Indomitable (25 page)

“Don't move,” Promise said, “and keep your hands where I can see them.”

Wade took another step backward. Promise heard a whimper coming from the bedroom, and then the rustling of bedclothes. She thumbed the stunner to two-thirds of max and fired again. Wade grunted, and a bead of sweat broke from his hairline and ran down the side of his face. He steadied himself against a wall to keep from going down.

“It will take more than that to take me,” he said with labored breath. “When I'm done taking you you'll wish you were dead too.”

A normal man would have gone down, but Wade hadn't, and that led nowhere good.

He must be shielded,
Promise thought.

Shields didn't come cheap. Some spooks had them, as did private security firms, and some crime syndicates too.

What have I gotten myself into?

This time she hit him will a full-power blast. The snarl on Wade's face turned into a pained expression that froze in place, face shocked open in white-eyed panic. Promise rushed forward and drove the stunner into the eye of the dragon over Wade's heart. She stroked the trigger twice more, half expecting to kill him. He landed with a heavy thud on the floor.

“About time.”

Promise quickly swept the modest sitting room and secured the door, which also meant she was locked inside with no way out. She took advantage of the simple slide latch and dead bolt put there to set guests as ease. They were mostly decorative and useless, considering the biometric locks hidden in the door and walls. If Wade hadn't opened the door Promise would have needed a battering ram to get in. Without her mechsuit she doubted she was strong enough to kick the door in on her own. The small couch was easy work to move against the door. It wouldn't stop anyone from getting in but it might trip them up for a moment. Leading with the stunner, Promise approached the bedroom.

The girl was seated on a frameless bed with her knees pulled to her chest, gently swaying back and forth. Makeup and fresh tears stained her eyes, and her hair was a tangled mess. What was left of the top of her dress was hanging on her body by a thread.

When the girl saw Promise, she quickly wiped her eyes with the backs of her hands and sat up straight. “
You.
You … need to get out of here. Now. Before they come.”

Promise lowered the stunner and knelt down beside her. “
You
first. I need to tie him up, okay?”

Quickly scanning the room, Promise's eyes settled on the girl's clothing, which was heaped against the base of the closet door. When she picked it up, something primal cracked deep within her, and a monster crawled out. Her fury tore the dress asunder until all that was left was thin strips meant for binding. She was panting hard when she turned her attention to Wade. Rolling him onto his back proved to be a challenge, because the man weighed a ton, far more than she'd guessed by the look of him.

Maybe he's a heavy worlder,
Promise thought,
which would explain his resistance to my stunner.

She bound Wade's hands and feet with the strips of the dress, and stuffed a ball of crushed cloth into his mouth to keep him quiet if he somehow managed to come to.

“My name is Promise,” she said to the girl over her shoulder, as she finished up with Wade. She opened the bedroom closet and withdrew a fresh white robe with the Kies logo embroidered over the breast. “Here, put this on? We need to get you out of here.”

The girl's eyes hardened. She held out her hand to take the robe, and then hesitated when Promise tried to give it to her. Her hand was shaking uncontrollably.

“I won't bite,” Promise said.

After a moment the girl nodded. With only one arm for a covering, she slid off the bed and took the robe, and quickly dressed in its downy sleeves. Then she tied it closed.

“I can't leave,” she said, meeting Promise's gaze. Her eyes were flushed with heat and fear and she spoke so softly Promise almost missed what she said. “I can't.” Her words grew urgent. “They won't let me. Please, just go.”

“Why?” Promise checked her minicomp and two minutes had already passed. They needed to move, now.

“There's nowhere I can go that they can't find me; where
he
can't find me.” Now the girl was staring at Wade.

“Look, I can get you far away from here … to people who can help you … but you're going to have to trust me, okay?”

“We're already as good as dead.”

“What about station security?”

