by John Corwin
"We think there are other habitats too," Scarlett said.
Yana didn't look surprised. "I've always suspected there might be."
Max spotted the black line on the wall marking due east. He slid his hand over from the line and pressed the wall until the small panel slid back to reveal the airlock controls.
Yana's eyes grew wide. "What does that do?"
Max hit the button and the door slid open.
The ranger stared at the small room. "This is the airlock you described."
"There's another one on the city end," Scarlett said.
"You can't leave it, though," Max said. "There's no air to breathe."
"I'll hold my breath." Yana narrowed her eyes. "I have to see it for myself."
"You can't hold your breath," Max said. "It's a frozen airless vacuum. Your skin will freeze and the air will explode from your lungs."
Scarlett seemed to measure the other woman with her gaze. "She could use my toughsuit."
Max compared the two women. Yana was slightly taller with an athletic build, but she could probably squeeze into the toughsuit.
"This is the special suit you stole for the crossing?" Yana said.
"Yes." Scarlett pointed toward the bushes. "We hid the duffel bag over there."
"You do realize that you'll have to leave us in the tunnel?" Max said. "We can't come into the airlock with you."
"Get the bag and let's go," the ranger said in a tone that left no room for argument.
Max went to the duffel, opening it first to look for a weapon, but all he found were battery packs. "Dammit," he muttered. His knife was in the backpack. The blasters were in the backpack. He'd hoped Scarlett had left one weapon behind. Max lugged the bag back to the airlock and took out the toughsuit, a micro-breather, and the bubble helmet.
Yana frowned when she saw the outfit. Her frown deepened when she leaned over it and sniffed. "It stinks."
Scarlett's face shaded red. "It needs to air out."
"Leave your knapsack here," Yana told Max.
He handed the toughsuit to Scarlett and placed the backpack next to the duffel bag. Yana leaned her bow against the wall and set the quiver next to it. She met Scarlett and Max's surprised looks with a confident gaze.
"I've studied you during our walk," Yana explained. "You're soft and untrained." She patted a knife at her waist. "I'd advise you not to attempt anything. I've wrestled boars, panthers, and even tested myself against bull elephants. Neither of you would stand a chance."
"Creed probably thought Max didn't stand a chance," Scarlett said. "Look what happened to him."
Max hid a grimace. Why'd she have to open her big mouth?
"Overconfidence was always Creed's biggest flaw," Yana said. "I am very aware of my limits. Barring unconsciousness, I believe I can handle you."
Scarlett clenched her fists as if preparing to test the ranger with a direct assault. Max put an arm on her shoulder.
"If you don't wish us harm, we don't wish you harm," he said.
"Mhmm," was Yana's sparse reply. She motioned them into the airlock. Once everyone was inside, she closed the outside door.
After clearing the second door, Yana made Max and Scarlett lead the way. When at last they reached the sharp turn south leading back to the other airlock, Max stopped at the corner and waited. Lights flickered a hundred yards back the way they'd come. Yana might be stealthy, but she couldn't do much about the automatic lights in the tunnel. When she came closer, it became obvious why she'd fallen behind.
The blue toughsuit pressed tight against her legs and hips and strained against the tops of her shoulders. If the skintight uniform hadn't made clear the ranger's muscular physique, the toughsuit emphasized it even more.
"This is not a comfortable fit," Yana said. "Tell me how to use the breather apparatus."
Scarlett checked the microbreather already attached to the helmet. "You still have an hour of air in this one." She demonstrated unscrewing it and putting in the other one. "They're easy to change."
Yana unsheathed her knife in one smooth motion that sent Scarlett and Max stumbling away. The ranger turned away from them and pried a metal panel off the concrete wall to reveal metal conduit running up inside the wall. "Come here."
"Why?" Scarlett asked.
"I'm going to secure you so you don't try anything foolish."
"We'll wait right here for you," Max said. "I promise we won't run away."
"Running isn't the only thing I'm concerned about," Yana said. "What if you somehow sabotaged the airlock controls? What if you're lying about what's on the other side?"
"We're not!" Scarlett stamped a foot. "You're a paranoid fool, Yana."
