It was finally over. Mav was dragged from his cell to the infirmary to receive the obligatory after-torture care. His implant, which had gotten him through so much, had finally shorted out. His heart ached from how hard it had pounded during the assault. The medics threw a blanket over his groin, swollen from too many steel-toed boots kicking him, and he didn’t bother to fight the soldiers who cuffed his wrists and ankles to the bed. He was simply too hurt to think about escape, let alone attempt it.
Medical scanners beeped and whizzed about his body, as needles stung as they pushed into his veins. The nurses quietly spoke the medical terms that depicted his beating. He didn’t know the names of the various bones, but he could easily identify them by the pain.
This wasn’t the worst encounter he’d ever had with Corps military, nor his last. At least they left his sister alone. He couldn’t give them what they wanted because he didn’t know.
He noticed the frail woman sitting off in the corner. Her overalls were pulled down around her hips and she had a vomit bucket next to her. She wasn’t chained to her bed, however, so she was clearly one of them. Any other day, he would have taunted her; doctors generally didn’t allow beatings in the hospital. But his heart wasn’t in it.
She stared at him throughout the entire exam. He hissed in pain as they swabbed his wounds and scrubbed them clean. They used emergency foam on him, as opposed to properly sealing the cuts. No doubt the doctor assumed asking the guards to be careful with their beatings until the stitches and tape dissolved would be pointless. So sealant foam it was. That stuff burned and he failed to completely stifle the scream that rose in his throat.
The doctors talked about rolling him on his side to tend to the multitude of injuries there, and that the position might be more emotionally comfortable for him. The nurse asked the guards to move back to give him more privacy as they worked on the more intimate body parts, but they refused.
There was a heated exchange of whispers between doctors and guards before he said, “They were the ones who did this to me. Let them see they didn’t break me.”
The words had no spite in them. He didn’t even have the energy to muster up anxiety. Eventually, assuming he ever lived, this would be yet another event to haunt his nightmares. Like before, he’d need the injections to stop the day panics, but, like before, he’d get through it. Assuming they didn’t kill him.
The nurses moved him gingerly and positioned him on his side, placing a pillow between his knees to prevent the thigh bruises from rubbing.
The little bitch that worked for those murderous assholes flinched and wiped at her eyes. Mav glared at her and said, “What are you looking at?”
*****
Rebecca flinched when the shackled man spoke to her. His voice was full of pain and bitterness. She recognized it in her own inner voice, the one she tried to hide from others.
The tallest of the guards said, “Leave her alone, Maverick.”
He ignored the guard, keeping his glared on the her. “Well? You going to answer the question?”
Rebecca didn’t reply. She didn’t know what to say. What could she say? I’m so glad it’s you and not me on that table. That’s why I gave up everything to be here. I’m afraid of pain. Because that would go over well with a terrorist who’d have no trouble snapping her neck if she was all that stood between him and freedom.
Her hands shook. She knew it was the man from the video feed even without the evidence of the abuse. The agonized sounds of pain he’d made, the screams of anger, agony, offense, violation, and pain were all etched in her mind forever. How he must hate her, the symbol of oppression. She deserved his hatred, too.
“Is your translator off?”
Rebecca shook her head and lowered her gaze to her feet. The nausea wasn’t going to go away. Not now. Not ever. She pushed the vomit bucket back on the small cot and said, to no one in particular, “I’m feeling better now.”
One of the nurses looked over at her. “Are you sure? You’re still very pale.”
The doctor didn’t look up from applying sealant foam to Maverick. “Let me look at your vitals first.”
“No,” Rebecca said. “I’m fine.”
The nurse stepped over to glance at her vitals display. She frowned at them. Rebecca hadn’t learned how to read the display, but she was sure it said she was in the midst of some kind of mental crisis. That’s because she was in the middle of a mental crisis. She glanced at the scalpel on the tool tray off to the side of her. If she rolled her sleeve up first, she could grab the knife and slash open her arm from elbow to wrist, severing tendons and arteries alike. She could fight them off with the scalpel, too, thereby preventing them from intervening.
