Leopard Dreaming (51 page)

Gathering the armful of knives, his face cracked into a broad grin, making him appear all the more menacing as he offered her the largest blade, handle first for her safety.

‘Take it,’ he said. ‘The moment approaches, along with your friends.’

Mira reached for it like a mouse to a cat, expecting him to change spots again any second. She had to admit, if only to herself, that she much preferred the biggest blade in
her
hand than his. The warm handle settled against her palm, and as she closed her fingers around it she began to wonder if he really was mad, or insanely brave.

‘How soon?’ she asked. ‘And how many will come?’

‘The details matter little. Trust your reflexes.’

‘Trust my …
what
? Hell, no! I’d rather trust Lockman. I trust Ben and Gabby and Matron, but my body is totally the
last
thing —’

Freddie grabbed her by the elbow, his reflexes so fast and her eye-to-brain function so sluggish he appeared to move in a magical instant.

‘This is the new future, child. Embrace it. Or die here, and I’ll make alternative arrangements.’

A point pricked her throat and adrenaline flooded through her body.

She glanced down, moving eyes only, and saw him holding a slim-bladed scalpel to her throat, while her own hand had turned out in reflex. Without realising it, she’d moved moments before she’d needed to, anticipating his move and compensating automatically for her slow muscle response in time to block him with the biggest blade — which now poked at the eye of a teddy bear on the chest pocket of his pyjamas.

‘See, girl? Instinct requires neither body nor brain to function coherently.’ His blade relaxed away from her. Demonstration complete. ‘Let those be the final words you emboss upon the new Poet Trees.’

Mira tightened her grip around the knife, familiarising herself with the weight and balance. ‘Okay then,
grand
father.’ The word tasted bitter upon her lips. ‘How do we get Maddy out and all the way back to Serenity safely?’

Freddie chuckled. ‘Poor child. You can see so far, and remain so blind. Do you really think your friends would come without their own plan?’

Mira thought of Lockman. She pictured him charging in ahead of a battalion; tried to imagine him working with such a big team and decided he wouldn’t expose a single life to such risks, aside from his own. So if her friends came too, they’d be coming from behind, or another direction.

‘If you help me get them all out safely,’ she whispered. ‘I’ll buy you the softest, snuggest padded cell in the history of Serenity.’

Freddie threw up his head in silent laughter. ‘Silly girl. I
am
Serenity.’
Where else can Madness call home when her working day is done out here?

‘Not now!’ Mira flared with frustration and turned the blade back at him. ‘Seriously! You do
not
want to upset me any more today.’

‘On the contrary. You needed that extra shot of adrenaline. Now steel yourself.’

He dumped most of the surgical instruments back into their drawer, keeping three for the pockets of his teddy bear pyjamas, and folding the slim scalpel in the curl of his palm.

‘My brother comes.’

L
ockman came to another intersection and paused to check which way he should go. Piles of dusty crates littered the halls in both directions, obstructing his view, but he didn’t bother consulting the last four scorpions for their instinctive opinions. He could see flickering lights at the far end of the south tunnel, and feel the thrum of a generator growing stronger through the walls and floor as he drew nearer.

He didn’t make it as far as the lights. A door opened and two men emerged from a well-lit room into the dimmer corridor.

Ducking for cover behind the nearest crate, Lockman hoped their eyes hadn’t adjusted in time to spot him. Still shrouded in shadows, his heart beat faster. Pulse quickening.

They kept Uzis at the ready; headed his way.

Lockman listened to their footsteps. Part instinct, waiting for the cue to attack. Part cautionary, reminding himself of the need for restraint, for Mira’s sake, since some walls were too thin to repel bullets.

He let them pass, sprang up from behind and crashed their skulls together.

Unconscious; for two to ten minutes, usually.

Taking their bootlaces, he hogtied them, tearing additional strips from their shirts to gag them, then opened the nearest door — to a darkened store room — and stashed them inside. Leaving the door ajar, he proceeded to the next corner, where he shifted a crate askew; both breadcrumbs to help him navigate the maze of corridors on his way out again.

I’m coming, honey.
Giving in to his fate and to oblivion, he could only hope he could make it all the way without becoming the monster she’d always feared him to be inside a military uniform.

Kitching burst into the room and strode towards Mira.

Behind him crept two handsome young Asian soldiers, heavily armed; one smelling of oily fish and the other of rum cigarettes.

‘Bohai, Jinhai,’ Kitching said as he signalled them to restrain Freddie — who was already making moves to circle away from them. ‘Is it done?’ Kitching asked, directing that question to Freddie. ‘Did you have enough time with her, brother?’

Freddie nodded and readjusted the Velcro fly on his pyjama pants.

‘Well done, old man. I didn’t think you still had it in you.’ He sounded pleased, but looked the opposite. ‘My turn now.’ He nodded to Bohai, who took it as a cue to knock Freddie unconscious, then together the two young men hefted the frail old man up onto a spare gurney.

Mira tried not to react too much, keeping her ear turned to them and hoping to conceal her ability to see them through the combination of hues and sedation. ‘What’s happening?’ she asked, needing more details anyway.

