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fine. We've been in tighter spots than this."
Doc grinned, baring his strangely perfect teeth. "Yes, and Hillary always
hated
Bill for being reminded of that."
THE ACID RAIN CONTINUED drumming on the metal roof twenty minutes later. The
stink of ozone from all the elec-trical activity mixed with the harsh stench
of sulfur and other chems in the air, making it hard to breathe inside the
fort.
"There's something else we didn't consider," J.B. said, "that might have
brought the baron's men here."
"Phlorin," Ryan answered. "I've already been thinking about that."
The Armorer nodded. "No matter what it looks like now, that rain's going to
let up sooner or later. And if we can get those people off our asses now, it
would be a good thing."
"I want to make sure Krysty's going to be okay before we give that woman to
the baron's people."
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J.B. nodded. "Get it done."
Ryan kept the SIG-Sauer in his fist and drew the panga with his other hand. He
approached the old woman lying on the floor and dropped into a squat beside
her.
"You and I are going to talk." He hooked a finger behind the gag in her mouth
and pulled it below her chin. He deliberately let the cold steel of the
panga's edge caress her throat with enough weight to draw a thin line of thick
dark blood.
The woman's black eyes blazed. "There's nothing I have to say to you."
"Good," Ryan told her. "Means you're ready to listen. You've done something to
that woman over mere." He pointed at Krysty with the panga. "Fucked her head
up somehow. I mean to see her back the way she's supposed to be." He freed the
woman's left hand, then stepped on her wrist, trapping it against the earthen
floor.
"And what are you going to do if I don't?" the old woman wheezed. Her trapped
hand moved weakly, like a dying spider trying to scuttle into hiding.
Ryan was conscious of every eye in the room on him. If the other ex-prisoners
had any idea what he was talking about, none of them showed it. "I'm going to
whittle you down to a more manageable size," he told her roughly. "I know ways
that can make your dying a long time in com-ing."
The woman laughed at him, her spittle laced with the blood from the wound in
her chest. "Do you actually think you can frighten me, man?"
"Doesn't matter," Ryan answered in a flat voice. "I'm just telling you how
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it's going to be."
"Cut me if you wish." Phlorin coughed again, sputtering blood up through her
thin blue lips. "I can put myself past the pain. And now that I have Krysty
with me, I
don't have to be alone when I die."
"I can throw you out there in that acid rain." Ryan stared hard into the
woman's magnetic black gaze. "You'll be alone then."
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"It won't matter. I've bonded myself with Krysty. She is a part of me now, and
I
am a part of her. There's nothing you can do to prevent that."
Ryan glanced over at Mildred.
"This woman's dying," Mildred said. "Even if I had all the supplies I'd need
and we could guarantee that she wouldn't be moved for a few days, she won't
make it."
"You see?" Phlorin taunted. "All you can do is hasten the inevitable. I'd
consider it a favor. I don't like lying here, being weaker and more helpless
than I've ever been."
"When you die," Ryan said, "mebbe Krysty will wake up and never remember you
were even there."
"Do you want to take that chance?"
Ryan gave her a cruel fox's grin. "You're dying, bitch, and I'm going to be
trying it sooner or later because I don't think you're going to let go on your
own. Rather it was sooner, let me know what I'm dealing with while I'm trying
to save our asses. And that's an ace on the line."
"Krysty is one of us," the old woman said. "How you got her to give up her
birthright is beyond me. And she's very strong."
"You brought us here," Ryan said, "and mixed us up in this. It wasn't any of
our business."
"Couldn't die alone, because then everything I'd known would die with me.
Chosen don't die alone, don't die far from home without returning." Her words
slurred and be-came hollow, drifting away.
"You're losing her," Mildred said.
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Bolstering the SIG-Sauer, Ryan grabbed the woman. She fought against him
weakly, then gave up. She spoke softly and sibilantly, and it took Ryan a
moment to realize the same words were coming from Krysty across the room. They
were two voices singing the same song.
Krysty lay there, her unseeing eyes directed at the ceiling overhead.
Chapter Eight
Without a word, Ryan backhanded Phlorin across the face, once, twice.
One of the men in the group started to get to his feet. "You can't do that to
her,"
he protested.
Jak swung his .357 to cover the man, not saying any-thing. But with his ruby
eyes glinting cold fire, he didn't have to say anything at all.
The man froze in place, making no effort to raise the .38 revolver he had.
"Look,"
he said uncomfortably, "I don't want any trouble."
"You got a funny way of showing it," J.B. said.
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"You fuckers are just as bad as them coldhearts," a skinny woman with ratted
hair and a bruise under one eye snarled.
"Mary," the man who'd spoken up said, stepping over to shield the woman as she
got to her feet, "you stay out of this."
"This woman," Ryan said, "has managed to hurt some-body I care about. Now you
people, I don't even know. But I opened up the doors of this fort and let you
in. And if there's a way to get you out of here, I aim to see you clear of
this mess.
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You get in my way, though, and I'm going to put you outside."
"You can't do that," the woman said.
"Mary."
She turned to him, snatching at his shirt. "Clete, he can't do that. Don't you
dare let him."
"Then we do what he says."
"You can't let him hurt that woman any more, either."
"Do you know her?" Ryan demanded.
Phlorin sat in pain from the blows, but she wasn't pray-ing or singing
anymore.
Neither was Krysty, and that suited Ryan fine for the moment.
The noise of the chem storm drumming rain into the building sounded more
hollow than ever in the silence that followed the question.
"No, mister," the man said, "we don't know her. Until today when them
coldhearts jumped us and brought us here, we never saw her before."
"Anybody else?" Ryan flicked his one-eyed gaze from person to person, even
looking at the children.
"I know of her."
Ryan pinned the speaker with his gaze.
The man stood only a little above Ryan's shoulder, thick set through his
shoulders but tapered at the waist and haunches like a man accustomed to [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]