13 Degrees of Separation (62 page)

Just as
the neolion leapt rounds slammed into his chest, throat, and shoulder, hurling
him to the side and off his attack. He fell onto his side and struggled to get
up, weakly kicking his leg and clawing his way to Nohar.

The Neo
deputy Bullet stepped over the fallen Tiger and angled his pistol down. He
squeezed the trigger, killing the second neolion and saving Nohar. The round
entered between the eyes, snuffing the life out of the neolion in an instant.

Bullet
turned looking down at Nohar. “Hey there, didn't see you,” he said in
amusement. “In here Phantom!” he barked. Nohar winced, ears still ringing from
the gunshot.

Bullet's
practiced eyes scanned the area. They found the fallen human remains and he
winced. “Damn,” he muttered. He spotted the remains of a few other bodies and
growled. “But not in vain,” he murmured just as Phantom  arrived as back up.
“Took you long enough,” he growled to the muck splattered white wolf.

“Got
lost,” the Neo wolf said, dropping to his knees and immediately applying a
tourniquet to the tiger. “You are going to lose the leg,” he warned.

“You
got lost? You got lost? A game warden got lost?” Bullet teased. His eyes roved
the area in case of any other attackers, but they then strayed to the tiger's
mangled leg. He took it in for a long moment and then looked away. His eyes
caught the pathetic human corpse and he closed his eyes in pain. Yeah, they'd
gotten lost. Lost but now found... but a little late.

“Yeah,
that sucks,” he growled just as Nohar drifted into unconsciousness.

...*...*...*...*...

Nohar
knew he was badly chewed up, scarred by the claws and teeth, and his bitten
leg... Anyone else would of drifted into a pain filled doze from the loss of
blood, but he was just too stubborn. Either that or his implants were forcing
him to a semblance of an alert status. He saw flashes of light and felt
jostling as someone pulled him out of a vehicle. There was a brief sight of the
night sky and then the bright lights of a building interior. He closed his eyes
for a moment and squinted. He blearily cracked his eyelid open to see a human
medic leaning over him warily.

“Are
you sure he's not one too?”

“No,
he's one of us,” A familiar voice said.

“Umph,”
Nohar grumbled.

“Shit
he's awake!” the human said, scrambling back.

“So?”
Bullet asked, coming into his field of vision. His camera eye was on the fritz
Nohar realized. He reached for it but his arm flopped uselessly.

“That
one of Hank McCoy's jobs?” a female voice asked, coming over and snapping
gloves onto her hands. “So what do we have?” she asked.

“Mph,
sleeper,” Nohar mumbled.

“He's a
sleeper doctor,” Bullet said, “Military.”

“Shit.
So we've got to be careful poking and prodding. Let's get the wounds under
control, we don't have any feline donor blood on hand,” the woman said. She
looked up and passed orders to nurses and other medics outside his vision. He
could barely hear them, he felt light headed from the lack of blood. At this rate
if they didn't do something soon an air embolism could kill him. Or his heart
would deflate from lack of blood. Either could kill him so they'd better start
doing something, he thought feeling like he was floating.

“Can
you hear me?” she asked. Nohar grunted. Morphine, he realized, that was why he
didn't hurt so much. Either that or his implants, he wasn't sure. Either way he
was grateful. He heard someone call the woman Director, and another called her
Richards. He filed that tidbit away tiredly.

“I'd ask
you to stay awake but I don't want you thrashing around and clawing my medics
when we work on your leg.”

“Is
okay,” Nohar mumbled. “I can knock myself out,” he said moving his head
slightly.

“You
can?” the woman asked, clearly amused. She had brown hair and smelled of
jasmine. She was an older woman, but obviously experienced. Nohar grunted,
trusting in her hands.

“You'll
be fine,” the woman said, leaning over him. “We'll take good care of you,” she
said as someone or something pricked his good arm. He turned his head to see
the paramedic sticking him with a saline IV. He grunted and then sent a signal
to his implants to put him under. After a moment he was out.