"You're a rude bitch," the ranger replied calmly. "Now, both of you come here before I knock you out and do this the hard way."
Max bristled. "I don't think so. Either you learn to trust us, or you just try and force me over there. Maybe you're used to dealing with animals, but I've dealt with some cunning humans in my time as constable."
Yana put away the knife and sighed. "If you insist."
Scarlett suddenly looked nervous. "Maybe we should just do as she asks."
Max was done letting this ranger bully him around. He waggled a finger at her. "Leave me in peace or I'll make you regret attacking me."
Yana moved toward him.
Chapter 34
Max blinked awake to the sound of laughter. His head ached and his wrists hurt. Scarlett's amused face was the first thing he saw.
"I reckon the only thing Yana regrets is lugging your heavy body to these pipes." Scarlett leaned her head back against the wall and took a deep breath. "I never saw anyone fall so fast."
Max groaned and looked at his hands. Yana had tied his wrists to Scarlett's with a thick nylon tie and wrapped it around a conduit. He shook the fuzz from his head and looked for a knot but the material was secured with some kind of thick clamp.
"How long?" Max asked.
"About ten minutes. Maybe twenty." Scarlett sighed. "I lost track of the time." Her eyes wandered to the side of Max's head. "She didn't even leave a bruise."
Max leaned his cheek against the cool concrete and let it soothe the ache. Do what Yana says from now on. It riled him something fierce that anyone could put him down so hard and fast, but there was always someone better and stronger.
"Provided we survive this, what's our next move?" Scarlett rubbed her nose with the back of her wrist and looked at Max expectantly.
Scarlett watches Alderman as he gives a speech. She turns to Max. "What's our next move with Alderman?"
It took Max a moment to separate reality from illusion. "What makes you think I'm in charge anymore?" Max closed his eyes. "Ask Yana when she comes back."
Scarlett huffed. "Max Planck, don't you give up again. We need to convince Yana to help us survive."
"How?" Max opened his eyes and glared at her. "She hasn't listened to me yet."
"Maybe she can get us into her ranger station," Scarlett said. "Maybe she can help us get to the other habitats."
That circled Max's thoughts back to something he'd considered earlier. "I believe there are airlocks at all the cardinal direction signs in the dome. Maybe she'll take us to another one to test my idea."
Scarlett seemed somewhat mollified. "That's a good idea. I also think we should still climb the wall. There must be a way to see outside."
"If Yana said it's not possible, I believe her." Max envisioned the opaque section of the wall. Yana hadn't said how tall it was. If it was only a few feet, they might be able to overcome it.
"Surviving the father was supposedly impossible too," Scarlett retorted. "Looks like two of us did that."
Max didn't feel like talking anymore. He closed his eyes and hoped the headache went away soon.
Scarlett sniffed. "Reckon I'll have to do all the planning."
"Fine. You think you're smarter than everyone else."
"That's not it at all, Max Planck." She bumped her forehead
hard against his.
"Ow!" Max flinched back. "You're crazy."
"And you give up too easy," she shot back. "I kept on believing we could make a difference."
Max grunted. "And we see where that got you. You only lasted a day after I was gone."
Scarlett frowned and let out a long sigh. "I realize now that it must have been very hard being on Alderman's leash all those years. You didn't outright go up against Alderman, but you still tried to help people. The father knows I heard enough about that from other civvies after Alderman sent you to feed."
"Is this an apology for years of verbal abuse?" Max asked.
She stared at him for a moment then answered in a strained voice. "I suppose I was wrong about you…in some ways." Scarlett sighed. "I reckon you did your best under the circumstances." Her eyes glittered. "It may be wrong of me, but I still hate you for letting Nathan feed."
Max blinked and a tear trickled down his face.
Scarlett couldn't believe what she was seeing. Is he crying? "Are you okay?"
"Don't you think the ghosts haunt me every night?" Max whispered. "Rick Coleman, Ann Smith, Gertrude Klein, Theodore Walker, Andrew Clemmons"—he continued the list, each one drawing more tears and paused on the one that mattered the most to Scarlett—"Nathan Harris."