‘Nothing we can’t settle alone,’ Kitching replied. ‘That will be all, men.’ He ushered them to the door, but slammed it short of letting them out into the hallway.

Behind her back, Mira gripped the knife tighter.

Kitching spun about to face her with a smug grin that chilled her.
Hand it over,
he asked using sign language. He walked across to the barrel of bandages and lifted the top three, revealing a pen-shaped spy device.
I’ve seen and heard everything.

Mira felt sick. She could hardly believe she’d dropped her guard on surveillance. Another side effect of the drug that she’d been too spaced to notice. Doubly strange, since she felt so lucid now, and yet Kitching had three machine guns pointed at her that she barely registered. Either way, shouting a warning for Freddie to hear moments beforehand remained out of the question. Whatever the future held now, she knew it must happen elsewhere, leaving only the repercussions to echo back to this room, at some other time yet to come.

It’s the only way it made sense. At least, as clearly as she could think.

Now,
Kitching insisted.
I know you can see me.

Mira scowled at him, but complied, splaying open her palm to let him take the blade from her.

Kitching grabbed her and pinned her against the wall, as if suspecting a struggle anyway. Deftly disarming her, he seemed gentler than she’d expected.

He passed her to Jinhai, who clamped a sweaty hand over her mouth.

No talking until we’re clear,
Kitching signed to her, then he swung about and launched into a scuffle with Bohai that ended on the floor at her feet.

‘What have you …?’ Kitching feigned a spluttering gurgle. ‘You’ve gutted me!’

Mira seized the chance to kick him squarely in the ribs. If he wanted realism for his cunning pantomime, she’d gladly give it. Not nearly the impact she’d hoped for in her current state, but enough to drive an additional cough from him.

He collected himself silently from the floor, while Bohai rounded up the matron’s gurney.

Mira noticed Maddy’s strongest arm twitch slightly under the tight white sheets.

Jinhai opened the door this time, and ushered Mira out into the hall behind them — using one finger against his lips to remind her to stay quiet. Then he closed the door, sealing himself inside, alone with Freddie.

Kitching led her down the hall and around the corner, while Bohai followed with the matron’s gurney.

‘We can talk freely here,’ Kitching assured her. ‘My brother has never been in this corridor.’

Maybe not this decade,
Mira signed in reply. ‘Cut the crap, Colonel. What’s going on?’

‘I brought you down here to give you another future.’

Give, not offer, Mira noticed — as if she’d have no real choice in his proposal either.

You overheard the deal he made with me?
she asked, preferring the slower sign language to give Maddy more time to come around.

Kitching shrugged. ‘As much as anyone can make a deal with him. But hear me out, and I’ll send Matron Sanchez topside right now, so she can wake up free and unharmed in the forest. All you need to do in exchange is agree to listen.’

‘You’ll let her go first?’ Mira laughed. ‘Yeah, I’ll believe that when I see it.’ She noticed Maddy’s eyelids flutter again. ‘So what’s the catch?’

‘I’m warming up to that. You’re family now, which changes some things.’

‘Apparently.’
I’m blind, not stupid,
she signed. ‘But you planned all this long before either of us learned that little bombshell.’

‘True, but even then I chose to go easier on you than our first encounter. It’s not often I discover I’ve been
wrong, so be grateful. I could have killed you and your grandfather any time, and taken your eyes and his ears for reverse engineering. Still can, if your friends give me any more trouble. They did come, by the way. I have them all in custody — which is why I’m prepared to free your matron.’

Mira grit her teeth in frustration.
I get it. Losing one of them won’t make much difference to you.
She weighed the risks of shouting a protest that might echo back to Freddie as a warning — if that was still possible. ‘Go on then,’ she dared him. ‘Release her.’

In response, he clicked a talk button on his two-way. ‘Jinhai. Please join us when you’re done with my brother. The matron requires an escort up to the —’

‘Uncle, he awake!’ Jinhai shouted. ‘He go crazy!’

Mira heard his voice as a distant squeak over the static.

‘He talks with his hands, and to nobody!’

‘Tie him down. He must not speak across time again.’

‘I did! I fasten him good by hand and feet. But still he speak. His lips moving. No sound come out, but still talking to someone, not here.’

Kitching swore at the ceiling. ‘Knock him out or gag him and get him to surgery. Take the shortcut.’

‘Problem?’ Mira asked as he clicked off.

‘Nothing I can’t handle. Your matron will be on her way to the surface soon. That’s all you need to know about.’

‘Take care, Colonel. I can hear a lie a nautical mile away.’

He shrugged, unconcerned. ‘Is that so? Then perhaps one of your grandfather’s warnings will be of particular interest to you. His play foretold that Lockman would kill you if he came here. Does that worry you more if it’s a lie or the truth?’

She shrugged. ‘To be honest, I’d be more worried if I was wearing your shoes.’

‘Fair assessment. But Lockman’s not really his name, did you know?’ Meant to be a revelation to her, obviously, but lacking the punch, since she already knew.

She realised too late that she should have reacted anyway. ‘They all have codenames. Big deal. You too, probably.’

