+ Reid +

  Reid's pulse pounded in his ears as he ran. His mind worked through the implications of the last few hours.

  They'd lost the mole skulls. Almost all of them, aside from the king's head, had been out with Lycra while he worked. That meant they had to hope the ones left would get them far enough along in their debts to see them free... in a more reasonable timeframe. The alternative would be going into the bug cave and trying to retrieve the fallen skulls, but that didn't seem like a reasonable idea. The things down there - and the one he'd killed - sent shivers down his spine. They weren't tough, but there were too many.

  Honestly, the one good thing to come out of this was that Reid had proven he could land a good throw in dangerous situations. Rocks were back on the attack list.

  Reid offered to carry Lycra multiple times, but Win staunchly refused. She kept pace as they ran the entire way back through the secret tunnel. The only times they'd slowed down were so Reid could smash more of the tunnel to create extra barriers between them and the open passage to insect hell that was sitting where the den used to be. Win's ability to keep going was, as she told it, because she was sending healing energy through her muscle groups as they went - something she thanked Nyx for making her more efficient with. Reid, too, had Nyx to thank for the hours-long run. He was more efficient in his movements, had more endurance and stamina to keep him going, and putting a tiny bit of empowerment into his toes and his calves was keeping him close to a full sprint while making it feel like a light jog.

  Every so often, Reid thought he heard insects moving behind them - but there was nothing that had made it through just yet. He knew they'd kept a good pace, but had little idea of how fast the insects were supposed to be. Win's explanations had only been that they would be a threat in greater numbers, and that the hive mother - the big bug - had some way to control the others.

  They jumped down into the main tunnel, and Reid stopped to pant and rest. It was the first break since the Den's collapse - but he realized Lycra and Win hadn't stopped with him. They were already walking further up the main tunnel. Reid shouted between breaths.

  "Hey - shouldn't we take a break, or cave in this end of the tunnel?"

  Win snorted. "Come on - that's already handled."

  Reid glanced between her, a smiling Lycra, and the mouth of the tunnel, then ran forwards to meet them at their walking pace.

  "How is that handled? They were already digging through the other side when we left."

  Lycra's eyes glinted. "With TOOLS!"

  Reid tried to figure out how hand warmers and lanterns would keep bugs at bay. Even as he asked the question, his mind went back to Nyx's lessons for Lycra - and the amount of time she'd spent on 'warnings' about volatile and violent ways crystals could release energy.

  "Lycra, what tools did you make?"

  Dozens of blasts rang out as the entire tunnel shook. Rock and dirt cracked as dust was kicked up from the floor or fell from the ceiling. A wave of debris and solid rock shot out from the challenge dungeon's tunnel at high velocity. Pieces embedded themselves in the far wall, or slid down to the floor. More crashing continued after the blasts finished, and Reid was worried the entire section of tunnels they were in was about to crumble in on itself. He was very happy he'd moved forward to join Win and Lycra.

  As the noise of sliding and cracking stone abated, Reid and Win both stared at Lycra, while his excited yellow eyes focused on the now-collapsed dungeon tunnel. He let out a victorious cheer.

  A massive vampiric grin was plastered over his face and his posture was full of pride. His head bobbed excitedly as he spoke.

  "I made bombs."

  

  It took longer than he wanted to chase down this lead, and Fozz had been worried things would be cold, or that the time lapse would make everything more obfuscated.

  There were a dozen high-priority requests that he had to respond to before Fozz even made it to Denduram - and while none were particularly difficult, each had to be addressed before he could continue. People really did get more out of line around awakenings. The kidnappings this time around, though, were just awful. He'd sent over a hundred Vuxarinans back to their home planet, spread between three cases. In one, there was an elderly woman that hadn't set foot on her home world since she was a child. She had been abducted decades before the awakening, which was generally rare. Fozz suspected an element of organization to the kidnappings, but he had little evidence to link it all together. He could focus on revealing the truth behind that web once he was done with his current case.

  Fozz slid paperwork across the glass topped desk. The armadillan, DenWu, was still staring at the far corner of the room, as he had been for the past hour of the now four-hour-long session. He hadn't ignored Fozz completely at first - which meant the questioning was getting him to the right places.

  His representative, a human woman in a simple but well-crafted suit, took the paperwork. She flitted her green eyes over the contents, and touched her tight black bun with her left hand. The tick had presented itself already half a dozen times during their meeting. That tick had pointed to her being fully aware of not only an undisclosed and unreported incident with the Wheathop, but also the illegal manner in which it was disposed and the lengths that were traversed to get it done quietly.

  Stolen story; please report.

  Probing questions had left Fozz assured that the woman knew the underlying relationship between Thadden and DenWu was based on illicit activities. She even seemed to have some understanding of just what the now-slagged cargo of the Wheathop had been - and it was looking clear that it had been something highly problematic for her boss. Now, she was proving to him, with her latest touch to her hair, that she knew where Thadden was – and that something about that knowledge was troublesome.

  Fozz's mind went through the likely options. Thad could be dead – that one had high potential. The focused determination DenWu was showing in completely avoiding interacting with Fozz was poorly hiding a layer of calculated violence. Fozz didn't just have conjecture on that front, though. There was enough circumstantial evidence of the tight-lipped business owner being involved in shady dealings to make a case by itself. That he was running a local criminal operation was essentially guaranteed.

