Page 40 of Zane

“I know,” she whispered.“I know they took everythin’. Take one thing back.Take the door.”

Gaspar finally got his lock open and celebrated for half a second before realizing he had released six crocodiles.They slid past him in a low, armored wave, all teeth and offended dignity.

“Wonderful,” he said, flattening himself against the wall.“More logs with opinions.”

Alvin, overhearing this, turned his head just enough to inform him that some logs had excellent hearing.

The eastern chute clogged where panic met hunger.A leopard had cornered a wounded gazelle against a broken column, both of them trembling, both too far gone to listen.

Hank and Oscar waddled in with the grave confidence of old generals and planted themselves between predator and prey.Oscar flicked his tongue at the leopard and sent one thought: If you must make bad decisions, make them after the river.

Blake reached the leopard a breath later, Irene gliding above her shoulder.Together they poured calm and urgency into the animal until its muscles stopped bunching for the kill.

The gazelle bolted first, slipping in the mud, then finding its legs.The leopard watched it go with murderous regret, sneezed rainwater from its nose, and followed.

Thunder cracked so close that the coliseum stones jumped.One of the half-constructed upper walls gave way, sending a sheet of clay, and carved blocks crashing into the ring.

Luke shoved Blake aside as rubble slammed where she had stood.

“I’m fine,” Blake coughed, though mud covered half her face and her knee screamed when she stood.Irene hovered close, bright with anger.

“You are not fine.You are upright, which is different.”

Blake almost laughed, then heard the remaining cages shriek in her mind and turned back toward them.

“Then help me be upright faster.”

The last row held the worst of it: animals meant for the finale, half-starved until their rage would entertain the crowd.A jaguar paced in a circle too small for its body.A rhinoceros slammed its horn against iron already bent from hours of effort.Vultures clung to their perches like old judges, waiting for someone else to die first.

Blake and Irene joined their strength, living heat and ghost-light braided together, and the effect rolled through the last cages like dawn forced into a nightmare.

The jaguar stopped pacing.The rhinoceros lowered its head, not to charge Blake, but to accept the direction she showed it.Gaspar, Luke, and Trak broke the final chains while Alvin waited in the chute, muttering that nobody appreciated traffic control.

Then the arena emptied.Hooves, paws, claws, and bellies thundered through the eastern chute toward the river, guided by Blake’s fierce mind, Irene’s unbreakable voice, Alvin’s grim patience, and the Komodo dragons’ deeply irritating sense of order.

By the time the last vulture lifted into the storm, the coliseum behind them was only rain, broken iron, and the fading echo of a crowd that would never get its show.

Within moments, they were headed to the railcars to release the last of the animals.When they were clear of the coliseum, Luke sent the message.

“The ark is empty.Have fun boys.”

“What now?” asked Blake.

“Now, we get the animals out of the rail cars and see just how many want a ride to their true homes,” said Gaspar.

“Do you think they’ll eat one another?” frowned Blake.

“It’s animal nature, honey.They’re starving and some of those animals were meant to be dinner for them.We can’t stop that.We got them all out, that’s all we can do.”

Blake nodded and looked up to see the railroad tracks on front of them.The cars would have brought the animals directly toward the underlying doors to release the animals.It was all so sick but she felt the pride in her chest at having known she was helping to prevent it all.

“Let’s go,” said Trak.“The night is not over.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

“I thought you two were going to find the informant?” said Ham staring at CJ and Pax.

“No one has seen her for two days.We couldn’t keep searching, besides, the village is small.Maybe she moved on,” said CJ.