Page 39 of Solomon's Ransom

What could hedo? He wasn’t smart enough for this situation.

The guard had a gun. He was bigger than Remma, and he knew how to fight. Remma would have to be a fool to think he had a chance.

He had to try. He had to dosomething. He wasn’t going to let Sol die.

“You can make an exception for me,” he said, taking one small step closer to the guard. “I just want to see him, that’s all.”

“No exceptions,” the guard said.

“Just for a minute,” Remma said. Keep him talking, keep him distracted. “I’ll leave the door open the whole time.”

“I’ve got orders,” the guard said, and Remma took one more step and lunged for the gun.

He couldn’t have said afterward exactly what happened. One moment he was grappling with the guard for the gun; the next moment his shoulder was on fire and he was being slammed down onto the floor. The guard had gotten his arm twisted up behind his back and pinned him there with a knee between his shoulder blades. Remma tried to twist away, but that only made the pain worse.

“Stop squirming or I’ll break your arm,” the guard said. “That wasn’t smart.”

“Had to try,” Remma muttered, his cheek smashed against the floor.

“Pathetic,” the guard said. He lifted his knee away and began dragging Remma down the hallway. Remma didn’t fight. He fully believed the threat about having his arm broken, and he’d definitely be no use to Sol that way.

The guard didn’t take him far. At the next door down the hallway he stopped, opened the door, and shoved Remma inside.

“You’ll stay here until Denna decides what to do with you,” the guard said. “If you try to escape, I’ll shoot you.”

Remma didn’t reply. He didn’t have anything useful to say.

“Good,” the guard said, and slid the door shut.

Remma hauled himself to his feet and grabbed for the communication module.Ship? Can you hear me? Ship?

He was certain the ship could hear him, but there was no reply.

Well. Fuck.

FOURTEEN

The sudden blare of a siren startled Remma out of sleep. It was the ship’s emergency alarm. “Depressurization alert,” a voice said from some invisible speaker in his room. “Evacuate ship. Depressurization alert. Evacuate ship.”

Sol, Remma thought.

He scrambled out of bed and over to the door, scrabbling uselessly at the controls. Sleep dragged at him, bewildering him. He didn’t know what was going on. Evacuate ship.

The communication module was smooth beneath his hand.Ship, what’s going on?But the ship didn’t answer him. Maybe the module in this room didn’t work.

Remma paced back and forth in front of the door, panicked and helpless. There was nothing in the room he could use to try to break down the door. The ship was ignoring him. He and Sol were both going to die.

“Forgive me, Sol,” he whispered. All of this was his fault.

The door slid open. Remma’s head jerked up. Sol stood silhouetted in the doorway, grinning as though he couldn’t hear the siren in the hall, even though it was loud in Remma’s ears.

“Sol?” Remma said stupidly.

Sol came in and closed the door behind him. “How’d you end up in here?”

“Tried to take the guard’s gun. How’d you find me?”

“The ship told me,” Sol said. “Were you going to try to break me out?”