Oh, she most definitely was in the middle of a mental crisis all right.
“My numbers always look like that,” Rebecca said softly.
Maverick snorted, but he said nothing. The guard slapped his head, yelling at him to shut up. Sealant foam shot across Mav’s thigh.
The doctor swore at the guard. “Get out of here.”
“He’s a dangerous…”
“He’s my patient and is chained to his bed. I’ve also given him a temporary paralytic. He’s probably already feeling the effects in his legs. He’s not running anywhere in his condition. Now, get out.”
Maverick shook his head. “Did you give me a half-dose this time? It took nearly a day for the last shot to wear off.”
“Third quarters dose,” the doctor said.
“Benevolent bastard,” Maverick said rather cheerily, watching the guard stomp off outside the room.
Rebecca steeled herself and stood up. Her stomach sloshed and ached, but she pushed down what felt like the last bit of bile she hadn’t puked up yet. She kept her head down, and slowly shuffled by Maverick.
“Hey, what planet?” Maverick asked.
“Prisoner, if you speak one more time, you’re going back to the cells,” one of his remaining guards said.
“Excuse me,” the doctor interrupted. “As long as he’s on my table, I give the orders. Follow your protocol or I will have you removed.”
“You don’t get to give orders, Doctor.”
“In this room, I am in charge. One more issue with any of you and I’ll have you cited. Do you understand me?”
“Earth,” Rebecca whispered.
“What did you say?” the doctor asked.
“Earth,” Rebecca said. She glanced up at the man they called Maverick, but was unable to maintain eye contact. “I’m from Earth.”
Chapter 11
Rebecca worked away in a different tunnel in the underground network. She was closer to the cells, but her area wasn’t cleaned of vomit yet. The rescuing guard was worried about her coming back to work after only two hours of puking everywhere, but she said she was fine. He kept coming back to check on her and, a few hours later when she couldn’t stop her hands from shaking, she said she was just dehydrated. He hurried off to help her, and she was left alone again.
“Incoming message: Captain Andrewson.”
Rebecca ignored her VA’s voice in her earpiece and kept working.
“Incoming message from Captain Andrewson: Answer the phone now.”
Rebecca sighed and asked the VA to put her through. “Hello?”
“Why didn’t you pick up the call?” Andrewson demanded.
Rebecca ignored her. “What do you need?”
“I am sending a protocol to you now. I need you to install it into the cameras in Sector C.”
Rebecca glanced down at her map and blinked. “Um, that’s inside the prison cells.”
“You’ll be perfectly safe in there. The prisoners are in force field cages and you’ll just be in the corner for fifteen minutes.”
She brought up the schematic for the room and confirmed that the hatch she’d need to open was next to the entrance and not inside one of the cells. Her encounter with the prisoner named Maverick haunted her, though.
“Can’t I just upload it some
where else?”
“If you could do that, don’t you think I would’ve ask you to do that as opposed to going into a high secure area?”
“Why?”
It was a simple enough question, and yet it felt so daring. She had not asked why since she’d come here, wisely deciding that she needed to keep her questions to herself. That might even be the reason she was trusted right now with this job: she never asked questions.
But she was tired of not asking questions. If that meant she was flagged, so be it. If that meant she was shipped off somewhere even more remote, so be it. If that meant she was dumped into a prison to be left there to rot, so be it. She wanted, just for one moment, to be a little brave. The way that Maverick was brave.
“It’s none of your business, Tech,” Andrewson snarled. “You do your job. That’s all you need to know.”
“Is this even legal?” Rebecca asked.
“What’s legal is up to me to decide. Now, are you going to do the job or not?”
A memory flashed in Rebecca’s mind. The day Kat left. Kat had said to her, Now, are you going to kick me out or not? And Rebecca had. She’d told the love of her life, the woman she wanted to marry, the woman she’d imagined buying a house with, adopting children, growing old together…the entire white picket fence dream. And she’d kicked her out because she’d cheated on her. Lied and cheated.
