Farenough: Strangers Book 2

by Melissa McCann

  "Serious as a supernova," Mr. Ventnor said.

  Tora said, "We go now. No waiting, no talking."

  The black-uniform made the hand gesture that meant give up. "Get in."

  Mr. Ventnor said, "Mr. Cranther, Mr. Heron, let's get these barricades open."

  Tora could not wait for the militia to pull the barriers aside. She jumped over, and Liam came with her. They climbed into the slider, which was not really big enough for them both, and the driver complained that they crowded him. Mr. Ventnor said, "I could still drive," but the driver didn't want to let someone else have his vehicle.

  Then the barrier opened, and the black-uniform soldier drove the slider through the gap.

  Mr. Ventnor said, "Pull those barricades shut again. Let's keep the perimeter secure." He set his hand on the side of the slider. "I'll be behind you. Bring the doctor back."

  The soldier fired the engine, and the vehicle darted into the streets of Murrayville.

  #

  The pounding against her hips and belly jarred the stun out of Annia's body. Every step the hunter took jarred Annia's body and shook the breath out of her. Its fingers dug into the flesh of her thighs so hard they felt like knives, but the smell was the worst of it. The hunter stank like waste; it had been away from its ship far beyond the reccommended period.

  Hanging head down over the hunter's shoulder, Annia held her breath and tried to raise her head. She couldn't recognize the streets the clone carried her through, but she didn't know if that was because she was upside down or if they really had come to some part of the town that she hadn't been to before.

  She restrained the impulse to kick. If she tried to get away it would stun her again. She braced her elbows against the hunter's back and tried to raise her head. The hunter ignored the sharp dig of her elbows into its back. As long as she didn't struggle to get away, it wouldn't notice peripheral sensations.

  As the ringing in her ears faded, she became aware of a high whine somewhere, breaking into a deep throb below the bottom range of her hearing. The hunter ship. She twisted her body, strained her neck to see the sky. She couldn't make out more than a wedge of blue over the buildings. The hunter was carrying her out of the city toward the open fields outside town. Its ship would find space to land there. If it got her to its ship, it would put her in deep freeze. She had to be calm and find a way to escape before the ship set down.

  She tried to turn her neck and shoulders without moving her legs. The hunter's deformed legs and hips gave an alien quality to its walk, but it moved fast even with Annia's weight on its shoulder. A human would have to lope to keep up. The hunter crossed an intersection of two narrow streets, and just as Annia turned her head, scanning for something she could use to escape the hunter, a police slider flashed across a gap between the shacks and sheds on the next street. It slewed into the alley. One of the passengers was struggling to get out of the moving vehicle, and the driver lost control. The slider skidded sideways into someone's ragged tent-and-scrap home, and Annia recognized Tora's black and grey uniform as, lithe as a catpil, Tora jumped from the seat to the nose of the slider and landed on her feet in the street. The slider came to a stop, and Liam was already following Tora out of the vehicle, a graceful predator, but no match for the inhuman strength of the hunter. Annia clenched the muscles in her belly and stretched up again. "Tora, Liam, get away."

  They weren't listening, and the cyborg would take them apart unless Annia could do something to give them a chance.

  She risked a stun and twisted. Could she get her hand around the hunter’s face and blind it? She would have to push herself up and try to reach its eyes from behind. It wasn’t much of a chance, but it would give Tora and Liam a small advantage. Then her arm bumped the cyborg’s collar, and she something flexed. She wrenched her head almost over her shoulder saw a weakness in the hunter's defenses. Feeder tubes ran from its nutrient pack under the armor on its back to the arteries in its throat. The neck of the armored suit protected the tubes and the input nipples, but Annia's shifting weight had created a pucker in the collar of the suit just wide enough for someone with small fingers to reach the feeder tube where it attached to the hunter's throat. She couldn’t get her nearer arm back at that angle. She would have to twist almost or her back to get her fingers under the collar, and her movement might tighten the gap, but if she could dislodge even one of the feeder tubes, the blood and fluid loss would sap the hunter’s strength, maybe enough to give her clones a fighting chance.

