Chains of Freedom (25 page)

"She's imperfect!" Jessica said in disbelief.

Stewart knew what she was getting at. It wasn't like him to keep anything that wasn't perfect. "I never meant to let her live. I just kept her as part of the experiment. She damn near died. Then she got better. I mean
really
better. Brighter, stronger, more determined than the others. Her empathic powers were much stronger. She also has much better manners. She would never enter my lab without knocking."

"So, what you're saying is . . ."

"That if the tables were turned, you'd have been dead long ago," Stewart snarled. "In retrospect, it is obvious that you are the imperfect one."

Jessica let go of Poley and slapped Stewart across the face. She could have killed him. She had only bloodied his lip.

Poley went to Stewart's side, and helped him steady himself.

Wiping the blood from his lip, Stewart grinned. "Did I hit a nerve, J-6? It now becomes obvious to me why RJ would choose to fight the Reliance. She's a free thinker. She could never take orders from someone like you."

"The Reliance is the savior of the human race."

Stewart clapped. "Oh, bravo! Recited like a true Reliance zombie. The Reliance is a boil on the ass of the thinking man—a system that you have to get around to get anything worthwhile done. It takes and takes and takes, and gives back nothing but pain."

It was Jessica's turn to laugh. "And to think I have always believed scientists weren't political."

"I wasn't. But after talking to you, it seems that I have become so."

Jessica had learned all she thought she could. She walked towards the door. "I'll be back."

"Any time!" Stewart called out to her back.

She was gone. Stewart sighed with relief. She hadn't asked the one question that could have really hurt RJ.

"Are you all right, sir?" Poley asked with concern.

"Yes, I'm fine . . ."

"I would have done something, but . . ."

"She would have crushed you like a tin can."

"That was my thinking," Poley said. "I'm sorry you're hurt."

"You know, Poley, I have given it a great deal of thought. I have studied all the data and assessed it. I say the hell with it. I know that RJ's odds of winning are far less than J-6's. After all, J-6 has the entire Reliance behind her. Damn it all, I love RJ, and I can't stand J-6. It can't be long before J-6 figures out that I know how to find RJ. When she returns, you must not be here."

"What do you mean?" Poley didn't understand. He'd
always
been here; where else should he be?

"You're going to go help RJ."

"But what about you?" Poley was more than a little confused. He wasn't at all sure that he could survive without Stewart, much less Stewart without him.

"J-6 will return soon. When she does, you can't be here, Poley."

"But she'll kill you," Poley said.

Stewart smiled sadly. "You're too sentimental, Tim Pants. I promise that she won't kill me."

"I will miss you," Poley said.

"Go now, Poley. You have a new master and a new mission."

Poley turned and walked slowly to the door where he stopped and turned to look at Stewart.

"Would you go?" Stewart said, wiping a tear from his eye.

"Goodbye, Father." Stewart rushed up and hugged the metal man.

The robot didn't hug him back.

"Goodbye, son, and good luck. Give my love to your sister."

As soon as she saw the lights of Alsterase, her heart began to lighten, and she was filled with a happy, giddy sort of feeling. They were finally home.

She abandoned David and Alexi and went bounding up the stairs of the hotel. She burst into the room without knocking, and clicked on the lights. "I'm home!" she announced.

Whitey's first reaction was to grab his gun. But the second his eyes adjusted to the light and he saw who had interrupted his sleep, he forgot all about the weapon.

It took him a second to find his voice. "My God! I thought I'd never see you again."

To his surprise and delight, she landed on the bed beside him. She gave him a big smile and started to say something flippant, but then she saw the look in his eyes, felt his feelings, and decided to face what she'd been running from.

"Would it have been that bad if I'd never come back?" she asked quietly.

"I would have missed you." He took her in his arms and kissed her.

She liked the way his love felt. Warm, comfortable and familiar, like an old coat. She responded eagerly to his kisses.

Mickey rubbed his eyes, took in the strange scene, and smiled. The legend had returned.

Levits' response was to roll over on his cot and try to go back to sleep.

When David and Alexi reached the room, Whitey and RJ were still lip-locked in the middle of the bed. If Alexi was shocked to see RJ in the arms of a stranger, he was even more surprised by David's lack of concern.

"You might have helped us with the boxes, RJ," David complained dropping his.

RJ finally pried herself away from Whitey. "I see Levits decided to join us."

"I don't know what good you think he'll do us," Whitey said. "He's a lazy coward."

"We all have our little faults." RJ shrugged and got up from the bed.

She walked over and embraced Mickey. "You're looking well."

"Been getting some sun. Good to see you."

"So, Levits," she shook him till she got his reluctant attention. He finally turned to face her. "Why the change of heart?" she asked with a wry smile.

"Many things, really. Hunger, getting rained on, getting the crap beaten out of me twice weekly." Levits, for all his faults, was truthful.

"That's what we need in our soldiers, David. Men with heartfelt conviction," she said with a lilt to her voice.

David had never seen her like this. In a way it was funny. He smiled broadly back at her, to let her know that he approved of her temporary lapse of restraint. She probably would have babbled on happily making no sense for hours, but Alexi opened his mouth.

"This place is a dump."

Considering how glad RJ was to be home, this was probably the worst thing he could have said.

"Since it distresses you so much, you can clean it up." RJ said in a growl.

