Chapter 17 of 78 · Book 5, The Butcher's Masquerade

Chapter 17 — The security checkpoint

Book: The Butcher's Masquerade · Part: The Vengeance of the Daughter · Previous: Chapter 16 — Clint and Holger · Next: Chapter 18 — Ten minutes, Odette · Floor: Floor 6 — The Hunting Grounds · Series: the series

Opening

We set the two were-castors up with rooms at the inn, and we moved to the saferoom.

Summary

Mordecai in earmuffs: Samantha has been screaming from the training room since Donut told her they were talking to Signet, and in the training room she tells Carl why — 'She's the granddaughter of Princess Yungsten of the Naiad, which makes her my third cousin thrice removed, and she has the ability to give me back my body.' Carl promises to bring her to the assault if she stops squealing, which he had planned anyway; she promises to be his 'ride or die bitch to the end' and tries to bite his finger. Zev's transfer goes through a security checkpoint: a featureless glass-floored chamber in near-zero gravity with Earth turning below — the Indian Ocean, the edge of Madagascar, ninety degrees from the way Carl has ever seen it, Coolie's last view of his own world. Donut vomits her tuna in slow motion. Two Shade Gnoll Riot Forces mercenaries — real ones, in plastic armour with pulse rifles, wrist scanners and diver's flippers at their belts — drop through a hatch, pat them down ('Are you holding any explosives?' 'If I was, you'd know by now'), examine Donut's collar charm, and one of them scratches her chin. In the trailer, in a storm, Zev is out of her diving suit for the first time, thin, with only a rebreather; and Odette is there as a hologram, legless on her floating chair, minutes from air: 'It's regarding your ex-girlfriend […] Beatrice is alive.'

Characters

• Carl — Sees Earth from orbit; hears that Bea is alive.
• Princess Donut — Vomits in near-zero gravity; lets a gnoll scratch her chin.
• Samantha — Signet is her third cousin thrice removed and can give her a body back.
• Mordecai — Earmuffs; a potion recipe interrupted mid-sentence.
• Zev — Out of the suit, thin, a rebreather; 'It’s safe to talk in here.'
• Odette — In the green room as a hologram, with news of Beatrice.
• Bea — Alive.
• The Sledge — Brushes Donut.

Locations

• The security checkpoint — A glass chamber in orbit; Earth below; two gnoll mercenaries.
• Production trailers — Odette's, in a storm.

Motifs

• The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook — Coolie's last view.
• The show — A security checkpoint before the trailer; the couch soaked by a rebreather.
• The Vengeance of the Daughter — Samantha demands to be taken to her cousin.