Dagon turned toward her. “What?”
“In the escape pod,” she said. “I smelled Ava, the nutrition bars she ate, the beverages she drank, the sanitizing spray she used… and something else.”
The men around them fell silent as Dagon studied her. “What was it?”
“I don’t know. It was faint. I’ve never smelled it before and thought it was the chemicals in the space toilet or vitamin supplements or something else included on the pods that you don’t use on your ship.”
“Describe it.”
She glanced around, searching for an adequate description that wouldn’t confound them with references to Earth that they wouldn’t understand. “It was sharp. But it had a nonbiologic scent to it, too. Like… the inside of a Lasaran space suit dappled with swamp water?” Or a vinyl shower curtain that had soaked in stagnant water for a couple of weeks.
“Gathendiens,” every man spat.
Guilt flooded her. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know what it was. I thought it was the toilet or something.” If she had mentioned it sooner…
Dagon crossed to Rahmik. “Bring up a schematic of the ship and highlight Hangar 3 and the locations of the explosions.”
A three-dimensional hologram of the ship appeared above his station.
Dagon studied it a moment. “He couldn’t have left the hangar without the code and a palm print.”
A quick check confirmed two men were down in Hangar 3, having been ambushed from behind as they left. Most of their fellow engineers had been in the mess hall until the explosions began and so hadn’t found them yet.
“The first bomb was planted here,” Dagon murmured, pointing. “The second there.” He motioned to the hallways that linked them. “These corridors have too much traffic for anyone to navigate without notice.”
Eliana moved to stand beside him and studied the map. “What about ventilation ducts? Can you show us those?”
Rahmik added the ventilation duct layout to the map. “There are enough turns in the ducts that I would think he would’ve gotten lost in there. If he could even fit.”
Dagon shook his head. “Gathendiens are cunning grunarks. If he familiarized himself with the schematics of all Aldebarian Alliance vessels, then he would have little difficulty navigating the turns. Add electrical, plumbing, and gravitational generation.”
Lines—thick and thin—formed a maze in the map, clustering together in the walls of primary corridors.
Eliana motioned to one such wall. “Can a man fit in this one?”
“Yes.”
Rahmik looked doubtful. “I’m still not picking up any unauthorized life forms.”
Eliana studied them. “Could it be an android? There weren’t any on the Kandovar. But Prince Taelon said some cultures in the Alliance have them.” She was dying to get a glimpse of one because they were said to be very lifelike.
Dagon shook his head. “That would explain why the life form scanners didn’t detect him. But the scent you mentioned indicates it’s a Gathendien.”
“Then he’s either in the walls or in the ventilation ducts,” she concluded. “What would his next target be?”
He studied the map, then pointed. “Forward Thruster 5 is closest.” Spinning toward the door, he tapped his earpiece. “Maarev, meet me on Deck 1, Corridor 12 with a security team.”
“Yes, sir.”
Eliana charged after him as Dagon left the bridge, keeping pace even after he broke into a jog. When he offered no protest, she couldn’t help but ask, “Aren’t you going to tell me I should stay behind?”
“No.” He swung around a curve and raced toward the lift at the end. “For some reason, our sensors can’t locate him, so I need you to do that for us.”
Surprise and pleasure warmed her as they dove into the lift. As the door closed, she glanced up at him and found his piercing gaze focused upon her.
“You have a superior sense of hearing,” he stated.
“I do.” She smiled. “How did you know?”
He grunted. “You weren’t the only one learning yesterday.”
Damn, she liked him.
A lot.
When the door slid up, they leaped forward. Maarev, Liden, Efren, and several others waited for them around a curve, all packing major weaponry. Eliana had memorized the layout of the ship, so even had there not been a sign marking it, she would’ve known they stood outside the engineering room that housed Forward Thruster 3.
Dagon quietly informed his men of the intruder, then ordered them all to remain silent.
Eliana strode along the corridor, heading toward Forward Thruster 5 and following the path that the ventilation ducts and other utilities followed. There were a lot of men on board the Ranasura. Crewmen who hurried to help douse the fires and assess the damage. Soldiers who conversed in the rooms around them as they prepared for battle. She was doubly glad now that she had sparred with Maarev and the guys, because that experience had helped her exercise her rather rusty ability to filter out nonessential sounds and hone in on the movements of the enemy they now hunted.
Dagon and his men followed closely on her heels as she navigated the path in search of her prey, silently waving away any crew members they encountered. Eliana began to worry the Gathendien had gotten too great a head start on them and might reach the engineering room that serviced Forward Thruster 5 first. The door was just around the next curve and—
She halted abruptly, backtracked, bumping into Dagon, and stopped.
A barely perceptible scrabbling sound reached her sensitive ears.
She pointed at the wall and mouthed the word “there.”
Dagon turned to his men and murmured, “Where’s the cutter?”
Before they could answer, a man wearing an engineering uniform jogged around a corner some distance away and headed toward them.
Eliana winced at the thuds his boots produced as he joined them and held up what looked like a small, skinny blowtorch.
“Cobus said you needed me to cut into a wall?”
The scrabbling sounds quickened but remained impressively faint.
Since Dagon and the others didn’t react, she assumed they couldn’t hear it.
“Too late. He’s on the move.” She took off down the corridor.
Dagon followed, barking over his shoulder, “Lanaar.”
The engineer hastened forward.
But Eliana shook her head. “No time. He’s almost there.” If she recalled the diagrams correctly, he was only a yard or two away from an intersection in the walls. A quick right turn and a straight shot forward would enable him to reach the thruster housing, whereas she would have to zip down to the door, press her palm to the palm reader, wait for the door to rise, then enter, listen to see if he’s already progressed beyond that room and if he had, wait for Dagon or one of the others to catch up, enter the code all engineering rooms required to enter, and…
Hell, just thinking about it wasted too much time.
She performed a quick calculation. Since Dagon intended to cut into the wall, she didn’t have to worry about the ship losing atmosphere if she damaged it. She wished she knew more about the metals and how hard they were to penetrate but lacked the time to ask.
There were at least two more walls between this one and the exterior of the ship, so…