The Risks of Dead Reckoning Felicia Watson (books for 9th graders .TXT) 📖

and nosedelicately crinkled, Aqila exclaimed, “You ateash-mice?”

Con said, “Yeah, our squadhad gotten trapped behind enemy lines and food supplies ran short.”He sighed and then threw his hands up in defeat. “Okay, Deck, youwin. We’ll have one dinner with them. But if this turns out to be my last meal –I’m gonna haunt the shit out of you.”

“No way will this be ourlast meal.” With a light laugh and a wink, she said, “We’ll havebreakfast before we leave in the morning.”

Chapter 15

InvisibleFish

"Invisible fish swim this ghost ocean nowdescribed by waves of sand, by water-worn rock." Joy Harjo,Invisible Fish

Decker and Kennedy wouldhave preferred a quiet start to their mission to Intabah, but theirwishes were not widely known and were therefore widely disregarded.In addition to all of their Lovelace crewmates, a largecontingent of the Aurorapeople braved the early morning chill to see themoff.

Both Finnegan and Crokermade last-minute petitions to join the mission. Decker let Kennedydeal with Croker while she handled Moira. She withheld the newsthat if they’d conceivably needed a third team member, it woulddefinitely have been Kapoor or Quan – not an inexperiencedteenager. Instead, Deck thanked the girl for wanting to volunteerbut emphasized that this was in no way a suitable training exercisethey were embarking on.

“But you both said withthe better scanners the trip would be safe,” Finneganpleaded.

“Safe for experiencedTactical personnel does not equal safe for civilians.”

“I’m not acivilian!”

“To the UDC you are.”Naiche put a hand on Moira’s shoulder. “Listen, if you really wantto become part of the UDC someday, you’re going to have to learnsome tough lessons. Starting with—”

“I know, beingbrave.”

“Oh no, much worse thanthat – taking orders.”

Finnegan’s shouldersdrooped and her lower lip stuck out for a second. She pointed atKayatennae. “What about your dog? He’s going along – isn’t he acivilian, too?”

“No, as I told you before,he’s a UDC corpsman, third class.”

“Is he really?” Finnegan asked.

Lindstrom leaned in toanswer, “He most certainly is. Lieutenant Decker may have herfaults, as do we all, but veracity is not one of them.” He staredMoira down, daring her to contradict him. She did notdare.

To hide her smile at thatexchange, Decker turned and listened in on Kennedy’s very similarconversation with Croker. Con was saying, “In most cases, yes, athird person would be a valuable asset but the Maykure told us thatthe Intabet are shy and reclusive in the extreme. We don’t want tooverwhelm them with a bigger group than necessary.”

Before Croker – or anyoneelse could muster up additional arguments, Kennedy clapped hishands together. “Well, we better get going.” He and Decker salutedLindstrom and pledged to check in periodically. Con then kissed andhugged his wife in a much more affectionate farewell, alsopromising to check in with her.

Maddox stepped in to offerher effusive and lengthy appreciation for Decker and Kennedy takingon this mission, followed by her wishes for a safe journey. Whenthey simply nodded in response, she asked where they were pickingup the boat and if they needed any assistance with it.

Decker pointed to the3-foot long navy-blue canister slung over her shoulder. “I have itright here.”

“That’s your boat?”interjected Vania Betang.

“It expands to a skiffthat’ll easily hold three people.”

“Oh, much like yoursling-bridges.”

“Almost exactly likethem.” Deck saw that Con had already started towards the trailleading to the nearest float-way. Naiche said, “Let’s go,Kayatennae,” and hurried to catch up.

Together they easily priedopen the first float-way entrance doors they came to and, afterscanning for veil-worms, quickly deployed the skiff. Deckerswitched on the wide-angle lamp on the bow to light the way ahead,hit the power drive – and they were off. She looked back at Con,who was straddling the stern seat, neatly rearranging their gear.“What do you suppose it’s going to be like in here if it startsquaking?”

Kennedy kept at his taskwhile saying, “I want to suppose that’s not going to happen.” He settledinto his seat and smiled at her. “We haven’t had any seismicactivity in days. Let’s keep a good thought.”

“Copy that.” Naichechecked the scanner map and pointed out where they would need toveer off this particular tunnel. “There’s three more switch-offswe’ll have to make and then it looks like that last tunnel willtake us right under what Kinlea Cassay called the Intabet’s‘mountain fortress’. As long as all of those float-ways are stillopen and intact, we should get there by early evening at thelatest.”

“I hope Kinlea’s rightabout there being some kind of transport up to Intabah.” Hestretched out his right leg. “Otherwise, we’ll be seeing how trulyrecovered I am.”

“It will be interesting tosee how much of anythingthe Maykure and Featay have right about theIntabet. Seeing how wrong they were about each other’ssocieties.”

Kennedy gave a short barkof laughter. “Let’s face it, knowing how few Tolutay life-signsthere are in those mountains – we’ll be lucky to evenfind some Intabet.Especially if they’re as reclusive as the Maykure say. And we’ll beeven luckier if we don’t run into some peerazu upthere.”

Decker nodded in agreementbut still felt the customary mission-launch excitement – eventhough she knew this was likely to be an uncertainadventure.

They’d been sailing alongpeacefully for less than thirty-minutes before they gotconfirmation that the reconfigured scanners definitely worked. Togive credit where it was due, it was nearly a tie between the handscanner and Kayatennae for sounding the alarm about a veil-wormahead. The scanner overwhelmingly won out in giving a preciselocation and Naiche was able to dispatch the creature with a fewblasts of her pulse pistol.

Con stared at the worm’sdaunting corpse as they floated by it. “I gotta give you props,Deck, I don’t know that I’d be on this trip if one of those thingshad dragged me under.”

“First of all, youabsolutely would so be here, and in the second place – thanks, butI’ve already gotten more praise than I deserve for thismission.”

“What does thatmean?”

She stared off into thegloom ahead before answering. “When I was walking Kay early thismorning, I scanned for peerazu and I got to thinking about what Talwould say about us charging head-first into the lair of thosemonsters. Do I actually want to help the Featay and Maykure, or amI just being