Human After All (13 page)

“Some slack, please? I had made a deal and was on my way out of this mess, and now I’m right back in the murd with you. I’m entitled to my disappointment.”

“Fine, when we get to civilization, we’ll find you a Citizen to cry to, but for now could you keep it to yourself?”

“You don’t care about anyone but yourself, do you?”

“Coming from you, that’s hilarious.”

“I don’t see the humor in it.”

“It’s hiding behind your huge lack of self-awareness.”

“I think I’m dealing with this reality very well, considering.”

Drue stopped and turned to face Jaymes. “You still think you can deal your way out of this. Despite all your moaning about your life being over, you still think you can get it back. When you admit that’s not going to happen,
then
you’ll be dealing with this reality.”

“Clearly, my reality differs from yours.”

Drue had a smoking retort ready, but swallowed it when someone spoke from the foliage behind Jaymes.

“Don’t run, boychicks.”

Drue recognized the gravelly voice. “It’s the See You,” he said, shoving Jaymes ahead of him. “Run.”

“I said
don’t
run,” the CU barked as he broke cover. “Why do they always run when I tell them not to?”

A plasma bolt charred a clump of leaves next to Drue’s left ear, and he stopped in his tracks. “Go!” he shouted at Jaymes.

“Stop or I’ll fry the Zot.” The voice came from directly behind Drue.

Jaymes stopped and turned to face Drue. “Sorry,” he said.

“Quiet,” Mino said.

“No, I won’t be quiet.” Jaymes addressed the assassin as though the man were a house guard, pulling the aura of a Thoroughbred around him like a cloak. “I’m tired and hungry and filthy, and if you’re not here to remedy the situation, your presence is not welcome.”

Drue watched the T-bred half in admiration and half in horror. He was proud of Jaymes’s spunk, but terrified of the CU’s reaction to it. Their only hope of surviving this was if Mino needed them alive for some reason.

“You should have stayed where I left you,” Mino told Jaymes. “I could have taken care of business and come back for a little fun, but now it’s a big, murd-sucking mess.”

“Who are you, and what do you want with us?”

Mino chuckled. “Strut it, boychick, strut it. I love it when a top shelf proz goes all royal on my tookies. It’s so… cute.”

“Must I ask your intentions again?”

“You don’t have to do anything but pout and look pretty while I tranz you back to the Cloy.”

“Why would I go with you?”

“I could drug you, but then I’d have to carry you. I could leverage your cooperation by threatening the Zot, but then I’d have two of you to watch, and I don’t underestimate your abilities in combat or coercion.” The CU paused and glanced up. “Murd,” he said.

Lochler dropped from a branch onto the CU’s back. His arm went around the soldier’s thick neck, and he grasped his wrist with his opposite hand as he locked his legs around the other man’s waist. “Howdy, Mino the Murk. This has been a long time comin’.”

Mino dropped to his knees and tried to pitch Lochler off, but the lobo clung like a burr.

“Get out of here,” Lochler growled at Jaymes and Drue.

“We can help,” Drue said.

“No you can’t. Go!”

“Run,” Mino said in a strained voice. “I enjoy hunting you.” On the last word, he threw himself backward.

Lochler wrenched his entire body sideways and avoided being trapped under Mino’s weight. The murk pitted his strength against the lobo’s as he tried to break Lochler’s stranglehold.

“Is this personal, lobo?” Mino ground out as he pulled at Lochler’s arm.

“Tomas Lochler, Beta Officer, Ice Pack One,” Lochler replied.

“Murd,” Mino said again, pouring every ounce of his strength into the battle.

The bones of Lochler’s forearm snapped as Mino flipped him over his shoulder. The two men rolled across the ground in a ball, breaking bones and shredding flesh, each seeking the other’s jugular with nails and teeth.

Jaymes was first to move toward the combatants, but Drue was right behind him. They flanked the fighting men and looked for an opening. Each got hold of one of Mino’s arms and tried to pull him off Lochler. The murk ignored them as they hammered at him, trying to get him to let go of the Granger’s throat. Lochler pressed his thumbs into Mino’s eye sockets, but the strength was quickly draining out of him. Jaymes let go of the assassin’s arm and got his hands around the man’s neck when the world disappeared in a clap of thunder and a burst of searing white light.

“J
AYMES
,
can you hear me?”

Jaymes turned toward the muffled sound of Drue’s voice. He still couldn’t see, but his hearing was returning.

