The killer showed them the memory of using Stephanie's power to kill the soldier.
Stephanie's hand flew to her mouth in shock. He used her powers to kill. She didn't know what to think or how to feel about that. She wasn't a killer, but she'd already killed two people trying to escape from the corporation.
She stood up, needing to get away.
She searched the body for a weapon, finding a small stunner strapped to his hip. She took the gun. She stood over him, debating whether she should pull up his trousers or not. The man was dead, and it was a particularly undignified way for a corpse to be found... but she wasn't quite sure he deserved dignity.
She couldn't stand looking at it though. She knelt beside him, tugging his trousers up.
She went to the door waving her hand over the sensor, but it didn't respond.
Maybe it's keyed to the coms.
She went back to the body, hoping the biological charge on the coms was still active.
She hooked her arms under his armpits and levered him up against the door. She slipped his wrist over the sensor. But it remained closed.
She stepped back, letting the body fall to the ground.
What was she going to do?
The door wouldn't open from the inside. They must have done something to it.
She glanced back at the man on the floor. Had he made a deal with someone to come and open the door when he was finished? How would they know when he was done? Was there a vid-feed? She looked at the ceiling searching for something. She couldn't see anything... but that didn't mean it wasn't there. If anyone saw what had happened...
She moved to the side of the door, pressing her back against the wall.
She counted the seconds down.
If they'd seen what had happened, there would be someone there any second.
If he'd made a deal with someone... she shook her head. She didn't know how long it usually took to rape someone. Probably faster if they were drugged and couldn't fight back.
Bile clawed up the back of her throat.
She tightened her grip on the handle of the stunner. Adrenaline was moving through her system, telling her to run. Standing still, waiting, was beginning to feel painful. Her hands trembled and her vision blurred. She blinked her vision clear.
If they had seen some kind of vid-feed, they probably weren't going to send someone down. They'd just pump the room full of that gas again.
She breathed through her nose. What had Maia said? It smelled cold.
The door slid open and she fired.
“What the fuck?”
The voice sounded familiar.
Stephanie eased herself around the edge of the door frame, peeking outside.
“Ivan?”
He was standing in the hall of the ship, a helad rifle slung over one hip.
“What are you doing here?” She shook her head. Was he working for the corporation now? They’d left him unconscious on the floor of the dress shop.
“Rescuing you.” He glanced at the body on the floor, looking suddenly uncertain.
“You sold me out.” She took a step back, fighting her initial impulse to hug him.
“I didn’t.”
“They gave you a cash card.”
“I didn’t ask for it.”
“But-”
“I don’t know how long it’s going to be before station security turns up. This thing isn’t the subtlest of weapons.”
“Did you kill someone?”
Ivan shrugged. “Can we get out of here?”
Stephanie shook her head. “If you didn’t sell me out, how did they find me?”
“I don’t know,” he ran a hand through his hair, tugging the strands into disarray.
“They found me at the first station I went to. I threw my coms away,” she raised her hand, showing him the scarring on her wrist.
“Maybe there’s a tracker somewhere else? I’ll help you check when we’re back on my ship.”
“We still need supplies.”
“We don’t have time.”
“We might have enough fuel and oxygen but we don’t have enough food to get to the next station.”
“Fine, we’ll raid their stores on the way out.”
Stephanie nodded. The corporation’s foot soldiers wouldn’t be needing their supplies anymore.
* * *
Ivan plotted a course for the Garnet Gate, only a few hours away from the station.
Stephanie chewed on a fingernail. “How do we check for trackers?”
“I have something in medical bay.”
Stephanie nodded. “We should check the ki... my clothes first. And my cash card.”
She turned away, going to get the killer’s clothes from the kitchen where she’d left them, neatly folded, in a storage bench.
She’d nearly called them the killer’s clothes out loud.
She moved quickly, worried that Ivan had noticed what she’d said. Or worse, what it meant.
She hurried back to the bridge but he was gone.
She checked their course. They hadn’t turned back and docked anywhere and it was a small ship.
“Ivan?’ she called out.
“I’m in med-bay,” he called back.
She shook her head. Wouldn’t he have walked past her to get to med-bay? What was wrong with her?
She walked back through the dining area.
Ivan was bent over a drawer, a hidden panel pulled out of the side. His body was hunched over, back to the door.
She held the killer’s clothes tight against her chest.
He turned around and stood up, holding a device that looked like a magic wand from some dark fantasy novel, shining metallic strips around a matte black tube.
