Ambasadora (Book 1 of Ambasadora) (33 page)

She looked at the emergency jack
again, an insane idea coming to her. It might work, if it would reach. She
uncoiled the cord and made sure it remained attached to the power supply in the
wall. It stopped just short of Sean’s body. She pulled his twitching arm off
the edge of the bed. The cord could reach his hand.

Careful not to cut too deeply,
she made a large enough slit in the plastic coating to expose the hot wires
inside. They glowed white, warning they were live.

She hoped the sweat on Sean’s
skin would be a good enough conductor. He was convulsing so badly she feared
she’d get zapped along with him, then no one would be around to wake them up.
They could disappear to the Otherside permanently. She wanted to see what they
could be like together here first.

Ready with the injectors in one
hand, Sara brought the exposed wires near Sean’s hand. She hesitated. If she
couldn’t bring him back…. She made contact. A white arc jumped across his hand
and a massive convulsion rocked his body. She threw the cord against the wall.

Sean didn’t move, not even his
chest rising and falling with breath. The absolute stillness of his body
terrified her.

She held the ring-sized injector
to his neck and felt the needle forced into his flesh by the compressed air
triggered inside the tiny plastic case. She used the other two. Nothing
happened. She peeled the backing off of a stim, jabbing it into his neck and
fumbled to get the next one ready. Then two more. Her hands shook as she pressed
the fifth and final patch into place. She felt on the other side of his neck
for a pulse. Nothing.

She put her ear to his chest.
“Please, please, please.” Nothing.

Then his lungs filled, and he sat
up with a gasp. His eyes tried to focus, and he looked around in confusion. She
held his cheeks in her hands, reassuring him.

“Sara.” His voice
sounded choked.

“Are you okay?”

He squeezed her hands and calmed
his breathing. “How did you get me out of there? I thought I was
dead.”

“You were.” She showed
him the frayed wire from the wall. “I stopped your heart.”

His expression went from alarm to
disbelief. “How did you restart it?”

“I gave you all the dosers
you had on you.”

His fingers flew to the patches
on his neck. “You gave me all five?”

“And, the three injectors,
too.”

His complexion looked flushed. He
stripped the patches away from his skin.

“I thought the more the
better, especially for someone who doses pretty frequently,” Sara said.

“The injectors were doubles,”
he said.

Sara felt sick. “Can you
handle that much?”

“I hope so.” He ripped
the last patch out, but the concentrated stimulants from the injectors were
already moving through his system. “Right now we have to go. They found
us.” Sean pushed off the bed and fell against the nearest wall.

Sara steadied him, hoping his
disorientation would wear off quickly. “The Embassy found us?”

Sean swayed and pulled a deep
breath. “Fraggers.”

“If I go, they’ll follow me
and leave you alone,” she said.

“They probably want me more
than you at the moment.”

“Can you walk?” She let
him test his footing. His arms trembled, but his legs seemed to hold his
weight.

“Someone from my contingency
is here,” Sean said. “A woman named Ariel.” His breathing evened
out and he stood straighter.

“She’s in the
Underground?”

“She’s here in
Shocker’s.”

“Does she know that’s where
we are?”

“Pretty sure she does.”
Sean opened the door and scanned the parlor’s waiting area. “Never thought
I would say this, but we need to contact David for help.”

“I thought you two didn’t
get along.”

“We don’t. He reminds me too
much of my brother, but that’s also why I trust him.” Sean led the way out
into the commotion of the v-parlor lobby. They exited into the traffic-stalled
street and picked their way across, back to Carnal Escape.

More people elbowed around the
club now than last night.

“What’s Ariel look
like?” Sara asked, scanning the face of each woman they passed, trying to
detect a threat.

“I don’t know. My guess is
she’ll be the one trying to kill us. The dance floor’s the best exit. We can
use the crowd as cover.”

Sara didn’t like the sound of
this. “She could be any woman here. Does she know what you look
like?”