  The hunter would stun her as soon as it felt her move, and it would take more than a tug to dislodge the feeder. Tora’s grey and white uniform appeared in Annia’s field of view, and Annia didn’t have time to plan her own attack. She rolled, kicked and grabbed for the cyborg’s neck. If she had thought about it, she might have missed, but panic and lower brain functions sharpened her reflexes. She rolled and kicked. At the same time, she grabbed for the slack in the hunter’s protective suit. Her fingernails dug into the clammy skin, and she felt the tube between her fingers. The armored uniform fit the hunter’s neck too snugly, and the slack had recoiled with Annia’s movement. She would never have the time or strength to pull the tube out. Tthen something hit the hunter from the side. The impact threw Annia off its shoulder.

  The burning shock of a stun numbed Annia’s leg and side but the hunter had lost it’s bruising grip, and its contact stunner had only partial contact. The stun didn't knock her unconscious, only numbed her leg and side. She finally had a flash of good luck. The angle of her fall and the pressure of the cyborg's life-support suit trapped her fingers between the collar and the clone's spongy flesh as her full weight fell on the feeder tube. The nipple tore loose from the hunter's neck, and hot liquid spilled down her arm. She struck the ground hard.

  #

  Tora threw her weight on the enemy, slammed its head back on its neck and knocked Annia off its shoulder. The enemy struck Tora with its left hand, and Tora jerked. It wore a contact stunner on its left arm. Liam struck there first, a hard kick to the arm. The enemy was fast, faster than any human, faster than Tora. It struck her across the face so hard she staggered. It swept Liam's feet out from under him. He rolled upright.

  Tora struck it from behind, a hard blow to the lower back that would have crippled a human and ruptured internal organs. The enemy turned and struck again, faster than Tora could dodge. She fell against a fence.

  Liam rammed it with his shoulder low against its back and carried it off its feet. It hit the ground twisting. It caught Liam's leg and wrenched it.

  Tora kicked its wrist. The blow should have numbed the hand, but Liam was barely able to pull free. He kicked at the enemy's face, missed.

  The enemy threw Liam's weight off its armored belly and gained its feet. It caught Tora's hair, grabbed her chin and twisted.

  She sank to her knees.

  #

  The fall knocked Annia's breath out. She gulped in a panic and writhed on the ground trying to force her frozen diaphragm to draw air. She still heard the thud and scrape of fighting, so the clones were at least alive. She couldn't open her eyes, and the glancing stun had numbed half her body.

  She used the heel of her hand to force her left eye open, but she couldn't make it focus. She thought she saw Liam throw himself into the reach of the hunter. It released its grip on Tora and gathered itself together with jittering grace. Its next blow knocked Liam to the ground.

  Annia groped around her in the dirt. There had to be a weapon of some kind somewhere. She had to help the clones. Even together, they weren't a match for the hunter.

  #

  Liam was not fighting to protect Annia, now. He was fighting to save himself. He hung back, feinted at the enemy, and tried to make patterns in his head to tell him what the enemy would do next.

  The enemy ducked Liam's feint, then it ignored him. It went back toward Annia. That gave Liam a piece of a pattern. The enemy wanted Annia. It did not want Liam or Tora. He did not know how to use that piece. T
hat was the kind of thing Tora would know.

  Liam shouted at the enemy. "No fighting Annia. Fight me."

  The enemy ignored him and strode toward Annia.

  Annia raised herself on her hands and turned toward the sound of Liam's voice. "Liam, the feeder tubes. Pull out the feeder tubes."

  A pattern. Liam saw the tubes that snaked around the enemy's black uniform. He didn't have to break the enemy. He could break the tubes

  Liam rushed the enemy from behind. He slammed his foot against the side of its left knee and grabbed for the nearest tube that went from the enemy's back around its side to its groin. He did not have simulations for fighting like this. He could not get good leverage, and the tube did not come out of the suit.

  He rammed the enemy with his shoulder, trying to dig his fingers deeper between the tube and the suit. The enemy twisted, hit Liam with the stunner in its sleeve. Liam's muscles spasmed, and he jerked the feeder tube, but it did not come out.

  The enemy stunned him again. Liam did not like to be stunned. He had been stunned when Maycee had been hurt by the Elizabeth-Belle and the Jordan-Kyle and the silent enemy that lived inside her where he could not kill it.

