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It was an impulsive decision, that was why it worked. Oihana had gone down to that reservoir, probably to seek some quiet from the tension. She had not had enough time before Carly had blocked the only exit way.
The woman played with the gun she had snatched from Bakarne's hiding space. It wasn't really stealing, as far as Carly was concerned, considering where the gun came from.
The girl slowly walked up to her and Carly wondered again just how much the kid could read minds. Emotions and thoughts factored into each other, but this was something in a realm that had never been relevant to Carly. Well, she'd have to see how much she'd have to explain, and how much use the kid's powers were. Total mind control was out of the question, or else Carly would not be here.
Oihana stopped a few meters before her. "What do you want?"
"We're going to follow that hunter," Carly said. "Something is fishy about this whole deal."
"You're suspicious of everything."
"Was that supposed to be an valid point? Tsss. I'm suspicious because I live in a city that bloody well demands it. Now move it!" She pointed the gun up the path.
The girl didn't seem too scared, might just sense Carly wasn't going to kill her. Huh, what horrible judgment. She had no way to be sure something other than a bullet to a vital organ was going to occur.
As they left the caves, Carly quickly looked around. Bakarne must have noticed this already, but she was still only a human. Carly had already pinpointed a car she wanted to use, so she took Oihana by the arm and dragged her down the hills by a detour that avoided the house.
It was quite an old model, like most things in this city, so she knew how to hijack it. It was a bit trickier than usual though, since the kid tried running away in every unguarded moment till Carly tied her legs with one of her strangle wires. The good thing about those was that they'd sooner cut her fingers than loosen up, so running was over.
Once the alarm was wrecked, the kid on the other front seat and a few kicks to the engine delivered, the thing finally moved.
It would take a few hours before her gang would learn a car had been stolen by someone who was not acting on anyone's orders. Maybe longer depending on whom was stationed at the police, or perhaps sooner if Jormungandr figured out she was getting in the way of his plans. So far though it had no reason to suspect anything, given her destination. For all that was happening, it might think she just be needed Oihana for something involving her gang.
Oihana didn't say anything, was smart enough not to mess with the wires and only trembled a little. Now she thought about it, she did owe this kid her life and she had to wonder how much mother and daughter were alike, or not alike. That was probably going to matter soon.
Carly drove down town and checked out four locations before she found Jarrod. Sadly, he was in company. They were down in an abandoned building, Jarrod half high on something and laughing loudly with his mates as if he was totally not hiding her living outlaw-outlaw. Well, too bad for his wonderful hiding efforts, she needed to interrupt.
The most tactful thing to do, given the time limit they were on, was to just walk in.
"Hi guys, remember me?"
Six surprised faced turned around and she emptied the gun on five of them. Assholes deserved it. What she wouldn't give for a gang that did a little more on loyalty and trust.
Jarrod looked horrified through his drug induced stupor, finding four cringing buddies and one possibly dead.
"Jarrod, I need weapons."
"Carly? What're you ... here?"
"It's an emergency. Weapons, now."
"Wha?"
Rolling her eyes, Carly grabbed Jarrod's arm and dragged out the staggering man.
If Jormungandr had any eyes inside here, he would know now. Didn't matter. He had no physical body, after all.
By the time Carly shoved Jarrod into the car, he was starting to regain some lucidity and blurted out, "What do you mean, emergency? And what's she doing here ... good lord, did you tie the kid up with strangle wire?"
"Her mom's the enemy, but I need her for this. She wasn't cooperative."
"Mother is not—" Carly whacked her on the head with the flat of her hand.
"Kid, did you ever consider that you might not noticed lies from a skilled telepath, especially when those lies serve her mommy instincts that you're used to feeling?"
Jarrod jumped up and bumped his head against the car ceiling. "Hold it, Carly, what the hell are you saying? That that woman's in league with the feds?" he groaned, clutching his head.
"Pffffft, don't be stupid. No, I mean Jormungandr. Remember the conversation you had with her?" She kicked the car a few more times and it restarted.
"My first clue the way she said that she doesn't want those things in her place, cause they are so violent. Any normal, concerned mother would say she doesn't want her child or any of the other kids interacting with those things before worrying about where they'll stay."
"Maybe we just didn't see that part," Jarrod said.
