Ambasadora (Book 1 of Ambasadora) (39 page)

Yul reached a hand toward her
arm, but stopped short of touching her when Rainer stepped forward.

“We have to contact Simon to
make a trade—his cure for Sean. I’m surprised you haven’t done that
already.” Sara’s chest tightened as she thought of what Simon’s
contractors were doing to Sean right now. If he hadn’t helped her, he could
have escaped, dropped out of society, been safe, but saving himself wasn’t in
Sean’s make up.

“I don’t have the
data,” Yul said.

“Why not?” Sara’s voice
rose in anger. “You said he told you where to find it.”

“Yes, I know where to find
it, but I can’t access it inside the V-side. I was locked out on my first
attempt. Too many fraggers in that Underground compound heard Sean’s
transmission.”

“Why didn’t you send in
another operative?” Rainer asked.

“Because I traced my lockout
back to
this
location. Aside from my assistant,” he motioned toward
the redheaded woman. “I can’t trust anyone else here.”

“Then send her in,”
Rainer said.

“She’s not a fragger.”
An unexpected fierceness came into Yul’s voice. “She’s my prime, and I’m
sorry, Sara, but I can’t risk the mother of my children, even for Sean.”

Sara regarded the redhead, who
looked away as if in guilt. “It’s okay. I could never ask you to sacrifice
your family after all that you’ve done for me. Send me in instead.”

“Absolutely not.”
Rainer’s tone made Sara and Yul jump. Stepping between them, Rainer spoke to
Sara. “He can get someone else to go in. There’s no reason for you to do
this.”

“Didn’t you just hear him?
There’s no one else. It has to be done. Now.”

“I would have to agree with
him,” Yul said from behind Rainer. “To get you into the V-side would
involve implanting idents, and in your condition…that’s not advisable.”

“You mean the
irradicae,” Sara said.

“I found them during a scan
before I removed the flower corer from your abdomen. That’s why I didn’t give
you any immune boosters.”

“Would that have set them
off, so to speak?” she asked. It was the first time she had gotten any
real answers about what was happening inside her. She hadn’t felt pain or
discomfort, not so much as a cramp, but maybe she wouldn’t, maybe her eggs
would just shrivel inside her. Or, maybe it would kill her immediately with an
onset of severe hemorrhaging, sparing her the Passing Ritual. Either way, she
believed she’d know when it happened.

“Yes,” Yul said.
“Irradicae
are
immune boosters, on stims. They don’t just go after
diseased cells, they look at everything as a threat and devour whatever’s in
their path. That’s why they were banned by the Embassy.”

“Except for purposes of
genetic blackmail,” Sara said.

“I can’t give you idents
without giving you immune boosters, not after your recent injury. It may seem
almost healed, but I scanned your vitals upon entering, and there is a small
spike in your white blood cell count. Probably an infection.”

“Then that’s the end of
it,” Rainer said. “We’ll find another way—”

“It’s not your
decision.”

“You’d give up your lineage
for
him
? Shame your family and take your own life, if you eventually
survive this?”

“Yes.” Her response
held more weight than she felt. “He’d do all he could to help me, and
has.”

“He wouldn’t do this.”

“How do you know, Rainer?
Because
you
wouldn’t? Not every man in this system is like you and Chen.
Get everything ready, Yul.”

Rainer’s expression went from
anger to alarm. He took her hands in his, the most touching gesture he had ever
made toward her. “Sara, I’m begging you not to do this. There’s still a
chance they can be removed without any damage to you. Still a chance that we
could….”

She waited for him to continue,
knowing he’d never speak the words. “Could what? Fly back to your place
and play at the perfect society couple? The only reason you want me is because
I’m taboo in your world.”

“You don’t understand what
you’re risking.”

“Sean’s already risked more
for me than anyone else ever has. He has an ideology, a sense of honor in this
place so corrupted and decadent that most people don’t even remember what
commitment means.” She had been afraid she might not be able to do what
was necessary, but now she was certain she could do anything.

“You wouldn’t understand,
Rainer. Life’s about more than passing on your genes.” Her tone was
gentle, free of judgment. “You have six amours and a dozen children. Sean
only has me, and I only have him.”

