Sanctuary (Jezebel's Ladder Book 3) (22 page)

She dragged the hammock after her,
shouting, “I’ve marked the white flowers on the map in the wheelbarrow. If you’re
not back with some in one hour, I’m cutting this contraption into bunting for
the altar, and then I’ll tell Pratibha what you’ve been doing.”

Lou sprang into action to pick the
flowers.

****

Toby had observed every moment of
the meadow encounter until Lou slipped his hand under Mercy’s shirt while he
nipped at her neck. That was
his
meadow,
his
helper. Toby should
have been the one on top of her sedated form. The biologist in Olympus beat his fists against a pillow and raged until it separated into chunks. Shaking,
he muttered, “Oh, now you’re going to
suffer
first.”

Floating into Snowflake’s chamber,
Toby connected to the advanced computer and switched the names on the
navigations files. The sun-grazing sweep became OfficialMidwayApproach, while
the safe jump was relabeled LousProposal. Then, he opened all the windows in
the control room as wide as they would go. Only the luggage area and showers
would be free from the blazing sun when
Sanctuary
arrived at its
destination. Toby moved the telescope to where the new sun would be and then
zoomed in. He was already planning the dosages and where to apply the straps.
The difficulty would be preventing Lou from blinking before his retinas burned
out. Belladonna might help dilate his pupils more and make him pliable. He
toyed with the idea of injecting him with chemicals to enhance PTSD instead of
preventing it, but decided it would be a waste. He’d ‘commit suicide’ soon
after.

Next, Toby composed the note. It
would need to be shallow to be convincing.
I’ll never see another breast,
and I failed in my duty.
He wrote with his left hand to give the shaky
effect of a blind man. Afterward, he called Yvette, asking, “Could you bring the
‘medicinal’ vodka when you come for duty?”

The nurse chuckled. “Why? Are you
planning a party?”

Oh, yes.

Mercy took a nap and then had Oleander fix her hair. As it
grew longer, it developed a mind of its own. Her roommate also applied some
primitive makeup and decreed, “Devastating. Lower your zipper seven
centimeters, and he’ll stare at you the whole wedding. Lou won’t be able to
keep his hands off you at the dance.”

Mercy swallowed hard at the thought
of a slow dance. “Um . . . about Lou. Could you trade shifts with me for Olympus? It should be pretty dead this week.”

“I can understand doing this
once
,
but if you can’t tolerate any of the men, you’re going to get a reputation as
hard to work with.”

“I’d rather have that than a
reputation for being easy.”

“Lou made a move on you, and you
slapped him?”

“Worse, I let him kiss me.”

“How was it?”

Pausing to relive the moment, Mercy
said, “I once saw a woman with those curly violin slots tattooed on the back of
her neck.”

“F holes. Sorry, that sounds
obscene.”

“It sounds appropriate. He played
my body like an instrument.” Mercy shuddered.

“Mmm, and you gave yourself to
him?”

“If he hadn’t opened his mouth to
talk, I might have. He’s a
dog
. He asked every other woman on the planet
before me.”

“But?”

“If I’m alone with him for a week .
. . I can’t guarantee I’ll resist. I think I deserve better.”

Oleander stared at her. “Sure, but
I can’t get there till after my guard shift tonight.”

“What do you want from the kitchen?
Name it, and I’ll twist Johnny’s arm into making extra.”

“That Kentucky Fried Pheasant
sounded good.”

“You’re the best.”

Throughout the ceremony, Mercy
tried to remain helpful but hidden in the background. She had the most fun
handing out birdseed for throwing at the bride because she knew that the
chickens would have a field day cleaning. During the setup for the banquet,
Mercy told Yvette about her predicament. Her friend nodded and said, “I know
someone who will volunteer to cover the shift tonight.”

“I don’t want to impose.”

“Don’t worry; it will give me a
chance to have a long-overdue discussion.”

“How can I repay you?”

Yvette touched her face. “Don’t put
off your happiness indefinitely.”

