Stone Blade (45 page)

"I need to get dressed," said Robin with a small defiance that surprised her.

Aaron gestured at the closet and didn't move otherwise. She grabbed another shirt and headed for the fresher. He waited when she emerged and wordlessly escorted her down the hallway.

Everett sat behind Robin's terminal idly perusing its contents.

"Welcome back, my dear."

His eyes and oily smile made Robin feel like she'd been dipped in fresh sewage.

"I hope you've rested, dear Robin. You'll be hard pressed to finish your assignments by this evening and I do expect you to be ready for dinner with me." He eyed her again. "No matter. Before you begin we have matters to discuss.

"When you attempt to access my data you will be traced. You may be tempted to allow them to succeed. Don't." Everett examined his fingernails and blew an imagined particle of dust off one. "There are three possibilities if the CA finds this place.

"First and most likely is that they would find your body, this terminal and enough evidence to convict you as the worst burner, data-thief and i-jacker this planet has ever seen. An associate of mine took some liberties with the biometrics you so generously furnished us. The results... do not align themselves with the seemingly law-abiding citizen everyone believed you to be.

"Second, the authorities might find you alive. Your release has been revoked and an evasion charge of the most serious nature has been added to your other crimes. And, of course, there is the evidence I mentioned already. You will find little comfort and no mercy in the courts now, my heart. You will be sent to GC immediately upon arrest and any sentence you receive will automatically be of maximum length."

Everett regarded her a moment.

"You won't like general confinement, Robin. You will be incarcerated with the most hardened criminals on this planet and several others around. No doubt some of them will find you as... charming as do I.

"Third, my dove, you simply will not be found. We will simply move to another mansion similar to this. I know I can find another burner and I believe equally well that I can find... other ways to enjoy your company."

Now he rose and ran his fingers gently down her face.

"Do not disappoint me again."

Robin sat at the terminal, shaking. Aaron and Everett had gone and the room felt less oppresive but Robin still knew they had her caged. Two tears traveled down her cheeks and she cursed them. Bleak despair settled over her. She tried to consider her choices but realized she had none. She inserted Everett's chip into the terminal, configured her warez and started burning.

***

The weak-chinned man slouched against a wall and lit a drugstick. Normally he avoided them but they fit the persona he wore. He leaned against a dingy wall of a dingy store on a dingy street and observed a group of dingy men.

A man walked down the street. He fit it perfectly; he looked no different from any around him. Still, he perked the weak-chinned man's attention. He watched the others carefully. His hidden datacaster reported static: the new arrival to the group brought a garble. Several embryonic ideas gestated within his brain and the presence of a garble elevated two of them to the fore. Most likely the trail he followed now would dead-end or disappear, still he would follow it. He found thoroughness a virtue well-suited to what he did.

After a few minutes' conversation the group across the street broke up. The weak-chinned man picked his target and started following. To him patience was not a strong point. Patience was an axiom.

***

Robin cursed mentally and collapsed her tunnel. She'd long since lost track of the days or weeks since her capture. Her terminal had a clock and calendar but she no longer bothered checking it. It simply didn't matter.

Whenever she accomplished an exceptional task Everett rewarded her. She now had a holovee in her room and if she finished early enough she could go swimming. Shame and guilt still troubled her at the gratitude she felt.

Aaron and Barkeley were now just part of the landscape. Each wore his cold, aloof arrogance and Robin didn't let it bother her. They spoke seldom and she less and all were happy that way. She also managed to avoid Everett's lashing. Mostly. When she failed at something, a more frequent thing now, he hinted or brought it to the table and left it curled beside his plate. Then Robin succeeded the next time she powered up her terminal.

Until now! Silverton Supply Inc. had to be a front company for something else. Publicly they sold light industrial and household robots and accessories. They specifically did not supply heavy-duty or military-spec equipment. All of that and their data security had Robin completely stopped!

The door opened and Robin's heart sank. It was time for dinner and she still hadn't cracked Silverton.

