Codename: Night Witch (27 page)

There were plenty of things in life that made Sigrid afraid, she wasn't immune to fear, but the terror she felt in that moment was like nothing she'd experienced before. She practically gasped aloud, slapping both hands over her mouth before collapsing back behind the tree.

The panicked wheezing of her breath and the pounding of her own heart sounded so loud she was sure the person must have heard it. And she didn't need to look back. She knew what was waiting for her out there.

That girl…

It was her. It was that—that
machine
from Bellatrix. One of Harry Jones's constructs.
One of his volunteers.

Sigrid would never forget her. Stronger and faster than Sigrid, she was more machine than woman. She had fought her on Bellatrix—twice—and very nearly died.

And now she was here.

She wouldn't be alone either. Harry Jones had made an army of them. She'd seen the factory—she'd blown it up. It had taken twelve of them to take her down on Bellatrix. Sigrid wasn't going to let them take her again.

Forgetting her stealth, all of her training, Sigrid leapt to her feet and ran. Crashing through the brush, she gave little thought to the ruckus she was making. Her only thought was to run. Flee. Escape.

A new alert flashed in her HUD. That thing was after her. It was coming for her and it was gaining on her fast.

Reaching deep within herself, Sigrid mustered every ounce of her stamina, running as fast as she could. She didn't dare lead that thing back to Nuria. She'd kill them all. She had to lead her away. In her haste and panic, Sigrid failed to see the looping curl of an outstretched root. It caught her ankle, tripping her and sending her crashing to the ground. Clawing at the loose earth, Sigrid scrambled to her knees.

"You're much louder than I remember," a voice said from in front of her.

Sigrid scanned frantically about her. She couldn't see anything or anyone, and nothing showed on any of her sensors.

"Who are you? Show yourself."

"Who am I?" the voice said, and Sigrid heard the bitter laughter—it was from behind her this time. "The question is, do you know who
you
are, Sigrid Novak?" The voice came from one side, then the other. It was all around her. "Do you even know
what
you are?"

Sigrid spun, whirling toward the voice. Her fist came up raised, ready to strike—

Only to find herself knocked flat on her backside. She hadn't even seen the strike coming. The swinging roundhouse kick landed square on the side of her head. Her jaw ached, and her vision went black for a second. It felt like she'd been hit with a steel pipe.

Panting, sobbing, Sigrid stared up at the figure as it swirled in and out of focus. She shook her head, trying desperately to clear her vision. The figure stepped forward.

For a moment, the only thing she saw was the muzzle of the large-caliber recoilless aimed squarely at her forehead. Then, slowly, her eyes drew back to move up and along the arm until she saw the woman holding it. The slim-fitting top she wore left much of her scarred midriff exposed, while her black leggings and tall military boots highlighted a figure that was as lean and powerful as it was dangerous. But it was the girl's eyes that struck Sigrid most of all. They were deep brown, round and large. They looked almost black in the dying evening light.

How many nights had Sigrid lost herself staring into those eyes?

"S-Suko?"

Sigrid blinked twice. She had to shake her head and look again to be sure. But it was her. As impossible as it seemed, it was her. It was Suko.

"Suko? I-I don't believe it!" Scrambling to her feet, Sigrid rushed toward her, ready to throw her arms about her.

But Suko shoved her back, clubbing her on the neck with the butt of her recoilless and forcing her down. Sigrid stared up at her, confused, bewildered. With her thumb on the arming hammer of the recoilless, Suko pulled it back, cocking it, and Sigrid heard the hiss of the weapon powering up.

"Don't you move," Suko said. "Stay down—or I swear I will put you down forever."

CHAPTER TWENTY
Identify

Blood flowed freely from the wound on the side of Sigrid's head where Suko had clubbed her. She touched it with her hand and it came back sticky and crimson. Sigrid stared at it in dismay. It wasn't the blood that bothered her, it wasn't even the pain. It was that Suko had done this—her Suko. She'd hit her with such violent force as to come within a hairsbreadth of killing her. And as Sigrid stared up the length of the gun barrel pointed at her face, she was quite certain Suko meant to kill her still.

"I asked you," Suko said, "who are you?"

Sigrid was on her knees on the forest floor. Utterly confused and terrified, she shook her head. "Suko, you're frightening me."