“Well?”
But this wasn’t Kat. That was a lifetime ago. Kat was dead. There was no one left to impress.
“Yes.”
Rebecca wasn’t done downloading the files to her scanner when the guard arrived with her water. She thanked him for paying the container cost, the fee levied by the station for not bringing one’s own reusable items.
“Container cost?”
She smiled, even though she knew it didn’t touch her eyes. That slip from him gave her all she needed to know. Citizens didn’t have to pay container costs. That was just another levy on her, to keep her in the Corps’ service. Nickle and dime her to death until there was no way she could ever pull herself out of debt.
She couldn’t see the guard’s face, but she could guess that he was waiting for an answer. She decided to leave it be and changed the subject. “Captain Andrewson needs me to do some work in Sector C. Can you show me the way?”
The guard argued half-heartedly about how it wasn’t safe for anyone to go into the high security area. Then, he argued that he needed clearance, since even he wasn’t allowed to go in there. But after a half hour and several calls to and from his superiors, the Chatty Guard from earlier in the day arrived to excitedly lead her down to the wing.
“Now, I have to tell you, these guys are pretty bad.” When she didn’t answer beyond a grunt, he continued. “We’re talking the worst of the worst of the terrorists. One of them blew up a daycare.”
“On purpose? Why would anyone do that?”
The guard shrugged. “Like I said, the worst of the worst. Here we are.”
She clutched her tool kit and kept her gaze on the floor while Chatty Guard told the other two guards that she was there on orders from Captain Andrewson. They called the captain, not believing some uncitizened tech would be allowed anywhere near their station, and were thoroughly scolded for bothering her during a crisis. The guards unlocked the main cell entrance without a word.
“Do you need someone to go in with you?” Chatty Guard asked.
Rebecca shrugged. “Whatever you think is best.”
“Wait here,” the tall guard said to Chatty Guard. He motioned for Rebecca to go inside first. He followed her, saying to the chatty guard, “Stay here until I get back.”
Rebecca’s eyes struggled to adjust to the low light. “Is there a problem with the lights?”
“No, we usually keep them in darkness or high light, but the doctor made us stop because of Prisoner A’s injuries. Something about his eyesight or implants, or some bullshit. So, before I open the inner door, let me go through the rules. Now, I know you’re listed under Blackout, so the rules don’t technically apply with regards to talking to prisoners and all that. But you still need to follow safety protocols for your own good.”
“Okay,” Rebecca said meekly.
She listened to his list of items, from lying flat on the floor with her hands on the back of her neck if the security drones activated to no touching of prisoners. She had no interest in touching anything in this area, let alone anyone, so she didn’t feel she’d been inconvenienced by the rules. Though, she was rather afraid of the security drones.
“Are the security drones controlled by you or the computer?” Rebecca asked as they approached the ident scanner.
“Both,” the guard said. “There’s also an emergency lever over there.” He pointed at a bright yellow hand lever on the wall with warning signs all around it. “That will trigger the drones’ automatic protocols until someone can control them through the system.”
“Huh,” Rebecca said, not sure what else to say. She did frown a little at the idea of her being uncomfortable with autonomous drone systems, considering that was what she was aiming to develop back in her old life.
The guard pressed his hand on the scanner as his retina and eye implant were scanned. The magnetic locks clunked and clicked as bolts and seals were released. The doors automatically opened and they walked into Isolation Block A.
Rebecca pulled out her tablet and looked at the schematics for the room. She located the sentrybots, mechanical centurions that could turn the room into a smoking heap in the event of a prison escape. Her fears of the machines were irrational, she knew that. Even if she somehow managed to orchestrate an escape for the prisoners, she’d be riddled full of projectiles.
“Earth,” Mav said from his cell. He was closest to her. “Earth.”
