Omega Games (34 page)

A moment later one of the guards came in. “You two have had enough time,” he said, going over to inspect the cart before motioning toward the entry with his weapon. “Let’s go.”

When we returned to the melee room, Mercy and I silently distributed the instruments to Drefan, Keel, and some of the other staff. I preset the dosage on each of the syrinpresses so that they would deliver a “How much time do you think we have before Tya reaches the envirocontrols?” Mercy asked me as she eyed Davidov’s men.

More than an hour had passed since Reever, Cat, and Keel had left. “If the men have not found her yet, not long.”

“After she cuts the air and heat, we’ll have only an hour.” Mercy looked down as Drefan pressed something into her hand, and then immediately pocketed it. “I thought you threw that ’com in the water.”

“I threw Cherijo’s,” Drefan said, making me glance in surprise at my empty wrist. “The one I just gave you still functions.”

Mercy kept an eye on the guards. “Who do you want me to signal?”

“If they panic and start to make good on their threats,” Drefan told her, “signal Posbret and tell him how to get in.”

Her eyes widened. “You
want
me to let the raiders into the dome.”

“Only as a last resort.” Drefan turned his glidechair around so that he faced the water. “Hope-fully Reever and the others will find Tya soon.”

An hour passed, and then another. Sitting and waiting for something to happen made everyone’s nerves stretch thin, so we remained quiet but watchful.

Mercy took a pair of eyeshades out of her tunic, smiling as she saw my quick look. “Cat fixed it for me, but don’t worry. You can’t use it for playback unless you’re in the fantasizer.” She caressed the device with gentle fingers. “Which is where I’d love to be right now.”

I held out my hand and, when she gave me the mindset, studied the inside of the device. The neuron circuitry was more sophisticated than I had imagined. “What happens if you use it on playback without the fantasizer?”

“I don’t know.” She thought about it. “The fantasizer is the data stream storage and transmission unit. I guess it would play back nothing, or maybe scramble your brains.”

“They’re not happy,” Drefan said, interrupting our conversation. He nodded toward several of Davidov’s men, who were arguing in low, ugly voices.

I pocketed the mindset. “What can we do?”

“If things deteriorate, I want you and Mercy to position yourselves behind my chair,” he said. “It will shield you from a direct blast.”

“James.” Mercy caressed his cheek with the back of her hand. “You were the first Terran I ever bedded, the only trick whose credits I ever refunded, and one of the only two males that I’ve ever loved.” She turned her hand around and gave him a small slap. “So quit telling me to use you as a fucking body shield, all right?”

Drefan steepled his fingers and looked over them at me. “If they start shooting, please pull her behind the goddamn chair, Cherijo.”

I nodded. “Why did she refund your credits?”

Drefan gave her a fond look. “I taught her that sex isn’t all business.”

Something pounded at the door panel, and after consulting with the man in charge and the corridor monitors, the men opened it.

At first I didn’t recognize the injured animal that came stumbling in, so much blood covered it. Beside me Drefan said, “Keel?”

The Chakacat dropped at the feet of Davidov’s men, who scattered in fear as if it were the Sovant.

I ran to it, bracing myself for the worst. But silvery fur still covered its lean frame, and it looked up at me with one eye. The other eye, along with part of its face, had been clawed away.

“Cherijo.” It spat out some blood and a few tooth fragments. “I fear that I lost my first fight.”

“We will ask for a rematch.” I opened my case to take out what I needed. “Are Reever and Cat with you?”

“No. I picked up the scent of the Hsktskt and went ahead of them.” It shivered. “I shouldn’t have done that.”

“Keel?” Drefan’s glidechair stopped beside the Chakacat, and the games master heaved himself down onto the floor. He held the feline’s narrow shoulders with his one arm, lifting it gently onto the stumps of his legs. “What happened? Who did this to you?”

Davidov’s men opened the door panel, and Cat hopped in. The Omorr appeared unharmed, but my husband was not with him.

“Where is the Terran?” I heard one of our captors demand.

“We were separated in the tunnels,” Cat replied. “He should be bringing the Hsktskt here shortly.”

That cheered the men, who allowed Cat to come over to us. He swore when he saw Keel’s head injuries. “You shouldn’t have gone after her, you idiot feline.”

Drefan’s arm tightened. “Tya did this to you?” “No, it was a braael.” The Chakacat shivered violently, and I tore off my jacket and covered its body. “I cornered the Hsktskt in the processing plant. She didn’t try to hurt me, Drefan. When she charged me, I think she was only trying to get away. She didn’t use her claws or bite me when I jumped her. I reacted badly, I know, but I have never hunted before this.”

I sponged the blood away from the claw marks running down Keel’s face. There were only two of them, but they were deep and vicious. The odd thing was that they seemed to have been inflicted backward, as if Tya’s claws had caught Keel under the jaw and raked up.

I applied pressure to the side of its face as I used a light to inspect the remains of its eye. It had not been clawed out, but was so badly lacerated that I doubted it could be saved. “Keel, I am going to give you a painkiller. I need to clean and suture these wounds.”

It grabbed my wrist. “You have to warn them about the braael. If it comes here, it will go berserk and not stop until everyone is dead.”

Cat started to say something, and then shook his head.

“It is all black hide and spines, and has fiery eyes. Orange eyes.” Keel’s voice shook so badly it stopped speaking to gulp in air. “Two curved teeth in the bottom of its jaw. Long, sharp red spines running down its back, and two more at the end of its tail. It has two mouths, one for killing, and one for eating.” It rolled away from me and retched.

