that’s a story for another time. What the devil happened to you, Marine? Who did this to you?”
“Don’t know for sure,” he slurred. “Looked like ISS types, but that couldn’t be.”
Jodi looked at him strangely. “Yes, I’m afraid it could, Eustus,” she told him. “You were arrested, I take it. Do you have any idea why?”
“They wanted me to kill Reza,” he told her.
“Who? Who did?”
“Don’t know.” He winced as she accidentally blotted over a particularly nasty gash, where one of his assailants had landed a blow with a set of brass knuckles. “The commodore ordered me to do it, but I don’t know where exactly the orders came from. All I know is that she didn’t seem to care for them any more than I did.” He had known that Marchand was putting on an act. She was too good an officer to have done otherwise.
“I guess you refused, didn’t you?” she asked.
He nodded, feeling his neck muscles spasm with the effort. “Yeah, I gave them the ‘hell no’ routine, and found myself charged with treason for refusing to commit murder. Imagine that.” He shook his head, careful not to interrupt the rhythm of the blacksmith’s hammer banging in his skull. “After you and Reza were taken off a while ago,” he went on as Jodi slowly helped him into a sitting position, “they brought me here and half a dozen goons in ISS uniforms paralyzed me and then took turns remapping my face.”
Jodi smiled. “It’s a definite improvement, Camden.”
Eustus managed a weak smile. “Thanks loads, commander.” He suddenly turned serious. “Commander, I’m not one normally prone to foul language, but just what the fuck is going on?”
“Maybe I can fill you in,” came a voice from the doorway. Silhouetted was a huge man in a Marine uniform, with four other, darker, forms behind him.
“Thorella,” Eustus hissed.
“That’s General Thorella to you, Marine,” he shot back icily as he and four ISS guards entered the room, sealing the door behind them. Just before it closed, Eustus glimpsed two more figures outside. “It seems you still have a lot to learn about basic military etiquette.”
“That’s a pretty big word for a Neanderthal like you, general,” Jodi said. She came to her feet, standing between Thorella and his men, and Eustus, who was still unable to stand. “Or should I call you by your real name… Anton Borge?”
Thorella laughed. “Don’t be an idiot, commander,” he told her casually as he took another step closer. “Anton Borge died a long, long time ago, the victim of a tragic accident.” The smile. “As you know, of course.”
Jodi felt chilled under his black, lifeless stare. Except that it wasn’t lifeless. Not this time. There was a ripple, a crawling twinkle, like light reflecting from oozing crude oil, or a parasite boring its way just below dark and dank soil, that she saw there now. “You’ll never get away with what you’ve done, Anton,” she told him, standing her ground. “You’re going to hang.”
“I don’t think so,” he said quietly, eerily, as he stepped closer. “And you should not be so concerned with the past as with the present… and the immediate future.”
“You bastard,” Eustus growled. He recognized the men with Thorella as the ones who had beaten him. “You’re behind all this, aren’t you?”
“I see you need another lesson,” Thorella said pleasantly. Before either Jodi or Eustus could react, Thorella landed a sharp kick with his rough-soled boots on the left side of Eustus’s head, sending him sprawling across the floor.
“Jesus!” Jodi exclaimed. “Thorella, for the love of God–”
“You still don’t understand what’s happening, do you?” Thorella said, turning his attention from Eustus and back to her. “This isn’t some petty boot camp game, Mackenzie. This is life and death, and I get to play God.”
The dark form that she had seen wriggling in his eyes had transformed itself from a burrowing maggot to a glistening hydra, filled with hate and lust.
“You’re insane,” she said, her voice faltering as she took a step back, away from him. “Bug-fuck crazy.”
“Funny you should mention that word,” Thorella said, his smile gleaming dully. “
“No!” Eustus shouted from behind them, weakly propelling himself at the knot of men that was closing around Jodi.
“Hold him,” Thorella said contemptuously as two of the ISS men easily deflected Eustus’s attack and pinned his arms painfully behind his back. “Make him watch. You never know, Camden,” he said congenially, “you might learn something.” He turned back to Jodi. “Now, bitch, you can have this easy, or–”
Jodi chose that moment to strike, aiming a kick at Thorella’s left knee, her bellow of fury mixed with stark fear filling the room.
Thorella dodged it without noticeable effort. While Jodi was good, having learned her skills the hard way, in combat, Thorella had had years of close combat training and field experience, and was one of the most physically fit human beings in existence.
“–or the hard way,” he concluded. A huge fist arced out like a steel piston, striking her right collarbone, which snapped with a nauseating crunch.
Jodi screamed, her left hand reflexively reaching for the source of the electrifying pain that flashed through her body. Thorella casually reached out and grabbed her hand, spun her around, then brutally yanked it up and backward, forcing her hand almost to her neck and nearly dislocating her shoulder. Slamming her face-first into the wall, he took a handful of her hair in his other hand and began to rhythmically smash her face against the unyielding plastisteel, leaving smears of blood from her torn lips and battered nose on the antique white finish.
As she began to slide down the wall, battered senseless, her legs losing their strength, he took the opportunity to land a fist over each kidney, smiling to himself as he heard the satisfying snapping of some of her ribs.
“Stop it!” Eustus was screaming. “Stop it! You’re killing her!”
He let go of Jodi, who slid to the floor in a groaning heap, and turned to Eustus. “That’s the idea,” he said happily before landing a fist in Eustus’s solar plexus. Eustus collapsed in a gasping heap.
“Oh, look at that,” he said, mocking Jodi as she tried to crawl away from him. “What’s wrong, commander? Did I upset you? Here, let me help you.” He reached out and took another handful of Jodi’s hair, yanking her to her feet. “How do you feel, commander?”
“Fuck… you… asshole,” she sputtered, blood trickling down her chin.
“A woman with spirit, gentlemen,” he said to the others, who nodded approvingly. “But I’m afraid, my dear, that it’s you who are going to get fucked in the asshole.” With an easy movement, he slammed Jodi up against a polished oak table.
“No,” she whispered. “Please, don’t…”
“What’s the matter, Mackenzie?” he cooed as he removed his illegal Kreelan knife from an ankle sheath. “You want this, I know you do. A good fucking from a man will do wonders for a dyke bitch like you.” He inserted the knife blade at the back of her pants and started to cut. The sharp edge whispered down the cleft of her buttocks, parting the heavy material of her uniform and underwear like they were paper. When the blade reached the inseam, he stopped. Jodi felt the cold steel disappear.
“Goddamn you, Thorella,” she whispered, tears welling in her eyes as her body quivered with helpless rage and fear. “God damn you to hell.”
Thorella said nothing. Instead, he pulled her back a ways from the table and reinserted the blade, this time in the front of her pants, the blade cutting toward her crotch. He was leaning heavily against her now, and she could feel his throbbing erection against her exposed buttocks.
“Help, me, Father,” she whispered to herself. “Please.” She tried to struggle away, but Thorella was too strong. “Please…”
The blade left a thin trace of blood as it just barely cut the skin on its way down her quivering belly to her pubic mound, and then down, down. With a tiny hiss, the material parted. Thorella roughly pulled the halves of her pants down each leg with his knife hand while his other held her head pinned to the table.
“Thorella,” Eustus rasped, “please don’t do this. I’ll do anything you want…”
