Chapter 171: Chapter 165

“Have they been eating the cave?” I asked Axle.

He nodded, the silhouette of his mask wobbling at my side. “They do that, slowly but surely. What I want to know is how we’ve been harvesting Sleem still.” He pointed in the general direction of our Sleem pipe. I followed his extended claw, and my spot light illuminated the wall.

Our Sleem-friendly access pipe was jutting from the wall a few feet up, melted and reformed stone around it creating an effective seal. They could slime their way up the pipe but couldn’t get around it and escape. A thin trickle of green slime hung down from the pipe and snaked across the floor. It was a few inches thick and shined vibrant green in the light.

Axle cocked his head as he carefully approached, looking closely at the dollop of Sleem. “It's much wider once in the pipe,” he called back. “They must be . . . intentionally feeding this pipe. Why would escaping Sleem do that?”

“They didn’t want us to know they were gone,” I said with a sigh.

Axle turned back to me with a small nod. “Sleem farms often attempt escape, and I must admit, I have been complacent with this one,” he said. “I apologize, my friend. You rely on me for this part of our affiliate, and I let you down. The sales had slowed, but I didn’t think to put that element together with the earthquake and realize what it meant.”

“You and Jada both have taken on way more than we agreed when you started with us, this is not your fault. We just have to find them, that’s all. How do we do that?” I asked him.

Axle nodded, looking around the cavern again. “Wasn’t there radioactive material in here?” he suddenly asked.

I nodded and swept the room. The small bundle of ingots was not where I had last seen it, on the Fumble-Bee footage. I swept the room with concern, but the small chunks of metal were nowhere, unless they were buried in the sewage lake.

Concern of a trap crossed my mind, but I doubted our missing Sleem were that clever. The bastards had tricked Mr. Sada into letting them stay when they first arrived, but Mr. Sada had been, as gently as I can put this, too stupid to live.

Still, given enough time, and the right set of circumstances, our Sleem had pulled one over on Axle, me, and everyone who worked with the freezers directly. All indications were a healthy, compliant Sleem farm. Just down there happily eating our sewage and making baby Sleem for us to brutally freeze to death and sell.

The BuyMort family way.

“We can follow this trail,” Axle informed me. “When Sleem do something like this, the sentience in the strand is questionable at best. If we do not directly disturb it, it’s unlikely the birthing block will be made aware of our presence.”

I nodded and we started carefully winding our way through the cavern, following a thick line of living acid snot. It pulsed with movement beneath the surface, feeding its young into our collection pipe for no reason other than to keep us compliant.

“I’d also love it if we could keep the income source intact,” I whispered. “Things are getting a little expensive these days.”

Axle nodded vigorously. “Agreed, though I do have some ideas on that front. What are you planning to do about the water situation?” he asked.

I shook my head. “Nothing I can do, I’m going to call Captain Omen. See if he can clear out the bugs so our people can get the plant working again.”

The Knowle at my side shrugged. “If you think that’s what’s best.”

I sighed and nodded. “No choice. He has the military and experience to do what we need. I can’t afford to outfit BlueCleave with a bunch of aquatic vehicles and weapons. Not right now.”

“And we need that water right now,” Axle agreed. “Makes sense.”

We approached a black hole in the cavern wall, where my light was simply absorbed into the gloom behind it.

The wall was thick, at least a few feet of solid stone, and the snaking, pulsing line of Sleem slime led straight through the hole. I carefully straddled the thick, snotty line and crouched to see inside, gripping the edge.

Still nothing, no visible return of light. The edges of the hole in the wall were slick and appeared to be dripping water. I leaned back and whispered, “Looks like the aquifer. Did we shut down the main pipe?”

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The masked Knowle slowly shook his head. “It wouldn’t matter if we did, Sleem could get through that water system. It's not built to defend against them.”

“How the hell did they cut a hole through this wall?” I asked him, stepping carefully back over the line of pulsating slime.

“The drone,” he replied with a hiss.

“Surely not?” I swept the cave with my lights, searching for the small drone we had lost when first drilling the pipe. “How would they power it?”

“No need. They simply chipped away at the stone with it.” He sighed, deeply and crouched on his haunches. “I should have known this would happen, sooner rather than later. Nothing about your Sleem infestation has been normative, I don’t know why I thought their escapism would be.”

I stepped over to him and clapped him on the shoulder. “Don’t beat yourself up over it, friend. We’d never have gotten this far without you, all we have to do is figure out how to get 'em back. Get this hole sealed up, maybe increase the strength of their walls.” I trailed off as my friend shook his head.

“I feel like the affiliate is falling apart around us,” he said. “No water, our income sources are drying up, and someone is playing games with us, using those blasted hounds.”

I chuckled and nodded. “I’ve felt that way since day one, but I met a bunch of awesome people who have helped me, and it hasn’t fallen apart yet,” I said, offering him my hand. “It’s just another problem to solve, we’re good at that. C’mon, no time for despair.”

Axle snorted, a sound muffled by his mask, and took my hand. I hauled him up and he looked around the room. “Our bigger problem is Quadrum. I don’t think it would be wise to go back without something solid to offer them on where their Sleem went.”

“Right, I always manage to forget about that creature. Pushy thing,” I muttered.

Axle raised a finger to quiet me. “You must curb your disrespect. Quadrum could destroy this entire affiliate.”

I shrugged. “So could I. Hell, so could you, given the right time and resources. Destructive capability is not a valid reason to show respect,” I fired back.

“It’s not about that, it’s about survival,” Axle immediately replied. “One day, Quadrum will be satisfied with their research, and if we’re very lucky, they’ll just vanish. Never bother us again, and possibly leave behind all of that insanely expensive technology. Until that day, they’re an ax over our heads, and you need to keep that in mind.”

I pulled up Afflqwst again and looked at the current quest. ‘Calm the irritation of your beholder guest,’ it said. But it gave me the option of killing the beholder too, with a very low chance of success. In that moment, I had to wonder what a shot from a transdimensional pulse cannon would do to a beholder. I looked at Axle, but kept the thought to myself, for when I was certain the dangerous being was not listening in.

The legend of the brothers Delvago might need to be put to the test.

Not that I could afford them at that moment. Our flex account had stayed brutally empty since Los Angeles. We were hemorrhaging morties, trying to keep the water flowing. And without the nice, convenient aquifer under our feet, that task continued to grow in expense. Turns out, aquifers go empty, and take a really long time to refill. Who’da thunk?

That was a problem I shared with my species, a narrowing of foresight. Unless something directly affected me in a negative way, I was loath to do anything about it.

But then, with the weight of my affiliate above my head, I felt the cost of that inaction.

It was time that I altered our course.

 

 

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