...*...*...*...*...

A
familiar smell of antiseptics woke him an in-determinant time later. His
nostrils flared and then he coughed. “I hate hospitals,” he mumbled, left hand
reaching up to wipe at his good eye. It was all gummy and trying to leak from
the strong smell. From the feel of his body he'd gone twenty rounds, but it
must have been a day or two since it'd happen. He still felt like raw meat, but
not like dead raw meat.

“Well,
sorry to hear, that,” a female voice said. He opened his eyes to see a brown
haired female, most likely a doctor or nurse standing over him. She had a white
jacket on, a doctor he thought. Nurses wore those goofy Victorian dresses and
aprons, he thought. She had Richards embroidered in purple or black thread on
her left lapel. He snorted and then sneezed at the smell. “Sorry doc,” his hand
slipped to cover his nose. It was beginning to run. “It's just the smell...”

“Antiseptics?”
she asked. He nodded and growled softly, ear flicking. He was rapidly regaining
his equilibrium, but he still felt like a chew toy. His fingers felt the scabs
on his nose and muzzle. Probably looked like one too, he thought, hand dropping
with a sigh. He looked over to see an IV drip attached to the hand. He snorted.

“Yes, I
know, sorry, we had to shave the area to put the IV in and tape it down,” Helen
replied, checking his vitals.

“It's
okay, it'll grow back,” he mumbled.

“Possibly.
Can you tell me your age, I can't tell from this side,” she said. She poked at
his titanium canine. He snorted. “From the look of you I'd say you are an off
worlder. Judging by the 501
^st
ranger tattoo I'd say you are a
sleeper.”

“Quite
observant doc,” Nohar sighed, rubbing his brow.

“Headache?”
she asked with a thread of concern laced into her professional voice.

“No,
not yet, thankfully, but I'll get one soon if someone doesn't open a window,”
he growled. She snorted and took the hint. After a moment he heard her crack a
window. He opened an eye to see the breeze flutter some lacy white curtains.
“Thanks,” he said.

“You're
welcome,” she said. “So, I was in town for a conference and they called me in
since I'm the closest to an expert on Neo surgery there is around here,” she
said.

“I'd
hope so Director,” he said, finally putting the name and role together.

“Oh, so
you've heard of me?” she asked, smiling a tight lipped smile. She checked
something off on a clipboard. “Cognitive functions, check.”

“Cute
doc,” he growled. He waved a hand. “Motor skills check,” he moved his left foot
and wiggled his toes. She snorted.

“Don't
claw the sheets,” she urged.

“Not to
worry. Unlike Terran big cats we Neo's have retractable claws,” he said.

“Ah,”
she said nodding. “I hadn't known that. Just the same...”

“I'll
be careful,” he said. She snorted. She looked at the clipboard, noting his
vitals.

After a
long awkward moment he sighed. “Doc, what's the breakage?” he asked. He was
fairly certain the human PI Magnum was dead. No one could survive that.

“Um,
some damage to your arm, epidermis, you've lost some fur... the leg...” she
indicated each with her pen. He growled, getting her to stop.

“No
Doctor. Fall out. How... did Magnum...”

She shook
her head sadly. He chuffed a sigh. “And the crap from the people?” he asked
bitterly.

“Well,
Magnum is being credited as a hero.”

“He
should be. He earned it. Stupid, but he earned it,” Nohar sighed.

“I take
it things didn't happen the way I heard?”

“Depends
on what you heard. I'm guessing I'm not under arrest,” he said making a show of
indicating no restraints on his wrists.

“Yes,
there are some detectives waiting to ask a lot of questions,” Helen said with a
frown. “I'm not allowing visitors for some time,” she said.

“Thank
you doctor,” he sighed in relief. “I'll set the record straight, not that
they'll believe me,” he growled. “They never do, even with my video recording,”
he said, pointing to his right eye.