I held it until it had finished heaving, and then modified the syrinpress to administer an antinausea agent

along with the local anesthetic. Keel drifted off into semiconsciousness. “You should warn the others about this braael,” I said to Cat as I gently irrigated one of the gashes. “It sounds like a very dangerous creature.”

Cat and Drefan exchanged an odd look. “I would, Cherijo,” the Omorr said, “but there are no braael on Trellus.” I gave him an ironic look. “Obviously there’s one.” “What he means is, there can’t be a braael on colony,” Drefan said. “They are native to Chakara.” I saw something imbedded in the second gash and reached for a probe. “So is Keel.” “Chakacats are not extinct,” Drefan said. “The braael are. The species died out a hundred thousand

years ago.”

I removed the remnants of what appeared to be shrapnel from Keel’s face. On closer inspection, I recognized it. “Drefan, did you have Keel implanted with a locator beacon?” “No. I would never do that to any being.” I took out my scanner and passed it over the small, twisted bit of tech. It matched only one record on the

medical database. “This is Tya’s implant.”

“It was the braael,” Keel said, opening its eye and digging its claws into my arms. “It was going to eat my head.” As I calmed the Chakacat and finished treating its injuries, an idea began to form in my mind. I asked

Davidov’s men to allow me and Cat to move Keel to the simward. Once more we were sent there under guard. After I had the feline resting comfortably, I passed a

syrinpress to Cat and pointed to a spot on my throat. He nodded and hopped out to where the guards waited. “Are you finished—” The guard went still as I infused him with neuroparalyzer, and then dropped. Cat did the same thing with the other guard, and we dragged them into the simward. “I need to go to the lab,” I told the Omorr. “Can you stay here and watch them?” He nodded. “Be careful.” I hurried through the empty corridors to the lab, where I carefully scanned the remnants of the implant I

had removed from Keel’s wound. Aside from the Chakacat’s blood, there was DNA from a second source. The DNA did not match any other species on record in the database.

I verified that the implant was identical to Tya’s before I began dissecting it. It was not, as Tya had told me, a locator beacon. The implant was a modified pain inductor, one commonly used by slavers to control and punish slaves. I found no reservoir of poison or any substance that could have been released into Tya’s bloodstream. The modifications seemed very bizarre as well. The implant could still induce a massive amount of pain by generating a small charge that would stimulate the corresponding neural pathways, but it had been designed to suppress certain natural functions and maintain Tya’s brain waves in a preprogrammed pattern.

I ran a diagnostic using the information I had gathered from the implant, and the database offered a confusing result. It was as if the implant had been designed to combat a plague that no longer existed.

I went back to the ward and found Cat waiting beside the restrained guards.

“What did you find out?” he asked.

"Someone,” I said carefully, “does not want Tya to feel fear.”

Eighteen

Cat and I decided to go to central control and use Drefan’s battle programs to try to free the other hostages.

“We can generate an entire army of simulations to keep them busy,” the Omorr said as he went to the center console and pulled up the different program sequences. “Drefan will know what to do the minute the grid changes.”

I had a feeling we had been gone too long, and switched on the room monitor, which confirmed my suspicions. Davidov’s men had separated Mercy from the others, and had her on her knees with her hands linked behind her neck. One of the men lifted a rifle and pointed it at the back of her skull.

“Cat,” I said, “initiate the program now.”

“Damn Drefan for a paranoid fool,” the Omorr said. “I can’t get into it. The change protocol is pass coded.”

“The pass code is five-seven-two-eight-four-three-beta,” Drefan’s voice said over the audio. “Cat, initiate the Itan Odaras program, submenu nine, armed combatants only. Remove the no-injury safeties.”

The Omorr input the codes and I saw the grid waver and change. Three thousand simulated Hsktskt raiders appeared and rushed at everyone in the room who was holding a weapon.

“Cherijo,” Drefan said, shouting to be heard now. “Send a signal to the drednoc storage bay. Use the same code I gave Cat. Order all the dreds to come to the melee room.”

I did as he asked, but when I tried to return the signal Drefan didn’t answer. I didn’t see his glidechair on the monitor, either.

The change to the simulation quickly routed Davidov’s men, who were forced back from the hostages by the Hsktskt raiders. The crew of the
Renko
huddled back against the walls, firing uselessly at the simulated reptilians.

Something rumbled outside the control room, and I switched the monitor to view the exterior corridor. Two dozen drednocs in battle mode filled the passage as they headed toward the melee room.

I turned and saw men pouring in through the air locks. “Posbret’s men?” “Yeah.” The Omorr rose and went over to a weapons case, smashing the plas and removing a number of

pulse weapons. “They’ve disabled all of the gun turrets and breached the air locks.” He tossed a rifle to me. “I’m going to get Mercy. Wait here.” “The wounded will need my help.” I put down the rifle and picked up my case. “You’ll get shot.” “I am no stranger to the battlefield.” I met his angry gaze. “I will be careful.” Posbret’s men reached the melee room before Cat and I did, and we found them fighting both the crew

of the
Renko
and the Hsktskt raiders. Drefan’s drednocs, it seemed, had not yet arrived. I slipped inside behind the Omorr, who immediately shoved me behind a tree as pulse fire streamed past our heads.

“The cross fire is too heavy,” he said, looking all around. “Do you see Mercy anywhere?” I saw injured men crawling for cover, and reptilian raiders wrestling Posbret’s men. Mercy and the hostages were nowhere in sight, but as I searched the chaos for a sign of them, a stray refraction of light made me look up.