Like the predator she had been. Like she was again.
Deedee slammed the door open and walked in without hesitation, and Foal pushed down the nervousness in her stomach and followed, dipping her head low to fit through the doorway.
“Hey! Get out of here!” Someone shouted, and the five humans inside the lobby scrambled aside. Deedee didn’t hesitate but grabbed the shouting man by his jacket, pulled him to her, and stared into his eyes from an inch away.
“She’s with me,” Deedee whispered, loud enough for the entire room to hear her.
“Deadclaw Drake? ‘zat you?”
The voice came from the man at the bar. Older, fatter than any human Foal had seen…
…and currently pointing a longarm straight at Foal’s head.
Foal froze, hands grasping and opening, nervously. Too close to dodge. No room to draw a weapon. This was bad.
“It’s me,” Deedee said, letting go of the loudmouth, who stumbled back and almost fell into his chair. “Put the gun down. Foal and I are here on business. We’re gone when we’re done.”
“I’m pretty sure the sign out front said no mutants,” the man said, gun locked on Foal’s head, unwavering.
“Fucking titty horse freak,” the one that Deedee had stared down muttered. “Oughta blow her brains out, Vicks.”
“Ain’t worth the trouble, taking that shot. Ain’t worth the trouble starting the fight,” Deedee said. “Because I’ll finish it, and we’ll all get our asses thrown out of Low Binding. Besides, when does Garrison trash tell you what to do, Vickerly?”
“Garrison trash!” The mutterer found his courage and grabbed up a bottle from a table, smashing the end off.
Before Foal could flinch, Deedee was there, and the man’s hand was in hers, as the older woman squeezed. Glass shattered again, and the mutterer’s mouth opened in a perfect O. Blood dripped to the floor.
“Enough!” Vicks barked, lowering the gun. “Frade, you don’t tell me what to do. Go down to the dox and get that hand looked at.”
“She glassed Frade!” One of the mutterer’s friends protested. But he stepped back and paled as Deedee glared at him.
Frade whimpered and fell to his knees. Deedee released his hand. Foal let out a breath she hadn’t known she was holding.
“Git!” Vicks yelled, motioning with the gun. “It was an accident, got it? Now go.”
Frade and his friends ran, red dripping a trail behind them. Deedee flexed gloved hands and let bloody glass fall to the floor. “This the kind of scum you’re getting in these days, old man?”
“They’re what’s left over. The ones too hopeless to find contract work, even with the ‘Binders hiring.”
“The Highbinders are hiring?” Deedee stared at him, then took off her hat and sat it on the bar, as she leaned her elbows on it. “Gin. Neat. Water for her.”
Vicks shook his head. “No mutants means no drinks for either of you. You do your business and get out.” He glanced at her. “And you keep that coat closed. Anyone sees what’s under it, I’ll lose business.”
He’s talking about the shine, Foal realized.
Deedee shrugged. “We’re here to talk to the borg. Sooner done, sooner gone.”
“He doesn’t want to be disturbed.”
“This is business.”
“Bounty business?”
“Don’t be dense. Peaceful business.”
Vicks shrugged. “He ain’t in. Come around tomorrow.”
Deedee frowned. “You think I’m stupid? Like them garrison trash I just run off?”
“I think you’re death on two legs. Least you were, till you got into that patch of slowglow. But a dying badger still got some bite to her.” Vicks sighed. “It’s the best I can do. You already broke one rule, and people will be talking about that. I break another rule, I’ll lose business.”
A strange voice spoke, from behind Vicks. “Send her back.”
Foal flinched and turned her head, trying to figure out what she’d missed. Then she saw it, a door behind Vicks, back behind the bar.
Deedee snorted. “That’s him, ain’t it?”
Vicks looked away.
Deedee continued. “My friend needs to talk to you. Alright if she comes, too?”
“She the mutant?” The voice asked.
“Yeah.”
“I don’t want her behind my bar,” Vicks protested. “She’s too big. She’ll break shit.”
