This much they’d planned in advance. It was once they entered the restricted zone that they’d have to play it by ear.
Dek had been required to surrender her command passcard upon leaving Site D, but Sno popped the latch to the access with another small device he carried. Well, that explained how he’d been able to defeat the lock and follow her down the ladder the night of her attack. The man had many tricks and talents.
She gave him a subtle side-eye. Not all of them had to do with his work.
He motioned her to enter the access, and she joined him to peer down into the depths, scouting the vertical shaft to the level below.
“All clear, Cas?”
His partner apparently signaled an affirmative.
“Good. Let’s head down. I’ll take point.”
As Sno gripped the ladder supports, readying to swing his feet into place on each side, Cassie clung to Dek’s neck with her forepaws, clearly getting a firmer grip for the trip to the bottom. Dek reached up to stroke the StarDog’s soft head in reassurance. “I’m not going to let you fall off, girl.”
Sno lifted his head to meet her eyes. “Stay right with me.”
Dek’s smile quickly waned. What was he thinking? That she might bolt as soon as he started his long slide down the access? That she’d accompanied him to the site only to betray him?
Considering how far they’d come together that afternoon and how much she was putting on the line to trust him, that thought stung.
Dek let him get a solid head start then got her feet and hands engaged, waiting a moment for Cassie to get balanced on her shoulder. She slid down the ladder behind Sno, using friction to control her descent until she made contact with the ground in Lower Cave.
So far, their site penetration had gone flawlessly.
This was where things could get glitchy.
13
Stooping next to the lava cliff a few long strides from the emergency access door, Sno and Dek paused to give the site a thorough sweep. Since her attack, the lighting system in Lower Cave had been continuously illuminated as an added security precaution. With the refraction pocket keeping them invisible, that would definitely work in their favor.
If the rogue was here, he might again be using shadowskins to conceal his presence. But the stealth suits weren’t foolproof; they merely tricked the eye by employing a covering the retina couldn’t detect. A quick movement would give any skulker away.
Dek looked at the man crouched beside her. His attention was locked on the staked grids, his gaze moving from the datum point to the scattered test pits.
“Cas says the site is clear. But there’s something else—something strange—in this place.”
“She’s sensing the dig?”
His mouth turned down and his brow furrowed. “No. It’s not the excavation. There’s…something here.”
Was Sno mentally communing with his partner?
“Has she sensed it before?”
“She hasn’t been in this area before.” Sno looked her way. “I never got the opportunity to deploy her.”
“What do you mean by ‘strange,’ exactly?”
“Makes no sense,” he muttered, but Dek wasn’t sure if the comment was meant for her or if he was addressing his partner.
“What doesn’t?”
Sno wasn’t looking at her; his attention was locked on CaSandra. “She’s talking gibberish. Something about juggling. And tying knots. And moth-thinker. I can’t get a handle on what she’s trying to tell me.”
”So you are in telepathic communication with her.”
“No. It’s not telepathy.” Sno hesitated then proceeded to fill in the blanks. “We were both given special implants so we can communicate directly via a two-way signal.”
Dek nodded her understanding. Sno and Cassie could converse mind-to-mind. More of the Network’s technical wizardry.
Cassie made a series of low rumbles deep in her throat. A StarDog subvocalization?
Whatever Sno was working out, his direct line of communication with CaSandra left her out-of-the-loop. Dek despised feeling clueless.
“What?” she pressed, the device translating her words in a sharper tone.
Sno snapped his head her way. “What haven’t you told me about that rock?”
Dek’s eyes narrowed. “What rock?”
Sno gazed out across the site. “That one.” He was looking at the weird stalagmite near the dig.
Dek reared her head back in confusion. “There’s nothing to tell.”
“That doesn’t look like a lava rock,” he muttered.
“No, it’s a speleothem. Like a stalagmite.”
“Yeah. How does a limestone formation happen in a lava tube?”
Cassie slipped to the sand beside Sno, one forepaw raised and her nose straining toward the layered shape.
“It’s not limestone,” Dek answered. “A member of the science team explained it to me. Stalagmites usually form in caves where dripping water deposits calcium carbonate and minerals over eons, creating the hanging stalagtites and the pillar-like stalagmites below.”
“But that’s not the case here?”
“No, because this cave was formed by the cooling of an outer layer of molten magma, not the erosion of limestone. The theory is a storm surge carried in the creatures they’re studying and spilled over that rim above to leave them stranded here. The ocean must’ve been a lot higher in the past, and probably generated waves big enough to wash into this cave on a regular basis. That allowed sea spray to coat the cave surfaces and then evaporate. Over the eons, rain from the breach in the ceiling dissolved the macrocrystalline gypsum deposits. It became concentrated in the water that dripped from the ledge above to form the pillar.”
“That makes sense.” Sno was silent for a time, petting the partner that sat quivering at his feet. “Except Cassie says it’s wrong.”
“What?”
“She says it’s not a rock. What I don’t understand is what she’s trying to communicate. It doesn’t make sense.”
“What’s she saying?”
“She calls it a juggle knot. And sometimes, a moth-thinker.”
“Juggle knot,” Dek repeated quietly. “The team gave that formation a nickname. They call it the Juggernaut.”
“That would explain it.” Sno’s head snapped toward Cassie. “She must’ve overhead the men talking and interpreted it as words she knew. ‘Juggle knot.’ But moth-thinker? What does that even mean?”
“She can’t explain?”
“She can’t communicate complex ideas. Just short phrases, mental images. Usually I can catch the gist, but this time…”
Cassie gave a tiny whine and turned on her heel to trot over to the rock face adjacent to the lift. She stopped and flagged her tail then turned to look at them.
“She wants us to see something,” Sno said.
They rose together, moving gingerly across the sand and rock floor to where Cassie waited. Once they reached her, she used her nose to sniff at something in the rock.
Sno leaned closer. “What is that?”
Dek knelt beside CaSandra and bent closer to the small, smooth lump of brown hanging from the rock surface. “It looks like a cocoon,” she said.