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

hersentence, the growls morphed into furious barks. “What the hell areyou seeing, Kay?” Her attention was wrenched away from the dog bythe skiff’s sudden listing to the port side. Deck managed to steerout of it but as soon as she did, the boat once again nearly tippedover.

Kennedy yelled, “What thehell is going on?”

“No idea.” As soon as shedared, she looked back at Con to suggest docking, so she couldcheck the propulsion mechanism. To her horror, a sinister wavelurched up and lashed Kennedy across the shoulders, dragging himinto the water.

She immediately cut thepower and rushed to help Con back into the skiff. The water wasactively fighting her and it took a second for her terror-strickenmind to realize that the wave was actually a camouflaged veil-worm.Deck drew her pistol but hesitated – afraid of hitting Con with astray blast. She struggled to maintain her grip on the slipperytail of the worm, knowing that letting go would mean almost certaindeath for Kennedy.

Kay joined in the desperatestruggle and between the two of them, they managed to unfurl athree-foot section from Kennedy’s body. Deck decided she had totake action and used her pulse pistol to bombard the portion of theworm in her grasp. She didn’t stop firing until Con broke above thewater, gasping for breath, the dead creature sliding off his body.She hurriedly pulled him into the skiff and steered for theplatform. Before she could reach it, another worm, again disguisedas a wave, attacked the boat. Since she had to guess where the restof the worm was situated in the water, it took several shots withthe particle rifle to kill it. Deck strafed the water with abarrage of blasts to scare off any others in the region. Withoutwaiting for the water to settle, she raced for the platform as fastas the skiff could manage while still staying afloat and dockedsecurely at the platform.

Deck watched, amazed atCon’s fortitude, as he automatically started gathering up some oftheir gear. Naiche grabbed the remainder and all three of themlaunched themselves onto the platform. “We’ve got to get out ofhere!” Con ordered. “We can’t detect them and there might be morein the vicinity.”

“You can take a minute tocatch your breath – Kay can still sense them.”

“No offense to Kay, butI’ll rest better outside.” Decker was about to object when Conadded, “Yes, even with peerazu out there. At least we can seethose.”

***

Dazed and demoralized,Kennedy and Decker had been outside the float-way for less than tenminutes, recovering from their ordeal and discussing their optionswhen they spotted the first peerazu. Con mused, “Wonder how farwe’ll get on foot before they notice us and we’re forced toengage?”

Still tracking thepeerazu’s flight high above, Deck asked, “Which way are we heading?Back to the Aurora or onward to Intabah?” She pointed at the mountain range,easily visible from their present location.

“Good question. Whicheverway we go, I’m guessing we won’t make it all the way without facingdown at least one peerazu. Especially since we’re so far fromthe Aurora, rightnow.”

Rubbing her handsrestlessly against her thighs, Deck asked, “What do you think wentwrong with the sensors? Why did we stop detecting theworms?”

“No idea – but I thinkit’s time to check back in with home base and ask the people whomight know.” Without waiting for Decker to respond, Kennedycontacted Lindstrom via comm-link and filled him in on theircurrent situation.

As soon as Lindstrom hadbeen fully informed of their predicament, he quickly conferencedLateef into the discussion.

Foreseeing her openingrequest, Kennedy automatically sent recordings of all of theirsensor data to Lateef for evaluation. She said, “Nothing isimmediately obvious. I’m going to need some time to evaluate thesedata and formulate a resolution.”

Lindstrom asked, “Can youtwo hunker down and spend the night in your present location to buyScientific some time? It would certainly seem safer than proceedingin either direction on foot. And I willnot sanction your re-entering thefloat-ways at this juncture.”

“Yes, sir, we can dothat,” Con said. “The less movement and noise we make, the lesslikely we’re gonna attract some peerazu.” He signed off and turnedto Decker. “Ready for a camp-out?”

She nodded and answeredstaunchly, “Why not? We’ve certainly camped in worse conditionsthan these – and it sure as hell beats blindly facing down thoseveil-worms.”

As they started examiningthe state of their gear, Decker observed, “I notice that you didn’ttell Aqila about you ending up in the drink with a veil-wormwrapped around your body.”

Con threw his hands wide inacknowledgment of the omission. “I’ll tell her all about it when weget back – I didn’t want to worry her, right now.”

“Yeah, that’s probably forthe best.”

Her agreement surprisedCon – he’d anticipated a bit more pushback about his evasion. Aftera second, he asked, “Would you rather have not known aboutthe Lovelace being in danger?”

“As a Tactical officer,it’s my job to know things like that, so I’ve learned to live withit. However, speaking purely on a personal level….” Deckerhesitated, obviously giving it some thought. “If everything turnsout well, then, it would have been nice to be spared the worry. Onthe other hand, if the worst happens….” She paused again, visiblyswallowing down her emotions. “…then I’m glad I’ll be prepared.”Her voice gained resolution as she added, “But that doesn’t applyto you and Aqila, here – the worst is not gonna happen. You’re gonna comeout of this just fine.”

Con had to smile at Deck’sattempt to speak that favorable outcome into reality. “As my motherlikes to say – from your mouth to God’s ear.”

“Yeah.” Naiche gave ashort huff of laughter. “It’s high time Bik’ehgo’iindáń started listening tome.”

Chapter 16

Sins ofthe Fathers

“The gods visit the sins of the fathers upon thechildren.” Euripides, Phrixus

Ricci breathed a definitesigh of relief as soon as he received Lindstrom’s acknowledgment ofthe message he’d sent. Not only was the first part of his plancomplete, but he took personal satisfaction in knowing thatwhatever else might be happening on Tolu, the response meant Naichewas alive and well. When he passed the news onto the rest of thelanding party, Jacoway’s obvious happiness let Matt know thatNaiche’s well-being had been his chief