“Send ’em both back. Then get scarce for a while.”
Vicks frowned. “I’m calling this a meeting. You’re renting the whole building.”
“Fine.”
The bartender grabbed a coat and headed out into the rain. Deedee waited until he was gone, then headed behind the bar, flipping up the little hinged plank, and grabbing a bottle as she went. Foal followed, and this took some doing. The space wasn’t really made for her, and it was a chore not to knock anything over.
It was dark in the back room. The windows had been covered over, and only some dim light from the cloudy, overcast sky outside leaked through. She caught a glimpse of white metal, someone in bulky armor, leaning against a wall. Occasionally a motor whirred from the figure’s direction, and the room smelled like oil and rust.
It was cramped in here, and Foal couldn’t straighten to her full height. She ignored the twinge from her spines and kept her eyes on the stranger.
“You wanted to talk, so talk.” His voice was louder than it should be, muffled. She’d caught that before, thought it was just the effect of talking through the door. No, he was wearing a helmet, she realized, tracing the odd shape of his head.
With surprise, she realized that Deedee was looking to her.
This is going to be a chore. Her mouth wasn’t good with human words at the best of time. Just not made for it. Still, Deedee had done her part, paid her debt by getting her through the door without too much trouble. Foal couldn’t ask more.
“You came inbto towb two days ago,” Foal said. “Lots of talk. People said you were borged.”
The motors hummed, but the man didn’t say anything.
“I didbn’t know what borged meanbt. Thenb Deedee told me. A humanb with machibes. Machinbs. Inbside. With Nanbo inb them.”
“You’re starting to bore me, kid,” the man drawled.
“There’s a type of pill,” Foal persisted, feeling herself starting to sweat, getting worse with the close confines. It was warm in here, warmer than it should be. “It is only useful to people with machinbs inbside.”
“And if there is?”
“I was goibg to buy it today. But somebody beat me to it,” Foal turned her head, looked him in the face. Her eyes had adjusted to the darkness, and she could see his helmet clearly, now; a squat shape on his head, visored with translucent material. Cracked translucent material.
Through it, a distorted face. Clean-shaven, with cold eyes staring back, and that was all she could make out. “And the onbly other personb here who could have a use for it is someoneb else with machinbes inb them.”
The man’s head tilted a bit. “Hold still,” he said, simply. Foal flinched as he stepped toward her, then forced herself to stay frozen. Beside her, Deedee shifted, slipping a hand into her coat.
“Don’t bother,” the borg continued. “If I want you dead, you’re dead. Right now I don’t. Keep it that way.”
Deedee scowled, but Foal watched as she pulled her hand out, keeping still as well.
The man circled Foal, moving around to both sides, studying her. Looking at the brand on her flank. “You’re no mutant,” he finally concluded.
“Bno,” Foal confirmed. “Made. Like you.”
“So I’ve got something you want. How does this go, then?” The man continued.
“I bneed to buy it from you.”
“I could be persuaded to part with a few. Keep you going for a few years.”
Foal shook her head. “I bneed the whole bottle.”
“Why? Even for something of your body weight, a si
ngle pill ought to last months,” The man’s armor groaned and whirred as he moved back to the wall, hand rubbing his visor like she’d seen humans rubbing their chin. “A pill or two from me would keep you going for a while, let you scavenge more. It isn’t hard to find if you go far enough, and there’s no use for it save for people like us…”
People like us?
That was the first time that she’d ever heard a human say something like that.
Foal didn’t quite know how to handle it, so she kept quiet.
“There’s more of you, aren’t there?” He said, turning to face her.
How? How did he know that? She tried to keep control. Tried to keep motionless. But her legs stirred, stamping hooves nervously. Her traitorous tail flicked.
“How many more?”
He held all the advantages. Foal felt her desperation rise. “All the pills in that bottle wouldb’t be enough. But we canb process them, make them stretch out, unbtil…” she shut up.
“Until?”
Foal tried to ignore his question. She’d already said too much.
“It was a core that did this, wasn’t it?” The man said, and his voice was hard now.
