Frozen Fire Read online

  She counted five adjoining rooms that appeared to be slave’s quarters, and seven more that looked to be bedrooms with small personal servant antechambers attached. One room had thick, black smoke curling from out of the doorway. Reasoning it must be the kitchen, Denefe pointed at it, and said, “I’ll check this end.”

  Port nodded and split to the other direction.

  As she walked, she peered behind large potted plants and around corners into rooms. She saw nobody until she reached the kitchen. Flames leaped high out of a deep pot on a fire, scorching the ceiling. Dark, acrid smoke rolled the length of the room, disappearing out of the top of the doorframe and window. After lunging for a rag on a shelf at the side of the room, she wrapped it around her hands and grabbed the burning pot. Coughing and keeping her head back, she carried it to the window and threw it onto the ground outside.

  Pivoting away, she came face-to-face with a charred lump that could only be a body.

  Denefe’s stomach clenched, bile again rising to her throat. The body—if that was what it could be called—had been roasted to a bright red, and all the skin had been stripped off. It was swollen and distorted somehow, as if the bones had been crushed. Lipless teeth grimaced at her beneath lidless eyes. The nose was a bulbous blister, centering the swollen face. Was this Staphershire? Or an unlucky slave cook? She’d never met Starry in person, but she thought he was smaller than the body in front of her.

  GlobeX would send people to make a full investigation now that they had someone dead on the scene. Her job was finished as soon as she checked the rest of the house. She started to leave, but paused and turned back. He couldn’t be alive still. Could he? After all that? She frowned, but couldn’t make herself walk away. What if…? Creeping forward, inch-by-inch, she leaned toward the body. She didn’t see him breathing. Was it even a him? She couldn’t tell if the cook had been a male or female. Panic swarmed her. It became all important for her to know that detail. The person was dead, and she didn’t know if it was a him or her. Biting her lip, she leaned down and reached for the cook’s jugular. She wasn’t going to relish placing her hands on the swollen, red throat.

  “What are you doing?” Port’s voice sent her pulse skyrocketing, and she shrieked, whirling to face him. She tripped on the body’s ankle and fell in a sprawl on top of the cook. Shrieking again, she bounded up and away, against the wall, staring at the corpse. She almost expected it to get up and berate her clumsiness.

  Port’s laughter invaded the room from the doorway. She refused to look at him. Instead, she squatted beside the cook and placed her fingers on his…her…neck, checking the pulse. Nothing. She shifted her position, pushing against the red skin one more time. Still nothing. Disappointment at not knowing anything about the person flooded through her. Sighing, she stood and turned around. Only then did she look at Port.

  He wiped his eyes on his sleeve, his face red, a teeth-baring grin on his face. She walked to him with a measured pace. Keeping her voice low, she said, “I’m glad I keep you amused.”

  His face became a stormy glare, even as he turned away. She followed him out of the room, but turned in the opposite direction from him. There were still several doors around the peristylium to check.

  “Denefe, you there?” Kaleen’s telepathic voice sounded weak from that time distance.

  “Good morning, sister mine! You’re up early.”

  “Couldn’t sleep. I’m headed out to the dig in a minute. You sound tense. Problems?”

  Denefe moved around the edge of the peristylium to continue her search. “Of course there’re always problems with Port. We got hit by a sidewinder down here. It looks as if it took out everyone in BaBy Oh-four.”

  “Everyone is gone?” Kaleen’s words were thick with shock.

  “We’re checking now. It doesn’t look promising.”

  “I didn’t know anyone there.”

  Denefe sighed. “I did. Anyway, I’m back in ancient Egypt, Roman Empire, investigating. So, sorry if I get quiet periodically.”

  “I’m sorry about your friends. Does the company know yet?”

  “I assume Port told Cardenza.”

  She could almost see Kaleen make a face. “Ugh. Cardenza. What a pompous idiot. Just like the rest.”

  “Yep.” Denefe moved into the atrium, and walked into the first doorway next to the ala where the rift hid. Photographs adorned every inch of the walls. Photographs? How did Starry sneak a camera in there? Further, how did he develop them?

