The Saffron Malformation (22 page)

             
Sticklan Stone was on the first floor, sitting on the sofa in the living room with a whiskey in his hand.  Viona glared at him and he smiled.  “Look like that,” he told her, “From a creature sentimental as you, I can only guess it’s about the boy.”

             
Her brain flipped into a mode she didn’t know it possessed.  Suddenly she couldn’t really see anything and she was walking toward Stone.  Casually, he set down his drink and when she lunged at him he gripped her throat, corralled her arm and slammed her against the wall.

             
“I’m going to kill you,” she spat at him despite her present helplessness.  “I swear, I’ll eat your fucking heart.”

             
Sticklan Stone smiled looking at her with something between a smile and a sneer.  “You’re all the same.  Every one of you.  The body varies but the rest is the same.”  He leaned close to her, caressed her throat and cheek with his nose and smelled her.  When he met her eyes she recognized the look, it was the one cats use before they tear into prey.  “Your father doesn’t want me to kill you.  I want to, want to do all manner of unseemly things to this body you cart around in.  But he says no and since I’m still taking the pill you’ll survive the night.  I suggest, however, you reconsider your approach the next time.  Things might not end so nicely.”

             
He squeezed her throat once, his hands were strong and she gagged as he released her.  A tremble passed over her skin, prickling every hair on her body, as she watched Sticklan walk away and she understood why it wasn’t safe for her in the house.  It had taken all the control he could muster to let her go.  Sadly, he’d also confirmed that her father must have known.  If his command could keep the man from killing her then he wouldn’t hurt Leone on his own.

             
Sticklan Stone left the Crow house and walked down the way to his own, a few hundred meters up the road.  The girl haunted him.  He remembered the raw hate in her eyes as she crossed to him and how it didn’t waver even as he gripped her throat and held her pressed to the wall.  He remembered the feel of her neck, throbbing under his hand, and thought how easy it would have been to squeeze.  Pop.

             
Sticklan grinned and sighed.  The groin of his trousers bulged as he imagined her tied up with tears in her eyes and the soft whimpers that would emerge when he revealed the knife in his hand.

             
No!

             
He shook his head.  Composed himself.  He couldn’t think of that now.

             
It was a mystery to him, why he longed to hurt the girl so badly.  Maybe it was her nature that made her such an appealing victim.  She wasn’t, you see, not inherently a victim.  She’d fight him.  She’d resist being helpless, even bound, as she had tonight.  Even held helpless she still had furry.  Breaking that, seeing that spirit go out of her eyes before the life within followed was what made his dick hard.

             
A long breath filled him and a soft sigh followed it.  If he killed the girl now he wouldn’t have the luxury of stopping there.  He’d have to do the whole house and he wasn’t ready for that yet.  The pill had given him the resolve he’d lacked when he’d started twisting the heads off those kittens.

             
The holidays passed much as they had for years before.  They ate meals at the long table in the dining room, they sipped brandy and wine in the sitting room as gifts were exchanged and stayed up late while sleeping through half the morning.  Clusters of people from Blue Moon came through, attending one party or another, depending on their positions in the company.

             
Viona and Leone spent a great deal of time away from the others, talking and listening to music or watching movies.  Mostly they just wanted each other’s attention and so they gave it.  It was better than any other gift either of them received that year.

             
It was the night before she was supposed to leave, with Leone cuddled in bed beside her, that she finally talked to him about his situation.

             
“I want you to understand,” she began and her tone must have been heavy for he looked up from his pillow and into her eyes.  “I know you’re young,” she said, “But you have to understand what’s going to happen.”

             
His eyes watched her unblinking.  His body tense with fear.

             
“He’ll kill us.  Not directly, of course, but he’ll send that man for us.”

             
Leone didn’t have to ask whom she meant.  He just nodded.

             
“I have a friend with a van.  I’ve sent her a few messages already and she might be able to help us run away but you have to be ready.  We aren’t going to have much time to get out and we need a head start.  We need to be as far away as possible before they notice you’re gone and figure out what’s happened, understand?”

             
Leone nodded slightly.

             
“If I send you a message,” she thought for a moment.  “If I say Rain and Fire are going on tour, you know that means have any bits of precious you can’t bear to leave behind ready to go.  Don’t get caught in sentiment though.  One bag,” she told him firmly and he nodded.  “We won’t have time for any more.”  He nodded again and wrapped his arms around her.

             
“Thank you,” he whispered into her ear.

             
She held him and when they parted she looked him in the eye.  “We’ll have to hide,” she told him.  “We’ll be on the run forever.”

             
He smiled and said, “You and me.”

             
She chuckled, “Yeah,” and ruffled his hair.  “You and me.”  Then she held him tight until they both fell asleep.

Guns and Ammo

             
Morning came fast and it took another greasy breakfast to right Quey for the day, or at least make the idea of the day tolerable.  Reggie was sitting on the patio behind Rail’s looking down at the beach below when Quey came out with a pair of plates.  He set one down in front of Reggie and kept one for himself.

