Outer Bounds: Fortune's Rising (26 page)

He hadn’t even lifted his head
when the lights had come on.

“That to your liking, Captain?”
the Nephyr said.  “I can reposition him, if you would like.”

“No,” Tatiana whispered.  “That
will be just fine.”

As soon as she spoke, Milar
lifted his head and froze, his eyes on his knife.

Tatiana’s entire body was
trembling, now.  “Hi Milar,” she said, wishing her hand wasn’t so slick on the
handle of the blade.

His attention was on the weapon,
not her. 

“Oh, you remember it, huh?”
Tatiana asked with false bluster, feeling like she was blundering, speaking too
loud, announcing to the Nephyr her intentions with every breath, yet knowing
the moment she dropped the act she’d be thrown in a cell beside him.  “You
remember what you did to me with it?”  

“Never hurt you with a knife,
sweetie,” Milar sneered, raising his head to meet her gaze. 

He’s buying it,
Tatiana
thought, both grateful and agonized at the same time.  Didn’t he know she
wouldn’t come back just to hurt him?  Did he really think she would want to see
him tortured? 
I’m trying to help you,
she pled with him. 
Please see
that.

The Nephyr, however, brushed past
her and planted a fist in Milar’s exposed stomach.  The blow swung him
backwards on the chain, leaving the colonist’s breaths ragged and gasping. 

“Glittering…cupcake…” Milar
gritted, once he’d swung back into place and caught his breath again.  “Let me
down and try that.”

“Oh, we will,” the Nephyr said in
a voice that congealed in Tatiana’s gut like a cancer.  When the Nephyr met her
gaze, Tatiana backed away from him, unable to stop herself.  “But first the
Captain, here, would like a chance at you.”

“Does she now,” Milar said, his
face darkening.  “Well, give it your best, pumpkin.  Ain’t nothin’ in the world
you’ll be able to do to me that’ll top that time I had with
you.
”

The Nephyr punched Milar again,
leaving Milar gagging and choking.  Tatiana bit her lip.  Nephyrs were strong. 
He was probably breaking bones or ruining organs.

“That…the best…you can…shit?”

“Would you like me to gag him?”
the Nephyr said calmly.

“No, I want to hear him scream.” 
God, she wished she wasn’t trembling so bad.  She felt like her knees were
going to simply drop out from under her, but Tatiana knew she had to keep up
the show or she’d lose her opportunity.  Or, worse, the Nephyr would start to
recognize her nerves for what they really were.

The Nephyr laughed.  “Oh yes.  An
enemy’s scream is a wonderful balm.”  He went and leaned his back against the
door, grinning at her.  “May I suggest the scrotum?”

At Tatiana’s look of horror, the
Nephyr laughed.  “Oh, it’s coming off anyway, Captain.”

“She doesn’t have what it takes,”
Milar sneered.  “Look at her.  Poor little thing’s so terrified of me she can
hardly breathe.  She couldn’t do it.  Her heart would stop first.”

“Do you want another lesson,
Miles?”

Milar spat.  “Bring it on,
cupcake.”

“I can’t do it?” Tatiana cried,
before the Nephyr could start forward again.  Fear and anger powered her,
lending her words a shrill scream that made the Nephyr halt.  She stormed past
the Nephyr, leaving the doorway for the first time.  “You think I can’t do it? 
What
ever
made you think I couldn’t do it?” 

Milar gave her a mirthless
smile.  “Only about a week of watching you beg for mercy like the yellow
government squid you are, coaler.”

She was angry, now.  Either Milar
was a very good actor, or he sincerely believed she was here to torture him. 
“You sonofabitch.  You…you…”   

“Would you like me to gag him?”
the Nephyr asked again.

“No!”  She lunged forward and
rammed the blade up against Milar’s throat, but the colonist jerked backwards
just in time to avoid cutting his jugular.  The way he was hanging, she wasn’t
tall enough to press her advantage and slice open the artery.

Why’d he do that?
Tatiana’s mind screamed. 
Why doesn’t the stupid bastard realize I’m trying
to kill him?

Behind her, the Nephyr laughed
and touched Tatiana’s shoulder.  “Careful there, Captain.  You don’t want to
end our fun prematurely.”

“You’re right,” Tatiana said,
eyes tearing up.  She blindly reached for his pants.  “I’ve got other things I
want to do first.”

