It was only a moment of distraction but it was enough for her to rush to my side.
“Good work,” I said.
Afzit the younger took a step toward us.
I cut a small slit in the elder brother’s throat to match the one he gave me. It was enough for the younger brother to stay his hand.
“Drop the shiv,” I said.
“You said you would let him go if I let her go,” he said.
“You didn’t let her go. She let herself go. Drop the shiv or I’ll murder your brother with his own blade. Drop it.”
The twin ground his teeth and placed it on the ground. I didn’t remove my eyes from him until he stood up again. If I thought that was the only blade he had on him, I was a fool. He could easily hurl a blade at our backs as we fled.
“Lie down,” I said. “Face down. Hands on the back of your head.”
The twin just glared at me, then slowly got down and did as I told him.
“Hand me the bedpost,” I said to Agatha, not taking my eyes from the other prostrate brother.
Agatha did. Now I had a shiv in one hand and an effective cudgel in the other.
“Stand over there,” I told her.
It was far away enough from both brothers in case either one was preparing to attack.
I stepped forward and struck the second brother across the back of the head, the unseen blow knocking him out cold. His body went limp, knocked unconscious for the second time from the same weapon.
I drew the cudgel back high and, with five or six hard blows, smashed his skull open like a ripe qualli. I slit the neck of the elder brother. His blood seeped from his neck and pooled over the floor.
Agatha stood aghast.
“I-I thought you were going to let them go?” she said.
“And risk them coming after us again? I don’t think so. I gave them a second chance. They won’t get a third.”
I tucked the twins’ shivs in the band of my pants.
“Trust me, the prison is a better place now.”
Not that that was saying much.
I took Agatha by the hand and was surprised with how little friction she put up.
We drew up to the pit where three, maybe four, figures lay sprawled faced down in the sand. A terrible fight had taken place down there and for a moment, I wished I had been there to witness it.
I could have placed a bet and earned a few credits. I’d always been pretty good at spotting the stronger fighter, although I was certain sometimes the fighters threw their fights. I guess there were cheats in every enterprise so it wasn’t surprising.
We were drawing closer to the Prize Pool at the end of the hall. Something was going on inside the science lab. I tore my eyes away from it as it wasn’t my escape route.
We crept further down the hall to the Prize Pool. I heard loud footsteps approaching from an adjacent hallway and paused.
I held out an arm and blocked Agatha’s approach. An angry mob of a dozen prisoners or so descended upon the Prize Pool. They were held at bay by fighters I recognized as those belonging to Inchun the Klika.
Odd, I thought, that they should be sending reinforcements here when there was so much call for them elsewhere. After all, Klika was the most powerful gang in the prison and they could really clean up if they used all the forces at their disposal. Instead, they were defending the Prize Pool from attacks.
But one thing was for sure.
There was no way we were getting in through this entrance.
I was aware there were other entrances, so I took us around this obstruction and checked each of the others, gnashing my teeth at the time this was taking me.
I discovered all the entrances were under attack and equally defended by other members of the Klika gang.
Damn me for trying to be noble!
I turned on Agatha.
“Do you know of any other ways into the Prize Pool?”
“No. Just the ones you’ve seen.”
I growled and stamped my foot.
“Is there anywhere you would feel safe other than the Prize Pool?”
“Are you kidding? I’m not sure I would even be safe in there!”
As hard as the prisoners were fighting to get at the girls in the Prize Pool, none had yet breached their defenses, and unless I missed my guess, they weren’t going to.
“We’re going to have to get you somewhere safe before I get out of here,” I said.
“Get out?” Agatha said. “How are you going to get out?”
Damn me for a fool!
I never meant to let her into my little plan to escape.
“It doesn’t matter how,” I snapped.
“Even if you get out there, you’ll never survive! Everyone knows that.”
“Some survive.”
Agatha looked me over, her eyes scanning my triumphant smile and confident manner.
“You could survive out there? How?”
“Because we’re not all from wet planets with enough water to drown in. Some of us are from planets not much different to this one.”
Agatha must have seen I was being serious.
“Take me with you,” she said.
“It’s going to be risky and I don’t want you slowing me down.”
“I won’t slow you down.”
“Yes, you will.”
She grabbed me by the lapels of my shirt—at least, she would have if she could reach—and jammed her face in mine.
“No, I won’t,” she growled.
I marveled at her gumption.
And why couldn’t she come with me? So long as she kept up and didn’t slow me down, there was no need to leave her behind to be brutally raped. Not that dying beneath a baking hot sun would be much better if it came to it.
“Fine, I’ll take you,” I said. “But no whining. If you slow me down, I’m leaving you behind. Understood?”
She nodded but didn’t say a word.
“And you have to do everything I say when I say it,” I added.
“Quit talking and get us out of here!”
