Chapter 29
29
While people milled about helping Locke connect Mo to a projector they’d powered up with a solar battery, Cyn had to remain seated and wait… wait to find out if they were going to decide she was an insane murderer. Anger resurfaced. What. The. Fuck.
She’d killed a motherfucking Ghoul Lord. People died in battle. It happened. Most of these were ex-soldiers and should realize the costs of war.
Her stomach was cramping again, from stress or whatever.
Not that she’d wanted to kill Tom, her angelic friend, or anyone, or to hurt Vargr.
She’d dropped into that guilt loop, again. Being angry only took her so far. She stared at her feet and tried to figure out what her body and mind were doing. It was as if she’d found a foreign land inside herself, because she didn’t know why she’d forgotten to check for friends before shooting. The violence had filled her up, to the very top. There’d been nothing left except the desire to kill that thing.
Rutger was staying with her, but she wasn’t keen on hand-holding and hugs at a time like this. Besides, she was cuffed.
Finally they had the video playing via Mo. Her small robotic companion was perched on the table with cords running from him. The entire thousand or so Worshipper tribe seemed to have gathered for this movie, though there would be some out hunting and gathering.
It was enough to ram the importance of this event down her throat, if she wasn’t already living on a thread of hope.
Please, please, show what I need.
The video blurred due to the distance to the overhead glass visor it was playing on. The Parklands glass shield was there to protect the long opening in this scraper from the elements. One day it would fall or break. Today it let them watch a movie.
Cyn found Rutger gripping her hand at her back, while what was at most a five-minute video ran until the end of the relevant part, where all the death happened. There were feet and legs and shouting, the flashes as she fired her gun or the Thing exploded. Screams, more running feet, but that was after she’d shot everyone she was going to. Mo had been down on the floor the whole time with little view of the fight. He’d watched as she collapsed to the floor and was taken down by several beasters, bound, and dragged away—some of that showed through the gaps between the people. Then Mo had run off and hid.
She swallowed past the lump in her throat. It hadn’t shown anything she needed. Just Tom bleeding out. Her crashing to the floor, exhausted.
“Fuck.” She lowered her head, shut her eyes, and felt Rutger slip his hand from hers.
The crowd around her was getting louder.
“Quiet!” Rutger yelled. “Quiet. Please.”
The judges were talking among themselves.
“Nothing, yes?”
“Nothing that helps her, no.”
“I agree, unfortunately.” That last one was Willow. “I was actually hoping…”
The crowd noise had lessened, and she heard Vargr begin to speak. Oh great. This would not be good. She was going to lose everything after escaping from the Top, escaping from the Ghoul Lords, after killing one. This ignorant goddamned bunch of?—
Vargr’s words finally reached her. The bastard was being all matter of fact. “Replay that last minute. I saw something.”
He had? With her fingers twined tightly in Rutger’s, she raised her head to watch. The last minute of the vid played, and she thought she knew what he’d seen. A glimpse of a trail leading across the floor. A bloody trail left by the Thing.
Hope rose from the ashes.
“Uhhh. You see that, Cyn?” Rutger asked. “That cannot be human?”
She nodded, straightened. “Yes, I did.”
“Did you see it at the time?”
“No, I don’t think I did, but he was falling apart as I fought him.”
“What is that?” Mads spoke up. “Blood? Just means he was bleeding.”
“No!” She’d found her voice again. “It’s more than that! Mo, can you zoom in on that trail he left on the floor?”
“Yes, Cyn.”
The vid rewound, froze then refocused on the bloody path, stopping and freezing at various resolutions. It was clear this was not only blood. It was pieces of flesh. Then Mo zoomed in on a small piece to the side and a toe came into focus. A toe in a spatter of black blood: old blood—not fresh and red.
“I told you so,” she said quietly, then louder, “I told you! He was falling apart. He was not a normal human, but a thing filled up with Ghoul Lord. You were all affected by the Lure!”
The curses this time were interspersed with cries of dismay and even a few sobs. The grim faces of those near her would look from the video frame showing above, then to her, then they’d recheck the image as if disbelieving what their own eyes showed.
“Now they get it,” Rutger muttered. “Judges?”
When the people quietened, Mads Thresher was the judge who stood to address them. He raised his arms, lowered them, pushing downward with his palms. Silence fell.
“Thank you.” He drew a breath, grimacing, and looked from one side of the crowd to the other, pausing at Cyn. “I think that proves we were deceived, and that what Cyn killed was a Ghoul Lord, as she seems the expert on this?—”
“Unless she made us all see that!” someone pointed out.
“You’re pushing it there, Stu!” Mads stared at the speaker. “If she was that good at messing with us, why is she even sitting in that chair?” He pointed at her. “No. We agree the Lure was affecting us, most of us. A Ghoul Lord, or a creature taken over by one was here, walking among us. We owe Cyn an apology. We thank you for killing it and for averting what might’ve been a great massacre. You can take off her cuffs.”
