A voice called out, ‘Drop the weapon.’
Silently, Avon took the blaster from Cally and prepared to make use of his better firing position.
‘Kerr Avon, drop the weapon.’
The voice came not from the armed guard further down the corridor, but from a speaker in the wall.
‘There are more of us, Avon. Too many more. You can’t win. In a few minutes we’ll be docking with a Federation ship. Every extra life you take will be on your record.’
He’s lying. There are only two left – I remember how many boarded with us. We have to do this Avon.
Avon prepared to fire. But before he could, a gasp from Cally stopped him. He turned back to find Cally sinking to her knees. Her eyes were wide open, filled with pain. Behind her stood another guard, surprisingly young. He seemed to be supporting Cally at the back of her neck as she crumpled slowly to the floor. A trickle of blood suddenly circled from the back of her neck and ran down her throat. She seemed to be struggling to breathe.
‘If I push the blade in any deeper, it will sever her spinal cord,’ murmured the guard. The corners of his mouth turned upwards, into a slow grin. ‘Better not make any sudden movements. Drop the gun.’
Avon tore his eyes away from Cally, on her knees. He peered at her captor, who stood behind her, one hand at her throat, the other holding the blade. The face was familiar. Angular cheekbones, handsome. They’d seen this one at the reception for the election monitors, on the first day. The man who had warned Cally about Khurdia.
‘Ideally, I’d prefer not to,’ breathed the guard. His teeth were set in a tight line. ‘Because then she won’t feel what’s coming next. We told Khurdia’s men that Shevard had me disembowelled. I’m Koba.’ He looked at Avon to see if there was any recognition of his name, but there was none. ‘Now – the guts being drawn. I’ve always wanted to see that done.’
Cally’s eyes locked with Avon’s.
Shoot him.
Avon swallowed. His fingers felt slippery against the trigger. The boy looked barely old enough to serve as a Federation trooper. Was he really a sadistic, expert killer? On a world as controlled as Kartvel, Avon couldn’t see how he’d have gained the experience. The Federation didn’t bother teaching inventive methods with blades. It had to be a bluff. He gave the young guard a long, hard stare.
Koba’s eyes flashed with a spark of riot. ‘Just the slightest extra pressure, Avon. That’s all it’ll take. And she’ll never feel anything again. She’ll never feel you.’
Kill him.
‘Last chance, Avon.’
In the small of his back, Avon felt the hard nose of the other guard’s blaster. The voice behind him echoed, ‘Last chance.’
SEVENTEEN
Avon tilted his head so that he could just see the guard who stood behind him. He logged the man’s height – slightly shorter than his own – and weight. He looked back at the boy who was about to skewer Cally’s neck with his knife. Avon nodded. He began, slowly, to lower his weapon. As he did, he ducked low and tipped his weight backwards. The muzzle of the blaster behind slid across Avon’s back. It fired a shot. Avon felt a hot, tearing sensation as the laser seared a line across his flesh. His weight toppled the guard behind. When Avon stood there was a blast of heat in his back as the first waves of agony began to hit.
Cally dragged herself slowly from underneath Koba’s dead body. The laser blast had taken off the left side of his head. The stench of his singed hair filled the air.
Avon watched Cally stand. He winced. There didn’t seem to be a position in which the fiery wound didn’t burn. ‘That worked rather better than I’d hoped.’
Cally placed a hand on Avon’s waist. Very gently, she turned him so that she could examine his wound. ‘Well, luckily for me, you deflected his aim somewhat.’ Cally turned him back so that they were facing. ‘That’s a nasty burn.’
Avon licked his lips. The pain was as loud as a klaxon. ‘I almost killed you.’
‘It would have been preferable to being paralysed – or disembowelled.’ She risked a smile.
‘That… boy. He wouldn’t have done it.’
Cally raised an eyebrow. In a cool voice she said, ‘Never underestimate the brutality of youth.’
For a moment they didn’t speak. Avon didn’t enjoy the way she was looking at him. It wasn’t pity but a detached curiosity. Maybe she sensed his sudden vulnerability. Maybe she was trying to find a way in.
‘Do you think they were telling the truth about the Federation being on their way?’
‘It felt like they believed it.’
‘We’d better find some way to turn this shuttle round.’
The whole craft suddenly shook, enough that they had to hold on to each other to stay on their feet.
Cally turned to him. ‘Something’s just docked with us.’