She
looked at it, peered into it and murmured softly about connecting tissue to
implants. He snorted softly, getting quite a look down her front. He wasn't
into humans though so turned his head away. He felt her gentle fingers trace
the side of the eye implant and then down, feeling the wiring embedded under
his skin.

“That's
the power cord doc,” he murmured.

“It is?
Oh.” After a moment, her fingers traced his right arm and then stopped. She
pulled a stool up and sat. “Why don't you tell me about what happened?” she
asked.

He
glanced at her and then shrugged. He laid it out, the entire thing. When he was
finished she tapped her chin with the end of the pen. “I see that article has
to be rewritten,” she murmured. “I'll call Jerry. He'll set the record
straight,” she said softly.

“Don't
bother doc, it'll still get mangled. Besides, we took care of it,” Nohar said
looking away.

Helen
patted him on his artificial arm. He turned to her. “and sadly they won't
acknowledge that we humans also do these terrible things. We've been doing them
for thousands of years before you were uplifted, and most likely for thousands
of years from now. A never ending cycle.”

“True
doctor. It's sad but a part of nature.”

She
nodded sagely. “Humans tend to think they are above or outside nature. They
don't understand that they are a part of the cycle of life too. We strive to be
better than our basic savage nature, we humans think we are above and beyond
that, but it only takes a little bit to push us over the edge again. The Xeno
war for instance. We... I know it's a slippery slope into savage madness if we
don't keep a clear head. It's a constant struggle.” She eyed him. “For you
Neo's as well, perhaps even more so.” He nodded.

“I'm
sorry about the leg,” she said, indicating his lost right leg. She apologized
for  the leg? He looked down and scowled bleak. She sighed. “I couldn't do
anything with it. It was too mangled. It was hanging by a thread and blood
loss...”

“You're
lucky she was here at all. Doctor Richards is one of the finest surgeons on the
planet,” a nurse said from the open door. Doctor Richards looked towards her.
Nohar grunted as the woman indicated she could leave with a head jerk. He could
hear the nurse leave.

“We
have a prosthetic. It's not as good as...” Richards indicated his right arm,
eye, and ear. “But...”

“Sleeper,
I get it. I'll see if Hank can fix me up.”

“Oh,
you know Hank?” Helen asked, lips puckering again in amusement. Nohar flicked
his ears in humor. “Ah well, he's a good man. Neolion. Whatever.”

“I know
what you mean doctor,” he murmured. She blushed.

“You
are lucky you had so many implants and such a strong constitution,” Helen said,
indicating his artificial ribs and other work. He grunted.

“Just
as long as the all important stuff is still there,” he said, making a show of
peeking under the sheet. Helen snickered, shaking her head.

“Men,”
she laughed, shaking her head, when he pretended relief and wiped his brow as
the sheet settled once more. He wasn't quite pretending she thought, amused at
him.  “I can have someone look into some cosmetic work if you'd like...” she
said. He shook his head and flicked his ears no. She sighed and nodded.

“The
scars will heal in time. In fact they are already healing. I'm leaving some of
the ones I didn't have to stitch up open so the air can heal them faster.”

“Thanks
doctor,” Nohar replied.

“We
have a prosthetic leg. I'm sorry, but due to your size and well...” She
indicated his body. “We had to use a piece of a bent carriage spring for the,
um, foot,” she said. He nodded glancing at the thing next to his bed. “It's
adjustable.

“What
about the bill?” he asked.

She
frowned. “It's substantial, but well, you did a service for the community so
you'll get my hero discount. Just don't go abusing it or you'll get the stupid
hero charge.”

“Stupid
hero charge?” Nohar asked. “Dare I ask?” he asked, flicking an ear to her.

She
smiled again. “Yes, then I charge double since I've have to do the job twice,”
she said patting his shoulder. He chuffed, laying back. “Seriously...”

“I'm
okay doctor,” he said looking at his body. Most of the claw marks weren't that
deep, he'd heal fast enough. “I just need to get up...” he said. He struggled
to get up but she pushed him back down.

“Rest,”
she ordered.

“Yeah,
but um...”