Tiger of Talmare (13 page)

"Anyway, I waited until I had the opportunity, and I ran. Then I hunted her down and killed her. The problem was, I'd never been outside the lab before, so of course, they caught me pretty much straight away."

"Was it worth it?"

"At the time, I thought so." She grinned. "I made sure that bitch's brain was mush. No way was she putting that brain into any other body."

"And now?"

"Looking back, I guess I'm glad I did it. But ten years ago, chained to a cot in the space brothel, well, then I wasn't quite so sure. Maybe I shouldn't have killed her. Maybe I should have just run. But I wasn't the first of her clones, and I wouldn't have been the last. I felt I had to stop her."

"I'd have done the same."

They were silent for a moment. "So what happens now?" Zach asked.

"With regards to what?"

"With regards to what the hell we are going to do next. We need to go to the Agency, tell them about Sanderson."

"I'm not going anywhere near the Agency."

"Then we need to go after Sanderson ourselves."

"You mean go to Talmare." She paused. "Er, what did you say he's got there, an army of over ten thousand, all trained killers? Let me think about this plan for a moment. No, I don't even need a moment. Are you completely insane?"

"Right, so what do you think we should do?"

"We should get the hell out of here and as far away from Sanderson as we possibly can."

"And what about his plan to take over The Agency? They might not be perfect, but you've seen what Sanderson is like, the man's a psychopathic killer."

She shrugged. "We could send them a message."

"They won't listen."

A flash of rage shot through her. "That's their loss." She glared at him. "Look, get it through your thick head, I am not going there."

She breathed in deeply, trying to calm her fury. Maybe he deserved an explanation. "Up until ten years ago, I spent my whole life locked up, and I'm never giving anyone the chance to lock me up again. Okay?"

He looked as though he was going to argue, then the tension went out of his shoulders, and he relaxed. "Okay, we'll think of something. But the other thing we need to talk about is Leila."

"I know."

"But first, I need food. I'll go to the galley and bring us some back. You stay here."

"So long as it's not raspberry Jello."

"I like raspberry Jello."

Mel didn't bother getting up as he left. She felt totally drained, and her arse was beginning to smart as the local anesthetic wore off. She'd ask Zach to give her another zap when he got back.

But when the door slid open, ten minutes later, Zach wasn't alone, and she knew straight away that something was wrong.

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Zach's appearance was grim. Darla stood beside him, her face streaked with tears. Angie and Grace crowded in behind, their expressions identical masks of anguish.

Mel swallowed. It was obvious something bad had happened, but what? Leila wasn't with them.

"Where's Leila?" she forced herself to ask.

Darla answered. "She's gone."

Mel sat up quickly, biting back a cry of pain as she sat on the burns. She winced, then slowly stood up, dragging the sheet with her. "Gone where? When?"

"She left a note."

Darla handed Mel a crumpled piece of paper.

Don't come after me.

Leila

"Very informative," Mel said. "How did she go?"

"Took one of the pods."

"Do we know when?"

"Yeah, the pod was launched four hours ago. She's got a good head start."

"And we've been going in the opposite direction all that time."

Darla frowned. "How do you know which way she's gone?"

"Because she's gone after Sanderson," Zach said.

Darla looked mystified, and Mel realized that they hadn't told the rest of the crew of Leila's connection with Talmare.

"I'll explain later," she said. "But Zach's right. She must have gone after Sanderson. Christ! What a mess." She ran a hand through her hair.

"We only realized she wasn't here when Zach appeared and asked where she was. We were all in the galley, having a celebration drink. We hadn't even thought about Leila. I found the note in her room."

"We have to go after her," Mel said.

Zach frowned. "You realize she'll have reached Talmare by now?"

Mel nodded.

"So what do you think she plans to do?" he asked.

"Well, that's the interesting thing about Leila, she doesn't plan, and she doesn't think, she just jumps right in." Mel turned to Darla. "Have you tried to contact her?"

"She left her comm unit in her room, and I haven't been able to get an answer from the pod."

"Well, try again. And reset our course. We're heading for Talmare."

She watched as Darla trailed out followed by Angie and Grace leaving her alone with Zach. "I should have guessed Leila would do this," she said.

