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Sha Cyborg Zumm entered my tent. The head of my own security group. A grizzled, strong man, with muscles “carved out of stone” and flint brains, as the participants of the expedition rumored due to the fact that he wore a metal hoop on his head. It seemed to someone that it went deep under his skin, and inside was the ancient technology of Outs that our great ancestors used on genetically imperfect people to compensate for their shortcomings.
Cyborg didn't look like a person with flaws. Except that his silent gaze radiated a certain contempt for me, unnoticeable in the eyes of other members of the expedition. Admittedly, this annoyed me, but, having got used to envy since school, I did not interpret his look as hostile. I was just waiting for my opportunity to surprise him in order to change his attitude towards myself. But for now, I had to be surprised.
“There is news, Owner,” the man said, looking at the drawing of the carpet in front of him. The carpet depicted a sea serpent in a fight with a whale.
"How many times have I asked you not to call me Owner.”
“Excuse me, Master Bike.”
“Go on,” I nodded, going back to my notes.
“There is unrest in the camp.”
I silently continued to study the book I found in the palace of the Salat Sarai.
"There's a rumor that the girl we took in the ruins thinks you're a demon. And you know how... superstitious our sailors are.”
I didn't look up at Sha Zumm, but I stopped reading.
"Two of them got into the tent where she was being held, and she told them such things that I had to string them up on a dry tree at the entrance to the camp.”
Now I was silently looking straight at the man, whose shadow was dancing jerkily in the uneven light of the gas burners.
“But I couldn't stop the fire. Soon the whole camp will know that you are Ogunter Lag, the great worm, the cause of Iria's destruction. Many of our expedition are the children of Irian slaves.”
"What nonsense," I said wearily, holding my head in my hands, "is it really superstition that can destroy the expedition of the Trade Federation.”
"Superstitions are capable of more than that, Master Bike.”
There was an uncomfortable silence. I felt the muscles on my arms shaking, and asked:
“And what do you suggest?”
“We should leave.”
“In what way?”
“In the only way possible, Master Bike, you need to take what you can carry on the long journey and we’ll go into the ruins, and from there through the desert to Minea," and he threw two backpacks on the floor, "I have collected what will allow us to survive until we find reliable sources of food and water.”
“I don't understand anything…”
Cyborg looked at me in silence, not feeling the need to continue the conversation.
"Then we should take her with us.”
Sha Zumm sighed heavily.
“Don't mind. I have to figure out what's going on. Otherwise, what's the point that we ended up in this moon-forgotten place.”
“I'd like to know that too.”
I was seething with indignation, but restrained myself again and only looked carefully into the eyes of Cyborg, who nodded silently and left.
"And who's going to get the girl out of the tent? And now what, should I wait and shake here?”
"No, you're coming with me," Sha Zumm said, reappearing in the aisle.
In his hands was a sailor's uniform, which he threw on my table.
“Hurry up, Master Bike, we don't have much time.”
I hurriedly changed my clothes, feeling with what reluctance my body takes up the problems imposed on it. After looking around the tent, I grabbed a multi-purpose viewing device from the stand and shoved it into the backpack handed to me by Cyborg.
We left the tent, and I noticed that there were few people around. There was no security at the entrance at all. It was a clear moonlit night.
“I've sent everyone I could to long—range duty," Sha Zumm whispered, "I hope they won't figure it out soon.”
Moving between the tents, I could barely keep up with the man. Near one of the tents, he stopped me, and approached the guards on duty at the entrance. I looked out from behind the fabric fluttering in the wind and only managed to notice a faint movement of Sha Zumm, after which both guards fell to the ground.
“Help me,” Cyborg groaned, dragging the body of one of them into the tent.
I ran up and tried to drag the second one inside. But only absurdly rested my feet in the sand and crouched down from the effort. Sha Zumm appeared in the aisle, grabbed us both and dragged inside.
