Wayward Galaxy 4 by Chaney J.N. & Anspach Jason

Author:Chaney, J.N. & Anspach, Jason
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Variant Publications
Published: 2022-01-22T16:00:00+00:00

19

Sidorov waved his hand toward the tremendous level of devastation ahead of them. “I wanted to wait until we were in a secure place. This may be as good as we will get to talk about why you’re here. No one and nothing is left alive.”

Reach gave a compressed frown. “We all might be in a lot of trouble.”

“I figured that much. What aren’t you telling me?” Sirdorov extended a hand to Vitor and helped the man to his feet. “Get everyone moving. I want to hit the vault in five minutes.”

“How much farther is that?” Reach asked.

“Not far. We usually only stop here to check the traps and see if anyone is watching.” Sidorov nodded at the two Brody Boys, who now flanked Reach. “Did you have those robots following us the whole time?”

“At a distance,” Reach confessed. “Enough to follow my signal in case of trouble but still respect your privacy.”

“How gentlemanly of you. But you have something more to tell me about.”

“Right. As for what I’m not telling you, war is coming.”

“War is always coming,” Sidorov said absently. He led the group down a winding, twisting path through the underbrush on the way to his vault. “If this is new to you, it is because you are new to Amir.”

With all their senses high on adrenaline, it was Vitor who first noticed an obstacle to their trip. He thrust out a hand to stop Bolton as they passed through a wall of pungent jungle flowers. “Vakobek. Big one. Probably stalking toward the smell of the bodies we left back there.”

“Good catch, brother,” Sidorov said. “Let it pass. The vault is there.”

The gangly animal slapped its paws on the wet grass as it hissed its displeasure at all the noise of late. After sniffing the air, its three prehensile mouth tentacles extended to slap their independent jaws in a reciprocating clacking sound. It drew its tentacles in for a roar of tree-rattling thunder and then loped off.

“That thing is huge,” Bolton remarked. “It prefers carrion to live prey then, I take it.”

“Quite the contrary,” Sidorov said. “It would have enjoyed nothing more than devouring us.”

“Why didn’t it?” asked Reach.

Vitor held up a flower full of nectar. “The flowers here are potent. Best place to hide from a Vak. They taste and smell more than see.”

Sidorov moved past the flowers toward a jagged rock sticking up from the landscape. He pulled a loop from the fixture and dragged the line upward and to the side. The motion revealed a carpet made of local plant life that, once pulled away, exposed the front of a cargo container complete with a sliding pressure door and keypad. Quick fingered taps flashed the door open with a satisfying whoosh, and the escape of steam as the cooler temperature inside the container met with the humid outside air.

Once everyone was through, Sidorov shut and locked the door. “Good. Everyone here.”

Sidorov triggered the lights into an eye blinking display of the interior space after a moment in the darkness once the door slapped shut.

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