Page 51

“It’s a bit of a story and we don’t have time. Let me neutralize the Befflien real quick though.”

She lifted her braids to expose her neck, which was bruised. I lightly touched the spots and then turned and landed a brutal kick to Cypher’s back.

“That’s the last time he’ll put his hands on you,” I said as I pressed the cylinder to her neck.

She jumped and stumbled forward and I caught her before she could fall.

“You alright?”

“Yeah…a little dizzy but it’s already fading.”

“Good, let’s get out of here. There’s a shuttle—”

“The virus, I’m already carrying it. Norris injected me with it a few minutes ago. It’s not live yet, but he’s supposed to do that in ten minutes.”

“Damn it. The person that helped me get back here might have a cure in a few weeks but—”

“Norris is here, in this wing. We take him with us and he could manufacture one, probably faster than anyone else.”

I let out a breath through my nose and tried to think quick.

When Prina made her move, it was going to be chaos at first. People would die, that was a certainty.

The wings would be locked down, presumably to protect any people evacuated there, which meant we could be trapped.

I had planned on killing the troublesome scientist, but if he was really the only one that could get this virus out of Zephyr…

“Look,” Zephyr took my hands, “I know that we both just experienced our worst nightmares, and all I want is to find that pleasure planet you talked about and hide there for a year at least. But I can’t do that if I’m afraid I might ‘go off’ at any time.

Plus, if we leave now, Norris can just go on creating these kinds of weapons.

We came here to do a job, and I need to finish it. ”

Cypher groaned on the floor and we both backed away as if from a violent animal. Neither of us were up for another confrontation with him just yet. Though the way that Zephyr was glaring at him I knew she wanted her shot at the bastard.

“He…he liked controlling me,” she hissed. “He made me kill you…made me…”

I took her face between my hands and turned her to face me.

“I’m here, I’m alive.”

She closed her eyes and gave me a slow nod.

“I want him dead.”

“Well,” I glanced down at him, “he’s still unconscious. We could—”

Alarms blared, cutting off my words. We were out of time.

Zephyr glared down at Cypher and then took off her heels.

“Let’s find Norris and get out of here,” she said.

“Damn right.”

We ran hand in hand down the hall to the main living space as the alarms continued, the sound of mechanical locks and security lockers opening, adding to the cacophony.

“His office and living quarters are this way,” Zephyr yelled above the din. “They took me there to get the injection.”

Her voice trembled when she said it and I was torn between wanting to fuck the bad memories away, and slowly kill those that had given them to her.

As we reached the door to the lab, panels along the wall opened, revealing a half dozen large security droids.

“Shit,” I said and we darted through the door and slammed it shut.

“Hopefully they won’t come in here,” Zephyr said as a pulse bolt sailed past our heads.

“Get out!” a bald, short man with pasty skin yelled. “I-I did the job and I’m done!”

“Stop,” I dodged another bolt, “we aren’t here to hurt you!”

“We need your help!” Zephyr said.

Norris stopped, eyes huge behind his glasses.

“You’re the one I…I’m so sorry I did that. I had no choice.”

“I don’t care,” she said, advancing on him. “I need you to create an antidote so I’m not a walking weapon.”

“Already have.” He dropped the rifle and held up a hypo with green solution in it.

We both blinked in confusion and frowned at one another, sending silent questions back and forth.

“I know you don’t have a reason to trust me,” Norris said, “but I truly didn’t want to create this.

I didn’t have the chance to make an antidote last time, but this time I made sure to create a failsafe in the nanites.

This solution will trigger that failsafe, making them dormant and your system should flush them out in a week or so. ”

“If you’re lying,” I barreled forward until I was towering over him, “I will flay the skin from your fucking body. Do you understand?”

Norris nodded fast and whimpered.

Something hard hit the door at that moment and he yelped.

“Nor-ris,” Cypher called in a sing song voice, “are you in there with the Cyborgs, you little traitor?”

“Oh no, no, no! He’s going to kill me!”

“I’ll handle him if he gets in,” I said, picking up the pulse rifle that Norris had dropped. “How long until it starts to work?”

“Less than a minute.”

Zephyr gave him a short nod to proceed and I ran to the door.

“Hey there, asshole,” I yelled through the door.

