by Berinn Rae
She stumbled into him with a gasp. “You know, if the electricity came back on, I would have had a better shot climbing out myself and not getting shocked then to have you pull me out.”
He rolled his eyes. “No, you wouldn’t have. Did you touch it at all when I pulled you out?”
She glanced at the ground, and her jaw clenched. “No.”
“That’s right. Now let’s get out of here before someone spots us. By the way, how are we going to get back to the ship? I have no desire to climb that again.”
“Why, it seemed to go smoothly?”
“This security system learns. Next time I hack it, we’ll have less time to get over. Besides, scaling that thing isn’t without its price.”
“What do you mean?”
They came to the mouth of the alley and he looked both ways, hoping no patrollers were roaming around. He flashed his palm at her absentmindedly as he observed the area for threats. There was a throng of people waiting outside the club that they could disappear into.
“Oh, Galen. Why didn’t you say something?”
He grunted. “Doesn’t matter. Can’t feel it. I managed to get over the wall anyway.”
He lowered his hand and she snatched it. “Wait. Let me bandage this, give me your other hand.”
She pulled him around and grasped his other wrist to examine him. The worry on her face surprised him.
“Don’t worry about it. If you bandage it, they’ll seem suspicious this close to the border. Besides, it’s not like the barbs went through my hand. I heal fast enough. The bleeding is already slowing.”
“At least let me wipe off the blood.”
He sighed. “In a second. We need to get farther away from this alley.”
He grabbed her arm and hauled her out of it and down the street between the groups of people waiting to get inside the bar. He released her wrist, wiped his hands on his jacket, and tossed it in a garbage incinerator.
“Where to now, Jamila?”
She nodded and grasped his hand, entwining her fingers gently with his.
He leaned down the whisper in her ear. “You never answered me about getting back. Are you going to cross that wall again?”
Reaching into her pocket she pulled out a remote, and hit a blue button on it. “Nope. Since I reprogramed my ship, it’s actually gotten much easier to get out of the zone than to get into it on foot. Unmanned vessels sometimes go to and from Haven delivering the scant amount of supplies they’re allowed. The government won’t look twice when mine joins us in the Forbidden district. It’s also not safe to be in the zone after dark.”
“It’s not safe to be here after dark. In fact, it’s probably more dangerous.”
“Either way, I’ve started picking up next week’s food supply after I drop off. This is the only time he’ll meet with me and when my father is in town it’s the only day I can get away.”
He laughed. “I didn’t know the old model ship had a remote calling option.”
She grinned. “I had it installed.”
He arched an eyebrow. “Why go through all that work to make an old ship do that when you could borrow a newer model?”
She snorted. “I do hope you’ve been out of contact with civilization for a while. Otherwise there’s no dismissing your ignorance. Newer models are outfitted so they can’t fly into the zone. It seems I’m not the only one helping these people, and when the government found out they created them with certain no fly zones built in. And if you over ride that, the authorities are alerted. I did a little research before I started flying into Haven because I’d heard of people being caught doing it. I’ve taken every precaution I can think of not to be caught.”
She chewed her bottom lip. “But it’s only a matter of time before the government demands all vehicles be updated with the new protocols. I don’t know what they’ll do then.”
“I wasn’t aware that the government was doing that to ships.” His people didn’t exactly have the latest intel on ship building. They were more focused on other things. He’d have to remedy that. These ships were probably made with other features that could be a problem for them if they stole a newer model.
“Oh yes, and it wasn’t easy to find out because of all the censorship and spying. Luckily, I do remember something of my academy days in hacking, and was able to get a five minute private conversation with someone. Yay for government training.”
The only problem with that was no conversation was private over the communications network. They were all stored. She’d have to remember more than a little hacking to get around that problem. Either he’d underestimated her, or she’d left something behind. He would bet on the latter. Most citizens didn’t know exactly how much they were tracked by the government. How little privacy they had left. They’d probably protest if they had any idea. Even a government employee would have a little tidbit of knowledge withheld so their employers could keep tabs on them.
They ducked into another alley and she hesitated. She glanced at him over her shoulder. “I always hate this spot. I’ve been attacked here before. It’s not the best of neighborhoods.”
He smiled, but he was worried. There wasn’t a streetlight back here. The place was steeped in darkness. “I’ve got your back. No mugger can get by me.” He silently adjusted his eyes for night vision.
She jumped. “Your eyes. They’re glowing now.”
“Yep, sure are. Keep moving.”
She shook her head, but kept walking. “Eventually, you’re going to have to tell me the extent of your super powers.”
“I don’t have super powers.” He kept pace with her now instead of letting her walk ahead of him. Guarding her in this place was really a two person job. Thankfully, he wasn’t normal. He had enough censors that he could spot anything coming.
“He waits for me right around this corner.”
Galen nodded, and they stepped around it. A robed man stood perfectly still in the middle of the lane. Galen pulled his pistol from its holster. Something thumped to the ground in front of the robed figure. Galen’s gaze zeroed in on it and magnified enough to identify a grenade.
“Fuck! Run.”
