“That’s what I was afraid of. Thanks, Yulin. Be in touch,” I said.
“Do that. See you, Jack,” she said, and I could tell she was smiling. She was Aristine’s sister, but there was a joyous streak in her that was decidedly different from most officers.
“Go ahead and start looking it over,” I told Dayne, who thumbed the tablet to life and focused on the soft images glowing onscreen. “Hungry?”
“What? Now?” Dayne asked, looking up. It was getting dark, but the outline of a cactus patch loomed in front of us. “Cactus fruit? Oh, sure. Love to. Better than field jerky and dust.”
“I was hoping you’d say that.” I pulled up close to the outer ring of cacti, and we got out. The wind was warm, but not hot, and there were massive fruits all over the cactus in front of us. “How long do you think these will last if we take some?”
“Three days without rot. They make good traveling food. Lots of sugar and water.”
“Good enough for me,” I said, grabbing four of the massive orange fruits. They shaded to red at one end and were easily larger than a softball. It seemed a lot of things were bigger in the post-viral world.
As Dayne was busy picking her own stash, I surveyed our spot. It was high ground, with cactus and low scrub, and even the odd tree here and there. A good place for defense, if ever we needed to build out this way. I decided to drop a pin on the map and tell Aristine we had outpost locations for our future.
“Jack, do me a favor,” Dayne said. Her voice was low and urgent.
I pulled my weapon without hesitation, following her eyes, but there was nothing. Just a low spot covered with shrubs, their waxy leaves glowing in the last rays of the day. “Predator? I don’t see anything.”
Dayne smiled. “Not a predator. Something good, for a change.”
“What is it? More food?” I asked. The waxy leaves didn’t look edible. In fact, they looked like a twisted desert holly, if such a thing existed.
“Look,” she said, pointing. Then I saw the crescent of mirror moving under the bushes. “Water.”
“A spring? On top of the hill?” I asked. It was the last place I expected water, but it was there. We walked forward cautiously, weapons ready and eyes alert. “Almost a circle.”
Stepping through the leaves, Dayne knelt, touching the surface of the small pool. It was two meters across, clear, and the smell of water filled my senses.
Before I could move, Dayne began to strip. “I’ve been three days without washing. That’s enough for me. Guard me, Jack, and if you’re going to be shy, look away. You might see things.” She laughed and began splashing her arms with the water. The bottom was in clear view, so the chance of a massive predator erupting out the pool was nil. After getting used to the feel, she stepped in the pool, naked and free and smiling at me. She lifted her breasts in a kind of salute, laughing. “Told you. You’re seeing things.”
“Those are real, and this is no mirage,” I said, smiling down at her. Every inch of her body was toned, like an elite athlete, but there was a feminine quality to her that softened the edges. She leaned back to float, long, elegant, and desirable. I looked around again, because the idea of getting killed while staring at a beautiful woman was just sloppy soldiering. I’d rather die in bed with her. At least then, I would go out happy.
Happier, I corrected myself, taking another look at her legs.
“You going to come in?” she asked.
“After you. We’re, ah . . . exposed out here,” I said, earning a spluttering laugh as she dunked her head. When she emerged, she nodded and began climbing out. “I’m going to air dry. You want to get clean?”
“Do I. Think I might soak my clothes, too.” I stripped when she picked up her rifle, naked and heavily armed. “I never thought I’d say this, but I think I have a fetish for beautiful naked women with guns. Seems a bit specific for two thousand years in the future.”
She cocked a hip and posed, staring off into the dusk with a steely glare. “How’s that?”
“It’s working for me. Let me get underwater before the satellites see my, ah, reaction,” I said, sliding into the pool. The water was cool and crisp.
Dayne jerked her face skyward. “They can see us?”
“Kidding. Just wanted to get your blood going so you’re on high alert,” I said, scrubbing hard at skin that was dusty from the fight.