It was dark in the tent until Cyborg turned on the flashlight and illuminated the cage, inside which the girl was tossing in fear like a wild animal.
“Hold it,” said Cyborg and handed me the flashlight.
He himself moved to the cage and opened it. The girl huddled in a corner and mumbled curses through the gag. Sha Zumm grabbed her by the throat and put a bracelet on it.
“Now you will obey me.”
The girl tried to pull away from the man, but the electric discharge from the bracelet shackled her entire body.
“Do what I say, there is no pain. One step to the side, a lot of pain. Understand?”
Panting, she looked first at me, then at him and slowly nodded.
"Okay, now get these guys inside," Cyborg said, removing the magnetic shackles from her.
The girl looked into the man's eyes in surprise.
“Quickly!” he shouted.
And she rushed to me, grabbed the guard's clothes and dragged them into the cage. The second one was shoved there by Sha Zumm himself. When she got back out of the cage, I went over and took the gag off her face. Her whole body was extremely tense at that moment.
“My name is Bike.”
“You will get acquainted later,” hissed Cyborg, looking out of the tent, “now we need to get out of the camp.”
He took something out of his pocket and pressed a button. There was an explosion in the distance, and the sky shook and lit up with a bright flash.
“Follow me," shouted Sha Zumm and disappeared into the passage.
Pushing each other, we rushed after him.
I couldn't resist glancing at the blazing glow. It was the fuel supplies that we brought from the ships that were burning. But I didn't have time to enjoy the spectacle. Cyborg's strong hand pulled me along and now we were rushing among the tents towards the ruins of the Salat Sarai.
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An hour later I was completely exhausted and just sat down on a dune, refusing to move on. The backpack pulled my shoulders, my legs became completely wadded up.
"Carry him," Sha Zumm ordered the girl.
“Me?” she asked in fright, but immediately received an electric shock, screamed and, coming up to me, began to clumsily lift me.
The man was looking through binoculars at the camp.
“Come on, kids, hurry up, they're already coming for us.”
"What's in your backpack, Damn of Minea? Maybe you'll throw it away?" the companion asked with a grunt, shouldering me on her fragile back.
“You can't. This is a very rare device," I said shyly, clasping her neck, "it came from the sky. I can't leave it. My master gave it to me as a token…
“Shut up already. It's easier to carry this way," she muttered in response and dragged me along the dunes.
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In the morning light we reached the ruins. May-e-oka, this is how the girl introduced herself after a long torment with electricity, just fell and did not get up on her feet, even if the Sha Zoom turned on the third level of pain. Cyborg grimaced, hoisted her onto his shoulder and told me to go to the prayer tower in the center of the palace complex while he looked around the neighborhood.
An hour or two later, when it became very hot outside, he returned. Leaving the girl by the wall, Sha Zumm began to look with binoculars through the broken wall towards the sea.
“I tried to confuse the tracks,” he said indifferently, looking at the dunes sparkling in the distance, “but this will only throw them off the trail for a while.”
I got up and went to the head of my security. Now the only representative of it. Who caused me awe and respect for the skill he showed. I had to admit it a complete opposite of my idea to impress him came to life. I didn't dare tell him that, though.
“Let me see.”
Cyborg handed over the binoculars. Heavy and uncomfortable it pulled my hands down, which made it difficult to look. Sha Zumm took its edge and pointed it in the right direction. The lenses made a noise adjusting to my eyes, and I immediately saw black dots approaching the ruins. There were a lot of them. At least a hundred.
Cyborg turned, releasing his hand, and I immediately lost sight of them. From behind, May-e-oka was struggling to get to her feet.
“You were waiting for him here. Why?”
The girl looked up at the man full of hatred. But she immediately received the discharge of the third level.
“Don't," she pleaded, and tears began to fall from her eyes.
But Sha Zumm did not think to stop. The girl twitched in agony and the cry that she made was like the howl of a dying desert dog.
