Ghost of Mind Episode One (8 page)

She couldn't be caught. Not by him.

Her arm connected. As it did, she put as much
of her energy as she could afford into the move.

And John went flying. There was a cracking,
resounding thud as she collected her arm across his torso, and the
force of the blow sent John up into the air a good two meters. He
crashed into the snow to her left.

Alice didn't wait to see him stumble to his
feet. Which he no doubt would do. Though her blow had been strong,
it would be nowhere near enough to fell someone in armor that
sophisticated. In fact, now the armor had withstood such a blow, it
would adapt, recalibrating the plating across its surface so that
further blows like that would glance off.

In other words, she wouldn't get another
chance like that. She also didn't have the energy; the move almost
sent her reeling back to her knees.

She didn't have the luxury of falling
unconscious here though.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw the
transport beside her finally land. The hanger door lay open and ten
or so security bots, their silver bodies glinting in whatever sun
managed to push its way through the constantly swirling clouds of
the planet.

Stumbling, heaving her legs forward with all
her might, Alice ran for the transport.

She didn't get there.

Something grabbed her. Arms lacing around her
middle, grip tighter than anything she could fight, John Doe lifted
her off the ground.

‘
Stop fighting, it's okay. We've got you,’
he said, his voice stiff, obviously being pushed through locked and
clenched teeth.

Alice did not stop fighting. In fact in that
moment she thrashed harder, her eyes growing wide with genuine
fright. She started to shake, her previously frozen body surging
with heat and becoming plastered with sweat.

She couldn't be caught, she couldn't be
caught.

‘
You'll be fine. The cold causes delirium.
Stop fighting,’ John kept speaking from behind her, his grip never
wavering.

No matter how hard she tried to break free,
Alice just didn't have the energy.

Desperation started to kick in, but there was
nothing she could do about it.

She had allowed the unimaginable to occur.
She'd been caught by the Union Forces. And worse than that. The man
who currently had her locked firmly in his arms would know in an
instant what she was. All it would take was a single complete bio
scan.

She was done for.

Chapter 12

John Doe

He hadn't been expecting that blow. He'd been
expecting her to fight, yes; anyone desperate enough to throw
themselves off the side of a building into a frozen salt blizzard
would not come quietly when the authorities arrived.

But that strike had been something else. It
had been so fast and strong that the plating along his armor had
been unable to adapt to it in time, and he'd been thrown clear off
his feet.

John didn't like to make the same mistake
twice though, and he always tried to learn from his surprises.
Redirecting all the armor’s energy into strengthening it, he'd
jumped right back up, finally catching the woman in his grip.

But she fought, boy did she fight. No matter
how hard he tried to assure her, she just thrashed harder. In fact
she'd thrashed all the way onto the transport. It had taken John
and several of the security bots to finally get her on board, and
he'd had to physically restrain her before a proper impediment
field could be produced. Even then the field had only slowed her
movements by half.

‘
Computer,’ John said through a gruff
cough, the effort of getting her on board already taking its toll
on his body, ‘break apart half my armor, use it to reinforce that
field to ensure containment.’

‘
Not recommended. Cannibalizing your armor
will reduce its ability to withstand outside conditions—’ the
computer began, its electronic voice sounding out form one of the
numerous panels in the hanger bay he and the rest of the robots
were in.

‘
Just do it,’ he growled.

The computer did not interrupt again. Instead
John could feel as the armor that kept him strong and alive was
slowly eaten away.

He didn't bother to sit though; he stood
exactly where he was, ignoring whatever cold managed to penetrate
the thick hull. While this transport was sturdy, it was designed
only for planet use, and did not have the sealed atmosphere of a
proper space vessel.

But right now John didn't care that a frozen,
numb feeling started to climb up his feet and into his bones, he
just crossed his arms and stared at her.

As the computer finally finished the process
of ripping apart half of his own armor to strengthen the field
holding the woman in place, she stopped thrashing.

She ground to a complete halt. Her arms
stiffening and locked by her side. Her head was down, the line of
her hood now hiding everything but her lower lip.

But not for long.

John walked right into the field.

While the impediment field would stop the
woman from moving or escaping, it would have no such effect on
John. It was calibrated to his armor and bio signs to ensure he
could pass through and walk around inside unaffected.

She raised her head, but only slightly. It
would give her an unrivalled view of his boots and maybe his shins
too, but nothing else.

‘
Who are you?’ he got straight to the
point. She didn't look like she was the type to like time
wasters.

The hood was still low enough so that all he
could see was her bottom lip. It shifted down in a twitch, but that
was it.

Sighing John shook his head. Why did some
people have to be so difficult? Okay, John wasn't so innocent that
he didn't know the answer to that; he'd been exactly like the woman
in front of him once upon a time. Not exactly the same - unassisted
by implants or armor, you wouldn't have seen John jumping off the
side of a building. But he was from the slums. He knew the costs of
surviving.

‘
Come on, I'm not going to hurt you. Tell
me why you ran, we'll take you back for a scan and file check, and
you'll be free. No need to make this hard,’ John tried, lowering
his tone, making it a little softer.

She didn't react.

Which left him no choice.

John walked right up to her. ‘I'm going to
remove your hood,’ he warned her, breath stuck in his chest for
some reason.

He wanted to know what she looked like, what
race she was. But most of all he wanted to look right into her
eyes. For no specific reason - it wasn't as if looking into the
doorways of the soul would further his investigation.

But he wanted to. And that particular flicker
of energy up his spine as he reached his hands towards the hood
only solidified his will.

He latched his fingers over it, not too
quickly; he didn't want to surprise her. Though he brushed past her
cheeks and he could feel her eyelashes darting against the external
membrane of his armor, she didn't move back.