There was silence for a moment and then, “You’re supposed to be dead.”

I grinned.

“Yeah, it didn’t take.”

“Well, I guess I’ll have to gut you in front of her then.”

“We’ll see.”

Something even bigger than before slammed against the door, denting the damn thing.

“I really wish we had grenades or molotov cocktail,” I said to myself as Cypher continued to bang on the door.

When that didn’t work, the banging stopped and I wondered what he was going to try next.

The man didn’t strike me as the type to give up that easily.

In a few seconds, the hot, white light of a laz torch started to glow around the lock.

By this time Zephyr had joined me, rubbing her upper arm.

She’d traded her stunning dress for a pair of shorts and a shirt that obviously belonged to Norris.

When I raised an eyebrow, she shook her head.

“No way I was going to face him in that dress.”

“Are you up for this?”

“I need to kill this fucker.”

Ignoring the metal behind me getting brighter and hotter by the second, I turned to her and took stock of her face, her posture.

There were things I wanted to ask but had no right to, nor was it the appropriate time.

But not knowing ate at me. Did he put his hands on her naked body? Had he assaulted her?

Zephyr’s expression softened and she pressed a kiss to the palm of my cyber hand.

“He didn’t do what you’re worrying about,” she reassured me. “Taking control of me was…enough.”

With a lump in my throat I brought her into my arms and held her tight, breathing in her familiar scent and wishing I could take all this away.

“We’re gonna get through this and then I’m going to spend the rest of my life wiping all of it away.”

She nodded against my chest and then pulled back, a hard resolution in her eyes.

“But first,” the torch punched through the lock on the door and Zephyr grabbed the rifle from my hands, “I’m going to get some payback.”

Norris blubbered behind us and ducked behind a chair.

“You have any other weapons in here?” I barked.

“O-over th-there,” he sputtered, pointing at an open case on his bed.

“Why did Lady Seraph let you have these?” I asked as I snagged two blasters.

“I stole them,” Norris said.

“Huh, I’m impressed you had the balls.”

“I’m not a complete coward,” he said and then squealed as the door was blown open.

“Stay down!” I ordered him.

Cypher walked through holding the severed arm of a security droid.

Behind him were the remnants of that droid, its head smashed; it was obviously the thing he was using to try and break down the door.

Zephyr leveled her rifle to shoot him and he raised up a shield that also belonged to one of the droids.

The bolts bounced right off and I covered her as she ran back to where I stood behind an overturned sofa.

When she reached the couch, I stopped the fruitless barrage of laz bolts and ducked down too.

Norris whimpered between us and Zephyr rolled her eyes.

Cypher, however, swaggered into the room with the chagrin one might wear if they were late to a party.

“This is so convenient,” he said, “I need that blubbering meat sack named Norris, and I need you two dead. I really appreciate you making this easy for me.”

“What do you say, sweetheart,” I said, “a little bit of twenty questions?”

“I’m always up for a game,” she replied with a grin in her voice.

“Speaking in code, how adorable,” Cypher sneered.

“Are you a top or bottom?” Zephyr asked me.

“Bottom, baby.”

“Thought so.”

We both jumped up at the same time. I shot low toward his knees a half second before Zephyr shot high toward his chest. Cypher blocked my shot, but wasn’t fast enough to block Zephyr’s. The bolt struck him high up on the right, close to his shoulder.

“Switch!” she shouted.

He blocked his chest this time, and Zephyr shot low, hitting his knee cap.

“You bitch!” he bellowed as he fell to the floor.

There was a smoking hole in his right pectoral and left knee, yet still he wasn’t quite down for the count.

Cypher used the droid arm he still held and fired at us. The damn thing had a rapid firing mechanism and we ducked down behind the furniture for cover once again.

“He’s got us pinned,” I groused.

“And the security droids will be here soon,” Norris said. “They’ll be coming to see why one of their squad is dismantled.”

“Shit,” Zephyr said.

Norris pushed his glasses up his short nose and licked his lips nervously.

“You need a distraction to get him. And you’ll need to destroy that arm, it has the tracking information in it.”

“Okay,” I looked around to see what we could throw or use.

“I really am sorry for what I created,” Norris’ voice trembled.

“We know— Hey!” Zephyr shouted.

