“At least a few more before I'm finished. When Queen Tauria gets to Platform Omicron, she's going to not even give them a chance, she's going to destroy the capital, and all of the treasonous vermin in it. Once that happens, she's going to need to build a new capital for her queendom. Just who do you think is going to be there to make sure that new capital rises gloriously from its birthplace?”
“You're insane as well as greedy,” I laugh, shaking my head. “Totally off your fucking grav pods.”
Cassell shrugs. “Either way, I'm tired of fucking around with you. I know that royal troops will be here within the day, I don't have time for this. So, instead of talking to you.....”
Cassell turns and looks at Jensen, who opens his eyes. “I think I'll talk to you. You're the former Resistance leader, you're the one who has the answers.”
Chapter 20
Jensen
“You can ask all the questions you want,” I tell Cassell, climbing to my feet but still letting him think I'm weaker than I am, “but you're wasting your time. Your pain drugs won't hurt me enough to tell you much more than a hundred and one ways to go fuck your mother.”
“Which is why I'm not going to hurt you,” Cassell says, grinning evilly. “I knew how trained you are, Jensen, I knew that just the pain drugs wouldn't break you. But now you know how much the drugs hurt. And so I'm going to use them on Kelbara now. I'm no fool, I can see the way you two look at each other, you care for her. So... tell me what I want to know or else she gets a dose of Yellow.”
“You son of a bitch!” I scream, rage filling me and I reach for him through the bars. Still, I'm not totally out of control, the cold part of me that's been in the fires of combat holds me back just a pinch. He's just out of reach though, and that side of me knows it, and lays a trap. I need him to come just a little closer, fifteen centimeters is all.... “You asshole!”
Cassell watches in amusement as I jump up and grab the upper bars of my cell, kicking out with my feet against the bars, making the door rattle in its track but little else. I know I'm wasting my time trying to kick my way out of a cell, but that's okay, I want him cocky and arrogant. It's the cold side of me, hiding in plain sight and letting him think I'm totally blind with rage, when the reality is I'm only about three quarters blind.
It works, and Cassell takes a half step closer. He's in range, but I need to bring him closer, enough that I'll have reaction time as well. “What, you don't think I've kept my ear to the ground, Jensen? I'm no fool like Ambaris, thinking humans aren't smart. I know you're smart. I know how you two pursued us from the capital, too bad you got past my pet crawc, I'd raised her since she was a baby. Do you know how expensive it is to raise a crawc to that size?”
“Yeah well, we ate her,” I taunt. “I'm going to eat you too.”
“Ooooh, cannibalism, I've heard you humans do like that,” Cassell says, stepping closer. He thinks that the cables are tighter, that I can't reach my full distance, but he's wrong, and I'm strong enough that I only need one hand. I turn, my shoulder barely squeezing between the bars as I grab him by the tunic and yank, his forehead clanging off the bars and his torture device falling to the floor. I don't have a lot of time, he's stunned but not unconscious, and I kneel down, wrapping my arm around his neck and pinning him against the bars while I search his pockets for the keys to my shackles. He's just coming around when I find them and unlock my hands, freeing me. Cassell starts to fight, but I grind his forehead against the bar, he's nowhere near as good at taking pain as he is at administering it, and he cries out pitifully, whining. “My nose, my nose!”
“Use the keys to unlock my cell, or else I break it and unlock it myself while you scream for mercy,” I hiss into his ear. “You've got two seconds, Cassell. One....”
Cassell scrambles for the lock, grabbing for it desperately while I pass him the keys. He unlocks my door and I use my boot to slide it open, letting go of Cassell just long enough to step out and kick him in the back of the knee before he can take two steps. Maybe he was a gladiator once, but that was decades ago at least, and he's lost whatever resistance and training that he once had. He falls, and I grab him by the left arm, twisting his wrist as I yank him to his feet, the joint just on the edge of breaking. “P... please don't....”
“Your continued life depends on your cooperation,” I growl. “Remember, I was the Resistance leader and my gladiatorial skills are a hell of a lot better than anything you ever pretended to have. Now unlock Kelbara.”