             
“What the hell is that thing doing?” Reggie asked lifting his fork without looking away from the machine on the beach.

             
Quey watched as Geo rolled across the sand and shrugged.

             
“That your errand?”

             
“Yup.”

             
“And you don’t know what it’s doing?”

             
“Some kind of study,” he started as he shoved a bite of sausage and egg into his mouth.  “Geological,” he finished past a full mouth of slightly chewed food.

             
Reggie nodded and looked down at his plate of eggs and sausage and… “Shit, Marcy made skillet fries,” he grinned and stabbed one of the wedges with his fork.

             
Quey nodded, “Had her add some tarragon too.”

Reggie grinned and took a bite.  “Damn that shit’s gone atmo!”

              Quey and Reggie ate in relative silence for a few ticks before Reggie finally asked, “That what all that dyin’ planet shit was about last night?  Whatever that thing’s doin’?”

             
Quey huffed a chuckle and nodded, “Guess so.”

             
Reggie didn’t ask him to explain any further.  Truth was, the man didn’t want to know, he’d been through enough to understand sometimes ignorance was blissful.

             
“I’m gunna go walk this off,” Reggie said, standing and collecting his empty plate.  “The hangover, that is.  Care to join me?” he asked and Quey shook his head.

             
“Think I’ll just wait here for the grease and protein to settle in.”

             
Reggie walked into the bar and Quey leaned back in his chair and watched Geo roll along the beach and disappear into a field north of town.

Quey reached into his pocket, pulled out his folded sheet computer and turned away from the glare of the sun.  He unfolded it, clicking the button to make it flat and rigid, and turned it on.  The deep glossy black flashed gray for a moment and then it booted, and he was looking at Rain again.  He’d forgotten to back out of the website last night and he did it now, quickly.  He felt silly, jerking off to the fantasy of the adventure she might be.  He didn’t really know her, no more than at least a dozen other men, and probably some women it seemed
, so there was no reason to have a mind that lingered on her like his had.

Quey let it go and brought up his contacts.  He touched Ryla’s name.  ‘Connecting,’ appeared across the screen with a spiral slowly churning below it.  Finally the screen brightened and her face came into view, soft and simple, a section of long brown hair hanging down across
her cheek with no makeup highlighting her.

             
Quey watched her for a moment, her eyes glancing over to some other task, probably some marvel of computer or robotic engineering beyond his understanding.  He smiled.

             
“Is there a problem with Geo?” she asked when he didn’t say anything.

             
His lips slowly shriveled.  “No.  Just wanted to let you know I got him going.  Doing his thing now.”

             
She didn’t respond.

             
“Starting him up was soup and salad,” he added.

             
Ryla turned her attention from what she was doing, thought for a moment and stared at him.  “I don’t understand,” she finally said.

             
“It was simple.”

             
“Oh.  Yes.  I tried to make his controls as plain as possible.  That one button actually initiates a rather long and complicated string of code that should have been individualized to a series of separate switches, but I didn’t want you to have problems because of an activation sequence.  If anything does go wrong it’ll be harder to fix this way.”

             
“I see,” he said, pondering whether or not she just called him stupid and added, “Job well done then.”

“Thank you,” she replied dryly as she focused on something else.  “Any luck with the items on my list?”

              “Won’t be able to find things like that here.  Fen Quada’s mostly a simple city, big as the map might claim it to be, it’s still a one-horse town.  Only reason it’s got the resources it has is the beach, makes it all touristy and what not.  But I’ll be heading north soon as your robot’s through.  Got a stop in a real city where what you’re looking for tends to lurk.”

             
Ryla looked at him through her screen.  “Okay.”

They stared at each other for the better part of a minute.  “Guess I’ll go then?” Quey asked.

              Ryla turned her screen off.

             
Quey sat for a time, looking out at the ocean, thinking how Ryla should see this.  It would make an excellent mural.

             
Reggie had gone up the sloping road bringing him to upper Fen Quada.  He’d strolled along the cliffs trying to clear the soup from his head and sweat out the bitter soreness in his muscles.  There was a cool breeze coming off the ocean that tossed pebbles and loose leaves across his path on its way inland.  Reggie came to the top of the road, a good set of kilometers from where he started and looked out at the world, a seemingly endless stretch of green landscape that continued on and over the horizon.

             
Reggie took a deep breath and felt the pleasant burn in his legs.  The three up-hill kilometers had done just as he wished, leaving him refreshed with a thin beading of sweat on his skin.  He started along the road leading into upper Fen Quada, a place he rarely visited despite its proximity.

