Tara The Great [Nuworld 2] (10 page)

Darius smiled his agreement and one of his hands lowered and squeezed Tara’s

hip. She kept her face expressionless but let her gaze shoot him a look of warning.

“This is fine,” Pee-coo-mee smiled. “Now please, come join us for half break.”

They sat down at a small table in an adjoining room and were treated to a

mushroom salad. Pee-coo and his mate dug into the salad eagerly and nodded for

Darius and Tara to join them.

Tara had a lifetime of experiences at trying foods from different cultures. She took a

large bite of the salad, and although she found it repulsive, she nodded that she liked it

and continued to eat.

Darius, however, did not have this advantage.

He nibbled at several bites and had just managed to eat half the helping on his plate

when Tara leaned forward and scooped a large amount of the salad out of the serving

bowl and dumped it on his plate.

His look of dismay made her smile sweetly in retaliation.

“Now then…” Pee-coo leaned back in his chair and patted his belly. “Half break is

almost over. I need to get back to my booth. Pee-coo-mee will show you where your

apartment is, and we’ll be able to discuss our arrangement at end day.”

“Why don’t you take Soray with you to the booth?” Pee-coo-mee nudged Pee-coo

until he got out of his chair.

“Oh my, they do try and own you, don’t they?” Pee-coo chuckled at his sexist joke.

Darius smiled that incredibly friendly smile again and stared at Tara. “They do at

that, yes.”

She saw right through the smile and let him know what she thought of his

patronizing smile with a very private, vindictive gaze.

The two men walked out of the apartment, and Tara found herself staring at the

foreign woman.

The walls closed in around her. All Tara could think of was the many walls past the

ones in that room, and that they were underground. Her heart pounded quickly, while

every slow, deep breath she took to stay calm made her acutely aware of her injuries.

Once again, she felt trapped.

Chapter Six

Pee-coo-mee smiled without parting her lips as she slowly cleared the table.

Tara knew the routine. She’d spent several winters now in a society where women

were servants. Obviously, the cave people were a lot like Gothman. Wouldn’t Darius be

happy with this piece of knowledge?

Less than a minute passed before Tara found her theory was wrong.

Pee-coo-mee stacked the dishes into a compartment built into the wall and pushed

a button next to it. A door closed over the dishes and a humming noise began. Pee-coo-

mee turned and stared at Tara. “In our society, your mate would take the name Kara

and you would become Kara-mee.” Pee-coo-mee gestured for Tara to follow her into a

small room at the back of the apartment. She sat down at a shiny-surfaced stone desk

and pulled a lever on the side of it. A flat monitor rose from the surface.

“Unfortunately, men don’t often think clearly. If my mate introduces your mate as

Soray, then you’ll have to be Soray-mee.”

Tara nodded, somewhat confused, and watched Pee-coo-mee press several spots on

the desk. The monitor flashed and a picture appeared. It was a picture of Tara.

Pee-coo-mee looked up at Tara with a triumphant smile, and Tara froze.

“I was very proud of myself when I successfully tapped into your transmissions. Of

course, I didn’t tell Pee-coo who the two of you were. He has his instructions and too

much information can cause him to fumble with his work. Is your man that way?”

“I’ve never thought about it before,” Tara mumbled, dumbfounded by what she

was hearing.

“Well now, we are different, aren’t we?” Pee-coo-mee pointed to a chair alongside

the wall. “Pull that over here. Let’s get down to business, shall we?”

Tara settled by her and studied the landlink built into the stone desk. It didn’t seem

practical to house the equipment within stone. But the landlink looked nice lodged into

the highly polished rock. Cave people obviously enjoyed some amenities.

Tara examined the screen bearing the statistics on her. There were one or two minor

mistakes. She wondered who compiled the information.

Pee-coo-mee pushed a few more buttons, and the screen changed. Now there was a

bio on the history of a weapon called UGA9. “This is the weapon that has triggered

your mate’s interest. When we received word that your races had concerns about it, I

compiled this information to share with you. The UGA9, underground gas annihilation,

is something a faction on the west side has created. It is in the preliminary stages, but

ideally it will emit gas from the ground that will wipe out humans in a predetermined

range within a matter of hours. Fortunately, it has not been tested.”

Tara was horrified. So it did exist. She wouldn’t let this woman know she was in the

dark as to their mission, and she hoped her silence wouldn’t reveal her ignorance. Now

all she needed to know was why. Why would the cave people want such a weapon?