  “Yet you still like working for them?”

  “Liking GlobeX has nothing to do with it. Working for them is a means to an end. I have plans for my future.” Denefe touched the image of a woman reclining on a bed by the pool in the impuluvium. The paper felt like the common parchment of the day. When she removed her hand, ink smudged across the photo. “Besides, I intend to resign if they don’t get Port out of my hair and get a third telepath assigned to our station.”

  Starry could have had the photos made at a local printer’s, but it was technology the Romans shouldn’t have had yet. She looked at the other photos. They were all of women, and all of them had been on that bed. Starry hadn’t been behaving at all.

  “No! Resign? You? I can’t believe it! Not Miss Company herself.”

  “Shut up, already! Do I need to remind you that you technically still work for them too?” Denefe grinned. She turned around and around in the room. There wasn’t much of a place to hide things. So where was the camera?

  Laughter rippled from Kaleen’s mind. “Yeah, but I don’t have to put up with any of them. They just sign my paycheck. Out here, I’m my own boss. You should come join me.”

  “I will, if I they accept my resignation. At least for a little while.” In a basket near the bed sat the triangular wooden telepath’s metronome. It was fist-sized and GlobeX green with their symbol embossed in gold on the front. She had an identical one at home by her bed. Picking it up, she immediately felt the odd weight of it. Maybe that one wasn’t standard issue, after all.

  Chapter 5

  Secrets

  Denefe couldn’t see anything abnormal about the metronome besides the weight, but Mik would probably find the difference. She’d lay odds it was the camera.

  Kaleen’s light laugh rippled through Denefe’s mind again. Her twin said, “You have to find the dig first.”

  “Hah! The laugh’s on you. I already know where it is.” Denefe reached the door and crossed into the next room.

  “What?” Kaleen got silent.

  Now it was Denefe’s turn to laugh. “I know everything you do. Last week, you dug up the fossil of an ancient frog. How it got there, who knows. I even know how often you eat fried eggs. I have friends in high places.” The room was empty, so she moved to the second.

  Kaleen’s voice scoffed at her. “Low places, you mean. You know, they won’t accept your resignation.”

  “Maybe, maybe not. Either way, I’m taking a vacation. Let’s meet somewhere.” That room was also empty. Denefe stood still in the center, staring at the floor, concentrating on Starry’s personality again. She still felt no essence of him. Not anywhere.

  Kaleen’s voice filled with excitement. “All right. Gimme a few days to coordinate things here. You think of a place, and no sports centers, either! You know I can’t do that stuff.”

  Denefe laughed again. “Would I do that to you?”

  “Yes, you would. You did it last time. I mean it. No sports centers.”

  “Okay, okay. Don’t take too long arranging things there. GlobeX probably won’t let me have much of a vacation.”

  “I knew it. You really don’t intend to quit, do you?”

  Hearing a noise, Denefe lifted her head. Port moved into the doorway. He didn’t say anything, just stared angrily at her.

  She glared back, saying in her mind to Kaleen, “I’ll quit in a heartbeat!”

  “We’ll see.”

  “Gotta go. Gotta deal with Port.” A
loud, she asked her station manager, “Do you have a problem?”

  “Ah, joy. Later!”

  His voice ground out harshly. “Yes, I have a problem. I told you I would check these rooms. You’re wasting time.”

  “Is thorough a waste of time?” She smiled sweetly and walked to the door.

  He clenched and unclenched his jaw, the muscle bunching tightly. “It is when done under suspicious motives.” Pivoting, he marched back to the atrium where he sat on the bed by the pool, waiting.

  What a day! She was exhausted. Her quick search of the rest of the rooms revealed nothing. The burned body in the kitchen was the only one.

  She went back to the atrium, and Port turned his head away with a scowl. She said, “I didn’t find anything. Assuming you didn’t either, I think we can go.”

  He jumped up and strode quickly to their originating ala. She fought hard against the temptation to slow down just to spite him.