"I checked their phone line. Lady never phoned any parents to persuade them to keep their children at home. Didn't email them either. In fact, her lack of computer use is very suspicious, considering she needs a computer to arrange at least some things in her house, like the fridge and the television."
"Jormungandr wouldn't let her get in the way of his friends' pet project. And who knows, maybe she's just a technophobe."
"Exactly. She doesn't like technology at all. She goes outside to be alone, despite the fact her telepathy never lets her be alone ... so why was she going outside, Jarrod, out into the wild where only the house had no eyes? She knew exactly what to expect of the hunters and that they were no threat to the children."
"Carly, listen to yourself! You're sounding crazier than some of the guys I just spoke to and they were on illegal drugs! Heck, I am on illegal drugs, what do you want fro— Oh, I might be hallucinating. Carly, if I'm responding to things you did not say, it's the drugs ... shit ... Carly isn't here, is she?"
"Just get me some weapons and come along. We've got killing to do."
"Weapons, right. Weapons. What for?"
"You know that jerk that nearly killed me? We're going to save his sorry ass from the stupidity he unwittingly stumbled into," Carly said through gritted teeth. "Directions, Jarrod."
"Right, go to Espven street, I think you can handle the guard if you've got some wires and ...wait, what? We're saving who?"
"The jerk from outer space. Oihana, find out where Tex is."
She didn't look aside, but she could hear sniffing and saw shaking from the corner of her eyes.
"Oihana? You helped save my life, so if you did that for any reasons other than curiosity, you're going to help us save that alien."
"Mother's talking to me," the girl said. "She tells me not to believe anything you say."
Carly groaned. "Look, your mother is just trying to keep you out of trouble."
"I know."
"What?"
"There's been a man at our door and he warned us. Andrew, about a year ago. She also told me to not believe anything he said." The girl's shoulders started to shake harder and with some difficulty she pulled up her legs, hiding her face in her knees. "Why does she keep telling me to not believe people without telling me why? She always knows everything that people think, I can feel she does, but she won't tell me what!"
Jarrod leaned forward, laying a hand on her back with some disorientation. "Hey, kid, are you okay? Carly, get those things off of her legs, they're cutting her."
"I'm driving, Jarrod. Give her one of your knives. I think she understands."
Jarrod hesitated, but then handed the girl a knife. She clutched it with both hands, but didn't cut yet.
"If you act on your impulses, I will guide you. I can't aim for you, but I can time," Oihana said with a strange new voice.
Carly smirked. How cute, she still thought there could be heroes in this story. This might just be useful.
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Nra'tex-ne had chosen one of the numerous empty ruins to wait in, having left a fair trail of scent and other cues. He had a good guess of how Kea'chethi explored so she ought to find him first, if any were still looking for him.
When his set of quickly carved wooden blocks dropped down before him, he stood up and calmly peered around. Kea'chethi manifested in a window, one level up with no floor between them. He was shocked to see how decimated she appeared, with claw scratches on her arms and legs. Just what was going on at the ship?
"Nra'tex-ne, you have a lot of nerve coming out now," she said with a voice too raspy.
He knelt down and bowed his head.
"I am aware that I have broken the protocol, however, I have succeeded at finding us a food source. Water too is freely available. The humans here are willing to help us."
She made a scoffing sound, but he wasn't executed yet. "So for what price would your humans help us, Tex? They never act out of honor."
"The humans are children, their curiosity drives them. It is not them that we would pay, but an entity named Jormungandr, who is an enemy of the humans who control this city."
She clattered her mandibles and made a gesture for him to continue. He wished he could see her expression.
"I was not to tell the humans the price as not to worry them. Jormungandr knows we will destroy this area once we are ready to depart, so he wants us take along his human friends while he himself escapes through cyberspace. In return, we will receive food, water and any knowledge that he can provide us."
"Tex, we have begun hunting humans for food," she said, perhaps somewhat regretfully.
"What? But what about the protocol?"
"The matriarchs say, this is no hunt of honor, just a collecting of nutrition."
"What are we, Hish?" Nra'tex-ne barked, forgetting his humility.
"As long as we are not seen, it should not matter. The Hunt is for later."
