Chapter 19

The Tangerian Outpost’s atmosphere had turned from hustling chaos to a grim dirge. Some of the officers stared at us as Zwendel led past the main room and into the clean white halls. One pushed past me from behind and caught up to her. They kept pace as they conversed in their own Tangerian language. I whispered to Lucas, “What are they saying?”

“Stupid space stuff.” He said.

“Dude.”

“Not a dude.”

“I don’t think it qualifies as stupid space stuff if it has to do with the whole situation.”

“You’re right.” He said, “but you said this was all too hard for you. So you just let me handle it, okay?”

“I’m not a child, I can handle some things.”

“Okay, how’s your handle on crazed murderers?”

We turned into a room that seemed built for observation. The Officer who led us here sat down at a console that framed a large observational window. On the other side was what looked like an examination room. I was so used to horrible things happening on my TV at home, that it took me a moment to realize that the black stains which interrupted the otherwise clean aesthetic of the room were blood. My brain took a second longer to understand that it belonged to the slumped body of a Tangerian officer in the corner. When I finally made the connection that death was found in the serrated instrument that was lodged deep in his head, it seemed to spurt in response, a last ditch effort to let me, let anybody, know that this thing was once alive. It was real. It was death. But just like TV I just couldn’t look away.

 One of the Tangerian Officers was standing in the center, watching the body. Despite the wound, the corpse was still gyrating and I could see tentacles pushing out past the limits of the suit and onto the ground. The assailant was waiting. And one by one as each tentacle made it to freedom it was cut down by the unkind hack of a large knife. Ritualistic in their patience, the killer seemed to not notice its witnesses. If they did, I wondered if they would even care.

“That’s Officer Behragrin.” Zwendel said, her voice tried to keep professional but it was easy to hear the dips into emotion.

“What the fuck happened to her?” Lucas said. The Officer in the room with us pointed out the table in the center of the other room. There was the Sphere, sitting open with clear signs of forced entry. The Officer trailed a path in the air between it and the still standing Officer Behragrin who was mid cut through another tentacle.

Zwendel snapped over to me and pushed me into the wall, “Start talking.” She said, “I want answers! Now!”

Lucas tried to puller her off, “Zwendel, easy he-”

Before he could finish, a tentacle shot off from Zwendel’s back and pushed him away. It came back to me and wrapped around my wrist where it pulled me up along the wall. “One of my officers is dead because of whatever was in that Sphere. You were the last one in possession of it, which makes you culpable. So spit it out!”

“Technically” Krazmundo interrupted, “the last one with the Sphere was me.”

“Then it’s on all of you!” Zwendel cried.

“Zwendel please,” I said, “If I knew something I would tell you, I really would, b-but I don’t know anything about all of this. I just want to go home! That’s what I’ve been saying since day-”

“H-o-ooo-oo-om-m-me.”

The voice drifted into the room and chilled every ear it touched. The window came into focus for me, and at its center was Officer Behragrin. When did she move? Though obscured by cracks in her helmet, her eye was visible and it was staring right at me. Slowly, she raised her finger and pressed it to the glass.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

By now all eyes were on her. Zwendel slowly reoriented me. Behragrin’s finger seemed to follow me, tapping a line of movement that traced mine.

“H-oo-o-oo-me. You… w-aa-aa-a-ant… h-oo-oo-o-ome.”

“That window.” Zwendel stuttered, “It- it’s one-way.”

“You sure you guys don’t have x-ray vision?” I said.

“W-e-e do-n’t.” Behragrin responded.

 “Officer Gretz.” Zwendel said, indicating the officer with us, “when did you open the comm system for our side?”

“I didn’t.” He said, “she shouldn’t be able to hear us.”

As soon as he answered, Zwendel had a gun at my head, which caused Lucas to draw his. Gretz returned with his own weapon, and Krazmundo took aim at him.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

“Alright let’s all just cool off here.” Lucas said.

Zwendel wasn’t having it, “Oh can it, Cassandra, don’t you see? He’s been manipulating things since the beginning.”

“We don’t know that.”

“Officer Be- that thing responded to him without even hearing him! It can see him without seeing.”

“That doesn’t mean he knows everything.”

“It’s true.” Krazmundo said, “he knows so little.”

I nodded, “I really do.”

Zwendel shoved the gun against my temple, “Shut up! Now everyone drop your weapons!”

“You first.” Cass tightened her grip.

Tap. Tap. Knock.

“You think I could trust you now? You’re with him!”

“Then let’s think about this. Calmly. If Matt was the one doing all of this, really, do you think he would have engineered a situation for himself to be caught?”

“If that helped him get closer, yes.”

“Then do you think revealing himself in a beehive of Tangerian officers is the best plan?”

“It’s pretty dumb.” I said, “I might have thought of it.”

“No, damn it Matt.”

Tap. Knock. Knock. Knock.

“Let him talk to it.” Krazmundo said.

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” Zwendel spat.

“If he wanted to hurt us he would have done it by now. So what’s the harm in letting him try?”

Knock. Knock. Knock. Knockknockknockknockknockknockknockknockknockknock

Zwendel glanced between us. She was breathing so heavily I could hear it. Had she ever had to make such a choice before? I wanted to run, but that thing on the other side was knocking so fervently it felt like it would follow me. Zwendel must have felt the same way.

She looked to me, “Talk.” She said, “Tell it to stand down.”

I spoke, “Hey uh. Behragrin, right?”

Kockknockknockknockknockknockknockknockknockknockknockknockknockknockknock

“Can you please stop?”

“No.” The thing that used to be Behragrin responded, a raspy dredging voice, “Yo-o-ou are no-o-t ho-oo-om-me.”

“No, I-I’m not.” I said, “but you’re scaring my friends”

“T-oo-o ba-aaa-aaaa-aa-ad.”

KnockknockknockknockknockknockknockknockknockknockknockknockBANG.

The room jumped back, guns shook. I looked to Zwendel, “well. I tried.”

“Which means he has no control.” Lucas said, “So let the guy go already.”

Zwendel’s grip on me loosened, but her gun was still poised, “how do I know this isn’t some trick?”

“Haven’t I given you enough proof?” I said.

BANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANG.

 

“Call it off!”

“I tried!”

“well try harder!”

CRASH

In that second, when the thing shattered the glass between us, the room went dark. I heard electronics whirr to a halt, air seemed to stand still, and there was  a clamorous rise of screams from far off rooms. Zwendel had let go in shock. There was a screeching cry from inside the room, the sound of something slapping the ceiling above.

Then.

Gunfire.