Hot anger forced the words from her, despite her resolve. “Was,” Foal said. “Gonb bnow. We saw to that.”
“Ah.” The man nodded.
Something at his side hissed, and Deedee was across the room before Foal could do more than flinch. But the man caught her with a lightning fast grab, twisted, and Deedee was down, his arm around her neck, as Deedee fought, tried to shove and punch her way free.
“Bno!” Foal said, and tried to move up, tried to stomp him—
“Stand down!” The man snapped, voice booming. “It was my goddamned utility compartment. Understand? I’m not attacking you. Settle down.”
Deedee kept struggling. Her gasps filled the air.
Foal backed up. “Donb’t hurt her!”
“This is Deadclaw Drake we’re talking about here. She’s a legend among us mercs. I’m not going to kill her, if she settles down.”
After a minute, Deedee did. The armored man eased off of her, slowly, backing up and returning to his spot on the wall. Once there, he dipped a hand into his armor, pulled out something small and rounded. He shook it, and it rattled. An old brown-and-white label came free, and drifted to the floor, gleaming in the weak sunlight that made it through the covered windows.
And for the first time, Foal felt hope surge in her chests. “You’ll trade?” she asked, voice high with tension.
“I’ve had my dose already. I’m good for a half a year or so. Plenty of time to find more afterward. But this trade isn’t just with you. It’s with your tribe.”
“Tribe?” Foal frowned. “Donb’t bknow that word.”
“Your group. Your… family. Everyone you’d give the pills to. There’s a bunch of you, yes?”
“Yes.”
“I want your help and their help. I’ve got a contract to fulfill.”
Beside her, Deedee shifted, rising, breathing hard. “It’s the Jaspa, ain’t it?”
For the first time, the man hesitated. “I can’t talk about it. That was one of the clauses.”
“You don’t have to. Everyone knows they’re coming for the ‘Binders.” Deedee straightened her coat, coughed a few times. “Just a matter of when. Ain’t surprised the Binders are hirin’ outside talent. Fancy talent. Borgs, even.” Her eyes glittered as she stepped into the light. “You know me. You know my rep. What we say here don’t leave the room. I’ll make sure Foal here don’t talk.”
“Didn’t know you worked with a partner, Drake,” the man said.
“I owe her. I pay my debts.” Deedee put her hand on Foal’s arm.
Foal fought hard not to flinch. She wasn’t used to humans touching her.
Neither of the mercenaries noticed, caught in a staredown.
“Anyway,” the man said, finally, “The Jaspa will be work. We can handle that. What people don’t know, is that they just lost a group of their fighters, recently.” He paused. “They lost them to a new core.”
Foal tensed.
The man’s visor shifted, turning to look at her. “Yeah. And your bunch killed your old core.” He lifted the pill bottle, holding it up, and gave it a gentle shake. It rattled, just a bit, full and heavy with promise. “The Jaspa gathered a force a few days ago. Hundreds. Put them out east of here. The Binders think they're preparing for a two-pronged attack on the Low Binding. But I think they're panicked over the core.”
“Fits what I know of ’em,” Deedee said.
The man nodded. “There’s going to be a war. Gone too far now, too much money. We’ll sort the Jaspa out, but after that, I want a core. Or failing that, the things that remain when a core is destroyed. But first I have the Jaspa to tackle, me and a few hundred other mercs. You, on the other hand…” he tucked the bottle back into his armor, sealed it with a sharp hiss. “…you have a pill-shaped hole that needs filling and an open schedule.”
“What do you wanbt us to do?” Foal asked, eye fixed on the pocket he’d tucked the pills into.
“I want you to find out whether or not that core’s still around. I know roughly where it was… my sources got that from the turncoat Jaspa. If you can locate it, come and find me. Come and tell me. If it is alive, I’ll give you this bottle if you help me capture it.”
“What if it isnb’t? What if we finb it destroyed?”
He shrugged. “I’m not a cruel man. And the confirmation is worth something to me. I’ll trade you something else for the bottle. But the price will be high.”
