Feeling the stares, Terian looked up.
The lead tech looked affronted. “Sir, he’s hardly in a position to—”
“Continue to listen,” Terian told the other, ignoring the tech. “I want a record of everything he says. Translated and original. Every word...understood?”
The Sark gestured affirmative.
Terian started to rise to his feet when Dehgoies caught hold of his wrist. The long fingers clenched, ghostly white with streaks of blood.
“Terry.” He swallowed thickly. “Don’t hurt her.”
Terian could only stare, his jaw slack.
“Please, Terry. Don’t hurt her...”
Terian grinned. He couldn’t help it. He patted the other seer’s arm.
“Now, now, brother Revik. No need to beg this early in the game. We’re all friends here. I won’t hurt your best girl...”
The light eyes met his. His voice half-filled with liquid, a near whisper.
“I’ll kill you. Turn if I have to. Rip you apart. Feed you to yourself...”
Terian flinched, drawing back in spite of himself.
“I’ll remember,” the pale-eyed seer breathed. “All of it. I’ll find Feigran. You were afraid of me once...”
But Terian had heard enough. Using his headset, he activated the pulse.
Two, needle-like prongs slid out of the collar around Dehgoies’s neck, sinking wetly into the flesh at the base of his skull. The sensor lit up, the metal vibrating against white skin. Dehgoies blinked rapidly, wincing in pain as the prongs dug deeper into his neck. He tried to move his jaw.
Then he cried out.
The irises of his eyes ignited, like a spark to a pool of gasoline. The faint, almost invisible glow brightened rapidly to a shocking hue, turning a sharp, pale green that flickered like candle flames in the dim hall.
Cries sounded in the corridor as the other infiltrators reacted.
Terian heard yelled instructions, movement as guns were raised, but he couldn’t take his eyes off the glowing eyes of his downed friend.
Just when it occurred to him that the collar might not hold...
Dehgoies collapsed, as if all of his muscles in his arms and shoulders unclenched in the same instant.
The silence in the narrow hall grew deafening.
Terian glanced up. White faces stared at him from against the corridor walls. Several hunters stood with guns raised, fingers frozen near triggers.
“His eyes,” one said. “Did you see his eyes?”
“He’s mate to the Bridge...”
“He can’t be Sark, not with eyes like that...”
Mutters erupted from the group. Terian saw a few gestures warding off evil. He snapped his fingers at the techs.
“Stabilize his vitals. Now,” he added sharply, when they didn’t move.
Movement erupted around him as his words sank in.
Terian rose to his feet, glaring around at the group until guns lowered, and the murmuring ceased as they went back to work. The seer medical techs hunched back over the unconscious Dehgoies, fighting to keep him alive.
Terian watched as Varlan approached where he stood. An older seer, he had a wide, Asian-looking face that sported a long, jagged scar in a diagonal line from his chin to his almond eyes. He was one of the old ones, an infiltrator since before the time of humans. Terian had even heard rumors that Varlan was once trained by the Adhipan.
“General Advisor, sir.” Varlan eyed Dehgoies’s crumpled form. “You must be aware. Galaith had a particular interest––”
“Tell him he’s dead.”
Varlan didn’t blink. “And if he survives?” he said.
Terian gazed out over the group of infiltrators clustered by the far wall. His eyes came to rest on a tall Sark who stood at the back among the rest of the extraction team. Squinting up at the seer’s body proportions, he motioned him forward.
“What is your height, Endre?”
“Six-foot four, sir.”
“You have a clan tattoo?”
“Yes, sir.”
Terian plucked Varlan’s Mossberg casually from his fingers. Pointing it at the tall, black-haired seer, he shot him in the chest.
The hollow bullet blew out the back of his spine, spattering the wall with blood and bone, right before the seer crumpled, falling to his back.
One of the techs cried out in shock.
They stifled their own cry, getting a hard look from Terian. The others moved quickly out of the way, leaving Endre’s body alone in a cleared space of floor.
Terian handed the rifle back to Varlan.
“You have your answer,” he said. “I’ll take care of the labs, just make sure you destroy his face. Remove his teeth, if you can...and his hands.”
Terian saw Endre’s fingers convulse for his weapon. Stepping forward, he kicked away the gun, motioning to one of the other seers, who raised his own weapon, shooting Endre in the head. The seer’s arm stopped moving.