Cassell does as ordered, and Kelbara rubs her aching wrists. Still, she doesn't hesitate at all, she's ready to fight. “What do you need, sir?”
“Get his play toy, we're going to use it on him if he even sneezes the wrong way. Then we move, Cassell here's going to guide us to the roof where we can contact friends. Aren't you, Cassell?”
“I.... I....” Cassell starts before Kelbara taps him with the end of his torture stick, making him scream in fear. He's used this device so many times he knows the effects of his own drugs even more than we do, and he's scared of them. Too bad we don't have a crawc in a tank nearby. “Okay, okay!”
“Now we walk nice and slow, you're going to lead us to an elevator that goes all the way to the roof. None of this getting us lost in the corridors, I can see your design's a maze. So you lead us right, or you die however many meters below ground this fucking level is.”
Cassell swallows and nods, and we walk out. The corridor's empty, even though there are plenty of troops here they're probably busy doing other things. “You won't be able to stop us,” Cassell says as we walk, my eyes looking everywhere. “There's too many guards.”
“Who aren't going to want to see their meal ticket killed,” I reply, stopping short as a guard comes around the corner. The guard sees us, but before he can turn I chase him, grabbing him by the shoulders and throwing him head first into the rock wall of the corridor. I hear the snap as his neck breaks, but I don't have time to mourn him as I quickly strip his body of his Gauss pistol and communicator, just what we needed. Looking around I see a door marked utility closet and I shove the body inside, hoping it won't be discovered for a few minutes at least. I jog back down the corridor, grabbing Cassell by the collar and jerking him forward. “Now move, you get to do some long needed cardio.”
We move down the corridor at a fast walk, the Gauss pistol from the guard jammed into Cassell's ribs while Kelbara fiddles with the torture device. “There's no shooting mechanism on this thing.”
“We'll ditch it later, when we have something better” I reply, pushing Cassell along. I see the elevator up ahead, and I hit the button, waiting a nervous eternity for the thing to arrive. While we wait I keep my attention on Cassell. “Do you really think the Queen's going to reward you for this? You're a fucking commoner, that ice bitch isn't going to reward you a damn thing.”
“Time will tell,” Cassell grunts. The elevator dings, and I shove him inside as soon as the doors are open enough. Kelbara jams the button for the roof, and looks, hitting the button for express action. “How'd you...?”
“I'm not an idiot Cassell, I can read the fucking board,” Kelbara replies. She takes out the communicator I passed to her, studying it. “I can tune it to royal frequencies, but we'll be transmitting in the open, no scrambling. We'll be able to be tracked.”
“Gotta risk it,” I reply, pointing to Cassell. “If anyone wants to cause something, we've got some protection at least. I figure Cassell here's gotta be good for absorbing at least one or two Gauss rounds before we get hit. Isn't that right?”
“You won't get away with this. I'm an important man!” Cassell whines, his whine cutting off when I jab him in the ribs with the pistol. “Please, don't!”
“Then don't give me a reason to shoot you,” I reply. “How much longer to the roof?”
“Two or three minutes, maybe? It's a slow elevator.”
I hum, nodding. “That's just enough time for some questions. Now, I'm not going to threaten you with pain. You don't
answer, I shoot you and we take our chances on our own. Got it?”
“How do I know you won't shoot me anyway?” Cassell asks, and I shrug.
“You don't. However, most people say I'm a man of honor. So if you want to see the sun again, you'll answer my questions and hope that I have more honor than Ambaris or Tauria,” I answer, shoving him across the elevator car and pointing the Gauss pistol at him. “So, shall we begin, or do you want me to shoot you now?”
Cassell looks into my eyes, and in his gaze I can see the skill that maybe did actually make him a successful gladiator, and definitely a successful businessman. He measures me, trying to see inside to find out if I'm being serious or if there's any wiggle room, but there isn't any. Finally, he sighs. “What do you want to know?”
“The rocket, how close is it to being launched?”
