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Blaedergil wasn’t around when I woke up—and I wasn’t in the tank.
I was chained to a bed... because that was so much better.
The room was empty when I first opened my eyes, but it wasn’t for much longer afterwards. Can’t a girl have any privacy? I thought, glaring at Blaedergil.
“It’s bad luck for a groom to see a bride before the wedding.”
He looked vaguely amused.
“Memory back yet?”
I swallowed, nodded, and then realized I should be afraid, instead of figuring out ways to kill him. He didn’t seem to notice, though. Just reached across and undid the cuffs.
“I’d give you an abject lesson on why you shouldn’t try to leave,” he said, “but I can’t be bothered. As to our wedding night, I think I’ll let you get acquainted with the house, first.”
I sat up when he stepped away from the bed, and followed his hand as he gestured around the room.
“These shall be your quarters for at least the next two nights. After that, we’ll talk wedding plans, ceremonies, flowers, cake—but not guests. I’m not into last-minute heroics, or hysterics.”
He turned back towards the door, and I watched him walk away.
Two nights, I thought, remembering. It would be more than time enough.
Inside my head, I felt Mack agree. Before I could think on why I could feel Mack in my head, Blaedergil stopped, and looked back.
“I want our first night to be special,” he said, and then continued on his way.
I had thought he’d want to say more than that, but movement caught my eye, movement slightly beyond him, a woman waiting by the door. I stared, and then realized what I was seeing. I must have made some kind of sound, because Blaedergil looked back.
“My corpse bride,” he said, indicating the girl beside him. “You and I cannot yet wed, for I am still married.”
He said no more, but offered his arm to the woman waiting at the door. She folded her hand through the crook of it, and looked, once more, to me, before turning a rapturous gaze on his face.
“Thank you.” Her whisper reached me from the door, and, for the life of me, I could not say who it was she thanked.
The door closed behind them, and fear washed over me. Mack’s voice caught me tucked up on the bed, my knees drawn tightly to my chest as I shook.
“Two days.” His voice cut through sheer panic rolling through me. “Two. You heard the man. Now, move!”
I moved.
I’d made planet-fall in a stasis box. With a hole in my heart. I had woken without a stitch of clothing and the injury healed. I had nothing else I needed.
“Time to move,” Mack repeated, as I registered just how much work I had to do in the very short time Blaedergil had allotted. “Get dressed.”
I tried to do just that. There were gowns hanging in a closet on one side of the room. Gowns. And nothing else. Inside my head, I heard Mack laugh.
“Not funny, Mack,” I said, sliding the least revealing one over my head.
“I preferred the red one,” he told me, and I stuck out a mental tongue.
“Tell me where I need to go.”
He did, and I went.
Two floors up, and I still hadn’t encountered another living soul. Nor a dead one. For which I was eternally grateful. Although the total lack of life was really starting to freak me out.
Three floors up, and the screaming started.
“His bedroom is on this floor,” Mack said. “Keep climbing.”
I kept climbing, but Mack was silent in my head, and I felt like I had lead weights sitting inside my chest.
Another scream rent the air, echoing around me, echoing through me.
“Get up,” Mack said, when it stopped, and I realized I had curled up at the foot of the wall closest to the windows. “Go!”
“I’ve got you,” he added, when I reached the stairs leading to the next level. “You’re almost there.”
He was right. I found out, when I got to the top, that I was there.
I reached the landing on the next level, and I stopped.
“Oh, Mack,” I whispered, and then I couldn’t say any more.
“Move!” he snapped, the order slashing through the horror in my head. “You have to find her.”
“I have to find her,” I repeated, moving between the cages, glad of the fine mesh that stopped the creatures within from stretching through and touching skin. “I have to... Mack, are you sure?”
“It’s what we’ve been paid to do.”
I gestured at the cages around me.
“Mack,” I said, and even communicating through the implant I could hear myself weeping.
“Move!” he snarled, reinforcing the command with a picture of what I was seeking.
Another scream echoed up the stairs behind me, and I moved, scanning cages, and wondering if it was worth retrieving someone once they reached the state of the women behind the mesh. Wondering if there was anything left to retrieve.
“Hurry!” Mack said. “Locator says here.”
Locator... When I got back he was going to die.
“When did that start working?”
“It’s always worked.”
“Then why?”
“It’s because he needs a visual confirmation.” I bit back a yelp, as Blaedergil’s voice came from the door to the stairs.
“Crap!” Mack’s voice in my head.
Well, Hell, yeah. Crap. Mack that is one of a sonuvabitchin’ understatement, you ass... I thought, knowing he could hear every word, and then, as my gaze fell on another section of the room. Found her.
And I had.
