Outer Bounds: Fortune's Rising (37 page)

“No,” she said.  It came out as a
whimper.

“Oh, this is
delightful,
”
Colonel Steele said, beginning to pace around her again.  “Here you are, a
murderess who just single-handedly slaughtered nine of my companions before
shoving them over the edge, and you’re probably more afraid of that big bad
cliff than you are of me, aren’t you?”

Magali swallowed and said
nothing.  She couldn’t, because the fear of tumbling over the edge, alive, was
so horrifying for her that she was finding it hard to breathe.

Colonel Steele stopped pacing. 
She saw him come to a decision.

Magali squeezed her eyes shut,
already feeling his hands shoving her over the ledge, the wind against her
skin, sucking the scream from her lungs. 
Oh God, oh God…

Instead, Colonel Steele said,
“We’ll definitely get to that.”  His voice held cold promise.  “Before we do
anything else, I believe you gave that boy a choice.  Bring him over here,
please.”

Magali jerked when she heard Benny’s
terrified whimper.  At first, Magali didn’t understand.  Then, looking down
into Benny’s terrified eyes as the Nephyr shoved him at her, Magali’s gut
suddenly cramped.  “You promised you wouldn’t kill them,” she whispered.

“I did,” Colonel Steele said. 
“Which is why you’re going to do it.”  He cocked his head at the child, his
paternal smile beaming down at the boy.  “I believe he chose the cliff.”  Then
he returned his gaze to Magali, waiting, amusement glittering in his glacial
eyes.

Magali felt such a sudden rush of
vertigo that she fell to one knee, shaking.  “No,” she whimpered.

“Unless, of course, you’d like
for me to do something special to him, instead.”  The Nephyr reached out,
grabbed Benny by the shoulder, and pinched a spot on the boy’s arm.  Ben began
to scream, and as the boy flailed in the Nephyr’s grip, a strip of skin broke
away and began to peel up his arm.

“No!” Magali screamed.  She
lunged forward and grabbed Benny.  “No, please.  He’s just a boy.”

Colonel Steele flicked the little
strip of flesh aside, his perfect smile still in place.  “That’s just a taste
of what’s in store for him if you don’t do as you’re told, little one.”

“I can’t,” Magali whispered,
hugging the sobbing boy to her chest.  “I can’t.”

“You
can,
” Colonel Steele
said.  His eyes hardened as he continued, “Or you will watch him scream his
lungs bloody as we peel him like an orange.”

Magali shook her head and buried
her face in the boy’s shoulder.

Colonel Steele sighed and reached
for the boy again.

“No!” Magali screamed, dragging
Benny back a step.  “No.”  Shaking, she kept backing away, until she was
halfway to the cliff edge.  Once he saw the direction she was headed, Colonel
Steele stopped following and watched, like an interested parent.  The other
Nephyrs stood positioned around the edge of the cave, witnessing the
proceedings with sick little grins of curiosity.

Magali got down on one knee and
held Benny out.  The child was still screaming hysterically, one hand clamped
to the bloody spot on the skin that the Nephyr had torn away.

“You’re gonna be fine,” Magali
whispered, looking over the boy’s shoulder at the cyborgs lining the cavern. 
Please,
God, some sort of miracle.

“I’ll give you, say, nine minutes
to get him over the edge,” the tall Nephyr said, still smiling.  “One minute
for every one of my men you killed.”  He paused, watching her.  “If you
don’t
get him over the edge in nine minutes, our deal is forfeit and I’ll start
entertaining myself in other ways.  If a little pinch on his arm makes him howl
like that, just imagine what we could do with some…more sensitive areas.”  The
Nephyr smiled at the boy and stepped forward to pat a cheek affectionately.

Benny screamed a long, terrified
howl and lunged back into her arms.  His thin form was shaking and Magali held
him.

Nine minutes.  Benny had nine
minutes to live.

“Oh, and just the boy,” Colonel
Steele said.  “If you decide to go with the little brat, you can be sure that
our deal is off and every one of these maggots will die writhing for what
you’ve done.”  The Nephyr was still beaming at her.  “One way or another, we’re
gonna have some fun tonight.”

No,
Magali’s heart
screamed.  She hugged the boy to her chest, feeling his sobs of relief against
her breast as she held him, praying to God for mercy.  She told herself that
the Nephyrs were just testing her, just trying to find her breaking point. 
They couldn’t possibly expect her to push a little boy over the cliff.

