“Tiger.” Her voice is like a gentle breeze wafting up through the darkness of the room.
“Hmmm?”
“You really don’t think we’ll live through this?”
He opens one eye. Alarm bells go off. Where’s she going with this?
“I didn’t say that. I said I don’t think we’ll win.”
“Then humor me.”
Uh-oh. Here we go! “How?” he asks guardedly.
“Lie to me. Tell me that if we do win … by some miracle, we live through this … we make it through … that you’ll stay here with me.”
“Starr …”
“I know it’ll be a lie. I know you’ll never stay. You’ll be off on the next adventure … finding the next bully to fight, the next lost cause, but right now, I’d love to hear you lie.”
He lies there in the darkness at a total loss. He’s been lying to women all his life. Now that he’s got permission to, he can’t bring himself to do it and has no idea why. After all, he lied to Lulah for years, promising each run would be his last, knowing full he would never be able to give up the life. She knew it too. She just got tired of playing along.
Why should it bother him now to humor an android with apparent issues? This should be the easiest fucking line of shit he’ll ever get to shoot. And yet ...
“I can’t, Star.” He pulls her into him tightly. “I can’t lie to you. I can’t just tell you what you want to hear. I’m sorry, I wish I could, but you mean more to me than that.”
She sighs out contentedly, and in the darkness, unnoticed by him, a lone tear rolls down her synthetic face.
“You just told me everything I ever wanted to know.”
They lie quietly for a few more moments, both meditating on their complicated relationship. She knows it’s about to get more complicated.
“Tiger, there’s something I need to tell you.” He feels her body tense against him. He knows it’s something he isn’t going to want to hear. “It’s important that you know.”
“What is it?”
“When we first started dating … I was ordered by Cody to seduce you into staying and fighting. He said we needed pilots like you.”
“Is that so?”
“But I couldn’t do it. You have to believe me. I never tried to influence you into staying. I need you to know that. I only wanted you to stay for one reason … for me.”
“That’s a damned good reason!” He kisses the back of her neck softly.
“It’s the truth. I need you to know everything. If we’re nearing the end, I want no secrets between us.”
There was a long silence. They lay motionless in the darkness. Finally, she can take it no longer.
“Tiger? Are you mad?” Still no answer. She’s beginning to worry. “Tiger?”
His breathing changes slightly, a gentle snoring against the back of her neck. She smiles.
“I love you, Tiger,” she whispers. “Forever and ever!”
«◊»
Chapter 17
“All right, Shaniqua, I wanna pre-launch check on all systems! ASAP!” Tiger instructed the ship as he slid into the Night Mare’s pilot’s seat. “Anything that’s not up to snuff, I wanna know now.”
“Hey! For yore information, I’m in tip-top shape, thank ya very much!” Of course, Shaniqua seemed to take offense. Tiger’s eyes narrowed. He was not looking forward to dealing with a rocket with an attitude.
“Well, how ‘bout humorin’ me and runnin’ it anyways!” he ordered curtly, reaching for the shiny new flight helmet hanging on a hook beside him.
“Hey, hey! No sense in bein’ ugly about it!” She was suddenly defensive. “For yore information, I’d already taken the liberty of performing those checks and boy, lemme tell ya … I am one fine ass piece of work! Only thing wrong with me is I’m about to catch a cold from being stuck down here in all this dampness! Y’know, a precision-built piece of high-tech marvel like myself was never meant to be stored away for years in these wet conditions.”
“Well, you can blame your beloved Dee for that! I had absolutely nothing to do with it, so I really don’t care to hear it.” Tiger tapped the control pad in front of him. Instantly, the multi-hued display screen popped up. Tapping the icons to fire up the main engines, he felt the familiar rumble and vibration under his feet as giant rockets ignited below him. He felt that shudder work up into the cushioned back of his chair as the engines slowly cycled their way up to full power. It was therapeutic, like a drug coursing through his veins, almost sexual. It was a gentle massage for his aching bones, a reward for spending the night lying under an armored hovercraft on a magnicrete tarmac. He tapped some more icons, and a series of beeps and chirps sounded.
The cockpit of the big black ship sat high up, almost twenty feet off the hangar floor. There was something about this lofty perch that made him feel different than he did when he’d sat at the controls of a Charger. Even though it was only psychological, it somehow made him feel more powerful, almost invincible. It seemed everything about this ship was designed to instill confidence and a feeling of superiority in the pilot. He knew Cap’n Reb all too well. This design feature was no accident.
“Pre-launch check shows all systems coming online, sugah,” Shaniqua informed him. He noticed her tone was a little more professional now, as they grew closer to launch.
“You wanna tell me how we’re gonna get outta here?” he asked her. He could see no visible hangar doors that would open. As far as he could tell, the ship had, for all intents and purposes, been interred in this hangar with no apparent means of exit.
“When we’re ready to launch, just lemme know, I’ll blast us outta here!” she told him.
“Well, let’s do it then, shall we? Commence launch countdown on my mark.” He put the