“For your safety, don’t move,” a man said from what seemed a great distance. “The stun bomb’s effects will wear off soon.” There was a pause. “Frag! Where’s the See You?”

“You don’t have a visual?” someone answered from the left. “Where the frag is he? Can anyone see the murk? Frag it! Is anyone listening to the comm?”

“Calm down,” the first man said. “The See You is only thinking about one thing right now. Getting as far away as possible as fast as possible.”

“What if I’m in his way?”

“Good point. Now shut it for a minute and have a look at that lobo.”

Jaymes heard the swish of grass against trouser legs as someone stopped next to him. “Who’s there?” he said.

“My name’s Lorrance, but everybody calls me Lorez. Which one of you has the linx?”

“It’s in my pocket,” Drue said. “And I’m very glad to see you.”

Lorez smiled at the ancient joke. “A pleasure to meet you in the flesh, Fox. My bias is females, but the images of you that Alvera sent us were enough to make me curious. And your friend must be the Prince. You can both frij now. You’re safe. Give me a minute.”

As Jaymes’s sight returned, he watched Lorez speak into a microphone set in a metal framework that curved along the contour of his cheekbone. The brass-plated apparatus was attached to a cap of dark brown wool and canvas that had a vaguely military style, as did the khaki coveralls crisscrossed with leather straps. The metal of the buckles was unpolished to prevent it from catching the light, and the knee-high boots were scuffed and supple with much wear. These Pygmalions weren’t playing at soldier; they’d had some experience.

“What do you mean, you can’t find him?” Lorez said into the mike. “Not even with the Skyeye? Did you try—what? Are you absoposi sure there are no heat sigs besides ours? Frag! What? No, don’t stop looking yet. Give it another two klix and then follow us in. Outtie.”

“You can’t find the See You?” Jaymes said.

“Not yet,” Lorez answered. “He must have some kind of defense against stun weapons. That bomb we set off should’ve incapacitated every living thing for fifty feet in all directions.”

“He’s different,” Drue said. “Don’t ask me to explain, but there’s something really different about him.”

“I know what you mean, frair,” Lorez said. “I feel the same way about you. You’re trippin’ my no-way-dar. Arkay said you’d been upgraded, but he didn’t say how. I’m a fieldie, not a labrat, so I probably wouldn’t understand the behavior-mod chemistry anyway, but you put the hair up on the back of my neck.”

“Why?” Drue asked curiously.

“I feel like a little birdie chirping at a couple of big cats.”

“Hey, Rez!”

Lorez turned to where another Pyg crouched over Lochler. “Can he travel?” he called out.

“That’s what I’m trying to tell you. He’s fragged up but his legs work fine. I just need your go-ahead to give him a shot of marching juice.”

“Risk?”

“It won’t frag him up any worse.”

“Go ahead, then. As soon as we get out of the trees, we can put him on the raft.”

“Rodge.”

“Hey, Jannes?”

“Yeah?”

“Be gentle, okay?”

“You got it.” Jannes pressed a small patch behind Lochler’s ear that melted into his skin. In moments, the lobo was alert and trying to get to his feet. “He’s gonna need help,” Jannes said as she steadied Lochler.

“I’ll help him,” Jaymes said, moving to Lochler’s side. He got his shoulder under Lochler’s arm and supported him.

Lochler anchored his arm around Jaymes’s neck. “I’ll try not to bleed on you too much,” he said as they started off behind Lorez.

“I hope they can fix you,” Jaymes said. “Thanks for—”

“Forget it,” Lochler said gruffly. “I was thrilled to get a shot at Mino.”

“You know him?” Jaymes asked as Drue fell in behind him and the lobo.

“He’s a legend in my former line of work, and on the personal side, he killed half my pack in the Second Crop War.”

“Weren’t you on the same side?”

“It’s not that clear-cut. My pack got a little too far ahead of the line and saw something we shouldn’t. Reps from the opposing sides were making a deal. They could’ve ended the war right there, but they decided it was better for the economy to keep it going for a few more months. When my pack members realized what was going on, they reacted by attacking the meeting. Not smart. The reps had brought See Youz.” Lochler took a long, shuddering breath.

“Are you okay?”

“Near as I can tell, I’ve got busted ribs, scratched lungs, a compound fracture, and untold soft tissue damage. That’s not counting scrapes, bruises, and gouges.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t be walking.”

“You’re probably right, but that go-juice they shot me up with works real good.”

Jaymes looked at the lobo and glanced quickly away from the terrible injuries. “I’m sorry I brought this trouble to your door.”

