The lack of distinguishing features was frustrating Frost's search. The only reason she knew she had been in this particular room before was the small dent from when she had kicked the wall the last time around. The lack of any sort of identification on the doors completely confounded her. "How the fuck does anyone know where they are going?" she asked the wall, before giving the dent a twin sister.
She poked her head out the door, but there was no indication that anyone had heard the bang echoing down the corridors. There was no movement, but the echo did give her an idea. Summoning the biggest ice rod she could, she swung at the wall with all her might.
The effect was quite impressive, but miserably ineffective at accomplishing her objective. No one came to investigate the noise.
Her ears were still ringing when she climbed the stairs to the next floor.
***
It felt like there was a large all percussion ensemble playing in Sub- Zero's head. To say the meeting with the masters of the Lin Kuei was going badly would be like saying Scorpion and Quan Chi were having a minor disagreement.
The five masters and himself were all gathered in a private chamber, arguing over their next move. Although the five masters represented the five elements, they were hardly working together in anything remotely resembling harmony and balance.
Two masters thought that the Lin Kuei should try to avoid the impending fighting at all costs, unless there was a direct threat to the ice temple, while two others thought it was best to wait until the Red Dragon had been dealt with before aiding Rayden. Try as he might, Sub-Zero could not convince them that the Dragon King was the biggest threat they had ever face. Smoke, not surprisingly, was behind his friend all the way, but he could help little to sway his peers' opinions.
The only argument Sub-Zero hadn't used yet was the venerable, "I'm the Grandmaster, damnit, do as I say." While that tactic often worked well in the short term, the long-term repercussions of pulling rank were quite unfortunate. No that there will be a long term if we don't do something, he thought morbidly.
"Why do you want to wait to get involve?" he
asked again in as calm a voice as he could manage.
"Surely we are not in much danger if Rayden has his shaolin monks and other warriors involved. We are in immediate danger from the Red Dragon if what the Outerworld Investigation Agency told you is true. Shouldn't we deal with them first?" Master Zhong spoke first. He was clad in formal yellow, and represented the Earth element.
"I don't think I've made it clear to you exactly the danger the Dragon King and his army present. You were not there to see how much the invasion worried Lord Rayden."
"Of course we were not there," Master Li, dressed in black and representing Water, broke in. "You did not invite us. In fact, I note, you did not take anyone with you."
It could not have been a more pointed comment if he had tied it to a spear and thrown it at the Grandmaster's head. "I had hoped there wouldn't be a debate on the course of action. And I hadn't realized the opinion of a Grandmaster would be brushed aside so easily," Sub-Zero tried to sound calm, as he hoped the conversation was not headed where he feared it was.
"Of course your opinion is taken into account. I was just concerned about your student; I haven't seen her in some time. She's not ill, is she?" Master Li spoke in an artificially concerned tone, which barely concealed the malice underneath.
Sub-Zero gritted his teeth. There was no doubt in his mind that Master Li was more aware of Frost's whereabouts than he should be. "She's on a special mission for the OIA," the grandmaster realized how transparent the lie was, even as he uttered it, "The General was quite impressed with her."
"You loaned her out to someone?" Li feigned surprise.
"General Blade asked for me, but I had more important matters to attend to," lying was never his strong point. He was going to have to switch tactics quickly, before he dug himself a hole he couldn't get out of.
Li was good at many things, leading people into traps was one of them. "More important than dealing with a possible threat from Outworld?"
A glance at the five masters told Sub-Zero that he was rapidly losing ground. He needed to end the discussion. "Yes, like dealing with masters who are directly questioning decisions that have nothing to do with them. The training of my student has nothing to do with the threat we must face." If Master Li wasn't going to play fair, then neither was he. "If you want to challenge me for control of the clan, then do it openly, and when there's not a crisis looming ahead. We will be joining Rayden on the battlefield tomorrow. In the meantime, I want anyone unable to fight ready to be removed from here and into a temporary headquarters, which I will designate immediately before we head out. That is my decision and you will either obey or I will deem you to be in open rebellion. Am I understood?"
While not all the responses were wholehearted, they were all positive, and that was the important thing. Still, he would have had to be blind to miss the murderous glare Master Li shot him as the masters filed out. He was so absorbed in his own thoughts that he completely forgot Smoke was there until the cyborg startled him by speaking. "There's going to be hell to pay when t his operation is over, you realize that, don't you? That wasn't the most diplomatic way to end the debate."
