~

Chapter Forty-two

~

“Can I go home now?” I asked Ike.

“Not releasin’ any of their infrastructure until we set thin’s straight. So ya two are gonna be locked up a bit longer.”

Ironic I locked myself up to keep the humans from lockin’ me up. At least folks were findin’ a screwdriver here and there, disconnectin’ the stinkin’ alarms. They’d been loud. There were some still bleepin’ off in the distance.

I should have set a timer on ’em. If I was downstairs in the control room I could have turned ’em off. Never have written anythin’ without leavin’ a back door. Sue me. I’m no genius or I would have allowed the alarm to be disabled remotely through the same back door. Can’t get everythin’ right.

I asked Ike what had to be set straight.

“Their leadership is on the way south. When they feel a bit vulnerable to try another game, we’ll get down to serious conversation.”

“They actually agreed to come south?” I asked.

“Didn’t give ’em a choice.”

“I was never here for serious conversation, was I?” I asked.

“How was I to know they’re so stupid?” he said. “Or if all our triggers would work.” He laughed.

I complained about bein’ hungry again for the third time.

He gave me the same cliche. I hate that bull. Especially ’cause he hung up on me then. Probably had nothin’ goin’ on. Probably preparin’ to go play basketball.

I hate basketball. Involves a lot of sweatin’, breathin’ hard. Folk bouncin’ off one another. It’s loud. Ick.

“So we’re stuck here a while, huh?” Nuel asked.

I nodded as the three suits rattled their normal, what’s going on. I might have to put a fist into a human’s face before too long. I wrenched toward ’em, pullin’ from deep inside, ripped a growl I didn’t even know I had. The three plopped backward. The military guy laughed a moment later. I guess he recovered the fastest.

Why weren’t they callin’ their own people for answers? I didn’t take their phones away from ’em. Maybe the NNN hadn’t figgered anything out yet, so weren’t reportin’ nothin’.

“Ya suppose that friend of Ike’s,” Nuel mumbled, “the chief of the Troll Police Brigade, could get us out of here?”

Not like he had access to the control room downstairs. The door would be locked. No keys anywhere in the buildin’ were gonna be workin’. And Ike would have turned off local admin access first thin’ anyway, come to think about it.

I asked her if she had the troll’s contact info, not optimistic he could do anythin’ one way or the other. She didn’t, but she texted Ike. We waited twenty minutes before Nuel’s phone rang. The caller wasn’t listed in her contacts, so she answered warily.

“This Nuel?” I could hear a boomin’ troll’s voice.

“Yes.”

“This is Commander Zug.” From there he started speakin’ softer. Nuel updated him on our situation. I heard the laugh. Nuel repeated his various questions to me. Unfortunately all I could do was shake my head. They didn’t speak much longer before she thanked him for callin’ and hung up.

“And?” I asked.

“Suggested a troll with such an intention could tear doors down to get to us. He ridiculed our software for not leavin’ the escape routes, like the stairways, open.”

That wasn’t fair. It was an option the client selected in the startup.

She continued, “Zug said he didn’t have anyone available to help us, what with all the chaos goin’ on. Only one in twenty officers showed up to work today. Go figger, humans are lootin’ and riotin’, causin’ all kinds of civil disobedience.”

Hmm. Never thought they had much character.

The giants wouldn’t be riotin’, so havin’ few giant cops on the street wasn’t a big deal. And it had never been good to send giant cops out to situations dealing with humans. For obvious reasons. Except to lend human cops a bit of muscle. And intimidation factor.

“But he suggested Jam is already here.”

I said, “I already thought of him. But he doesn’t have his phone. We’ve been trying to reach him for days.”

The hen smiled. “He took a phone from a nurse.”

“And I suppose ya have the number?”

She shook her head but continued smilin’. “Jam’s already called Zug. Guess he called the big guy often enough to remember his number. Zug’s gonna text him my number.”

Why’d she have to drizzle that information out, make me ask a dozen questions? But, well, maybe, I haven’t always been forthcomin’ with her. Her phone rang.

“Jam—How’re ya doin’—We’re good, but locked up on the seventh floor—Yeah, the hospital—Yar favorite ogre and me—No, the other one—No—Kriz.” She listened a bit, then explained if he wanted, to just start tearin’ down the doors in his way. The next statement was loud enough I heard it.