"I'm not a fucking house maid." Alexi took an ominous step towards RJ, and found his face in the middle of Whitey Baldor's rather large chest. He looked up at the giant, and swallowed hard. He heard RJ's voice, cool and superior, and wished more than ever that he could slap that smug smile off her face.

"You'll find that you won't get as much leeway here, Alexi. I suggest that you learn to accept that I run things. If I say clean it up, you will put on an apron and ask whether I want the windows done or not. Do you understand?"

Alexi was silent.

Whitey's huge hand went around his throat. "She asked you a question, Jack," Whitey said coolly, and Alexi realized that the man could snap his neck with no trouble and with even less remorse.

"I understand," Alexi choked out. He understood that if he wanted to run things, he was going to have to get rid of RJ. Or at least discredit her.

Jessica sat in her quarters at Capitol looking at the knife in her hand. She sighed, then steeled herself. She had to know. She sat between the two mirrors and pinned her hair up. She knew the spot. She took the knife and began to dig the device from the back of her neck. It was a painful process, but when she cleaned the device off, it was worth any amount of pain. It was broken, and had been for some time. Moreover, it had been more than a vital signs monitor. The old man didn't just know that RJ was alive, he knew where she was.

Poley saw the lights of Alsterase off in the distance. Soon he would be reunited with RJ. Soon he would be himself—Poley, a component of RJ.

Jessica stormed into Stewart's lab.

He looked up and smiled. "I've been expecting you, J-6."

She held out the device for him to see.

"Been digging in your neck, I see. That couldn't have been pleasant."

"Can the crap, old man. Where is RJ?" Jessica demanded.

"I really have no idea. At the moment, she might be anywhere." He smiled sweetly.

Damn it all, he wasn't lying. Jessica realized instantly what that meant.

"Where is the metal man?" She looked around in a panic.

Stewart smiled and looked at his watch. "Well, by now, he's probably taking tea with RJ."

"Where's her base? You know where it is, tell me," she commanded.

"You have that tone in your voice, J-6. The sound of someone who's used to getting their way. I've always hated that."

"Tell me." She took one menacing step forward.

Stewart laughed, and she stopped in her tracks. Stewart's features went cold. "I'm not going to tell you, J-6. And I'm not going to give you the chance to beat it out of me or extract it with drugs, either. I'm an old man. RJ is my greatest creation. Her secret belongs to me, and it's the one thing I can take with me."

"No!" Too late, she saw the barrel of the pistol enter Stewart's mouth. She leapt forward, reaching him just as he pulled the trigger. Then watched in horror as his limp body collapsed to the ground, spasmed once, and lay still.

She had watched hundreds of men die. Hell, she'd killed most of them, but this was different. She knelt beside him and gently moved the strands of bloody gray hair out of his face.

"Why?" she asked the inert form. "Why her? Why not me? All I wanted was your help." She stood up and wiped a tear from her eye. "I was just another experiment. What made her different?"

She left without looking back. Yet another lead was lost forever. Still, Jessica would do her best. In spite of the fact that for the first time she doubted that her best would be good enough.

David wasted no time picking up where he'd left off. After all, there were still women in Alsterase he hadn't screwed. He didn't really like taking Alexi with him on his nightly excursions, but RJ more or less insisted. No doubt her way of punishing David for insisting that they take on Alexi, whom she hated.

David didn't understand what was happening. On the raids, he and RJ had been as close as ever. Maybe closer. But since they'd been home, he felt a distance growing between them. She seemed cool to him, at times even argumentative.

He didn't much care for the sleeping arrangements, either. He still slept in the bed, but RJ didn't always sleep with him. She would be in the bed when he came in most times, but as soon as he lay down, she would get up, grab a blanket, and find a piece of floor. This habit was all the more irritating because Whitey Baldor had a way of finding out where she was and moving so that he woke up in the morning with his head between RJ's tits. There was no doubt in David's mind that the giant was tragically in love with RJ. Tragically, because it was just as obvious that RJ was too focused on overthrowing the Reliance to even notice.

RJ, Whitey, Levits, and Mickey were discussing important business.

"So do we eat the lobsters or the crabs?"

There was much discussion, but they finally decided on the crabs. Whitey had his hand down RJ's shirt, and was sucking on her neck. This had become so commonplace that she barely noticed anymore.

"Keep an eye on Alexi, boys. I don't trust him. Not because he'd go to the Reliance, but because he wants to be me."

"He's quite a piece of work," Levits said, taking a drink from his glass. "Last night he informed me that I was sleeping on his piece of floor."

"He damn near got us all killed out there," RJ said making a face as she remembered the sight of David's leg.

"Why not just kill him and get it over with?" Mickey asked.

"Because he's useful for the time being," RJ said, taking a drag off her cigarette.

"If had told me what to do, would kick butt," Mickey said, in Levits' direction.

"Yeah, right," Levits said.

"Well, would if was your size."

"Hey, just because I'd rather move than get my face kicked in . . ."

"Don't get your panties in a knot, Levits. Cowardice I can tolerate, treachery I cannot." She took a long drink, then swallowed thoughtfully. Whitey's hand had found its way to her breast, his lips had moved to her earlobe, and Levits now found it impossible to concentrate on anything else.

"How can you talk when he's doing that?" Levits wanted to know. Whitey pulled away, as if giving up.