More rats died.
Bengal was right. It was easy shooting. The rats were being mind-controlled and the rat queen couldn’t divide or separate her attention when her teams got into trouble.
Jolene had estimated that there were thousands of rats. I had a mental image of the countryside infested by them, and hoped she wasn’t guessing on the low side. To be smart we probably needed to kill the rat queen ourselves, and not assume the bunker busters would take her out. But I had no idea how one might recognize a rat queen.
I tapped my mic to Spy and laid out the problem to her. As I talked, she walked through another open doorway, her odd eyes meeting mine.
Cats didn’t have to roll their eyes. They conveyed insult and annoyance with their entire bodies. When I stopped talking, she said,“Baaaahr,”which meant,This place is ours.“Mrow. Siss haah,”she added.Mrow Sissmeantdangerous invaders.Haahwas the sound that meant the junkyard cats—Tuffs’s cats. So . . .Tuffs’s cats are the dangerous invaders. This place is ours.
“So you knew that? And you plan to kill all the rats so they can’t come back and then . . .” Further realization dawned. “Bloody hell. You planned to set up a secondary command center here? Away from the junkyard?”
Spy stared at me, her tail straight up, her ears perked. The tip of her tail went back and forth. Then she showed me her fangs.
“Fine. I’m not arguing. But two things: you really shouldn’t eat the rats unless the queen is dead and burned to a crisp, and Mateo is planning on using bunker busters, so there won’t be anything left for you to take over.”
Spy gave a chuff-puff of sound that meantYou are disgusting and also maybe stupid, followed by the equivalent of an unconcerned cat shrug by turning her head away, showing she was bored by the discussion.
Over the general channel, still playing out on comms, I heard Mina say, “Rejoining Team Alpha.”
Shaking my head, I hit the mic back to general channel. “Welcome back, Mina. Take point. Shoot to kill rats and any humans in military uniforms. We are following Spy and Maul.”
The other teams were taking out rats, and the rat parties were smaller and less organized than the earlier attacks. Progress was slower than I wanted but better than the worst-case scenario. With Mina back, we were nearly a full complement of warriors as we approached the nest. I’d take it.
Behind me I heard a faint whirr and saw the Maarsies in the cameras that gave me eyes in the back of my head. “Team Epsilon,” I said. “We are coming up on your six from the stairwell. Once again, I’d appreciate if you don’t fire on us.”
We stepped over a huge pile of boiled rats and into the hallway in front of the nest. The area where we’d have to set up was empty of rats, dead or alive, but there were dead humans stacked near a doorway, one with a security camera trained on it. The camera was a stationary one and seemed to be still active, though I thought Jolene had taken them all offline.
Spy and Maul ran to the pile of bodies, leaped to the top, and sprayed, their stinky urine marking the bodies as their territory. Then Spy started eating the lips off a human.
“Jolene?” I asked, shaking my head at the cats. “Is the camera system active?”
“They wasn’t all stupid, Shining Sugah. They had them some techie types, and seven seconds ago, they managed to seal off parts of the internal security system and switch some of the cameras back on. The energy room and three weapons-rooms cameras are live, so she knows how many warriors guard them. And the cameras in the hallway where you are. I am tryin’ to isolate the changes and—”
I interrupted her. “Jacopo. Take out the cameras on this hallway.”
The boy—young man—pulled what looked like a twenty-two and fired three shots, shattering three cameras.
“Nice shootin’, boy,” Bengal said, swaggering out of a second doorway.
I flashed a hand, acknowledging him, and said, “Jolene, advise all teams to take out the cameras on the floors where they’re positioned. And then along the hallways nearby. Let’s not give Warhammer any assistance.”
“Copy that, Sugah.”
“You got the plastic explosives?” I asked Bengal.
He hefted a bag and asked, “Where you get this stuff, Li’l Girl? This’s primo stuff.”
“Warhammer’s people applied it to my door when she attacked me. I killed them before they could detonate. Then I repacked it. Waste not, want not.”
“My mawmaw used to say dat same thing, she did.” He scratched his chin, his faceplate shoved back and open, showing his dark-skinned face. “I used to laugh at her ’cause she save paper plates and plastic cups, and reuse them. Now we don’ got no paper plates and no plastic. Yo’ cats, they got the ‘waste not’ idea too, eatin’ they enemies.”
I flicked a look at the cats and back to Bengal. “Well?”
He gave me a grin I trusted not at all. “I already put what we needed on the door. I think to myself that I keep this extra. Just in case.” He pressed the bag against his armor. The Dragon Scale rolled out and accepted the bag, securing it with hemplaz loops at his hip.
I knew what this was. It was the first part of the treachery I had been expecting. Testing the waters. If I let him get away with it, it was a sign I was weak. I also knew I had to do this in a hurry, and in such a way that he didn’t lose face in front of his made-men. I hadn’t wanted to advertise Jolene’s control over the suits to everyone, but since Mina knew, it was only a matter of time before they all knew.
I opened my face shield and walked over, smiling, and was vaguely amused when his face tightened. Bengal was brawny and strong, but I’d been using my armor longer than he had used his. I activated parts of my Dragon Scale hardening and antirecoil. I gripped the neck opening of his suit and tugged him to me, slowly, my suit making me stronger than he was. He bent to me and I showed him my sweetest smile. Softly I said, “Jolene. Isolate Bengal’s suit. Harden.”
