Farenough: Strangers Book 2

by Melissa McCann

  "She's sleeping right now, but she'll wake up and be fine. Cho'en is with her."

  He frowned. "The other one?"

  "I sent Elizabeth-Belle to find something useful to do."

  He grunted. "No catpil."

  "I know. One of the runners told me they hadn't found it."

  He shook his head. "No catpil. If there is catpil, they would find it. They don't find it."

  "What could have happened to it?"

  Liam shrugged. "Maybe someone human picks it up. Maybe no catpil is ever here at all."

  What could have happened to the animal? Anyone who came this near the hospital would be too ill to think about adopting a new pet, and anyone who wasn't ill would be running in the opposite direction.

  Annia scrubbed her gritty eyes with the heels of her hands. Maybe no catpil had ever been here. Annia hadn't stayed to see whether her door guard had actually taken the animal out and let it go. She'd been satisfied to see him get almost to the doors before she turned away. He didn't have to have followed her instructions; he was Solante's employee. The logical conclusion was that Solante's man had sent the catpil to his employer. Solante had both versions of the cure—the hard data on the crystal, and the live phage in Honeybear's body.

  Annia turned to Liam. "I need you to go with me."

  He frowned and glanced at the runners beside him. When had Liam become the leader of this brood of finlings? The last time Annia had looked, her sweet, murderous soldier clone had been following her or Maycee or Cho'en around the camp doing whatever anyone told him to do.

  "Liam, I have to go to the enemy's house. I need you to protect me."

  One of the runners said, "It's okay, Chief. We'll tell Fist to take over while you're busy guarding Doctor Annia."

  Liam looked anxious for a moment, but he finally seemed to decide he had no choice but to leave his fledglings to their own devices for a while. "Tell Fist no more hunt catpil. Check supply lines. Check humans are all quiet. Check blue-sash soldiers do what Tora says."

  "Your word, Chief," the spokesman said. He and his companion bolted into an alley and turned south, presumably looking for Liam's second-in-command.

  Annia and Liam found Tora in the packed admissions area with Mr. Ventnor. "Maycee is better now?"

  "Maycee is fixed," Annia replied. "Can Mr. Ventnor run things for you for a while?"

  Tora cocked her head.

  "I have to go to Solante's house," Annia said.

  Tora frowned. "The Solante is enemy."

  "Very bad enemy," Annia agreed. "I need you and Liam to go with me. He has the cure for the plague. He is going to hurt many humans. I have to stop him, and I need you to protect me."

  Mr. Ventnor said, "We've explained the new chain of command to the bulls here. I'll keep things pinned down, Colonel."

  The clone said to Annia, "I go."

  #

  Tora felt annoyed. The Solante had stolen the medical weapon Annia had made to kill the disease enemy, and the Solante would not give it back unless humans gave him everything. Now Tora had to leave her soldiers and come protect Annia because Tora had not killed the Solante when she had the chance.

  Blue-sashes stood outside the gate in the high white wall around the Solante enemy's house. Tora did not know if these blue-sashes knew Tora was Commandfor them now. Maybe they still thought they belonged to the Solante. Tora told Annia to stay with Liam, then Tora approached the door guards with her don't fight me face.

  They made the don't know what to do face.

  Tora stopped where she could make them hear her orders but not shout. "You know who I am."

  The guards did not point their projectile weapons at Tora, but they did not put them down either. The man on the left with long hair tied behind his head said, "We know who you are."

  Tora nodded once. "I am Command for you."

  He and the other one made the don't know what to do face at each other. Then the one who spoke before said, "Our orders from Mr. Solante are to keep out anyone who doesn't have an invitation."

  Conflicting orders. A soldier could become confused and freeze so he could not follow orders from either Command or his lieutenant. That was why Command never gave orders to soldiers, only to lieutenants who then told the soldiers what to do. Tora weighed and measured the relationships and credit and lines of force. The Solante sometimes gave orders directly to soldiers, and sometimes, he gave orders to the Cerise who told the soldiers what to do, but the soldiers only did what the Cerise told them if they thought the Solante wanted those orders, too. They were afraid the Solante would scrap them if they followed orders from the Cerise that the Solante did not like. The Solante was ruining Tora's blue-sashes.