  The trip back through the rift wasn’t as hard on her as the first one. Though she did reaffirm her vow to never again have eggs before she time-jumped. When they arrived at the base, Mik met them, frowning with uncertainty. “Cardenza’s been trying to reach you, Port. He sounds angry.”

  Port glared at Denefe. She shook her head. “It wasn’t me. I couldn’t have. I was with you. Looks like it’s just your lucky day.”

  He frowned and picked up a quick pace to his quarters.

  Mik turned to Denefe. “How’d it go?”

  She shrugged. “Port was his usual charming self. What can I say? Any contact with Staphershire?”

  “None. Cardenza asked if you’d gone on the investigation with Port. The boss didn’t seem to like the answer.”

  Ardense joined them on the platform. “That’s because I contacted him about the situation. This was way out of line. Port should have gone alone.” He asked quietly, “How was it?”

  “We only found one body. I don’t think it was Starry, though.”

  Mik closed his eyes and swore. No one else in the room said anything. Denefe smelled something like barbeque cooking for the noon meal. Her stomach lurched, and the image of that burned corpse popped back into her mind. Maybe she’d go on a diet.

  Mik clunked down the stairs to his station, frowning, and Denefe turned to her primary, Charisse. “Any new spikes?”

  She yawned and shook her head. Long strands of honey-colored hair fell into her eyes and she pushed them aside. “No, it’s been quiet.”

  “No messages? No tasks? Nothing?” Her voice sounded dull, even to her. Starry was gone. Missing. Probably dead. That was what the sidewinders did. They killed people in the most painful ways possible—by tearing them apart. She’d never been close to death before. Except for her parents, of course. She’d been too young to understand it at the time.

  “Nothing at all. It’s still too early for second roll call.” Mik’s voice was subdued.

  It always was quiet right after something major. A small consolation to those left behind. Denefe slowly went down the stairs, and walked through the center of the room to the window. Ardense followed. He put his arm around her waist, and they stared out at endless green ocean of the forest. She looked up at him. Dark half-moons hung under his eyes and his cheeks were hollow from exhaustion.

  She said, “Why don’t you head back to bed?”

  “You should get changed first, though.” He cuffed his hand around the back of her neck, pulling her to him. He held her for a long time, not saying anything. She knew what his thoughts were—it could have been her who had gotten hit by the sidewinder. He straightened and kissed her forehead. “Hurry back. I’m beat.”

  Chapter 6

  Discovery

  Kaleen tugged on heavy arctic boots over her triple layer of wool socks. She shrugged into her parka before she pulled her alpaca mittens over a pair of thermal gloves. After opening the tent flap, she stepped out into the day. The cold snapped at her and the sun’s glare bounced off the layers of snow, blinding her momentarily. She fumbled in her pocket until she found her sunglasses.

  After she slid those into place, she automatically put her hand up, snagging the guide rope, even though she could see clearly all the way to her destination. One could never tell when a squall would dust up enough snow so a person could get lost.

  Within just a few crunchy steps, she reached the first junction in the rope that divided people toward their private tents. The second junction sent a person to either the latrine or the dining hall, depending on the direction turned.

  Kaleen went straight through, past the third junction that split off left and right branches that led to the main office or Bridger Law’s lab, respectively.

  Her straight-on trajectory took her to the field tent, where she spent nearly all her time.

  She opened the tent flap, stepping into the warmth of the anteroom and the bubble of her coworkers in various stages of dress. Most, like her, were just arriving, but a few—having found their digs still not thawed sufficiently from the night’s freeze—were leaving to wait over another cup of coffee.

  Before laying her coat onto the pile on the overburdened table set aside for just that purpose, Kaleen grabbed her tools out of the big pocket she’d sewn inside the parka. As she reached for the secondary tent flap, allowing her access to the field, it whipped open, and she took a quick step backward, sucking in her breath in surprise.

  Bridger, the dig manager, seemed just as shocked to see her. He blushed and stammered, “I was…uh…just coming to get you. Your site’s thawed.”

