Outer Bounds: Fortune's Rising (25 page)

Chapter
25

A
Hero’s Welcome

Tatiana was greeted as a hero. 
Her entire Pod came out for the celebration.  Even though she had always been
relatively reclusive, coming out of her barracks room only for formations or
mandatory group P.E., everyone screamed and chanted her name as she took the
podium behind the two Bouncer captains who had rescued her. 

Tatiana viewed the crowd through
eyes blurred with tears.  Her injuries had been given immediate care by the
finest Coalition doctors—a team of five assigned to the Director himself. 
They’d replaced the shoddy colonial cast and splint with titanium pins.  They
had painstakingly stabilized her injured node.  They had boosted her immune
system with another load of operator nanobots…

And they’d also given her a brand
new lifeline.

Now, standing at a podium in
front of over a thousand people, Tatiana was expected to tell them how happy
she was that they had rescued her.

Staring out at their expectant
faces, all Tatiana could think was that Milar was dead.

She hadn’t meant for it to end
that way.  She hadn’t
wanted
it to end that way. 

The cheers slowly died away as
the crowd waited for her to speak.

“I’m so grateful—”  Tatiana’s
voice broke and she moved away from the podium to steady herself. 
You have
to do this.  If you don’t, you’re going to look like a sympathizer. 

The crowd expected trauma.  They
expected tears, rage, ranting, condemnation for the colonists.  They expected
gratitude and open arms.

One of the Bouncer captains
receiving medals with her took the podium beside her.  As she gathered herself,
he softly said, “Give her a minute, folks.  She had a rough week.”

Tatiana nodded her gratitude at
the man, then took several deep breaths.

You have to do this.  You are
a Coalition operator.  Milar kidnapped you.  He deserved to die.

But she choked on a sob, even as
she thought it. 
Just say it,
she thought. 
You’ve already sung his
evils to investigators.  It’s not like you’re going to sully his memory any
more than you already have.  Besides, it’s what he wanted you to do.

She forced her trembling lips
into a smile and grasped the metal edges of the podium once more.  Waves of
silent faces watched her, many wearing the standard protective, waterproof tube
caps covering the lumps of nodes.  It was the nodes that caught Tatiana’s
attention and gave her a new direction for her speech.

“I guess I learned a valuable
lesson from all this,” she said, remembering her last hours with Milar.  “The
lesson was this:  Regardless of whatever you think you’re up against, you can
always be surprised.  The whole ballgame can change in an instant, and if
you’re not prepared to meet those new circumstances head on, you can find
yourself in a whole world of hurt really, really fast.”  She thought of Milar,
and how much it had hurt to see all that blood, how badly she had wanted to see
him live when he had stopped breathing in her lap.  Then she thought of how
badly she had screwed up and how it was her fault he was resting in a coffin
somewhere in an unmarked prisoner graveyard.

She had been cleared by the
investigation.  Fully and completely cleared.  Psych had no idea what she had
done.  Everything had been fully leveled on the dead colonist’s shoulders.  All
Tatiana had to do was pull through this speech, accept her three new medals,
and go back to her room to cry.

You can do this,
she
thought. 
Just finish your speech and everything is back to the way it was.

“I want to thank Captain
Hawthorne and Captain Williams, here,” she said, nodding at the two Bouncer
captains on the platform with her.  “Before they showed up, I was in despair. 
I was alone and scared and facing a situation I wasn’t trained to handle.  It’s
given me a lot more respect for Nephyrs and the ground troops.  You guys have
the hardest job there is.” 

A cheer went up from those
sections of the crowd.

Tatiana took a deep breath and
bit her lip as her vision began to blur again.  “Before this, I was always safe
in the belly of a soldier.  Never really had to deal with anything head-on.  I
was sheltered, cocooned, never had to look in the eyes of the people I was
fighting.  Never had to experience their hatred—” she choked and looked away
again.  “Thank you,” she said, meeting the Bouncer captains’ eyes.  “I’m so
proud to be part of this team.”

The crowd cheered.  Tatiana left
the podium, accepted her commendations, watched as the Bouncer captains
accepted theirs.  She was waiting to exit the stage in a daze, thinking the
ceremony complete, when the Master of Ceremonies returned to the podium and
said, “Now, my brave men and women, let’s hear a final round of applause for—”

A tall, broad-shouldered Nephyr
wearing the badge of a Colonel strode onto the stage and whispered into his
ear, cutting him off.