  She must clarify chain of command so that the soldiers could function properly. "You follow orders from me. If the Solante doesn't like my orders, he negotiates with me, not with you. You only follow orders from me."

  The blue-sashes became more confused, but the muzzles of their weapons dropped toward the ground.

  Tora nodded. "You do well. You can have good feelings. I negotiate with the Solante."

  The men looked confused at each other again. One said, "We could check with the boss."

  They both looked afraid. Tora was annoyed. She did not want her soldiers frozen with fear or confusion when she gave orders.

  "You will let me through. I will negotiate with the Solante. I will not let him negotiate with my soldiers."

  The one who had not spoken before shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know."

  Tora folded her arms and made the don't fight me face again. Sometimes when a soldier froze, you could only wait for him to forget what made him freeze in the first place.

  The blue-sashes stepped back from the gate, and the one who had spoken to Tora first pointed to the hand-plate beside the gate. "You can call to him yourself."

  He had found a way to resolve his conflicting orders. Tora was pleased. "You do well," she told him. "Good feelings."

  She led Annia and Liam to the gate, and Tora put her hand on the plate. "I am Tora Miraz," she said clearly. "I come in."

  For a while, the doors didn't open, then the Solante's voice came from the speaker under the hand plate. "Here you are, daughter. I've been wondering when you would come to see me. And you brought your brother and your mother with you. Who let you use the admission request pad?"

  Tora ignored his talking about brother and mother—just more word-fighting. "I give orders to my soldiers. Only me. You want to give orders, you tell me. I decide what orders I like."

  Annia groaned behind Tora's back. Tora thought it was because Annia didn't want Tora to make the Solante angry, but the Solante laughed. "Come inside. Bring your mother, and I especially want to meet your brother."

  Tora led Annia, with Liam to guard Annia's back, through the long arch and out into the high room with the fountain and the trees. Tora scanned the room for guards and saw none. She jerked her head, and Liam replied with a slight nod. He paced the perimeter of the room checking for hidden enemies. He was halfway around the circle before the lift doors opened and the Solante stepped out wearing white that looked very bright because his skin was dark. He crossed the room, walking very quietly on his bare feet.

  Liam went to check the archway that led back to the front door.

  Mr. Solante reached up as if he would touch Tora's face. "I am told you and your brother brought down the Federation cyborg. It's unexpected, but on the whole, I am pleased with you both. It was a formidable threat even to the two of you together."

  Tora pushed his hand aside. "Doctor Annia comes to get the medical weapon to fight disease enemy," she said.

  "To take my property, you mean?"

  Tora folded her arms and made the don't fight me face.

  Mr. Solante made a face that meant he would not fight her. "Since you ask so politely, daughter," he said. "Let me speak to your mother face to face."

  Tora was not sure she approved. Annia was not good for fighting. Tora did no
t think Annia was even very good at word-fighting. If the Solante made word-fighting with Annia, she would lose.

  "It's all right, Tora," Annia said.

  Tora sighed and moved around the Solante so she could take a position at his shoulder where she could kill him if he tried to fight Annia. Liam finished patrolling the perimeter. He made a shrug with one shoulder to say there were no soldiers ready to rush out and fight them. He stood behind Annia and to one side where he would be able to step between Annia and the Solante if he tried to fight her.

  The Solante didn't try to fight Annia. Instead, he studied Liam. "So this is my son. Beautiful boy." Tora heard the courtship feelings in the Solante's voice. She stiffened. The Solante was trying to take one of her soldiers.

  "Maybe not as...interesting as you, daughter, but I have been told he has a special talent for moving information from place to place. He's been very useful."