“I’m not payin’ for the damage. Ike doesn’t pay me enough.”

She laughed. I could see his point. I wasn’t gonna pay for it either. Then I looked over at the two dead guys. And I guess there’s a bunch of sailors and uppity ups dead down the coast now, too—some folks have paid. Maybe someone, not sayin’ who, should be askin’ the gods to care for their souls.

Nuel hung up. That was it? I maybe gave her a confused look. She clearly enjoyed that. Anything to irritate me, would make her happy. I hated to do it, but I asked her, “What?”

“He said he’d give it some thought.”

~

Nuel

~

Jam had said he’d be up a bit later, though he didn’t say what was keepin’ him, before complaining about the steel doors the architect used in the buildin’, but I wasn’t gonna tell Kriz he’d already agreed to come get us out.

Kriz goes out of his way to irritate me, I’m gonna go out of my way to irritate him. But before we could talk much more, my phone rang again. My pa. Jeez. He’d be angry with me if I didn’t come clean. I hadn’t told him I was headin’ up here.

“Hey, Papa,” I answered probably too sweetly.

“Oh, don’t like the sound of that. What’d ya do?”

“Don’t know what ya mean,” I tried.

“Ya know ya don’t have the facility to lie to me. Just tell me. Ya’re too old to bend over my knee, so what do ya have to worry about?”

Both cases are true. But I didn’t want to disappoint him.

“And ya’ve never disappointed me,” he added. Yeah. Sure. Except when I chose MIS instead of chemistry or physics as a profession. Real science. Or my poor choice of bulls. There had been a couple.

He always treated ’em with courtesy, none the less. But no way I’d ever introduce him to Ike. Don’t think Ike’s the let’s-go-meet-the-parents kind of guy anyway. I’d have to ask Darshee and Wizper.

I noticed the three suits lookin’ at each other, since I’d switched away from Trollish. Odd Pa hadn’t asked why I spoke Ogrish. Like I wanted the four humans to hear this conversation. Never met a human, well few, who bothered to learn a giant language.

“And why are ya speakin’ Ogrish?” he asked. “But that’s fine. Don’t get enough excuse to keep it soft on my tongue anyway.”

“Look,” I said. “I didn’t tell ya—”

“That ya were comin’ up here to negotiate with the humans,” Pa finished for me. Jeez would it irritate him to know his overly-educated youngling was only asked to tag along to translate for a bull that didn’t need translatin’.

Then his statement stumped me for a moment. Locked my brain. How’d he know?

“Elzrr called me,” he said. “Said she heard it on the news.”

“Oh, how’s Elzrr doin’? Haven’t seen her in—”

“Don’t deflect,” Pa said. “I would’ve called earlier. But I figgered ya might be busy.”

Funny that he was usin’ a Southern accent, now that he spoke Ogrish. How long had I been usin’ one? Couldn’t remember. But it must have snuck into me quickly after joinin’ OW.

“Thin’s been kinda drawn to a stop here,” I said.

He laughed. “It happens when the electricity goes out everywhere. Pretty awesome, huh?”

That shocked me a bit. Awesome? “Ya think it’s awesome the South—” I didn’t know how to say in one word how the South had so easily brought the great Northern powerhouse to its knees.

“I should tell ya,” he said. “Happened a couple weeks ago. I didn’t know what I was gonna do, so didn’t want to—”

I waited. He didn’t want to tell me. So we both could keep secrets.

“I’ve been recruited by OI.”

“What?” I screeched.

“No specific position mind ya, at this point” he said. “But a promise they’d find someplace I could be happy. Wasn’t lost to me that OI is workin’ to bring us all home.”

I might have hyperventilated a little. “Home?”

“Say I could select the plains, or any of the Range slopes to live—if there was a position that could be found with an affiliate. Or of course, in the Deep South. Even more industry down there.”

Home.

“Yar bein’ quiet,” he said. “Kinda silly to bring it up today, considerin’ what ya probably got goin’ on.”

Not a lot goin’ on with me at the moment. He’d opened a big topic. Maybe one I wanted to look into his eyes when he chatted about it.