Tau Ceti (an Ell Donsaii story #6) (20 page)

Ell turned to look at Sam,
He wasn’t wearing an AI. Of course, if he did hook himself into the net, someone would be by to pick him up pretty quick. But it was pretty hard to get along in the modern world without some kind of AI, at least to pay for things.
“How’d you get out of prison?”

Another
frenetic
giggle, “Psych
eval. They sent me
to the state hospital to see if I was crazy. It ain’t to
o
hard to escape from
that place
if you
ain’t
crazy.
Gary
here was just bein’ released when I got out. I got a ride with him
and his family
.
”

Ell realized that
Gary
’s AI must be serving for both of them. She said,
“
Sam, d
o you
really
think that Bridget loves you and wants you back?”

“Absolutely!
”
he said with a brittle edge.

“Will you ask her if that’s the case?”

“No! I know you done something to her. She didn’t even come visit me in the hospital!”

“Sam…”
Ell started to ask wearily.

“Shut up!”

Emma yelped as
Sam
jabbed
the gun
into her side
. “Say another word and I’ll put a hole in your little friend here.”

They’d traveled a few blocks in silence when
Gary
leaned toward Ell and said, “Kiss me?”

Astonished, Ell leaned away, looked at him and gave him one sharp head shake, thinking something was deeply wrong with him
. It was as if he had no concept what other people were feeling
.
He and Sam were quite the pair.
The
remainder of the
ride to Ell’s house
passed in silence
,
though Ell continued thinking furiously
.

When they drove up to the house the lights were out
suggesting that her security team wanted darkness where their IR gear would give them an advantage
. Sam insisted that he get out first and that Emma follow him out the right rear door. Then he walked her around to the driver’s side and
,
with
the
gun firmly in Emma’s side
,
told Ell to get out
.
Gary
got out at the same time. Ell saw a lone tear running down Emma’s cheek.

Sam gestured to the house with his chin, “
Take us in and we’ll
get Bridget.”

Ell wondered what Steve and her security team were doing. She hoped they’d gotten Bridget out of the house and
she
worried that they might do something that frightened Sam while he was holding a gun to Emma’s back. They walked up the steps to the porch and Ell told the door to unlock. She had to give it a passcode since she wasn’t wearing her AI.
She turned to Sam, “Sam, are you sure you don’t want give yourself up. It’s only going to get worse for you, you know?”

“Shut up and open the door.
”

Ell opened the door and pushed it open, gesturing for Sam to enter first.

“No! What do you think I am, some kind of idiot?
You
go first.”

Ell stepped into the room and
then
to the left just inside the door.

“Move into the middle of the room. You aren’t pulling any of your tricks on me again.”

Ell stepped into the middle of the room. Knowing that the security team could see her on the cameras
,
she shook her head, hoping that they would understand that she didn’t want them to come in guns blazing. She had a feeling that anything that frightened Sam would result in Emma getting hurt. She had the same feeling about any kind of hostage negotiation.

Sam pushed Emma across the threshold. “Bridg’?” he called
out
.
“I’ve come for you, honey. Don’t worry about these people
sweetie
. I’ll protect you from them.”

Ell sighed. Sam seemed
so
far out of touch with reality, she wondered if anything could get through to him. If not
,
it seemed unlikely that
this situation could end
without
Sam
getting hurt, and possibly hurting Emma or
Ell
.

“Bridget?” Sam said, louder this time. He motioned at Ell with his chin, “Where are you keeping her?”

“I’m not
keeping
her. She
lives
in a bedroom on the second floor.”

“Let’s go.”

They made their way up the
open stairway
, a task made difficult
by Sam’s insistence on keeping his right elbow locked around Emma’s neck as they ascended with him on the stair below her.
The stairs gave out on
to
an open walkway that went around to the rooms on the second floor. Ell stepped left and waved a hand to the right, the direction of Bridget’s room. Sam said, “No, you lead the way.”

Ell led as directed.
Once they arrived in
Bridget
’s room they found the bed unmade with a t-shirt tossed on it.

Gary
said. “Looks like she left.”

Sam
turned furiously, “
‘
Looks like someone
took her
,
you mean.”

Gary
shrugged.

Sam turned to Ell, “Where do you have her?”

Ell shrugged, “She’s a free person, comes and goes as she wishes.”

Fiercely, “Where do you have her?” Emma yelped and
bowed backward
as Sam
forced
the gun into her back.

Bridget’s voice came from out in the hall, “Sam?”

Sam smile beatifically and looked toward the hall, “Bridget?” He start
ed dragging Emma that direction, keeping her between Ell and himself. “Bridget?!”

Ell held her breath
,
but as he was about to go through the door he suddenly stopped, turned to Ell and said, “You first.”