She just stiffened even more.

John pulled the hood back. Or at least he
tried to.

He couldn't move it. Gritting his teeth, his
eyebrows descending over his eyes, John tried harder. His boots
locked further onto the hull, the magnetic field they generated
syncing with the metal and anchoring him down.

He pulled as hard as he could.

He couldn't shift the thing. The woman turned
her head to the side, her left cheek pressing into his right
hand.

John tried again and again, but he couldn’t
move the thing a centimeter, let alone get it off.

Sucking in a delayed breath, he finally
let go and took a sharp step back. ‘What the hell?’ he
swore.

She hadn't shifted much; she was still
sitting in exactly the same position with her arms held stiffly by
her sides. She was smiling though, if you could call it that.
Though her skin was still pale, her bottom limp had bunched up,
pushing into the slice of cheek that was still visible.

‘
What's going on here, how are you doing
that?’ John snapped.

She didn't answer.

In fact, she hadn’t said a word to him since
she'd demanded he put her down when he'd saved her from that alien
in the slums.

John took another step back. His eyes were
wide under the faceless helmet of his armor. If he wanted to, he
could turn it to transparent, making the plating disappear as a
powerful force field took its place.

‘
Perhaps human is not up to the task,’ one
of the security bots droned form behind him in its toneless
voice.

John turned sharply over his shoulder. John
was up to the task; even considering his armor had been
cannibalized to bolster the impediment field, he still had the
strength to yank a freaking hood back. He wasn't a geriatric here.
He worked out every single day.

Not bothering to answer the robot and knowing
that it wouldn't try anything unless John gave it a specific order,
he took a step back towards the woman.

She shifted her head forward, facing him, but
the hood still hid most of her face. Her bottom lip had lost the
kick, and had descended into a thin line.

He decided then and there - despite the
situation - that frowning didn't suit this woman. But it was a
useless and faintly sentimental conclusion, one that would not help
him find out who she was.

‘
Transport Beta to arrive at Central
Security Station in one minute,’ the computer suddenly informed
him.

The transport had not bothered taking them to
the nearest block; not considering how much trouble she'd caused.
They were headed to Block Prime. About the only building on Orion
Minor that did not have a slum attached to it. Block Prime was
where the ruling elite lived. It housed not only the best and
brightest, but the key planet-wide systems. It also held the
central operations for the security forces.

The transport gave a shake as a blast of wind
ripped into it, but fortunately John already had a magnetic lock on
the floor below him, and couldn't be thrown from his feet. Instead
he watched in pure fascination, his eyebrows inching down, as the
woman was jostled to the side, her hands grabbing hold of the bench
she'd been seated on. Though the impediment field had all but
locked her in place, she could still make movements, and she still
had to correct herself as the transport gave a shake.

Though her hair spilled from underneath her
hood and the tatters of her tunic shifted around her shoulders, her
hood did not move. Not a freaking centimeter.

Once the turbulence stopped, John shifted
forward. He did not latch hold of the hood and try to tug it off
her head again; he dropped to his knees. Planting a hand on the
ground, leaning close to one of her legs, he tried to look up.

She ducked her head down straight away,
bringing a hand over the hood and locking it over her eyes.

Letting out a frustrated sigh, John stood. He
half turned to see that the view from the single window in the
hanger bay showed the transport rapidly approaching Block Prime. It
would be seconds before they touched down. The hatch of the
security level was already opening in preparation to receive
them.

‘
Suit yourself, but the hood will come
off,’ John turned back to her.

She didn't move. No, that was wrong. She
shook. However slightly, he could pick it up with what was left of
his armor.

It softened him. The prospect of an immovable
hood and a backhand that could send a fully-armored man flying
through the air had served to heighten John's suspicions of this
woman. But that shake had reminded him that he had no idea who she
was and what she was hiding form.

Chapter 13

Alice

She could hardly move. It wasn't just the
cold snaking up from the bench underneath her, it was everything.
This transport was not atmosphere proof, and the fell wind from
outside managed to snake its way in, the frozen cold shifting
through everything.

But it wasn't the cold that had made her give
that shudder. It was his promise. Pure, clear, and simple. The way
he'd said it had left no doubt in Alice's mind; if she didn't
manage to get out of here, John Doe would reveal her.

As the transport slowed down, the mag clamps
of the building they had just reached locking onto it and guiding
it safely through the hanger doors, she indulged in another
shake.

She hadn't been expecting him to transport
back to the planet. Then again, she hadn't been expecting he'd
manage to get a transporter lock on her.

It seemed there was no predicting this guy
and the lengths he'd go to.

‘
Inform the Security Chief we need a
portable containment field, level three,’ John turned on his heel,
his helmet twisting her way.

God, he was looking at her. And though she
couldn't see his eyes under the opaque plating of his armor, it
didn't matter. It was the way his head twisted in obvious interest,
one shoulder high the other hand dropped into a tight fist by his
side.

Though Alice could not have a classic panic
attack; her alien body was too far gone from a human's to undergo
such a thing, she could freak out in her own unique way.

She became so stiff it would take a rock
warrior to move her. As her fright rose and bucked within her, she
lost control of her energy. Or whatever was left of it. Because if
she’d been her usual self, she would never have let John Doe get
close enough to latch hold of her hood. She would have kicked out
the side of the transport, sailed down to the surface of the
planet, and run like the wind.

She was not her usual self, and she did not
have the energy to fight the impediment field John had stuck her
in. And that was why her emotions were rapidly spiraling out of
control. As they did, her energy ran amuck, forcing her limbs and
body to stiffen until they were stronger than a battle cruiser's
hull. It also stopped her breath, stopped whatever could be called
her heart. It froze her to the spot.