“It’s worth it,” Lochler wheezed. “If only to hear an apology from your sweet lips.”

Drue rolled his eyes and tried to tune out the rest of the conversation, but it was damned near impossible. Why was the T-bred still being nice to the lobo when the lobo could no longer do anything for him? It was out of character and made Drue wonder what other surprises he could look forward to. At least they’d be getting back to civilization soon, thanks to Alvera’s foresight. Maybe then the T-bred’s fascination with Lochler would fade, leaving the field clear for a new object of interest. Wrong or right, Drue was going to stop resisting his attraction to Jaymes and do what he could to win him before someone else bagged him.

A
T
THE
point where Lorez led his party out of the forest, sat a rectangle of metal about a meter high, six meters long, and two meters wide. With everyone’s help, Lochler was hoisted onto the raft, where he stretched out with a groan of relief. Lorez touched a jewellike stud on his earpiece, and the craft rose a few feet in the air.

“It’s not haitek or anything,” Lorez said. “But it gets the job done.”

“You won’t hear me complain,” Drue said. “Where are we headed?”

“Blue Sky, breau. You can get slack now. You’re almost home.”

“What’s Blue Sky?”

“That’s Blue Sky City.” Jannes stood from beside Lochler and pointed to the horizon. Beyond the expanse of flat fields, a line of wooden and metal towers poked at the sky. “It was built from salvaged aircraft and wood from the forests.”

“Most of the people here just want to live free of government restrictions,” Lorez said. “But some of us are working for causes, and this is a good place to do that.”

“We’re almost there,” Jaymes told Lochler.

“Doesn’t matter,” the lobo said. “I just hope I got that murk as good as he got me.” He smiled at Jaymes, his teeth gleaming white in the frame of his dark beard. “I’d like to think he’s bleeding out under a bush somewhere.”

“I hope so too.”

“I’m real glad I got to meet you.”

Jaymes took Lochler’s hand. “It’s my honor,” he said.

“Wake me after they sew me back together, will you?” Lochler’s smile drooped as he closed his eyes.

“I’ll see that you’re taken care of,” Jaymes said, but he didn’t think Lochler heard him. Though the lobo was unconscious, Jaymes sat beside him and held his hand until they reached their destination.

The raft floated through a gate in a stone wall and settled to the ground outside a rambling, three-story, wood and stone building. Jaymes gazed at the arched doorways and many-paned windows in wonder.

“That’s real glass, isn’t it?” he said to Lorez.

“Yes, we make it here. Those are real windmills too. They provide most of the power that isn’t stolen from the Grid in the form of batteries.” Lorez spoke into his headset. “Sorry,” he said to Jaymes. “That was the med. He’ll be here any second.”

As Lorez was speaking, a door opened on the first floor, and five people came out. Two men and two women lifted Lochler from the raft as the third woman used a diagnostic hyperkyoo probe.

“They’ll take good care of him,” Lorez said as the meds hustled back through the door with Lochler. “You come with me. Arkay’s waiting to meet you.”

“He was Lady Alvera’s chemical engineer,” Drue told Jaymes. “He’ll be able to help us.”

L
OREZ
led the Companions to a guarded door at the back of the first floor. He greeted the sentry and said good-bye to Jaymes and Drue. “I’m sure we’ll see each other again,” he said as he left them with the guard.

“Your visitors are here,” the sentry called out as he gestured to the open door behind him.

The voice that answered was a reedy tenor that was nonetheless warm and welcoming. “Send them in.”

As Jaymes and Drue entered a small, makeshift office, a man in a jacket so frayed it looked fringed came eagerly around his desk to greet them.

“Bless my jeedee soul! I was betting the beacon was some sort of trap, but we couldn’t ignore it and here you are. Outside the Cloister. And you made your way through the Grange without a linx for the most part. Incredible, really. But I haven’t introduced myself. I’m Arkay, because when I was younger I was the recpharm king. Dealers I sold to called me R.K., and I was relatively famous for the quality of my chemical cocktails.”

“I’m the Fox,” Drue said.

“Yes, I know. Let’s have a look at the pair of you.” The skinny ragamuffin put his hands on his hips and gave Jaymes and Drue a leisurely inspection. “You’re fine, you are. The finest! I try to keep up with developments in Erotic Bioware, but I have more pressing concerns and only so much time to spend in research.” He whistled softly. “But I can see with half an eye that you two are top-of-the-line. No expense spared to raise and train you. You’re damn near perfect.”