The name was like a spike in her heart. Max continued the litany of the dead, voice growing hoarser with each name. When he tried to speak the last name, sobs robbed him of his voice, so Scarlett finished it for him.
"Sarah Planck." Scarlett leaned back against the wall and stared blankly at the overhead lights made blurry by her tears. Alderman's government had robbed so many of so much. Even knowing what she knew now, it was impossible to separate her hatred of the system from Max. For too long he'd been the symbol of oppression because in the end, he'd followed orders. Yet, in a single day she'd unveiled the bare ugly facts concerning Max's predicament all those years.
Scarlett couldn't imagine how he'd survived so long, but she could certainly see how he'd lost his soul and his will.
The faint sound of hissing air drew her attention to the airlock. A small eternity seemed to pass before the inner airlock door whooshed open. Scarlett's eyes grew wide.
Max gasped. "What the fuck?"
Two figures in blue toughsuits lay prone on the floor. Yana was on her knees, face contorted with pain. Scarlett quickly saw the reason why. The lower left side of her suit was black where a blaster bolt had hit it. Yana twisted off the helmet and dropped it. She staggered to her feet, face blanched.
"What happened?" Max said.
"Attacked," Yana said in a strained voice. Her steps faltered and she fell to her knees several yards away. "Help." She flung her knife toward Scarlett and collapsed.
The knife slid on the floor and stopped well out of reach.
"Are you fucking kidding me?" Max groaned. He lashed out with a leg but came up short. Banging the back of his head against the wall, he burst into crazed laughter. "We're dead." He stared at the fallen ranger. "At least she dies fast while we slowly starve and dehydrate."
"Shut up, Max!" Scarlett bit her lower lip and stared at the knife. "There has to be a way to get it." She looked at the nylon tie on her wrists and wondered if they could chew through it. Scarlett tested the material with her teeth and failed to even leave a mark.
"It's reinforced nylon," Max said. "Just like the stuff we used at the constable station." He shook his head. "We can't cut it without a knife."
Max decided he'd sooner gnaw off his own arm than die tied to this pipe. They'd escape, all right. The only question was how intact they'd be afterward. Maybe he'd gnaw off Scarlett's hand instead.
Don't give up! There had to be a way out of this. If only he had something a few feet long to snare the knife. Max looked at his boots and wondered if the shoelaces might work. Something better caught his eye. "Scarlett, can you get to my belt?"
She wriggled her hands. "I'm just as tied up as you."
Max rolled his eyes. "With your teeth."
"My teeth?" Scarlett cringed and shook her head, seeming to reject the idea, then huffed. "You'll have to meet me halfway."
Max nodded and shifted awkwardly to his knees. He arched his back, pushing his waist toward her. Scarlett shuddered and leaned forward. Her teeth clanked on the belt buckle.
"Hold still!"
Max braced himself against the wall. "I'm trying to."
Scarlett opened her mouth wider and gripped the leather. She tugged the end of the belt free, bit it again, and tugged until the metal tine popped out of the hole. "I'm going to lose a tooth, I just know it."
"Can you pull it out of the loops?" Max asked.
Scarlett bit the belt just behind the buckle and pulled. The leather tightened around Max's waist and then slowly worked loose. Scarlett moved her grip and pulled again, repeating the process until the belt came free in her mouth.
"Now what?" she said, words muffled by the payload in her mouth.
Max wasn't sure. Without a free hand, he couldn't easily toss the buckle at the knife. "I need to attach the belt to my boot."
Scarlett rested the belt in the crook of her arm and glared at him. "How in the dome am I supposed to get it in your shoe?"
"I'll lean back and hold up my foot. Maybe you can work the leather under the laces." Max nodded at the big buckle. "I'll need the weight of the metal to snag the knife." He shrugged. "It's either that, or I gnaw off your hand."
"If anyone loses a hand, it'll be you, Max Planck." Scarlett let out a dejected sigh. "Let's give this a try."
Max shifted back to a sitting position and leaned back, pressing his foot against the pipe just beneath their hands. Scarlett worked the belt with her teeth, pulling it up until she held it a few inches from the tapered end. Moving her neck back and forth, she slowly pushed the tip beneath the shoelaces.
