by James Cox
"Come, my darling," he said, after dessert, "I've something to show you."
Robin walked with planet-heavy weights dragging down her feet. Everett led her into the lowest level of the mansion's impressive basement.
"I have a guest who has been here longer than you, my heart. One who, unfortunately, disappointed me once too often."
He did something to the wall and the corner split open. A foul, acrid stench of unwashed flesh and sewage wafted out. Robin wanted to bend over and retch but Everett held her firm.
Dim light illuminated the room at the end of the passage. It deserved no better. Condensation and filth oozed down the walls and a cot with a dirty heap of rags on it rested in one corner. Then the rags moved.
"Speak with him, Robin," said Everett, thrusting her forward, "I think you'll find it most enlightening."
The rags shifted and shuffled until a face moved.
"H-hello," said Robin softly.
The man on the cot - boy, she corrected - gazed blankly at her. Then, slowly, recognition dawned on her. His skin hung loose off too-visible bones but the hair, the eyes...
"T-thomas? Turbo?"
"NO! NO!!" The man thrashed weakly. "NO! I WON'T! YOU CAN'T MAKE ME! You can't... You... you... no..." The words soon faded to unintelligible gibbering.
The room spun around Robin. Then the passage. Then the basement. A taste of fresher air...
A hard slap snapped Robin back into focus. Everett's face filled her vision.
"You know him, Robin? Is he, perchance, your dear lover TurboFan?"
Robin tasted bile and wanted to vomit.
"Yes, my dear. I know. How could I not? Dear Thomas is alive by my gratitude." Everett smiled with nothing but cruelty. "He led me to you, my heart. He was not much of a burner. He was sloppy and careless. Now... now he lives at my sufferance."
Fingers along her skin.
"Death would be a mercy to him, my sweet. You see, he is most tragically addicted to pandream. I did that to ease his pain. Do you want to ride in the dream, my love?"
"N-no... no." Robin barely managed the words. She closed her eyes and turned away.
"Then do not fail me again."
Aaron's arms dragging her along. Small comfort, Everett left.
***
Robin woke from a night of horrible nightmares. She showered hard, trying to wash away the filth she still felt. She dressed quickly, not even noticing the clothing that once scandalized her. She didn't really feel like breakfast but Everett insisted.
Robin paused outside the dining room. Voices, Aaron's and Barkeley's, drifted out.
"... is entirely too chancy." Aaron.
"But we haven't been compromised," said Barkeley, "and he is getting results."
"At a high expense." Aaron paused a moment. "His habits are... excessive."
"The price is of no consequence. We're still clearing more than he's costing us."
"I don't like it."
"It won't be much longer. Our operation here will terminate and we'll be shed of him, one way or another."
"Truth. It will be a shame to lose the girl, though. She's quite talented."
"We can take her with us."
That simple statement took away Robin's appetite.
"If he doesn't break her first."
"No risk either way. After last night she should be quite... open to our offer. If not there is always the aunt."
Robin bit down hard before she could cry out. Not daring to listen longer Robin took a few quiet steps back and walked noisily into the room.
Aaron and Barkeley sat at the table with the remains of a simple meal before them. Neither showed any hint of their conversation nor any sign that they knew she heard it. She looked around.
"You have a reprieve," said Aaron, "He's away for the day. You could laze around, I suppose. Better to work on Silverton, though."
A servant brought her a meal much plainer than Everett's fare. She choked down a few bites before seeking her terminal.
Robin worked as hard as she could to crack Silverton. After a few attempts she switched to something else long enough for Silverton to settle, then she tried it again. And again, and again.
Late in the afternoon Barkeley walked in.
"Still no luck? Well, don't worry yourself too much. Everett's not that bad, not to the girls at least. You won't get the dream."
"I'm trying to work." Robin tried and failed to put some punch behind the words.
"Work away. But think on options. You really don't have..."
Barkeley's expression hardened. He placed a comm to his ear and when he rose his blaster appeared in his hand.
"Stay here. Leave this room and you will die."
A few minutes after Barkeley left Robin grew curious. She sat at the terminal, too afraid to move and ashamed of herself for it. Then she rose and padded to the window. Look though she might she saw nothing but blackness broken by the lights around the pool. Finally, working up her nerve, Robin walked to the door and listened hard. She thought she heard something but couldn't identify it.
The door burst open and Aaron ran in, slamming her to the floor and tripping over her.
"Stuipd..."
Aaron started to curse her but the stumble saved his life. Three pulse bolts spatted the doorframe at chest level. Aaron had his blaster out and wisps of smoke drifted off of its coils. Robin crawled frantically for the terminal. She heard Aaron's blaster fire and several more shots and she was cramming herself under the desk.
***
Images.
The sound of Aaron doing something at the door. Heavy footsteps.
The crackle of energy discharge on metal.
A hand in her hair dragging her from beneath the desk. The smell of sweat and fear.
Aaron cursing as he levered her between himself and the doorway. A crushing arm holding her against him.
Fear flooding her.
The door panel shorting and sparking. Acrid fumes washing through the room. The smell of burnt insulation and heated metal.
Light flooding from the hallway as the door opened.
A shadowy figure.
Aaron leveling his blaster and firing.
The shadow stepping aside. Raising a weapon of its own.
HEAT! Searing, burning HEAT!!
The smell of burning hair and cooked flesh. And PAIN!
Aaron's arm tightening around her as they fell to the floor.
Memories...
***
When Robin opened her eyes logic told her only a short time had passed. She lay atop Aaron who twitched feebly beneath her. The stranger before her finished a kick that sent Aaron's blaster skidding across the floor.