  "Liam is mine." Tora could not see what face the Solante made from where she stood behind him, but from the way he stood, she thought he would not try to fight her for Liam. Not now. Maybe if Tora did not kill him, the Solante would try to court Liam and take him from her that way. Tora felt annoyed, but she did not worry about the Solante courting Liam. Liam belonged to Maycee. He did want to belong to the Solante.

  #

  Solante's sexual obsession with his "children" made Annia's skin crawl, but revolting as he was, she still felt a sexual pull.

  She shivered it off. "I'm taking back my plague cure."

  Solante finally looked at her with mild eyes. "The cure belongs to me. You built it under my employ in my hospital using my equipment."

  He had a legal claim under those terms, but, under the circumstances, she didn't care. "You can turn it over to me or to the DPH, but it's no good to you anyway. I saved a live sample."

  Solante said, "My man destroyed every sample."

  "He didn't find this one."

  "Oh yes." Solante stepped aside.

  Tora and Liam both stiffened, ready to attack him if he threatened her, but he didn't move toward Annia. He went to a flowering shrub potted in a raised ring in the floor and reached under the grey-green leaves. He opened a white box Annia hadn't seen, half-hidden under the leaves. When he straightened, he held a writhing, brown-and-tan catpil.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  He dropped Honeybear at Annia's feet. It reared up and squealed at him, offended, maybe, at being locked in a small crate.

  Liam cocked his head at the doors of the lift and scanned the atrium and the balcony. "Enemies coming," he said. "Twenty-four."

  Tora snapped her head around. "Fall back. Protect humans."

  Annia said, "Tora, don't fight."

  Lift doors opened on either side of the atrium, and projectile weapons rattled all around them.

  Annia's throat hurt, and her eyes felt dry and swollen. She said, "Whatever you've asked for, you won't get it. They'll invade the town and tear it apart looking for it. Murrayville will be destroyed as thoroughly as if they had firebombed it."

  He shook his head. "I don't think my children will let that happen. I'm thinking of putting my son in charge of my personal guard."

  Behind him, Tora said, "No."

  Solante ignored her. "But it won't come to that. I am perfectly willing to destroy the data if they try to invade."

  "Then you won't have it, either."

  "I'll still have one reservoir of the cure." He nodded at the catpil at Annia's feet. "And if that fails, I have the designer of the cure who can reconstruct it for me, so I think I'll put you somewhere out of harm's way now."

  He singled out one of the guards who wore a blue cap in addition to the sash. "Put all three of them in holding on the first floor. The man with the cap pushed Annia toward the lift. Six more aimed their guns at Tora and Liam.

  "Don't fight," Annia murmured to the clones.

  The clones followed Annia, Liam impassive, Tora glowering at their guard. Especially after the leader of the troop pulled the communication clip from Tora's collar. Honeybear loped after Annia, clicking, until she scooped it up and carried it with her. She hoped—assuming they all lived long enough—that Honeybear would be able to get along with Candy and the rest of the catpils at the camp.

  Liam balked at the lift, unwilling to enter the confined space with the guards, but Tora walked right in after Annia, and Liam followed her.

  The lift descended one level and glided to a halt. The doors opened.

  Annia heard an ominous whine. A dusky voice, clipped with tension, said, "Lower your weapons."

  The guards hesitated, then allowed the muzzles of their projectile guns to drop toward the floor. By moving slightly to the right, Annia was able to see what cowed them. She recognized the girl in the dimly lit corridor outside the lift doors by the parallel scars from her forehead to her cheeks. When she saw the pulse cannon held in the girl's unsteady arms, she understood why the guards had given up so easily. At close range, the weapon would drill a hole half a meter wide in the back of the lift and anyone standing in its way while the energy field around the beam would electrocute everyone within two meters.

  The girl said, "Lock the doors open. If I hear them closing, I will fire."

  The guard nearest the control panel pressed the lock button. He also surreptitiously pushed the emergency alarm.

  Maybe girl had some way of hearing the small movement, or she merely anticipated that someone would make the attempt. "I disabled the alarm. Let the prisoners out."

