Calamity by Constance Fay

Author:Constance Fay
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tor Publishing Group

CHAPTER 13

We meet Caro and Itzel in the canyon, near the narrow mouth of another cenote. This one opens like a vase beneath us, a thin window to a wide dark cave below, filled with cerulean water. Itzel has a wicked scrape on her forehead and a puffy black bruise forming in the tanned skin under her eye. Caro’s lip is split and she holds her right hand like it’s injured.

“They came out of nowhere.” Itzel’s fingers flex and open around a blaster. “I didn’t even get a chance to draw my blaster before one hit me in the head with some kind of club. By the time I woke up, they were gone.”

“I got my blaster out, but one of the men twisted it out of my hand.” Caro’s deep angry flush is visible even against her dark skin. “I should have practiced more. I need to practice more. You guys have to stop protecting me. When things like this happen, I need to be prepared.”

That sounds like a reason to protect her more. Caro’s probably the most important person on the crew, but for some reason, she seems to believe that her value is contingent on her ability to shoot stuff. Problem is, she has no aim. Practice hasn’t helped.

The midday sun is past, but it isn’t setting quite yet. The shadows within the canyon are long; just a sunlit spark rims the edge of the rock far above us. I don’t want to hunt the Children in the dark, in their territory. Or with the Nakatomi Family out patrolling.

“Do you have his tracker signal? Did you approach their last known location?” I ask Caro, since she led the crew to our rescue only a few days ago.

“We tracked it to a lava tube just past this cenote. Once they went underground, we lost him.”

I don’t ask if they followed him. Itzel would have, but not with Caro in tow. Not without more weapons. Even now, I can see her eyes drifting in the direction Caro pointed, like once she has passed the engineer off for protection, she can float away and take matters into her own hands. I give her a sharp shake of my head and then ask Caro one follow-up question.

“Do you have any of the swarm with you?”

The swarm is a group of small drones that share a sort of rudimentary hive mind. They aren’t full AI, exactly, but they aren’t dumb either. They’re small and skittery enough that the Children may overlook them at a glance.

She dredges around in the pockets of her pack and unearths two small drones. They’re delicately articulated insectile things, with spindly legs that end in little grappling-hook-style feet and clear wings that unfold from a sensor-coated carapace. Each drone is about the size of my thumb down to the first knuckle. I weigh our options.

“Itzel, you take lead, scout the tunnel in your sneakiest manner. Caro, you fly the drones around Itzel unless they’re making too much noise in that small area—signal her if they are, Itzel.

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