Farenough: Strangers Book 2

by Melissa McCann

  "Nobody is negotiating with you. You almost killed him."

  "Could have," Tora corrected him. "Didn't."

  Mr. Ventnor said, "Colonel's got a point, Captain. If she wanted Marduk dead, she could have pulled his head straight off."

  Tora sighed heavily. "You can't come into town. Disease enemy is here. You can't drive transports. You kill many humans, and other humans are angry and fight and run away, and disease enemy escapes. You want quarantine. You want no fighting. The Special Commander Marduk negotiates with me."

  "Commander Marduk has a broken neck."

  Tora snorted. "Not very broken."

  Mr. Ventnor said, "He'd be patched up by now."

  "He can't come to the front line, and I'm not letting you out of this quarantine."

  Mr. Ventnor said, "I'm guessing Commander Marduk is awake and in control right now running things from behind the lines. You set up a com link so the Colonel can say her piece, and Marduk will decide what to do from his end."

  The Captain Feleck didn't like what Mr. Ventnor said. "You don't need to talk to Commander Marduk."

  The Captain Feleck used angry words while he tried to think why he should not do what Mr. Ventnor said. Then he pointed one long, narrow finger at her chest. "Stay right there," he ordered her. Tora did not think he should give her orders, but she did not have anywhere else she needed to go, so she did what he said.

  The Captain Feleck shouted at his men. He climbed up into the lead transport and did not come out again.

  Mr. Ventnor let the Sunjung stand up a little straighter but still held the Sunjung's arm back so he could not run away. "We're lucky it was Captain Feleck in control while Marduk was out. Marduk would have picked up on the missing squads before now. Feleck didn't anticipate you using a hit and run strategy."

  Tora snorted again. She had many, many simulations for fighting large forces with smaller ones. She only had to adapt her simulations for humans and for not so much killing.

  A black-uniform ran down the street from behind Tora, and more black-uniform came out of cover to meet him. He had no helmet, his stun jacket was gone, and his uniform had dirt and stains. Tora was pleased with her soldiers. They had done very well with the traps, even if this one soldier had escaped and the black-uniforms would now be too wary to follow militia into buildings and blind alleys.

  Mr. Ventnor said, "Looks like our catpil's out of the crate."

  Tora thought so, too. Her plan had been to break the black-uniforms into units of four or six—small enough that militia could ambush them and capture them by surprise and greater numbers. The hard part was to make the black-uniforms think they were in control—had all the credit—until the got into a place where they couldn't get out and the militia could block their way once they were in. When one trap had been used and the black-uniforms secured, the militia must move to the next trap because there were not enough militia to watch all the traps at once and still be enough to overpower the black-uniforms. The blue-sashes had made the traps work better and faster and catch more black-uniforms, but Tora had known she could not keep them secret very long.

  Tora squeezed the clip on her collar. "Ms. Stamos, black-uniforms know about traps."

  "Thought so," Ms. Stamos said. "Owalla Hellstrom just told me one of the police got out a message before they pulled him down. I'm telling everyone to abandon the traps and just try to keep the Cyrions moving away from the town center and the district. The runners are helping now the police are back to using stun instead of projectiles."

  One of the black-uniforms climbed up into the transport. He would be telling the Captain Feleck that the black-uniforms did not have as many soldiers as they thought they did. She thought the Commander Feleck would be very surprised. She liked that thought so much she smiled.

  The Captain Feleck climbed out of the transport very fast. He did not run at Tora, but he walked very fast, stamping his feet with each step. His face was very red.

  "What did you do? Where are my people?" The Captain Feleck came right up to Tora until his chest almost touched hers. He was a very tall human, even a little taller than Tora. She felt pleased that he was so brave to come so close when he knew Tora could kill him. He would be a good soldier even though he was old and human.

  Tora cocked her head and made the face that meant don't know what is wrong.

  "I have fifty—sixty people missing. What did you do?"

  Tora made the understand face. "Many black-uniforms try to catch my soldiers. My soldiers catch them instead." She shrugged.