“It was already going,” she said, and there was a distinct note of hunger in her voice. I felt the same way, and my eyes locked on her as I emerged from the pool, suddenly interested in a flat place to lie down. “One moment. We need something.”
“Just one thing?” Dayne asked, lifting a dark brow.
“One among many things, but yes. This,” I said, walking back the short distance with a blanket. “I don’t like sand, but I like you. I want one without the other.”
“Same,” she said as I spread the blanket. We both smelled clean, like minerals and water. A delicate flush began at her cheeks, spreading to the top of her chest.
I knelt and held out a hand. She took it and knelt in front of me, her breasts pushing against me, insistent globes of warmth. She was warm all over, and so was I.
“Sun goes down soon,” she said. I could see the flecks of gold in her eyes, and green, too. Her lips were full and pink, and for the first time, I noticed her freckles.
“Then we move to the truck, either now—or in a while,” I said.
She kissed me, and the heat of it was nuclear. “A while.”
I dipped my head to take her nipple in my mouth; it was a perfect circle of pink, the flesh stippled with lust. Dayne’s hands went to the back of my head, and I slowed down, letting my tongue play at a speed that was somewhere between lazy and coy. I was erect in seconds, then her hands closed around me, playing in their own soft motions as she pulled and teased, urging me closer to her as we kissed.
With one arm, I lowered her to the blanket, then nudged her knees apart as she fell back smiling up at the growing stars. Her body was exquisite, and I dipped my head to taste her like a river bird in the shallows, feeling her rise to meet me. Soft hair brushed my nose as I probed every inch of her secrets until she locked her hands behind my head. The quivering muscles of her arms made my vision twitch with the power of her orgasm, and then it passed, leaving her breathless and grinning.
“I’m not going back. To Kassos,” she said.
“I hoped you would say that.” My words were lost in the nape of her neck as we turned to lie side by side.
“Is that why you brought me out here? To recruit me with your body?” she asked, barely containing a laugh.
“You could the say the same about yourself.” I ran a finger down the elegant curve of her hip, and she shuddered. “But no. Once I understood more about Kassos, I understood you, and what you were forced to survive in. I don’t think you wanted to lead evil people, and that’s why you’re here. Now.”
“Thank you,” she said, then she kissed me, and there was an unspoken signal that passed between us. I lifted her on top of me, our lips still touching as if we dared not break the connection. When our bodies were pressed together, she pushed up from me and spread her hips to accept me. I slid inside her warmth, watching her eyes flutter in pleasure. I felt the same way. She moved slowly, then faster, twining her fingers with mine as the second orgasm began to bloom inside her, a heated core of lust and pleasure that spread across her skin like a fever dream.
She came again, hard, then again a moment later as we moved in short bursts between languid kisses. “Not yet,” I told her, feeling my own column of heat building.
“Why not?” she asked, quirking a brow.
“Sun’s down. We’re not the only predators out here.” We stood, dragging our clothes behind us as we made our way to the truck, then as one we threw everything into the bed, climbing in as our hands began to find each other again.
I took her from behind, placing each hand in the hollow of her hips. She was lean and soft all at once, a perfect
body made for a harsh world—and me. There were ridges of skin on her back, faded but present. Signs of a hard life, and I would make sure she never lived that way again. I stroked into her with renewed lust, and she pushed back against me, giving as good as she got. Her next climax gripped us both as her elbows collapsed into shaking masses that could no longer hold us up.
Dayne covered her eyes with one hand, teeth brilliant in the starlight. My ‘bots made vision at night a reality, and the supple curves of her body glowed in my augmented sight. Every inch of her was fascinating, and I used my mouth again just in case I’d missed a spot.
I hadn’t. And I didn’t.
Then she was alongside me, considering my body with a look of hunger, undone by her own pleasures. She leaned forward and put her mouth over me, moving slowly down until all I could feel was the warmth of her lips, her tongue, and then the impossible silk of her throat, tight around me as she lifted and fell.