Mercy kept busy carrying an endless
stream of plates to the guests and returning with the empties. Then she cut
cake and served until the music began. When Lou glanced over at her with his
roguish smile, she almost lost her resolve. She felt the heat rise to her face
. . . and other places. To prevent disaster, Mercy volunteered to do dishes
alone, enabling Johnny to dance with Rachael at the event.

****

When Lou appeared at the door to Olympus, Toby almost killed him then. Only Yvette’s intervention forced him to hold the
mask of civility. She whispered to him, “Toby, please, if I ever meant anything
to you, please stick around. My . . . knee has been hurting again, and I would
like you to look at it.”

She looked stunning: her hair, bare
arms, and the new sandals made from lizard hide. Still, Toby bridled. “I won’t
be a laughingstock for that ass, Lou.”

Holding up her hand, she kept Lou
from rising to the bait. “He’s promised to be good, and to leave as soon as we
slip into subspace, which is scheduled for eleven. He’ll camp in a tent at
Zeppelin Point.”

“Where’s the third person?”

“That can be you until Oleander
finishes her guard shift.”

“Why should I wait? I’ve already
worked more than my share.”

The nurse held up a bottle of vodka
and uncovered a plate with half a pheasant and a huge slab of cake. “I come
bearing gifts. Please?”

It couldn’t hurt to hear her
out.
“I’ll wait on the veranda till
he’s
done. I refuse to be in the
same room.” Toby sat on the domino landing, enjoying the music of the frogs and
the cool of the evening. Despite the opaque windows, he felt the jump to
subspace as a twisting of a knife between his eyes, which caused him to spill
his gingko tea. No matter how many times they entered subspace, he would never
grow accustomed to the process.

Toby was mopping a little splash
off the railing when Lou pushed past him. The pilot pointed at one of the
stiles. “You missed some, Barf-jies.”

Yvette leaned against the entry arch
at the top, swirling a squeeze bulb of alcohol. She called Toby’s name with a
musical lilt. “Chilled, with a swirl of orange, the way you like it.”

The doctor smiled. “One of us is
walking home alone, and it’s not me.”

Lou continued his descent. “Even a
blind squirrel can find a nut once in a while.”

Toby stepped inside to accept the
bulb from the French nurse and downed half the drink to cleanse his palate. “I’ll
make you an orange juice. You’re on duty,” he muttered, giving her time to get
situated. This also gave him the opportunity to slip the first dose into her
drink.

When the pilot flashed his camping
lantern as a signal, Yvette closed the outer door and pushed the reset button
for the stairs. Then, she took off her sandals and strapped them beside the
front door. They were alone now; no one could interrupt them.

When they were both seated in the
dining room, he removed his headset, and she did the same.

“Is your drink too cold?” he asked.
“I don’t want to aggravate your sensitive teeth.”

She sipped it and nodded her
approval. “Just right.” Holding up her knee, she said, “I appreciate your . . .
seeing me.”

He took his time examining her
perfect knee, his fingers cupped underneath. He could feel the heat from her
heel in his groin. When she cleared her throat, he responded, “I’m sorry. I
still think of you. The knee is beautiful . . . I mean, fine. It will take six
months before all the swelling is gone.”

Leaving her knee in his hands, she
said, “I have a confession to make. Every time you courted Mercy, I was
jealous.”

Briefly flattered, his battered pride
flared. “Every time you slept with another candidate, or flirted with a
dignitary, it killed me.”

She drew her leg back, placing both
feet on the floor. “Ah, this is the heart of our misunderstanding.”

“Bullshit! You’ve screwed so many
visitors, they started calling it ‘taking the base tour.’” His voice had a raw
edge, and he downed the rest of his vodka like a shot.

Pale, Yvette tipped back a swig of
her own drink. “You know I can’t lie. Look at me. I haven’t slept with any man
since our time on the beach.”

He opened his mouth to rebut her
but couldn’t. “Then why the show, the promiscuity?”

