Subterra Heart

Chapter 30: Connor Rocha

Bright blue water lapped at the cavern's rocky shore. Connor sat at the subterranean lake's edge, staring at its undulating patterns. He shivered. The air was cold down here, and he'd pulled off his soaking undershirt to wring it dry while Marina tended to her sister behind him. Bastet was perched beside him, purring.

"Any more news from your rats?" he asked her, quietly.

Bastet's ears twitched. "You should stop asking me," she said. "It has been fewerrr than thrrree days since Fenrir perrrished. My kin are still ponderrrrring his absence. I will tell you when the situation changes."

"Fine, whatever," grumbled Connor. "I have trouble trusting you to do that though."

"Fairrr enough." Bastet began grooming her paw. The cat was getting on his nerves, and he still didn't like her. But she had helped him find his lost pack after Tess had killed off Fenrir. Without the supplies of food and parlin from that, he would've been long dead by now. Tess too. Things were still touch-and-go with her.

Connor sighed and squeezed some more water from his shirt. Tough to do with a busted shoulder. Blue droplets dribbled down the fabric and fell into the lake below. A bundle of knots twisted through his gut. His home was in trouble, and there was no telling when they'd run out of time.

Behind him, Marina's voice softly began trying to coax Tess into returning to the Greens. Go to the hospital. The treatments would be better there. Perhaps the doctors could do something about Tess's eyes. Her speech was marked with calm, practiced professionalism. There was even a hint of her usual sternness in there too. Connor wasn't buying it – he'd seen just how unbalanced she'd seemed earlier. Still, he envied her ability to appear unfazed. He turned around.

Tess was all patched up now. Nearly every visible inch of her was covered in bandages. She still wore her silky metal tunic over everything. She sat silently, staring at the ground with Marina crouching next to her. If Connor hadn't known better, he might have guessed that she'd been mummified.

"Hey Tess," he said, "Didn't you say you had some kind of plan?" She had. When Tess had woken up after falling from Fenrir's dais, she had begged Connor not to make any sort of deal with Bastet, insisting that she could fix this. She could keep Heart safe from the Dwellers. Tess still hadn't given him any details on how she expected to do this though, and Bastet continued to tag along. The cat seemed to think that any plan Tess could come up with would be a riotous good bit of fun. Or a disaster. Bastet liked disasters.

It took a few seconds for Tess to respond. She cleared her throat. "Heart Central," she said in a raspy voice. "We will go to Heart Central to tell Parliament to lock down all sub-cities and continue Matteo Rocha's research on preventing Cynwrig's Bloodrot."

That was a nice idea, but it wouldn't work. Connor snorted. "Look," he said, "Sure, we can raise the alarm, but we're both going to land ourselves in a boatload of hot water over this. You really think we'll be able to wander around scot-free once somebody knows we've been exposed to bloodrot? And what about the part where we killed off Heart's main protection from the Dwellers?" Tess said nothing. Her throat had gotten burned along with the rest of her. She wouldn't talk unless she had to. Connor dropped his voice a bit. "Even if we did go to Central, we couldn't do anything about my granddad's research. It's gone."

"I know where his notebooks are hidden," was Tess's raspy response. "They're in Central University's library. I have the memories of Nelda Crane. She was Matteo Rocha's assistant, and – "

"I am sorry, but you two are both speaking nonsense," interrupted Marina. She stood up and crossed her arms. "What else exactly do I not know about?"

There was a tense moment where Connor wondered how to explain what Tess had done. He didn't have to do that though. Bastet spoke for him.

"Bloodrrrrrot is coming to Hearrrrrt," she said.

"Bloodrot doesn't simply go anywhere of its own accord, Bug, or Bastet, or whoever you are," countered Marina. "It is brought there by stupid people like us who do stupid things like this." She waved her arms around, gesturing to the entire cavern. "What are you not telling me?" she asked again, glaring at Connor.

It took a while for Connor to explain what Tess had done when she'd killed Fenrir/Rourke, and what this meant for Heart. He hadn't fully described the link between Dwellers and bloodrot earlier when Bastet had first spoken, and he watched Marina stiffen as she now realized just how dangerous Bastet could be to her. Her hands went to her filter mask, and she tightened it over her face. All the while, the damn cat sat in Connor's lap, kneading his thigh. Connor grimaced. Those were some sharp claws.

"Will you cut that out?" he hissed at Bastet. Bastet just flicked her ear and kept kneading.

"Bug finds this action soothing," she replied. By this point, Connor'd had enough. He shoved her off his lap.

"Watch yourself, cat, or I'll have you declawed," he said.

"Connor!"

Connor looked up to see Marina glaring at him with arms crossed and eyes narrowed. A few strands of her dark curls had fallen out from under her kerchief. They framed her face in a wild sort of way.

"That's my cat," she added.

"But she – "

"Bug is still in there, yes?" Marina asked Bastet, effectively cutting Connor off. Bastet nodded, and Marina turned her attention back to Connor.

"You do not get to threaten my cat," she said. Apparently, all it took for Marina to get past her qualms about Bug being a Dweller host was for Connor to start making threats against her. He blinked and rubbed his temples. "Now," continued Marina, "I suppose we need a plan – a realistic plan."