Chapter 126

Chapter One Hundred Twenty-Six

Elise pressed against the panel of the smoking alien communications system. She seemed incapable of accepting that it was dead, as if she thought the technology should have lasted forever.

And some of it was: The other sections still gave off the green glow as well as a soft hum.

Centuries—millennia—seemed pretty substantial for anything. For a prison that was already overrun by rancid, horrific monsters created by the supposed prisoner?

It was a miracle to find anything running.

Connor set a hand on her shoulder. “It’s gone.”

“That’s not good.” The archaeologist backed away, waving a hand in front of her face. “It smells like it melted.”

“Feels like it, too.” There was still serious heat coming off the device.

“If that device failed, I don’t know about this other one.”

“Did you get it working?”

“Not yet, no. It doesn’t seem to be responding to me.”

When Connor stepped in front of the device, the soft hum grew deeper and louder. Once again, there was warmth from the amulet.

He pulled it out, and light came from the red gem.

Another holographic alien appeared in front of the transportation device. This reptilian creature seemed the oldest and most frail of all. Its skin was mottled, puckered, and had little spiky growths coming from recesses along the neck and behind the ears.

Elise rushed over before Connor could put the amulet away. “What’s that?”

“This?” He held it up, half-embarrassed. “My girlfriend gifted it to me.”

“Gifted?” Elise held out a hand. “May I see it?”

For whatever reason, Connor had never wanted anyone to see the charm. The idea of someone else touching it had been almost unbearable.

Except now, it seemed almost natural.

He pulled the chain over his head and set the amulet into the archaeologist’s palm.

She drew the piece of jewelry close, squinting in the green light. “Gifted?”

“Don’t sound so—”

“—so incredulous?”

“Right.” He had actually started to say skeptical, but incredulous sounded right.

“You must be kidding. Do you have any idea what this is?”

“I think it’s sort of like a promise ring. I mean, I never gave Toshiko one in school, because she was so independent and—”

Elise cocked an eyebrow. “This isn’t jewelry.”

“But she gave me—”

“Your girlfriend, right?”

“Toshiko.”

“She has a lot of money? She has connections?”

“I don’t know about connections… I mean, yes. To both. She’s a hacker and an information broker.”

The archaeologist shook her head. She seemed awed. “That wouldn’t explain it.”

“She’s a really good hacker. In school, she broke into—”

Elise held a hand up to stop him. “This is…almost mythological. It’s like finding someone who just so happens to have an extraordinarily rare gemstone, something from Earth.”

“Well, like I said, she’s really good.”

The archaeologist rubbed the circular rim of the gold mount. “Let me try something else. What’s the deadliest weapon out there?”

“A nuclear bomb.”

“No. I mean…something you could use to take over a city, for example.”

“Oh. Without a doubt, if you could find one, there’s tank called a Troll. The armor is invulnerable to anything short of a nuclear blast, really, and it’s bristling with weapons.”

“And why didn’t your team have one?”

He chuckled. “We could barely afford to keep the Lucky Sevens running.”

“But with a Troll, can’t you take any job you want? You’d be invincible.”

“Sure. But it’s more like a legend. No one I know has ever seen one. We all just happen to hear stories about them all the time.”

Elise held the amulet up. “That’s what this is.”

Connor wrapped his fingers around the chain. “An archaeological Troll?”

“Dr. Chong talked about them—something created by ancient species who were forerunners in this part of space. He said at least ten exist, but they were all owned by collectors and powerful people at one point.”

“Sounds like a fairy tale.”

“Like your Troll, yes. Over the years, supposedly Directorate agencies acquired most, and Claw agencies acquired others. But even Dr. Chong—with all his connections—couldn’t ever find physical proof of even one existing.”

“Then how can you know this is one?”

Elise held her hand out again, accepting the amulet, then holding it up close to his face. “You see these symbols around the disc?”

“Sure.”

The archaeologist pressed the amulet close to the glowing panel of the transportation system device. She pointed with a fingernail tip to one symbol on the disc, then to a perfect match on the device panel.

Then she did another.

And another.

As she did so, the panel glowed brighter, and the elderly reptile alien holograph turned its attention to her.

She handed the amulet back, then stared down at the image. “And that’s exactly what you needed to see, wasn’t it?”

“Human species representatives…welcome.” The elderly alien bowed slightly. “You request transportation within the prison compound.”

Elise nodded. “We do.”

“Such transportation awaits you in the thoroughfare above.”

Connor puffed out his cheeks. “Any way we could ask it to—?”

She held a finger up to stop him without turning from the alien. “Please bring the vehicle down here, if it’s possible.”

The alien stared straight ahead for a while.

Scraping came from the hallway, then something pushed warm air into the room.

Finally, the alien blinked. “The vehicle awaits you outside.”

Connor backed up to the door and noted a soft, golden glow. When he poked his head into the hallway, he spotted the source: a long, narrow, plastic-looking sled hovered in the air maybe half a meter off the ground.

There were two simple, smooth gray seats—one in front, one in the rear.

He whistled. “That’s impressive. But it’s going to be tight.” No way Vicente could have fit into the thing.

Elise let out another of her impressed cooing sounds, then hurried to the side of the thing. When she pulled herself up into the front seat, her eyes were wide.

The vehicle didn’t even budge when Connor climbed into the back.

After a moment, the archaeologist groaned. “We don’t even know where we’re going.”

“The prison?”

“You think it could be that easy?” She leaned forward. “Take us to where this thing is imprisoned.”

A soft whirr preceded the sense of acceleration, and they shot forward.

Elise twisted around. “Who is this girlfriend of yours?”

Connor shrugged. “A really, really good hacker.”

But he wondered just how much he knew about Toshiko now.

Was the amulet coincidence, or was there something more about her than he suspected?