She wasn’t in one of the cages, after all. In fact, she didn’t look like she’d been touched.
“So, tell me...” Blaedergil’s voice sounded much closer, now, but I refused to look back.
His hand came down, hard, on my shoulder, grabbing tight, and forcing me to a stop.
“Mack...” It came out a breathless squeak.
“Show me,” Mack said, and I knew he meant our target.
“Yes. Show him,” Blaedergil repeated, and Mack and I both came to the same realization at the same time.
“You can hear us?”
It shouldn’t have been possible. Not when we were communicating via the implant.
“First thing I hacked.”
And I felt Mack’s astonishment.
“That line was secure.”
“Nothing is secure on Magnus 19.” And then Blaedergil turned me to face the pod in which our target lay. “Is this the one you seek?”
I felt his grip tighten even further, and knew I had to think fast. If the locator was working, then the teleport could work, too, but it might not be able to get a fix through the pod’s outer shell. I turned to Blaedergil.
“Not good enough,” I said, and he glared at me.
“It’ll have to be,” he snarled, and tried to jerk me away from the pod.
I dug my heels in. It was no easy feat, given I had no shoes.
“Tell him, Mack.”
“It’s easy enough to project an image on the inside of the pod.”
Man, for fast thinking Mack had what it took. I hadn’t been able to think of a reason why. Not that quick. Blaedergil stared at me.
“Did you tell him to say that?”
I shook my head.
“Nope,” I said, and answered truthfully. “He thought that one up all by himself.”
I met his gaze.
“He’s got a point, though, doesn’t he? You could be projecting anything on the inside of that pod.”
In the face of my stubbornness, Blaedergil sighed.
“Very well,” he said, and let go of me.
I sensed surprise when I didn’t run, and I didn’t bother to explain. Honestly, where was I going to go? Here, at least, I knew the locator worked. Here, I might have the tiniest ghost of a chance. I still didn’t know if Mack meant to let the man live. Stars alone knew he hadn’t given me the wherewithal to kill him.
“That’s good to know,” Blaedergil said, lifting the lid, just as another scream rang out behind us. I jumped, startled to hear screams, when he stood right beside me. I jumped, again, when he laid a hand on my arm.
“She’s giving birth,” he said, and granted me a happy smile. “When it’s over, she’ll join the others in Skymander’s harem, and my marriage will be annulled.”
I stared at him, shuddering as another cry rent the night. Before us, in the pod, the girl continued to sleep.
“Why?” I asked, but he had noticed me staring at the young woman in the pod.
“Is this who you were sent for?” he asked, and I referenced the photo in my head.
It sure looked the same. I shrugged, anyway.
“I’ll need to take a bio sample to be sure.”
Blaedergil curled a lip in a sneer.
“What? Afraid this is another holo-projection?” he asked.
“No,” I said, “but I have heard of clones, and body doubles, and I’d like to check for both.”
“Very well,” he said, and slid open a panel in the side of the pod, taking out the instruments I’d need. “Here.”
I took them, and made the necessary tests, using my implant to interface with the hand unit identifying the DNA. It was no surprise when I found them a match, with none of the tell-tale traces indicating cloning. It was no surprise, either, when light curled around the girl in the pod, and she vanished from view.
What was a surprise, was the light that wrapped around Blaedergil, just as his hall of horrors vanished from view. Even so, I held my breath. I wasn’t taking anything for granted. Mack might just have decided to leave me behind, or he might materialize me within Blaedergil’s reach, or he might decide a contract was a contract and...
“I would never do that to you,” Mack said, as I appeared in front of him.
And, before I could respond, he had swept me behind him with one arm, and shot Blaedergil three times, running his aim from the man’s gut to his chest in rapid succession. As I found the time to take a breath, he shot Blaedergil once more, making the man’s head explode, and leaving a crater where his face had been.
The sight of it made me freeze, but not before I’d laid a hand on Mack’s bicep. I’d stuffed a fist into my mouth, too, but it didn’t stop the scream, and Mack turned and enveloped me a second time in his arms.
“Told you, I had you,” he said, and turned me around, walking me toward the door.
He was met by a medical team as he opened it, and jerked his head toward Blaedergil’s corpse.
“Bag it and tag it,” he said. “There’s another bonus for him.”
I didn’t speak, as he guided me past them, one arm around my shoulders, as Doc Oskar cast an anxious glance towards me.
“Is she...” he began, and I felt Mack’s arm tighten.
“Not a scratch,” he said. “She’s fine.”
And he tucked me closer to his side.
Doc frowned, and gave me a dubious look.
“Well, if you’re sure, Captain.”
“I’m sure,” Mack told him, and led me past them, and out into the corridor.
