Extending his senses, he cast them wide as he moved through the tunnels toward the subway station. Human beings were noisy, both in sound and the way they moved, as well as something else. It was hard to explain but they lit up like a descending shuttle craft to his hunter's senses. He doubted any of them could do what he did, running on silent to avoid the notice of another predator. Even if they stood there with their mouths shut and eyes closed, he would still know they were there.
He reached the subway station to find it crowded with base staff going on and off shift by the looks of it. Even with the multitude of scents here, overlaid on top of his female's, he was getting used to the multitude of scents. He could still track her. She’d come this way not long ago and left the base.
Which meant he was leaving it as well.
No one gave him a second glance as he zipped his jacket up and joined the crowd that boarded the next train. With an increasing feeling of surprise that he hadn’t been stopped, turned around and sent back, he made sure to stand near one of the walls. Keeping his back half turned, he looked down at his hand, cradling it as though he held one of the devices the humans all seemed fascinated with.
His hands were so large no one would be able to tell he wasn’t actually holding anything. But that wasn’t the point. The point was to blend in. Even though his clothing was slightly odd, his body language was the same as everybody else’s, which meant anybody looking would just look straight past him. Tension, a feeling of being out of place… That was what caught the eye.
The journey wasn’t a long one, but it felt like an eternity. Especially for Cade with his sensitive sense of smell, crammed in here with so many other beings. He didn’t mind other beings, but humans smelled so draanthing much.
He noticed the usual body odors, natural scents… sweat and the like. One male at the back had some fairly advanced tooth decay, and another definitely had some kind of acid reflux problem. And then there were the occupational smells, grease and oil from those in jumpsuits who had to be some kind of mechanics right through to chemical smells on those wearing lab coats under their jackets. Scientists obviously.
But the other smells got him—the artificial smells and perfumes that humans layered over themselves to disguise their body odor. It made him want to sneeze repeatedly. Or gouge out his own olfactory system. Did they not realize how badly they smelled? It was an offense to nature.
Finally the train slowed and he ducked down to get a look out the window. The station was a small one with two platforms. In and out of the base. His keen gaze spotted the guards at the end of the platform, near the turnstiles that had to be the exit.
Trall. There was no way he was going to get past them.
Keeping his body language loose and unconcerned, he bought time by waiting to be one of the last to disembark. As the crowd made its way up the platform, he hung back and merged into the shadows near the tunnel entrance. The guards were too busy scanning the base staff through, studying the little plastic cards they used to ascertain their identities—a card he didn’t have.
He looked up and then grinned.
The turnstile might be guarded, and the humans even thought to put high mesh fences on either side of the platform to ensure nobody could scale them and gain access. But they hadn’t built these security measures with someone like him in mind, and he eyed the sheer wall by the tunnel entrance with interest. It reached upward and became part of a large building, but there didn’t seem to be any access from the building to the platform. The station was its own self-contained unit built beneath the building. It made sense to put it here and use the existing building as part of the defenses. Humans couldn’t scale vertical walls.
He could.
He slid his boots off and tied the laces together, looping them around his neck. Waiting until the train began to move again, he used the noise to cover as he leapt upward.
His claws punched from the ends of his fingers and he slammed them into the brick wall, sending small shards of brick dust down as he climbed quickly. Every moment he expected to hear shouts from below along with the sound of weapons fire and for bullets to slam into the bricks either side of him. He expected to feel the burn as he was hit.
But nothing happened. No shouts from below. No weapons fire. They hadn’t seen him…
He didn’t look down or back to confirm but kept climbing. There were no windows or balconies on the side of the building, probably as a further part of the defenses. It wasn’t just about keeping people in but also keeping people out. Someone could abseil from a window or balcony and gain access that way. So he skittered sideways across the brickwork and rounded the edge of the building. Clinging to it, his claws still lodged between the bricks, he smiled.
There, not twenty feet from him, was a balcony.
It was the work of a minute to get across the intervening space. He now saw windows, and he peeked in with interest to find empty offices. Row upon row of little cubicles each housed a desk, a screen, and something that had to be a communications device.
Suddenly he felt sorry for the occupants of those little cubicles. He’d thought farming was bad. The same tasks week in week out to ensure the harvest, nothing to stimulate his mind or the hunter within. But he’d been outside, in nature, in tune with everything around him, and now he realized how lucky he’d been. He could have been here instead, stuffed in one of those cubicles as his soul died a little more each day.
He made it to the balcony and flipped over the edge, dropping to land lightly on the floor behind. He took a moment to look around as he pulled his boots back on. The exterior balcony led to a set of stairs. He couldn’t read the Terran on the signs, but the pictograms of flames and arrows told him that it was some kind of escape route. That was good. Since it was outside the building, hopefully he wouldn’t trip any alarms as he ran down the stairs.
His luck ran out nearer the bottom of the building. Although most of the escape route was open to the air, the last three flights were enclosed. He slowed down, and leaned out to look.
Trall, the door at the bottom, on the front of the building, was bolted and a hum of energy told him it was at least alarmed, if not monitored by an exterior security system.
He snorted. At least humans didn’t use interior automated defenses. He’d have been cut to ribbons already, and there would have been nothing his hidden nature could have done about it. Laser defenses were laser defenses, and they’d cut a male to ribbons no matter what form he wore.
But again, the designers of this building never considered a being like him. Gripping the balustrade in one of the half landings of the stairs, he leapt over it and dropped to the ground below. Landing lightly in a crouch, he looked around quickly to see if anybody had noticed him. But this back alley seemed to be deserted, no one in sight. On his feet in a heartbeat, he jogged along the alley until it met the main thoroughfare. Slowing his pace, he slid into the crowds as they walked past the station entrance.
He took deep breaths as he walked past the guards, trying to pick up his mate’s scent again. Bile rose at the cacophony of artificial scents, but he forced it back down, concentrating hard. There it was…
He turned abruptly as he caught the scent, a big male swearing viciously at him as he slammed into Cade. Then he blinked in confusion when he rebounded off what he assumed was a smaller male. Cade glared at him, allowing a little of the predator to show in his eyes. He couldn’t really get into a fight here and attract the attention of the authorities, but damned if he was gonna let any challenge go unanswered.