Omega Games (37 page)

“I hope you aren’t going to defend Davidov, or what he did to these people,” I said before I took a sip of my tea.

“No, this time Alek is on his own.” Reever sat down beside me. “The repairs to the scout are completed. We can leave Trellus as soon as you’re ready to go.”

“I’ll start packing right now.” I drained my server and swung my legs over the side of the platform, and then hesitated as I thought of the wounded still needing care. I could leave instructions with Drefan and Mercy on how to deal with them, but that would serve only as a temporary measure. “Duncan, these people need a doctor who can live on colony, or at least visit them regularly. Do you think the Jorenians would be willing to help them?”

He nodded. “There is one more problem we need to discuss. Swap, and Tya. No one can know about them, Jarn.”

I didn’t think anyone would believe me if I did tell them. “Where is Tya?”

“She disappeared into the water system pipes, and hasn’t come back.” He gave me a troubled look. “Both Swap and Tya are extraordinary beings. If the Hsktskt knew a larval rogur existed, for example, they would not rest until they destroyed Trellus.”

I knew how much the Hsktskt feared their ancient, extinct enemy—even thoughts of the creature could alter the reptilians’ brain chemistry. “Agreed. And knowing the League, they would try to steal the worm and use him as a weapon.”

“Odnallak are universally feared and despised throughout the galaxy for their abilities,” my husband said. “Most are imprisoned or killed.”

I pulled back, surprised. “Were you concerned that I would expose them?” “I know how you feel about lies.” He ran his hand over the untidy mass of my hair. “Now eat your breakfast. We have much to do before we leave the colony.”

We entered the detention area where Tya had been kept a prisoner for so long. Most of the lights were dimmed, but I could see who now occupied the cell: Alek Davidov.

“Is this more of Swap’s poetic justice?” I asked my husband. “Perhaps.” Reever may have had no intentions of defending Davidov, but I could see that he didn’t care to see his former friend locked up.

“It’s our justice,” Mercy said as she and Drefan joined us. “Colonial security has given us their blessing.

We can do anything with him that we like.” Her voice hardened. “I’m thinking execution. ” Davidov came over to stand by the inhibitor webbing. “How do you propose to do it, beautiful?” he said in a perfect imitation of Cat’s voice. “Will you make me the happiest man in the galaxy and fuck me to death?”

Mercy turned to Drefan. “If we go with the execution option, I get to be the one who pushes the button.”

The games master nodded. “I want the brain and spinal tissue. He can power one of my drednoc chassis for a few decades.” “Isn’t there another option?” I asked. Mercy took out the mindset. “I meant to tell you, Doc, you didn’t hit playback on this when you jammed

it on Posbret’s face. You hit record.” She dangled the mindset in front of Davidov’s face. “How would you like to spend a few decades in my fantasizer, reliving what it was like for poor old Posbret to be possessed by a Sovant and have his face burned off and his insides eaten alive?”

“Enough of this,” Reever said suddenly. “Alek, you have to tell them.”

“Duncan. Giving into threats of unbearable torture, so soon?” The Terran’s expression grew mockingly pained. “I thought my secrets were safe with you—” “Tell them about the Sovant,” my husband said flatly, “or I will.” Mercy looked murderous. “There had better not be another of those fucking things on my colony, or I

will weld this mindset to your head.” “No.” The ironic pleasure disappeared from Davidov’s face. “That was the last one.” Drefan began to say, “How could you—” “Because I’ve killed all the others.” Davidov turned his back on us and sat down on the cell’s berth. “I

had to. You can’t tell them apart, and you certainly can’t interrogate them. I’ll never know which one got onto my ship. I like to think it was this one. It seemed to have a taste for remote places and clueless victims.”

Davidov nodded. “It was clever at first, and made the killings look like accidents. An air lock failure. A flash fire in the galley.” He took in a deep breath. “And then it took my wife.”

As angry as I was with Davidov, I felt a small surge of empathy. “Did you have to kill her?”

His hands dug into the berth’s edge. “She was mostly gone by the time I discovered it was inside her. My pilot tried to stop me, of course; the crew thought I had gone mad. The next thing I knew, I was locked up in the cargo hold and that thing had free run of my ship.”

“How long did the crew last?” Drefan asked.

“A couple of months. We were on a remote route, and the men really didn’t understand what was happening. They thought it was a disease, and signaled for help, and diverted to a trade outpost with a small FreeClinic. By the time we reached it, I was the only one left. The Sovant was saving me for last, I guess. It landed and came for me. I wounded it, but the outpost officials boarded my ship and took it to their medical center.”

“Why didn’t you tell us this from the beginning?” Drefan demanded. “We would have helped you.”

Davidov gave him an ironic look. “I did that at the outpost. I told them everything, and they thought I was crazy and locked me up again. By the time they stopped squabbling about it, the Sovant had taken the body of a trader and his ship. It was gone.”

“So you went after it.”

His shoulders moved. “I hired a new crew, bought the
Renko
, and started hunting them. That was ten years ago.”

Drefan leaned forward. “Why did you enslave Tya?”

“Enslave her?” Davidov laughed. “I saved her life. She was the Hsktskt’s prize arena fighter for years, the one they called TyalasVar.”

“‘Soul eater,’” Reever translated for me.

“Tya had been fighting death matches since she was able to walk. One day she threw her weapons down on the sand and refused to fight again. When I found her, her owner was in the process of beating her to death—and I needed a shifter to help me kill the last Sovant.”

“She didn’t want to help you,” I reminded him. “You put an implant in her body that kept her from shifting. You lied to her and told her it would kill her if she didn’t do as you said.”