‘In his case, it’s a very big deal. He was involved in … let’s call it an “international incident” during which he killed a dozen men, most with his bare hands. He went AWOL soon after, proving beyond any doubts that he is — despite all training and personal intentions — quite unpredictable.’

‘How should that worry me? What’s AWOL?’

‘Absent without leave.’

Mira laughed. ‘At Serenity we called that absconding. I’ve done that myself more than once.’

‘Not with a dozen murder charges, you haven’t. That boy’s killed more than me. So forget any hopes of a rescue from him. He’s unstable.’

‘And useless, obviously, if you’ve captured him.’

‘Would you like to know why he’d betray you, in particular?’

Mira smiled sweetly. ‘Honestly? So long as he kills you first, I’ll die happy. Besides, you’re too late, Colonel. I betrayed him first. Last I saw him, he was tied to a tree with a knife in his leg because of me.’

‘Interesting. I wasn’t aware of that little detail. I’d only noticed how much time you’d been spending alone with him lately.’

‘Daah! What choice did you leave me?’

‘So it doesn’t bother you at all that he’s still wearing his dog tags?’

Nagging whispers screamed with sirens and neon lights, all siding with Kitching. Not because of what he’d said, but the way he’d said it.

‘Makes no difference,’ she decided, willing it so, rather than lying. She’d come to trust Lockman so much she no longer cared about his other alliances.

‘My people saw him kissing you in the alley this morning.’

‘Oh, sure,’ she snapped. ‘And did I look happy about it? Why are we still talking about him, anyway? Have your men recaptured him after his hug with the tree or not?’

‘Irrelevant,’ Kitching declared. ‘I only needed to determine which man you’d prefer for a special job.’

Job?
she asked, in stunned silence.
What job?

‘To take you home or wherever you wish. The Hilux is here, fully packed with your belongings. A little worse for wear after your trip down the river bank, but refuelled and ready to go.’

She gaped at him, in shock. ‘It is?’

‘There are several conditions, naturally.’

‘Naturally.’ She rolled her eyes.

‘The first is a blanket ban on any further communication with your grandfather, unless supervised by me personally.’

‘Why?’ she asked suspiciously. ‘What are you going to do to him?’

‘Nothing for the moment. He’s going on a bit of a holiday. From himself, mostly. Jinhai has introduced him to our cheery little Chinese broth and breath mints that will addict him to a fresher perspective on life when administered regularly. Then we may return him to the submarine, where he can get some rest until he’s more cooperative voluntarily.’

‘Ha! Good luck with that. He’s been subjected to every kind of behaviour modification strategy ever conceived. Your little broth, or breath mints, or floaters, or whatever won’t stand a chance.’ Unfortunately, she also knew that the beastly gene that caused their abnormalities seemed to have a knack for adaptation to
help cope with almost anything. ‘Be sure to order your Christmas cards in bulk,’ she warned him. ‘You’ll need to address one to each of his new egos that emerge as “coping strategies”.’

‘Do you wish to receive only one card, signed by all, or one from each personality? To be honest, I’m intrigued that you’d care so much, considering what he’s put you through.’

‘He’s not as bad as some.’ She eyed him to ensure he knew who she meant. ‘You left me alone with him deliberately, Colonel. Was that really necessary? And why bother with that embarrassing pantomime?’

‘My brother lied to me, Miss Chambers. I sent three teams out today, expecting all three back safely. Instead I have three men injured and two missing.’

‘I couldn’t care less about your side of the equation. You mentioned my friends, my truck, and letting us all go in it, I hope?’

‘Indeed I did. With conditions.’

‘Yeah, yeah. So cough them up already.’

‘I require you to be safe from General Garland for one full year.’

Mira laughed. ‘I require it for a good deal longer, but go on.’

He ushered her left around another corner, and on into another seemingly endless corridor, except this one disappeared into darkness. ‘During this time, I require you to carry a child.’

‘A
what
?’ She staggered sideways against the wall, pretending to be gobsmacked.

‘You heard me. I could attempt behavioural correction strategies with you too, of course. Until I learned of our relationship, I’d been leaning in that direction — keeping you locked up for a year until I have what I need, but we both know you’d only find a way to harm yourself, or the child, and I’d hardly wish that upon my own kinswoman.’

‘Cut the crap. What’s the real reason?’

‘That’s not too far from the truth, actually. I need to see and hear what my enemies are planning. Not just Garland. The UN, Russians, Americans … but, to be frank, seeing the past isn’t nearly so valuable as hearing the future. So working with you has become far more trouble than it’s worth. Much easier, faster and reliable to simply harvest a few eggs from you, apply the latest gene splicing techniques for creating a designer child, and let you free after implantation on the understanding that you’ll hand over the child without ever attempting to see it.’

‘Back up.
Designer
child? You mean you can design its looks or capabilities?’

‘And more. Like General Garland, I have access to the best researchers in virtually every field of science around the world. Snip a strand of juicy young DNA from you, splice a few dry flakes from my poor old brother — shake, bake and wait — and bingo. A healthy young apprentice to take over the family business. Thanks to the magic of genetic engineering, he’ll be able to see the future as well as hear it.’