I exploded in a minute, my back rigid with pleasure so intense it verged into pain, and then the night air was on me, cool and alien after so long in Dayne’s body.
“I’m no animal expert, but I’d say that was a successful hunt,” she said.
Above me, the stars glimmered, and all I could do was nod.
“Do you keep a calendar? At the Oasis?” she asked.
“Why?” My voice was thick, like my thoughts.
“Because sharing you is going to require planning. I’m not coming to the Oasis to live alone,” Dayne said.
“You won’t. It will work out. By the way, I have a favor to ask,” I said.
“Name it.”
“Let me catch my breath. Math is hard right now,” I said.
She took me in her mouth again, then pulled away, smiling. “Math isn’t the only hard thing.”
19
The map was good. Dayne’s instincts were better.
We drove through patches of sun. Above us, clouds formed and broke apart as a front began to move in from the west, a hint of moisture in the air. The breeze was fat with unseen water, and I called up a screen on the tablet to see if there was any hard weather moving in. There wasn’t—it was a minor line of low-pressure rain that might not even reach the ground. We pressed on, angling toward an odd cluster of buildings around a tear-drop shaped oasis nearly a klick across.
“Is this a stable settlement?” I asked, nodding forward where the oasis lay.
“If it has water, yes. That’s been the rise and fall of many groups we trade with, even beyond my lifetime. If you control the water, then you control a small area, and it’s easy to establish something like stability. I know there are even spice farmers out here—their goods commanded incredible prices among the Kassos elite. As to whether they’re linked into something larger, I don’t know,” Dayne said. She was staring hard at the map, as if it would yield secrets even she had forgotten.
We saw the lone rider a moment later. He was astride a Konnodar, its harness a color pattern I didn’t recognize—blaze yellow. His beast was massive and making good time over the road in a collision course with us. I eased off the pedal then touched the brakes when we hit a small rise. Any advantage was good, and he was a complete unknown.
As the rider pulled on his mount’s bit, he smiled and waved. He was tall and muscular, with a broad smile and the look of health that officers tend to cultivate. “Hello the messenger!”
“Messenger?” Dayne asked in a low voice.
My communicator spoke then. It was Rae, her words urgent with concern. “Jack, are you there? I don’t know if this fucking thing—”
“I’m here. What’s wrong?” I asked. The rider spurred his beast toward us at a saunter, its massive hips moving side to side, the jaws open slightly as it tasted the air with a meter-long tongue.
“Rutoro was full of shit. He went rogue in the morning, killed two more of my people. We put him down, but not before he tried to escape. We found a message on him. He’s one of three tribes, not a single group, and they’re working together to strike out from the river valley. They’re coming for you. They know about the Oasis from agents in Kassos, and they’re coming east. All of them.”
“In an army?” I asked. The rider was fifteen meters away, his broad smile still in place.
“No. Many small forces to avoid your Hightec. They think you can see all,” Rae said.
I lifted my gun into my lap. “We can. I’ll call back. Gotta take care of something.”
I opened the door, stepping out while watching the rider. Lifting my left hand, I gave him an amiable wave.
His rifle was in hand and firing so fast, it should have hit me. It didn’t. I was already in motion, sweeping wide and putting the first blast of my shotgun into his chest. He shrieked but didn’t fall out of the saddle. He was armored under his flowing tunic, and the pellets had done damage, but nothing fatal.
“Dayne!” I barked, and she put a round straight into the brain pan of his Konnodar. I hated to kill the beast, but there was no way to subdue it, and a wild dragon was not on my list of shit to tolerate before lunch. The Konnodar dropped to the sand, stone dead and quivering.
Before the rider could fire again, Rae’s second shot took him in the shoulder; a masterful placement that spun him around like a toy. He hit the road with a thump, his arm hanging at a hideous angle as he fought to prop himself and draw a pistol from his sleeve. I kicked the weapon away and grabbed his wounded shoulder in my hand.
I squeezed.
