Freedom

Chapter 18

Velvet left the two young women where they stood and returned to me, switching on her ear piece. "All clear up there?"

"Yeah."

"Looks okay."

"Bring it in." She paused beside me – but not too close – and turned to look back at the newcomers. "Well. I hope my words aren't all I'll eat today."

I raised an eyebrow. "Who are they?"

"One minute." Velvet watched the Biker and Sagaris make their way toward us. She took out a calorie bar and unwrapped it, eyes distant.

"What are we dealing with here?" Sagaris took the magazine out of his HK91 and checked it, then met Velvet's eyes. "Kevorich's?"

"Do they look like Kevorich's to you?"

"Not really, no." He thumbed a round into the magazine and put it back, shouldering the weapon. "What's their story?"

The Biker looked solemn, but expectant. Velvet shrugged. "Apparently they're somebodies. They're on the run."

"On the run on the outside?"

"Yeah. They're sisters. Their parents had private security trying to ensure their safety. The plan was to stash them here where no one would look. Apparently there's a safehouse way out on the frontier where they were supposed to lie low."

"Where?"

"Only the bodyguards knew, and they're aren't telling."

"Why didn't they just fly there?"

"Think about it."

"This sounds like a pretty ill-conceived plan." I couldn't help myself. "In fact, it's just asinine."

"It wasn't my idea," Velvet said, sounding a little defensive. "Anyway, maybe the plan was workable, but I guess they picked the wrong people to bring them in."

"Same guys that did for me," I said.

"Is that why you took off like that? If you want a piece of them, just lure them out. Deal with them on your terms. But not right now."

I supposed not. Velvet was thinking a lot straighter than I was.

The Biker cleared his throat.

"Yeah," Velvet said, waving a hand. "I'm getting there." She took a breath. "We are going to go ahead and look after them."

I don't even want to talk about the way we all reacted to that. Other stalkers might have been excited by the prospect of being in the company of women, but the Biker, Sagaris, and I knew better. We also knew that we didn't have a say in this, and that with the bodyguards obviously dead, there really was no other choice.

Velvet held up her hands in a calming gesture. "There's an upside. Like I said, they're somebodies. I don't know the details – I don't keep up with the outside world – but if we can get them to a secure uplink in one piece, they're willing to pay us for our trouble."

The Biker snorted. Of course Velvet would have protected these girls for free – but there was an opportunity to get something out of it, and she'd pounced. My faith in her abilities as a commander were growing. There is a great deal of opportunism in good leadership.

I shook my head. "How do they know you won't kill them after you've bled them?"

"They don't. But they have to trust me. It's not like they have a choice."

I thought about that. She was right, of course. And I was pretty sure Velvet could come across as sincere when she wanted to. It had to help that she was female. Velvet turned her gaze to Sagaris. "Go over there and get them to put on a couple of those coats. We can't have them walking around looking like that."

"They're coming with us?"

"Damn right they are."

"Couldn't we put them somewhere?" the Biker suggested.

"We could, but then I'd have to leave someone with them – someone I trust. I don't know who that would be, and it doesn't matter, because my forces are not such that I'm comfortable dividing them." She met the Biker's gaze. "We have a long trip ahead of us, and they're going to be there."

"It's time to check logistics," he replied firmly.

"Agreed." She jerked a thumb over her shoulder. "Go." Sagaris nodded and started off. "Oh," Velvet said, turning to him. He stopped and looked back. "And no looting."

"What?"

"They're in a fragile state of mind. The bandits won't have anything worth taking, but those two security types have some choice gear – leave it."

"Why?" Sagaris looked irked.

"Because those two may have known those guys personally. You're not going to loot them in front of them, they're not going to travel with you when you're carrying a dead man's gun."

"I am carrying a dead man's gun."

"Yeah, but they don't know that. We need to be mindful of their psychological state," Velvet said patiently. "Lest they become difficult." Her delivery was deadpan, but I had to look away and stifle a laugh. It was times like these that made me wish I'd known Velvet before whatever had happened to put her on edge for every second of every day.

"Fine," Sagaris spat, and stalked off toward the women.

"All right. Let's talk business." Velvet went down on one knee, and the Biker knelt beside her. She took out her PDA and called up a map. "What do you think?"

"We'll go over the top to pick him up, nobody's charted those hills and I don't want to bother with them. It's been a while since the last emission, so I think we should risk the roads while we can, especially when we dip south," the Biker said, pointing to the map. Velvet only flinched a little.

"Yeah. We can skirt the compounds, make the Nabakov round, and it's clear from there to the channel. Now we need to visit an uplink."

"That's always dodgy. They never last long."

"I know. I say we cut north and try Kevorich's."

"You sure?"

"Why not? We'll have to keep a low profile, but we can do that. Right?"

"Maybe." The Biker didn't look thrilled. "If that's no good, Watchtower should have one too. I don't know if they'd be game. They haven't been very local lately. You might be able to buy some time with it."

"I was thinking the same thing. If it doesn't pan out, we'll check with them." She outlined the route on the map. "What do you think?"

"It'll do."

I looked over at Sagaris and the girls. The younger one already had on the dark brown coat of one of the bandits – the one I had shot. The coat gleamed wetly with blood, and there were several holes in the back. Her sister – her older sister, I guessed – was holding up the green coat and eying it with distaste. Sagaris looked like he was having some trouble staying patient. From what I'd seen, I thought the girls were coping.

"…few more stops than I like." The Biker was saying.

"I thought you liked road trips."

"I do when there are wheels involved."

"Well, excuse me, princess." Velvet glared up at the Biker.

The Biker groaned in disgust and turned away, folding his arms. Velvet did the same with an audible: "Hmph."

Sagaris was approaching with the girls, both now shrouded in bandit coats. "Hoods up," Velvet said. "Unless you want to be stuck behind a gas mask." She tapped the one around her neck. "You can take it from me that it's not in your best interests for it to become widely known that you're female."

Purple raised hers without a word. Her impassive expression didn't flicker. Her eyes were large, but hooded, giving the impression that she was half-asleep. Half-asleep, and fully apathetic to everything around her. The filthy, bloodstained, bullet-perforated coat didn't seem to bother her. It was warmer than what she'd had on before – maybe that was it. Her older sister wasn't taking quite as well to the grubby fabric – but she was being stoic about it. Her nose wrinkled, but she pulled up the hood, throwing her face into shadow. I blinked. She looked familiar. Really familiar. She caught me staring at her, and I gave her a reassuring smile – then realized she couldn't see it because of my mask. I turned to Velvet, who turned to the girls.

"Staying alive is simple – in general you don't want to make loud noises or do anything unexpected. You want to do anything any of us tells you to, no matter how strange it seems – you don't need to worry, my men are perfect gentlemen." She gave us a dangerous look, then rubbed her hands together and turned south. "Now. We're behind schedule."