"Hey, she's the telepathic one."

"She's my friend. If I'd thought about it at all, I'd have known she wouldn't let Sanderson go. But I was too busy with you to think about anything else."

Zach came across to her. He put his arms around her and pulled her to him. Her head nestled in the curve of his neck, and she breathed in the now familiar scent.

"She's a grown woman," he said. "You're not responsible."

For a moment, she relaxed against him, then she shrugged him off and stepped back, though his arms still held her loosely. "You don't understand. You never saw her when she first arrived at the brothel. She was only fifteen, so small and sweet and obviously terrified, but you could still sense the goodness in her. The thing was, she always seemed to attract a certain sort of man, and I don't mean the protective type. The telepathy didn't help—she knew what they were thinking, and they slowly broke her down. After a year in that place all that was left was hatred." She blinked back a tear. "We have to get her back, Zach."

"We will," he said, leaning across and kissing her on the forehead.

She sighed. "Yeah, maybe we'll get lucky."

"Now," Zach said, "turn around."

"Why?"

"Don't look so suspicious," he said. "I was just going to give you another blast of local. You must be feeling it by now."

She'd forgotten all about the pain, now it flooded back. She turned, felt Zach tug aside the sheet and then the cooling spray.

"You should rest," Zach said.

"I don't think I could."

"Well, we'll go to your room, you can lie down, and we can try and come up with a plan."

"A plan?"

"I know it's something of a novel approach for you, but maybe you should give it a go."

She scowled. "Too much planning stifles your natural reflexes."

"And none at all gets you killed."

"I'm still here."

"I know, and I marvel at that every moment of the day."

"Ha ha. I'm going to my room."

She wrapped the sheet around her and stalked off with as much dignity as she could manage.

"Go ahead," Zach called after her. "I'll get that food and meet you there."

****

They were in Mel's room. Mel was lying face down on the bed. Zach was sitting on the floor, close by, long legs stretched out, feeding her from a plate balanced on his lap.

"Right then, this plan," she said.

"I know Sanderson's set-up on Talmare. I can at least minimize our chances of being blown out of the sky before we even land."

"That would be an excellent start."

He frowned. "Has anyone ever told you sarcasm is not a desired trait in a woman?"

She was about to reply when Darla peered in through the open doorway.

Mel rolled onto her side. "Did you manage to get hold of the pod?"

Darla shook her head. She stood shifting from one foot to the other, gnawing on her lower lip.

Obviously, there was more bad news. "What is it?" Mel asked.

"We've received a communication from Sanderson. He's got Leila."

A ripple of fear washed over her. She'd hoped they could get to Leila before she reached Sanderson. "And?" she asked.

"He's going to contact you in thirty minutes."

****

Sanderson's face appeared on the screen. He didn't bother with any pleasantries this time. "By now, I assume you're aware I have your friend."

Mel nodded.

"I'm willing to swap her for Zach. Bring him to me, and I'll let you both go."

"Duh! Do I look like a gullible fool?"

Mel heard Zach snort behind her and shot him a black look.

Sanderson just raised an eyebrow. "I think you'll find that you don't have any choice. Bring Zach, or I will kill her slowly, and I'll send you a wave of me doing it."

The screen shifted from Sanderson to show Leila being held by a man. Mel's breath caught in her throat. Leila looked tiny and fragile, her face bruised, lips swollen and her shirt spotted with blood. She appeared terrified. Mel had never seen her show that much emotion before. What had they done to her?

Zach came to stand behind her, his hands gripping her shoulders. "Don't let him see how much she means to you," he whispered in her ear.

Mel tried to keep her expression blank but knew she had failed when Sanderson came back on the screen, his face a mask of smug satisfaction.

"She's a delicate little thing," he said. "We should have a lot of fun with her."

Mel frowned. Delicate little thing? The words didn't quite ring true. Leila might look delicate, but it didn't take people long to realize that she was anything but. Unless, of course, Leila didn't want them to realize that. Was she acting out some plan? God, Mel hoped so. She really couldn't see any way out of this. They were going to have to go and just pray for miracles.