Page 75 of Bride of the Enemy Alien

Kessa looks at the glowing paths.

“The enemy has a map,” she says.

No one answers because there is no answer to give.

17

Kessa

The map beneath the salt crust glows in thin green lines. It shows the crash basin, the burn flat, the kedi chase, the old salt hollow, the false dust path, the crawl cut. Every place we stepped after the tracker’s final ping. Every correction. Every hesitation. Every route decision made under pressure and sun and fear.

Samples.

Records.

Triangulation.

A cold chill trails down my back. There’s no thought or will to it, but it’s still terrifying.

Rhazek has one clawed hand braced against the wall. There’s blood on his knuckles where he dug into stone. The damaged wing hangs low. He hasn’t complained once, which means the pain is either minor or catastrophic. With him I’m finding that those look annoyingly similar.

Syin watches the horizon. Renn watches Rhazek. Orek watches the broken ground. Lio and Maro watch me. That’s worse than everything else. People watching me means they expect a route.

I hate leadership and most of all when it’s reasonable.

For a moment, fear locks me. Fear of making the wrong decision. Fear of being the reason we all die, not so much for myself, but for them. And if we die without stopping this damn beacon, then the City is going to die too.

I can’t let that happen.

“The receiver has our field pattern,” I say. “Movement, spacing, heat, response rhythm. It doesn’t have the City unless we take it there.”

Syin’s jaw tightens. “Then we return by no known road.”

“We return later,” I say. He looks sharply at me. “Yes, I heard myself. No, I’m not happy either.”

Rhazek pushes away from the wall.

“The dead drop will send if it receives a full confirmation,” he says.

“What counts as full?”

“Surviving target responses and verified route intelligence.”

“Again with the cheerful specifics.”

“It may already have enough to suspect.”

“But not enough to prove.” His silence is careful. I point at him. “I dislike careful silence more than bad news.”

“Not enough to prove everything,” he says. “Enough to interest hunters.”

There it is. The narrow ledge.

“Then we make the rest dirty.” Maro raises one finger. “No questions from the man who got outwitted by a kedi.”

His finger lowers.

Lio says, “Dirty how?”