He released her. The
disappointment in his gaze tore at her, but she lay down on the table,
resolved, but frightened. “I’m ready.”

Yul pressed a sedative patch into
the crook of her arm. His talc smell comforted her. She held her hand out to
Rainer. He reached out, but pulled back. Then he left. The sight of him walking
away was all too familiar.

Chen ducked as the Sovereign
lobbed a razor cuff at the room’s blood-splattered wall. Thanks to his
atrophying muscles and fading motor skills, the cuff clinked harmlessly to the
concrete without leaving so much as a dent in the stucco.

There were few options left to
Chen–either Prollixer would grant him his pardon for his continuing efforts in
the data recovery or he would order Chen’s immediate execution. Chen knew Faya
was the better shot, but Dahlia was much closer.

He edged his nervous fingers
toward his cenders.

Sean Cryer let loose then with a
roar of rage at some vision only he could see. Prollixer shrank away from the
noise.

Chen gripped his weapons.

Prollixer shook visibly.
“Stop that,” he yelled at Cryer. “Make him stop!”

Faya kicked Cryer in the stomach.
He doubled over, but continued to snap out terrifying screams and growls. Chen
hoped the bindings held against Cryer’s vicious thrashing. Faya had really
pissed him off when she mentioned cutting on Sara this last time.

Sweat poured down the Sovereign’s
face, and Chen realized he was looking at him. “Who are you?”
Prollixer asked. The facial twitch which accompanied the question showed the old
man was slipping away fast, and not just physically.

He didn’t recognize Chen, even
after their ongoing negotiations. The Sovereign lost interest in Chen when
Cryer took another fit and pulled his undamaged leg free of the manacle. He
kicked Faya in her chest as she tried to secure him again and knocked her
backward onto the floor.Chen pulled his cender, his heart slamming against his
rib cage. Before he could fire, Faya sprang to her feet, sucking in air and
ready to punish Cryer. She pulled his head back and pointed the triton knife at
his good eye.

“Stop.” The Sovereign
grabbed Faya’s wrist. Chen knew she could have easily twisted out of his feeble
grasp, but she wasn’t ready to defy Prollixer yet—that was a path of no return.
She sheathed the knife.

“How can you expect to get
anything coherent from him in this state? These facilities weren’t built to
fulfill your personal masochistic desires.”

“He’s already given us some
information,” Faya insisted. “We just need to play up his emotional
fallacy with the ambasadora.”

“Emotional fallacy? He’s a
fragger. They have even less emotion than contractors.” Prollixer muttered
something about the groups being one and the same, but Chen couldn’t catch it
all.

Faya set her jaw. “And less
emotion than Simon Prollixer.”

Chen held his breath. Part of him
enjoyed this showdown and wanted to see how it would end, but the
preservationist inside him backed toward the door.

“You don’t speak to me that
way.” Prollixer suddenly seemed lucid. The coldness in his voice was terrifying.
“I am still your Sovereign.” He walked toward Faya. “I am still
your Sovereign!”

Prollixer grabbed a fistful of
Faya’s shirt, a surge of strength, fueled by rage, rose from his gaunt frame.

Faya pulled back from him in
shock, but he held tight.

“What do you know so
far?” The nervousness in his voice from a few moments ago turned into
fierce accusation.

Chen believed Prollixer was
almost as messed up as Cryer.

Faya cleared her throat. “He
didn’t take the cache—”

“What?” He shook Faya
in a panic.

Faya looked as though she wanted
to tear his eyes out, but her tone was matter of fact. “But he did receive
possession of it, then hid it somewhere within the V-side.”

“Where?” The
Sovereign’s eyes lit up and he actually smiled. Chen noticed dark spots
discoloring Prollixer’s teeth in places. It was as haunting as it was
disgusting. If Chen looked close enough, he could also see those same spots
erupting on the man’s neck and hands.

“I was just about to find
out,” Faya said.

Prollixer released his hold on
her. “I think we’ve come as far as we can with your tactics.”

Cryer’s broken body, which had
been so loathsome to the Sovereign only minutes before, now seemed to stir him.
He touched Cryer’s shoulder and asked, “Do you miss Sara?” Cryer’s
head lulled on his chest at the mention of her name. Dried streams of blood
zigzagged down his bared back and his temples, while bright drops still puddled
around him from deeper wounds. The Sovereign avoided the mess and squatted next
to Cryer.

