Imprisoned Read online

  Still, she was overjoyed to have it now, however it had gotten there.

  Tweezing the blackened stub between thumb and forefinger, she picked it up and said a silent prayer that there was enough of Stubbins’ saliva left on it to activate the torch. If not, she was going to have to come up with some other way to free her brother.

  Holding her breath, she pressed the chewed end of the stub to the bottom of the torch’s bottom. Nothing happened.

  Well nothing is supposed to happen until you add your own DNA, Ari reminded herself nervously.

  Licking her thumb, she pressed the small black button on the bottom of the torch, adding her own DNA as well. There was a momentary pause in which her heart started to sink…then the handle of the torch changed from red to blue, indicating that the tool had been designated to her.

  Yes! Ari grabbed the torch triumphantly. What else? She still had the small socket wrench and the screwdriver from earlier but maybe she would need a bigger weapon? She hoped not but it was best to be prepared.

  Finding the largest wrench she could—one as long as her forearm and incredibly heavy—she used the nico-stub to activate it and grabbed it as well. Then it was time to go and Ari ran as fast as she could while carrying the heavy tools.

  Jak, here I come!

  Lathe stood impatiently in the dim corridor just outside the Infirmary, making sure to keep his ID badge in view of the climate control’s system’s view-window. Behind the unbreakable plasti-glass a small red circle was spinning around and around, indicating that the system was scanning…scanning…scanning. Lathe just hoped it would stay in the loop he had programmed for it long enough for Ari to come back.

  I shouldn’t have kissed her…and I shouldn’t have let her go alone!

  But what choice did he have? The override wouldn’t work for any ID tag but his and since the tag had been surgically implanted in his skin, there was no getting it out. Not right now, anyway. He just had to hope and pray that his override would last long enough for Ari to get her brother and get back to safety.

  I should have insisted that she come with me by herself—we could always come back and get her brother later.

  But that was by no means a certainty. And even if it had been, he’d understood why Ari didn’t want to leave her brother behind. He wouldn’t have left Thonolan if he’d been in a similar situation.

  Oh Thonolan…little brother, he thought, grief rising up in him suddenly. If only I could have saved you. If only I could avenge you…

  Taking the Yonnites who ran this place to court and possibly shutting down or changing the management of the prison was a good and worthy task, but it wasn’t really the revenge Lathe craved. He wanted to kill the one who had murdered his brother—kill him with his own hands and fangs. Unfortunately, he had never been able to find out exactly what had happened to Thonolan, even after he came to BleakHall. His brother had simply been found dead in his cell one morning and his body had been burned before anyone could claim it.

  At least that was what the official BleakHall report said—Lathe had his doubts.

  The thought that he couldn’t even see his brother’s body tormented him. He felt that he had never truly had the chance to say goodbye. And he…

  A soft sound in the shadows to his right caught his ear. Lathe turned his head, looking alertly for the source of the noise. Was Ari back already? Was she—

  “Hello, Medic,” said a low, hissing voice. “What are you doing in the main part of the prizzon? I thought you and your little friend would be back in your zzell by now.”

  Ari took a deep breath and stepped into the tunnel where the lashers were kenneled. She had been through here several times before but always during the day, when the huge, scaly beasts were asleep. Now it was night time and—

  And they’re still asleep, Ari told herself firmly. Everything will be okay. Lathe will keep the cold air from blowing and waking them up. And even if they did somehow wake up, you’re protected by Lathe’s scent. Everything is going to be just fine. So get down to the hole and set Jak free.

  She walked as quickly and quietly as she could, moving with increased confidence since she’d been through the tunnel before. But she soon found that this time wasn’t like the other trips she’d made to the hole.

  All around her, she could hear stirring—the sliding of scales over scales, the restless movements of animals about to wake.

  But it’s still warm down here, she thought desperately, even as she quickened her pace. Well, as warm as it ever seemed to get in the hole, anyway. Which to be honest, wasn’t all that warm. Maybe the lashers were stirring because their bodies knew it was almost time to wake?

  Or maybe they’re just hungry, whispered a sinister little voice in her head. Ari shivered and tried not to listen to it.

  I’m protected by Lathe’s scent, she reminded herself. They’re afraid of him so they should be afraid of me too—right? Or at the very least, it should make the huge creatures want to avoid her.

  She hoped.

  At last she reached the end of the tunnel and stepped out into the dim light of the hole. Going to her brother’s cell, she stood on tiptoes and whispered through the bars as loudly as she dared.

  “Jak? Jak! Come on—wake up!”

  Her answer was a loud snore and the sound of Jak turning over restlessly. Ari cursed silently to herself. Her brother always had been a sound sleeper.

  “Jak!” she hissed again. Stooping, she found a few small stones on the floor and tossed them through the bars of his cell, hoping to hit him. “Jak, come on!”

  At last she heard him rousing and after a long moment, his sleepy face appeared between the bars.

  “Ari? What are you doing here in the middle of the night?” He blinked. “It is the middle of the night, right?” He frowned. “But it can’t be—why isn’t it cold?”

  “It is the middle of the night but Lathe—Medic—is keeping the climate control system from blowing.”

  She was already making her way to the gray electrical panel and pulling out her tools as she spoke. She’d been working on the wiring for the door locks for some time—there was only one small wire still unconnected but she’d been saving it, trying to make the job in the hole last so she could see Jak as much as possible.

  Now Ari connected the wire and listened with satisfaction to the sliding click as the automatic locking mechanism on all the cell doors cycled, first locking, then unlocking the doors, then locking them again. She jiggled the wire once more and they unlocked. Now she only had to cut the heavy-duty padlock on the outside of his door and Jak would be free.

  Her brother was still peering owlishly through the bars of his cell at her when she returned.

  “Ari, what are you talking about? How can Medic keep the cold air from blowing? What’s going on?”

  “What’s going on is we’re getting out of here tonight but we have to hurry,” Ari told him, priming the torch and putting on the safety goggles that were attached to it. “Stand back a minute and don’t look, Jak. I have to cut the lock off your cell and then we’re out of here.”

  “I zzaid, what are you doing down here?” Mukluk demanded, coming out into the light. He had his pain-prod in one hand and was tapping it impatiently against his scaly palm.

  Lathe froze. Whatever I do, I can’t let him move me! If the climate control stops scanning my prison ID, the cold air will start blowing. Have to stay right…here.

  “Medic? I azked you a quezztion!” The head of the Horvath guards was sounding more agitated by the moment.

  “I forgot something in the Infirmary,” Lathe told him, trying to sound bored and unconcerned, as though being out of his cell in a part of the prison where he didn’t belong after lights out was nothing out of the ordinary. “So I came down to get it.”

  Mukluk’s slitted yellow eyes narrowed and his forked tongue lashed.

  “Liar! You are up to zzomething. I know it!”

  He hit Lathe in the back with his pain prod, giving