“We are b-brought u-up..." she began with difficulty, as soon as the Cybor finished, "with p-p-prophecies that the Curse of Min-nea will return here. He w-won't be able to r-resist and will return to the sec-ret room. That's why we are brought up to w-wait.”
“What kind of room? Why do you think that Master Bike is the Ogunter Lag?”
"He f-fits the description. All. A-age. T-the l-looks. He should be drawn here. I-irresistibly. The only thing that does not go with the prophecy is that he will look for a ship, and will not come on a ship.”
"I will be looking for a ship?" What a heresy... Ogugne Crab. Well, I've heard tales about the death eater worm, but to simply be it… Where all these superstitions come from? What kind of organization is this that sows all this nonsense?”
“What kind of room?” Sha Zumm repeated the question.
But May-e-oka silently looked at both of us, crawling away to the wall. Then she was shaken and thrown to the sides. She grabbed the bracelet around her neck, which made it seem like she wanted to rip her head off. Soon she lost consciousness.
“It looks like she has some kind of block in her brain,” Cyborg muttered thoughtfully, looking at her head, “our girl is not as simple as it seems.”
He called me over and showed that under the hair on her head were two dense round bones sticking out of the skin, on both sides of the head. It looks like they were... sawn off.
“Horns?” I was surprised.
“Okay,” boomed Sha Zumm, getting up, “we will solve this riddle later, now we need to find a way to escape from our own sailors. Your device, Master Bike, can it see through walls?”
I nodded.
With the help of the device, I quickly found a room on the territory of the palace that had no entrance. Only a few ventilation pipes led inside, but they were so narrow that even pushing May-e-oka inside would not work.
“What are we going to do?” Cyborg asked gloomily, tapping one of the walls of the room for the fifth time, which overlooked the balcony covered with sand.
"I don't know," I shrugged, peering anxiously into the ruins.
“Ogunter Lag will be able to get into the room,” said the girl tied to the Cyborg's back.
"But I'm not him!" I almost shouted and stamped my foot.
And at the same moment a bullet whistled over my head. Then the second one. I fell on the sand.
“Crawl! Crawl to the arch!” Sha Zumm shouted, hiding behind a destroyed column and firing back.
Under the roar of shots, I crawled to the archway, behind which a dilapidated stairway was black. Cyborg untied May-e-oka and threw her to me. She fell to the sand, hitting her head against the wall. It looked like she had lost consciousness and I had to drag her along with me.
"I'm not some kind of crab," I said with difficulty, dragging her into the archway, "I'm a man. Period.”
A long corridor led further into the darkness. The stairs turned out to be filled to the top with sand. I started rummaging in my backpack to look at the device, but my hands were shaking so much that I feared that I would just break my master's gift. Not finding anything better, I continue to drag the girl with me into the darkness.
When the arch began to seem like a white spot, the corridor took and ended with another pile of sand. I couldn't make out anything in the dark, took several deep breaths, as I was taught at school, and reached into my backpack for the device. Turning it on, I ran the scanner over the surface. The thickness of the sand went far into the depths of the palace, and around the room, encircling the entire balcony. We had no chance to get out of here.
The figure of Sha Zumma appeared in a white spot on the other side of the corridor. He was running in our direction, periodically looking back and ducking at the sound of a shot.
“Well?” he shouted.
“Dead end,” I said.
“How is a dead end? Didn’t you use your stupid machine?” Cyborg was surprised and sat down behind the statue's pedestal covered with sand.
I couldn't find anything to answer and just banged my fists on the sand. Other figures appeared in the passage and red dots of laser sights ran along the walls.
"I don't want to die," I whined.
“Brat,” Sha Zumm growled.
"Ogunter Lag will be able to get into the room," the girl said again.
“I'm not your cucumber, curse you moons!” I shouted in a frenzy, but my cry was immediately drowned in the roar of shots.
We all have buried in the sand. I squeezed my eyes shut and covered my ears.
Something moved behind my back.
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