For a second, I blinked in confusion. “Did I kill Nox? No. I talked to her. I suggested options. She took one of them.”
Galina narrowed her eyes. “Care to tell me what that option might have been?”
“Nope. I don’t care to talk to you at all right now.”
“James…” she took a few seductive steps in my direction. “I apologize. For everything. You weren’t treated well. For the record, your criminal status has been revoked on Earth. I had to work hard to get that through the council—but I did it. There’s no need to thank me.”
I snorted.
She put a small hand up and rubbed my cheek with the backs of her fingers. “You’ve got days of stubble on you. Let’s go into your place and you can get cleaned up. Okay?”
I thought hard about it, and I almost went for it.
Galina was an evil woman, but we’d always had a thing for each other. Sometimes, I thought she was the love of my long and twisted life.
But then I thought of Etta, and I straightened my spine. “I’d rather you left, Galina.”
Surprised, she backed up a step. She looked kind of hurt. “All right. If that’s what you want. I’ll see you at our next deployment.”
She turned away, and she marched back in the direction of her aircar. It was in an open field, but there were trees she had to go through to get there.
I watched her go, and part of me regretted my choices. Her hips, her legs… they were moving smoothly in all the right ways.
Heaving a sigh, I turned and stepped up onto my porch again. I was going to need some beer tonight—a lot of beer. I might even have to go into Waycross for another twelve-pack.
As I reached for my screen door, however, I heard a funny sound.
Turning, I squinted, looking in every direction. I didn’t see Galina, or anyone else. But I did see her aircar. It was still squatting there in the field.
There was something else wrong, too. The birds were quiet. Dead quiet.
Walking through the wooded region toward the field, I kept swiveling my head around.
“Galina? Are you still out here pouting or something?”
I almost stepped on her. There she was, stretched out on the grass under a big oak. There was blood on her cheek, and she wasn’t moving.
-62-
“Etta!” I roared. “Etta! Come out here right now, girl!”
The wind rustled in the trees, but nothing else moved. I checked Galina’s pulse. It was there. She wasn’t dead, at least.
“She’s not dead, but this is a misdemeanor assault, daughter of mine. Show yourself!”
I heard a sound from above me. I looked up and jumped back.
Etta swung down out of the tree. She landed neatly and brushed her hands off on her pants.
“This body is weak—but it’s lighter. I can climb better than ever.”
“I’m glad you’re happy about that. What the hell did you do to Galina?”
She shrugged. “Don’t worry. She’ll probably live. That’s more than she deserves, Dad. You shouldn’t let her walk all over you.”
“Girl, that is my business. Are you really going back to your old ways? To murdering people and such-like?”
Etta looked troubled. She walked around, staring into the open fields and the shaggy trees that hung over the swamp.
“Dad… I think I have to leave. I never did belong on Earth… not entirely. Now, I’m feeling strangely invigorated. I was depressed at first, but… do you think grandpa put something else into that stew he made? Something… spicy?”
“Uh… he wouldn’t do that. I’m sure of it.” This was a flat-out lie, of course, but Etta took it in stride.
“I can’t go back to Central. Even if they did let me in again, I’d probably kill somebody within a week. I think my prefrontal cortex is smaller, weaker—maybe gone entirely. When I feel an emotion, I just act on it. I can’t help myself.”
I frowned. Etta had always been like that, but she did seem to be worse since the revive. She’d put a knife to my neck, and to Floramel’s. She’d conked Galina a good one, too.
“Where are you going to go?”
“Dust World. I’ll work with Floramel and grandpa. Three weird scientists and no rules. Who knows what we’ll come up with?”
She grinned at me, and even though it did me good to see her happy again, I couldn’t help but feel somewhat concerned as well. After all, this girl was Etta… but she also wasn’t. She was like a whole new daughter. Like Etta had a sister or something. A mean one.
“Okay,” I said. “You can go out there with my blessing. I don’t blame you a bit for wanting to leave the dungeons under Central after ten long years.”
Etta hugged me, and she clung to me for a full minute. When we parted, she headed toward the main house. My parents were going to be sad to see her go, even if she was wearing someone else’s face right now.
Working carefully, I picked Galina up and took her to my couch. She might need some medical attention, but I didn’t want to call any ambulances before Etta left. If she died on me… well, I’d talked myself out of worse things.
Like most legionnaires, I kept a basic medical kit in the house. It had nano-injectables, blood-packs and a diagnostic band. I put the band on her forehead, and it told me she had a concussion. Go figure.
The nanos seeped into her bloodstream and relieved the swelling. Around about seven in the evening, she woke up. She groaned and complained. She demanded champagne and a bucket of ice.
