Chapter 30: Kamura
"Of course, it’s real!" Kamura snapped. She shifted, trying to find a more comfortable spot on the debris underneath her. It was mostly pieces of the Selok’s extruded construction, or ‘worm crap’ as Jak called it. A fall of the black stuff lay in curving chunks, as if a huge pipe or conduit had broken apart and fallen down the slope behind her. As soon as there was a little more light, she’d start recording the inscriptions written on it. Meanwhile, it made for lumpy seating.
She was also very aware that Toko still had his arm around her waist, and she didn’t quite know where to put her hands. He was so different from the boys she’d met at the academy, so unpredictable, a feral child grown up. She’d tried to imagine what his life as a mobbie chief must have been like, but her imagination failed her. She knew only that she felt an unwelcome attraction to him, to the warm brown skin covering lean muscles, to the handsome, crafty face. She had to stop this! She already knew that Toko was contaminated by the Selok omniphage, and now she knew Jak was, too. It could spread from them, endangering all of humanity.
Her duty was clear. Once they reached Tekena, once Toko and Jak were both in the same location as the God Core device, she would find a working com, and she would call in the strike. Not all of Family Mobutu’s trading was done in safe, civilized ports. Grandmother Mobutu had three traders, better described as warships, stationed nearby waiting for Kamura’s signal. Tessa would die too, not because she was contaminated, but because the little Veloran was always at Jak’s side. As for herself, she’d have an hour or so to leave the vicinity, to get far enough away to be safe. But would she go? After she’d murdered the three people who trusted her, who’d saved her life more than once, after she’d murdered them, would she even want to live?
"It’s real," Toko told Jak as the big man pulled him forward to examine the connector at the base of his skull.
"It looks like the worm stuff," Jak agreed.
Kamura found herself pulled between the two men, as if she were an awkward package that neither wanted to set aside. The smell of unwashed bodies was enough to make her dizzy, but then she stank like everyone else. She just wanted this to be over, to be in a safe place where she could have a bath and all the water she wanted to drink.
"Let me see," Tessa said as she crowded in, too, trying to get a look.
Her fragile-feeling body pressed against Kamura, and Kamura again felt astonished that there could be so much determination and endurance is such a small form. All three of them were nearly on top of her. It was too much! They were so alive and vital now, and they were going to be dead so soon. They were too close. Twisting, she slipped out of the tangle and scooted back, but the unstable debris shifted beneath her. With a scream, she slid backward into the darkness.
"Kamura!" Toko called.
"Where are you?" Jak called. "Are you hurt?"
Kamura found herself lying on her back with her feet up the slope from her head. She hadn’t fallen far. The light of the entrance gleamed about a dozen meters beyond her. Out of breath, she lay still for a moment and closed her eyes. If only she could open her eyes and wake up in her own room . . . .
"Kamura, can you hear us?" Toko called. He sounded anxious.
Kamura opened her eyes. This was no dream.
"I’m okay," she said.
At least, she thought she was. Nothing seemed to be broken. She was just a little breathless, a little dizzy, and not at all happy. With a grunt, she sat up. Her right leg felt cool. She touched it.
"But my leg is wet."
"Wet?" Tessa called. "Are you bleeding, girl."
"No," Kamura answered. She sniffed the dampness. "I think it’s water."
Omniphage Invasion Page 30
