The Tracker's Dilemma: (A Mandrake Company Science Fiction Romance) by Ruby Lionsdrake

alarmed to shocked to wary.
    He wished the Eytect unit did not allow him to see such details. He hadn’t truly done anything to those bats, had he? More likely, they had realized they were outnumbered and had finally given in. But the way they had all turned away in the same instant… that had been strange. Almost eerie.
    Mandrake led the way to the wall, or at least he tried. Ms. Keys charged past him.
    “Did you send them away?” she asked, running up and latching onto Tick’s arm.
    “No, I just yelled at them.”
    “We yelled at them too,” Mandrake said dryly. “They didn’t leave.”
    “Maybe your yell wasn’t fierce enough,” Tick said.
    “Really.”
    Tick didn’t like the way the rest of the men hung back. What, did they think they would catch some disease if they got close to him? Maybe he could have Hemlock show them his dice trick when they got back. That was far eerier than shouting at big bats.
    “You find something over here?” Mandrake asked, looking at the ferns edging the base of the cliff and at the rock wall itself.
    “I saw a bat fly into the wall up there.” Tick pointed. “It didn’t bounce off. It went right through.”
    “You saw or you saw ?”
    Tick tapped his Eytect unit. “Might be an opening behind some clever camouflage here.”
    He poked at the wall with the tip of his rifle barrel while trying to ignore the whispered comments from the men. His name was coming up frequently, and he doubted it was because they were admiring his hat.
    Mandrake and Keys poked around too. The others stayed back, keeping watch—or avoiding Tick.
    “Who seeks entrance to the Hidden Grotto?” a mechanical voice asked after Mandrake tried twisting a nub.
    “Aside from a wounded bat?” Tick muttered.
    “ I seek entrance,” Ms. Keys said, bouncing in place, not noticing the mud squishing beneath the heels of her boots. “Hailey Keys. Keys. With a surname like that, how can you not let me in?”
    The voice did not respond.
    “If it’s dry in there, I wouldn’t mind coming in,” Tick said.
    That also did not receive a response. He suspected that only people who were on the guest list would be invited in.
    “Me and my grenades would like to come in,” Striker said, ambling up with one of the explosives in hand. “One way or another.” He winked at the captain.
    Mandrake, still standing with his hand on the nub, ignored him. “Willow Mandrake,” he said quietly toward the cliff.
    Tick doubted that would be any more effective than the other comments, but a beam of green light burst from the wall, forming a cone of illumination around Mandrake. His finger touched the trigger of his rifle, but he did not otherwise move. A soft hum came from the cliff as the light seemed to scan him.
    “I love it when he confesses to that name,” Striker whispered to Tick.
    After several long seconds, during which Mandrake remained utterly still, the beam of light disappeared. Tick thought he would be denied access, too, but then a portion of the cliff disappeared, revealing a cave. It was dark inside, aside from a few blinking green lights in the distance, but the Eytect unit picked up computer equipment along one wall and plants growing in raised garden beds in rows along the even floor.
    “You got some druid blood we don’t know about, Cap’n?” Tick asked, trying to gauge how far up the cliff the large entrance went. Had that bat chanced upon some break in the barrier that camouflaged the door? It had been a solid wall, or a forcefield at least, because he had poked all around this area with his rifle barrel.
    Mandrake shook his head. “I’ve done some work for druids in the past. That’s it.”
    “The weird technodruids of Midway 5?”
    “No, I’ve only heard of them. And broken out of one of their jail cells.”
    Keys started to walk into the cave, but Mandrake blocked her way. “Me first, then Tick and Striker.”
    “Whatever you say, Captain.” She produced a powerful flashlight and