“Here it is,” Ivan said.
“And that can check for tracking devices?”
“Yeah. You wanted to check the clothes first?”
“Yes.” She dropped them on the bed.
Ivan did something to the wand, connecting it to a display system.
“And the shoes,” Stephanie remembered. She bent to tug them off, wobbling slightly as she stood up. She put a hand to her head. She never lost her balance. The Succubus class experiments had excellent balance. It was part of what made them graceful, appealing to their targets.
She put the shoes on the bed.
“Are you okay?” Ivan asked.
“I’m fine.”
He kept looking at her with that line between his brows, the corners of his mouth turned slightly down. Concerned?
She sighed. “There was some kind of knock out gas in the room. I think some of it’s still in my system.”
Ivan patted the bed. “We can check you first.”
“No, I’m fine.”
“Are you sure? I was almost a doctor.”
“I know.” She’d used his memories when she performed surgery on his knees. She glanced down at the ugly scar on her wrist. If only she’d had his knowledge when she was removing her coms.
Ivan turned back to his work, checking the clothes and boots for any tracking devices. He ran the wand over them, his hands smoothing the fabric, turning it this way and that.
“Nothing.”
Stephanie frowned.
“Sorry, kid, looks like you’re next.”
She swallowed. It felt like her throat was closing. The space between her shoulder blades felt suddenly tight.
“You can’t touch me,” she whispered.
“What?”
“You have to wear gloves.”
“Okay...” Ivan said. He turned to a panel beside the bed, waving his hand over the space before twin holes opened and he slipped his hands inside. A moment later, he pulled his hands out, sterilized and encased in pale blue gloves.
He held his hands up for inspection. “Happy?”
Stephanie shrugged her jacket off, letting it fall to the floor.
She pushed the killer’s clothes and boots off the bed and hopped up, feeling suddenly vulnerable in her bare feet
and torn singlet.
“Are you ready?” Ivan asked, holding up the wand.
Was anyone ever ready to find a tracking device implanted by the corporation which had created them?
Stephanie took a deep breath...
And nodded.
Chapter Thirty
He started at her feet, moving the wand slowly across the skin there, his gloves feeling odd against her flesh.
Stephanie shivered. At least his thoughts didn’t intrude into her mind. The gloves were impermeable.
“Sorry,” Ivan mumbled.
“Can we talk about something?”
“What do you want to talk about?”
“I don’t care. Anything. I just need a distraction.”
“Okay.”
She stared down at him. He’d moved on from her feet, moving the wand over her right calf.
She swallowed. “How did you end up becoming a pilot?”
“Things happen.”
“Great story, thanks. I’ve completely forgotten about the possibility that there might be a tracking device implanted beneath my skin.”
He sighed. “I wanted to be a doctor ever since I was a little kid. I used to drive my friends crazy with the first aid kit. Scraped knees. Bruises. Jammed fingers. Everything was fair game.”
“So, what happened?”
“I’m not sure exactly. I was in medical school. Caroline had gone missing the year before. My grades were the lowest they’d ever been... and I started thinking. What if there was more?”
He switched to her left leg, glancing up at her with a self-deprecating smile. A piece of hair fell across his eyes. He looked back down, focusing on the task in front of him.
“It sounds stupid, I know. I thought it was stupid at first too. I could have had a good life. I’m sure I would have been a good enough doctor if I’d stuck with it. And I was close too... but the closer I got to my internship, the more I felt like I was drowning. I just... Have you ever heard of the gravity well?”
“The what?”
“The gravity well.” He finished with her calf and sat back, kneeling on the floor.
“It’s this idea that when you’re standing on a planet’s surface, you’re as held down by that planet’s gravity as you possibly could be. You’re at the bottom of the well.” He explained.
“Okay,” Stephanie nodded.
Ivan stood up. “Give me your arm.”
He started scanning her again. Goose bumps prickled her skin where he touched her.
“So, you were at the bottom of the well?” she asked.
His lips twitched. Was he sad or smiling? It was weird not being able to feel his emotions. Like she was only hearing half the story.
That’s how it is for most of us, Maia pointed out.
Shh, Stephanie hissed. We don’t want him to know there’s anything strange about us.
I think he already knows we’re not normal.
“It felt like it too. Like I was drowning and I had to get off that planet.” He shrugged. “So, I did.”
“And you haven’t been back since?”
He shook his head.