"We have already been seen by Jormungandr! He could reveal us all, but he could also help us. He might even be able to find out what happened aboard our ship, give evidence for the arbiters that the other clan attacked first."
Kea'chethi perked up. "The other clan thinks that we attacked first? How would you know?"
He realized his mistake. This would be the worst time to admit of the murders that had occurred ... he despised lying, but perhaps another truth would suffice, even if it was misleading.
"Two of the humans have the eyes of the gods."
She made a curious sound and said, "Maybe I would bring you home alive, if it was up to me."
His hopes peaked, but sank right away when he realized what this meant. Kea'chethi stood up and turned around, looking at something in the distance. Other hunters, if Nra'tex-ne guessed correctly.
"Kea, please, listen —"
"As if our Matriarchs would listen to something like an artificial creature," she said. "Give up and die with what last dignity you have. Begging never suited a true Yautja."
Two other hunters appeared.
"What takes you so long?" one of them demanded.
Kea'chethi leaned against the crumbling window. "Curiosity," she said simply. "Have you found a place to dispose of the body?"
"There is a canyon near the edge of the city. It should do the trick until we are ready to leave."
Death without dignity. Nra'tex-ne raised his hands and laid down the mask aside of him. Kea'chethi was curious, perhaps it would get the best of her and she'd access his mask. Even if he had disgraced his clan, he still wanted the best for them.
The other two hunters, neither of whom he recognized, dropped down to his floor and chattered together about the least messy way to kill him. They'd expected a fight so they had not considered they might have a choice. Nra'tex-ne almost suggested them a way, but noticed he wasn't that masochistic.
When faced with imminent death, the code of honor suddenly seemed less strong, almost disposable. If he was doomed anyway, then ... no, no no! He was going to stay right here and do this the right way, so he could at least face his ancestors and the Black Warrior with a shred of dignity.
Kea'chethi suddenly cloaked and jumped down. Part of the window edge shattered where she had stood.
"Two humans are coming," she told the others. "I'll finish him off, you'll deal with them."
They scattered. Kea'chethi jumped down and extended her spear. She was about to strike Nra'tex-ne when that blasted survival instinct kicked in after all. Forgetting all about honor, Nra'tex-ne grabbed the spread, jerked it out of her hands and twisted it around to wield as his own weapon.
Neither were in a shape well enough to be at their best, and they did not get a chance to test. A shot rang, Kea'chethi's arm was bleeding and there was Carly emerging from a broken door. How had she gotten in here without being detected?
Kea'chethi howled, took unusually long to spot her attacker, charged, and was shot at again with uncanny accuracy. Kea'chethi fired her plasma cannon at her, but Carly was already ducked at the moment it was fired.
Was this the same person he had hunted? Carly had been skilled, but now she could eerily avoid being hit even at such a close range, despite having less cover than before, and Kea was unusually slow.
"Tex, move it!" That phrase he knew by now. Without hesitation, weirdly enough, he followed her. Carly shot by him and grabbed his helmet. She wouldn't hand it back though, and somehow he didn't feel like asking. Had to survive first.
Carly led him down a particular road as if she knew this ruin by memory, yet made some completely random turns and apparently needless tours around. He didn't feel like questioning them, an by some bizarre stroke of luck they didn't run into any of the other hunters.
Along the way they met Jarrod, and outside in a rusted car was Oihana, hunched on the front seat and entirely unresponsive.
It wasn't until they were halfway back to the Eir residence that he felt like thinking about why in the universe he had stopped caring for the Path. His sense of honor was back now and not happy.
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"Welcome to the rebel base!" Carly shouted when the other geeks exited the cave that led down to the basin, following Oihana. The three teenage hunters were closing the trail, the other two having joined Karga'te some time outside.
Oihana went sit next to Ohtremnec, at the center of the shore. Her mother came last and looked carefully stoic. It unsettled her, that this woman might really be able to dig though her mind and figure out everything.
"What's going on? Why is he back?" Melanie demanded, then she spotted Jarrod. "And what's he doing here?"
"Oh, not much, we just saved your monster from execution," Carly said.
"What? Why?" Mahad asked. He looked around suspiciously, then questioningly at Oihana, but the girl only stared into the water.