“I wanted you to fight for me, to
go beyond your safe womb of reason and order—to break a few apron strings.”

“You got your wish then, woman.”

She was also an empath and could
sense the rage he’d been fermenting and distilling like brandy. Her eyes grew
wide. “What have you done?”

He snatched the headsets off her
table, causing her to yelp in surprise. Then he snapped them off. “You haven’t
done it yet. You’re planning something.”

“Step into the luggage room with
me.”

“I can beat you in hand-to-hand.”

He held up empty hands. “You asked
me. I’m going to show you. I . . . don’t want to hurt you.”
Not anymore, at
least not as much.
“You’re right that it’ll feel good to get it out in the
open.”

Curious, she followed him. He
tapped open the doors to the storage area and waited in the archway, holding
onto a long strap like someone on a subway. When Yvette landed, she faltered,
her legs refusing to obey their normal commands. He wrapped the strap around
her navel and arms, pinning her to the wall. She struggled until she heard the
shing of his belt knife clearing its sheath. That one sound changed everything.

She started crying as she realized
the depths of his madness and her part in pushing him this far. “You drugged
me.”

“Just enough to take the edge off.”

“You’re going to kill Lou.”

Her voice shook, and that turned
him on. “Yes. Slowly.”

Realizing she was probably dead,
too, she bargained for the only thing she could. Using her free fingers and
thumb, she undid his belt. The surprise kept him from reacting long enough for
her to unbutton his pants. In a voice, barely louder than a thought, she said,
“If you promise not to kill him, I’ll do anything you want.”

“Anything?” Toby was nearly
hyperventilating from the excitement.

“We have six days,” she said,
tempting him. The longer he enjoyed himself, the longer she would survive. “I’m
sure a man of your . . . education can imagine several things he’s always
wanted to try.”

“And you’d promise not to tell?” he
asked, leadingly. The power was intoxicating.

She tried to lie, but couldn’t form
the words. More tears flowed. Still, her pages compelled her to save a life.
Maybe if she pleased him enough, nurtured him enough, he wouldn’t be able to
kill her either. She kissed his cheek as she sobbed, “What happens between a
man and a woman stays between that man and that woman. I give myself to you.”

“I’ve dreamed about this,” Toby
said, embracing her.

****

Oleander lay beside Lou’s tent. “I’m
going to see how things are going with the medical staff, whether they’re going
to need me.”

She popped up to Olympus and heard
the obvious thumping sounds coming from the open cargo room. She saw one of
Toby’s bare legs and heard him giving Yvette instructions that sounded painful.
Oleander vanished before the image it conjured was seared permanently into her
mind’s eye. “Nope, Yvette has a handle on this.”

Lou moved his tent flap aside in an
offer. “We could stand guard together.”

“Not after what I just saw.”

“Nothing physical—I’ve seen you watching
Johnny. He opens the cafeteria early just to make you breakfast, but you want him
to whip you up a batch of those special sticky buns.” When she started to deny
the accusation, he raised his hands. “Hey, I’m not judging. What happens
between two consenting adults the week Rachael has Olympus duty is none of my
business. I just wanted to talk.”

“About?”

“Tell me about your roommate,
Mercy.”

With twenty minutes to go till reentry into normal space,
Toby safely locked Yvette in the luggage room, and then he lowered the helix
staircase.

Lou ran up, panting. “Cutting it
kind of close, aren’t you?”

Toby stood in his undershorts and
T-shirt, holding the last bulb of vodka, doped with Rohypnol. The hypnotic
would be necessary to erase or confuse the memories of the incident. “Sorry.
She didn’t want me to go.”

As Lou verified several readouts
around the room, including the name of the current flight path, he shook his
head. “Six days of marathon sex. I’m impressed; I didn’t know you had it in
you.”

“This has been the best week of my
life. I don’t know if anything will ever equal it, but I’m hoping tonight will
be memorable for different reasons.”

“Serious?”

