Chapter 25: Anticipation.
The doc's eyes open. He tries to fight me. I twist, and I'm over him, muffling him, pinning him. He's writhing underneath me. I kinda like it.
He tries to bite, but Nara's gloves are too thick. He does manage to scratch my arm, through the blankets, along the cut I made to show Jack I cared. It stings a bit. I give him a wink he can't see.
He takes almost three minutes to die. When I'm sure he's not there any more, I lift up, tuck him in pretty, straighten his features. Hunt his room until I find his console. It boots up just fine to his thumbprint. He was reviewing Jack's medical records when he went to sleep.
He has all her medical records. And her psych records. Jesus. She has psych records. Why the hell does she have psych records? Is she fucked up? Or just some rich kid wanting therapy?
I grind my teeth, force myself to read the tiny screen. Hits me pretty fast – these ain't therapy records. Someone worked up a whole psychological profile. The type you do on enemy commanders. To highlight the weaknesses. Nice bulleted list. Idealistic. Self sacrificing. Abandonment issues. Grandiosity. History of suicidal ideation. Suggests she's vulnerable to idealistic appeals. "Wants to be a person worth saving." Okay, fine, good to know. Scroll down. "Positive feedback has exceptional results. Surprisingly compliant with suggestion to become engineer." Shit. "Given strong evidence of past rape trauma syndrome, subject likely strong susceptible to Stockholm Syndrome." What the fuck? No details. I glare at the screen.
I turn to her straight up medical records. Perfectly healthy. Contraceptive implant. Now, that's interesting. There's a photo section. I pull it up.
It opens to the picture the doc had finished on. Bruised wrists. That almost undoes me. I know how you get those types of bruises.
The bruised wrists resolve into a shot of her face when she got them. Sixteen years old. The age she was when Toombs dragged her to Audhumla. Jesus. Did they cuff her and rape her? Nothing in the records says either way. I stare at the picture, probably taken in a clinic. Pretty. Angry. Definitely old enough to fuck.
Jesus. Not looking for one handed reading here. Pull up the last shot, taken a few months ago.
She looks . . . fine. Not a medical photo, looks like it was taken at a wedding. Jesus, is she married? I flip back to the demographic stuff. Says she's single. I go back to the picture, study the face. Flushed. Ordinary. Wearing one of those pretty bone shivs I gave her around her neck like a pretty necklace. That makes me happy.
Do a quick scan for anything weird. Only one thing jumps out. "Evidence of human variants in genes. Denies knowledge." There's a line like that in my medrecs.
I close the file and go back to my little room. Jerk off, thinking of her.
Jack was back at work, like she'd never left, working through a rehabilitation project. Old, beautiful building, needed to be hardened to withstand earthquakes, without spending enormous amounts of money. The more she probed, the more things she found she wanted to keep. She almost felt like she was walking through the building. And then she was, her bare feet on the cold stone. She knew she shouldn't be there, but she couldn't resist going to the garden on the roof just this once. There was a ladder. She climbed up and up until her head poked out into the middle of a grove of fruit trees. A man reached down to help her.
"Hey, sis," Dion, her brother, long dead, said with a grin. She looked down the ladder, debating whether to climb down. When alive, her brother had been mercurial; she doubted death had made him easier. As if he knew what she was thinking, Dion's grin dropped away and his hand tightened on her arm, easily pulling her up. Held her close against him for what could have been an instant, could have been an eternity; his dreadlocks falling around her face. Despite herself, she relaxed into his arms. "Missed you," he said, huskily. "Hey, sis," he called over his shoulder. "Look who's here."
A woman in a black and silver uniform turned. "Oh, Dion," she sighed. For a moment, Jack thought it was her mother. She came closer and became Jack's sister, Radne. She touched Jack's face. "I'm sorry, little sister."
Jack's eyes hurt. "Why are you here? You've been dead a million years."
"Don't believe the hype," Dion said, grinning. He was wearing the same uniform as Radne, only with an incongruous, but familiar, green and gold necklace. He pulled a golden coin from his pocket and tossed it in the air. "Call it."
