Chapter 11

The all-clear alarm refused to sound until the evening shift the following day. Hour by hour the family sought to distract themselves with games, discussion, and other diversions. No one was in the mood for anything intimate.

They couldn't go to work and Nagala encouraged them not to waste the time. Half-heartedly Benni sat through lessons though his attention wandered frequently. He joined the circle to watch mock fights with and without knives as family members trained. When it was his turn to step inside the circle of onlookers, he was rewarded with a few shallow cuts for his lack of concentration. He remained stoic as Shasa applied the skin-glue to seal the wounds and to keep out infection.

The alarm finally sounded. A few den mates ran for the barrier when Nagala called them back. He reminded them that the detectors on the level sensed chemicals and some biological agents, but not all microbes by any measure. Only when they saw others walking the corridors unharmed would the barrier be dropped.

They waited through another night shift. The day shift started with the ominous thud of Enforcer boots. A full company hurried past their sealed gate with each soldier equipped with breathing apparatus.

They were hungry after three shifts without food. They had water to stave off dehydration, but it did little to stave off the pain in their stomachs. By this time, everyone had chosen to sit on the street or lie down on their mattresses and hope for a listless sleep.

Benni dozed for minutes at a time as Ceema lay on one side and Shasa lay on the other. No one wanted to be alone.

Half a shift later, a five-note blast of the alarm sounded, a signal nobody knew how to interpret. Nagala emerged from his room and walked to the gate. Within minutes the corridor seethed with bodies rushing at speed from one end to the other.

"Retract the barrier," he ordered with his arms crossed in front of him. He turned to the gathering family. "First, any food place is going to be mobbed, so be careful. Don't walk alone. Second, there are a full ten platoons of Enforcers either on our level or below us. Next, if you smell anything peculiar, if you see people begin to act in an unexpected manner, get your asses back here."

The family began to surge towards the gate but Nagala refused to budge. "Does anyone have any information we can use to bargain? We will not descend levels to search for den mates until we are sure that the lower levels are safe, but there are other families who may have already done so."

Benni cringed. He wanted to find Dember and he had the means. Benni had information on Family Khan that would buy a lot of information. However, that information was his livelihood and quite possibly his life. He felt like he had been thrust into a terrible dilemma — Dember or himself.

A sharp pain dug through his middle; he had to eat. He put off any decision until he had had food. He whispered in Ceema's ear and she nodded in agreement. Taking Shasa with them, they ran through the raging concourses for the packed stairwells. Benni offered up a momentary wish for Family Khan's moving platform and then dismissed the idea as futile.

They raced up to Level Five only to be surprised that even that level had gone into lockdown. People there were rushing for the kiosks and bodegas in no less of a mad panic.

Benni led the two women into the safety of his master's workshop. He fingered the coded pass on his neck chain for Family Deptford, who guarded one of the back doors to this business zone. Family Deptford also had a water tank in which they grew fish, which was their largest source of income. His plan was to buy a live fish and return through the hidden door to the workshop. It would be costly but quick and efficient. They pooled their slugs. Leaving Shasa in the workshop, Ceema turned toward the storeroom to operate the door while Benni went the other way.

The Family Deptford was as suspicious as ever, but ever willing to parley a crisis into income. Benni emerged with two fish. The immediate walkways were clear and the two stepped back into the workshop with their meal. Knives made short work of the raw flesh. Feeling generous, Benni allowed the two women to pop the eyeballs, which were considered a fine delicacy. Shasa passed one to Benni with a grin, while Ceema teased him about Shasa's obvious display of affection with an elbow in his side...

With their hunger abated for the moment, Benni made for the door with the two women behind him. He was clueless about what he was going to do about Nagala's request and the search for Dember, but he felt the need to return to the family compound. Dember had worried him often enough and even disappeared for a shift a number of times, but this was so much more dire. He was realistic enough to expect the worst, but he couldn't give up on his heart-friend either.

With urgency in his step he grabbed for the door and stepped out of the workshop onto the walkway ahead of the two women and slammed into a platoon of Enforcers. They were facing him, most of them with their weapons drawn as if they were expecting him. The one on his left lifted a small canister to his face and that is the last thing he remembered for a long time.

His head felt woozy and he didn't even try to open his eyes. He was reasonably certain that his arms were strapped and secured away from his body and that his torso and legs were bound as well. Collecting his thoughts for a moment, he had no doubt that he had been "disappeared."

Voices were softly talking but there was an intensity behind the words. He pretended to be unconscious and strained to listen.

Voice one said, "I'm sorry, Commander, but truth juice won't reliably work on these gutter rats. They've got too much toxic sludge in their veins and muscle tissue."

A second voiced mumbled a reply that Benni couldn't decipher.

"They act like they're immune to pain as well," the first voice said harshly.

Another mumble of a response passed.

"Of course we don't use torture, Commander, but you have to understand our position. These people, every single one of them, are like homicidal maniacs or, ah, vicious sociopaths. We think this one killed two of our men with one knife in the span of five seconds. How in the name of chaos do you expect us to retrieve information from them when we have so few effective means at our disposal?"

"His brain patterns are quickening, sir. He's awake," a third voice somewhere further away called out.

Two sets of footsteps approached and stopped next to his head. He saw no reason to open his eyes though because he couldn't attack. He had a headache that felt like a tight band of pain wrapped around the back of his head. His tongue felt thick behind his teeth.