  "I want them back, and I want them now, and I want them unharmed or I will drive those transports over the top of this slum and grind it into the muck."

  Tora shrugged. "I negotiate with the Special Commander Marduk."

  She worried that the Captain Feleck would have internal injuries from bulging eyes and all the blood going to his face.

  Tora made the I fight you face. "I don't damage prisoners."

  Mr. Ventnor said, "Captain, the Colonel's not going to do anything to your people. They're trussed up safe and tight where they can't hurt anyone or vice-versa, but their anti-viral barriers won't keep the plague out forever. You don't want to leave them in the town any longer than you have to."

  The Captain Feleck panted with rage, but he had already made threats, and he could not carry them through without orders from the Special Commander Marduk, and the Special Commander Marduk would want to know why the Captain Feleck made threats, and then the Special Commander Marduk would insist on negotiating with Tora because he was a good commander and did not want any of his soldiers to die while fighting if fighting was not necessary.

  Tora waited for the Captain Feleck to realize Tora had all the credit and he had none until the Special Commander Marduk came.

  The Captain Feleck curled his lip. "If one of my people is harmed, I'll see your head on a spike." He turned around and stamped back to the transport and shouted for a communication box. A black-uniform soldier came from behind the transport with a small com box on a strap around her neck, then she followed the Captain Feleck back to where Tora waited.

  When the Captain Feleck stopped before Tora, the female soldier activated the com box. A white column of light stood in front of Tora. The woman adjusted the frequency and entered the receive coordinates, and the Special Commander Marduk appeared in the light. He did not stand in the light. He lay flat on his back on a gurney, and the 'corder at his end hung over him so he looked as if he stood face-to-face with Tora with the gurney behind him.

  When his eyes focused on her, Tora nodded her head. "Special Commander Marduk," she said, because humans liked when you knew their names. Maycee called it manners.

  The Special Commander Marduk looked at her like he had not seen her before and did not know what she was. He said, "You're a clone."

  Tora waited for him to say something that was not obvious to everyone.

  "What's your designation?"

  Maycee would say he had no manners. Tora flexed her shoulders to make herself bigger and taller. "I am Tora Miraz."

  "You've been altered," he said as if Tora had tugolith dung on her and smelled bad.

  "I am Tora Miraz," she repeated. The Special Commander Marduk would get tired of being rude. Possibly, he felt angry because Tora had broken his neck and he would not be able to walk for many days. That was unreasonable. He had tried to go into Tora's territory and had stunned her favorite soldier, and she had not even killed him. But she would let him be angry until he decided he wanted his soldiers back more than he wanted to be angry at Tora.

  "Who's really running your rabble? Is it General Baldwin? Get him out here."

  Tora did not know if Mr. Hollin wanted the black-uniforms to know General Baldwin had gone to the Admiral Hirshorn at the mouth of the river. She did not need to tell the Special Commander Marduk that. "You negotiate with me."

  "I'm not talking to a misbegotten premature decant. Get me Baldwin or get out of my way."

  "You ne
gotiate with me," Tora repeated.

  He ground his teeth in the holo'projection. "What's your authority?"

  "Murrayville is mine. I have your soldiers. I have the town. I have the humans and the militia and the blue-sashes, and the Solante does what I say." Tora did not mind making the Special Commander Marduk think she had more credit than she really did.

  The Special Commander Marduk did not like it. He made the I fight you face while he tried to think what credit he had besides the soldiers, who got lost in the city, and the transports he could not use without damaging too many humans.

  "Were you in control of that assault?"

  Tora stepped aside, and Mr. Ventnor pushed the Sunjung in front of the com box. Tora said, "The Solante sent his soldiers to fight you. This is the blue-sash Sunjung who was lieutenant for the blue-sash soldiers. Now I have all the blue-sash soldiers." She turned to the Sunjung. "You say what the Solante told you."

  Maybe the Sunjung's arm didn't hurt so much. He said, "I'm not saying..." He ended with a hurt cry and sagged backward because Mr. Ventnor did something to his twisted arm.