“No. Maybe. Probably.”
He pushed Sara into an elevator. Blue mist engulfed them. Anticipating a slide,
she held her breath. When the dosed air seeped into her lungs, she readied
herself, but her mind remained clear. Her strongest memories were flashes of
Sean and the phantom feeling of his touch. Only vague hints of Faya and her
torture pinched in the back of Sara’s mind. Memories, not hallucinations.

Memories were manageable.

The door opened onto a
green-tinged dance floor. Half-naked bodies undulated to the oscillating beat
of a wooden drum. Strobing purple lights made the movements appear slow, adding
to their sensual nature. Couples and groups docked in the cushioned grottoes
lining the side walls.

Sean pressed his mouth to Sara’s
ear to be heard. “There’s a service exit at the other end of the dance
floor. I’ve used it before.”

They shoved their way through the
dancers, Sean guiding Sara from behind. Zealous hands grabbed at the couple in
invitation. Several dancers groped Sara as she passed. Her skin flushed from
the contact and the drugged mist. She stayed aware of faces in the crowd, but
only saw dosed parasites, pleased to be caught up in their own arousals.

Except for one man on her far
right. Though the misty interior masked his features, she caught his gaze
tracking them across the floor. She felt like she should know him, the way his
body moved as he paralleled their progress toward the exit. The blue mist
swirled and cleared for only a moment, allowing her to recognize him.

Chen.

“Move.” Sara shoved
through the last six meters of the dance floor.

Chen ran over dancers to get to
them. He drew a cender and fired.

Sean shoved Sara to the floor.
With the palm of his hand he absorbed the cender’s blast as it burned a glowing
wake through the mist. From this close she could see the absorption field came
from Sean’s reporter. Dancers screamed and stampeded in all directions.

She waited for Sean to orb the
energy back at Chen. Instead, he closed his fist around the glowing energy ball
until it dissipated. The lights in the club flickered out for a moment.

“This way.” Sean pulled
her up from the floor and through a shimmering silver doorway. He rushed down
the poorly lit grey hallway banging on one closed door after another.

“Why didn’t you orb the
energy back at him? He’ll have the advantage now,” Sara said.

“Because he was insane to
fire a cender in there in the first place. Didn’t you see the mist ignite in
its path? Concentrated into orb form, it would have caught all the mist on fire
and incinerated everyone inside, including us.”

“Where did it go? Did your
body absorb it?”

“I grounded out.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I was standing on a port in
the floor. Sent the energy through my foot.” He picked a lock with his
reporter. “Inside.”

A blast of cold like the airlock
on Nanga Ki rushed at her. Black light played over a long room of freezer
cases. Inside were thousands of iridescent blue star lilies, the source of the
club’s mist. She’d never seen so many in one place.

“Head to the back. There’ll
be a door in the wall, behind this row of freezer cases.” Sean worked on
the lock from the inside.

“That won’t stop Chen,”
Sara said.

“Your Chen?”

“
That
Chen.” She
waited for a reaction or disapproval, but Sean remained on task.

A faint click brought her head
around. She saw a triton knife flash in the black light and threw her hand up.
The blade sliced a trail down her left cheek. With a side step, she evaded
another slash and shoved her knee into the man’s groin, then slammed both fists
into the back of his neck. His triton clanged to the floor as he fell into a
heap. She hit his nose with the butt of her hand until she heard the bone
crunch.

Three rogues emerged from the
nearest row of freezers. Though she’d met them only on rare occasions, Sara
recognized them as Chen’s associates.

Sean scooped up the triton and
engaged two of the rogues.

The third tried to attack Sara
from behind. Sara punched him in the jugular notch, sending him sprawling
against a table with syringes and vials marked
BENZOATE FLORAL PRESERVATIVE—TOXIC
.
When he slid onto the floor she kicked his spine with her heel. She saw he
wasn’t getting back up and raced to Sean’s aid. He had already dispatched one
of the rogues and stripped the downed man of his cender.

The other rogue elbowed Sean in
the temple. He repaid him with a slash across the throat. Sean looked around to
find Sara.

“Behind you!” Sean
lunged toward her.