Cassell laughs, smirking. “Not that far from being launched at all. Tauria's plan was this evening, but if we have to, we can hurry that up. I'll admit, the royals little attack on Omicron that disabled their multiplexing antenna was a smart one. Once Tauria's up there, things will go quickly. She's reviewed the launch procedures totally, and even then we're going to have one of our electronics experts go with her.”
“Not you?” I ask, surprised. “What, scared the rocket will give you a heart attack?”
The elevator slows, and the doors open. Cassell shakes his head, grunting as the cold hits us. “No. I'm staying here to coordinate the ground attack on any remaining troops who might think of fighting for Tauren or that abomination that's pretending to be Queen. And yes, I know she's your sister. Still... a human pretending to be Queen of Tamaria. Hideous.”
“Yeah well, let's see what happens, shall we?” I reply, pushing him out into the cold. “Things should get very interesting very quickly. And I'd watch who you're calling hideous.”
Chapter 21
Kelbara
The roof is desolate and windswept, and I'm almost immediately freezing cold. While our captors didn't take away our basic clothes, they did take away our survival ponchos, and the wind cuts through my tunic like a knife. Even Jensen's slightly heavyweight jumpsuit looks like it's doing nothing to stop him from the chill of the wind.
“So where are your forces based?” Jensen asks Cassell, pushing him with his free hand. “How many do you have?”
“Millions, millions of hardworking, decent Tamarians are on our side. Believe me, they're just waiting for the sign from their Queen, and you'll have chaos and bloodshed in the streets! When your pretender gets overthrown, the celebration is going to be huge!” Cassell rants, and while I can tell he's lying, it's not by much.
In fact, his words chill me almost as much as the wind. Tauren, in taking over the government, has tried to create peace among Tamarians and humans by not going on a witch hunt, on either side. Human radicals who followed the ideas of Mathias were granted immunity for their acts prior to Tauren taking the throne, while on the same side almost all Tamarians were granted the same immunity. I myself have benefited from this, in that my slaving activities were wiped away. While my keeping of the title 'Lady' from the royal court has been a favor due to my actions in helping Tauren, the forgiveness of my past is, at least in the eyes of the law, the same as it is for all Tamarians and humans. The only exception was Ambaris, whose crime wasn't slaving but assault against the King.
Tauren hoped, and for the most part it's worked, that by granting amnesty to acts prior to his taking the throne, that humans and Tamarians would find a way to coexist peacefully. Police forces have harshly punished anti-human or anti-Tamarian violence since then, but that's unavoidable. He hasn't been so arrogant as to assume that things will just magically correct themselves, but we wanted to avoid the mistakes that Earth made when it tried to integrate societies. He knew that going for revenge on the side of humans would create resentment among the Tamarians, but at the same time we need to take steps to make sure that capable humans weren't being held back because of their former slave status. It's still a work in progress.
Still, we knew that regardless of how perfect the integration programs ran, there would be opposition. Unfortunately, Cassell is right, if given the chance, a lot of Tamarians would want the return of the old system. The ironic part is that the Tamarians who would most likely fight if given the chance are the ones who have the greatest opportunity with the abolition of slavery. The small, slaveless shop owner or farmer who could only just scrape by under the old system as they were held down by the large slave owning competition are also the biggest group of people wanting to fight for the return of the old regime. It only takes the right figurehead to rally around, and the right number of rabble rousers who can finance and fire them up.
Such as a figurehead like Tauria. With slavers like Ambaris to provide the fighting men and rich merchants like Cassell to finance it all, they are a legitimate threat to Tauren's government. “You're not going to succeed,” I reply with only a little bit of false optimism, taking out the stolen communicator and turning it on. “You're going to fail.”
“Fail? Our victory is guaranteed,” Cassell laughs. “You cannot stop the rocket launch, and you cannot stop the destruction of your capital. Our victory will be in days.”
“It doesn't matter,” I shoot back. Maybe my last words were bravado, but these come from the heart, from deep down in the same place where Jensen touched me the first time we made love. “Don't you get it, Cassell? Your system was crumbling from within even before Tauren took the crown. Your own wealth was built on taking advantage of the corruption that was taking down the system. The system was built on repression and just.... it was fucking evil!”