And yet, she knew they could.

“Shhhh,” she murmured, stroking
Benny’s hair.  “Shhhh.  I’ve got you.  It’s okay.”  She’d always been good with
kids.  They loved her, for reasons inexplicable to Magali, and Benny was no
different.  His breathing calmed and his fingers stopped digging into her back.
 He let out a relieved breath, half sob, half sigh.

“That’s adorable,” Colonel Steele
interrupted.  Looking over his shoulder, he said, “Wouldn’t you agree, Captain
Xui?”

The female cyborg who had dragged
Lars back from the edge grunted.  “Picture-fucking-perfect.  Just like a good
little Mommy.  Too bad the bitch is down to forty seconds.  She almost got the
kid asleep.  Easier to throw ‘em over the edge when they’re asleep.”

Magali’s heart lurched. 
Forty
seconds?
  She thought she’d had several more minutes, at least.

Oh God,
she thought,
God
don’t make me do this.

“Make that thirty seconds,” the
female Nephyr said, watching Magali with cruel intent.

“Come on, Benny,” Magali
whispered.  “We need to go.” 

In her arms, Benny tightened his
little fingers on her back and whimpered.  Did he understand what was
happening?  Did he know Magali was going to betray him?  Would he understand
why?

Magali reluctantly stood, still
hugging Benny to her body.  “This way,” she said.  She began carrying him
toward the edge.  Benny’s eyes were on the Nephyrs over her shoulder, not even
looking where they were going.

Magali was only a couple feet
away, now, and her whole world seemed to lurch and teeter.  Her legs trembled
and it was all she could do not to drop to the ground and crawl away on her
belly.

I have to do it,
Magali
thought, her heart slamming in her chest as she stared down into the empty
void.  Benny was still docile in her arms, watching the Nephyrs. 
Aanaho,
don’t let him realize what I’m doing.

“Hey kid,” the female Nephyr
called, “She’s gonna throw you over the cliff.”

Ben stiffened in Magali’s arms. 
His little face turned from the Nephyrs to fix on Magali, fear widening his
blue eyes.  Then he twisted in her arms, squirming to look behind him.  When he
saw the cliff only a few feet away, he began to thrash.

“No, stop!” Magali cried,
gripping him more tightly.  “Please, Ben, you don’t understand.”

“Ten seconds!” one of the Nephyrs
shouted behind her.

“No!” Benny shrieked, as she
lowered him toward the edge.  “No! 
Mommy!
”

Mommy.  Magali gripped his wrists
as he bit and kicked her, her heart ripping arcs of agony through her chest. 
She wanted to be a mommy.  And here she was about to throw a child to his
death.

Behind her, she heard Colonel
Steele laugh and start towards her.

“I’m so sorry,” Magali whispered,
through tears.  She moved them both closer to the edge.  Benny shrieked and
tried to claw around her, to get back at the cave.  The wind whipped at her hair
as she tried to peel his fingers away from her body.  Magali barely registered
the drop below, so horrified at what she was doing that her fear of falling
paled in comparison. 

Then, hearing Colonel Steele’s
footsteps pause behind her, everything came into horrible focus.  “Then I
suppose he gets the Nephyrs, after all,” Colonel Steele laughed.  The Nephyr
reached for Benny’s wrist.  She saw the glittering skin, felt the inhuman cold
pulsing from his alien muscles.

Magali shoved Ben.

The child tumbled over the edge,
his eyes widening as he threw his foot backwards and it found only air.  His
shriek was swallowed by the wind.

Magali watched him fall.  Even
though she wanted nothing more than to curl up and die, she watched Benny
fall.  She owed him that much.

Beside her, the Nephyr had
stopped, his hand outstretched.  He, too, watched Benny fall.  When the body
came to a rest at the bottom of the Snake, he turned to her and said, “You
pushed him.”  He sounded confused.

“I had to,” Magali said,
trembling with rage and self-loathing.  “I couldn’t let you hurt him.”

The Nephyr laughed at her.  “I
wasn’t going to kill him.”

Cold, unutterable shock doused
away her body’s nerves, leaving it utterly still.  “But,” Magali whispered,
“You said…”

“I just wanted to see if you’d do
it.”  Colonel Steele gave her an amused look.  “What kind of monster kills a
child?”

