I can see the false rhythm moving through the rod beside it. Thin green light runs from the console into the floor tracks under the transport. Above the cracked panel, strands of light are gathering around the blue-violet glow from the basin where the epis rests.

They’re either testing something, or building something. A message, maybe, but definitely this is the proof they want to send off world. This is the message that not only is Tajss alive, but epis is growing.

“Receiver first,” I whisper.

Syin turns toward me. “Rhazek is first.”

I shake my head, not looking at him.

“No. If we go straight to him, we give them what they want.” I hate the words as soon as they leave my mouth. “Look at the room. A clean route to him and a clean route to that console? It’s a trap. They’re waiting to see which one I take.”

Renn glances toward the cage, then back to me. “So we take neither?”