Ambassador 04 Coming Home by Patty Jansen

Author:Patty Jansen [Jansen, Patty]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Science Fiction, Ambassador (series), Earth-gamra universe, Patty Jansen
Published: 2015-11-29T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter 17

* * *

THE GROUND TREMBLED.

Evi, who was at the front of the group, tumbled a few steps down. He was followed by a couple of bricks that we managed to duck but that bounced down the stairs until they landed in the puddle at the bottom.

Then the light went out and we were plunged in total darkness.

“Great,” the guard said.

“Everyone all right?” Telaris asked.

Several people said that they were. There were a couple of big thuds upstairs. People running. A crash. Shouting.

“What now?” the keihu guard said.

“There’s an emergency light in my room.” This was Federza’s voice.

“If we can find it,” Thayu said. Being Coldi, she saw even less in the dark than I did, and it was so pitch black that I wasn’t sure if that was possible.

We managed to get down the stairs, while the noise from the guard station above us intensified. Shouts, alarms, rumbling. People running.

“Are those shots?” Telaris said.

“Likely,” said Federza. “Likely Tamerians have been in hiding in the surrounding buildings ever since I came here.”

It seemed like every curtain you shook around the place had Tamerians falling out of it. That thought was frightening. Just how many of these emotionally blank fighting machines were there?

We listened. I didn’t hear any shots, but Indrahui ears were better than any of the rest of ours, and mine especially were still ringing from the explosion.

We shuffled along the walls, running our hands over the rough, algae-covered stone. Evi at the front would shout if something came up, like “door” or “pillar” or some such.

We finally reached Federza’s room, where he shuffled about finding a light. A pale glow filled the room. It came from a glowing orb that sat atop a wire coil. This was the oldest and most basic form of light in Barresh, cheap and efficient. The pearls were charged at the solar plant. They glowed when two pieces of metal came in contact with the surface. I kept some of these things in a cupboard in my apartment, too. They were great for power outages, even if the greenish light looked like something out of a zombie movie.

“Now what do we do,” I asked, looking around the circle of pale faces.

“Wait until it calms down upstairs?” Thayu said.

“They’ll probably come down here before that time,” Reida said.

“We could dig in and defend ourselves,” the guard said.

Thayu protested, “What with? We have two decent guns, a couple of single-shot jobs, no explosives, and most of us here have no training.”

There were some nods at this.

She looked at the ceiling, searching for a vent of some such. “There has to be another way out.”

The guard shook his head. “We can’t escape. It’s a jail.”

Federza said, “Ha, ha, ha.”

But Thayu said, “You want to bet?”

The guard gave her a suspicious look.

“It’s an old jail,” Federza said. “As far as I know, no one has done anything to actively upgrade security in the last hundred years.”

Reida was frowning. “Isn’t there a drain behind the cells on the other side of the corridor?”

The guard frowned at him.

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