Little Hunter
Nanku woke with the twins on either side of her.
Her senses came to her first. She listened. Tasted the air. Glanced about. The room was dark, but her eyes adjusted quickly.
They were well practiced.
She didn't usually wake somewhere she couldn't see the stars. Not while on a hunt. For the moment, she'd decided to start getting used to it. Dusk and Dawn couldn't sleep outside once winter came. Brockton Bay's winters were too cold and too wet. The twins weren't built for both.
They fluttered their wings every few breaths, the action maintaining a constant temperature that suited them just fine and kept Nanku a bit warmer than she preferred.
On either side of the twins were piles of blankets, pillows, and cushions.
With a sigh, she expanded her senses and found exactly what she expected. Every closet was open. Every bed and couch was stripped of anything even remotely soft and warm. The beds were undone, and the pillows collected.
The twins brought it all into one room and piled it all around.
It was heartwarming in a way.
On their home world, the queen of the hive rested at the center, protected and comforted by the entire swarm. It made actually killing the queen a real challenge. Since Nanku collected Dusk and Dawn out of their egg and took them as her own, they treated her like the queen.
And overnight, while she slept—freed of any kennels or other confinements—they'd build a nest to protect her.
It was sweet.
Getting out of the room was a complete pain in the ass.
Nanku first fought to free herself of bundles of sheets and covers. Then she stumbled through uneven terrain of pillows and cushions where she couldn't see where or what she was stepping on. Both because the room was dark and because there was too much crap. When she made it to the door, she had to make room to actually get it open.
The house had a lot of rooms too.
Lots of things to pile in one place.
At least they'd cleared the house.
Once out of the room, Nanku found her way down the stairs into an open living space. Faint traces of light seeped in from the windows. The sun was setting behind the mountains, and it would soon be dark. Which, for Nanku, meant the day was just beginning.
Memories flooded back from being inside a house. Memories of Taylor visiting Emma and her family. Their house was bigger and nicer than hers had ever been. Her father was a lawyer.
She felt very much the same sense as she moved through the home of the 'Bakeman' clan.
Nice furniture that matched. TVs had gotten huge while she was away. The Bakeman's might fit in a pickup truck. Maybe. All the tables, chairs, cabinets, and shelves matched. The same dark-colored wood inset with glass panes patterned after glass. Many of the decorations were porcelain or finer. Expensive things, though that didn't affect Nanku like it did Taylor.
The only currencies the Yautja valued were time and honor. Their ways of accruing both tended to solve their other needs, be they hunters, engineers, elders, or keepers. Or in Nanku's clan, enforcers.
The hunters who hunted hunters. The bad bloods who went too far. Broke the codes all the clans lived by. Nanku considered that they might be behind the R'ka, but she thought Pe'dte would have said if she suspected anything of the sort.
She hadn't.
There was a nagging fear that accompanied the thought, but Nanku pushed it away.
According to the calendar in Mr. Bakeman's office, the family was away in Greece for the next two weeks. Their home sat back from the street in a rural neighborhood of upscale homes with large yards separated by trees and brush. There was plenty of cover for her coming and going.
The house would do while she sought more permanent shelter. Something no one would stumble on or into. A place Dusk and Dawn could be warm when it was too cold or too wet.
Another useful thing the Bakeman home had was a computer. She could wirelessly connect the computer to the big TV in the living room and use the entire screen!
Nanku hoped that would make her search for the logo easier, but nothing came of it. She'd reviewed all the news about the camp she could find, and no one mentioned any companies but the company that owned and ran the camps. The parents sued until they went bankrupt, and there was nothing left.
The company's logo was completely different.
Nanku was at a loss for how to continue searching for the logo.
When a trail runs dry, look for a new one.
…
Easier said than done, given the difficulties of her current hunt.
Too difficult to do on an empty stomach.
The refrigerator and freezers were cleared when the family left. That much was clear by the fact they were utterly empty. The pantry still had supplies but nothing very filling.