Were they plotting a war? And why was this couple willing to share this information

with her? She kept her questions to herself and listened.

“Now then, we’ve a faction of our own here on the north side. We encouraged our

mates to participate in the theft of this weapon as well as the contact of your people.”

Pee-coo-mee looked at Tara, then patted her leg with her fragile, pasty-white hand.

“You can imagine how taken back I was when I saw you had come with your mate. As I

said, I expected two men. We planned on sending this disc home with one of them so

they could examine it and hopefully put it in your hands. Obviously, we are more

comfortable talking with females. It’s so hard to picture a nation where men are in

charge.”

Tara stifled a giggle. “The best nation, I think, is when men and women are equal.”

“Equal? Really? Is that the way Runners are?” Pee-coo-mee ran her pale fingers

through her hair, shaking her head slowly. “Oh my, that is very different. Well now,

that is something to think about, but not right now, I’ll think about that later. Right

now, we must go see Tar-lo-mee. She’s the leader of our faction and also has her mate

working as governor of our fair city. Korth is one of the largest cities of the north side.”

Pee-coo-mee got up from the landlink and hurried into the living area. She grabbed

her cape and handed Tara’s to her. She paused for a moment and studied Tara’s face.

When Tara realized the woman was staring, it dawned on her that her wounds must

look quite alarming.

Tara put her hands to her face. “I fell while we were climbing the mountain,” she

said, thinking it sounded like a lie a woman would create to cover the fact that her

husband had beaten her.

Pee-coo-mee’s smile didn’t reveal her thoughts. “Does it hurt? It looks like it does. I

have some medicine we can put on it.”

“I think I’m okay for now.” Tara smiled politely, just as Darius had. “But thank

you.”

They left the apartment and departed from the building the same way they’d

entered. The streets were still crowded and Tara couldn’t help but wonder why there

were so many people wandering around. They all seemed in a hurry to get where they

were going. Pee-coo-mee included. Although Tara stood head and shoulders over the

petite woman, she stayed alert in order not to lose her in the crowd of people. After a

few minutes of pushing and shoving, Tara realized they were headed toward the table

where Pee-coo and Darius were.

“And how is business today, my mate?” Pee-coo-mee walked around the table and

looked at the transaction sheet.

Suddenly, a large explosion shook the ground. Several booths at the end of their

row flew up toward the rocks. People screamed and began running in every direction.

Tara dove for the ground and scrambled around the booth to get a protected view. She

found Pee-coo on the ground next to her with his hands over his head.

“I knew we couldn’t pull this off, I just knew it,” he wailed.

“Everything will be okay.” Pee-coo-mee rubbed his back. “Let me think.”

“We can’t stay here.” Darius moved in over Tara with his laser pulled.

“Do you know who’s firing?” Tara asked Pee-coo-mee.

“Not yet, but I’ll find out.” Pee-coo-mee peeked above the table at the mass

confusion on the street. “Come on, let’s go.”

They took off running down the street, the opposite direction from which they’d

come. Another explosion blasted behind them, and the crowd ran faster. Tara looked

around her and realized she’d lost Pee-coo and Pee-coo-mee. She slowed and dodged

into a door well to see if she could figure out who was attacking and why.

People everywhere were shouting at each other, climbing the outer stairs of the

buildings, slamming doors behind them. She was still trying to determine the source of

the explosions, when another blast went off right in front of her.

It hit one man, sending body parts flying everywhere. Blood splattered Tara.

Several other people were thrown brutally from the force. Screams filled the air and the

few remaining people in the area ran for cover in a panic. The vibrations from the

detonation caused rocks to fall from nearby walls, and dust filled the air.

In the confusion, Tara moved out of the door well and dove behind several barrels

by the road. From one of the buildings across the street, someone opened fire, shooting

at something down the street. Several more locations opened fire, then the whistle of a

small bomb flew past her and exploded at the end of the street by the market. Tara

realized a civil war of some kind was possibly underway.

Pee-coo-mee had given no indication that there was unrest among her people. Or

had she? She’d made reference to a faction developing among her people in response to

an already existing faction from the west side.

“Tara!” Darius crawled alongside her, then ducked as another explosion went off

directly in front of them. “Let’s get out of here.”

“I’m open for suggestions.” She coughed from the rising dust and debris.

“Come on, this way.” He grabbed her uninjured arm and quickly led her in the

direction of the tunnel where they had entered this underground community.

The street was far less occupied at this point. Looters had descended on the

deserted market place. Crashing and banging could be heard as they ravished the