"
Who?
I won't ask you again!"

"I don't
understand!
I don't know what you want! Suko, why are you doing this?"

Taking a knee in front of her, Suko grabbed her by the scruff of her collar and shook her. Sigrid cried out and tried to look away, but Suko braced both sides of her face between her hands; the cold metal of the recoilless against her cheek was a chilling reminder: Suko wouldn't hesitate to kill her.

In a staccato monotone, Suko said, "Tell me who you are!"

Sobbing and sucking in short breaths, Sigrid answered, "I'm-I'm Sigrid. I'm Sigrid. My-my name is Sigrid Novak. Suko, you know me!"

"I
knew
you," Suko said. "Once. But that was a long time ago."

"Suko, please…!"

Ignoring the recoilless, Sigrid threw her arms around Suko's neck. She clamped on tight, holding to her like a drowning woman, for indeed she feared if she let go, it would be the end of her. Her cheeks were soaked with tears. Her nose ran freely, and her body shook with each ratcheted sob. She was terrified, though it wasn't dying that frightened her, but the fear that she knew
exactly
why Suko meant to do her harm. Sigrid hadn't forgotten her dream and the terrible, unforgivable things she'd done—none so terrible as blasting Suko in the chest, murdering her in cold blood.

Perhaps this was still that same nightmare. And if it was, then she was sure this would be the end.

A single red alert pulsed in Sigrid's HUD, strobing nearly as fast as her beating heart. Suko's grip on her was like a vice. Her finger tensed on the trigger. Suko was going to kill her.

Sigrid's PCM prompted her to action. Thousands of tactical scenarios were presented to her. Her choice was clear: Kill Suko, or be killed herself.

But killing Suko wasn't an option. She hadn't made her escape and come all this way to simply murder her lover. She couldn't do it. Even if it meant her own death.

Knowing this moment might be her last—ignoring the prompts from her PCM—Sigrid did something not listed in any of her tactical scenarios. She kissed Suko. Hard and full on the mouth. Suko's lips were cold, defiant. They stood firmly against her, as if refusing to let her in. Yet at the same time Sigrid felt Suko's grip on her relax. The gun was still pressed to her cheek, but her finger loosened on the trigger, and she let the hammer fall back.

In that moment, Sigrid sensed Suko's resolve to kill her waver, and she pressed her advantage.

"You know me, Suko. I'm Sigrid. I'm
your
Sigrid."

Through the blur of her tears, she saw that Suko was crying as well.

"You're not—"

"I am! Suko, it's me."

Suko shook her head. "But how…how can I be sure?"

"Because I love you. I love you, Suko. And you love me. I know you do. Please, Suko. Tell me what's going on!"

The gun dropped from Suko's hand. Suko's hands fell to her shoulders and then down her back. But this time it wasn't to restrain her or threaten her. This time it was for love.

"Sigrid?"

Sigrid nodded. Crying, she pulled Suko to her, holding to her so tightly she would have crushed a normal human. "Of
course
it's me. Suko, who did you think I was?"

"Sigrid?" She said it again.

"Yes. It's me. I'm here, my love. And I'm never leaving you again."

"I-I can't believe it. Sigrid, I…If this is some sort of trick—"

"It's not. I promise you."

Without warning—the recoilless long forgotten—Suko planted a kiss so hard on her it knocked her back onto the damp forest floor with Suko on top of her.

"It really is you, isn't it? You're back."

"I am. My God, Suko. What on Earth is going on? Why did you strike me like that? You know I would never hurt you. I could never—"

Suko shook her head. Tears fell from her eyes in large drops to land on her face, and Sigrid felt her body tense against her. "How can you even ask that—after everything? Sigrid…
you
know
."

But of course, Sigrid didn't.

Or did she? Somewhere deep down, perhaps in the part of her that remained locked away, the answers
were
there, weren't they? Perhaps she did know. Her missing six years—that was the key.

Sigrid knew what they were saying about her—the magistrate, Nuria, even Jaffer. Her crimes against the Federation were many. Yet in all this time it never occurred to her that she might have done something to hurt any of her friends, and it never, ever occurred to her that she would hurt Suko.

