Chapter Forty-Eight

 

“My plan is justified. Awn and Chevros’s son was sick. He was going to die from the scanty water rations. Tey weren’t criminals. And tey weren’t sociopaths. Tey just got caught on the wrong side of a conflict.” Tyson’s filling the cell door, at his full height. He opens his mouth and hisses at me, and a drop of venom appears at the end of one of his fangs. Tyson’s not in control in there any more.

The ramp is still open behind him, offering a single slice of freedom. Maybe I can slip around him.

“You think more deaths is the answer?”

“It is te only logical conclusion. Do you know what tey did with te child, after they killed us? One of te council members adopted him.” Tyson coils down his spine, like he’s going to strike. “I’m sorry, Bodacious Benitez. You mustn’t warn them.”

Which means he’s going to kill me. I back towards the bunk.

I feint like I’m going to dodge right, then I lunge left, and still Tyson’s right in front of me, moving like agua.

I cannot believe that five minutes ago I wanted to help this thing find its place in the worlds. Or that I thought it would be safe to have Evevron populated by a horde of gene-doctored telepathic dragons. In this case, mercy is not a gift – it is a mistake.

“You really are a plague,” I tell the Mindhugger as the back of my knees hit the bunk. I pull the vial of dewormer out of my sleeve pocket and drive it towards Tyson’s arm, right above the elbow, where there’s a gap in the scales.

He catches my wrist, squeezes the bones together hard until I drop the vial. He sounds even more like a little kid when he says, “I trusted you. I wanted to – I mean – how could you?”

Through sheer instinct, I anticipate his strike. I grab the thick pillow off the bunk and bring it up in front of my face. His fangs go deep into the fabric, and a second later the pillow is soaking with venom. A few drops are still falling from his fangs when he wrenches the pillow away from me and throws it to the floor.

That takes the fight out of me. No chance here of a dry bite. I watch his fangs in frozen terror as he rears back. At least I won’t have to wake up mañana with the fresh pain of remembering Brill’s dead. Or deal with the IH shakes.

I hope the venom acts quickly. I know from experience it’s not going to be painless.

Tyson strikes again. This time, he goes for my torso instead of my face, and when I duck back, rolling onto the bunk, he catches one of his fangs on the paladzian, and there’s the ringing sound of a knife against a sharpener as the fang pulls free of the chain, which is miraculously still intact. Without that three-inch disk of metal, Tyson would have pierced my chest.

He’s starting to get really mad now. Well, let him. I hope killing me ruins his fangs. And then I realize I don’t want that, because the real Tyson will have to live with the dental problems. He grabs my hand, pulls it to his mouth like he is about to kiss it.

“Any last words?”

“Mercy is a gift?” It’s a question.

Tyson’s face scrunches in irritation. “Last lies then.”

He centers my hand under his right fang, preparing to pierce it slowly to prevent any more mistakes, and a drop of venom falls onto my skin.

“Por favor, Tyson.” What kind of last words are those? He’s not listening anyway.

Time stretches out, giving me time to question every choice that got me here. They were all mistakes, every single one, ever since I’d listened to Frank about keeping my mouth shut over Serum Green.

“Stop!” I imagine it’s Brill’s voice.

Eso es imposible. My life must have started flashing before my eyes.

Pero, Tyson hears it too. He turns. He doesn’t let go of my hand. “Put the gun down, Brill Cray, or I’ll–”

Brill fires. I scream. My heart clenches. Brill – impossibly alive – just shot a cop in the face.

Tyson doesn’t fall. He hisses, then turns to look at me. There’s an oversized dewormer dart sticking out of the side of his face. “You know it will take a few minutes for him to die.”

He means the mindworm. Even knowing the hug is about to be broken, Tyson is still unable to think for himself.

Tyson wrenches my hand up towards his mouth.

Tears dance in my eyes, pero I can’t break the grip he has on me. If Brill’s alive, do I really have to die here? I ask, “What happened to the guy whose scales were supposed to gleam with innocence?”

Tyson hesitates. I think I got through to the real him. I can see it isn’t going to last. Still, it provides an opening.

Brill’s a blur, flashing across to us. He jumps up on the inspector’s back and grabs Tyson around the neck, pulling him off balance so that he can’t strike. “She asked for mercy, you kek!”

Tyson’s prying at mi vida’s hands, which are laced together so tightly that the fingers are going white. If Brill lets go now, Tyson will be able to bite him.

Time has stretched out like taffy.