Norris darted out from behind cover and yelled as he barreled straight at Cypher with what looked like a scalpel in his hand.

Cypher caught him by the throat and threw him to the side against the wall.

The small man crumpled, his head bleeding, but it was enough to get Cypher to stop shooting, so Zephyr and I took the shot.

I got one in his stomach, while Zephyr used her crack shot skills to shoot the droid arm, which exploded. The flames burned Cypher’s hand and arm, causing him to drop it with a scream of pain.

“I’ve got Norris,” I said as we ran out from cover.

When I got to him, I saw with a sinking feeling that he’d fallen on a piece of metal which had punched straight through his chest. Blood pooled under him and he was crying as he grasped my hand.

“I-I need to…tell you…”

I knew he wouldn’t survive and from the look in his eyes, he knew it too. The man might’ve caused a hell of a lot of pain, but he didn’t deserve to die alone. So I sat down and nodded.

“Go ahead, tell me.”

“There’s…one more…the original…carrier is…alive. Find her…before…GUP does.”

The bottom dropped out of my stomach.

“Where is she?”

“Serahn…desert planet…follow…the…corpses…”

Blood bubbled up from his mouth and terror lit up his eyes.

“Easy, easy, I’m here.”

He was trying to say more but the only thing that came out was a gurgling sound that ended with pink foam dripping out of his mouth. I sat with him and watched the light fade in his eyes, until his hands went limp.

Behind me, Cypher let out a muffled cry and I turned around to see Zephyr standing on his busted knee.

“That’s my girl,” I said, getting to my feet and ambling over. “Thanks for waiting for me.”

“No problem,” she growled. “What part do you want?”

I aimed at his burned hand and shot it off, the stump charred and cauterized from the bolt. He gave a deep, roaring scream and tried to sit up. Zephyr put more pressure on his knee, which crunched under her foot.

“You…fucking…bitch!” he spat out.

In answer, she pressed the end of the rifle to his throat and stared into his eyes.

“I want the last thing you see in this life to be the face of the one who beat you. The one that got the best parts of the commander, the parts you never did. I want your failure to be the last thing you taste.”

Fury poured out of his dead eyes.

“Fuck—”

Her bolt hit his throat and severed his head from his body, flesh, blood and tendons splattering all over the floor. Zephyr’s gaze held nothing but fury, no regret, no sadness as she stared at what she’d done.

“It’s over,” she said, disbelief coloring her voice.

“Yeah, sweetheart, it’s over.”

I took the rifle from her numb fingers and guided her away from the bodies, out the hall that led straight to Lady Seraph’s opulent living room.

The moment she saw the couch, her knees gave out.

I scooped her up in my arms, relishing the contact, the truth that this was over now hitting me as well.

The adrenaline left Zephyr shaky, cold sweat breaking out on her skin.

“I’ve got you, sweetheart.”

“We did it,” her teeth chattered.

I pressed obsessive kisses to her forehead, her scent grounding me. She was safe, in my arms and we were free from the lives the commander that thrown us into. We could go anywhere, be anything.

And we could do it together.

I wanted to shout for joy, to lay beside her and sleep for a week after fucking us both into oblivion. But we had to get to that shuttle first and hope that Prina’s coup had been successful.

I was trying to get my bearings and figure out the best way to get out of here, when my inner ear com crackled.

“Sherrod? Come in, Sherrod?”

Now my knees went a little weak and I let out a squeaky breath of relief.

“Zelena, it’s good to hear your voice.”

“Takes a lot more than that to kill me,” she said.

“Lady Prina wanted me to let you know that she has neutralized her aunt’s plot.

Seraph is dead, as is all of her faithful.

Lady Prina will be in touch, but for right now, you have her blessing to take some time in the Krynn wing to catch your breath before taking the shuttle to wherever you please. ”

A jagged breath of relief rushed from my lungs and tears stung my eyes.

“Thanks, I…”

“Yeah, I know,” Zelena said. “I’ll talk to you soon.”

For a long while we sat there, breathing together, sharing slow touches to reassure ourselves that we were both well and whole.

What Norris told me would have to be dealt with, but not right now. We could be heroes again later. Right now all I wanted was to just be Sherrod and Zephyr.