He blacked out, eyes rolling like a scared horse, then slid to the ground in a boneless pile.
“Guess he needed a nap,” Dayne said, rifle in hip as she regarded her target. “Good looking. Shame he has to die.”
“I like your impersonality right now. Very hot,” I said.
She grinned and blew me a kiss, then trained her barrel on him as he began to stir. His eyes opened, and his mouth began working like a fish out of water.
“No need. Save it,” I told him. “We’re not going to get to introductions. Rutoro just went wild at Rae’s place, and he’s dead. I assume you’re the follow up?”
Shock colored his face for a fugitive moment, then he let his head settle onto the road. “Well, shit.”
“At least you’re reasonable. Rae, his left foot please?”
Rae lifted her rifle and the man began to wail in protest.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “We just don’t have time. Can’t go through the dance, friend.”
Rae’s rifle boomed as his left leg jerked. A perfect hole appeared in his left boot, the ground underneath blooming scarlet in seconds.
“Time for questions,” I said.
His eyes watered freely, but he did his best to nod.
“Excellent. Where are your Konnodar traveling to attack the Oasis? On roads?”
A nod was all he could manage, then one word. “Yes.”
“How many groups? Who leads?” I asked.
“Nine. No leaders. We have no leaders, only decisions. We—decided—to take the man they call Bowman. He has Hightec and the blood science we need,” the rider said.
“I’m Jack Bowman, so your friends are going the wrong way. Who told you to attack?”
“Kassos.” His answer was immediate.
“Why?” Dayne asked. “I’m from Kassos and know nothing of this.”
“It’s the Procurators, not the city scum. You live like animals, always fighting for position. We live free—we all do. The Procurators told us what you have, Bowman, and we need it. We—we must have it,” he said.
“Are your villages unguarded?” I asked.
“Now?” He laughed, and it was more a rasp than humor. “Of course. We never do anything halfway.”
I checked the road then looked back to the man. “This way?” I pointed down the road.
His eyes went wide, and Dayne lifted her rifle again. “I have thirty more shots,” she announced.
“How. Many. Villages?” I asked.
“Nine, all along the river to where the
Dam of Ships rests. Beyond that is not our place. It’s the Procurators and their pets up there,” he said.
“How far to the—what is the Dam of Ships?” I asked.
“You don’t know? It is the giant ships made of steel. They block the dried river, and in their shadow are traders. Criminals. Raiders. All living hand-to-mouth, like rats. They live in the ship’s shadow, and we don’t go there,” he said.
“Was there a dam there? Made of concrete?” I asked.
“Yes. The Teeth, we call it. Parts of it are still there. It is five days ride, maybe more. Our villages are far enough away that we can flee, if they strike south, but we hold many of them as slaves. There is a cost when they ride against the Konnodar People,” he said.
“Thank you,” I told him. “To the truck,” I said, and Dayne lifted a brow. I shook my head. “Leave him. He belongs to The Empty now.”
The man looked relieved, then sick, then terrified as he saw the amount of blood he was losing.
“Good luck,” Dayne said, then spat at him with utter disgust.
We slammed the truck doors and pulled away. The shadows of blood chickens—and other flying predators—were already sliding over the landscape as we drove off, leaving the rider to his fate.
“You’re not scum, and you’re not an animal,” I told Dayne.
She was quiet for some time, then in a small voice she asked, “What am I, then?”
“Mine,” I said. “And one of the Free Oasis people. Many things, but you are far from scum. Believe me.”
“I do,” she said. “Thank you.”
“We can save others, you know.”
“Who?”
“In Kassos. If you choose so. Tell me who and where, and they’ll be given the same opportunity you have, based on your word,” I said.
“What if they don’t want to sleep with you?” she asked, her lips pulled up in mischief.
I pulled at my chin as I drove with the other hand. “We’ll think of something.”
20
The first village rose out the horizon along with the kind of green that revealed a nearby river.
Future Retold Page 12