And in between the heartbeats, Brill’s facing his nightmares. Brill once ran from Tyson, leaving me for dead, because he thought Tyson was corrupt and murderous. And this version of the Galactacop isn’t going to hold back death.

Tyson staggers backwards. He bangs Brill against the cell bars. Mi vida grunts, pero he doesn’t let go.

Even more improbably, Gavin walks in. “Want me to shoot him for real?”

“Ga.” Brill’s voice is half a groan as Tyson bangs him against the bars again. “We’re friends now.”

Suddenly, Tyson stops moving. His arms fall to his sides. He stares off into space for a few moments, and then his hands start shaking. He makes fists to stop it. “You can let go now, Cray.”

Brill doesn’t budge. “How do I know the parasite’s not just telling you to say that?”

“Because if you don’t, I’m going to arrest you for assaulting a police officer.”

Brill looks over Tyson’s shoulder at me, his face uncertain. “Babe? Do you think it’s safe?”

Tyson was already infected, so checking his eyes wouldn’t help. Not that they have any whites anyway. I ask, “Tyson, how are you feeling?”

“Dark cloud poison strikes achy. And like your boyfriend is about to dislocate my spine.”

Not a geeky holo reference in the bunch. “I think it’s OK, mi vida.”

Brill climbs down off Tyson. He holds out his hand. “No hard feelings?”

Tyson takes his hand. “Nah. After all, you just had a good excuse to shoot me, if you were still holding a grudge over your friend.”

Gavin moves over to us. The gun is still in his hand, pero pointed down. He uses the other hand to offer me a formal closed fisted salute. “Bodacious. It’s good to see you again.”

We both know that’s an exaggeration. I arch an eyebrow at him. “What on Larksis are you doing here?”

“I came to pick up Brill.” Gavin holsters his gun. “But the kek got it into his head that you were in danger and wouldn’t leave.” He turns towards Brill and raises his voice, “Despite the fact that he’s supposed to be dead.”

That’s the side of the faked-your-own-death trope you never see on a telenovela. The person just disappears, and you’re not supposed to wonder about how they got out of the erupting volcano – or off the same planet from the murderous HGB assassin who claims to have successfully killed them.

“I’m glad he didn’t listen to you.” I look down at the bead of venom running down my hand and quickly wipe it onto the bunk. The area’s not stinging, so I hope it’s not being absorbed through the skin.

Gavin looks at the venom-soaked pillow, and at my ripped sweater, which reveals the paladzian glittering against my bra. It’s not even chipped. He looks at Brill, concern etching his features. “That close, su?”

I half-laugh. He means the pendant, and Brill’s close call, not mine. “You don’t know how close you came to having me as your trevhonell.”

Gavin’s eyes go lime green. He looks at Brill. “That close, su?” Then back at me. “I have to look out for you now?”

I blink. “He didn’t die.” Doesn’t that make a death promise non-binding?

“So?” Gavin says.

I guess living doesn’t dissolve having expressed your deepest death-crisis wishes.

“If it makes you feel better, Babe, Gavin wasn’t asking me to abandon you. He wanted me to call Frank.” Brill moves in close and unfastens the chain from around my neck. Removing the death pendant that just saved my life.

I kiss him – just a brief brushing of lips on lips. “I don’t get it. If you escaped from Frank, como he’d say he shot you? Or was the whole thing las imitación? This broke me, Brill.”

That’s the thing about telenovela tropes, especially faked-your-own-death. A lot of the time they don’t make sense, don’t serve any purpose except to jerk with the audience’s emotions. And being inside it – instead of just watching – is wrenching.

“It wasn’t a ruse. He had orders to kill me. He meant to do it, too, when we got in the van.” Brill looks down at the pendant still in his hand. “He drove me out to a cove with a lot of thick plants and soft sand, and he had a shovel and everything. But we talked for over an hour, and after that he said you were right, I didn’t deserve it. Then he took me to the spaceport and said if I disappeared – permanently – that solved HGB’s problem and his just as well as if he’d revoked my breathing privileges.” Brill’s eyes go solid black, thinking about it.

“I can’t believe Frank bucked a direct order, mi vida, after all his talk about being a weapon.”

Brill looks thoughtful. “The tipping point was when I told him about that shadow ship showing up at my front door. I gave him proof that HGB framed one of its own, and that rattled him.” His eyes shift towards green. “You ever think if you weren’t on opposite sides, you could really get to like someone? We had the best conversation.”

“He was going to kill you, mi vida!”