Something pierced her lower back.
Sara fell to her knees. Pain shot into her gut and radiated through her nerves.
She fought to see through the tears and stars. The last few centimeters of a
metal flower corer stuck out of her abdomen. Her blood dropped from its tip, darkening
her shirt. She couldn’t quite catch her breath from the searing pain.

Sean had already swept past her,
unaware of her injury. He grabbed a large metal syringe from the counter. With
a swift move he jabbed the fragger Sara had fought earlier.

The man grabbed his shoulder.
Sean freed himself with an elbow jab to the man’s throat. He stumbled
backward, coughing. He choked out, “You’re more like Zak than I thought
you’d be.” Bloody foam spewed from his mouth.

Brief recognition lit Sean’s
face. He kicked the man’s knee to bring him down and pointed a cender at his
head.

“You deserve to suffer,
Ariel.”

“Piss off.” The man
spit through the bloody froth.

“Sean…” Sara barely got
his name out before pitching over.

Ariel’s thrashing and gasping
drew no sympathy from Sean. He kneeled at Sara’s side and concentrated on her
thin breath.

“Pull this thing out of
me.” Blood seeped around her lips. She lay on her side and wheezed.

“The corer’s keeping the
bleeding down. It may do more damage if I remove it.” He examined where
the metal tool had penetrated her back. “You won’t be able to ride very
far like this. I have to get you to a doctor.” He knew where to find one,
close, but taking an ambasadora to a covert fragger facility might get them
both killed. Still, he had to risk it.

Sara closed her eyes.

“Hey, I need you
awake.” He stroked her cheek.

Her eyes opened. She tried a weak
smile.

Admiration for her grit edged out
the panic Sean felt. He eased her to her feet, angry he couldn’t take her pain.
Figuring Chen was on his way, Sean knew time was short. He scooped Sara into
his arms and palmed the door controls open. He took a deep breath, then
stepped out into the buzzing street.

The only people who paid any
attention to the pair were those who weren’t dosed out of their minds or
engaged with a partner. The few partiers who did watch didn’t find the sight of
a man carrying a semi-conscious woman particularly odd. Things like this
happened all the time down here.

Sean balanced walking quickly
with walking steadily. He felt how the occasional jostles had Sara gasping in
pain by the way her breath changed. He had to move faster.

He spotted a transport a few
meters ahead. The driver was out of his seat and screaming at a hover bike
rider. Under the transport’s front left tire were the remnants of the rider’s
bike. The dispute quickly escalated into a stim-fueled shoving match. Sean
slipped Sara into the passenger seat. Before the driver could turn around, Sean
had slammed the transport into gear. It shot forward, rolling over the hover
bike and clipping the rider.

The driver grabbed onto the
passenger door handle. Sara pushed the door’s auto-release. The latch clicked
and the door swung open, plowing the driver into an industrial trash bin.

Pedestrians scattered. Sean accelerated
through the narrow streets like they were part of a memorized v-game map. He
waved dosed pedestrians out of the way, shouting and swerving around them
before any of them ever even realized they’d been in serious danger of being
run down.

Sara’s breathing slowed.

“Stay awake, okay? Almost
there.” She couldn’t die, not after he finally found a reason to live in this
world. He grabbed her hand.

Hitting the decelerator, he made
a sharp right and stopped less than a meter from a heavy metal gate. He held
his hand under a small white box with multiple sensors and scanners attached to
it. The box contracted around Sean’s fist like a clamp and shot tracer pulses
through his body, searching for idents.

Three seconds later a chime
sounded and the clamp released Sean’s hand. The gate squealed open.

Sean palmed his pilfered cender,
never knowing for certain the difference between good will and a trap. He ran
to the other side of the transport. Sara’s head lulled back and forth on the
seat. Her blood, lots of it, added to the stains on the grimy seat. Sean
suppressed his alarm and slid his arms beneath her. He glanced at the sleeve
covering the bio-lights on her arm, rested his cheek against it and tried to
assure her she was safe now. The glowing on her hand would be harder to hide,
and it was better if the fraggers at this medical outpost didn’t know she was
an ambasadora. The doctor would find out soon enough. Fortunately, this
particular doctor trusted Sean, even if no one else did right now.