“I never want Yvette to be with
another man again. I’m taking steps to insure that. If you will agree she’s off
limits to your predations, I will extend an olive branch—Herkemer’s finest.”
Toby held out the bulb.

“Thanks. Put it by the bed. I don’t
have time now.”

“I’ve seen you break the rules
before. Come, show me there are no hard feelings.”

“Mate, I know where your lips have
been, and there’s no way I’m sharing your drink.”

Toby would need to pour it down the
shower drain.
What a waste.
He switched tactics. “Are you really
necessary here?”

“The autopilot is pretty advanced.
I may only be here for emergencies, but I have to stay sharp for that 1 percent
chance.” Lou bent over to sign an electronic duty log and officially report for
duty.

“I meant from an evolutionary
standpoint,” Toby said, squinting upward at some shadows. Somehow, Yvette had managed
to break free. He saw the tail of her leash flutter by in the breeze. Casually,
he began to turn the windows opaque in the control room. “Someone who only
wants to sow wild oats serves no purpose. Your line will become extinct,
failed. Only my actions will have lasting effect.”

“Tell me that a year from now.”

“Hurry up and climb into your
helmet. I’ve mixed a cocktail to prevent your nausea problems, and I want to
give it time to activate before the show.”

“You did that for me, Bat-juice?”

“I didn’t have time to test it on a
rat, but it should have the desired effect.”

Lou laughed and slid into his bed
in the snowflake. “You know, doc. Next time someone says you’re not fit to fuck
pigs, I’ll stand up for you and tell them you are.” The injection happened
before he was fully belted in. “Ouch. Is it supposed to burn like that?”

“That pain won’t last long,” Toby
said as someone tried to tap in from the outside. Because Lou was in the
cradle, the door blinged, waiting for someone inside to grant permission.

Toby coughed in an effort to cover.
“Shouldn’t you raise the stairs?” The suggestion, and what it might do to his
lover, twisted his gut.

Already dopey from the injection,
Lou muttered. “It’s flashing a warning triangle.”

Toby unrolled the blade wrapped in his
own leash. He said, “I’ll check it out. If it’s nothing, you can override.”

****

The monumental crunch made Oleander
look up. Everyone else was already safely inside. Only she and Mercy had remained
outdoors. In another few minutes, the guard planned to pop inside for shelter
from the transition effect.

“Sounded like a train wreck,” Oleander
said.

Mercy raised her binoculars. “Oh
crap. Lou raised the stairs while the storage-bay ramp was open. The domino-placement
arm smashed a section of hull—a ramp that was still lowered. Pieces of domino
are falling from the sky in slow motion.” Still barefoot, she started to run
toward the accident site.

“Wait!” Oleander called to her. The
other guard could have scouted ahead Out of Body, but she couldn’t leave her friend
unprotected. Instead, she ran after the foolish girl. Oleander might have
longer legs, but the younger girl did things with her whole heart. It was all
the spacer could do to keep pace with Mercy.

They’d reached the berry patches
when a timer went off at Oleander’s wrist. “Mercy!”

When the girl turned slightly,
slowing, Oleander dove into the girl’s midsection, plowing through the
blackberry brambles. Thorns tore at exposed skin, and juice stained their
clothes.

“What?”

Oleander slammed the girl’s head
down into the dirt, just as the sky opened with a blaze brighter than the
Antarctic snow pack.

Realizing the peril as pain shot
through both their closed eyelids, Mercy called out to Snowflake, and the
massive shutters slammed closed.

“Report,” Zeiss snapped over the
radio link.

“We’re too close to the sun,” Mercy
said, blinking and trying to stand. Gravity changed directions and tossed the
girl down the hill.

Barely able to see through the blue
spots in her own vision, Oleander grabbed the girl’s ankle. “Stay here! Protect
my body. I’m going to scout.”

She could tell Mercy wanted to keep
running, but the girl wouldn’t abandon a friend either. “Roger.”