What kind of monster…
  Magali
slumped to the ground, staring over the edge.  The Nephyr moved back into the
cave and began to bark orders.  She heard eggers being escorted from the room
with orders to continue the Harvest.  She was still there when Colonel Steele
came back to her.  “Now, about the rest of our bargain.”

Magali looked up.  She was alone
with the Nephyr.

Colonel Steele was unzipping his
pants.

“Make it good,” Colonel Steele
said, “And I’ll leave the pistol when I seal the tunnel behind me.”

Chapter
34

The
Red or the Black

Tatiana flew as long as she
could, skimming the treetops and keeping a low profile, but every warm breath
she shared with Milar reminded her of the condition of her body, of how she was
trapped in an egg of goo, plugged into a hundred different lines like some sort
of medical experiment, locked away in the darkness forever, should just one
hydraulic arm stop working around her.

Much too soon, Tatiana began to
recognize the signs of panic.  She flew for another half an hour, inching them
closer to Deaddrunk, but her panic grew until it was an overwhelming
desperation.

Finally, she had to stop.

Let me out,
she gasped. 
Let
me out right now.

“Captain, we are in colonial
territory.  It is much advised that you—

Now!
Tatiana mentally
screamed at it.

“Very well, Captain,”
the
soldier said.  It sat down and began to fold open.  One by one, Tatiana felt
her senses return to her.  She was sucking down too much air, now, and she
could feel Milar crammed up against her in the darkness, pressing her knees
against her chest, making it even harder to breathe.

Oh shit,
she thought,
I’m
not going to make it.
  She scrabbled wildly, trying to get out, but the
soldier’s cooldown process refused to open the hatch until the superheated
outer shell had no chance of roasting her alive when she scrambled out onto it.

Tatiana panted, sucking down air,
feeling tears under her gooey eyelids. 
Let me out,
she pled with her
AI. 
Just open the hatch.  I don’t care how hot it is.

“We are waiting for the outer
shell to cool down first, Captain,
” the soldier calmly told her. 
“I
can’t allow you to injure yourself in exit.”

Tatiana began to struggle, and,
in struggling, realized she was completely trapped.  She hyperventilated, but
the bot refused to give her enough air.  Combined with the wet, stale stuff
Milar was expelling into the tube with her, Tatiana began to see bright specks
of light along the edges of her vision.  Her chest heaved, but the tube refused
to accommodate, and the darkness continued to press on her.

Milar, for his part, hadn’t moved
a muscle.

He’s dead,
she thought
wildly. 
His air-line slipped from his mouth and I’m trapped in a cockpit
with a corpse.

It was taking too long, and she
wasn’t getting enough air. 

Though everything that had been
pounded into her in operator school told her not to, her instincts made her
reach up and tear off her mask to see.  The air tube left her mouth and
immediately she sucked in a mouthful of the gel.

Gagging, struggling, painfully
bumping nodes, her eyes flashed open and suddenly all she could see or feel was
the greasy burn of the cushioning gel squeezing through her lids, seeping in
against the surface of her eyes and into her mouth.

I’m going to die,
she
thought, choking, struggling, aware of nothing but her terror. 

Then she felt Milar’s hand on her
shoulder, squeezing it gently. 

At approximately the same time,
the hatch slid open and blurry sunlight assailed her goop-filled eyes.

Tatiana surged forward, but Milar
was in the way.

Get out, get out, get
out,
her mind screamed.  She yanked the nose-clip off, leaving a painful gash in the
skin, and dragged the feeding line out of her throat, only aware that the goop
hadn’t receded fully yet and she had no other source of air.  She
had
to
get outside.  She would crawl over Milar’s bloody corpse if she had to.

I can’t breathe,
she
thought, feeling the gel still surrounding her face.  Her lungs began to burn. 
God, I can’t breathe—

The stabilization gel fell just
in time to keep her from choking on it.

“Hey, calm down,” Milar said, as
soon as it dripped out of her ears.  “Calm down, sweetie.”

“
Get out of my way
!”
Tatiana screamed, trying to lunge past him.

“Hey, dammit,” Milar snapped,
“Hold still, all right?  My neck’s caught on your chest hookup.”

“I don’t
care,
” she
gasped.  Fresh air was right
there,
all she had to do was crawl past
him.

“Listen, squid,” Milar growled. 
He shoved himself closer, pressing her against the back of the pilot chamber,
his forehead pressed against hers.  “The chest hookup got tangled.  You’re not
going anywhere fast, so cool it.”