             
Avoiding the main part of town, he headed along its outskirts where there stood only a few bungalows with killer views.  Reggie nodded to a man sitting on his front porch with a device around his wrist about the size of a watch, displaying information from the network signal.  He manipulated the pages with the hand the device was attached to while his other held a cup of coffee.  The man noticed Reggie and nodded back with a slight smile then returned to the morning news.  He was just as unaware of what was rolling down the highway and toward the city as Reggie was, making his way along the two-lane road.

Arnie found Quey on the back patio facing the ocean with his device in his hand.  He was watching something, a video and sipping coffee.  “Excuse me,” the young man said tentatively.

              Quey tapped the screen, paused his video and looked over his shoulder.

             
“There’s a thing,” Arnie took a moment to think.  “It’s by your truck and it’s flashing and beeping.”

             
Quey stood, feeling the fluids in his body slosh this way and that, and took a moment to clear the lingering dizzying effects of shine from his head.  After that he followed Arnie out back to where Geo was sitting beside the truck.

             
“Huh,” Quey huffed, unsure why the robot was there.

             
“What is it?” Arnie asked.

             
Quey slapped him on the back and replied, “Nothing to worry about, just a little favor I’m doing for a friend.  Now if you could give me a minute, I need to talk to that friend.”

             
“Sure,” Arnie said, walking away.

             
Quey called Ryla.

             
“Hello,” she answered.

             
“I think there’s a problem with Geo.”

             
Suddenly her attention shifted to him.  “What’s the malfunction?”

             
“He’s back.”

             
She stared at him.  “That’s not a malfunction.”

             
“Didn’t you say it was going to take three days?”

             
“I said the exact time frame was between one and three days.”

             
Quey looked at her, staring at him through her own screen, unsure of what to say next.  “Oh,” was what he finally came up with.

             
“What’s he doing now?” Ryla asked.

             
Quey shrugged.  “Just sort of sitting there.  It’s got a light on its head and that’s blinking.  Arnie said there was a beeping sound or something but I haven’t heard it.”

             
“He’s fine,” Ryla replied.  “You can load him into the truck.”

             
Quey nodded and watched her attention shift to another task off screen.

             
“Anything else?” she asked after a moment.

             
“Say, what is it you’re doing.”

             
She shifted her attention to him again and looked at him thoughtfully for a moment.  “Just pressing copper.”

             
“Yeah, what’s that for?”

             
“Circuit boards,” she replied.

             
Quey nodded.

             
“Let me know if you have trouble finding the things on my list.” she said.  “I’ll have to adjust my plans accordingly.”

             
Quey shook his head.  “Told you, I know where to come by that sort of stuff.  If you wanted any cheap keepsakes that only function to say ‘I was here once’ I could fetch one of those if you like.  That or beach towels.  Or bikinis, I could pick you up one of each for when you work on your tan.”

             
Ryla furrowed her brow and peered at him, uncertain.

“What’s your color?” he asked with a smile.  “Blue?  You seem like a blue.”

“This is a joke?” she asked

             
Quey chuckled, “Meant to be, yeah, a bit of one.”

             
Ryla nodded.  “Is it because I do not tan, or because I live nowhere near a beach?”

             
He laughed and said, “I suppose both.”

             
“Hmm,” she groaned and looked away.

             
“Least you got it though,” he told her.  “That’s progress.  Next time you might try to laugh, as it goes people tend to favor that sort of response,” he teased.

             
“Yeah,” she said dryly and looked at him.  “Maybe next time you’ll be funny?”

             
Quey found himself dumbfounded for a moment and then he laughed.

             
“That was right then?” she asked.  “A good joke?”

             
He smiled at her.  “It was fine, being it was your first and all.”

             
“I’ve been reading about jokes,” she trailed off, slightly embarrassed, or so it seemed.

             
In the distance there was the rumble of multiple engines Quey didn’t notice until a series of gunshots cracked and echoed from upper Fen Quada.  He looked at the screen in his hand, at Ryla watching him, her eyes widened.  “Was that,” she started to ask but Quey was already nodding.

             
“I believe it was at that,” he replied before she could finish.

             
“Quey,” she started.

             
“Gotta run now, but I’ll let you know when I start Geo up again.”

             
“Should I,” but there was nothing for her to do so she stopped.

             
“You just keep reading about those jokes, I look forward to plenty more amusements at your behalf,” he told her and cut the communication feed before she had a chance to respond and accessed Geo’s control app.  The robot rolled to the back of the truck and parked itself inside.  It even closed the door behind it.

             
Arnie stepped from the loading doors and paused.  “Did you hear?”

             
“Go back inside,” Quey ordered and the boy complied hastily.  Looking up at the cliffs above he heard another round of gunfire, this one longer in duration and greater in the number of weapons being used.  Next came a pair of explosions followed by wild cries and shouting.

             
Quey used his computer to place a call to Dusty.  ‘Connecting,’ appeared across the screen along with the spiral and remained for over thirty seconds before Rachel appeared.  “Quey?” she asked, a tremble of fear quivering her words and widening her eyes.