Antoinette dragged herself up out of slumber, looking around. The small barred window in the wall showed the sky, red with sunset. Not yet, she thought to herself, letting her mind relax back into sleep again.
The next time she woke, the sky was black. Her shoulders throbbed with pain from the strain of the cuffs on her elbows. Struggling to her feet, she crossed the room and looked out of the window. No lights showed in any of the buildings. She went to the reinforced glass window in the door and looked through it. The room was empty except for one man at a computer console near the farther end. His feet rested on the desktop as he read a magazine, occasionally glancing at the monitor. The clock on the wall said 2:49 AM. She went back to the cot and lay down on the floor beside it. She realized the tiger would be too heavy for the cot and might break it, making enough noise to bring the guard running. Trying to change to the tiger, bound as she was, would likely injure her forelegs, possibly even break them. If the guard came and found a tiger writhing in pain where the girl had lain, he’d probably shoot first and wonder where the girl went later. She bit her lip, anticipating the pain, and let the much larger tiger come to the fore of her mind.
Agony exploded in her shoulders as her arms were wrenched from their sockets by the transformation. Clinging desperately to consciousness, the tiger went insubstantial. Her front legs slid through the cuffs and fell limply to the floor with a fresh burst of pain and she passed out, changing automatically back to human. A minute or so later, she regained consciousness. The two pairs of handcuffs and her skirt lay on the floor beneath her and her shoulders burned with pain. The bed. I must get back into the bed, she thought. It will take several minutes for my shoulders to heal. The guard may look in. He must not see me on the floor.
Twisting her body, she got one knee under her, gasping as her shoulder touched the floor. Biting her lip to keep from screaming, she braced her forehead on the tile. With a convulsive heave of her body, she got her other knee under her. White-hot agony stabbed through her shoulders and the world darkened. I must not faint, she thought desperately.
After several long moments, the pain subsided slightly. She rested, her breath coming in sobs. Then, carefully, she raised up, sitting back on her heels. Blinding anguish filled her mind as her arms moved and her shoulder joints reseated themselves. Blood trickled down her chin as her teeth sank into her lip, sweat beading her brow as she fought the torment. Getting slowly to her feet, she pushed the skirt under the cot with her foot. She took the edge of the blanket between her teeth and lay down, pulling the blanket partially over her bare body. Then she relaxed, breathing raggedly. She could taste blood where she had bitten through her lip. Slowly, the pain in her shoulders faded as they healed.
Long minutes later, the pain was gone. She stood shakily and went to the window again and looked out. There was no-one in sight so she shapechanged and phased out through the wall.
Slinking from one bit of cover to the next, Tigresse made her way like a striped cloud towards the administration building and the General’s office. Her orange fur looked grey in the dim moonlight. Outside the building, she paused, listening carefully. She could hear no signs of life on the far side of the door. She phased through the door and found herself in a lobby. A guard shot to his feet, staring goggle-eyed at her, hand fumbling for his laser pistol. She crashed into him, knocking him to the floor, then seized his head in her jaws, twisted and jerked, breaking his neck with a snap. She stood back, looking at the dead guard. Hide kill, she thought, shoving the body out of sight behind one of the couches against the wall. Then she returned to the fallen laser pistol. She started to hide it, too, then stopped with the weapon in her mouth. Take to Tracker. Turning, she padded silently down the hallway to the General’s office.
The door to the office was closed. She dematerialized and walked through into a dark room. She laid down the gun, then sat down and relaxed, willing the change back to human.
Antoinette stood, pushing her hair back from her face, and switched on the light. Going to the wall behind the desk, she took Tracker’s sword and radio from a shelf. She wrapped the sword belt around the radio and pistol, then went back to the armored door and unlocked it. Finally, she switched off the light, changed back to tiger form, took the bundled equipment in her mouth, and dematerialized through the still-closed door. She bounded down the silent hall and out into the welcome darkness.
Following the persistent tug of her location sense, she made her way towards Tracker. She found his room on the ground floor of another building, the one Tracker had called the secondary barracks. She dematerialized and sank into the ground, coming up under his bed. He rolled over and let his arm dangle over the side. She slid over until his hand rested on her head.
’/'Nette. You made it! You’re wonderful!/’
Tigresse squirmed with pleasure. A moment later, she blurred and Antoinette lay on the floor. She seized his hand and kissed it, then held it pressed against her cheek.
’/Mon amant. What must we do to free you from this place?/’
’/First, we’ve got to get this drain-box off me. Do you think you can bite through the belt?/’
She reached up with her free hand, exploring the belt by touch. ‘/It is made of woven metal fibers and it’ll explode if I unfasten the buckle,/’ he added. ‘/There’s a wire running from the buckle to the box on one side. I think that’s the one that sends the trigger signal. If you chew the other side, we should have no trouble. Either way, we’re free or we’re dead./’
’/I think I can do it, but it will be very slow to do./’
’/We’ll try it. Once I’m free, I want you to attack the main barracks. Maul as many as you can, but the main purpose is to cause a commotion and draw everyone away from this building and the administration building, without getting yourself hurt. I should be able to recharge enough to break out of here, then I’ll go to the General’s office. He’s sure to come there for protection during the emergency. I want to try to capture him and take him out of action. I’ll also trigger my radio to the Emergency beacon and see if we can call in some help.
’/Once you’ve pulled everyone away from the barracks and admin, I want you to go over to the communications building and destroy everything inside. That should disrupt there command and control, making it harder to hunt for us. It may also kill the lights if you break the right circuit, making it even harder for them to track us./’ Each time he named a location, he visualized it for her. ‘/After that I want you to go to the clinic. Doctor Moreaux will likely go there to check on the children when he hears the uproar, if he isn’t living in there. If so, get him to bring my little brother and sister and escape with us. If he is not there, I don’t know where he would be, so you will have to somehow bring the babies with you and hide them somewhere near the fence so we can get them on the way out./’
’/How will I know the Doctor?/’
Tracker visualized Doctor Moreaux for her.
’/When you’ve done that, come back to the General’s office and get me. As soon as we’ve got the General, we’ll leave in his aircar. Can you do all this?/’
’/Oui. And if we do not capture the General?/’
’/Then we’ll try to steal a ground car and make a run for it. The hardest part of this is going to be my escape from this room. The longer I have to wait to recharge, the more risk there is for you./’
’/I have a laser pistol with me. The guard in the other building had one, and I brought it with me when I killed him./’
’/That’s even better. I can use it to burn out the lock on the door to my cell, instead of trying to break it down. Well done, ‘Nette./’
She kissed his hand again. ‘/Tres bien. Shall I begin?/’
’/Yes, beloved./’