As soon as she slid the blade
under the cloth, intending to accidentally ‘slip’ in cutting them off and gouge
the femoral artery a few dozen times, the Nephyr laughed.  “Actually, I think
I’ll leave you two alone together.  How long should I give her, Milar?  Ten? 
Twenty minutes?”   

When Tatiana looked up at the
Nephyr, blind with tears, the cyborg smiled at her.  “How about an hour?”

Tatiana’s hand started
trembling.  If he gave her an hour, she could make
sure
Milar had time
to bleed to death.  Make sure, and maybe apologize before she did it.

Don’t apologize,
she
thought. 
It’ll just make it harder to watch him die.

“All I ask, Captain,” the Nephyr
said, giving Milar a pleasant smile that made Tatiana’s guts crawl, “Is that
you leave some for us.”  Then he turned and, winking at her, he said, “I’ll go
keep an eye out at the front desk.  It
is
against regulation, after
all.”

As soon as the door shut and
Tatiana heard the Nephyr’s footsteps retreating, she turned her attention back
to the knife she was about to thrust into Milar’s thigh.

Kill him,
her mind raged. 
Don’t even look at him.  It doesn’t matter what he thinks you’re here for. 
Just do it.
  She pushed her knife hard against his leg.  Would he jerk? 
Would she hit the mark?  She flushed, feeling him breathe above her, silent,
watching her.  Her whole arm felt weak, her entire body dizzy and disoriented
with fear and adrenaline.

“The whole ballgame can change in
an instant, huh, coaler squid?”

When she jerked and looked up,
Milar was grinning at her.  Tatiana flushed, realizing he must have heard her
speech to the commendation gathering, and must have made the right
connections. 

“When did you realize you had the
hots for me?”

Tatiana’s face began to burn like
Milar had drenched it in napalm.  “I absolutely.  Do. 
Not
.”

“Uh-huh.”  The dragons on his
neck were bunched up, he was grinning so hard.

“Listen, floater,” she said,
scowling.  “One moment I was in my soldier, the next Patrick had a gun to my
head. 
That
was a whole different ballgame.”

“I don’t think that’s what you
were talking about, sweetie.”  Milar’s golden brown eyes sparkling with
amusement. 

Oh Aanaho,
Tatiana
thought, immediately looking down at the knife. 
I can’t do this.

“I’ve got one request, squid,”
Milar said.  “Granted, that is, that you’re here to kill me, rather than play
with my balls like that Nephyr seemed to think.”

Tatiana nodded.  “I was going to
go for the femoral artery.”

“Tell me something, then,” Milar
said.

Tatiana grimaced and squeezed her
fist around the knife.  “You’re making this harder than I want it to be.”

 “I don’t give a damn,” he
laughed.  “
I’m
the one about to get his leg sliced open.”

He’s got you there, tootz.
 
“Fine,” Tatiana muttered.  “What’s your question?  And
please
make it
quick.  I really wanna make sure you can bleed out this time.”

“Sorry to
inconvenience
you, sweetie.  I’ll do my best to oblige,” Milar said.  His face was still
smeared with that idiotic grin.

God, he was beautiful.  Like
something right out of her…

“Then
oblige already!
” she
cried.

“Which dragon?” Milar asked. 
“The red or the black?”

Unable to stop herself, Tatiana
lowered her eyes to the sleeping forms on his torso.  Each one was elegant in
their steady rise and fall with his naked chest.  Tatiana swallowed, hard. 
“They’re both good.”

“You got a thing for dragons,
don’t you, squid?”

Tatiana brushed tears from her
eyes.  “You are a jerk.”

Milar was grinning like he had
the Wide.  “You remember how I said I only lied to you once?”

Tatiana glared at him.  “Then you
dumped me like a sack of potatoes.”

“Wanna hear what it was about?”

“Not especially,” she muttered. 
“Just let me kill you, all right?”

“Back on the ship, I said I
didn’t have a thing for cyborgs.” 

Tatiana’s breath caught. 
He
couldn’t possibly mean…

“But I actually kind of do,”
Milar said.  “One of them, anyway.”

Oh God.
  It was her best
fantasy and her worst nightmare, all in one. 

She squeezed her eyes shut.  “Can
I kill you now?”

“You’re not going to kill me,”
Milar said.  “You’re going to let me down, wait until the feeling comes back
into my arms, and then give me my knife.”

Tatiana snorted.  “I don’t think
so.  Then we’d both be dead.”

“Trust me,” Milar said.  “Cut me
down.”