Tatiana panted, and slowly
managed to drag her eyes away from the outside chamber and meet Milar’s gaze.

Still dripping with stabilization
liquid, his face was laced with concern.  “There ya go.  You going to be all
right?”

Reluctantly, she nodded.

He held her gaze for a moment
longer, then released her shoulders.  “Well, at least you’re not blubbering
anymore,” Milar grunted.  “That’s a start.  Now.  Help me figure out how to get
the hell out of here before I start having hysterics of my own.  The chest line
got wrapped around my neck.”

The magnitude of the problem
suddenly dawned on her.  “Why did you let it do that?” Tatiana cried.  “You
yank on it and it could sever my aorta.”

Milar gave her a flat look.  “Do
you
want
to see me hysterical?”

“No,” she said.

“Well, you’re about to.”  He
sounded dead serious.

“Okay,” Tatiana said.  “Okay. 
Umm.”  She could see a little better now that her eyelids had cleared some of
the goop out of her eyes.  “Okay.  Can you reach my chest hookup?”

“Are you nuts?”

Tatiana followed the chest line
with her eyes.  “I might be able to unwrap it, if you duck your head down.”

“I
am
ducking my head
down, sweetie.  I’ve been doing it for about two hours, now, and I think my
spine has realigned itself accordingly.”

“Don’t argue with me and do it,”
she snapped.

Muttering, Milar leaned forward
further, giving her access to the chest tube that had, indeed, encircled his
neck in transit.  She yanked on it, found it secure.  She grabbed it where it
hooked against his ear and, because she didn’t have the leverage to do anything
else, started hitting it with the meat of her palm. 

“You know,” Milar said, his cheek
hitting her shoulder with every smack, “This should be some sort of criminal
punishment.” 

“The line’s too tight,” Tatiana
gritted.  “It only has a few feet of leeway in any direction.”

“Well what kind of idiot designed
the damn thing?” Milar asked from her shoulder.

“Apparently an engineer who never
anticipated a two-meter meatbrained bastard to get between it and the wall of
the pod.”  Grunting, she pushed his head down further and pried it over his
ear.  “How the
hell
did you do this?” she cried, frustrated.

“Somewhere between getting my
nuts crushed with your foot as you hit the Gs and struggling to breathe when
you started panicking like a drowned rat, I’m not sure.”

“Gah!” she cried, slapping it
aside.  “There.  It’s off.  Now get the hell out of here.”

“Yes, your Majesty,” Milar said,
straightening as much as he could.  To her relief, he began to ease himself out
of the pilot chamber.  As soon as his legs were clear, Tatiana clambered after
him and out onto the deck, unhooking nodes as she went.

“Well,” Milar said, cranking his
neck back and forth, “I think, aside from getting skinned alive, that that was
probably one of the most unpleasant experiences of my life.”

“Ungrateful crawler,” Tatiana
muttered, as she unlocked nodes and began easing the electrodes out of her
body.  She felt Milar step behind her, helping her with the harder-to-reach
spinal nodes.

“Thanks,” she said.

Milar grunted.  They finished
unhooking her, then Tatiana jerked open the cargo box.  She thrust Milar’s
pants at him and began to crawl into the spare uniform she found tucked inside
the pilot survival kit.  It was not her size, built for someone thirty or forty
pounds heavier, but she put it on anyway. 

“You call Patrick,” she said,
shoving Milar the emergency radio.  Then, needing air, she jumped off the
soldier and walked a few paces off into the brush, trying to get her shaking
under control.

After a few moments, Milar
touched her shoulder.  “I called Pat.  He’ll be an hour, at the soonest.  You
doing okay?”

“I’m fine,” she growled, though
her stomach was still doing hula-hoops.

“Good.”  He unfurled the
emergency blanket and spread it out on the ground between them.  Gesturing to
it with the blade of his knife, he said, “On the ground, squid.  Hands at your
sides.” 

Tatiana froze.  “What?”

“I’m cutting out your lifeline.” 

“Just wait a minute,” Tatiana
said.  “I’m not feeling too good right now.”

“Tough,” Milar replied, a big
hand pressing against her back.  “The coalers are gonna realize something very
wrong has happened sooner or later.  Lie down on the blanket.  Don’t want to
infect a node.”

“I’m not lying down,” Tatiana
said.  “I’ll sit still, like you did.”