  "Say," Tora repeated.

  "Solante says we follow Ms. Miraz' orders to the millimeter." The Sunjung panted harshly and tried to twist in a way that didn't hurt.

  The Special Commander Marduk narrowed his eyes at Tora. "So you're in bed with Solante?"

  Mr. Ventnor made a trying not to laugh noise.

  Tora said, "I killed the Cerise who is the Solante's captain for the blue-sashes. Now I am captain for the blue-sashes. I give them my orders." Probably that would be only as long as Tora kept the black-uniforms out of Murrayville, but after that, Tora would think of another way to keep the blue-sashes for herself and not let the Solante have them back.

  "What about my officers?" the Special Commander Marduk demanded. Does Solante have them?

  "They are mine," Tora said. Then she reconsidered. She could not keep them. She must give them back to the Special Commander Marduk. "I give them back when we have quarantine and no fighting."

  "My orders are to keep this slum locked down."

  Tora nodded. "You keep black-uniforms outside Murrayville. You stop humans going in or out. All stay here. I keep humans quiet, no fighting, no going out of Murrayville until Doctor Annia kills disease enemy."

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  The Special Commander Marduk looked at her like she had said something that did not make sense. Tora thought about what she had said. She had said it right.

  Mr. Ventnor said, "Colonel's proposing we cooperate. People trust her here. If she tells them to stay put, they'll stay. Your officers stay out of the plague hot zone and watch for strays and stragglers."

  The Special Commander Marduk didn't like it. If General Baldwin were here, the Special Commander Marduk would agree to share quarantine. First the Special Commander Marduk forced Tora to fight when she did not want to fight. Now he won't keep peace when he wants peace.

  Tora sighed. "You want quarantine. I want quarantine. Fighting means can't hold quarantine. You want fight, I fight all day long. All night. Until all humans get out of Murrayville and disease enemy kills everybody. Fine. "

  She tightened her arms across her chest and stared into the com pickup that would be like looking the Special Commander Marduk in the eyes.

  The Special Commander Marduk looked to one side with slitted eyes and his jaw stuck out so he could think. He did not like to do what Tora said because if he had not fought Tora to begin with, he could have had what he wanted, so all his fighting was wasted.

  He looked back into the pickup. "What about my officers?"

  Tora shrugged. "They come back here. Maybe my soldiers keep some stun vests, some stun weapons. You get all projectile weapons, yours and blue-sashes."

  The Sunjung made a sound like a child-human that wants a sweet.

  Mr. Ventnor shook him a little. "You can have your toys back when you learn to play nice with 'em."

  So the Special Commander Marduk told the black-uniforms to move the transports outside of the town, and Tora told Ms. Stamos to bring all the captured black-uniforms and take them to the Throughroad.

  Soon the street was clear all the way to the shops that sold food to the people who walked or rode the bus to the city for work. The captured black-uniforms came from the cross streets and alleys. They had their hands secured behind them, but as soon as they came all the way into the street, Tora's militia released the bands on their arms and handed them back the projectile rifles the militia had taken from them and also the guns they had taken from the blue-sashes. The blue-sashes did not like it, but Tora folded her arms and gave them the I fight you face until they were quiet.

  When all the black-uniforms crossed the place where the transports had crushed the barricades to wreckage, the Special Commander Marduk said, "What will you be doing now?"

  Tora shrugged. "Keep Murrayville quiet. Contain disease enemy until doctor Annia kills it." Tora had new soldiers to review and train and patrol schedules to make. The black-uniforms would keep air vehicles all around the city to cut off people trying to run away from the disease, but Tora did not want any of her humans to have contact with black-uniforms. She turned away from the holo'display of the Special Commander Marduk.

  "Wait," he said. "Who's supposed to be killing...curing the plague?"

  "Doctor Annia." Tora had soldiers to manage. She was done talking to the Special Commander Marduk.

  "Do you mean you have a doctor in Murrayville?"

  Tora sighed. "Doctor Annia," she repeated

  "There is no cure for this virus."

