My clever mate. "Good idea."
We crouch in the bushes and slink along under the cover of the forest. Salvotor heads one way, and me and Alice head the other. The jungle gives way to the river, which means we can't see the far side of the fortress along the river's edge without coming into sight. There's not a single break in the walls as far as I can see, nor a single head atop them. The walls seem to be made of an ornately decorated metal alloy that gleams in the sunlight, and a series of decorative crystalline panels line the tops of the walls. I was expecting them to be covered in spikes or electrical charges of some kind, but it looks like nothing more than energy panels.
It's really not as defensible as I thought, and I find this confusing.
"Maybe they're not expecting an attack from the jungle. Look." She points at the trees. "They're far enough away from the wall that nothing can climb over into the fort. We've been here a while and the biggest things we've seen are Sterre and her crew. So as long as he keeps them out and he has guards for the gladiators, the walls are probably just a formality."
"And no portal for us to break in because there's no roads," I say glumly. "I see a landing pad for shuttles but nothing for ground vehicles."
"There'll be a door of some kind," Alice says confidently. "We just have to find it." She grabs my hand and drags me along, patting Sterre's flank with her other hand as she moves. The carinoux normally ranges in the trees and does her own thing while keeping an eye on Alice. Not now. She has been glued to Sunshine's side ever since she returned, and I suspect she probably thinks that Alice will disappear if she goes out of eyesight.
We head deeper into the jungle again as twilight falls, and meet up with Salvotor again. He reports back the same thing we do—no guards to be seen, just more walls.
"Well, how did you get out, then?" Alice asks him. "Did they drop you into the jungle from a ship?"
"Me? Oh no. I came out through the service tunnel. It runs under the entire compound."
I resist the urge to smack my brow. "Where is this tunnel? Can we use it to get in?"
"Oh, probably. But it's guarded."
Alice shoots me a look, her tone artificially bright. "What did you think we were looking for all this time, Salvotor, buddy?"
He looks chagrined. "A door? No one said anything about a tunnel." The splice grimaces. "Did I mess up?"
"Just a little." Alice reaches out and pats his skirt-covered shoulder. "We were looking for a way in. It didn't have to be a door. Now, can you show us where the tunnel is?"
He glances over at me, like a child who knows he's done wrong. "Sure, but it's guarded."
"Guards I can handle," I assure them, and crack my knuckles. "There's nothing I'd love more than to bust a few heads right about now."
"Head busting is fine and dandy," Alice says, looking over at me. "But they've got real weapons and I'd really prefer they didn't shoot off your limbs, as I'm rather fond of them. We need a plan. In fact, we need a distraction."
And she gives me a smug smile and fluffs her breasts.
"No," I say automatically. "No. Absolutely not."
"Can you think of a better distraction?" she asks, fluttering her lashes at me. She tugs on the tiny scrap holding her breasts in place—really, the smallest piece of fabric I've ever seen. It's ridiculous. Her skirt isn't much better. She lies back in the dirt and assumes a very helpless position that just happens to show far too much leg and makes her cleavage spill out over her top.
"No." I say again.
Salvotor just stares at her. I grab him by the shoulders and forcibly turn him away so he won't look at her.
"Come on. Who can resist a helpless, busty human? Certainly not aliens." And she winks at me.
Nope. I hate it. Nope.
Absolutely not.
77
ALICE
Kas hates my plan but we're going to do it anyhow. I'm going to use these tits for good, since aliens like staring at them so much. I fluff my dirty hair and pinch my cheeks as it grows dark, then bite my lips to plump them. All the while, Kaspar scowls at me like he wants to sling me over his shoulder and run off into the jungle.
He probably does, actually.
The tunnel entrance is nearby. We found it after a brief walk, because Salvotor remembered a gully and a thick group of ferns with purple undersides, which wasn't too hard to find. The gully is more like a dry riverbed that runs through the trees, and probably floods when it rains heavily. This means the plant life is thick and wild here, which gives Kaspar and Salvotor plenty of hiding places when we enact the plan. There's two guards, both armed with these nasty-looking clubs that Kaspar calls “shock-sticks” and with blasters at their sides.