There was flash, and an energy blast struck him in shoulder. Jamila screamed as he shoved her back around the corner. He grabbed her under the arm and hauled her down the street. There was a faint click. He cursed and threw himself on top of her. They hit the ground hard, her gasp loud in his ears.
The explosion shook the ground. He covered his head as shrapnel rained from the sky and heat licked his skin. Jamila cried out, but he couldn’t do anything except try to keep her covered as everything was sent into chaos.
They lay in silence for a second while he listened for movement. He sat up and checked on Jamila. Her lips were moving but he couldn’t hear a word she said. A loud ringing filled his ears. He wouldn’t be able to hear any threat coming at them. Fuck.
He pulled her to her feet and she screamed. Even through the damage to his ears he heard it faintly. She gestured to her leg. There was a piece of metal in her thigh. Dammit. What now? He couldn’t pull it out here. Even if it hadn’t hit an artery, it would bleed a hell of a lot. He didn’t know where her ship was, so he couldn’t take her to it.
They had to leave here. If he went the wrong way they could double back later, but they needed to move before the explosion attracted officers. Or the people who’d tried to kill her came after them again. He scanned the area but there was no sign of them. But that didn’t mean they weren’t there, or that they didn’t have another trap set. He ducked, grabbed her around the knees, and tossed her over his shoulder, doing his best to ignore the blinding pain the movement caused. He stumbled and went down to his knees. He took a deep breath and tried to shut down the pain receptors in his brain, but things were too scrambled at the moment. The grenade must have stunned some of his systems.
He shoved himself to his feet and ran. Jamila’s hands dug into his hips with such ferocity it was almost painful. He needed to get
her some place where he could see to her wound. She wasn’t bleeding much yet, but when he removed the spike, they’d see exactly what kind of problem they had.
He hesitated at the mouth of the alley. If they were spotted by patrollers they’d likely be arrested. Jamila hit his back repeatedly and he stopped. She was trying to tell him something. She tapped his left side, and he went that way. Hopefully that was what she meant. He stuck close to the buildings. Thankfully they were heading away from the crowds of downtown. She thumped his back again and he stopped.
When she tapped the right side of his body, he rushed across the street to the alley he spotted. He saw her ship at the end of it. He hacked the system as he jogged toward it. The doors opened slowly, the plank lowering to the ground so he could walk in.
“Tell the ship to start and get us the hell out of here.” He sighed in relief. His hearing was coming back. He’d been worried for a second that it wouldn’t. The sound of her telling the ship to take off reached his ears. Barely.
He crouched and set her feet on the ground. She stumbled a little and he grabbed her hips to steady her as he stood. Her tan complexion had become frighteningly pale.
Grasping her elbow, he guided her to the padded bench in the back of the shuttle. “Lie down. Is there a med kit in here?”
Her eyes narrowed, proof that she couldn’t hear well either at the moment. He repeated his question and she nodded, pointing to the small cargo space on the opposite side of the shuttle. When he located the tiny kit he groaned. Nothing this small was going to be a lot of help.
He popped it open. The cell regenerator in here was probably only big enough to partially heal her wound. The pain injector was the big surprise. Apparently this med kit had been altered. They usually came with a standard painkiller. This had one that would make a person loopy as hell. Which was actually nice for his purposes. From the short view he’d gotten of her injury in the alley, it was pretty bad. He removed the mini doper machine from its sterile package and loaded it with the painkiller. He turned and pressed it to her arm. It automatically went off. Almost immediately she let her head rest on the bench.
“Wow, what was that? Usually the drugs in those kits are nothing. Whatever you gave me wasn’t nothing.”
“It was Vicaquian. One of the strongest painkillers you can get these days. Heavily abused though. I was shocked that it was in this med kit too. It’s illegal to have such a powerful drug in them. Guess your daddy doesn’t care much for legality.”
“He’s not a drug user if that’s what you’re implying.”
“I’d never dream of saying that.” Oh, yes he would. He suspected her father had many faults. Habitual drug use wouldn’t surprise him. It was something almost every nobleman did. And in the government you had easy access.
“Yes, you would. You have no problem accusing anyone of horrible things. Even if you don’t accuse, you definitely think it.”
He moved to examine her leg, pulling a knife from his boot. He cut away her blood soaked pant leg around the injury, jostling the sliver of metal. “Does that hurt?”
“Are you kidding? I can’t feel anything, anywhere. Disconcerting feeling.”
“Oh, come now. I know you’re a drug user, even if dear daddy isn’t.”
“Was a drug user. And I didn’t do anything quite like this.”
“What’s so different about it?” He needed to keep her talking. He’d let her talk about anything.
“Most of the drugs me and my friends used created a euphoric feeling, not a numb body feeling.”
“Not an orgasm feeling?”
She laughed. “Okay, so you caught me. I was a big user of that particular drug.”
“Couldn’t find anyone to get you off the good old fashioned way?”
She snickered. “Sometimes. I’ve met a lot of skeevy men and most of the time you don’t want to sleep with any of them. Much better to take a drug that gets you off, and avoid the assholes that are out there.”
“Or you could marry.”