  Remembering Maycee made Liam so angry he didn't feel the next stun. He threw his weight into the enemy until it staggered. Liam held the tube in his hand so tight the enemy couldn't get away, and punched its face with his free hand. He hit it again and again. Maycee had been hurt, and Liam could do nothing. He bared his teeth and pounded the enemy face. Maycee was hurt and afraid, and she couldn't speak to Liam or make love with him.

  The enemy stunned him again, but stun only made him hit harder. The enemy realized it could not stun him hard enough to make him lie down like a human. It tried to hit Liam with its fist, but Liam’s grip on its feeder tube would not let the enemy turn, and its other arm was trapped between them.

  Then the enemy twisted and pushed its free forearm hard into Liam's throat. Now it had the leverage to turn and get its trapped arm free. It swept Liam's legs and punched his head.

  Liam lost his balance, but he did not let go of the feeder tube attached to the enemy's suit, and when the enemy hit him hard enough to push him away, it ripped its own tube out of its groin. Hot liquid slicked Liam's hand, and the tube slithered out of his grasp.

  Old simulations guided Liam's limbs into a roll, but he gained his feet dizzy and confused. Where was the enemy? He saw a ship in the sky with smaller craft hovering like black sneakdillies around it. Piece of a pattern.

  Annia cried, "Liam, behind you."

  He turned, raising his guard, and stared into the face of the enemy. Bad-smelling blood pulsed from its throat and its groin.

  A terrible blow struck his chest, and his heart stopped.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Liam struggled to breathe, to think, to fight, but the weight in his chest numbed him. The enemy was going to take Annia away.

  A slender arm, thickly padded with muscle, looped around the neck of the enemy and tightened. Tora had recovered from the enemy trying to twist her neck.

  The enemy gripped Tora's wrist and pulled. Tora locked her arms. Muscles writhed under her skin.

  The enemy's face grew dark while red blood pulsed down its leg.

  Liam's heart thumped so hard he thought it had shaken his whole body. Then another thump not so hard, not so painful. The enemy tried to twist out of Tora's hold, but Tora let the enemy clone pull her with it. She held on the wrist of the arm she was using to choke the enemy. Liam ignored the stab of his broken ribs and struck the face of the enemy, crushed its nose, forced splinters of bone deep into the enemy's brain.

  A not-clone enemy would not survive. This enemy trembled all over, and its head twitched, but its eyes still moved. Its grip on Tora's wrist did not relax.

  Tora's muscles knotted in her arm and shoulder. Tendons stood out on her neck, and her teeth shone between her drawn lips. Liam slammed his elbow down on the enemy's arm near the wrist. The movement and the jarring force hurt his ribs and stopped him from breathing for a moment.

  Tora braced her legs against the force of the blow.

  Liam got his breath and hit the enemy again in the same place. The padded armor on the enemy's arm protected the bones from breaking. He struck again. The broken ends of Liam's ribs scraped together. He raised his arm again, struck hard with all his weight.

  The enemy's grip slackened. It released Tora's wrist, and her arm clamped harder across its windpipe.

  Liam saw a handful of Tora's soldiers coming down the street. He recognized Mr. Ventnor. Some of them carried stun weapons. Others had projectile weapons over their shoulders.

  Tora ignored the soldiers. Her bared teeth ground together, and her neck swelled with strain.

  The enemy stopped breathing. Its legs sagged, and blood didn't pump from the tube anymore. It trickled.

  Tora tightened her grip.

  Mr. Ventnor reached them and dug his fingers into the enemy's throat above Tora's arm. He made a disgusted face and wiped dark blood on his breeches. "He's dead." He worked his fingers under Tora's arm. "You can let go, Colonel."

  Annia leaned on the arm of one of Tora's soldiers. She reached for the enemy and felt its head. "Let it down, Tora. Let it down."

  Tora had a dark bruise on the side of her head. Mr. Ventnor touched her face, patted her cheek just enough to rock her neck and get her eyes to focus on him. "You did it, Colonel. Let go."

  Annia pulled Tora's wrist, and Tora finally seemed to notice. She dropped the enemy to the ground. It lay still for a moment.