Speeding through the relaxation
exercise, Oleander triggered something akin to a gag reflex and ejected herself
from her physical form. Soon she was floating in Olympus’ zero-g room. Alarms
were buzzing, and ten failure lights were vying for attention. Lou was
thrashing on the couch, trying to steer them away from some danger. Where were
the others? She saw space debris on one screen before she had to blink away to
another room.

Homing in on the doctor’s weak
signature, she saw Toby outside the shower stall, barely dressed, with Yuki on
the floor. He had blood on his shirt and latex gloves. The symbol above the
closed stasis hatch was black. In the dim light, he seemed to be engaged in
some sort of emergency operation. Yuki’s arm, at an unnatural angle, was
dripping red as he administered a series of injections.

“You are not going to go into
shock. Stay with me!” he shouted to his patient.

Oleander crashed back into her own
body, taking several deep breaths to avoid vomiting.

“What is it?” Mercy asked, helping
her sit up.

“Lou trying to pull our fat out of
a massive fire. According to the maps, we came out at the point closest to the
sun, and there were asteroids. Things are breaking all over. Toby has problems
of his own. The suspended-animation device stopped working, and he’s trying to
save Yuki alone in the dark.”

“Alone? Where’s Yvette?”

“No clue. I couldn’t sense her
aura.”

“No. No. No!” Mercy staggered to
her feet, even as the ship swerved again. Brush pulled at her hair and clothes
as she ran, leaving scratches on her face.

Oleander plowed after her, slowed
by the effort of her recent Out-of-body excursion.

They could hear Lou screaming
incoherently over the radio, and somehow Mercy found the reserve to run even
faster. When Oleander caught up with the girl at Zeppelin Point, Mercy was
making clawing gestures at the sky. “The helix is too damaged. Snowflake won’t
lower it until we repair things, making them safe.”

“Which we can’t do unless we get up
there—120 meters. How good are you at jumping?” Oleander joked.

Mercy scanned the swamp. Most of
the dominoes were in shattered pieces, but she pulled a whole one out of the
foul bog. “I should be able to do it with a few of these and a good head start.
Help me dig another one out.” Over the radio, she bellowed, “Herk! We need your
help.”

All the campers showed up as fast
as they could. Mercy had them splashing around to claim dominoes before the
technology sank out of sight, to be recycled by the ecosystem.

“Status?” demanded Zeiss.

Oleander said, “I checked on the
crew in Olympus a few more times, but I couldn’t stay long. Lou flew us clear
of the hazards; though he’s still on the couch. Toby had to get radical—the
laser torch—but he looks overwhelmed. I saw a lot of blood on the floor, and a
couple of empty plasma bags.”

Red checked the scout’s pupils.
“You’ve overextended. How long since you’ve slept or eaten?”

“Too long,” Oleander admitted.

In all, the scavengers located
three dominoes. Red asked, “What’s the plan?”

Mercy looked like hell with the
reeking mud matted in her hair, but she answered like a professional. “I strap
two of the boards to my back and put the other into glide mode. We get as close
to the column as we can, and Herk throws me as high as possible. When I reach
apogee, I’ll lock the board in place. I keep one domino on my back as a
parachute and use the other two to climb leap-frog style up to the patio.”

“You could be fried if static electricity
arcs out of the column at the wrong time,” Herk noted.

“The mean time between eruptions is
thirty-seven minutes,” Mercy recited.

“That doesn’t leave much time for
this bootstrap trick,” Herk grumbled.

“Which is why you’re throwing me. I’d
use a seesaw, but the swamp wouldn’t cooperate.”

Risa said, “I could rig something.
You’ll need us to fetch climbing ropes.”

“No time. Lou is still in the snowflake
interface. If we don’t pull him out soon, his brain is going to cook. He might
be unconscious already.”

“Your arm strength isn’t as high as
a man’s,” Zeiss said.

“I’m also not as heavy, and I’ve
surfed before. The longer I can stay in glide, the quicker we can save them.”

“I’m lighter and can pilot,” Red
insisted.