The Master of Ceremonies slapped
a palm over the microphone and glanced over his shoulder at Tatiana, then shook
his head.

The Nephyr laughed loudly.  “Well,
we’re doing it anyway.”  He turned on heel and departed.

What was that about?
Tatiana wondered, watching him glitter in the floodlights as he strode away.

She didn’t have to wait long to
find out.  The Master of Ceremonies cursed, then, clearing his throat, he
lifted his hand from the mic and said, “Before I dismiss you, folks, the
Nephyrs have a special treat for you today.  The very same man who captured our
Captain Eyre, here, is here with us tonight.  Bring him out, if you will.”

Tatiana’s face went slack when
two tall Nephyrs, a man and a woman, dragged a struggling, dragon-covered
captive out into the light of the stage.  Over his chest, obscuring the head of
the red dragon, he had a big green strip of nanotape.

Milar met her eyes as they
dragged him out and immediately went stiff.

Oh my God,
was all Tatiana
could think.

“Captain?” the Master of
Ceremonies said to her as he gestured at Milar.  “The Nephyrs believe you have
something you’d like to say to the colonist scumbag before they take him for
further questioning.”

The world narrowed to just the
two of them.  Tatiana couldn’t hear anything but the beating of her own heart,
see anything but Milar’s face.  It was uncertain, void of rage.  Scared. 

I’m so sorry,
Tatiana
thought.  It was all she
could
think.

“Captain?” the Master of
Ceremonies asked, giving the two glittering warriors a nervous look. 

When Tatiana didn’t answer, the
female Nephyr said, “Let’s put it this way, honey—how do you want us to kill
him, Captain?”

“Right now?” Tatiana whispered,
unable to tear her eyes from Milar’s face.

The female Nephyr laughed.  “Oh
no.  We’re going to take him back to our compound and question him first.”

“And we’re going to be very
thorough, too, aren’t we Miles?”  The male Nephyr holding Milar grabbed him by
the hair and jerked his head up until his Adam’s apple was showing.  “Aren’t
we?  We’re going to
very
thorough.”  He released Milar, laughing, and
punched him hard in the ribs.

Tatiana winced as Milar doubled
over in their grip, gasping.  He was physically bigger than either Nephyr, but
the cyborgs were heavier, and they held him as easily as if he were a child.

You didn’t shoot him,
Tatiana’s mind ranted at her. 
You didn’t shoot him, and now they’re going
to make him suffer.

“So, Captain, do you have a
preference?” the male Nephyr asked.  It sounded like the Colonel was gloating,
asking more for Milar’s benefit than Tatiana’s.

“No,” Tatiana whispered. 

“Oh come on now,” the female
Nephyr said, smiling at Milar.  “A big boy like this…”  She patted Milar’s
shoulder.  “He had time to do all sorts of nasty things to a little cutie like
you.  He had you for a whole week, Captain.  Surely you’ve got a few things you
want to see before we kill him.  A few
positions
, maybe?”

Milar hung his head, staring at
the ground.

“No,” Tatiana whispered again.

“Be as inventive as you want,”
the male Nephyr said.  “I’m sure you couldn’t think of something we already
have planned.”

“Just kill him.”

Milar’s head came up and he
looked at her, confusion in his face.

“Oh, we will, Captain,” the woman
holding Milar said.  “But we have a bone to pick with him before we do.  He’s a
bit of a sore spot in our history, you see.  Only Nephyr recruit who ever
escaped.  Once we figure out how he did it, we’ve gotta make an example out of
him, lest the other incoming kiddies get any ideas.”  The woman reached out and
lightly cupped Milar’s face with the hand that wasn’t holding his arm.  Smiling
at him, the woman said, “Don’t we, there, Love?”

Milar’s golden-brown eyes never
left Tatiana.

The Nephyr followed his gaze, saw
what it was directed at, and her glittering filigreed fingers tightened.  She
cuffed Milar hard enough to throw him bodily backwards.  “Keep your eyes to
yourself, Love,” the Nephyr said, smiling at Tatiana.  “The Captain doesn’t
appreciate it.”