“Screw you!” Tatiana cried,
horrified.  “You’re just trying to manipulate me into letting you go so you
really
can
have your way with me before…”  She swallowed, then looked
away.  “I didn’t come here to talk.  I don’t want your apology.  I made a
mistake, outside Deaddrunk.  I should’ve killed you.  I just want to get it
over with.”

Milar snorted.  “Listen to me,
coaler squid.  You’ve got a choice to make, and you’ve gotta make it quick.  I
can get us out of here, but only if you let me down and give me my knife.”

I can get us out of here…
 
The words burned in Tatiana’s mind like coals. 
Us.  He wants to take me
with him.

“We’re wasting time, coaler. 
Wideman was right, and it was gonna take a hell of a lot of stubbornness on
your part, but here’s where you decide.  Help us—let me down—or stab me in the
leg and go right back to being the nice little coaler operator everybody cheers
for.  Choose.” 

When she said nothing, Milar eyed
the door.  “And choose fast.  You ain’t gonna get another shot at this.”

“All right.”  Tatiana said the
words before she realized what she had said, but knew it was too late to take
them back.  “All right,” she repeated, swallowing hard.  She glanced up at the
chains hooking him to the ceiling.  They were well out of her reach, by a long
shot.  “But, uh, how?”

“See the clasp holding the leg
irons to the floor?” he asked, pointing with his nose.

She looked down, then nodded.

“Unhook em.  Then get down on
your hands and knees and let me stand on your back.”

Tatiana grimaced.  “You could
step on a node—”

“I know where all the nodes are,”
Milar said.  “Just hurry and do it.”

Hanging there, helpless, Milar
didn’t exactly look like he had what it took to get out of the Nephyr compound
alive.

“Trust me, sweetie,” Milar
repeated softly.

Grudgingly, Tatiana squatted and
unhooked the foot clasp.  Then, reluctantly, she got down on her knees and
presented her back for him to stand on.

“Ready?” Milar asked, putting a
big bare foot on her shoulder blade.

“Yeah,” Tatiana said, gritting
her teeth.  Then, as he grunted and pulled himself up, she muttered, “Aanaho,
you’re heavy.”

“Yeah,” Milar said.  She heard
metallic jingling as he fiddled with the chains above his head.  “Girls tell me
that a lot.”

“Really?”  Tatiana snorted.  “How
many girls have let you stand on them?”

“I was thinking more
lying
on them,” Milar said, jumping down.  He grinned at her stupefied look, the
chain that had held him to the hook now dangling between his legs.  “Thanks.”

Tatiana sat up, glaring.  “You
knucker.”

“But if you don’t believe me, I
can show you in person someday,” Milar said.  He started rolling his shoulders,
wincing.

Tatiana’s heart fluttered.  “Um…”

Milar grinned at her.  “You just
turned redder than a Shrieker’s butt, so I’ll take that as a yes.”  He pulled a
tiny slip of metal from his hair and had begun fiddling with the locks on the
shackles.   

“I’m not interested,” she
babbled.  “Not interested at
all.
”

After sliding the magnetic strip
through each lock, Milar threw the whole mess aside and looked at her.  Then he
shrugged.  “Your loss.”

Tatiana gasped.  He’d been so
nonchalant…  Like he didn’t
care,
one way or the other.  Her hand
tightened on the blade.

Milar looked at her and
chuckled.  “I knew it.”  He bent and started working on the locks around his
ankles.

“Knew what?” Tatiana demanded. 
Then, “You crawler, the
last
thing I want to do is have you on top of
me.” 

“Under you, then?”  He pulled the
shackles aside and tucked the magnetic strip back into his hair. 

Tatiana’s face began to blaze. 
“Um…”

He laughed.  “My knife?”

Tatiana held it to her chest. 
“I’m not interested.  Really.”

“Sure, pumpkin,” Milar said.  He
reached forward and wrenched the weapon out of her grip.  Deftly, he depressed
a tiny trigger mechanism in the handle and the pommel popped open, exposing a
secret compartment on the inside.  Milar tapped it into his palm, exposing a
tiny collapsible EMP-wand.

“Thank God for small miracles,”
he said, grinning from ear-to-ear.  He glanced down at her.  “You ready for
this?”

The way he said it, Tatiana was
pretty sure he didn’t mean open the door and get the hell out of there.  She
eyed the EMP wand warily.  He could do more damage to her with a single pulse
from the wand than he could in ten minutes with his knife.  “Ready for what?”