  Option two was that Thad would be free and off-planet – Fozz doubted that would be the case. Thadden didn’t have enough powerful connections to bail him out, nor was he rich enough to do so himself. There wasn’t anything in the theft record important enough to warrant keeping him alive and quiet. Maybe the most important evidence against this option being true was that DenWu did not seem to care an iota for the man - and that was reflected in his representative’s responses to Thad's name, and her reaction to the rendition notice sitting in front of her.

  Thadden’s last known location - and the location of his ship - was one of DenWu’s landing pads. A shell company owned by a domino-set of other shell companies eventually leading to DenWu had then scrapped the Wheathop. The connection had been strong enough to file one of Fozz's favorite pieces of paperwork. As the last known connection to Thad and also someone considered complicit in one of his dealings, DenWu could be held fully responsible for all of Thadden's crimes. That included the charged jump and whatever had been in his hold. If DenWu was unable to produce the accused - or verifiable information of either DenWu's innocence in those specific crimes or a lead on where Thad had disappeared to - in the next 24 hours, he would be remanded and tried as an accomplice.

  The lawyer faked a yawn and checked her watch. “I need a bathroom break, but before that, I’d like a moment to confer with my client, please.”

  “Understood” Fozz replied, already standing to walk out the door. He took an extra snapshot of the location of the paperwork on the table before he made his exit.

  This was getting interesting. The third and final option was always interesting. It was the option that meant Thad was alive - but somehow harmed or held.

  The common ways that presented were generally imprisonment, torture, or forced labor. Torture was a bit of a given in all three, but Fozz decided to rule that out as the primary motive. DenWu seemed sadistic, but probably wasn’t one to expose himself to discovery for something as selfish as keeping a man like Thadden around for months just to cause him pain. Similarly, there would be almost no point for just imprisoning the man. The cost of keeping a prisoner was generally only justifiable to criminals if a ransom or payoff of some sort waited. And again, Thad wasn't going to get some ransom paid for him. Technically, there could also be imprisonment alongside torture, but that was still something he couldn't see DenWu choosing.

  He nearly let a smile curve his lips. Option 3, variant 3 - Thad was alive, and in some sort of forced labor. If Thad was dead, there would've been a different reaction. Fozz spun through a series of files he’d tagged as relevant to the case, then blipped a request to CCEIC for more information on all holdings related to DenWu. As he waited for a response from the intelligence officers, he saw the representative hurry out of the meeting room, communicator out before she even turned into the bathroom.

  Dangerous forced labor, then. Fozz thought to himself. He put the new potential parameters in a second blip packet and fired off the additional request.

  (---) Jim (---)

  Survival was rough, but simple. Drink. Eat. Sleep. Don't let the bugs eat you.

  Drink the tepid, foul water. Eat the scraps of dead creatures. Sleep knowing you could be dragged out and torn apart at any moment.

  Don't let the bugs eat you.

  Jim shivered. It was always too cold, or too damp. Every time he had to relieve himself, he had to find ways to cover up his business with other smells, or the bugs would get close again.

  He cursed himself for his predicament, now - in addition to that narrow bastard.

  If he'd just been paying attention to where he was going, he'd never have fallen down into this hellscape. He'd still be up in the camp, with access to the ration bars.

  The first quake hit while Jim was sleeping. He'd awoken in fright, and nearly soiled himself when he thought the vibrations were one of the insects trying to get into his sleeping nook.

  The second quake ensured he was awake, and aware of what was going on. Things shifted just enough that he could see out above his backpack - into the massive space beyond. He watched on with horror as a mass of rock collapsed and crushed hundreds of chittering forms.

  What followed sent them all into a frenzy. A light - a simple but powerful light - was an affront to the darkness of the space. It was as though a vast portion of the insects reacted in unison to the falling source of illumination - first smothering it, then searching for the source. Jim retreated back into his nook as dozens of creatures scaled the near-vertical walls. He heard the screeches as one was thrown off something high and back down towards the floor. The big one - the absurdly large insect - let out threatening growls and even more legs scrambled past him, for hours - or days. He ate, and slept, and stayed in his nook. He wasn't certain how long it had been, but eventually all sound stilled.

  He used the chance to get out of his temporary home. There was still traffic on the walls - and he couldn't stay any longer without running the risk that his scent would lead the things back to his sleeping hole. Jim's feet carried him, slowly, back towards the pool where he'd fallen on his first day in this insect cavern. He stopped at points to rest, nap, and recover his mana. One more weak aftershock hit before things finally stilled. The way back was long and dangerous - but Jim held out hope that the quakes had knocked stone lose and left a way back up to the Warrens.

  When he finally reached the pool of water, Jim nearly cried in delight. The pool had been dammed and filled by fallen rocks and stone - and the stone itself formed a massive, unstable, steep incline.

  But it was an incline back towards the tunnel where he fell. Back up from this hellscape.

  Jim climbed for freedom.

  #

  The way up was hard. Half a dozen times over the course of hours, he nearly gave up. More than a few times, he lost progress to slides that nearly sent him tumbling - but Jim pushed himself forward. He pushed past the usual point he considered exhaustion, and saw himself to the top. When he reached solid tunnel again, Jim flopped onto the bare ground, and rested. He was still fatigued when he woke back up, but he walked on all the same.

  #

  His initial hope was that he could get help at the poop cave, but it turned out to actually be deserted. Following a quake, people were supposed to retreat back to the main cavern for a week, or longer. Jim helped himself to all of the rations and water that had been left behind, then continued on.

  He realized he'd done it. He was out now. And that meant he would make it back to the main camp.

  Jim smiled through his pain. If that blasted trio was still alive, he would see them pay.

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