Tatiana felt a sickness pooling
in her stomach.  “I need to go to my room,” she whispered.

The Master of Ceremonies looked
at her, then at Milar, then covered the microphone again with his hand.  “Get
him out of here,” he snapped to the two Nephyrs.  Then, to Tatiana, he said,
“I’m so sorry they put you through that.  Are you going to need Psych?”

“No,” Tatiana managed, watching
the Nephyrs jerk Milar into motion, then kick him when he stumbled.  “I just
need some time alone.”

“So whose stupid idea was that?”
one of the Bouncer captains muttered, once the Nephyrs had dragged their victim
off the stage.  The Master of Ceremonies shook his head, hand still on the
microphone.  “Damn Nephyrs,” he said.  To Tatiana, he said, “Go on.  We’ll
finish without you.”

Tatiana nodded numbly and left
the stage.  By the time she reached the barracks area, she was running.

They were going to kill Milar.

She slid into her room and leaned
against the door.  Her heart was slamming like a broken leg piston.  They were
going to kill Milar, and they were going to make it hurt.

No.

Tatiana couldn’t let that
happen.  She knew, without a doubt, that Milar didn’t deserve what the Nephyrs
were planning for him.  She had to help him.

Her eyes fell on Milar’s huge
hunting knife.  The Bouncer captain had given it to her as a sort of memento,
and as soon as she was out of sight, Tatiana had tossed it into a corner, wanting
nothing to do with it.  Now she went and retrieved it. 

The razorlike blade glinted
bluish in the bright lights of her barracks room.  Gripping it in a tight fist,
she left her room and started toward the Nephyr block.

Before she even had a plan, she was
standing in front of the outer door to the prisoner compound.  Taking a deep
breath, she put her hand on the biometrics pad and let herself inside.

Down at the end of the corridor,
behind a desk, the Nephyr from the auditorium was filling out datawork.  “Oh,”
he said, seeing her.  His filigreed face broke into a smile.  “Reconsidered,
Captain?”

“I did,” she whispered.  “Can I
see him?”

The Nephyr’s blue eyes drifted
down to her knife.  He was still smiling.  “What are you going to do with the
knife, Captain?”

Kill him,
Tatiana
thought.  “Something special,” she said.

The Nephyr chuckled.  “It’s
against regulations to allow someone to enter the prisoner’s quarters armed. 
Too much chance of…injury…”

Tatiana reddened and looked away,
but her fingers tightened on the hilt of the blade.  For a brief, insane
second, she considered trying to use it on the Nephyr.  Then her brain kicked
back into gear and she realized she would be turned into a bloody pretzel the
moment she tried.  Unhappily, she decided she’d have to find some other way to
accomplish the deed.

But how was she going to kill
Milar without a knife?

Then the Nephyr winked at her and
said, “But in your case, I think we can make an exception.”

Tatiana jerked her head to look
up at him, stunned. 

“After all,” the Nephyr said,
“You delivered our long-lost brother back to us after all these years.  We owe
you a little time alone with him.”  He smiled, displaying perfect, replaceable
teeth. 

Nephyrs always creeped her out,
but this one’s words chilled her, and made her back away.  “Thank you,” Tatiana
managed, from a safe distance.

Still grinning, the Nephyr said,
“Just give me a moment to finish filing this report.  Feel free to sit down.” 
He gestured at the waiting area chairs, then moved back to his desk and entered
something in the datapad.  Tatiana listened to his fingers rap against the pad
warily, wondering if he had guessed her intent and was sending for arresting
officers.  Sweat began to heat her underarms as she forced herself to resist
the urge to look over the desk to peek at what he was typing.

Finally, the Nephyr finished
entering the data and returned the pad to hibernation.

Standing, he smiled and said,
“This way, Captain.”  He turned and led her deeper into the complex, past rows
of solid metal doors with tiny windows covered by sliding blocks of metal.  He
stopped in front of one of them, flipped on the light outside the door, opened
the lock with his palm, and motioned for her to step inside.

Reluctantly, Tatiana did.

Milar hung from the ceiling in
the center of the concrete room like a slab of dragon-covered meat.  His wrists
were chained together and held above him, and his feet were similarly chained
to the floor.  He was barefoot, still wearing the bloodstained, tattered pants
he had been captured in.