Careful not to slump her shoulders and confirm to him just how badly she wanted to be behind him
,
Ell instead shrugged and stepped out
o
nto the
walkway
. Once there
,
they heard Bridget’s voice coming from the house AI’s speakers, “Sam, I
’m not in the house. I
don’t want to go
anywhere
with you…”

“Bridget…” Sam said plaintively. “No! This isn’t the real you! They’ve brainwashed you honey. Remember
how
much we loved each other?”

“I loved you once, Sam
…
But then you got jealous and
mean
…
And controlling.”

“No! Bridget, I’m different now.
Besides,
they’ve
done something to
your
mind. Come talk to me in person… I,
I can reprogram what they’ve done to you
,
honey, I promise
.
We’ll be back
just
like
we
used to be.”

Bridget sobbed faintly, then said, “Sam, I
… I
hated
the way ‘
we
used to be.’”

“
We’ll
fix it Bridg’. Don’t give up on
us
. We
can
get back the way we used to be.”

“I
don’t
want be to back that way Sam!
Listen
to me!”

“I mean before, before it all went bad, before that
…
night. I just love
d
you
too
much is all…” he trailed off plaintively. Ell
could see
tears running down his cheeks.

“Sam,
” Bridget said,
“
let Emma go, she’s done you no harm.”

Angrily, “She, she
messed
us
up!”

“Sam, she didn’t. We were already messed up. All she did was point it out to me, just how bad our relationship was… Sam… you were a bully.” He
r
voice cracked on this last.

Gary
had moved up
on the right side of
Sam and Emma
. He said, “I don’t think she likes you anymore
,
Sam.”

Convulsively Sam pulled the gun out of Emma’s side and reached around her stomach to fire a shot at
Gary
. “SHUT UP!”

Gary
danced away unhurt, “Geez man!”

“Sorry.” Sam looked up at the overhead speakers that Bridget’s voice had been coming from. “Bridg’?”

Ell had stepped closer when the gun was out of Emma’s side, but it was digging in again. Bridget’s voice sadly said, “Sam, let them go.”

“No! They’re gonna take me to you, then you’ll see, it’ll all be better.” He looked at Ell, “Back off! And take us to Bridget.”

Ell shrugged, “Don’t know where she is.” Her eyes narrowed. When Sam brought the gun back from firing at
Gary
he’d dug it into Emma’s side in front of her arm, instead of behind like he’d had it before. She looked up into Emma’s eyes and stared hard at her.
When she felt Emma looking back, she dropped into the zone and looked
hard
down at the gun—would Emma understand what she wanted? Emma looked down at the gun herself, then up at Ell, seeming to take forever to Ell, deep in her zone.

Emma nodded minutely.

Sam said, “Take us…”

Seeing the muscles on the front of Emma’s arm contracting Ell began stepping forward, pulse throbbing
slowly
in her ears.

Emma’s arm began moving and Ell saw the
skin on
the front of
Emma’s
elbow flatten against the gun.

Ell began reaching out, seeing Sam’s fingers tightening as
the
gun moved from
the push of Emma’s arm
.

The gun slid forward on Emma’s side.

Ell saw the trigger depressing as she reached out.

The trigger moved farther.

Ell’s fingers curled around the barrel.

The gun bucked as Ell pulled outward.

In horror, Ell saw a hole in Emma’s shirt.

Emma’s stomach rippled
…

Ell twisted upward, forcing the barrel away from Emma, but over her own ducking head.

Ell dropped to her knees under the gun as she kept twisting it back out of Sam’s hand.

The gun wouldn’t come free because Sam’s finger was caught in the trigger guard. She backed off a little on the twist
,
making sure the barrel wasn’t pointing at anyone, grasping his wrist with her right hand and pulling the gun free.

She tossed the gun to the floor behind her.

Sam began dragging Emma toward the railing as if
he were going to
throw her over.

Ell
raised back off her knees, bringing her right hand up flat to smash the flat of her palm into the middle of Sam’s face, smacking into his nose and eyes.

Too hard!
Ell thought regretfully as she felt
the crunching sensation of
Sam’s nose and
right
cheekbone collapsing under her hand. His head flew back, then his hands flew back to catch himself as he fell backward.

Ell glanced at Gary who
, wide eyed,
had braced himself
,
as if at attention. Back and hands against the wall.

Her eyes turned back to Emma’s stomach, her hand lifting Emma’s t-shirt and seeing two holes indicating the bullet went through and through. “Call 911!” she shouted.

***

Ell sat in the ER with Emma, holding her hand while a cute young intern
nervously
sutured the bullet wounds. Scans had shown that the bullet had grazed her abdominal muscle but hadn’t entered the abdomen itself. She would be sore but not permanently injured. They heard Roger’s voice outside, “Emma?”