“Which is why we can’t risk you. I
have medical training and can lower a ladder to the rest of you as soon as
things are stable.”

Zeiss cursed. “Toby’s not answering
his headset.”

Oleander said, “He had stuff with
him to take a shower. His comm gear is probably out of reach, and he’s up to
his elbows in . . . Yuki.”

Static crackled along the giant
column. Herk said, “Clock starts now, boss. Your call.”

“It’s idiotic and dangerous, but it’s
all we have right now. Go. Everyone else, keep looking for more dominoes,”
Zeiss ordered.

In the lower gravity, the boost
gained her almost twenty meters before Mercy had to start inch-worming her way
up to Olympus. She would lock one domino in position and place the next about
waist height. Then she would climb onto the higher ledge and lean down to
release the bottom step. As she continued this effort, the others could hear
the effort of her straining each time she hung upside down.

Red was the only one on Mercy’s
frequency and kept shouting encouragement. “Only ninety more steps to go. You
can do it!”

As Nadia slogged back through the
muck, holding up a broken headset, Red covered her microphone. The Russian
woman said, “We triangulated on Yvette’s signal and found this, but no sign of
her—unless you count the blood on the mouthpiece.”

Oleander whispered, “Don’t tell
Mercy. She needs to save someone this once.”

Red swallowed and nodded. Her voice
breaking, Red continued, “Atta girl, one step at a time. Pace yourself.”

****

When Mercy reached the top, she was
drenched in sweat. Her arms begged for rest, but she knew every minute she
delayed could result in brain damage for Lou or exsanguination for Yuki.
Tapping the door, nothing happened. She almost cried, until she remembered.
“Snowflake, override authority. Open main airlock.”

Toby froze in the sudden surge of
light. Then he said, “Thank God.” Since Oleander’s first visit, he’d dressed in
shorts and the miner’s headlamp Mercy had fixed for him. Pulling a glass
microscope slide out of his belt pouch, he handed it to her. “Use this tissue
sample to start a patch in the skin generator.”

“I have to get Lou out of the
helmet.”

Over the headset, Red said, “Bundle
the boards in your lab coat and drop them over the edge. One of us will follow
you.”

Conflicting impulses bombarded Mercy
until Toby said, “You’re not strong enough. You look done in. I’ll take care of
Lou. Go, the lab.” He shoved her through zero-g to the medical bay.

She heard sounds of unbuckling. “He
was babbling a few minutes ago, so I stopped listening, honestly. Oh dear. This
smells like alcohol. Lou is unconscious but his vitals are solid. Power went
out on our monitors. All sorts of things shut off at once, including the lights
in the shower. I don’t know what happened.”

“Yvette said she was going to give
him something for the favor,” Mercy said, worried that she might be partly to
blame for the disaster.

Red barked in her ear. “Status!”

Fumbling the door closed on the
tissue generator, Mercy said, “I initiated the skin patch. Now I can send down
the boards.”

“No time,” Toby said. “Worry about
that as soon as my other patient is stable. I need your help near stasis now.”

“As nurse?”

“Blood transfusion, sweetie. After
we hose you down, we’re going to hook you straight up to your friend.”

Red repeated, “Mercy!”

“Soon,” she replied.

Following Toby, she arced across
the control room and into the darkness. She followed his orders without
question, peeling off the filthy outer clothes to clean off the slime from the Recycling Swamp. Once her arm was clean enough, he called out, “Good enough. Lay down here,
and I’ll strap you in.” After she complied, he jabbed her with a needle. “Just
a little anesthesia for the pain.”

“No,” Mercy said, trying to sit up,
but the straps prevented her.

“Keep still or you’ll bleed all over
the chamber.”

She faded out with Red asking her
what was happening.

****

Toby couldn’t stop giggling. It had
been too easy. He used the bulk of Mercy’s blood donation to decorate the scene
in the sanitation chamber and luggage room to match the emergency amputation descriptions
he was going to give. He saved the last bit because Yuki would need
some
for a transfusion.