Part 47 (1/2)
”Because she would have stopped me from completing my a.s.signment. What are those implements on your suit?”
”Tools to open the lock.”
”Take them off. Drop them on the floor.”
Dana obeyed. He tossed them from him, not watching where they landed, but when he threw the cutting laser, it landed two-thirds of a meter from his foot.
Darien's hand did not relax.
”What was your a.s.signment?” he asked, wanting to know, wanting to keep her talking because it would give him time to think. She didn't know what the cutting laser was, that was good, but she could cut him in two with her own pistol before he had time to get to it.
”To destroy the Yago Net.” She leaned back against a bulkhead.
”How are you going to do that?”
”I'm a computer technician,” she said. ”That part's real. It took me two hours to program this monstrosity to blow itself up.”
”What are you?”
She smiled. ”I'm a cop.” She still sounded like Rhani.
He snorted disbelief. ”Since when do cops run around destroying sector property?”
Her eyes glittered anger. ”_You_ say that? You were _on_ it. It's a symbol of power and of evil, it facilitates a vicious trade, it serves only to increase the profits of a slaver family -- its very existence is immoral!” She glanced for a split second at the drugged man.
Dana said, ”It's no worse than other prisons.”
”No other prison is Zed Yago's private playground.”
Dana edged a centimeter closer to the cutting laser. ”I thought you loved him.”
”You were supposed to think that. So was he. I didn't love him; I f.u.c.ked him. It's different.”
”Is your hair really that color?”
She laughed. ”Of course not. Though it's close. My skin isn't this color, either, and I don't usually sound this husky. It takes a while for the dyes and the conditioning to wear off. I'm a weapon, Starcaptain. I'm an Enchantean, and I was a computer tech at Federation Headquarters till I was picked and primed and pointed at Zed Yago.”
”Pointed by -- ”
”It was Michel's idea. He figured: to destroy the chain, break the strongest link. The weak ones will fall apart of their own accord. Rhani Yago is the strongest link in the slave trade, and the way to break her is to take Zed away for good. At first they were going to send a man to do it, but the psychologists decided that would be too dangerous. Zed hurts men, but he's never hurt a woman. The man, of course, would also have looked like Rhani Yago.”
”Why not just a.s.sa.s.sinate him?”
”That wouldn't have done it. We considered it, but the psychologists said she would have remained only more determined to keep the slave system going.”
Dana edged two centimeters closer to the cutting laser. ”If we'd a.s.sa.s.sinated _her, he'd_ take over, and he would be worse, don't you think so?” Dana could not help agreeing. ”Besides, killing is immoral.”
”Too bad,” Dana said. ”If it weren't, you could have a.s.sa.s.sinated them both.” ”You're right,” she said, with evident regret. Her eyes narrowed. ”If you feel like that, why are you here?”
”Rhani Yago sent me here to find out what was wrong.”
”Oh. Then you're still a slave.” She glanced at the wall behind his head.
”This station's going to blow to pieces in twenty-five minutes,” she said. ”I'm s.h.i.+nnying on the shuttle. You want to come along? I'll take you. You can't have any loyalty to the Yagos.”
Dana looked at Zed, still slumped in the chair. He hadn't stirred again.
There was a trace more color in his cheeks than there had been before. ”What about him?”
”He can stay here.” Darien Riis' voice was very cold. ”The Net blows, he blows with it.”
”You don't care at all? You feel nothing for him?” As he asked it, Dana wondered why he cared to know. ”He loved _you_.”
”No!” said Darien. She pushed her hair back with her left hand. ”I feel bad about the Skellian. I didn't want to kill her. But him” -- she looked at Zed for more than a second before fixing her eyes on Dana -- ” he didn't love me. He loved the image I was, he loved his sister in me.”
”But wasn't that exactly what you wanted him to do? If they made you look like Rhani -- ”
”Yes. That's what we wanted. The Enchanter labs are good, aren't they?”
She regained her pedantic tone. She tilted her head a little. ”It worked perfectly, too. He was very easy to manipulate.”
Dana wondered at the courage it must have taken to turn Zed Yago into a s.e.xual tool. The thought of it -- of willingly sharing the bed of a man you knew to be a practiced s.a.d.i.s.t -- made his b.a.l.l.s hurt and his skin crawl.
”Well,” said Darien Riis, ”are you coming with me or not?”
Dana smiled. ”I don't have much of a choice,” he said. ”I don't want to be dead.” When was she going to ask him how he had gotten to the Net? Maybe he could knock her out, carry her to _Lamia_, carry Zed to _Lamia_, get the f.u.c.k out of range in twenty minutes ... Part of him whispered: Never mind Zed. Leave him. Warn Tori and go. If you have to rescue someone, rescue the cop...
Why? he wondered. Why this terrible hatred of the Yagos, of the Net, of Zed? Michel A-Rae had created it, fueled it -- he wondered what had birthed it in _him_. Darien Riis wouldn't tell him if she knew, which he doubted...
Tori Lamonica's voice came clearly through his suit communicator. ”Dana, are you still alive in there?”
Darien's pistol swung for him. Leaping at her, Dana grabbed for her wrist, pinned it. She fought him. He leaned close to yell in her ear, ”That's just -- ” He gasped and leaned backward, almost losing his grip on her hand, as her elbow aimed for his throat.
”You son-of-a-b.i.t.c.h!”
”Listen to me,” he said, starting to close with her. She stepped back and nearly took his head off with a sweeping side kick. He leaped backward and nearly tripped. She kicked him again. Sweet mother, she was fast! Tori was shouting at him through the suit mike. He moved in and trapped Darien's wrist again. She yielded, and her right arm relaxed. He heard a thud, as if something had fallen. Suddenly Darien's left hand blurred upward, laser in her fist, the pistol pointing not at him but out at the room. Dana saw Zed on the floor. He was aiming the cutting laser. Dana dived out of range. Light beams flashed, and Darien dropped. Zed Yago screamed and curled his body in agony, his head straining on his neck. He breathed in huge gasps, ”Ah-hah, ah-hah.”
”Shut up a minute!” Dana shouted into the suit mike. Tori shut up. He stood, rubbing his knee where it had hit the floor. He limped to Zed. The Net commander looked up, and Dana swallowed. The light beam had struck Zed's outstretched hands. They were claws, blackened and burned, bizarre skeletal things. The pain from them had to be unbelievable. He could not see why Zed was still conscious.
He knelt. ”Zed, can you hear me?”
Amber eyes blazed into his. Zed croaked, ”Get out.”
”I've got a s.h.i.+p,” said Dana lamely.
Zed's face twisted in spasm. ”No.”
”d.a.m.n it, this s.h.i.+p's going to blow in fifteen minutes! Tori Lamonica's at Hole Four, in _Lamia_. Let's -- I'll carry you there.”
”No.”