I looked at Barangail, as Mack set his elbows on the table and rested his chin in his hands.
“We can do this easy or hard,” his Lordship said, and his eyes flicked to the men I knew were standing alongside the wall behind me.
I set my spoon on the table, wondering if falling asleep in my sorbet would have been worth the enjoyment of eating it—and then I started to push my chair away from the table.
I stopped almost immediately, too, since, even on nans, I wasn’t going to be able to avoid the shot from a blaster pressed up against my skull—or get to the guys on the opposite side of the room before they’d gotten off half a dozen shots. Yeah, that would hurt, it being real close range, and all.
Taking a deep breath, I slowly raised my hands, and cautiously turned my head to look at Barangail.
“I guess you got me,” I said, and the bastard was grinning as he pulled his stunner and shot me.
Last thing I saw for a while was him picking up his spoon and going back to his sorbet.
10—The Missing Bracelet Mission
First thing I saw, when I woke up was Mack. He was standing about a meter and a half off the edge of the bed looking down at me. Made me wonder what he was doing standing so far off, when, usually, he was right alongside. I sat up, mouth feeling desert dry, and like half a planet had curled up and died inside it. My head wasn’t very happy with me, either, but I got the impression it should be feeling a lot worse than it did—I guess the stim pack hadn’t worn off, yet... or Mack and Doc had added some fast-healing nanites to the mix.
I might ask him about that.
Mack was watching me, but he wasn’t saying a word. Not even in my head. Hmmm...
I checked the implant, looking for the usual quartet of trouble, and was not entirely surprised when I didn’t find it. Their links were still there, but they weren’t. In other circumstances, I might have felt relieved. Not this time.
I checked to see if I still had my unwanted passengers. Have to admit, it was a pleasant surprise to find they were completely absent, as well. I looked over at Mack, and wondered why he was keeping his distance. Walking up to him, and trying to poke him in the chest made that obvious.
The cell we were in was divided down the middle by a solid barrier. It wasn’t glass, and it was completely invisible, but it was there. I poked it, once more, and heard a hum vibrate through it. Mack backed up a step, so I did the same. The hum came, again.
Mack backed up, again. This time he took two steps, and I was just as quick to copy him. It was a good thing, too. Light arced through what looked like a foot of invisible wall, and white streamers of power fizzed and crackled over its surface. Uh huh. Cute.
I stared at it, until the lightnings died down, and then looked back up at Mack.
“Force field?” I asked, and watched him frown.
Well, at least I knew he couldn’t hear me, either.
I looked around the cell. Our halves were identical, right down to the fact my side no longer had a bed. Staring at the space it had been in, I wondered where the damn thing had gone, and then I looked more closely at the walls.
There was no door.
I turned slowly, surveying every inch of wall I could see.
There was no door on Mack’s side, either.
Huh. Not cool.
I backed up to the wall opposite Mack, and folded my arms across my chest. I figured it wouldn’t take long before someone arrived. It would be just like Barangail to have the cells monitored, until we woke up and he could negotiate from a position of power.
His voice, when it came through the speakers, still came as a surprise—I’d been expecting him to actually appear.
“There was an assassination attempt, last night,” he said, and I rolled my eyes.
Sure, there was.
Barangail didn’t immediately add any more, letting the silence stretch for the minute it took me to remember Case talking about the job she and Steppy had been hired to do. When I did, I frowned. I’d been pretty sure they were still in the planning stages.
That thought made me relax, and I stayed, propped up against the wall, waiting for Barangail to get sick of the quiet. It took longer than I’d expected, and I wondered why he’d thought that news would make either of us react.
“Don’t you want to know who the target was?”
Mack sighed, and I focused on his face. It held an all-too-familiar look of impatience.
“Not our business to get into the local politics,” he said. “Speaking of which...”
He let the words trail off, inviting Barangail to follow the lead.
“Yes, business,” he said, and smoothly changed the topic. “I need you to fetch me a bracelet.”
I leant my head back against the wall.
“Would help if we knew what the bracelet looked like,” I said, making it sound like he was ten kinds of stupid for not having shown it already.
I didn’t need to look at Mack to know he was either rolling his eyes or glaring at me... Wait! I’d been able to hear Mack! Did that mean he could actually hear me, now? I straightened up and pushed off the wall.
“Mack?”
“What is it Cutter?”
He sounded tired, and I didn’t have an answer for him; I was just glad to be able to hear his voice. Before I could think of a reply, the wall flashed white between us, leaving
