Blaedergil's Host by C.M. Simpson (reading well .TXT) 📕

the air, echoing around me, echoing through me.

“Get up,” Mack said, when it stopped, and I realized I had curled up at the foot of the wall closest to the windows. “Go!”

“I’ve got you,” he added, when I reached the stairs leading to the next level. “You’re almost there.”

He was right. I found out, when I got to the top, that I was there.

I reached the landing on the next level, and I stopped.

“Oh, Mack,” I whispered, and then I couldn’t say any more.

“Move!” he snapped, the order slashing through the horror in my head. “You have to find her.”

“I have to find her,” I repeated, moving between the cages, glad of the fine mesh that stopped the creatures within from stretching through and touching skin. “I have to... Mack, are you sure?”

“It’s what we’ve been paid to do.”

I gestured at the cages around me.

“Mack,” I said, and even communicating through the implant I could hear myself weeping.

“Move!” he snarled, reinforcing the command with a picture of what I was seeking.

Another scream echoed up the stairs behind me, and I moved, scanning cages, and wondering if it was worth retrieving someone once they reached the state of the women behind the mesh. Wondering if there was anything left to retrieve.

“Hurry!” Mack said. “Locator says here.”

Locator... When I got back he was going to die.

“When did that start working?”

“It’s always worked.”

“Then why?”

“It’s because he needs a visual confirmation.” I bit back a yelp, as Blaedergil’s voice came from the door to the stairs.

“Crap!” Mack’s voice in my head.

Well, Hell, yeah. Crap. Mack that is one of a sonuvabitchin’ understatement, you ass... I thought, knowing he could hear every word, and then, as my gaze fell on another section of the room. Found her.

And I had.

She wasn’t in one of the cages, after all. In fact, she didn’t look like she’d been touched.

“So, tell me...” Blaedergil’s voice sounded much closer, now, but I refused to look back.

His hand came down, hard, on my shoulder, grabbing tight, and forcing me to a stop.

“Mack...” It came out a breathless squeak.

“Show me,” Mack said, and I knew he meant our target.

“Yes. Show him,” Blaedergil repeated, and Mack and I both came to the same realization at the same time.

“You can hear us?”

It shouldn’t have been possible. Not when we were communicating via the implant.

“First thing I hacked.”

And I felt Mack’s astonishment.

“That line was secure.”

“Nothing is secure on Magnus 19.” And then Blaedergil turned me to face the pod in which our target lay. “Is this the one you seek?”

I felt his grip tighten even further, and knew I had to think fast. If the locator was working, then the teleport could work, too, but it might not be able to get a fix through the pod’s outer shell. I turned to Blaedergil.

“Not good enough,” I said, and he glared at me.

“It’ll have to be,” he snarled, and tried to jerk me away from the pod.

I dug my heels in. It was no easy feat, given I had no shoes.

“Tell him, Mack.”

“It’s easy enough to project an image on the inside of the pod.”

Man, for fast thinking Mack had what it took. I hadn’t been able to think of a reason why. Not that quick. Blaedergil stared at me.

“Did you tell him to say that?”

I shook my head.

“Nope,” I said, and answered truthfully. “He thought that one up all by himself.”

I met his gaze.

“He’s got a point, though, doesn’t he? You could be projecting anything on the inside of that pod.”

In the face of my stubbornness, Blaedergil sighed.

“Very well,” he said, and let go of me.

I sensed surprise when I didn’t run, and I didn’t bother to explain. Honestly, where was I going to go? Here, at least, I knew the locator worked. Here, I might have the tiniest ghost of a chance. I still didn’t know if Mack meant to let the man live. Stars alone knew he hadn’t given me the wherewithal to kill him.

“That’s good to know,” Blaedergil said, lifting the lid, just as another scream rang out behind us. I jumped, startled to hear screams, when he stood right beside me. I jumped, again, when he laid a hand on my arm.

“She’s giving birth,” he said, and granted me a happy smile. “When it’s over, she’ll join the others in Skymander’s harem, and my marriage will be annulled.”

I stared at him, shuddering as another cry rent the night. Before us, in the pod, the girl continued to sleep.

“Why?” I asked, but he had noticed me staring at the young woman in the pod.

“Is this who you were sent for?” he asked, and I referenced the photo in my head.

It sure looked the same. I shrugged, anyway.

“I’ll need to take a bio sample to be sure.”

Blaedergil curled a lip in a sneer.

“What? Afraid this is another holo-projection?” he asked.

“No,” I said, “but I have heard of clones, and body doubles, and I’d like to check for both.”

“Very well,” he said, and slid open a panel in the side of the pod, taking out the instruments I’d need. “Here.”

I took them, and made the necessary tests, using my implant to interface with the hand unit identifying the DNA. It was no surprise when I found them a match, with none of the tell-tale traces indicating cloning. It was no surprise, either, when light curled around the girl in the pod, and she vanished from view.

What was a surprise, was the light that wrapped around Blaedergil, just as his hall of horrors vanished from view. Even so, I held my breath. I wasn’t taking anything for granted. Mack might just have decided to leave me behind, or he might materialize me within Blaedergil’s reach, or he might decide a contract was a contract and...

“I would never do that to you,” Mack said, as I appeared in front of him.

And, before I could respond, he had swept me behind him with one arm, and shot Blaedergil three times, running his aim from the man’s gut to