Wings of Retribution (67 page)

Juno actually hesitated.  “You knew I was going to kill them?”

Athenais shrugged.  “Rabbit and I were just
so
happy to hear you were alive, we paid everyone we could find for news.  We were
all kinds
of curious why you’d be paying such nice prices for shifters.  Turns out, your son was executed in the same way.  Group of POWs mowed down by shifters in UWII.  It wasn’t hard to guess what you were planning, especially since you’ve been buying shifters consistently for three thousand years and you only had a dozen in your ‘colony.’”  She cocked her head.  “Oh, and it helped that you’re a completely predictable, narrow-minded fool who styles herself as smarter than God.”

Juno’s face tightened.  She obviously didn’t believe she was predictable.  Athenais found that part particularly funny.  Juno, smart cookie that she was—she was, after all, the one who had pieced together what Athenas’s father had done to them—also had one huge, glaring fault.  She really
did
think she was smarter than God.  After all, she had the Doctorates to prove it.

“If you knew, why didn’t you tell them?”  Juno peered at her, tight-lipped with disbelief.

Athenais shrugged.  “If I was about to die, I wouldn’t want to know about it.”

“You had no idea.”  Juno’s mouth twisted in a smile.  “You’re bluffing.  Just like you always do.  One big show of courage, a hurrah wherever you go, when you’re really just full of shit.”

Athenais sighed and stood up.  “Tell me something, Dr. Berg,” she said, looking down at the curvaceous woman as she dusted herself off.  “Professional to layman or Guiding Light to infidel, or however you wanna put it….”  She waved her hand dismissively.  “Isn’t it a little psychotic to re-create your son’s death every year?” 

As Juno’s face darkened, Athenais went on, “Hell, I’m just pulling terms out of my ass, here, but isn’t that kind of obsessive reenactment oh, I dunno, some sort of a mental disorder?” 

She knew she was getting through to the woman, because her already-flat eyes went cold.

“You know,” Athenais insisted, “creating something that never happened over and over again so you can feel better in your head?”  She tapped her skull, enjoying the way Juno’s face started to contort around the edges.  “What’s that fancy degree of yours say about that kinda thing?  You felt guilty you weren’t there or something?  Gotta make it up to him somehow?  Ease the shame for not being there with him when he died?  For not stopping it?”

For a moment, it looked like the smaller woman might hit her.  Then Juno’s face went into a deadly calm, a sheet of ice frozen in a smile that chilled the bones.  It was the creepy kind of look that meant that Juno knew something Athenais didn’t.  The bitch was a master at it.

Lazily, Juno said, “You wouldn’t be smiling if you knew I left your lover floating in the path of a storm a few days back.  He was tied hand and foot in the bottom of a boat.  The fool tried to pretend he was you.”

Athenais nodded.  “And I’m sure he’ll be back here any day now.”

Juno laughed.  “Don’t be stupid.  He’s drowned or shark food.  Or both.”

“That
was
a nice touch,” Athenais noted.  “The sharks.  Considering your shark attack as a kid, woulda thought you’d want to avoid the things.”  She cocked her head.  “Or maybe that’s a reenactment, too?”  Athenais saw the ways Juno’s eye glittered and she laughed, shaking her head.  “Man, you’d make a clinical psychologist’s wet dream.”  She gestured at the beefy guys with guns.  “Some truly textbook shit you’ve got going on here, Juno.”  She snorted.  “And I don’t even read the textbooks.”

Juno peered at her like a cobra that had earned multiple PhDs in the fields of Psychology, Biology, and Chemistry, back when people cared about degrees.  “That was you in the boat.”

“Yep,” Athenais said.  She flicked a bit of shifter gore off of her arm.  “Seems you still got a bit of a problem on your hands, don’t you, babe?”

Juno lost control of her features a second time, and Athenais saw rage beginning to paint her face a pretty shade of purple.  “How?”

Athenais shrugged.  “I had help.”

“Who?!”

“Well, it was…”  Then Athenais paused examined her fingernails.  “Actually, on second thought, I think I’ll let you wonder what part of your precious regime is falling apart.”

Juno watched her in a prolonged silence, radiating her hatred like a lightbulb.  Athenais pried dirt from under a fingernail, then flicked it at the grass.

Finally, Juno said, “I don’t even own ships that can navigate to the bottom of the underwater ravines of this planet, Athenais.”

Athenais looked up, her brow creasing at the change in subject.  “What are you talking about?”

“I’d like to see this mysterious helper of yours rescue you under ten miles of water, tied to an anchor.”

