CHAPTER 33
l’ve said my
farewells.
Doc said to check
back with him regarding an implant, but I won’t do that in person.
I’ll continue my injections and bounce a message to him when
they’ve restored communications. When things have settled down,
I’ll see what he can do for me. But that will take time.
We’re done here. I’m
the first to arrive at the south exit. I doubt anyone else is as
eager to get some distance from this place. Each moment I stand
here constitutes a bitter reminder that March chose to
stay.
Here with
Keri.
It stings like hell
that he put it that way: You don’t need me.
Keri does. Though I don’t want to be jealous, the feeling burns
in my veins like an acid cocktail. She’s young; she doesn’t have
all the fucked-up dysfunctions I’ve collected over the
years.
But I can’t dwell on
petty, baseless jealousy. I have a job to do. As I straighten my
shoulders, Jael turns up, with Dina reclining on an air sled like a
queen. I smile at that.
“What happened to the
harness?”
He shrugs. “Doc said
he could spare this. It wasn’t even working when I started messing
with it. And she isn’t bleeding, so it should be safer all
around.”
“What, like I’m not
even here?” Dina mock-glares at me and then reinforces the scowl by
whirring over and giving me a whack.
“I’m glad you’re
mobile,” I say. “I was worried about you.”
She snorts. “Save the
mushy stuff for when we get off this Mary-forsaken rock. Is March
almost ready?”
Vel arrives, saving
me the trouble of answering. I wonder how they’re going to react to
the news. A lance of fresh pain stabs through me, but I tamp it
down. He made his choice.
“I have confirmed the
retreat,” he says in lieu of a greeting. “We will not have a
cleaner shot at this for months most likely.”
“We’ll probably still
see some fighting,” Jael adds. “But I think Vel and I are a match
for whatever we find down here.”
The bounty hunter
nods. “I predict we’ll find the enemy wounded and disorganized,
separated from the rest of the clan.”
“I can do my part,”
Dina adds. “I’m not helpless.”
“Never said you were,
darling.” Jael ruffles her hair. “I expect you to cover us. You’re
getting the only disruptor, after all.”
We talk a little
longer, discussing our game plan. Hit rolls up with a bag strapped
to her back, looking elegant and dangerous. “We ready?” she
asks.
“Lucky break. I found
us a new pilot.” I don’t pose it as a question.
We need her, so it’s not open to discussion.
Everyone turns to
gape at me, but Dina recovers first. “What about March?”
“He’s staying,” I
answer.
“Give me five minutes
with him. Don’t go anywhere.” The mechanic’s mouth firms into an
angry white line. With that she whips away.
Maybe she’ll convince
him where I couldn’t. Either way, Jael doesn’t seem concerned. Not
surprising, he doesn’t know March well. But I do notice him
inspecting Hit’s wrist without any particular subtlety.
“You can take us up?”
the merc asks her. “What rigs have you flown?”
She gives him a
toothy smile. “You let me worry about that, pretty boy. Find me a
ship, and I’ll fly the shit out of it.”
While they lapse into
quiet banter, Vel surprises me with a soft touch on the shoulder.
“Are you all right?”
I register his
sympathy with a certain amount of irony. The least human among us
offers me the most emotional support, it seems. I move my shoulders
in an unconvincing shrug.
“I will be.”
Someday.
Even if I can’t
imagine that day right now, with the loss so fresh, it’ll come.
Pain always fades. If I learned nothing else from life, I’ve
certainly mastered that.
More than five
minutes pass while we wait for Dina. When she returns, her blue
eyes look grim, and she won’t meet my gaze.
“Let’s go,” she says
tersely. “We’ve wasted enough time here.”
Taking that as his
cue, Vel tinkers with the motion sensors set at the south tunnel.
“This will disable them long enough for us to get past without
raising an alarm. They’ll come back online in sixty seconds, so we
need to be quick.”
I nod. “Noted. Let’s
get Dina through first.”
She bitches, “What am
I, bait?”
But I notice she
doesn’t hesitate to whip around the barricade and out into the
tunnel beyond, faster than me, and I’m hot on her heels. The rest
join us in record time. Behind us, I hear the beep that means their
motion sensor has come back online, preventing the McCulloughs from
sneaking up their backsides. Mentally, I wish them luck with it,
but we have our own battle to fight now.
Mary, I hope we’re
not running in the dark. Vel may have senses that can compensate,
but the rest of us are only human. I don’t think this group will be
as sympathetic to my irrational fear either. They’re not like Doc.
They won’t be patient and understanding about it.
To my vast relief,
Jael cracks a torch-tube, and the sickly yellow-green light sizzles
into existence, dispelling the hungry shadows to a greater
distance. They’re not gone entirely, but I can breathe now despite
the heavy stone that entombs us.
My palms feel sweaty,
but I’ll deal. We don’t have any Psi with us to reveal how much
bravado factors into my façade. I tell myself that’s a good thing
as I fall in behind Vel.
The merc leads the
way, weapons in hand. Jael wields a shockstick in one, a sonicblade
in the other, and looks as though he’ll be lethal in a fight. I’m
overly conscious of our breathing, the scrape of our boots against
the rock floor.
I don’t know how far
we’ve come. I just watch Vel’s back and put one foot in front of
the other. The bounty hunter monitors our twists and turns. If
anyone can get us out of this, he can. He’s my miracle man.
Despite Doc’s
assurances, I fear that the Teras might have found a way in. Who
knows how they burrow? If they turn their claws to it, I bet they
could tear through the cave walls and into the warren leading to
the bunker.
Maybe that’s what
drives the McCullough retreat. As soon as they get clear, they’ll
send the Teras in somehow. I shudder, thinking along those lines. I
remember all too well how their wings sounded swarming around me in
the night, the screams of the dying, and the grotesque sight of
bloodied body parts arcing into the wind, devoured in an invisible
monstrous feast.
I’m so busy reliving
old nightmares that I don’t know we’ve got company until Dina
shouts. The disruptor in her hand flashes with a wild shine, and
someone screams in agony. Wherever she hit him will be raw meat,
flesh scrambled inside out. Unless she hit him in the heart or the
head, shock will kill him, not the injury itself.
As we get nearer, I
see five McCullough scouts, red-eyed and rough. Dina has already
dropped one, and she stays near the back, waiting for the weapon to
cycle back up for another shot. The other three leap into the fray
with a ferocity that steals my breath.
I pause, whip out my
own shockstick, and assume the position in front of Dina. If anyone
gets through our first line, I’m not letting them get to her. I
hear her snort at my protective position, but she doesn’t
protest.
Our new pilot wades
in with her bare hands, assuming a fighting crouch that tells me
she’s had extensive hand-to-hand training. She validates her
nickname by dodging a sloppy lunge and lays her first opponent out
with an open-hand blow to his brow. He goes down like a
stone.
I’m amused when she
flashes me a grin. “I wasn’t bragging, y’know.”
Vel carries hooked
blades that he uses as an extension of his hands. Watching him
fight, I realize they’re intended to substitute for his hidden
claws. Beside him, Jael spins like a dervish; he’s all offense, all
insane fury. He doesn’t bother trying to protect himself, but then,
I know why.
One of the
McCulloughs dodges past, evidently thinking he’ll use Dina as a
hostage. I know what he figures. I’m small, weak. I’m no threat at
all.
Well, the enforced
rest has done me good, and after losing March, I feel like a fight.
“You should run,” I tell him with a feral grin.
I’m Sirantha Jax, and I have had enough.