The girl knelt down beside Wade. “He keeps a knife strapped to his thigh,” she said as she reached between his legs. “See?” It was small, serrated, the sort of blade you tucked between two fingers before knifing someone in the gut. She wedged it between the bed frame and the mattress. “Now he won't find it when he wakes.”

Promise's eyes went wide.
This isn't her first time.
She'd been foolish to assume as much. She simply couldn't understand why the girl would want to stay.

“Please, you have to leave.” The girl began to cry. “Go, please.”

“There's always a way out.” Promise held out her hand. Up close, the girl couldn't be more than seventeen. “Believe me, I know.”

She crossed her arms and took a step backward. “You couldn't possibly. You don't know what he's capable of.”

Okay, time to change tactics.

“Gunnar?” The station AI did not respond.

“Gunnar?”
Again, nothing.

“Station AI, this is Lieutenant Promise T. Paen of the Republic of Aligned Worlds Fleet Forces. Please acknowledge.”

“He disabled it,” the girl said. “He's paranoid about security. He's paranoid about everything..”

Some people felt uneasy with an AI always running in the background. A small percentage of citizens refused to use AIs altogether. They were in the minority and Promise had seen Wade with a minicomp. He didn't seem the type.

“Who is this guy?”

“Someone you don't want to mess with. When he wakes up I'll tell him you held me at gunpoint and asked if we had any valuables. Top drawer, over there. His chrono is worth a small fortune. Hurry before they come.”

“I can't do that. I'm not leaving you here.”

“Why? Just go. You're going to get both of us killed.
Please.
”

Promise took a deep breath and reassessed the girl, and the situation.
She's not thinking clearly. She's probably in shock. Then why is she so worried about herself … and about me? Wait … she's just trying to survive. She's doing exactly what Marines do in the heat of battle. Compartmentalizing. She's harnessing her fear to survive. How can I use that to my advantage and get her out of here?

“I might survive the beating he gives me. You won't. I've seen what he does to his enemies.”

Promise walked around the bed and grabbed the girl by the shoulders, shoving her up against the wall. Hard.

“Ow! What the 'verse?”

If this doesn't work nothing will.

“Get your hands off me. I thought you said you were trying to help.” She spit in Promise's face.

Good, now she's fighting.
“The man in the lobby is your procurer, isn't he?” Promise felt dirty just saying the word. “
Isn't
he?”

The girl tried to fight free, managed to get a hand loose and strike Promise on the jaw. The blow smarted and it made Promise smile.

“You don't like being handled, do you?” Promise grabbed her arm and bent it backward, and used the leverage to force the girl onto the bed, facedown.

“You're hurting me.”

“Not as much as he's going to hurt you when he wakes up. How long before he's had enough of you? How long before he decides you're not worth it anymore? How long before you end up in a refuse bin dead and forgotten, or beaten so badly no one can recognize you, or pregnant and tossed out on your own?”

Promise twisted the girl's wrist until she cried out. “No, you listen to me. We're leaving. Either you walk out with me or I'll carry you over my shoulder, unconscious. Your choice.”

P, what are you doing? You can't just drag her out of here, and you can't just pistol-whip her because you don't know this station that well and she probably does.

Promise triggered her mastoid implant and opened a link with the station AI. The girl had stopped fighting, was now still on the bed. Promise couldn't comm the AI or establish an emergency link with the station, and that set off all sorts of alarm bells in her head. Whoever she was dealing with had a military-grade dampener and that meant they could—

At that moment arching light appeared in the upper right corner of the entrance to the room, tracing the door's frame from top to bottom in seconds.

The girl swore and kicked her heel backward. Her targeting was off and the blow glanced off Promise's side. “Let go, please. They're
here
. You've got to let me go!”

The door fell inward and the man with the ponytail entered first, pistol at the ready. Because he was so focused on Promise, he didn't see the couch at first and nearly ran into it. A woman dressed like station security entered next and ran into the back of him. Their collision bought Promise precious seconds. She wrenched the girl off the bed and threw her toward the side of the bed farthest from the door. Then she dove for the wall. A moment later, the report of a flechette pistol shattered the silence, tearing into the pillows and duvet like a saw on flesh. Promise got a shot off before she slammed into the wall that abutted the door frame. Her shoulder took the worst of the hit and she heard something crunch. She'd aimed for Ponytail but hit the woman instead, dropping her to the floor.