Going out to the garage, Nanku opened a large freezer and pulled her knife from her belt.
Nanku cut at the flank of the deer from the previous night. It was more than enough meat for a few days, and this far out, she could find more easily. Not that it would always be an option.
This house really was too far in the outskirts of Brockton Bay for what she wanted to do.
Starting the gas stove and finding a skillet, Nanku set the slice to cook and turned her attention to the television. The computer started far faster than any she remember—human technology came along rapidly—and she needed little practice remembering to use a mouse.
Nanku opened the internet by clicking on the right icons and started looking for what she did have.
Names.
Her mother was impossible to find anywhere. No address. No phone. No work listing. There was something called 'social media' now, but Nanku couldn't find her there either.
Unsurprising.
The whole thing seemed like a preposterous waste of time. Her mother was many things, but the only way she wasted time was laid out at the kitchen table at the bottom of a bottle. That, or watching Taylor's every move to be sure she was 'safe.'
Nanku could find other names, though.
Naomi and Thomas were about her age, and both became minor celebrities for surviving the camp.
Nanku bowed her head on learning Thomas was in an institution. There were stories about it. Reports. He'd 'lost all sense' at school one day and started ranting and raving about monsters grabbing and killing everyone at the camp.
He'd been put away for his own safety.
Except… Nanku knew he wasn't crazy. Maybe. Maybe Thomas remembered some of the truth and people didn't believe him.
She had to measure the value of tracking him down versus the information he could provide, though.
Naomi was easier to locate. She became a local hero for surviving, and apparently used it to drive herself forward. If Thomas found his way to the bottom, Naomi found her way to the top. Her social media profile had thousands of posts from thousands of people.
She gave talks about survivor's guilt and mental health. She'd graduated high school at the top of her class and gone to Cornell.
Reading through, a thought came to Nanku.
Creating an account on WebSpace was free. They asked a lot of questions Nanku had no intention of answering truthfully, but she could fill out the boxes randomly. She had to make an email first, but if she went ahead with her plans, that would be useful, so it wasn't a bother.
Earth wasn't like Dusk or Dawn's world.
It wasn't a wild place. Not the same kind of wild place, at least. There was 'civilization' here. Order. Systems.
She had to navigate them, just like any forest.
Yautja might like things close and personal, but they were not idiots or suicidal. They were survivors. They did what they had to do to be the best at what they were.
Predators.
Finally logged into an account, Nanku found an option for a private chat. She toyed with the menu a bit and searched the 'help me' pages to see how it worked. It seemed like private meant private. No one but her and Naomi would know what was said.
Nanku considered but rejected the idea of contacting Naomi right then and there.
She had a year. There was no rush. Given her hunting ground and the nature of who and what she sought, avoiding people entirely wasn't an option. She needed information, and that information might well come from people she had to face and talk to.
Fortunately, she was human.
Throw on a set of clothes and cover the implant with a few braids of her hair, and no one would know any better.
Just not yet. It took her two days just to find temporary shelter, and two weeks was not enough time. She needed to find a more permanent residence. Something that could last at least a few months and be secure during the winter.
Naomi could wait. She probably wasn't the best first point of contact anyway. What fool would actually believe a faceless, random, unknown person on the Internet was anything they said they were? For all Naomi knew, Nanku could be a R'ka trying to finish the job or some crazed fan who appreciated her bikini 'pics' too much.
She had a lot of bikini pics.
Though it wasn't just Naomi Nanku managed to find.
Emma had social media too.
"Guess she became a model after all," Nanku mumbled, recalling something very distant from the last days of elementary school.
Some kid clothes catalog. Emma was very excited about her. She thought it confirmed she was very pretty.
Nanku supposed she was, not that she'd seen a great many humans in the last ten years.
In the past twelve years, it seemed Emma's modeling had taken off. Emma had far more followers and comments than Naomi. Lots of men, but lots of girls too. All ages from all places. In addition to model, her profile said she was an 'influencer.'
