The room was small, made even smaller by the mass of people currently crammed in, but Burke ignored them for the moment and quickly scanned his surroundings. A single oil lamp was dangling from the low ceiling, its flickering light betraying a draft - there had to be a ventilation shaft hidden in the shadows somewhere.
Burke doubted that these people had built the structure themselves; more likely someone had discovered it, perhaps while picking berries or collecting firewood, and repurposed it for their own ends. Could have been a bomb shelter in its former life. A thick layer of rushes under his feet swallowed the sound of his steps, and the walls were covered with something that looked like sheep skins, though it was hard to tell for sure in the dim light.
"Cozy," Burke muttered. And pretty soundproof, too.
The door behind him closed with a soft click, and Virdon was pushed against his back. Good thing that astronauts couldn't be claustrophobic, eh? Burke counted heads: apart from their own group, the rifle-wielding chimp and the fellow who had threatened to shave off Zana's head, he detected the two apes that had followed the redhead...
... and the woman herself, seated at a reedy table that was the only furniture in the room, staring at him with cold eyes.
Damn. He really was a fool, wasn't he? Just because she had reminded him a bit of Sondra... Must've been the hair. Sondra had been a redhead. Had the temper to go with it, too.
"You were right," the chimp behind him murmured. "I found them outside."
"They're not from our village," knife-guy commented in a low voice.
The woman shook her head. "No, I don't know them, either." She rose. "What are you doing here?"
"Trying to save you from the chimps who were trailing you," Burke said. "Who'd have thought you'd be frolicking in the woods together?"
She blinked at that, then her gaze flicked to Galen and Zana who stood huddled together, looking intimidated, and her lip curled in disgust. When she looked at Burke again, her eyes had softened. "It may be difficult to imagine," she said, "but not all humans stay in apes' company by force."
"We're not forced to stay with them," Virdon interjected. "We're friends."
The woman regarded him skeptically. "Are you now. You still haven't answered my question."
"Yes, I have," Burke said. "We saw you breaking curfew, with apes on your tail. We wanted to help."
"And you're always going out of your way to help complete strangers?" She smiled at him sardonically. Burke couldn't blame her for her cynicism - this world had a way of fostering it.
He smiled back, equally insincere. "No, I have that weakness only for redheads."
To his surprise, her laugh sounded genuine this time, and he involuntarily grinned back.
"Oh, a mixed group! Oh Katlin, how wonderful! See, I was right, there are other apes without prejudice..."
The redhead frowned and half turned her head to acknowledge the speaker. Burke craned his neck to peek around her. So there was a second door to this room - probably leading to the bunker proper, while this was just an anteroom where they interrogated their prisoners...
The owner of the new voice stepped around the woman, and Burke snorted. Yet another ape. This one was a young female, with unusually sharp features for a chimp, or perhaps it was that eager, slightly fanatical energy she was exuding. "I didn't know apes live in caves now," he scoffed. "Shouldn't y'all meet up two stories higher?"
The chimp girl sized him up with a slight smile. "We care for our human brothers and sisters. We don't want them to risk breaking their necks."
Burke ran his tongue over his teeth to prevent himself from saying something he'd be sorry for in a room full of her friends - some of them armed - but Zana saved him before he could forfeit all their lives.
"I know you!" she exclaimed. "Lora, isn't it? You were in my orientation group at university!"
The other chimp eyed her uncertainly; then recognition lit up her face. "Zana? I remember you - you were studying anthropology!" She turned to the chimp with the rifle, who was still positioned behind him and Virdon, a fact that made Burke's neck itch. "She's also a friend to humans, ah, I mean the other people. She was my tutor back then."
"Fine, so you know her... do you know them?" Burke supposed that referred to him and Virdon.
Lora shook her head. "No..."
"They belong to us," Zana said quickly, "and no, not as slaves - they travel with us of their own free will - but Lora, what are you doing here? Do your parents know where you are?" She sounded dismayed and slightly worried.
"I'm working with the Human Liberation Front, for racial equality," Lora said, this time with unabashed pride. "'Simians And Humans Together'. We've been banned by the government because we've been too successful for their taste, Gres here is making a real difference..."
"Lora!" The chimp's... Gres' sharp voice cut her off. "No names."
He hadn't objected when she'd given away the redhead's name, Burke noticed. Kathryn, or Katlynn, or something.
Lora deflated, but recovered quickly. "You could join us," she said to Zana, "I remember you were the only one who liked humans as much as I did."
"We've had problems with spies before," Katlin reminded her. "We need to be careful."
Lora ignored her, her hopeful smile still aimed at Zana.
"I'm sorry," Zana said gently, "but we're only traveling through. You should really go back home, Lora, this is dangerous..."
"I'm not afraid," Lora cut her off. "This is important. It's worth a little risk."
A little risk? Burke shook his head. The girl had no idea what she'd gotten herself into, and of course her leader had no intention to educate her about it. "Girl, they'll hang you from the next tree for treason, heresy and, I dunno, bestiality," he scoffed. "Better go home and organize a charity dinner, or write a strongly worded letter to your senator. Anything that won't orphan your parents."
"You don't get to tell me what to do!" Lora snapped.
"No?" Burke grinned. "But I'm telling you this as your well meaning brother ."
