The Betwixt Book One (33 page)

‘
Get down, Mini!’ Jason's voice boomed from behind. It was
louder, stronger than I had ever heard and had the electronic
quality of his helmet relay.

My legs followed his orders, in a way, and collapsed under me,
taking me down faster than a samurai sword to the back of the
ankles.

The Commander charged, black helmet up, black, black GAM armor
catching the light as his legs and arms pumped, plasma assault
rifle at the ready. I could hear the sound of his mechanized armor
as it assisted his running, the joints giving off an electrical
buzz as they pushed the Commander to speeds no ordinary human could
achieve.

The lead Tarian got off the first shot, but Jason tank rolled
to the side, then kept running.

He was charging them like some wild animal, willing to
sacrifice their life to save the heard. It was foolhardy, idiotic –
it was never going to work. One man against five Tarian Mercs? And
with one pathetic damsel in the way.

The Commander swung his assault rifle forward, just as he
passed me, finally firing. He had obviously waited until I was
behind him, before he started blasting away, nervous I'd be caught
in the crossfire.

‘
Get out of here, Mini! Get back to the Main Room!’ He boomed
again, his helmet carrying his voice above the clamor of plasma
blasts.

The lead Tarian had dropped to his knees, allowing the other
four to stand abreast behind him and ready their guns like a firing
squad.

Jason was going to, Jason was going to-

I stumbled up, tilting into a run towards him.

‘
Mini, get down!’

I wasn't going to lose him to some Tarian Merc, not in an
attempt to save my pathetic life.

I ran after him, determined to get myself between him and the
next shot the Tarians sent flying his way.

At this moment, I would have far preferred to be fighting the
Twixts.

‘
Mini,’ Jason made a lunge for me, tried to push me out of the
way.

But I ducked under his grab, finally getting in front of him.
The Tarians were only ten meters away now, I could see the dead
whites of their pupil-less eyes as clear as the lines on my own
palm. I closed another meter, then another.

They weren't going to fire on me. I knew that, deep down. And
even if they were, I was willing to take the
consequences.

I finally drew to a halt and flung my hands up, till my arms
were wide, fingers spread like I was trying to palm a ball. ‘Stop!
Stop!’ I screamed, voice arcing up and down like a crack of
electricity spitting through a live wire. ‘If you want me, you can
have me. Just don't shoot!’

It was a gamble, but one I was at least fifty-percent sure of.
The Tarians had been at the dig site, and now here – and they
hadn't killed me when they'd had the chance. And even I knew Tarian
Mercs didn't leave you alive unless they wanted something from you.
I didn't know what they wanted, but all I could hope for was that
they would not shoot at Jason while I was standing in his
way.

The lead Merc, the one who had dropped to his knees, snorted
out a laugh, his nostrils contracting and puffing out the air like
a blowhole in some ocean cave. He didn't say anything, but didn't
shoot.

‘
Get out of the way, Mini!’ Jason was still running, was right
behind me, was probably going to leap to the side, to get past
me . . . to get shot.

Oh God . . . there was no way out of this, was
there? Even if I did manage to stop them from killing Jason right
now, the second they had me they would . . . finish
off the job.

I didn't, I didn't know what to do!

Sure enough, Jason didn't stop when he reached me, he just
pulled to the side, ran smooth and strong past my full-bodied
block.

I . . . . had to.

I turned and leaped for him, just as the lead Merc raised his
gun to fire. I slammed into Jason from the side, knocking into him
with the blade of my shoulder. It wasn't enough to do any damage,
or even register much of a knock through his thick GAM armor. But
it was enough to push him off balance, to make his arms cut out to
the side as he tried to right himself. That's when I dived forward
and grabbed the pistol from his hip holster.

Before another word could be said, another shot could be
fired, another breath could be swallowed – I took the gun up to my
own head and pressed it against my temple.

This was the only way, right? This was the only
way.

‘
What are you—’ Jason began.

‘
Put your guns down,’ I whirled on the Tarian Mercs, ‘Or I
shoot myself, right now. You don't get your target and you leave
empty handed – understand?’

The Tarians watched me, especially the lead. He spread his
lips wide, till the saliva collected over the bottom of his tusks
and dribbled slowly down his chin. He made a noise, which was
either a grunt or a sharp, sharp laugh.

‘
I will do it,’ I pressed the gun closer to my own temple, till
its muzzle was covered by my knotted and sweaty hair. ‘I
will.’

The Tarian laughed harder now, and I could tell it was a laugh
because it shook his torso, his third arm wavering. ‘GAM gunsh are
lockeshd,’ he said, words slurred around his massive
tusks.

Then he leveled his gun right at the Commander.

‘
STOP! STOP! STOP'

I almost dropped the gun, almost collapsed to the ground,
hands clamped over my ears to block out the sound. It was like the
sound of a million mosquitoes all whining at once. It felt like my
mind was just going to explode from the high-pitched
intensity.

It sunk me to my knees, my eyes incessantly blinking, but I
did not lose my grip on my gun.

The Commander didn't seem affected by it, his fancy armor
obviously blocking out the clamor. But the Tarians receded,
clutched at their ears, and yowled.

I could see the Rain Man marching towards us from the other
end of the hall, his body quicker, but far less coordinated. It was
seething; strange waves and ripples cascading across his blue,
humanoid form. It was as if each and every part of him, every sole
ant, was angry, was only just holding itself back. ‘We had an
agreement,’ he said, voice thankfully back to ordinary
pitch.

Jason took hold of the situation, exploiting the opportunity
to leap to his feet and train his gun on the Tarians. With his free
hand, he reached out towards me, blindingly quick, and pulled the
gun straight from my grip.