All things considered, it was pretty impressive that she'd hit anyone with that shot.

Promise started counting.
One.

A hand popped up from behind the couch and lobbed a disk into the air. It sailed through the doorway and disappeared into the bed's entrails. Promise slammed her hands over her ears and yelled, “Cover!” as the disrupter blew. Even with her palms buffering her ears the blast nearly knocked her out. Her vision grayed and she feared the girl was down for sure. A blast of energy holed the wall between the bedroom and the sitting area, and grazed Promise's upper thigh. She clenched her jaw and yelled at the girl, who was nowhere in sight. Then the closet door moved and the girl leaned out, a pulser in her hand.

Promise shook her head.
No good. It's bio-locked.

More shots holed the wall and another struck the tote bag, which to Promise's surprise was still slung over her left shoulder. The smell of burning plastic stung her eyes and lungs.

The girl looked at Promise and then dipped her head toward Wade's bound hands.

That might work.
Promise nodded, started ticking off fingers.

Three.

Two.

On
one,
she tossed the tote through the door frame and rolled into the opening. Ponytail rounded the couch and fired at her bag of kitsch while she placed him in her sights. The blast knocked him sideways. A potted plant and an end table cushioned his fall.

Two,
Promise counted.

Stunner at the lead, Promise came up and moved out of the bedroom, toward the entrance to the hotel room. She heard doors slamming and footfalls outside the room and voices shouting. Still a good ways down the corridor someone barked, “Get back in your room.”

“We need to move, now,” Promise said as she stepped backward toward the bedroom entrance and looked behind her.

Suddenly a sharp pain enveloped her shoulder and radiated across her torso. For a moment she could hardly catch her breath. Time slowed. She turned toward the door as another man in uniform entered the room and fired again.

Promise's body folded beneath her. Her head hit last and lolled to the side, which gave her an unobstructed view of the bedroom. The girl was out of focus, on her knees next to Wade. Promise wanted to scream at her to take cover but she couldn't remember how to form the words. The girl forced Wade's weapon into his bound hands. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the man with the ponytail start to rise. Promise watched the girl raise the weapon, close one eye, and fire. The room grew dark and silence washed over her.

 

Thirty-one

MAY 15
TH
, 92 A.E., STANDARD CALENDAR, 1133 HOURS

PLANET GUINEVERE, NIGHTSIDE

KIES ORBITAL TOUROSPHERE

STATION SECURITY, CELL TWO

The cell could have
been a lot worse. Promise lay on a too-thin mattress, eyes mere slits against the too-bright overhead lights. Her right eye was swollen and it hurt to breathe. Her side had taken the brunt of things, and her clothes were soaked in blood. At least they'd dressed her hand and thigh, and stopped the bleeding before tossing her in the cell. She still felt groggy from the hypo they'd pressed to her neck. When she bent her knee the pain brought her fully awake, and a soft cry slipped out. A few rounds of quickheal would have made short work of that, if they bothered with it.

“You're awake. Good, I'll go get the boss.” Her guard outside sounded bored.

“Mind if I visit the head while I wait for my lawyer?” Promise asked.

“I'll think about it,” said a tall man wearing a Kies shirt, sleeves rolled to the elbows. Promise was sure he was going to say no. Then a sigh. “Behind you, near the back,” and to the station's AI, “Gunnar, the lieutenant needs some privacy. Some things I don't want to see.”

Hearing her rank lifted her spirits. Not that she expected the uniform to shield her for long. Whoever these people were, they didn't seem like the kind that responded well to authority.

“My apologies, ma'am.” The station AI actually sounded like he meant it. “It's not much, I know.”