[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
all those aircars and flyers in the lot? Where had their owners gone, and in
what?
He ll be waiting for you outside on the northwest side
.... She had only a vague idea which side of the building was the northwest;
she d half-expected Tien to be waiting in the parking lot. She sighed
uneasily, and adjusted her breath mask again, and stepped out through the
pedestrian lock. It would only take a few minutes to circle the building.
I want to fly back to Serifosa, right now. This is weird
Page 89
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
. Slowly, she started around the building to her left, her footsteps sounding
sharp on the concrete in the chill and toxic night air. A raised walkway,
really the level edge of the building s concrete foundation, skirted the wall,
with a railing along the outside as the ground fell away below. It made her
feel as though she were being herded into some trap, or a corral. She rounded
the second corner.
Halfway down the walk, a small human shape huddled on its knees, arms
outflung, its forehead pressed against the railing.
Another bigger shape hung by its wrists between two wide-spaced posts, its
body dangling down over the edge of the raised concrete foundation, feet a
half-meter from the ground.
What is this?
The dark seemed to pulsate. She swallowed her panic and hastened toward the
odd pair.
The dangling figure was Tien. His breath mask was off, twisted around his
neck. Even in the colored half-light from the spots in the vegetation below,
she could see his face was mottled and purple, with a cold doughy stillness.
His tongue protruded from his mouth; his bulging eyes were fixed and frozen.
Very, very dead. Her stomach churned and knotted in shock, and her heart
lumped in her chest.
The kneeling figure was Lord Vorkosigan, wearing her second-best jacket that
she had been unable to find while packing a short eternity ago. His breath
mask was still up - he turned his head, his eyes going wide and dark as he saw
her, and Ekaterin melted with relief. The little Lord Auditor was still alive,
at least. She was frantically grateful not to be alone with two corpses.
His wrists, she saw at last, were chained to the railing s posts just as
Tien s were. Blood oozed from them, soaking darkly into the jacket s cuffs.
Her first coherent thought was unutterable relief that she had not brought
Nikki with her.
How am I going to tell him?
Tomorrow, that was a problem for tomorrow. Let him play away tonight in the
bubble of another universe, one without this horror in it.
"Madame Vorsoisson." Lord Vorkosigan s voice was muffled and faint in his
breath mask. "Oh, God."
Fearfully, she touched the cold chains around his wrists. The torn flesh was
swollen up around the links, almost burying them.
"I ll go inside and look for some cutters." She almost added, Wait here
, but closed her lips on that inanity just in time.
"No, wait," he gasped. "Don t leave me alone - there s a key... supposedly...
on the walk back there." He jerked his head.
She found it at once, a simple mechanical type. It was cold, a slip of metal
in her shaking fingers. She had to try several times to get it inserted in the
locks that fastened the chains. She then had to peel the chain out of
Vorkosigan s blood-crusted flesh as if from a rubber mold, before his hand
could fall. When she released the second one, he nearly pitched headfirst over
the edge of the concrete. She grabbed him and dragged him back toward the
wall. He tried to stand, but his legs would not at first unbend, and he fell
over again. "Give yourself a minute," she told him. Awkwardly, she tried to
massage his legs, to restore circulation; even through the fabric of his gray
trousers she could feel how cold and stiff they were.
She stood, holding the key in her hand, and stared in bewilderment at Tien s
body. She doubted she and Vorkosigan together could lift that dead weight back
up to the walk.
"It s much too late," said Vorkosigan, watching her. His brows were crooked
with concern. "I m s-sorry. Leave him for
Tuomonen."
"What is this on his back?" She touched the peculiar arrangement, what
appeared to be a plastic packet fixed in place with engineering tape.
"Leave that," said Lord Vorkosigan more sharply. "Please." And then, in more
of a rush, stuttering in his shivering, "I m sorry.
Page 90
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
I m sorry. I c-couldn t b-break the chains. Hell, he couldn t either, and he s
s-stronger than I am.... I thought I c-could break my hand and get it out, but
I couldn t. I m sorry...."
"You need to come inside, where it s warm. Here." She helped pull him to his
feet; with a last look over his shoulder at Tien, he suffered himself to be
led, hunched over, leaning on her and lurching on his unsteady legs.
She led him through the airlock into the office building, and guided him to an
upholstered chair in the lobby. He more fell than sat in it. He shivered
violently. "B-b-button," he muttered to her, holding up his hands like
paralyzed paws toward her.
"What?"
"Little button on the s-side of wrist-comm. Press it!"
She did so; he sighed and relaxed against the seat back. His stiff hands
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]