"Hello, my sweet." Everett powered down the terminal and took Robin's arm. "Do you have anything for me today?"

"No, Claud. Their security is too tight."

"A pity, that."

Everett spoke no more words on Silverton during their walk down the hallway nor during dinner. He also didn't have the lash which made Robin even more nervous.

"Come, my darling," he said, after dessert, "I've something to show you."

Robin walked with planet-heavy weights dragging down her feet. Everett led her into the lowest level of the mansion's impressive basement.

"I have a guest who has been here longer than you, my heart. One who, unfortunately, disappointed me once too often."

He did something to the wall and the corner split open. A foul, acrid stench of unwashed flesh and sewage wafted out. Robin wanted to bend over and retch but Everett held her firm.

Dim light illuminated the room at the end of the passage. It deserved no better. Condensation and filth oozed down the walls and a cot with a dirty heap of rags on it rested in one corner. Then the rags moved.

"Speak with him, Robin," said Everett, thrusting her forward, "I think you'll find it most enlightening."

The rags shifted and shuffled until a face moved.

"H-hello," said Robin softly.

The man on the cot - boy, she corrected - gazed blankly at her. Then, slowly, recognition dawned on her. His skin hung loose off too-visible bones but the hair, the eyes...

"T-thomas? Turbo?"

"NO! NO!!" The man thrashed weakly. "NO! I WON'T! YOU CAN'T MAKE ME! You can't... You... you... no..." The words soon faded to unintelligible gibbering.

The room spun around Robin. Then the passage. Then the basement. A taste of fresher air...

A hard slap snapped Robin back into focus. Everett's face filled her vision.

"You know him, Robin? Is he, perchance, your dear lover TurboFan?"

Robin tasted bile and wanted to vomit.

"Yes, my dear. I know. How could I not? Dear Thomas is alive by my gratitude." Everett smiled with nothing but cruelty. "He led me to you, my heart. He was not much of a burner. He was sloppy and careless. Now... now he lives at my sufferance."

Fingers along her skin.

"Death would be a mercy to him, my sweet. You see, he is most tragically addicted to pandream. I did that to ease his pain. Do you want to ride in the dream, my love?"

"N-no... no." Robin barely managed the words. She closed her eyes and turned away.

"Then do not fail me again."

Aaron's arms dragging her along. Small comfort, Everett left.

***

Robin woke from a night of horrible nightmares. She showered hard, trying to wash away the filth she still felt. She dressed quickly, not even noticing the clothing that once scandalized her. She didn't really feel like breakfast but Everett insisted.

Robin paused outside the dining room. Voices, Aaron's and Barkeley's, drifted out.

"... is entirely too chancy." Aaron.

"But we haven't been compromised," said Barkeley, "and he is getting results."

"At a high expense." Aaron paused a moment. "His habits are... excessive."

"The price is of no consequence. We're still clearing more than he's costing us."

"I don't like it."

"It won't be much longer. Our operation here will terminate and we'll be shed of him, one way or another."

"Truth. It will be a shame to lose the girl, though. She's quite talented."

"We can take her with us."

That simple statement took away Robin's appetite.

"If he doesn't break her first."

"No risk either way. After last night she should be quite... open to our offer. If not there is always the aunt."

Robin bit down hard before she could cry out. Not daring to listen longer Robin took a few quiet steps back and walked noisily into the room.

Aaron and Barkeley sat at the table with the remains of a simple meal before them. Neither showed any hint of their conversation nor any sign that they knew she heard it. She looked around.

"You have a reprieve," said Aaron, "He's away for the day. You could laze around, I suppose. Better to work on Silverton, though."

A servant brought her a meal much plainer than Everett's fare. She choked down a few bites before seeking her terminal.

Robin worked as hard as she could to crack Silverton. After a few attempts she switched to something else long enough for Silverton to settle, then she tried it again. And again, and again.

Late in the afternoon Barkeley walked in.

"Still no luck? Well, don't worry yourself too much. Everett's not that bad, not to the girls at least. You won't get the dream."