"Turns out that despite Jor's lovely skill to mess with perception technology, two other hunters were with Kea'chethi, very much not lost and disoriented."
"So what? Jormungandr isn't a god, he can't control anything," Mahad objected. "Will you finally explain what's going on here?" He turned around to Bakarne, who had her arms crossed and looked down at the group, still at the cave entrance.
"She won't talk, so I will," Carly said. "It took Jormungandr just five days to decipher their language. Face it, it already knew where to start. Maybe it wasn't even translating, he was adapting a virus or something." Carly tapped Nra'tex-ne's helmet, the owner of which was giving her increasingly puzzled looks. She noticed Ohtremnec messing with his keypad, doubtlessly wondering why Jor wasn't translating anything anymore.
"Mahad, open your laptop and check in on Jormungandr, will you?"
"He hasn't answered for half an hour now. What did you do?"
"Well, I like the monster a little better than that cybersnake, cause at least the monster has some respect for life. What I did was get in the snake's way by helping the monster."
"What on earth is wrong with you, why would you antagonize Jor? You don't even have evidence Jor didn't try to keep him alive!" Mahad nearly howled. So immature.
"If all I did was antagonize Jor, why did it stop talking to you?"
No answer.
"Playing the cute geeky kids up against the corrupt government, eh? Get a check on reality. The government can be pretty screwed up, but today they're right. Jormungandr is a threat." While saying this, she looked up sharply at Bakarne.
"You knew, didn't you? You're the telepath here. You must've gotten some type of vision or whatever you call it."
"I had no visions, but I have spoken to Jormungandr."
Now Mahad, Frank and Melanie all turned around, looking at her in horror. The woman pinched the bridge of her nose, then walked into the open space and knelt down aside of her child. Oihana looked at her with doubtful eyes, and the mother sighed and stood up.
"Carly is right, Jormungandr has not told you everything. The hunter was meant to die, he served his purpose. They would never trust him to mess with the technology when alive and imprisoned for treachery, but if dead, they'd hook up the helmet to see what he did. However, Carly does not know everything either."
Frank fell back, slumping down onto a pipe and Mahad's mouth dropped. Melanie only stared with wide eyes.
"The Ash Generation are Jormungandr's work. I don't know what it is trying to breed, but it is very protective of the project, which is the reason it got caught in this backwater city rather than escape when it had the chance. That was decades ago. At this point in time, I am the only biological human in this city," Bakarne said.
"What? No, no no no, this is ridiculous. Why would Jor do this? If he was so dangerous, he could just blow up the city!" Frank yelped.
Mahad took the frightened young man by the shoulders, forcing him to stay calm. Then he turned to Bakarne, frowning, and said, "If this is true, then why are you the only human? I don't understand."
"Jormungandr ensures that anyone who settles here dies soon enough to avoid polluting the gene pool. I was spared for my powers. Before the Ash Generation, there was the Heron Generation. Next comes the Phoenix Generation. I don't know what this means, but I know something is not going according to plan. I suspect this has to do with the former geek squads. All of them were highly gifted children with poor friend and family ties, deluded into service of the serpent. Some of them have survived and now work against Jormungandr."
"What about the crashing alien ship?"
"Jormungandr cannot download itself without sufficient time and enough space at the other end, but it can hack from the distance using the city's radio towers, something like that. It knew there was something to hack because I told him a few interesting things. The primitive tribe, there were several of them who would consider contacting the humans for help. If none of them would have tried, then Jormungandr simply would have one of the hunters killed and invent some excuse for us to help translate and install the data it needed, then get the body and technology taken to the ship. If all other plans failed, the final resort would see me trying to mind control a captured hunter."
Ah, so that was why her daughter was so quick to realize the truth when forced to think about it. Bakarne most likely had done something to prevent her from brainstorming suspicious little things. Bakarne loved her daughter and had most likely been nice to her. Wonder what she could do to someone she didn't like?
This did affirm she had a limit to her psychic powers though, otherwise she could have just done Plan Last Resort right away.
"You'll find out how much I can do soon, Carly. The contract I have with Jormungandr is not yet lost. Quite a few things have already gone awry, I am certain it will cope. It has no emotions, no grudges, just a practical interface."
"Great. Now that we've established we're all marionettes, what are we going to do?" Mahad said.
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