Athenais stiffened.  Now
that
sort of thing was not funny.  “Juno, don’t.”

“Oh, now we’re being polite, are we?  Have you lost your nerve, Athenais?”

“You’re goddamn right I lost my nerve!” Athenais shouted.  “Ten
miles
?!  Don’t you
dare.
  Nobody deserves that.”

“I’ll spare you if you tell me where your alien lover is hiding.”

Athenais allowed her panic to show, now.  “You think I know that?”

Smiling, Juno said, “I think you’d hide it from me if you knew.”

“You’re right.”

Juno shrugged.  “I’ve heard the pressure is enough to crush every bone in your body.”

“Juno, please.”  Too late, Athenais realized it sounded like begging.

Juno’s eyes lit up.  “Is that
fear,
Athenais?  The great space captain is afraid of
water
?  How interesting.  I guess we’ll have to cure you of that.”  Juno turned toward the door.

“
Juno
!” Athenais cried, reaching for her.  “I just came here to get my shifters and go.  I didn’t want to pick a fight.”

Juno half-turned to give her a crooked smile.  “Oh, but you did, Athenais.  And you, with your puny little monkey brain, thought you could outsmart me.”  She gave an amused, patronizing chuckle.  “Your ship will leave as soon as the storm clears.  We’ll see if the Potion is smart enough to grow you some gills.”  She left, followed by the twenty riflemen.

Once Athenais was alone, she realized she was shaking.  She fisted her hands and closed her eyes.  No one would do that to somebody.  Juno was just trying to scare her.

Ragnar stared at the orange-brown bodies swinging from the wall in the rain, feeling oddly calm.  There was no mistaking the mottled patterns of the central nucleus.  They had killed Paul and Morgan.  They had killed
everyone
.

Ragnar slid back into the shadows, ignoring the tearing hunger in his stomach.

They would pay.

He squared his shoulders and stepped out into the light, dressed in the armor of a Warrior he had killed.  He was rapidly losing weight, but that didn’t matter now.   All that mattered was finding a way to get out a message.  Juno would pay for L’kota deaths in blood.

Spine rigid, he began climbing.  Staircase after staircase, he didn’t realize he had reached the upper floor until he turned a corner and there were no more stairs to ascend.  Ragnar turned, found the door to the com room, and kicked it open.  He performed a
yeit,
long fangs growing from his jaws as he metabolized his old teeth, his muscles growing taught and lean, claws sprouting from the tips of his fingers.

The ten men and women operating the com room began to scream.

Stuart rushed up to the com station, panting.  Ragnar sat against the wall outside, wiping his bloody mouth on a rag.

“Ragnar,” he panted, coming to a wary halt outside the station, “what did you do?”

Ragnar said nothing.  Didn’t even look up at him.  Just kept wiping blood from his lips.

Apprehensive, Stuart slowly eased the door open behind the shifter and stepped into the com room.  The scene inside stunned him.

Crimson splashed the walls, the floor, the controls, the equipment.  Lightning lit up the windows in red-pink flashes.  Unrecognizable body parts lay sprawled across the floor in pools of red.  Blood spattered the ceiling in arcs and smears.  It was the device in the center of the room, however, that caught Stuart’s eye.  Stuart went over to it and stared.  Heart pounding, he shut it down.  Too late.  The device had sent its message.  Stunned, he walked back to the entry in a daze.

“You made a beacon.”

Ragnar continued to stare across the room, through the window beyond.  Outside, the rain pounded against the glass, the wind rattling down through the com equipment on the ceiling.

Stuart was silent a moment.  “It’s our heads, you know.”

“Doesn’t matter anymore.”

Stuart sighed inwardly.  He should have prepared himself for this.  Shifters were notoriously moody.  Even more so than humans, when given the right trigger.  Squatting beside the shifter, he said, “What about Athenais?  She’s somewhere on this planet, too.  Don’t you care about her?”

“Athenais will be fine.”

Stuart glanced out the window at the storm.  “I was hoping I could stop you from doing something stupid, but now that it’s too late to do that, I’m going to make sure it’s not the last stupid thing you ever do.  Get up.”  He stood, offering his hand.

Ragnar didn’t move.

“Get
up,
Ragnar.”  He nudged him with a foot.

Ragnar slashed out at him with claws that Stuart had not noticed earlier.  They left three deep gashes in his leg, just inches away from the hamstring.

…and the femoral artery.

“You son of a bitch.”  Stuart kicked Ragnar in the face.  The shifter tumbled over, dropping the rag.  When he looked up at Stuart, he bore long fangs, red with blood.