But that dream…

She'd tried to dismiss it as a nightmare. Now, she wasn't so sure. Suko would never try to kill her—not unless she had a very good reason. And the idea that she, Sigrid, might have done something so horrible as to drive Suko to do such a thing—it made her sick to her stomach. She was beyond anger. Beyond rage. She didn't want to murder Jones. In that moment, Sigrid wanted to kill herself.

"Suko… Whatever I've done, whatever you think I've done, you have to believe me, I don't remember—
anything!
"

Suko wiped her nose with the back of her hand. "What do you mean? How can you not remember?"

Sigrid sat up, kneeling beside her. "I don't. I don't remember a thing. Nothing before five days ago. All I know is we were on Bellatrix, and then I was here! I don't remember anything else. I woke up in some sort of research facility. I escaped. That was five days ago."

"
Five days?
Sigrid, it's been six years!"

"I know that now. But, Suko, I can't remember. It's like there's something—"

Sigrid heard the snap of a twig behind them. Without warning, she pushed Suko aside, rolling to the side and grasping the recoilless from where it lay on the ground. She got three rounds off before Suko piled on top of her, wrestling the weapon from her hands.

"Stop! Sigrid, don't. She's with me!"

The machine girl stood calmly, not ten meters from them. Each one of Sigrid's shots had been perfect—perfect kill shots aimed directly between her eyes—yet not one of the metal slugs had come within a nanometer of hitting her. Like Sigrid, the girl was that fast. Very fast. Sigrid stared up at her in terror—she might have even screamed, she wasn't sure as she wrestled against Suko's arms that pinned her down.

"Suko! No, she'll kill us all!"

The machine girl held a sidearm in her own hand. Sigrid waited for the inevitable killing blast. But the girl merely thrust the weapon back into the holster at her hip.

"You two are making far too much noise. It's a wonder you haven't brought the entire CTF down on us all."

Staring up in disbelief, Sigrid let Suko take the pistol from her hand.

"That thing," Sigrid said. "She's…she's with you?"

"This
thing
has a name," the machine girl said. "Or have you forgotten that too?"

"You, you're—"

"Victoria," Victoria said. She held out a hand and hefted Sigrid to her feet. "Pleased to meet you. Again."

Suko slipped her own recoilless back into her holster. Rising, she came to stand next to them. "Victoria's been with me ever since Bellatrix. She's the one you—"

"I remember," Sigrid said, cutting her off. "She almost killed me."

"Twice," Victoria said. "Not that anyone's counting."

Stepping forward, Sigrid circled her. While she
was
Victoria, this wasn't the same woman she'd encountered on Bellatrix. There were changes.

On Bellatrix, it was easy to forget that Victoria had ever been a human girl at all. In his quest to duplicate Hitomi's work, Harry Jones had been merciless. Ruthless even. With girls like Victoria, what couldn't be enhanced or improved was cut away and discarded. Victoria's limbs—in fact, most of her skeletal structure, even her organs—had been either hacked off or gouged out to be replaced by artificial constructs.

But to look at her now…

Standing before Sigrid wasn't some machine. This was a woman; one who looked almost entirely human, at least superficially. The metal and plastic coverings of her arms and legs were gone. In their place appeared very human-looking flesh. But the work was incomplete. While one of her arms appeared perfectly toned, extending from a strong yet feminine shoulder, the other looked completely robotic. It was as if the work transforming her had been suddenly interrupted.

Yet it was in her eyes where Victoria's transformation from machine to woman was its most profound. Gone were the artificial lenses. In their place Sigrid saw two green irises, round and perfectly natural to look at, if quite beautiful to behold.

"Your Dr. Garrett," Victoria said, "she's quite brilliant."

"She can talk?" Sigrid said, still in shock. Victoria hadn't spoken a word on Bellatrix, letting her fists and her blades do all her talking.

"
I can
," Victoria said, sounding perfectly annoyed, and growing more so. She crossed her arms as she glared back at Sigrid.

"Is she a program?" Sigrid asked.

Suko, unable to help herself, snickered. "Sigrid! It's her. It's Victoria. Don't you remember?"

"I do. But—but she was gone! I mean, I didn't think there was anything to salvage."

"Almost nothing," Victoria said. "I have your Dr. Garrett to thank for that as well. And you, Ms. Novak. You saved my life."