‘
There won't be any need for that,’ the Rain Man continued to
march our way.

The Commander whirled around, his assault rifle still trained
on the Tarians, but his pistol now pointed straight at the Rain
Man. ‘What's going on here, you tell me now. How did these Tarians
make it past your security? You're supposed to have one of the most
sophisticated—’

‘
I invited them.’ The Rain Man kept walking towards us, now he
was barely twenty meters away in this long, long
corridor.

He invited them?

I couldn't see the Commander's face, but I could guess his
expression. ‘You invited Tarian Mercenaries aboard your vessel,
armed Tar—’

‘
You would not stay and share your information,’ the Rain Man
was closing the distance between us with every word, ‘I had no
choice.’

‘
They arrived barely two minutes after we decided to leave, I'm
betting they were already coming.’ The Commander had his head
trained on the Rain Man, though I could tell he was ready to fire
on the Tarians should they move even an eyelid too
quickly.

‘
It is true, we had made an agreement with the Tarians, one
that was in both of our interests. But I did not intend to exploit
this advantage, unless you chose not to cooperate.’

‘
Sending in mercenaries when your guests don't cooperate is one
hell of a way of showing your annoyance. What is going on here,
what do you want?’

‘
We want to know what will happen next.’ The Rain Man was
letting his head cock to the side again as he walked.

I sucked in a breath and looked away. It really was a
horrible, deeply disquieting sight.

‘
And to know what will happen next, we must cooperate with
these Tarians.’

‘
What are you talking about? I'm losing my patience, clarify
your point now, and stop where you are. One more move towards me
and that will qualify as a threat.’

The Rain Man ground to a halt, once again bits of him shifting
forward before everything came to a stop. ‘It is unfortunate that
we are not in possession of all the facts. There are other parties
within this galaxy who have information regarding Mini's story that
is critical indeed. We cannot choose who obtains what data, we can
only align ourselves with those that hold that which is most
important.’

‘
You sold out to a bunch of Tarian Merc, because they have
information you want? We have our own term for that, Rain Man,
treason.’

‘
We did not sell out. Our cause has always, and will always be
the same. We are invested in Mini successfully completing her
story, we are invested in finding out how she will do this. But the
fact remains, that we do not have all that can help her. There are
other—’

‘
Alright, that's it. I've heard enough. I'm going to tell you
what you're going to do – you are going to lift the com-blackout on
this ship, allow me to make a call to my cruiser. Then you're going
to accompany me for questioning, while your Tarian friends get
comfortable in my brig.’

‘
We cannot do this,’ the Rain Man's mouth didn't move this
time. It was eerie, almost as if the ants that made him up were now
too passionate, too involved to remember how to mimic a human. ‘We
will not do this. You will stay here, she will stay here, the
Tarians will stay here. The GAM will not come, they will not rescue
you. You will either speak to me, or you will leave with the
Tarians.’

‘
Like hell—’ the Commander began.

One of the Tarians, the leader, began to laugh again. It
sounded choked, so unnatural. ‘Washn't the deal. You callshed us –
she'sh oursh now.’

‘
Lift – the – coms-blackout,’ the Commander's words were slow,
sharp, biting. He re-gripped his pistol, his armored hands grating
around the butt of the gun, the only other noise in the room.
‘Now.’

‘
We will not do this, we have no choice. The Tarians came to
us, their leader. He had information we did not have, information
critical to Mini's mission, critical to the survival of the galaxy,
critical to the end of her story. We were forced to make a deal, so
we did. You do not understand yet, but in time our choice will
reflect our wisdom.’

‘
Making a deal with Tarian Mercenaries isn't wise, Rain Man,
it's a crime.’

‘
If we could have found another way, had the opportunity to
take what the Tarians have, to obtain their information in another
manner – we would have done this. But such an opportunity did not
exist, so we made a deal. Now you must go with the Tarians, to
complete the second half of her mission.’

‘
We aren't going anywhere—’

‘
They will take you,’ the Rain Man finally moved its lips
again, but in a disjointed, slow fashion, ‘to meet her
mother.’

I put a hand up to my mouth.

To . . . meet my mother?

They . . . She was
dead . . . . She was dead, wasn't she? She died
a long time ago . . .
She . . . .

The dead, cold resolution that had overcome me when I'd
slammed the pistol against my own skull had solidified into a lump
– filling out to every space in my body, pressing against my skin
with frozen dread.

My mother? They were going to take me to meet my
mother?

‘
The only place they are going is to the brig. And if you don't
stop playing games with her, I will shoot you. Enough baiting,
enough manipulation – you can't toy with humans just to see how
they will react.’

‘
I watch her reaction, but I play no game. And she will meet
her mother – she will go with the Tarians, it is the next logical
step in her story.’

‘
GAM stucksh – can't shootsh us all at oncesh. Give up, wont
eatsh you.’ The Tarian leader was laughing again.

He was right, Jason couldn't shoot all five Tarians and the
Rain Man all at once. Plus, who knew what the Rain Man would
do . . . .

‘
That's it. Mini, I need you to find the Control Room, to turn
off the communications-dampening field. If you can't do that, find
another exit – get out of here and alert my ship.’

I nodded, heart pumping away in my ears. I didn't want to
leave the Commander, but I didn't want this to continue, for him to
get tired and . . . make a mistake.

‘
Okay,’ I said, through a croaky throat. I started to move
towards the Rain Man, slow as I could, hands balls of
white-knuckled sweat.

‘
The Control Room should be off the Main Room—’

‘
I cannot allow her to escape,’ the Rain Man said, hollow eyes
on me as I approached it. ‘You are resourceful, Commander, but you
alone cannot get her to the next stage of her story—’