Once it was in far enough, Scarlett rolled her head, cracking her neck. "Now I've got a crick."
"Better than starving to death," Max said. He slowly shifted until his foot pointed at the knife. "Here goes nothing." The belt buckle miraculously caught the knife hilt on the first try.
"Nice shot, Constable." A smile broke on Scarlett's face. "Now just reel it in nice and easy."
Max slowly dragged his foot back, the belt buckle and knife trailing behind. He brought it close enough to reach with his heel and scooted the knife the rest of the way. Using both feet, Max clamped the hilt between them and pivoted on his butt until Scarlett could reach the blade with her teeth.
"Don't you slice off my tongue," she warned him before gingerly biting down on the metal.
"Don't tempt me." Max released the knife. He shifted back to his knees and leaned toward Scarlett, her big green eyes regarding him warily. "You know, I like you all nice and quiet."
Her eyes glittered. "Mmphh mmm errrr!"
Max couldn't help but chuckle. It was his turn to have a laugh at her expense even though it wasn't nearly as humiliating as the ass-beating he'd taken. He took the hilt in his teeth.
Scarlett scowled and looked ready to give him a tongue lashing when something down the hall caught her attention. "Max!"
Max looked back and saw one of the other two bodies moving. The figure pushed to its knees and looked ahead. Max recognized the man at once. "Marshal Garth," he managed to say around the hilt of the knife.
"One of Alderman's men," Scarlett hissed back. She sucked in a breath as Garth staggered to his feet.
"Cut the cuffs, Max! Cut for your life!"
Max didn't need any urging. He angled his head so the blade met the nylon cuff and worked his neck back and forth.
"Garth looks dizzy," Scarlett said, keeping her eyes on the man. "He's patting his holster, looking for a blaster. I think Yana must have left the weapons outside."
"Mmm," Max replied. Drool leaked from the corners of his mouth and his lips chafed against the hilt.
"Oh, shit," Scarlett said. "Garth is looking this way."
The
knife sliced halfway through the nylon. Max jerked hard, hoping his wrists would snap the remaining bond, but the cuffs were too strong. He returned to sawing frantically back and forth as heavy boots clomped closer.
"He's coming." Scarlett's voice was a horrified whisper. "He's taking off his helmet and he looks angry."
A latch clicked followed by a hiss of air. "What the fuck is going on here?" Garth said in a low voice.
Sweat trickled into Max's eyes and his teeth ached from the strain of gripping the knife. Even if he freed himself, he wasn't sure if he could take down Garth. Scarlett yanked frantically, angling her wrists, and suddenly the cuffs snapped. Max tumbled backward, knife still in his mouth. He looked up and saw Garth raising a foot to stomp on the unconscious Yana's chest.
Max flung the knife at the marshal. The hilt smacked into Garth's face and sent him stumbling back, arms windmilling. Sharp prickles ran through Max's hands as the blood flow returned. He jumped to his feet, stumbled, lurched toward the fallen marshal.
Garth roared and rolled awkwardly onto his knees, the toughsuit hindering his movement. Before Max reached him, he climbed to his feet, blood trickling from a gash in his forehead.
Anger and surprise burned in Garth's eyes when he saw Max. "Planck! You're alive." His eyes narrowed, focusing on something behind Max. "Looks like the constable and his deputy survived a feeding."
Max spotted the knife and quickly picked it up before Garth did. He backed away from the marshal. "What are you doing here?"
"Alderman sent me to bring back your bodies," Garth said. "Looks like I gotta do it the hard way."
Yana groaned. Scarlett knelt by the ranger, inspecting the blackened waist of the toughsuit.
Garth looked down at the injured woman. "Who is that?"
Garth's mission seemed to confirm something Max already suspected. "Did Alderman know about this airlock?"
The marshal frowned and wiped blood from his face. "If he doesn't, he will when I get back."
"You really want to go back?" Scarlett squeaked in a disbelieving voice. She jabbed a finger to the east. "There's a whole other dome just down there, and probably others we don't know about."