Avon nodded. Her fingers were gripping his shoulders. For one dazed moment, he realised that he didn’t want her to let go.
Close by, the air crackled with a familiar sound – the electrical discharge that accompanied teleportation. From behind him, Avon heard Blake’s voice.
‘Hullo you two, nice to see you getting along so well.’
Avon’s hands dropped. He turned, blinking, to face Blake.
Cally said, ‘Avon’s hurt.’ She seemed to have forgotten about the narrow line of blood that still flowed from the cut in her neck, soaking into the neckline of her blouse.
Blake handed them each a bracelet. ‘Then I suggest we leave. There’s a Federation Starburst class ship hanging off the end of this shuttle. I don’t imagine we’ve got a lot of time to stand around chatting.’
*
On the Liberator, Vila was standing by with two glasses of adrenaline and soma and a medical kit. Avon downed his glass within seconds. After a brief hesitation, he accepted the glass that Cally offered, too. Blake peered closely at the long stripe of burned flesh on Avon’s back. The laser blast had mostly missed him. But the edge of its flare had seared through the thick layer of his jacket. A direct wound could have been far more serious, Blake realised.
He watched as Cally injected Avon with a local anaesthetic.
Avon sighed with relief as the fiery sensation began to cool. ‘So – did you get what you came for, Blake?’
‘I’m not sure I understand what you mean.’
‘Shevard in charge of a free Kartvel,’ Avon said, grimly.
‘I rather suspect that Shevard’s planning to rule the planet on behalf of the Federation.’
Avon said, ‘I’m certain you’re right.’
‘Then it was all a waste of time!’ Vila whined.
Avon’s eyes didn’t leave Blake’s. ‘Isn’t everything?’
‘Meaning what?’
‘Meaning that Cally and I almost…’ Avon faltered. What had been the worst of it – the fact that they’d almost fallen into the hands of the Federation? That they’d been used as pawns in the politics of people in whom, even by his own low standards, Avon had zero interest?
‘You and Cally showed tremendous loyalty to each other,’ Blake said, softly. ‘That’s what it means to fight, shoulder-to-shoulder. Cally knows it, and you, Avon, if you didn’t know it before, you do now.’
In a warm voice Cally said, ‘He knew it before.’
Blake smiled, looking from Avon to Cally. ‘I know, Cally. I know he did.’
Avon stared back at Blake, his eyes growing cold. If that’s what Blake took from this then he was badly mistaken. Cally was smiling now, entirely at ease with Blake. Avon turned to let the two of them remove his jacket. His heart was pounding. He wouldn’t easily forget what had almost happened to Cally, on the planet and now on the shuttle. To Blake, even to Cally, it seemed like nothing. Watching them now, they seemed in their element. Whereas Avon felt as though he’d been dragged back from the brink, a place redolent with memories that he’d worked hard to bury.
For a moment, Avon envied Vila his natural, unashamed cowardice. How much easier to av
oid all potential confrontation, all potential to lose his control and lapse into feelings that weakened him.
‘You’re going to be fine, Avon,’ Blake said, cheerily.
‘There’s a bloodbath going on in that studio, right now,’ Avon said. ‘And if Khurdia and his men get out alive, the violence is going to spill out onto the streets.’
‘Have we started a civil war?’ asked Vila, wonderingly.
Blake’s expression immediately hardened. ‘No.’
‘We wasted our time,’ said Avon.
‘We tried to help,’ said Blake.
‘You trust too easily,’ said Avon.
‘Possibly,’ Blake frowned. ‘On this occasion, definitely. And I apologise for what happened to you.’
‘You take responsibility?’
‘I do.’
For a second or two, Avon was speechless. Then: ‘It’s so very easy for you, Blake, isn’t it?’
Blake shook his head, slowly. ‘You’re wrong.’
‘It is easy for you,’ Avon thought. ‘And impossible for me, unless I cease to care. Someone’s going to die. First, anyone that matters. Eventually, me.’
But he didn’t say anything. The habits of control took swift command of his saturnine features. Avon merely leaned against the edge of the teleport console and closed his eyes as Cally applied a salve.
MORE BLAKE’S 7 BOOKS
AVAILABLE NOW FROM BIG FINISH
1: THE FORGOTTEN
2: ARCHANGEL
3: LUCIFER
4: ANTHOLOGY
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5: LUCIFER: REVELATION
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