  The lieutenant said, "Put down the cannon, Medea, before you do something that will really make the boss angry."

  The girl said, "When this gun gets too heavy for me to hold, I'm going to pull the trigger."

  The lieutenant glared at the blind girl. Given her blindness, he probably assumed he could get his gun up and shoot her, her hand was on the trigger arm, and a death spasm might kill them all.

  Tora snapped an order. "Outnumbered. Fall back. Wait for reinforcements."

  The guard looked yet more confused. Tora sighed. "Release prisoners. Wait for reinforcements."

  The cannon sagged a few inches in the girl's arms, but she heaved it back up again, shaking with the effort. That decided the guard. He grabbed Annia by the arm and shoved her so she stumbled out into the corridor and almost into the muzzle of the cannon. She twisted to one side just in time. "I'm Annia," she said. "I'm a doctor. I'm not going to try to hurt you." Honeybear rippled up Annia's arm and curled around the back of her neck. It raised its forequarters so its head was level with Annia's eyes and clicked furiously at the guards in the lift.

  The girl's head twitched very minutely in Annia's direction.

  "I have my catpil with me," Annia hurried to explain before the girl lost her concentration on what she was doing.

  Tora ignored the men in the lift with her and stepped out with her eyes on the blind girl. She glanced back at Liam, following close behind her, and shook her head. The girl was not a friend.

  Annia said, "We are all clear. None of us wants to hurt you."

  "Lock the doors," Medea said.

  Annia used the panel outside the lift to close the doors between the corridor and the scowling guards, and lock them.

  The girl lowered the muzzle of the pulse cannon. She sidled until she could feel the frame of the lift doors and sweep her palm over the wall until she found the identification pad. "Scramble access code Medea six." The pulse cannon almost slipped from her arms. She wrestled it up again and backed away from Annia and the clones. "Who are you?"

  "My name is Annia. I'm the doctor who treated your face. These are my friends Tora and Liam."

  "You can't get out of this house without me, and I can't do it by myself."

  Tora said, "Enemy."

  Annia ignored her. "We came for the data Solante stole from me. I won't leave without it."

  The girl was breathing heavily. The cannon was far too heavy for her, and her grip was slipping. "If you won't help me, I have no reason not to
kill you now." She wrestled the muzzle of the cannon up and aimed it in their general direction.

  Tora glanced at Liam. She shifted her weight slightly, and the girl turned her head, tracking the sound. Her hand tightened on the trigger arm.

  She stood less than three meters away from Liam. He moved silent as a sneakdilly, barely stirring the air. Before the girl sensed his approach, he slapped one hand over the safety catch, forced the muzzle of the cannon up toward the ceiling. A moment later, he held the weapon, and the girl was backing away down the corridor, her face murderous. "You'll never get out," she snarled.

  She turned to flee, sure-footed, down the passage away from them, but Tora closed on her. In seconds, she had the girl pinioned in a controlling grip.

  Annia said, "How do we access Solante's data bank?"

  The girl curled her lip away from her teeth and refused to answer.

  Annia said, "Your best chance is still to cooperate with us. You'll have the protection of both clones, and Liam can handle the cannon better than you could. Help me get my data, and I'll make sure they get you out."

  Tora looked as though she would like to argue, but she kept silent.

  The girl's slender lips were taut with anger. She said, "Access is on the top floor. If he finds you there, you will be trapped."

  "How do we get there?"

  "He will be watching the lifts. There's only the emergency stairs."

  No one had discovered the malfunctioning lift yet, or the building would be swarming with armed guards. As it was, they had the stairs to themselves. Liam led the way, carrying the pulse cannon. To use it would alert the house to their escape, but Tora had her hands full with her prisoner, and if they were discovered, the sight of the big weapon would discourage Solante's soldiers from attacking. They had climbed five flights of echoing permocrete stairs before a whooping alarm sent a chill up Annia's spine.

  Medea said, "You're too late. He knows you're free."