“But he didn’t. And that’s fascinating. I don’t know what kind of power you have, Babe, but I think you and Tawny broke Frank. Mercy’s not something I ever would have expected from that su.”

I’d discounted the whole MIAG thing as just a trite saying Tawny came up with, even after seeing it in action at Kaliel’s trial.

I was wrong. Mercy really is a gift.

And mercy really does beget mercy.

I can trace the chain of mercy all the way back to the day I got kidnapped by Fizzax. If I hadn’t shown mercy when Fizzax’s life was in my hands, there’d have been no basis for Tawny’s campaign. And if she hadn’t shown mercy to Kaliel by using her precious resources, and if the Zantites hadn’t been willing to show mercy too, Kaliel would have died. If Frank hadn’t seen us fighting for Kaliel, if I hadn’t said I believed Earth had given me a gift by sparing my life, Frank wouldn’t have been impressed by the far-reaching power of mercy, and wouldn’t have started to question his role in HGB. He’d have obeyed orders and shot Brill in the parking lot in front of me, instead of talking to him in the van. He’d never have been swayed to spare mi vida. Which means Brill couldn’t have been here to save me. And I’d be dead too.

The power of that takes my breath away.

Brill’s fist closes tight around the pendant. “Frank also said that if he ever saw me again, he’d have to put a bullet in my head after all, before anybody on his side realizes I’m alive.”

I don’t want to let myself understand what that means. Pero, I have to face it.

“You’re leaving, no?” My chest and arms go hot, while my stomach feels frío.

That’s another side of the trope the telenovelas never show the audience. There is some comfort to knowing he’s not dead, pero I’ll still never get to see him again.

“Not with you still in danger.” Brill cups my face in his hand. “But after this is over, I may have to. Lo siento, Babe. It’s not what I want.”

I kiss him. Not another last kiss. Just un beso.

When Brill finally breaks it, Gavin and Tyson are both standing there, looking awkwardly into space.

“We have to go.” I quickly explain what Murry-Tyson made me do. “Stephen’s going to be at that restaurant any minute now, and Murry’s not going to pass up a chance to snatch him.”

Tyson’s still staring off into space.

“You OK, su?” Gavin asks, putting a hand on his arm.

Tyson starts. “Yeah. Just thinking.”

Gavin’s eyes are going purple. He’s examining a clone of the data Chestla sent me, in the holofield of his handheld.

It’s data I didn’t share. Brill having access to my phone is one thing, pero this is ridiculous.

“Oye!” I say.

Gavin ignores me. “We could destroy the mindworms, using whatever device it has built to kill off the Evevrons. The way it attaches – and how it is weirdly liquid… it would probably explode if the Nitarri overloaded the hosts’ brains.”

My mouth drops open in horror. That’s murder. And not just of the mindworms – the hosts too.

Even Brill looks shocked. “Su.”

Gavin shrugs. “I’m open to a better solution. But there’s no way to close the barn gate on this one. That would at least keep the parasite from spreading. You told me yourself that it has only limited itself because it feels relatively safe. We start fighting it, it could take over half the galaxy to keep us away from its center.”

“What about your Codex?” I protest. “I thought you guys were all about not causing pain and not fighting back. Go to jail rather than cause offense, no? You won’t even wear leather!”

“We’re all about providing peace,” Gavin retorts. “And the Codex provides for self-defense. Your culture’s history contains nothing like our lost eras. You don’t know what it is like when the worst happens.”

“Su,” Brill says, “self-defense is only allowable in cases of immediate personal danger – when there aren’t going to be intragalactic repercussions.”

“And that interpretation is up to an individual’s conscience,” Gavin retorts.

Tyson flicks out his reptilian tongue. “I’m not sure wether destroying something like Murry is really justice. He’s developed a personality, and is rapidly evolving a moral code. It could be argued tat he is no longer te scourge tey engineered.”

Brill studies Tyson. “Are you saying that you’re willing to not report this?”

“If tere is a way to bring peace here, who would make a formal complaint? However, I will not remain silent about te murder of six hundred infected individuals.” He scratches his back against the cell bars. “I’m not getting fat or anyting, am I?”

“Que?” It takes me a second to remember the real Tyson doesn’t know Spanish. “What?”

He shrugs. “I feel like I’m molting. Myska don’t do that once we’re adults unless we’ve changed size significantly. Flash-awkward horror castle. So itchy. I never thought I’d have to go through this again.”

“You look the same to me, su,” Brill says.