EXTINCTION WARRIOR

Chapter 20

Without a word, he lifts me around the waist and carries me to the wall of cages.

"Stop! Stop! Stop it!Put me down!" I shout, punching him with the hand that grips the bottle. The other clutches the pangolin. She's waving her tail back and forth, sounding just like a rattlesnake. Punching the freak-a-droid hasn't done a thing except squirt milk down his back. Istop fighting. It's useless.

He sets me down in a cage at the very end of the wall, bolts the door and heads up stairs. I'm alone, imprisoned behind bars of white, in a giant white room...like Mom and Dad? Tuk's missing...and there's no way to reach him.

The baby stops rattling.She wants to feed again. The milk's almost gone...because I wasted it! My mind drifts to the endangereds...will they be sold...killed,skinned, and eaten? Will they become bowls, lights, coats, rugs,table legs? And what will happen to me?Will I become the old man's slave? Will he sell me to the highes tbidder? It's all too horrifying, but impossible to stop thinking about the hideous possibilities. Panicking, my breathing quickens,fast and shallow. Getting dizzy...can't breathe...lightheaded. That everything here is white doesn't help. Put my head between my knees.Breathe. Slowly. Feel like I'm sinking...falling in a pit; a deep,black pit. So much for Tuk's plan! Try to take a deep breath. Take another breath. Sip the air. Mig yips. He wants out. They all want out. I want out. I'm desperate. Afraid. Angry!

I reach into my boot for the gun, press the grip in my palm, and pull it out. Wonder if I'll have a chance to use it. One moment...one nano....one, tiny instant....that's it...that's all I need. The gun is useless without the amplifier. I dig into my other boot, grab the cone, twist it around the nozzle, shove the gun in my pocket. The grip feels good in my damp hand. My pocket bulges. I don't care because he won't know. A wave of confidence shoots through me.

Kalluk! Mom's favorite Inupiaq curse pops into my head. But 'Thunder' is way, way too lame for what's happening. I stare through the bars feeling like I might explode, and mutter "Kalluk." Then say it again,louder, "Kalluk!" My mindsight flashes on hundreds of silver spirit cords that tangle through the floor and all at once, a rage I've never felt overwhelms me, "Kalluk!" I scream, and kick the door with such force that two of the bars bend. The baby pangolin instantly rolls in a ball again. It feels good to kick. I do it again, and again...and again. It's weird. The bars are only plastic? They curve with each jolt, until I can actually kick a hole big enough to crawl through!

I zip the baby into the back of my Xip3 before crawling out. A voice in my mind's ear whispers something. What? Swirling wind choked with sand. I hear it again. The tortoise? Wriggling through the bars I stand, and wobble outside the cage. Something's wrong with my bionic foot. I can't care—not now. What is Marilyn trying to tell me?

"Machine man is okay," she says, and sends a picture of Tuk in the galley.

"What? Where is he?"

She sends another image. Tuk in the hall on Anniqsuqti. "Machine man is okay."

I take a step, and crumple to the floor. Lifting my leg, I try to point my bionic toes. My entire foot flips back, dangles, like it's grotesquely doublejointed. Something broke in my ankle. The joint doesn't work. There's no way I can put my weight on it, not normally. Slowly I get up. Put all the weight on my real foot, bend my knee to steady myself, and let my bionic foot hang. Rest the toes lightly on the floor.

Marilyn sends a picture of Tuk in a waterfall, "He's in the monsoon," she conveys with her sultry, sandy hissing.

Waterfall? Monsoon? Where is he? The only water is the sea.

Feel like Antoadia, as I hop-limp to the giant window, pull the handle; slide it open and hop-limp onto a narrow deck outside. Peer over the railing and...there he is—clinging to the side of the ship, at the surface of the water, five floors below!