“Is it?” Cassell asks, smirking. “It was a system that lasted thousands of years. It is a strong system that had a hiccup, that's all. It's a system built on the natural order of things, not some perverted abomination.”
I turn away in angry disgust, glad that I don't have the Gauss pistol or else I'd shoot him right now. Instead, I start signaling the capital, trying to raise Tauren or his forces. “Kelbara to Tauren, Kelbara to Tauren, come in please. Mogar, Audra, anyone, this is Kelbara.”
I try again and again, but there's no reply. “Jensen? We've got a problem.”
“What?” Jensen asks, glancing at me.
“I can't raise any of the royal forces on the radio. I'm transmitting in the open frequencies too. Someone should hear me.”
Jensen half turns, and Cassell jumps towards Jensen, who pivots, trying to throw the man off even as he's caught off guard. Jensen's Gauss pistol goes skittering across the rooftop though, and I run after it, picking it up before it can go sliding over the edge of the roof. I turn back to try and help, but Jensen and Cassell are chest to chest, grappling. If I use the stun stick, there's a chance I could electrocute them both, and they're rolling too fast for me to feel comfortable trying to use the pain injector to break it up.
Cassell's got his massive arms entwined in Jensen, and he's trying to force his hands towards Jensen's face. “Jensen, his rings!”
Jensen's too caught up in the fight to reply, but I run over, trying to help any way I can. I lash out with a hard kick, catching Cassell in the hip, but he's just so massive that my foot barely makes him grunt. I can't shoot them, the Gauss round would go through Cassell into Jensen, killing them both.
“Die!” Cassell grunts, but before he can trigger the black gemstone on his left hand, Jensen twists the finger, the sound of it breaking audible even over the wind. Cassell shrieks, and Jensen rolls them both with his hips, getting on top of the massive man. Jensen punches him in the face, Cassell's head rapping against the roof with a hollow thunk.
“What's stopping the transmission?” Jensen yells, grabbing Cassell by the lapels of his tunic and bouncing his head off the roof again. “What's stopping the signal?”
Cassell struggles, but he's out of shape, his strength is fading quickly, and he doesn't have a lot of fight left. Still, he won't answer, and Jensen slaps him across
the face, backhanding him and bloodying his nose. “It's cold up here, Cassell. I can use the exercise to keep me warm for a long fucking time. Now what's stopping the signal?”
“An... tenna,” Cassell grunts, collapsing back. Jensen stops, looking at me.
“They've got a Faraday field active,” he says, surprised. “That takes a lot of power.”
“You said they probably have geothermal power here,” I remind him. “Maybe that's enough.”
“Where's the antenna?” Jensen asks Cassell, cocking a hand back again. “Where are the controls?”
“Level.... five,” Cassell grunts again, but suddenly he jerks his hands up. A pink ring on his right hand sprays into Jensen's face and he coughs, rolling to the side. Cassell's up in an instant, moving faster than I thought he could, diving even as I fire at him. I think I hit him, but I'm not sure, he's through the door of a stairwell and before I can follow he's out of sight. I run back to Jensen, who's coughing and rubbing at his eyes.
“Are you all right?”
He takes a deep breath, groaning before coughing violently, wiping his face with the sleeve of his jumpsuit. “Yeah... I think so. Whatever it was, it's not painful, and I think my vision's returning. We need to get out of here, get to level five.”
“Are you insane?” I ask, helping him to his feet. “Cassell's going to have every guard in the complex there!”
“Maybe,” Jensen says, stumbling towards the elevator. “But I don't think he was lying. And that Faraday field, it's also what stopped us from detecting their weapons before it was too late. We need to get that system deactivated, get a message out.”
I nod, understanding. “All right then. But I take the lead.”
“Why?” Jensen asks, still blinking as the elevator door opens. I check the interior, but so far we're empty.
Red Planet: The Revolt (Tamarians Book 2) Page 17