6
"Did he get lucky or what?!" Lane asked, watching the infrared footage live in mild disbelief.
"Certainly looked like he gave it thought to me," Duo said, leaning back in her chair as she too watched the creature swimming strongly down the correct path despite making no effort to search for signs beyond figuring out there were three tunnels.
At the bottom of the channel he'd chosen there was a circular marker centered at the entrance, but he'd made no effort to find it. He'd simply measured the hallway blind, treaded water for almost a full minute, then chosen the left hand passage. He was now swimming strongly, and would soon meet the point where the ceiling lowered to meet the water.
"What could possibly have given it away?" Lane asked, turning toward Duo, eyes narrowed. "Supposing for the moment that we rule out luck, give me a breakdown."
Duo spread her hands, but this time it wasn't just the two of them.
Deera's grin was one step short of feral as she said, "He figured us out."
Lane twisted in her seat, turning her attention from the swimming creature on whom she'd pinned her hopes of advancement to the rainbow-haired oddity sitting across from her. Her horns were backward. Most succubi had horns set on the forehead or above the temples. Deera's horns started at the back of her head, circling forward to end in points just over her eyes. Her hair was a disorganized riot of color, her skin a brilliant red. It hurt Lane's soul to look at her, but Deera had a promising career and she'd been chosen to replace Mauren on pure merit.
"Explain," Lane said.
"Handedness. That creature's dominant hand is his right. We used that to choose the left tunnel because most intelligent life, in the absence of contextual clues, instinctively turns toward its dominant side. That male, without asking any questions, immediately went to a wall and followed it until he found the gap. Then he measured the tunnels. He was told it was timed, but still didn't race ahead. He thought everything through, even to the point of analyzing us."
Duo waved a hand as she said, "Okay? How? We haven't interacted with him and Mauren hasn't really told him anything."
"Hasn't she? She's there. Her presence gave us away. She told him she was his wrangler and she was clearly terrified of him. She obviously didn't volunteer. That means we threw her in there. We betrayed her. So if we were watching him, and wanted to make it as hard as possible for him to succeed, we'd have placed the goal down the tunnel he was least likely to pick first. He knows that the only evidence he's given us about his proclivities is his handedness, so he relied on that to pick the correct tunnel. He obviously knows about the sentient inclination toward the dominant side and chose the opposite direction, believing correctly that we would want to make the test difficult."
"How do you know he's right-handed?" Duo asked, waving a hand. "He's never jacked, and he eats with both hands."
"He led with his right when he killed the syban."
Lane grimaced, then twisted her head in reluctant admiration. She wasn't sure who deserved more respect, Deera ... or the creature.
Turning, she watched him find the place where the tunnel's roof lowered to the waterline.
Deera chuckled darkly and said, "Now we find out how he handles uncertainty. If he swims too slowly, he runs out of air. If he swims too quickly, he might miss another branch. He's kept a hand on the wall the whole time."
"How does he know there isn't a gap on the other side that he's missing?" Duo asked.
Deera said, "It wouldn't tell us anything. Everything about this test is designed to teach us about him. We wouldn't learn anything by adding arbitrary difficulty so nothing about this test can rely on luck. He's figured that out."
"If he's really that smart, he'll know the underwater gap can't be longer than he could reasonably swim," Lane said.
"Ah, but we've never seen him swim," Deera said, a note of vicious glee in her voice. "He knows that. So now he's wondering just how well we've measured his physical fitness so far. If he couldn't swim at all he'd have failed the test immediately, but beyond that we really have no idea how far he can go underwater or how long he can consciously hold his breath. We know how long his biology can withstand oxygen deprivation, but swimming underwater is as much about willpower and practice as it is about purely physical ability. He knows we'll have tried to make it a subjectively long swim, and he'll be wondering if there are any holes in the ceiling where he could get oxygen if he takes extra time to explore."
"Are there?" Duo asked.
"No."
"So what do you think he'll do?" Lane asked.
"He's already hyperventilating. See? He'll oxygenate as much as he can, then swim as fast and far as he can go. If he comes up and it's not far enough, then he'll pass out and we rescue him. He has to know we won't let him die during a test. He's realized there won't be any oxygen breaks because Mauren told him this was an endurance test."
"She said it was probably an endurance test," Duo pointed out.
"He's obviously important to us, meaning the person put in charge of his care must be competent. With nothing else to go on, he'll trust her opinion because she was his wrangler."
Lane blinked. Deera was clearly the right choice to replace Mauren in this position. If anyone could manipulate this creature into doing what they needed it to do, it was the little rainbow-haired monster seated behind her.
Still, she had too recently come to her position, and the test hadn't born out yet. It was too early to give her a compliment either way.
"Wow, look at him go," Duo breathed, a note of awe in her voice.
Lane looked. For a land mammal, he was obviously accustomed to the water and a strong swimmer. He was using both his hands and feet, and had given up keeping contact with the wall in an all-out bid to gain as much distance as possible.
Glancing up at the map of the test displayed in the upper left-hand corner of the screen, she noted that the underwater portion was fifty meters. Any succubus that knew how to swim could make the distance, but they had wings to help drive them forward and this creature had none.
She blinked as he passed the fifty meter mark and kept going. When he finally came up, she absently asked, "How far was that?"
"Seventy-two meters," Deera replied.
"Where does that put him?"
"Out of all cataloged land-based sentients? Probably somewhere near the bottom of the first quintile, top of the second. I'd have to run a comparison to tell you the exact percentage. He's an impressive specimen," Deera said.
Lane smiled, grinning viciously as she watched her prize. It was obvious he could see the glow of the button in front of him, and he confirmed it less than a minute later when he swam down and slammed his foot into it, using the push to send him back to the surface.
The lights came on in the testing facility, and the door just above him opened to reveal the guard who would escort him back to his room.
"I'd say he earned his bed," Duo commented.
"Yes," Lane mused, unable to suppress her grin. "I'd say you're right."