A guard moved forward with a key and bent to unlock them at Cyn’s back.
“Thanks,” she said, and she massaged her wrists as she stood.
“However.” The judge lifted a hand to still the crowd, for they’d begun to call out. “We are also agreed that your behavior is worrying to us, Cyn. Witnesses said they saw you aim straight through Tom and Carl. Why did you have to kill them? Was it merely an accident? Can you tell us your reasons? The wings on you that some saw, your different aspects , the mystery as to what you are becoming… All of this is still a concern, when taken together.”
Wings? Half the beasters had them and hers were gone.
“Ahh.” What to say about shooting Tom and Carl? The truth? Fuck no, but yes but no. Her mind warred with her tongue. “Truthfully, I’m not sure.” There, it was out. “I just had one objective at the time, to kill a Ghoul Lord. I saw the danger we were in, and I overcame it however I could.”
Willow was staring at her with a wrinkle forming between her eyes, and Cyn met her gaze and waited. She rose to her feet, beside Mads. “Thank you for your honesty. I’m going to go out on a limb here, and I hope you’ll both agree with me. May I speak my opinion on what to do next?” She looked to Mads and Steve. They nodded.
“We can always disagree later,” Mads pointed out.
The moment seemed to quiver with ominous possibilities, or was that just the anxiety of the past few days bothering her? Rutger moved closer, standing as if he too could take upon him whatever was about to be said.
“Good. Cyn… and Rutger.” She smiled. “And Vargr too, I imagine, considering your close ties and the bonding between the three of you?”
Vargr stayed silent, shrugging slightly. The bandage on his arm was stark white and unmissable.
“Okay, this is what I believe is best for our Worshipper tribe. You killed a Ghoul Lord yes, Cyn, but we also saw you gun down two of our own with no respect for their humanity. The goal of finding this Big Daddy research vehicle, if that’s what it is… that’s reinstated. We’re going to find out what they did to us, and to you, although everything depends on it still being where it’s supposed to be and functional.”
Cyn nodded. “Good.”
“I think it best for the tribe that you’re sent away from us anyway.”
Ugh. Nice back-handed… insult.
“I propose we leave ASAP, as in tomorrow night. The members I want to see in this, and most are allowed to say no.” She gave Cyn a curt smile. “Are myself, Mads, Vargr, Rutger, Cyn, Kiko, and Locke. Also Maura, in the hope she will be useful in the future because she helped with the nanomachine research.”
Only if she could figure out how to alter the Lure again and fix Maura.
In the background to her whirling thoughts, Willow and Mads were directing people, ordering supplies, weapons, and asking for twenty more volunteers. Toother, the huge nanodog, arrived in the middle of this and insisted on attention from Willow by nudging her elbow and almost knocking her over.
Chaos, but it wasn’t about her only anymore. Thank god.
“This is all good. It’s what we need. Information.” Rutger leaned down. “You okay now?”
“Yes.” Cyn felt like screaming in joy and contented herself with a smile, only to falter when she saw Vargr staring. She knew him well enough. That was almost a threat and how was she to resolve this gap that’d widened between them?
She’d shot him. Not easy to remedy that.
“You’re going to have to talk to him.”
“Yeah. I know.”
“Mind, I have the same concerns as Willow. You, Cyn, are going to sit down with me and with Vargr. Explain everything you may have held back. I’m going to fucking interrogate you. Or else I will also be your enemy. Bonded or not.” His eyes were fierce, and she had to steady herself not to show fear.
He might find it difficult to truly harm her physically, but she dreaded more some ill-defined consequence she could not quite imagine.
Him leaving her? Yes, it was that.
“Hear me, girl?”
“Yes. Yes, I do.” If there was to be truth maybe she should begin now. “Just… I think I need to understand myself too.”
“Hmmm.” He nodded, thoughtfully, slow as a bear waking after a long winter. “Okay. We can do this. The nanomachines inside you, I think that’s what’s messing with you. It does that to me too. You know how I get angry and punch walls. Come with me. We’ll drag Vargr to a room by the ear if we have to.”
He held out his big hand and she placed hers in his.
Only Vargr, it turned out, refused to be dragged anywhere. The beaster merely glared and stalked away. Instead she let Rutger take her away to a room.
When he shoved her in, kicked shut the door then ambled toward her with a grim but sexy smile, she was pretty damn sure this was going to be more fun than the original interrogation option.
Then he pulled off his shirt and tugged at his fly. Backing away was only going to prolong the tension for so long. Her back met wall. A second later he caged her in with a hand on that wall to either side of her head.
“Did you get permission for this?” she asked huskily.
“From who?” He moved in closer until their mouths brushed as he spoke, and bit her there gently.
“Whom.” She couldn’t help smiling.
“That’s going to cost your ass, miss grammar nazi.”
Fuck. Her nipples peaked hard, and she had to swallow. The anticipation was killing her.