Chapter Text
The Star Beagle Adventures
Episode 9: Long Distance Runaround
Scene 9: Shadow Rising
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Shadow Rising
Shadow had roused and left her hiding place under the floor by the door of her cell. These cells were designed to be locked from the outside, locking devout servants in for the night. The locking mechanism was simple, but effective - a short bar that swiveled down from the door frame on the outside of the door to fit into a large hook on the outside of the door, preventing the door from swinging outward.
Shadow had long ago carefully dug out part of the door frame and replaced it with a carefully crafted section of framing. It took a few minutes to disassemble this from the inside, but once done, the door opened normally with the part of the door frame that held the bar swinging out with the door. She had to stop and reassemble this and re-lock the door against the possibility of discovery.
And she had to perform all of these tasks by touch in pitch darkness.
Normally, the compound would be immersed in darkness at night. No watch lights. No lanterns. Nothing to spoil the night vision glasses of the watchers. Shadow would have had no chance in such a situation. But tonight was different. A great bonfire had been lit in the center of the compound to burn the books of Ben Urri Urri (and, had they found her, Shadow’s previous persona, Sheeux Vosq Nala (and, had the devout become aware of it, their most dangerous adversary, the writer Ben Urri Urri himself.))
Shadow had chosen the moment that the bonfire would be raging the highest, creating patterns of light and shadow throughout the compound that gave her places to hide. She moved like a shadow, losing herself along the sides of buildings, then along the sides of the walls, then up to one of the watch stations. Four watchers would be inside. Two tasked with looking into the compound and two tasked with watching outside. The pair looking inward would be more dangerous to her in this moment, as they would not be wearing their night-vision gear, due to the bonfire. They were also more likely to be distracted.
Shadow’s blowguns were not even 5” long, but that was all that was needed for such close range work. Her position, flush with the door, kept her hidden from the two outward looking watchers. She prepared four blowguns, then targeted the inward looking watcher furthest from her. The tiny, poisoned dart found its mark, hit with enough force to break the skin and dropped silently away. The watcher scratched his cheek in irritation, then, less than a second later, dropped to the floor, dead, drawing the attention of the other three.
While the two outward looking watchers were briefly blinded and engaged with removing their night vision gear, Shadow targeted the closer of the inward-looking watchers, embedding the poisoned dart in the back of his neck. She shifted position slightly to target the other two, felling each of them before they had their night vision gear off.
One watch station would not be enough. The area outside each section of wall was surveilled by watch stations located at each of two corners of that section. Shadow slipped along the top of the wall to the opposite corner station, there using another four blowguns to quickly dispatch four more watchers. This time she slipped into the watch station and took a rifle and a handgun as well as a few other supplies before making her way down the wall to the outside of the compound.
Taking down two watch stations would give her no more than 30 minutes grace before shift change, but that was more than long enough for her to, at a full run, put miles between herself and the compound.
While the watchers, the devout and all the other religious bureaucrats living at the compound were more than somewhat addled by their close, endless contact with the anointed, their operatives among the general population in the cities beyond were not. By the time Shadow reached the outskirts of the nearby city of Valian, the secret police had been activated to look for her.
Sheeux Vosq Nala had developed an escape plan that involved a waiting private shuttle in Valian, operated by an admirer of the Nalas, on the promise of sexual favors from a beautiful, if aging Nala. Shadow had no doubt this pilot was already in custody and being tortured for information.
Ben Urri Urri had also developed an escape plan that involved a cell of followers that included another space pilot. Shadow had no doubt the lot of these conspirators were also already in the hands of the secret police.
Instead, she activated her own plan to get off planet…
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