The man looked above Robin. After a glance he motioned and another man joined him. Robin saw nothing but the weapons they pointed at her.
"Move aside. Don't try anything."
After a few feeble kicks Robin managed to comply. The second stranger strode to the terminal and started the powerup sequence. The wall at her back stopped Robin. When she finally tore her eyes away from the strangers then fell on Aaron. He lay unmoving on the floor where he fell. One eye stared blankly at the ceiling.
The other eye was gone along with half his head.
Robin's gut clenched at this. Moving her hand fearfully she touched her ear. It felt tender, as if sunburned, and her fingers came away wet. When she looked she saw blood and bits of...
Robin turned sideways and vomited hard. Fear flooded her and she retched again and again and again. When she finally emptied herself, totally, she felt a presence in front of her.
"Hold still."
The first stranger dabbed the side of her head with a cloth. Robin kept her eyes tightly closed, not wanting to see what he wiped off.
"Are you all right?"
With no weapons pointed at her Robin managed a look at the man. Icy eyes regarded her from beneath a shock of close-cropped blond hair. He exuded a silent menace Aaron and Barkeley together couldn't match.
She nodded.
"Who are you," he asked, "Are you a servant?"
"Check her rets," suggested the second man, now piling chips and dataspools into a bag.
Icy-eyes aimed something at Robin. Before she could scream it flashed. A retscanner! Spots swam in her vision.
"Heaven's flames!" After checking the scanner Icy-eyes turned his hard gaze back to Robin. "You're not a servant." Then, to Number Two, "It matches. Looks like we caught our burner."
"Feces!"
Icy-eyes tossed him the scanner. He checked for himself and turned a gaze only slightly less cold on her.
"The pious question," said Number Two, "is what to do with her."
Icy-eyes took Robin's arm and moved her to a chair.
"Listen to me closely," he said, "Your retinals match those of a burner who foolishly tried to compromise a system in which we have an interest. Have you been burning lately?"
Robin nodded. She wanted to look away but Icy-eyes' stare held her motionless.
"We also traced several very sophisticated burns to this location," continued Icy-eyes.
"To this machine," added Number Two.
"Were they yours?"
"Yes." Imminent death finally loosened her tongue. "I didn't want to but he made me. He made me! I didn't have a choice! If I didn't he... he..."
Icy-eyes stared hard at her. Then he nodded.
"Slib. I believe you. For now. Don't give me cause to regret it."
Relief washed through her as Icy-eyes sheathed his blaster. Number Two crushed Aaron's comm, pulled the powerclip from his blaster and unplugged and smashed the terminal's datajack.
"I suggest you stay here," said Icy-eyes.
Robin sat motionless. She shook but she didn't leave the chair. The two intruders stayed gone a long time. At first she heard them outside in the hallway but the sound faded and she hadn't heard anything for a long time. She jumped when the door opened and Icy-eyes strode through.
"You say you're not here willingly," he said, "You may just have a chance to prove that. My friend and I are looking for an associate of ours. He was so tall," he indicated a height less than his own, "black hair, brown eyes, slightly overweight. He was a burner too."
Thomas! thought Robin.
"I... Yes. No. He's in the basement." She took a breath. "H-he was... a friend of yours?"
"He did some work for us. The signature of his last message matches this terminal. It took us a long time to trace it." Then after a moment, "We searched the basement. Thoroughly."
"T-there was a hidden room. In the corner. I c-can..."
Icy-eyes nodded.
Robin walked steadily. That she could surprised her. She should be shaking too hard to move but she kept an even stride. She barely flinched when they crossed the main hallway and she spied four figures sprawled on the floor.
By the time Robin found the right corner Number Two had joined them.
"It's back there. I... I don't know how to open it."
Number Two pulled out a scanner and ran it around the walls.
"Heh. Not really meant to be hidden. Except from a baby."
Number Two did something and the corner split apart.
Robin saw a brief motion before a hard shove sent her stumbling down. A sizzling bolt split the air where she'd stood and then Icy-eyes had his blaster out with Number Two's a microsecond behind it. Another shot emerged from the darkness and Icy-eyes fired. The two of them exchanged glances and pulled Robin to her feet.
The dim light revealed Barkeley, quite dead.
"Any more surprises," demanded Icy-eyes.
"I... I... I d-don't know..."
Icy-eyes walked in first, blaster ready. Robin followed him and Number Two came behind, scanner out but blaster ready.
Thomas didn't move when Robin called his name. Still, she hadn't spoken loud. She walked to him, heedless now of the filth and stench, and shook his shoulder gently.
Though his body was warm no life gazed from his eyes.
The warm wetness flowing down her cheeks surprised Robin. She thought her tears long gone. When she turned and tried to speak Icy-eyes nodded and let her move away. Then he reached down and closed Thomas' eyes.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1. An Ordinary Day
Chapter 2. Enlisted
Chapter 3. The Good Soldier
Chapter 4. The Reward
Chapter 5. Old Journey, New Friends
Chapter 6. Truth Without Beauty
Chapter 7. The Eyes Now Closed
Chapter 8. Civilian Casualties
Chapter 9. Navy Liaison, Protocol Division
Chapter 10. The First Assignment
Chapter 11. The Seedy Side of Triumph
Chapter 12. An Aggressive Move
Chapter 13. The Silken Sledgehammer
Chapter 14. The Price of Virtue
Chapter 15. Old Demons
Chapter 16. Forging Steel
Chapter 17. Forging Friendships
Chapter 18. Old Friends and New Problems
Chapter 19. Treason And Manners
Chapter X: Afterword
Chapter Y: Preview