  Then it sat up.

  Everyone jumped or made made a noise, even Tora, even Liam. The soldier supporting Annia yelped and recoiled. Annia stumbled, and Liam reached out to catch her. His broken ribs squeezed off his breath and choked him. He couldn't support her, but Annia was less damaged than he was. She steadied herself. "It's dead. Its ship is trying to operate it by remote, but there's not enough life in its body to move its muscles."

  Annia hunkered over the enemy and turned its head to one side. She took hold of a metal box as big as the end of Liam's thumb on the side of the enemy's head. "Somebody get me something to cut with."

  Mr. Ventnor tried to get Annia to stand up. "Does it need to be any more dead than it is?"

  She shook him away. "It has a neural modulator to control damaged brain functions."

  Tora turned to the black-uniform driver who had brought them from the barricades. "Enemy will not leave Murrayville."

  He said, "You got the clone. The ship is still live."

  Annia said, "The ship hasn't been contaminated. Not here anyway. The cyborg might have picked up the infection in Cyrion and carried it back to its ship from there. Somebody get me a cutting tool."

  Liam plucked at Annia's arm. "Leave enemy."

  She gripped his forearm. "I can use its neural modulator to help Maycee."

  Liam did not know how the bad-smelling enemy could fix Maycee. He shifted his weight, unsure what to do. Annia was a doctor. She had promised to fix Maycee.

  Someone handed Annia a hand laser. "Will this work?"

  Annia aimed the laser at the enemy's head. She cut around the box on the side of the enemy's head. There was a smell of its suit burning, and a little smoke, then the smell of burning meat and bone.

  Annia said, "Tora, I have to get back into Mr. Solante's hospital, and they're not going to want to let me in."

  To Liam, she said, "Bring Maycee to the hospital. I'll need Cho'en to help me." Annia blew smoke away from her face. The cutter was slow going through bone. "Elizabeth-Belle is around here somewhere, too. The hunter stunned her when it got me. She has enough medical training to make herself useful when I do the surgery."

  The little metal box attached to the enemy's head whirred and clicked and came away with fragments of bone and skin stuck to its clamps. Hair-thin filaments clumped with gobbets of sticky red matter lashed and twisted until Annia pushed inward on the sides of the box. The filaments reeled
into the body of the machine. She looked up at Liam. "Well?"

  "I get Maycee now." He felt very, very good. His ribs almost didn't hurt. Maycee would be well.

  She nodded. "One more thing, Liam. Tell your runners to find a brown and tan catpil named Honeybear."

  Annia returned to the hospital just behind Tora who strode into the crowded waiting room with a troop of militia carrying pilfered stun weapons. The tang of stale blood had thickened in the air since the last time Annia had been in the building. Wet coughing erupted as their entry disturbed people who had fallen into half-consciousness. Someone had been dragging cots into the room for the sick children.

  Mr. Krotoschiner met them at the entrance, dithering in confusion. "If you wish to check into the hospital, the admissions desk..." A pair of Solante's police flanked him with projectile weapons raised and aimed at Tora.

  Tora looked contemptuously down at the weapons. "Doctor Annia wants hospital," she said.

  One of the guards spotted Annia behind Tora's left shoulder, and his eyes widened. It was the driver who had first helped her, then betrayed her by turning her over to the hunter. His brows puckered as if he couldn't understand why she would return to the hospital now she was no longer useful to Solante.

  Mr. Krotoschiner's mouth tightened. "Ms. Annia is not a member of our staff."

  Really, Annia wondered, why didn't people have better sense where clones were concerned? Tora's hand closed on Mr. Krotoschiner's shoulder, and he dropped to his knees with a thin squeal of pain. With her other hand, Tora yanked the projectile rifle from the hands of the nearer soldier and shoved it back in his face. He collapsed with blood on his chin. A soft buzz made Tora jerk. The other soldier, the driver, dropped to the floor. The stun had caught Mr. Krotoschiner, too, and he fell limp.

  Mr. Ventnor returned his stunner to his belt. "Pardon me, Colonel."

  Tora shook her head and blinked, but the stun bolt had only jangled her nerves. She let Mr. Krotoschiner spill to the floor.