Whatever that was.
Maybe her popularity online was proportional to the number of bikini pics she posted. Emma had far more than Naomi. And Emma still lived in Brockton Bay.
Someone close, who could see her face and confirm that she was who she said. That was a better place to start. If that was, Emma even remembered who 'Taylor' was. The last time they saw each other, they were eight, and Taylor had been crying for days.
Emma might not remember her.
There was only one way to find out.
Nanku was about to open a private chat when she noticed the calendar.
Thursday 14, Public Show at 8:00 PM
Nanku looked at the corner of the television.
Thursday 14, 4:41 PM
"Huh."
Nanku suspected a trap from such coincidences, but a closer look at the calendar showed Emma had such engagements constantly. Two or three a week and almost always at least one on a Thursday. So not a trap. That would be absurd, given Nanku hadn't even been in Brockton Bay forty-eight hours yet.
"What do you two think?"
Dusk and Dawn came down the stairs, their mandibles clapping as they surveyed the first floor.
Dawn whined shrilly.
"Hungry. Right."
Nanku set the keyboard and mouse aside.
Eight.
She could still tell time, she thought. That was in about three hours. Right?
"Why not?" Nanku started for the stairs. "I can always talk to her online if I want."
There was more than one kind of camouflage, and she needed to practice the less technological sort sooner rather than later.
Besides.
Hiding from people wasn't going to get her anywhere, but she couldn't just run around asking others to do her work for her.
She needed to be proactive. On all fronts.
Her plan for the day came together quickly. She still wanted to check the police station and county courthouse. Both would have records she knew wouldn't be online and might give her more information. The two buildings were easier to get in and out of than the PRT too. She'd surveyed both and confirmed their far less sophisticated security.
There first, then she'd change into normal clothes and see Emma's show. At least for a bit. Put herself somewhere Emma would see her.
Maybe, just maybe, her old friend would recognize her, and Nanku could save herself some trouble.
Slow and steady won the race.
It worked for the turtle in the race against the hare, and the hunter who didn't want an early grave.
Her plan's first problem was that of all the clothes in the Bakeman house, not a single piece of it was for a woman.
Her brow rose at that. First, she checked the rooms for the younger kids, clear from the way they were decorated. Both were boys, and neither in a size that worked. She wanted to blend into crowds if necessary, not stand out for how ridiculously over or undersized the garments she wore were.
She checked the master bedroom after that, but the entire closest space was men's clothing.
Turning up a frame Dusk and Dawn knocked over in their search, Nanku's curiosity piqued.
"Hm."
The picture depicted what she recognized as a wedding, but there was no bride. Just two grooms.
"Huh."
There weren't any gay hunters she knew of… Though, the Yautja didn't really do 'romance.' If anything, Nanku's few conversations with Pe'dte about the subject made it seem like their entire concept of sex and offspring was an obligation rather than a joy or an achievement. There was no deep personal connection to culminate.
Pe'dte's sons had come from three different males, none of whom she seemed to think of in any fond or unfond way. They simply served a purpose. She loved her sons more than she loved any of their fathers.
Nanku supposed more had changed on Earth than just Brockton Bay.
Which didn't help her clothes situation. Neither of the father's garments remotely fit her.
Returning to the bathroom where she'd stored her armor and weapons, Nanku began dressing herself. A hot shower had been very comfortable. She'd completely forgotten showers. The Yautja preferred hot baths and steam.
She might take another.
A little indulgence never killed anyone, and her muscles needed soothing after a long night of legwork.
For the moment, though, Nanku got the twins focused and donned her mask. Her cloak would get her around the city well enough. She'd want something more mundane and 'human' before letting Emma see her face.
Best to keep 'Taylor Hebert back from the dead' and 'Nanku the hunter' separate.
For that, she'd need clothes.
"Guess I'll just break into another house."