He’d come to her shoulder and was standing with his leg touching hers. She breathed a sigh of relief. He was curious. A little confused. Warm. Lonely.
He moved around her to the other side, scanning her other arm.
“What about you?” he asked, picking up her hand. He separated her fingers, the gesture feeling oddly intimate.
“Me? What about me?”
“How did you end up here?”
She laughed, suddenly feeling nervous. “That’s a long story.”
“I’m a good listener.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of,” she mumbled.
“Fine. What did you want to be when you were a kid?”
“No one’s ever asked me that before.”
“Not even when you were little?”
She shook her head.
“Huh.”
He finished scanning her arm, his jean-clad thigh brushing against hers again.
He cleared his throat. “Do you want me to do your back first, or finish your legs?”
He was nervous. Why?
Her hand twitched. She could touch him and find out.
Her vision blurred, seeing him crumpled on the floor.
She blinked.
He was standing in front of her. Brown eyes shining. Her eyes went to his lips.
“Um... my back, I guess.”
He nodded.
She swept her hair over one shoulder, twisting the strands together so that her hair hung like a rope over her side.
He touched the back of her neck and she jumped.
“Sorry, I should have said something,” he murmured, voice close to her ear.
She put her hands down beside her thighs, gripping the edge of the bed, and forced herself to relax.
“I’m going to start scanning your neck, then your shoulders,” he said. She heard him swallow before he touched her.
She hadn’t realized just how quiet the room was.
“This is going to sound stupid,” she said, to break the silence.
“No judgment from me,” he promised.
“You know about the orphanage, right?” she asked, remembering what he’d said about going to the orphanage to look for her.
“Yes, Caroline spoke about it a lot.”
“Well, it’s probably because of that...when I was little, all I wanted to have when I grew up was a family. People to take care of.”
“I don’t think that’s silly.”
“It’s not exactly a high-end career choice. Like a doctor.” She shrugged.
“I think there’s a lot more honor in taking care of the people you care about than there is in being paid to repair people.”
Stephanie turned to look at him over her shoulder. He thought she was honorable?
“It might have been an honorable dream, but any honor I had was lost a long time ago.”
“What do you mean?”
“Honorable people are willing to sacrifice themselves for the people they care about...”
She’d never been able to do that. Maia’s killer was still free, as far as she knew. Caroline was locked up. She’d kept secrets and betrayed Ana to her enemies.
Ivan stared at her, eyes darting from point to point on her face, as though he were searching for something.
“I-”
Whatever he was about to say was cut off by a small beep.
“What?”
The wand was pressed against the small of her back. Ivan waved it back over the area and it beeped again.
“Looks like we found that tracker.” He put the device away. He moved to the display, manipulating something so that a holographic display of the human body appeared, the location of the tracking implant highlighted in red. He threw the image at Stephanie where it hovered, superimposed over her skin.
Her chest felt suddenly tight. “Get it out of me.”
Chapter Thirty-One
Stephanie sat at the ship’s controls, staring at the view screens, running through a mental list of things to do before they reached Ivan’s home planet. They just had one gate left to go through before they were in his system. She’d need to make a fake identity to get her down to the planet. She’d also need a new set of coms, to key the identity to, otherwise she’d have to attach the identity to her genetic records.... and she was sure the corporation would have their eyes peeled for her genome. But that could wait.
She still felt like she was being watched, even after smashing the tracker to pieces and watching the fragments being sucked out of an airlock.
She’d rigged the view screens to display a complete view around the ship so that it was like she was sitting in a tiny bubble in the middle of outer space, floating on a swivel chair.
She spun around every few seconds, turning slowly.
Ivan had gone to bed hours ago and she’d tried to sleep too. The itching between her shoulder blad
es hadn’t helped... the prickling of the skin, left over from prehistoric DNA... the feeling you got when you knew you weren’t safe.
Stephanie spun again.
Sometimes she wished she was a little bit less human. For all her differences, the things that were the same sucked.
She pulled one knee up to her chest, folding her arms around it as she tucked her foot onto the chair. Her other foot dangled, tapping against the floor every now and then to maintain the slow spin as she surveyed the space around them.
She felt cold.
Do you want to talk about what happened? Maia asked.
It didn’t happen. Stephanie said.
The killer stayed in the background, silent. This was not his area of expertise.
It nearly did.
I don’t want to talk about it.
She kept spinning.
It doesn’t make you weak, if you want to talk about it.
I’m fine. If I wanted to talk about it, I would.
Rogue Memory Page 14
