A Web Serial by M.C.A. Hogarth
| 72. Sourcing the Push. | 74. In the Dark. |
|---|
73. Hunting
Control Room.
Peaches. "Paul? How's it looking?"
Avril. "Good. Busy though. Thanks for sending the extra squad."
Peaches. "No problem."
Control 1. "Ma'am? Team Kitty's detached a recon team. I have them up on monitor 5."
Peaches. "Huh. What are they up to?"
Control 1. "Transcript says they're investigating the start point for the current crab attack."
Peaches, leaning toward the monitor. "This should be interesting."
Control 1. "Want me to put you through, ma'am?"
Peaches. "No, let them do their business. But give me an ear-bud, I want to listen in, in case they find something."
Warren. Claws and Spots are through the broken wall and examining the next corridor.
Spots. "Maybe there'll be another break in the wall?"
Claws. "That would make things easy on us. Well, except for the repair. You'd think as many walls as they've punched through we'd a' got the message and made 'em out of something stiffer."
Spots, spreading her glove under a scrape on the wall. "Here, Claws."
Claws. "Huh. One of 'em musta bumped into it. Nice catch."
Spots. "That way."
They stop at the next turn to check the walls and floors.
Spots. "Don't see anything this time."
Claws. "Then let's go with common sense. They gotta come from somewhere and it ain't near the donut... we'll head for the fringes."
Spots. "Sounds good."
They head outward, finding nothing.
Claws, muttering. "**—crap, we mighta lost the trace."
Spots. "They have to come from somewh—" Claws grabs her and jumps into a side branch as a crab scuttles past. "Holy Mother!"
Claws. "Sorry. Didn't see us, looks like."
Spots. "That shouldn't have mattered. They can smell us, remember?"
Claws. "If that thing knew we were here, why did it ignore us? Come on."
Spots. "We're following it?"
Claws. "It doesn't seem to care about little ol' us. And we can handle one crab if it gets territorial. Let's see where it's goin'."
Spots, following. "Claws..."
Claws. "Mom instinct again?"
Spots. "No, I'm afraid this is more common sense." She jogs after him.
Claws. "I know what you're thinkin'. But we gotta know. You know? We're attriting like crazy out here, Spots. We just got these new reinforcements, but they're gonna go down the tubes too if we don't figure out what the hell is goin' on out here."
Spots. "I thought you said that the last lieutenant almost killed everyone trying to do that."
Claws. "The last lieutenant almost killed everyone tryin' to do a frontal assault on a position he hadn't even located. He was **—" Pause. "No, I'm gonna say it, because he really deserved it. He was ****in' stupid, Magda, and I ain't usin' the term lightly. We're doin' the recon he shoulda done... and we got a resource he didn't."
"Which is...?"
Claws. "He never talked to the Fiddler. You talk to the Fiddler. Peaches talks to you. We have real information... if we can put the pieces together, we might blow this place clean and stop dyin'."
Spots is quiet. Then: "That's a little ambitious, isn't it?"
Claws. " ' Course it is. But what's the alternative?"
Control Room. Peaches, listening and watching the monitor, says nothing... but her brows lift.
| 72. Sourcing the Push. | 74. In the Dark. |
|---|
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