“Bullshit,” Milar growled.  “We
both know an energetic little Shrieker like you couldn’t sit still if your life
depended on it.  Lie down or I’ll lie you down.”

“You can’t
do
that!”
Tatiana shrieked. 

Milar gave her a flat look.  “Do
it.  Now.”

Narrowing her eyes, Tatiana got
down on her stomach.

Milar sat down on top of her,
pinning her arms to her side with his knees.  She felt his big hand against the
back of her skull, pressing her forehead into the metallic material of the
emergency blanket.

“Ow,” Tatiana complained into the
ground, “Why are you sitting on my arms, you collie bastard?”

“Making sure you don’t get
another cheap shot at the family jewels while I cut out your lifeline.  Now
stop shouting and try to hold still.  These newer ones are more sensitive to
jerking.” 

She felt the cold touch of metal
on the back of her neck and winced as she felt the knife bite into her neck. 
Blood began to seep over the base of her skull and drip onto the metallic
heat-reflective blanket beneath her chin.  She heard the wet click, then began
counting down in her mind as she felt pressure in her neck as he twisted the
battery cap away.

Eventually she felt the tug as
the electrodes began to slide beneath her skin.  She stiffened.

“Careful,” Milar whispered,
“Don’t move.”

“As if I
can
, with you
pressing my face into the—”

“Quiet, goddammit!” Milar
growled.  “This thing is rigged to pop your pretty little head off if it senses
tampering.  Just shut up a second.  I don’t want to lose some fingers, all
right?”

“—ground,” Tatiana muttered. 
Then, without missing a beat, she added, “Now
there’s
an idea, collie. 
Maybe I should just start wiggl—”

A minor explosion less than
fifteen centimeters from her spinal column cut her off with a blink.  The big
hand gripping the back of her skull jerked. 

“Uh…Milar?”

“You,” Milar said, “Are lucky I
am level-headed.”

She winced.  “You lost some
fingers?”

“Yes.”

“Uh…  Sorry?”

Milar jerked the rest of the
electrodes out of her neck and, with an unceremonious grunt, threw the lifeline
into the weeds.  She heard it clang against a tree with a tinny sound.

Milar released her head.  “I’ve
got to thank you, Captain.  You have once again illustrated in gruesome,
smoking detail, why I hate coalers.”

“Does it, uh, hurt?” Tatiana
asked.  Then, straining to see him, she said, “You can let me up now.”

Milar didn’t move.  “You are a
pain in the ass, you know that?”

“Uh, yes?”

“From day one, you have been
nothing but a gigantic pain in the ass.”

“I didn’t mean to,” Tatiana said,
squirming, trying to get a look at him.  He sounded calm.  Which probably meant
he was madder than Hell.

“A week ago, if I’d had even the
slighted
clue
as to the magnitude of the ass-pain I was about to
receive, I would have turned and run screaming in the opposite direction.”

“Why are you still sitting on
me?”

“Because I’m not sure I can stand
without falling over.”

“It’s that bad?” Tatiana asked,
trying to twist around to see.  “Let me
up
.”

“It’s bad enough I’ll probably
only remain conscious another minute or two.”

Tatiana’s eyes widened.  “Then
what are you going to do?”

“Die, probably.”

“Get a tourniquet on it!” she
cried.  “Grab that nanostrip on your chest and slap it on the wound.  And get
off
of me.”

“Don’t think I have the
strength,” Milar said.

“You
bastard,
if you pass
out on me, I’ll kill you.”

“Sorry, sweetie.”  Milar slumped
over onto her and suddenly Tatiana was straining for breath. 

“Milar,” she panted.  “Move. 
Your.  Ass.  Can’t.  Breathe.”

“Too…weak…” Milar moaned near her
ear, his upper body crushing her into the earth.  “Damn…hard to…see…”

“No!” she screamed.  “I’ll die
under here!”

“Were they,” Milar gasped,
“Right?”  Then he went silent and still above her, the added limpness forcing
the last bit of air out of her lungs.

Were they…
right
?  Tatiana
stopped struggling and narrowed her eyes.  “You’re faking.”

After a moment, a whisper against
her ear said, “What makes you think that, squid?”

“Let me up,” she snapped.

“I don’t know…you kidnapped me
and tried to blow off my fingers.  Maybe I like it here.”

“I,” Tatiana gritted, “am so
gonna kill you.”

“Apologize,” Milar said.