"I'm trying to work." Robin tried and failed to put some punch behind the words.

"Work away. But think on options. You really don't have..."

Barkeley's expression hardened. He placed a comm to his ear and when he rose his blaster appeared in his hand.

"Stay here. Leave this room and you will die."

A few minutes after Barkeley left Robin grew curious. She sat at the terminal, too afraid to move and ashamed of herself for it. Then she rose and padded to the window. Look though she might she saw nothing but blackness broken by the lights around the pool. Finally, working up her nerve, Robin walked to the door and listened hard. She thought she heard something but couldn't identify it.

The door burst open and Aaron ran in, slamming her to the floor and tripping over her.

"Stuipd..."

Aaron started to curse her but the stumble saved his life. Three pulse bolts spatted the doorframe at chest level. Aaron had his blaster out and wisps of smoke drifted off of its coils. Robin crawled frantically for the terminal. She heard Aaron's blaster fire and several more shots and she was cramming herself under the desk.

***

Images.

The sound of Aaron doing something at the door. Heavy footsteps.

The crackle of energy discharge on metal.

A hand in her hair dragging her from beneath the desk. The smell of sweat and fear.

Aaron cursing as he levered her between himself and the doorway. A crushing arm holding her against him.

Fear flooding her.

The door panel shorting and sparking. Acrid fumes washing through the room. The smell of burnt insulation and heated metal.

Light flooding from the hallway as the door opened.

A shadowy figure.

Aaron leveling his blaster and firing.

The shadow stepping aside. Raising a weapon of its own.

HEAT! Searing, burning HEAT!!

The smell of burning hair and cooked flesh. And PAIN!

Aaron's arm tightening around her as they fell to the floor.

Memories...

***

When Robin opened her eyes logic told her only a short time had passed. She lay atop Aaron who twitched feebly beneath her. The stranger before her finished a kick that sent Aaron's blaster skidding across the floor.

The man looked above Robin. After a glance he motioned and another man joined him. Robin saw nothing but the weapons they pointed at her.

"Move aside. Don't try anything."

After a few feeble kicks Robin managed to comply. The second stranger strode to the terminal and started the powerup sequence. The wall at her back stopped Robin. When she finally tore her eyes away from the strangers then fell on Aaron. He lay unmoving on the floor where he fell. One eye stared blankly at the ceiling.

The other eye was gone along with half his head.

Robin's gut clenched at this. Moving her hand fearfully she touched her ear. It felt tender, as if sunburned, and her fingers came away wet. When she looked she saw blood and bits of...

Robin turned sideways and vomited hard. Fear flooded her and she retched again and again and again. When she finally emptied herself, totally, she felt a presence in front of her.

"Hold still."

The first stranger dabbed the side of her head with a cloth. Robin kept her eyes tightly closed, not wanting to see what he wiped off.

"Are you all right?"

With no weapons pointed at her Robin managed a look at the man. Icy eyes regarded her from beneath a shock of close-cropped blond hair. He exuded a silent menace Aaron and Barkeley together couldn't match. She nodded.

"Who are you," he asked, "Are you a servant?"

"Check her rets," suggested the second man, now piling chips and dataspools into a bag.

Icy-eyes aimed something at Robin. Before she could scream it flashed. A retscanner! Spots swam in her vision.

"Heaven's flames!" After checking the scanner Icy-eyes turned his hard gaze back to Robin. "You're not a servant." Then, to Number Two, "It matches. Looks like we caught our burner."

"Feces!"

Icy-eyes tossed him the scanner. He checked for himself and turned a gaze only slightly less cold on her.

"The pious question," said Number Two, "is what to do with her."

Icy-eyes took Robin's arm and moved her to a chair.

"Listen to me closely," he said, "Your retinals match those of a burner who foolishly tried to compromise a system in which we have an interest. Have you been burning lately?"

Robin nodded. She wanted to look away but Icy-eyes' stare held her motionless.

"We also traced several very sophisticated burns to this location," continued Icy-eyes.

"To this machine," added Number Two.