Foal turned her head from side to side, considering. “What would you do with it? If you captured it?”
“That’s my business. Nothing that would harm you and yours, though. We’ve got bigger fish to fry.”
“We?” Deedee asked, voice sharp.
“Again, my business.”
“I’m bnot inb charge. I canb’t decide this alonbe,” Foal confessed.
“Didn’t expect you to.” He nodded. “Go on back to folks who can. In a few days, maybe less, I’ll be up north. When you have decided, send Drake with your answer, and I’ll tell you where to start looking and sort out any little details we need to.”
Foal turned her head again, thought it over. This was far from what she expected. Far out of her experience. But… what choice did she have, really? Deedee was strong and quick, but this man’s armor was thick and he was fast and strong, too. Foal had no illusions about how fighting would work for her in these tight quarters, and even if she won, the bartender would hold this against her. The bounties would be levied, assuming she made it out of town in the first place.
And the man was reasonable. The man.
People like us, played through her mind again.
She’d never had a human call her a person before. That decided her. “I’ll go ask my people,” Foal told him. “You’ll have our anbser soonb.”
“Good.”
“Who are you?” Deedee asked, suddenly. “Ain’t heard tell of a borg in white armor. You new?”
“I’m new to these parts. Call me Yulian.”
A few minutes later, Deedee helped Foal get out from behind the bar without breaking anything, and they made it out the door without getting shot in the back. Deedee produced the bottle she’d swiped as she walked, popped the cork, and took a deep swig. The older woman grimaced, coughed a bit, then took another. “That went weird.”
“Yeah,” Foal agreed, thoughts tumbling around in her head.
“He said we.”
“I caught that. There’s a we in there, somewhere,” Foal said. “That makes it complicated.”
“Yeah. Even if you can trust him, and that’s a big, big if, there’s more folks in his chain that might muddle matters,” Deedee said. She bowed her head, letting her hat cover her face as the two of them walked. “No. Nope, can’t do it.”
“Canb’t do what?”
“Let you tackle this one by yersel
f. Yer a good kid, but yer naïve.”
“I’m bnot!”
“You were practically tellin’ him yer life’s story in there.”
“It… he was guessinb it! Anb I left out the importanbt stuff,” Foal sulked.
Deedee shook her head. “No. He knows plenty. And he’ll be reporting it back to his ‘we’ soon. I can’t let matters stand as they are. I’m comin’ with you.”
“You donb’t have to—”
“I do.”
“My people donb’t like humanbs. If they decide you have to die…”
“This morning I figured I had a couple months left at most. Now that’s gone. No way god’s spared me that, just to get trampled to death by horse people or some shit. It’ll be fine.”
And though Foal didn’t admit it, she was relieved.
Whatever was going on here, she’d need all the help she could get.
TWENTY-FOUR
In the end, I couldn’t keep them out of the elevator shaft.
I’d given them a fight, unleashed every trap and trick I had with the elevator, but it hadn’t mattered. In the space of two hours, they’d wedged the elevator open, jammed it in place with heavy spikes, and blown off the bottom, so that I couldn’t even move it anymore.
About the only consolation prize was that it was thoroughly blocking the hidden access shaft to my core chamber. They wouldn’t find me without a stroke of bad luck.
Given how my luck had been going, though, that was a relatively low bar. Still, I didn’t have time to whine.
Above me, on the slope of the mountain, the construction drone labored away. Even closer to me, in the ceiling of my core chamber, my nanite swarms dug for all they were worth. I’d put the remaining feedstock and bandwidth into making them, then suctioned up more from the dead who filled my pit traps.
The bunker was lost. It was simply a matter of time. Too many raiders, too fast, heading right to an area that would, at best, result in a fate worse than death.
It was a bitter pill to swallow, but fortunately for me, I didn’t have a throat. Once I accepted this as an inevitability, my thoughts turned to escape… and one final act of vengeance.
Bunker Core (Core Control Book 1) Page 23