He looked unconcerned. “I never said I was perfect. Once I knew I had the last of them cornered here, I needed Tya to stir things up.”

“So you made her shift into a Hsktskt and then trapped her in that form.” Reever shook his head. “After everything that happened to us in the arena, how could you?”

“Odnallak use fear to survive. I wasn’t asking her to do anything she hadn’t done on her own before. It was unfortunate that she despised the Hsktskt so much that she refused to take on the form voluntarily. I didn’t have time to persuade her to get over it.” He smiled. “I saw the implant as a kindness. Much more humane than beating her the way the lizards did.”

Davidov looked up and grinned as he touched his chest. “If you think you can bluff me . . .” He felt something, frowned, and tore open his tunic, running his hand over the flesh above his heart. His gaze turned lethal. “What did you put inside me?”

“Nothing new, blade dancer.” Mercy took out a small handheld device and showed it to him. “Recognize this? It’s the trigger for a cardiac implant. Just like the one I put inside your chest last night, after you ate your last meal. Which was drugged, by the way.”

Reever turned to her. “You know what they do to blade dancers.”

“Oh, yeah, I’ve tumbled a few in my day.” She ran her thumb around the only switch on the device. “So one push, and no more Alek Davidov.” “Go ahead.” Davidov stretched out on the berth. “I’m not afraid of dying.”
He fears nothing,
Tya had said. “Mercy,” my husband said quietly. “You know Alek only for what he’s done here. He was once a good

man. He smuggled slaves with me, and returned them to their homeworlds and their families. He saved thousands.”

Davidov bared his teeth. “Shut up, Duncan, and let the lady take her revenge.” “After he lost his wife, he lost a great deal of his humanity,” my husband continued. “He became obsessed with avenging her death. He loved her very much.” He glanced at me. “I don’t approve of his methods, but I understand his motivation.”

Davidov made a disgusted sound. “Can you believe that he was the most savage, ruthless, unbeatable

arena fighter the Hsktskt have ever owned?” “What do you want me to do, Reever?” Mercy asked, ignoring Davidov’s jeer. “Let him walk away?” When my husband nodded, she sighed. “So we go with the backup plan.”

Mercy opened the cell door and pulled aside the inhibitor webbing. “We repaired your ship, and put what’s left of your crew on it. You have one hour to get off Trellus.” Davidov got to his feet. “You’re letting me go?” He sounded uncertain.

“We’re throwing you off our colony,” Drefan said, his voice cold. “Remember how you lied to Tya about her implant? That inspired me to do a little tinkering,” Mercy told him. “There’s a locator beacon in your cardiac implant, along with a pressure-triggered cache of Tingalean venom, for which there is no antidote, by the way. We’ll always know where you are, Aleksei. If you try to remove the implant, you’ll be dead in ten seconds. And if you ever come back to Trellus again, I’ll hit the trigger.”

Davidov took a step toward her. “What’s to keep me from taking the trigger from you?” “Nothing. Here, you can have this one.” She smiled and tossed the device at him. “Lights,” Drefan said. The emitters flared to life, illuminating every inch of the detention area. On the walls someone had hung

“We took the precaution of replicating some spares,” Mercy said. “I have some back at my place, and we’ll be sending a few offworld to some friends. If anything happens to me or Drefan, they’ll be distributed to everyone in the colony. That includes every relative of every colonist the Sovant killed.” She cocked her head. “How long do you think it will take before one of them hits the button?”

Davidov inclined his head. “Brilliant
and
beautiful. ” He took the pack she tossed at him before he turned to me and Reever. “It seems that I’m in your debt again, old friend.”

“I no longer count you as a friend.”

“That’s a shame, because I can be useful.” Davidov shouldered the pack. “While I was transmitting my phony bounty around the quadrant, I received several inquiries. One came from a mercenary who was already hunting you. He offered me eight million credits to turn you over to him.”

“Who was it?” I asked.

“I don’t have a name,” Davidov said. “Only a relay code.” He recited a series of letters and numbers. “I wouldn’t contact him directly, unless you have a death wish. Drefan, I wish you luck.” He reached over, grabbing Mercy and jerking her to him for a quick, hard kiss, and dodging her fist. “Enjoy your Omorr, madam.”

She clipped him on the jaw with her follow-through punch. “Get off my colony and stay off, you bastard.”

And that, I thought as I watched him walk down the corridor and disappear around the corner, was the only thing that I was sure Davidov would do.

As soon as the
Renko
took off from the surface, I suggested we find Tya and let her know that Davidov was done and she was free of him.

“I talked to Swap last night,” Mercy said. “He found her and tried to talk to her, but she slipped away into another pipe. He thinks she’s lost it.”

“Even if she has, we can’t abandon her,” Drefan said. “We owe her our lives.”

“I don’t think she’ll let anything living get near her,” Mercy said, and then gave him a speculative look. “Of course, she wouldn’t be afraid of a dred. Especially one that was a little more human than the others.”

Drefan turned his glidechair around. “I’ll suit up.”

I caught Mercy’s arm. “That mindset that recorded Posbret’s thoughts and feelings while the Sovant was inside him—you are going to destroy it.”

“Do I have to?” She laughed as she saw my reaction. “Doc, I was bluffing. Cat ran the playback through a remote unit for us to view, and there was nothing recorded. It was completely blank.” The amusement faded from her expression. “The Sovant didn’t have any thoughts or feelings.”

“But you let Davidov believe . . .” I shook my head. “That was a terrible thing to do.”

“That,” she corrected, “was what he really deserved. ”