The Dark Remains - Mark Anthony [158]
It didn’t budge.
He leaned all his weight on it, but it was no use. What kind of lock was this?
Another hoot. The chin-pasi had stuck its fingers through the mesh and was waving them at him.
“Not right now, my lady,” he muttered. “I’ve got to find a way to get this door open.”
He examined it more closely. On the doorframe was a small box. The box had a glass window in which crimson symbols glowed, eerie as the pale lights behind the bone-pictures. Beneath the window, on the box, were ten raised metal squares. A symbol was engraved upon each of the squares, but he did not know what they were. Whatever power enabled him to understand the speech of this place, evidently it did not allow him to read it. But then, even on Eldh his skill at letters was poor. Reading was for priests, highborn ladies, and kings, not bastards.
Again he ran his hands over the door, but he could see nothing—no opening, no weakness—he might exploit. There were no hinges on this side. Only the box with the squares and the glowing symbols.
He swore. If they found him like this, out of his bed, they would bind him far more tightly. Or cage him, like the chin-pasi. He had to get out of here before they came back.
The rattling of wire mesh, followed again by the hooting sound. It was higher this time, more urgent. Beltan looked at the cage. Inside, the chin-pasi moved rapidly up and down, then it squatted, held one hand flat before it, and poked at it with a long finger. What was it doing?
Now the thing rose and once more wiggled its fingers through the mesh, pointing at Beltan.
No, you fool. Not at you. Behind you.
He turned, and his gaze fell on the box with the shining crimson symbols.
“This thing.” He moved to the box by the door, then looked back at the creature in the cage. “You want me to do something with this, don’t you?”
Once more the chin-pasi poked at its hand with a finger. Beltan frowned, then stretched his own finger toward the box. He brushed one of the squares.
A screech startled him. He glanced back. The creature was watching. He touched another of the squares on the box. Again the creature screeched, causing him to flinch. He clenched his jaw and touched a third square.
A soft grunt. Beltan hesitated, then pushed the square.
The window on the box went dark, then a single red symbol appeared as a chime sounded. It was just like the chimes he had heard when the doctor left the room.
Another grunt, urging him on. He froze. Was he mad, letting this half-human beast tell him what to do?
It’s smart, Beltan. Too smart, maybe. Who knows what they’ve done to it? Then again, who knows what they’ve done to you? You’ve got to get out of this place. And sure as you’re a bastard, this creature has been watching them when they didn’t know it.
He moved his finger to another square.
He got this one in two tries. A second red symbol appeared in the window, accompanied by another chime. The next one took several attempts, as well as several clipped screeches, but he got the following one on the first try. The chin-pasi let out a low hoot. Beltan licked his lips and pushed the button.
Chime.
A fourth red symbol appeared. Then, for a terrible moment, the small window on the box went black. Beltan started to swear, sure he had done some harm, when the symbols flashed into being again, only not crimson now but emerald green. There was a chunk as, somewhere inside the door, metal tumblers turned.
He gave the creature in the cage a look of astonishment. It had watched them, and it had learned their secret. Smart indeed.
“Thank you,” Beltan whispered.
The creature sat back on its crooked legs, gazing at him quietly. He turned again to the door, gripped the handle, and pushed. With a click, the door swung outward.
53.
“These,” Farr said, unrolling several crackling sheets of paper on the suite’s mahogany table, “are schematics of Duratek’s base of operations in Commerce City, just a few miles north of downtown Denver.”
Vani prowled toward the table. “You have maps of their fortress, Seekers? I have learned what I could from watching,