“She misses you, too.”
The Sovereign’s voice was soft.

Cryer’s head lifted slightly, but
his gaze couldn’t focus.

“She’s here. Sara asked for
you. I told her you were helping me lift my curse. That made her very
happy.”

“Sara.” Cryer’s voice
barely got the word out.

“Yes, Sara. As soon as you
tell me where to find that cache, we’ll let you see her. She’s waiting for you.
You don’t want to disappoint her, do you?”

“The lights,” Cryer
said. “The lights.”

“What was that?” The
Sovereign leaned closer. Faya had a cender trained on Cryer, not taking any
chances after the kick he gave her moments ago.

Chen didn’t think this was a
ploy, though. Somehow Prollixer had managed to convince Cryer what Faya
couldn’t—that Sara was here waiting for him.

“Tell me what you said
again,” the Sovereign said.

But Cryer had slipped into
unconsciousness. Faya had gone too far with the drugs in an attempt to pluck a
fast and easy confession from the fragger.

Expecting the Sovereign’s earlier
rage, the three contractors backed toward the exit. Chen stopped dead when he
saw the Sovereign lean over and cradle Cryer’s head against his shoulder. He
cooed to him as if to an infant. “Everything will be fine. Just
fine.”

Chen looked to Faya and Dahlia
for validation. Their startled expressions mirrored his thoughts. Dealing with
a sane Sovereign was delicate at best; dealing with whatever he was turning
into might mean the end of all their lines.

“Yul?” Sara awoke to a
sweetness on her tongue and a fuzziness on her teeth. She tried to swallow, but
the dehydrating sedative made her tongue feel like chalk. The medical table
chilled her skin, even through the soft blankets.

Yul rushed over. Tilting her
head, he held a glass to her cracked lips. “Sip.”

The same sugary taste dribbled
into her mouth. Coughing and clearing her throat a few times she managed to
say, “Am I okay?”

“It appears so, though it
may be too early to tell.” He squeezed her arm.

She didn’t feel any ill effects,
but that didn’t mean she was fine and her feelings offered her little in the
way of real relief.

Rainer appeared in her periphery
and occasionally touched the table’s rounded edges, but never her. She smiled
faintly; he looked away.

Yul passed a hand-held scanner
over her body. She scratched at her wrist as the scanner’s fingers of light played
over her.

A stinging pain forced her to
clench her fist. A small streak of blood dripped from the inside of her wrist
down to her fingertips.

“Sorry. I should have
bandaged that.” Yul held a sterile pad over the incision and applied
steady pressure.

“What is it?” Sara
tried to lift her hand to see exactly what he’d done to her.

“An internal reporter. No
more bracelets for you. I’ll explain how to use it later. Now you need to
rest.”

A sense of urgency gripped Sara.
She fought to push her grogginess away. “No, Sean doesn’t have time.”

“Normally an initiate would
wait thirty hours before attempting her first post-op insertion—”

“Out of the question.”

“I figured you’d say
that.” Yul handed her a case.

Sara flipped the lid open and saw
a pair of silver lenses.

“I sent you an invite to the
area where Sean hid the cache. It took me a while to figure out what he meant
by check the lights. You will, too, once you’re inside the right world.”

“How do I get there?”
she asked.

“You’ll arrive in the lobby,
a sort of waiting room that looks and feels like an endless ocean. A sphere
will rise out of the water. Just touch its surface. It will take you where you
need to go. I’ve set up an automatic streaming program for you, which allows me
to siphon the data and pull you out as soon as the capture is complete.”

So much information. Sara’s head
swam, trying to shake off the sedative and process Yul’s instructions.
“So, I’m stealing back the same data that got me here to begin with.”

“I’ve always felt life is
circular,” Yul said, then seemed embarrassed by his wistfulness.
“Anyway, the lenses will adapt themselves to the pattern of blood vessels
on your retina.”

“Can I go in without
them?” The stigma of the v-mitters stayed with her after Palomin. She was
glad Sean hadn’t used them back at Shocker’s.

“Not at your level,”
Yul said. “It’s painful enough the first time. Let the lenses make
insertion easier.”