"Isn't that mom's necklace?"
"Yeah. All that's left of her. Call it."
She didn't want to. "Stupid game."
"Only game in town." His voice dropped low and meaningful, and for a moment, he looked more like Riddick than he had any right to. "But if you won't play, I will eat you."
"Don't be monsters, children" Radne said. "We're family."
"Oh, good," Jack said. "I'm sister to a cannibalistic corpse."
"You're the daughter of dragons," Dion said. "Whatdya expect?" He tossed her the coin.
She caught it. Looked at it. On one side a Gorgon's head. On the other, the sun, with the moon passing in front of it. She started to toss the coin back.
"No," Radne said. "Keep it. It might pay your way some day."
"Why does he hate me?" Jack asked. The coin twisted in her hand. She shoved it into a pocket. It burned against her hip.
"Because you survived," Radne said. "Because of where you're going. Because you're going to have a chance to save the day."
"Yeah, right," Dion said. The coin was in his hands again, or one just like it. He tossed it into the air and it spun and spun. "It'd mean submission. Doing what the ice-bitch wants. Working for people who put chains on her wrists. Betraying that monster of hers. She's not a good enough person for any of that." He snatched the coin out of the air.
"Fuck you," Jack said.
He grinned. "I'm there, sis. Just spread your legs." She shuddered. But he looked so much like Riddick she couldn't move. "I don't really hate you. I love you. You're my little sister. I killed for you, long before he did. And I died defending you. So to speak." He tossed the coin. Jack caught it. It was warm.
Radne sighed. "And you want to eat her. Just like he does. Listen, sis, this is it. You're almost home. You're going to find the . . . the McGuffin ex Machina, and you're going have to decide whether or not to use it. If you do, you'll see us again. We can all be dead together. Or you can run."
Jack woke, locked in a cryo tube. The ship was groaning as it decelerated.
Wake up cold. Head back to my ship. Still full of crap and nanites. No takin' off yet unless I steal another.
It's cold too; cold enough that I root around Borson's closet until I find a heavy knit sweater. Still cold. I drape on my ice-giant cape. More of a cloak, really, even though I haven't got the sleeves done.
I rub a hand over my face. Jack's almost here. Dhalgren thinks there's just gonna be three or four of 'em on the ship, but he don't know. Old lady mighta added more security. They're gonna land their little ship in the flight deck and come down the ramp, thinking we're all friends.
I got a gun. I could kill 'em all easy. Maybe.
But I don't want to kill Nara. I don't even wanna kill Dhalgren. I'm kinda regretting killing the doctor. Jack-with-chip is woulda been a whole lot easier to control than Jack-without, if her psych profile's right. If Nara's right that they're fighting the big bad. Jack's gonna wanna help. The more monstrous they are to her, the easier it'll be to take her outta here.
Part of me wants to let her do whatever it is they brought her here to do, then kill the mercs and take her outta here. Leave Nara to do whatever she's gonna do. If these bastards destroyed Coalsack, be doin' the universe a favor to take 'em out.
But the longer I'm here, the bigger risk Toombs' is gonna figure out who I am.
I hunt around until I find a ridiculous orange hat. The sort Riddick would never wear. Jam it over my ridiculous hair, eye myself critically. With the monster pelt, the facial hair, the stupid sweater and the orange hat, I look like a crazed mountain man. The type who doesn't know this hat is ridiculous. Nice thing about the cold, I can keep on the gloves. Won't help for long if they've got good DNA sniffers, but lotta mercs don't hold with that.
I root around and find the necklace I was gonna give to Jack. Nicely barbaric. Too much? I slip it on. Not much for jewelry, but hey. Fancy dress.
Rearrange my hardware so I can reach it. My ship tells me Nara's out side, calling me. I go see what she wants. She's at the bottom of the ramp, looking twitchy.
"The doctor's dead," she says.
"Huh," I say. "You off him?"