“I’m not supposed to speak to you. I’m just here to do my job,” Rebecca said, glancing at the guard. “He saw me earlier in the clinic.”
Rebecca pulled the panel from the wall and began her work. She had to call security twice to advise them she was cutting power. That wasn’t a problem because of the backup system that kept the drones powered up and ready to protect. Oddly, she would have felt safer if they had been deactivated. She uploaded the audit software that the captain asked her to do, annoyed that she had to manually do each and every panel. Still, if Dags had been murdered, helping catch his murderer would help her status in the long run. Perhaps she’d even get an extra half-liter of water a day.
“There’s something wrong with the environments,” Rebecca said absently, not realizing her security feed was still open. When prompted to explain, she said, “It’s way too cold. Station standard is nineteen, and rooms are twenty, but it’s only fifteen here.” She lowered her voice as she glanced over her shoulder. “And they’re naked.”
“Standard temperature for prisoners.”
“They’ll get hypothermia, won’t they?”
“The cells have body monitors. If a prisoner’s core temperature falls too low, the system will automatically turn the floor heaters on until the prisoner is out of danger.”
“Oh,” Rebecca said.
She self-consciously looked back at Prisoner A, aka Maverick. He cocked a dark brow at her. Heat rose in her cheeks and she looked away. She went back to securing the panels and consoles, making sure it was all locked down once again.
“Hey, Earth,” Maverick said.
“No talking,” the guard said.
“He’s not bothering me,” Rebecca said, as she locked the inside panel. “What do you want?”
“He’s not allowed to talk to you.”
“Not even someone with Blackout clearance?” Rebecca asked. She didn’t put any force behind it, but she was damned if she was going to let them tell her who she wasn’t allowed to speak to.
The guard sighed and said, “I hate Blackout.”
Rebecca continued to work, securing panels. “So, Maverick, that’s your name, right? I heard it in the clinic.”
Maveri
ck looked rough, though not as bad as he did in the infirmary clinic. The various cuts on his face had been cleaned and patched up, though there was nothing to be done about the bruises. She didn’t know what he looked like before the beating, but she could guess he would be handsome if not covered in bruises. Brown skin, dark hair, broad shoulders, massive arms, rippling abs that not even swelling and bruising could disguise. He looked strong enough to bench press her without breaking a sweat.
“Yup, that’s me. Little ol’ Maverick, days from execution, in your service,” he said with a thick slur in his voice, which gave Rebecca some comfort. They’d given him something for the pain he was no doubt in.
Rebecca asked the guard for help to hold the final panel and she used her multi-tool to lock it into place. “You’re not in my service. I’m just a prisoner, just like you.”
The guard made a disgusted sound, but Rebecca ignored him. She put her tools back into place, then picked up her tool kit. She turned to face the naked man. “Tell me. Did you really blow up a day care?”
“Yes.”
A chill ran through Rebecca's spine. This could have been you, if you stayed and fought, instead of running like a coward.
“Why? What did those children do to you?”
“Because the soldiers inside were using them as human shields,” he said frankly.
“I don’t understand.”
“That’s enough,” the guard said.
“No, it isn’t,” Rebecca said sharply. “I don’t report to you. I report directly to Captain Andrewson and I won’t have anyone get in my way.” She snapped her attention back to the surprised prisoner. Her heart pounded at mouthing off the guard, but dammit, she was tired of them treating her like a child. No, worse, they treated her like a potential prisoner.
“Now, tell me what happened.”
“We were being pursued and we ducked into a building that turned out to be attached to a day care. This was down on the planet. We’d completed our mission, but some of us had to stay behind to ensure the others got away. Anyway, we got the children and their teachers to barricade themselves in a supply closet. I mean, there wasn’t any way out. We tried to signal, but…they killed one of the teachers in the process.” He shrugged. “We managed to get out through the windows and circle around, but the soldiers didn’t see us leave. So they sent grenades in first. Ripped the door to shreds, and then the shrapnel did the rest.”
Traitor (Collaborator Book 1) Page 9