She felt the hairs on her neck stand on end. Without moving Eva saw the familiar face of the taxidermist reflected in the glass next to her. With a gasp she spun around. The squat creature sneered at Eva. In his nasally voice he said, “No use running. You cannot escape.” Behind him a tall helmeted royal guardsman stood on either side. Each held a polished decorated sonic boomrod.

The hard muzzle of a boomrod shoved Eva in the back as she stumbled into the taxidermist’s lab. “Ow, that hurts!” she whined, struggling against her tight arm binds.

“Ah, it speaks!” the taxidermist said, thrilled. “You must have a v-coder on you, I suppose?” He nodded to the guards. “Search her.”

A tall guardsman frisked Eva, placing the found items on a white table: the vocal transcoder, several stolen remotes, a half-eaten SustiBar, and the Omnipod.

This is not good, Eva thought.

“Very good!” The taxidermist examined the Omnipod closely through his thick goggles as he turned it over in his tiny hands. “Guards, I thank you for your assistance. Please inform Curator Zin that we’ve found the fugitive. I’ll have it prepared for the queen shortly.”

Thankfully I am still in range of the transcoder and can understand what he is saying.

The royal guardsmen left the room through the shutter door. A still-loose flying crab chortled from its perch on top of an empty cell.

Nice work. The place is pretty trashed, Eva thought.

“You’ve caused quite a mess in here,” the taxidermist said as he pressed a button on his remote. An empty cell floated to the center of the floor. “It will take some time to clean all of it up.” The taxidermist retrieved one of his stolen remotes.

Eva looked around; green-yellow goo was spattered all about the previously sterile white laboratory. The sand-sniper was nowhere to be found.

I have to get out of here.

“I can see why Besteel wanted to renegotiate his task after your capture,” said the taxidermist. Another button was pressed and the glass walls of the cell rippled like a watery membrane. “You must have given him quite a hunt. And Besteel loves a good hunt, that he does.”

Eva glared at the taxidermist’s many eyes. “He destroyed my home. He nearly killed me. You have no reason to do this. Please let me go,” she said.

“For a dirt-burrower, you sure do chatter a lot.” The taxidermist snickered as he shoved Eva into the cell. She slipped right through the membrane, tripping onto the cell floor. She scrambled up to hop out, but the membranous wall solidified, holding Eva inside. A thin rod rose up in the middle of her cell floor.

“Please, don’t do this! I’ve done nothing to you!” Eva pleaded, her vision blurred as tears streamed out. Her body was numb from the pain medication, but she trembled in fear nonetheless.