Someone coughed to hide a laugh. Knife-guy?
Katlin was biting her lip, too, glancing surreptitiously to Gres, who stepped around their group to face them.
"I agree with Katlin," he mustered them coldly, "we can't be careful enough. Maybe you're just traveling through, as you said, maybe not. For now, you'd better stay here, until..." he exchanged a look with Katlin, "... until we've decided what to do with you."
"You're keeping us prisoners?" Galen spoke up for the first time, indignant. Frightened.
"Just for a little while," Lora tried to reassure him. "We're waiting for... someone. When he's here, and safe, you can go."
Burke glanced at Gres.
Yeah, right...
Hours later - alright, so maybe not hours, but it felt that way - they were still at an impasse, which just proved yet again that diplomacy was overrated.
"I understand that you have to distrust strangers as a matter of survival, but how probable is it that we would betray you to the police?" Virdon tried to reason with Gres; Burke didn't think it'd get him anywhere, but as long as Al kept the attention of these Che wannabes focused on himself, Burke was free to come up with a more immediate solution for their problem.
He doubted that Gres would fire his rifle inside the tiny chamber, which was mostly stuffed with his own people, but the numbers for a melee weren't good, either. Galen was still lame, and Burke had no idea if he even knew how to fight, and he was reasonably sure that Zana had no idea how to fight, even with two good feet.
That left him and Virdon, against five adversaries, and while he had sorted Lora into the same category as Zana, he suspected that Katlin could get nasty; it was in the way she moved and held herself. She was slim - not that there were any fat humans in this world anymore - but she didn't have that slightly hunched pose of the downtrodden. She held her head high and looked everyone, human or ape, straight in the eye, and her movements were quick and efficient. Burke was sure that he'd feel nothing but muscles under that skin. And, well, maybe a tiny bit of fat, in the right places...
The two other apes were complete blanks - they hadn't said a word yet and hardly moved. But any ape was so much stronger than a human that they had an automatic advantage, and although they seemed to have left the trees for good, they weren't as fixated to the vertical axis as humans - in a way, they were all natural capoeiristas.
"We're humans - what reason would we have to side with apes who see us as lower life-forms?" Virdon was still trying to apply logic to what came down to a probability problem for Gres.
Burke understood the rebel leader's dilemma, but he had no intention of playing nice with these people. He was inching towards knife-guy, who had both a knife and the fact that he was human going for him.
Besides, he still owed him a thrashing for frightening poor Zana.
"I don't know...," Gres was saying, "perhaps you tell me?" It was clear that he was playing with Al.
Asshole.
While he doubted that Gres would be too impressed if he took one of his fighters hostage, Burke was reasonably sure that it would help negotiations if Gres himself got in touch with the edge of the blade.
Virdon spread his hands in frustration. "Sure, I'll tell you - we have none . And you have no reason to keep us here."
Gres grimaced, an insincere smile. "If only things were that eas..."
Virdon was violently shoved aside. A panting mass of black fur flung Burke into the sheepskins as a gorilla ploughed his way through the crowd, making a beeline for Gres and ignoring a flustered Lora. "Kuma, finally..."
"The whole place is surrounded by soldiers," the gorilla's harsh voice interrupted her. "We need to get out, right now!"
Gres stared at the newcomer. "How did they find... they were following you."
The gorilla shrugged. "Tried to shake them off, but I got only one of them." He smiled. "But got him good."
He killed a guard, Burke realized. Now the place is swarming with them up there, and they won't give a damn if we look like gorillas or not...
"Y'know, it was nice meeting you, but we really gotta be going," he called out to Gres. "This mess is all yours, have fun..."
They all froze at the scraping sounds from the head of the stairs.
They're digging out the trapdoor.
A few moments later, the outer door began to shudder under heavy hits. Someone was breaking through, and was making quick progress.
Katlin jumped to her feet, pushing Lora towards the back door the girl had come through just a few moments ago. One of the apes hopped on the table, trying to get through the same exit over the heads of his panicking friends, but kicked the lamp off its hook instead. Suddenly the room went pitch black.
Then a glow sprang up from the floor, as the dry rushes caught fire.
"Shit!" Burke stomped out the flames, but wasn't sure if the fire wasn't creeping away under the surface. Pungent smoke was clogging his nostrils and choked his throat. Someone shoved hard against him, and he fell to his knees. Somewhere behind him, Zana cried out. Burke stumbled to his feet, coughing and gagging, and ran smack into the table as he tried to get to her. The scraping sound of a closing door led him to the far end of the room.
His fingers touched metal.
He quickly felt around the frame, but the door had no outer handle, and when he banged against it, the sound was swallowed immediately. That door had to be massive, like the door to a bank vault... or a bomb shelter, immune against explosives. The apes wouldn't have a chance to break through that door, and if they finally succeeded, the HLF would be long gone.
Unfortunately, that meant they were trapped, too.
A splintering crash from the other side of the room announced that the patrol had succeeded with that door, at least. Torchlight filtered through the smoke, and Burke stared into the cold eyes of he law.
A quick glance around the room showed Virdon and Galen, and knife-guy, who hadn't made it, either. Burke searched the room again, just to be sure.
Zana was gone.