Her lips twitch. "Not really my thing," she says. Runs a hand over her head. "Look. He died in his sleep. We gotta put him in cold storage to ship back to his people. Can you – can you help?"
"Sure." I don't smile, but I want to. This'll mess up the forensics something fierce. Wonder if she suspects. "What happened?"
She shrugs. "Hell if I know. Didn't look like it hurt."
We load the body in a cryo tube and wait for Toombs's little ship to land. All three of us; me, Nara, and Dhalgren. Standing shoulder to shoulder like we're friends. The ship lands, and Toombs walks down. "Hey, goatfucker," he says.
"Hey," Dhalgren says, sounding sheepish.
"So you lost the doctor," Toombs says. He gives me a puzzled look. I stick close to Nara. Like I'm in it for her. He might buy it.
"I didn't lose him, goat fucker," Dhalgren snaps. "He lost himself. Died in his sleep."
"Be as that may," Nara says, goin' all high class on us all, "We need the young lady's assistance. Please bring her out."
Toombs looks at her, one of those slow and lazy looks that I figure means he's trying to play like he's playin' stupid. Fortunately, he is stupid. "Ice bitch told me not to lose her again."
"So don't lose her again," Nara says. "The Emissary also wants us to finish our work as quickly as possible."
The woman from Toombs' message comes out, all muscle and mean. She nods at Nara like they're buds, but ignores me. Huh. "What do you wanna do, boss?" She's got a fuckin' big gun strapped to her hip.
Toombs seems to come to a decision. "Let's go get the princess," he says. "Dhal, you still got that jewelry you picked up for her last time?"
"Huh?" Dhalgren says.
"Come on, goat fucker," Toombs says, exasperated. Dhalgren follows him into the ship. Leavin' Nara and me standin' there like idiots.
She's rubbing her arms like she's cold. I think about it for a moment, and put my hands on her shoulders. Give 'em a squeeze. "He gonna be a problem?"
She looks up at me, lookin' old. "For me? No. But that poor girl." I can feel a shiver go through her. She looks away from me. "I'm glad you're here," she says, low. I don't know what to say to that. I just squeeze her shoulders again. "God I want this to be over," she mutters. "What did we do to live in such times?"
"Don't think it works that way," I murmur, not really thinkin' about it. But it seems to mean something to her.
"No. I don't think it does either." The hatch opens, and my heart stops. For the first time in weeks - years - I see her. Only she's all grown up and she's not lookin' at me.
She comes down the ramp, looking down. Her feet are bare and her hands are cuffed behind her back. She's got that cryo fog around her and maybe something else. Toombs has a hand on her arm. It's all I can do not to rip it off. But I still don't know who else is on the ship. I concentrate on my breathing.
Nara steps forward. "Ms. al-Walid. It's good to see you again. I'm sorry it's under such circumstances.
Jack looks up and those green eyes hurt to see. "We know each other?" she says, her voice rough.
"We met on Polyphemus Station," Nara says. "About ten years ago."
My Jack flushes scarlet. Her voice is clearer. "Oh. You've been working this project a long time then."
"My tenure piece. Also, I was from Coalsack."
I can't think. I have to think. I hear her voice, coming from a long way away. "I'm so sorry."
"We're trying to keep it from happening to anyone else," Nara says. She looks at Toombs. "I'm so sorry you've been dragged back into this. But I am very glad for your help."
Jack locks eyes with her. I stay very still, almost wishing I wasn't here. "I'll . . . do my best," Jack says, "You don't have – you don't have to keep me tied up. I will try, I promise-" her voice chokes off and she looks away.
"They did it to me too, Jack," Nara says, softly. "When they weren't sure they could trust me. You learn to live with it."
Jack looks at her. Then she finally looks at me. Her eyes go up and down, and she recognizes me. Makes my heart sing. Her eyes lock on mine. I wanna smile at her, but they're all watching, so I give her a wink and a leer. Like I wanna do her.
She recoils away from me.
Like the thought of being with me disgusts her.
I can't breathe.