"There shouldn't have been a debate; this isn't a democracy, and I'm the Grandmaster,"; even as he said the words Sub-Zero shook his head, indicating the conversation should not continue in a "public" room, even one that was off limit to everyone but the masters. "You can give me your opinion later, right now we have people to contact."
***
After the sixth floor, Frost began marking the doors she passed with pillars of ice. They soon melted in the dry, recycled air, but even the resulting puddle was a better marker than nothing. And she was still getting a lot of nothing.
In Frost's opinion, the situation had gone from bad to perverse. Several hundred people did not just pack up and silently leave a building that echoed so badly you could fart on one floor and hear it on the next. Then again, there could have been nothing behind the locked doors the whole time; she hadn't done much when she first arrived but bitch about how they were treating her. But she couldn't have been so self absorbed that she was oblivious, could she?
The hallways were filled with Lin Kuei rushing this way and that, preparing for the headquarters move. The news had spread quickly, and the work was getting done in the silent, efficient way the Lin Kuei were known for. If all went, Sub-Zero hoped they would move out from under the nose of the Red Dragon.
He thought briefly of heading over to his private apartments, but no doubt they would have been bugged. He led the way into a room bustling with people packing boxes of weapons and equipment. "Something is definitely wrong here. Why are the masters so uncooperative, and why is Zhong suddenly so passive? The clan has never been afraid to take out a threat early before?"
Smoke's voice was so low Sub-Zero had to strain to hear him. "I have a feeling they'd disagree with anything you suggested. They're used to running the show rather than taking orders. The only reason they wanted you to fight the Deadly Alliance, no doubt, was they were hoping you and your new supporters would die."
They had entered one of the largest chambers in the complex. It was normally a practice hall for the youngest members of the clan, members by blood rather than through recruitment, but now t hose members sat silently listening as their teachers tried to explain what was going on. A few watched curiously as their Grandmaster strode past, but quickly turned their attention back to their sifus. "At least the little one's still obey me," Sub-Zero sighed.
"Most of the clan still obeys you," Smoke tried to reassure him. "They joined because they wanted to help. It's the old, rotten ones you need to worry about."
"Believe me, I'm worrying," Sub-Zero said as they arrived at their destinations. The "gardens" of the temple were filled with ice sculptures rather than plant, and it was so cold very few people spent much time there. A cyborg and an ice elemental had little to fear from the cold, and there was one other that Sub-Zero was counting on to brave the cold. "It's the silent ones that need to be watched. Li is just obnoxious and too visible for any covert action."
"That doesn't rule out the possibility of outright rebellion," Smoke said quietly, for the gardens were otherwise silent.
"If Master Li wants the medallion, he'll have to get it as tradition dictates he should; over my dead body."
"That's what I'm afraid of," Smoke said wryly. He paused, and then inclined his head slightly to the right, indicating he sensed movement.
Sub-Zero nodded almost imperceptibly and changed the subject. "What do you think of our temporary change of headquarters?" he asked.
"I'm not sure. Do you think we'll be able to move everything in time?"
"Of course, and it will be easy to set everything back up in the old headquarters." Sub-Zero paused for a moment, straining his ears. He glanced at Smoke who shook his head. "Its also more heavily fortified than anything we have here."
Smoke nodded again, as his superior sense picked up movement. He could just make out a shadowy presence retreating quickly, ducking behind ice sculptures as it went. "I still don't understand why you let her stay here," he muttered once the figure was out of earshot.
"You know what they say, 'Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.' As long as I keep feeding her the wrong information, she'll be working for me." Unlike some of the other unfortunates who had taken refuge within the Lin Kuei, Sub-Zero was sure the she-demon Sareena would never change her ways. Rayden had told him about what Sareena had done for his brother, but had also warned him about her connections with Quan Chi, and how badly she wanted revenge. Still, she was just one threat when compared to the more ominous events taking place, and the demise of Quan Chi would not be a horrible thing.
"You think she's working with someone within the clan?" Smoke asked.
"She's probably playing the entire clan off one another, but that's not my concern right now," Sub-Zero shrugged. "We must prepare for tomorrow."
Frost slumped dejectedly against the wall. Her stomach was growling, and it finally occurred to her that she hadn't eaten since before she had gone to sleep last. It was hard to tell exactly how long ago that was, because the lack of windows was fouling up her sense of day and night.
She had no idea how long she had been searching. All she knew was there was only one more fight of stairs left, and there had to be something up there. She took a deep breath and tried to calm herself. Whatever she found on the first floor she wanted to be ready for.