She snorted and shook her head. “Not you too? If my father brings in one more dickwad of a suitor, you’ll have quite the murder-suicide on your hands. Those are the biggest assholes of them all. They’re all rich, and political up and comers. Condescending, like I don’t have a brain when, if I’d finished my schooling, I probably would have beaten them out of whatever position they hold.”
“I have no doubt. Okay, I’m going to pull this out now.” He didn’t think the shard had hit an artery. She probably would have died already if it had, but it still was going to bleed a lot, and she’d already lost enough blood. The regenerator would probably only stop the blood loss.
He freed the shrapnel and blood immediately welled and started streaming down the sides of her leg onto the bench. He grabbed the regenerator and held it over her wound. The blood loss slowed and then stopped, but the batteries died before he was finished. He wiped away the blood, and was satisfied that the injury was no longer life threatening. He reloaded the doper with an antibiotic and injected it near the wound.
“There we go. That should do until we get you home and I can take you to medical.”
“No! My father can’t know about this outing, for your sake and mine. If he knows I was injured, he’ll see it as your failure, and have you killed.” She slowly sat up. She blinked hard and swayed.
“Maybe you should lie back down.”
“I’m fine.” She grabbed his arm. “You can’t tell my father what happened, or anyone in the infirmary. Go get more medical supplies and fix the rest of my wound, but you can’t take me to sick bay.”
She eyed him but her gaze was unfocused. “I know you were hit. You should have used some of that on you.”
He glanced at his shoulder. Blood had spread down his torso and was soaking into his pants. “It’s nothing. I’m already healing. I do need to pull the cloth away from it though.” He plucked it away from the wound and flinched.
“It’s the gift of being what I am. You heal pretty damned fast.” He whipped his shirt over his head and used it to wipe off the majority of blood that had spilled.
“We still need to give you a dose of antibiotics and see if we can’t bandage it at least.”
He showed her his palm, with the rapidly healing tiny puncture wounds. “Don’t worry about me. See how these are healing? I’ll be fine. I’m worried about you. It’s very hard for me to catch an infection, but you’d be easily killed by one. My superior genetics can fight most things off.”
“My God. Those look like they’re days old.”
He nodded. “Exactly.”
“Launch imminent,” the computer said. “Strap in.”
Jamila pushed herself to sitting. “We need to move.”
“No, stay here and brace yourself. We’ll be okay.”
He put his arm around her from his kneeling position on the floor and waited for liftoff. It wouldn’t catch him off guard this time. The ship launched and he barely moved a muscle. Jamila shifted slightly, but kept her seat.
“Wow, you’re so strong.”
He grinned. “Yes, I am. How are you doing?”
“I’m okay. I think the bad parts of the painkiller are starting to wear off. I feel more focused than I was a second ago.”
“Good. I need you to tell me what I should say to your father when you don’t come to dinner.”
“What time is it?”
“Almost nine.”
“Crap, we’re already late for dinner. We should make it back before he’s done. We have to think of a lie about where we’ve been. How about shopping?”
“We don’t have anything new.”
She rolled her eyes. “Pfft, as long as he doesn’t see us sneaking in, he’ll never even ask what I bought. He doesn’t care, as long as I’m not out creating a new scandal.”
“Okay then. We were shopping and ate out.”
She was still too pale for his liking. He got the feeling that if she sat up, she’d fall right back over. Would
she need a transfusion? He glanced at the blood on her clothes and beneath her on the bench and made an estimate of what she’d lost. No, she would be fine without a transfusion. Weak, but she’d live. She wasn’t cold to the touch, or shivering, and since he’d stopped the blood loss she would be fine. He tried to keep himself from worrying. Why the fuck was he concerned? She was a means to an end. Nothing more. But she was also beautiful, compassionate, and brave. She wouldn’t be risking herself if she weren’t.
“Does anyone know you meet this man?”
“Only Alice and Darion. They would never tell.”
“Has anyone seen you meeting with him?”
She glared at him as best she could while lying on a bench. “No, why do you think we meet there?”
He rolled his eyes. “Well, either someone saw you or he betrayed you. Which do you think it is?”
She sighed. “Someone probably spotted us. He was doing something illegal too, so I doubt he ratted me out. Who do you think the assassins were?”
He snorted. “I don’t know. I assume they’re trying to kill you to strike at your father. I think if it were the government, they would have come out and arrested you. You’re an important person. If they wanted to out you, they’d want to do it publically to make a point that even the upper classes won’t get away with what you’re doing.”
“You know your life is great when you’re happy it was a normal assassin and not the government.”
“Yep.”
“Approaching destination,” the computer’s robotic voice crackled. “Fasten your safety harness.”
He placed his arm over Jamila again and braced for the landing. They hit the floor of a hanger with a jolt that made his teeth rattle, but he didn’t move.
He stood and pulled Jamila to her feet. He leaned down to pick her up and she put her hand on his shoulder.
“I’m all right. I don’t feel any pain. I can walk. We need to go back through the window so we don’t run into anyone. Luckily, at this time of night, no one is working on the grounds.”
He nodded. “Okay, but if you feel faint or your leg hurts tell me and I’ll pick you up.”