  Overcome with shyness, she gave him a half-smile, then ducked her gaze to the ground. “I’d hoped so.” Lately, she just couldn’t seem to look him in the eyes without becoming all girly-crush. She was conscious of his continued attention as she entered the field and walked to her site.

  Yesterday, she’d discovered a broken human skull. Today, she started with her brush, working the packed dirt away from the orbital socket. Her specimen lay on its side, twisted, with its face buried in the ground.

  The work was tedious and back-breaking. The body had been in the ground for thousands of years. More than once over the next few hours, she had to stand and stretch her spine. Each time, she found Bridger’s gaze on her. The second he realized she’d caught him staring, he turned away and she returned to her work, smiling.

  At last, she had completely unearthed the orbital socket. Male, she judged. Round ridges, such as the European ancestors had. So, a stranger in Siberia. That explained why the skull was crushed. He’d probably stepped on someone’s customs, being an outsider and not knowing better.

  She sighed and shifted her brush to clean the edges of the gaping hole in the man’s skull. The bristles caught and then flicked a small piece of something hard onto the frost-hardened ground.

  Setting her brush down, Kaleen picked up the dislodged piece. It wasn’t a rock, but what was it? She turned it over and over. Her eyes widened and her heart hammered as she recognized what she held. “Bridger!”

  Chapter 7

  Sudden appearance

  Eight hours after Starry went missing, Denefe stared at Bade Hallen’s flickering image on her com. He was a short, balding man who carried himself as if he were a giant. He said, “Denefe, I understand, but I can’t do anything about Port. I’ve told you this every time you’ve called. When his and Ardense’s complaints came in, they landed in Maurice Cardenza’s lap. He’s the one handling it. As I said, talk to him.”

  “I’m talking to you. I don’t want to talk to him. What do you mean you can’t do anything? You’re his boss. Tell him to get rid of Port.”

  “Den, it’s his investigation. It’s not that simple—”

  She gritted her teeth. “Yes, it is that simple. I can’t work with Port anymore. Either he goes, or I do.”

  Hallen clenched his jaw and stared at her. He nodded slowly, his gaze never leaving her. “I can speak to him again. That’s it. I make no promises.” The scree
n went black.

  Denefe sat back in her chair. Cardenza. It seemed as if her world was full of idiots. She’d wait to talk to him until after Hallen had time to correct the situation.

  She rubbed her eyes and then sighed. She’d searched for Starry ever since she’d come back, calling for him every fifteen to twenty minutes. Her hope was that he’d used the distraction of the sidewinder to take off and would show up again sooner or later. Now that her shift was over and Ardense was awake and on duty, he was searching also.

  Back to her research. She punched in her security code and then pulled up Staphershire’s bio. His grinning picture met her. Bright smile, brown hair, blue eyes. Nice-looking.

  “Raph Jones Staphershire. Male. Twenty-three. Registered telepath with a decent score—173.6. Is he married? Yes…No. Divorced. No kids.”

  Kaleen’s voice filled her mind, interrupting her. “Denefe.”

  “Just a minute.” She put her finger on the screen to keep her place while she read. “Father, dec—”

  “This is important.” Kaleen’s telepathic voice was filled with anxiety.

  Denefe dropped her finger. “What is it?”

  “We found a body in the dig.”

  “So? Isn’t that what you do?”

  “Yeah, but it’s one of our telepaths. From the past.”

  Denefe frowned at the empty air in front of her. Did she hear right? “What?”

  “We found a computer chip in his brain.”

  “A what?”

  Kaleen spoke slower. “A. Com-pu-ter. Chip. You know, one of those—”

  “I know what it is. Do you know who the telepath was?”

  “I’ve had to be careful and sneak around doing this. So it took a while. His name is Raph Staphershire.”

  A physical jolt of adrenaline ran through Denefe. She jerked her eyes up to the screen in front of her. Raph Jones Staphershire? With a computer chip? “He was at BaBy Oh-four.”