  Tora had the eye-roll feeling. "Doctor Annia is fighting disease enemy. She will kill it."

  #

  Annia wasn't a gene-tech. She could read a genome as well as any other doctor, and she had a general knowledge of the extensive catalog of known and gengineered alleles, but the minutia of assembling those alleles in combinations that would generate predictable results were the purvue of specialists.

  She leaned back from her monitor and dug the heels of her hands into her closed eyes. She needed another analgesic. Maybe something specific for headache. Or maybe an anti-inflammatory. That would help with the itch that had spread to both armpits and the folds of her elbows, and she thought she felt the beginnings of a rash behind her ears.

  Elizabeth-Belle was bent over with her nose almost inside the data cloud in her monitor, compiling with her face apparently frozen in a resentful scowl. She had passed Annia the Carposi variations and begun translating the lipophilic hydrocarbons for the walls of Annia’s artificial carrier cell into a form that could be manufactured by a chromosome that lacked one of the essential human amines and employed two others that didn't exist in the human genome at all.

  Annia would use the translated alleles to program the carrier cell to attach to the wall of the host cell, dissolve the lipid membrane and inject its viral payload into the host cell. There, the DV would replicate. In the process, it would produce a suite of enzymes designed to snip the plague genome at pre-programmed points, breaking it into useless pieces that could be absorbed or ejected by the host cell.

  The non-human amines in Annia's phage should render it indifferent to whatever protein or enzyme messenger from the plague genome disabled the DVs. Annia's head began to swim. Her concentration was failing as the stimulants began to wear off.

  Elizabethe-Belle flicked her hand through her monitor field, and the final piece of the phage appeared in Annia's monitor. There would be time for stimulants while the compiler assembled and incubated the first run. Annia plugged the new sequence into her genome and flicked the result to the compiler.

  "It won't work," Elizabeth-Belle grumbled.

  "We're going to try an alternate enzyme suite for the killer sequence. If Antius doesn't work, that almost always means Huberwald will."

  Elizabeth-Belle curled her lip. "You're going to try Carposi on Huberwald?"

  Annia would have rolled her eyes if they hadn't hurt
so much. "Obviously not, but Hoen will work."

  "Hoen's archaic," Elizabeth-Belle protested.

  "But it's compatible with Huberwald."

  Elizabeth-Belle threw out her hands in surrender. "Fine. I'll run Huberwald, but if you're so confident, why didn't you use it first?"

  "Because Antius handles inosine more reliably."

  While Elizabeth-Belle seethed over the manual labor of converting the Huberwald kill suite, Annia slipped away from her monitor to check the tribbles she had infected with the plague. They waddled to the fronts of their cages, looking for treats. Annia picked one at random and put it in the miniature diagnostic unit with a sprinkling of fruit pellets to keep it happy. While she waited for the results, she surreptitiously peeled the depleted med-patches from her chest and replaced them with fresh ones.

  The tribble's plague infection was far enough along to render a meaningful live test of the virophage if the bio-simulation vials produced a successful result. She returned it to its cage and ran diagnostics on the rest of the group. They all had the plague in roughly the same stage of infection.

  Her own sample showed a more advanced stage. Estimating from previous patients, Annia probably had twelve hours before she became too weak to sit at the monitor.

  With her hands beginning to shake with the combination of stimulants and fatigue, Annia returned to her station to prepare her phage genome to take the Huberwald sequence.

  The first run of the phage failed, which, while disappointing, wasn't a surprise, given the complexity of the problem. The carrier engulfed and dissolved the viral bodies in the host bloodstream. Then it attached to the host cells and delivered its payload. The DV thus inserted began to manufacture the enzyme suite to dissolve the plague organism, but the enzymes came out malformed, unable to sever the hydrocarbon bonds in the spine of the viral genome and cannibalize the component amines. Finally, when the phage replicated and attempted to manufacture carrier cells, the carriers were deformed and couldn't pass out through the host cell membrane. "We're using too much thiourodine," Annia concluded.