Нэнси Кресс - If Tomorrow Comes

“I don’t care if he’s hallucinating green elephants and talking to his dead grandfather. You’re a Terran doctor and we need you more than Terra does. Sorry, Dr. Patel. We’ll treat you with every respect and courtesy, but you’re not leaving World. Austin, you created this mess—you take the device out to Lamont.”

Kayla, who’d been standing at the edge of the circle, screamed, darted forward and clutched Austin. Tony peeled her off him and handed her to Graa^lok, who could barely hold her. Exasperated, Beyon-mak helped him. Kayla went on screaming. “No, no, not Austin, no—”

“Get them to the backup cave!” Tony said. “All of them!”

Graa^lok looked at Austin. Graa^lok’s face twisted in anguish and indecision. Austin hated him; Graa^lok always got the best choice, the safe deal. But then Austin nodded and said, “Take care of my mother,” and Graa^lok nodded back. For a moment Austin felt good; he was doing the right thing. The feeling didn’t last.

When they had all gone through a locked door that Austin had always assumed was another supply area, Austin faced Tony. “Will you let me back in? After I give the device to the lieutenant?”

Tony hesitated. “That bastard shot out all the cameras. And there aren’t any monitors in the backup cave… Tell you what. You stay outside until the Rangers lift off in that second ship. Then come ring the bell and I’ll let you back in, through the airlock in the backup cave.”

Austin looked at him. It might be a long time before Branch figured out the code that Beyon-mak spoke about. It might not be figured out before the spore cloud hit. With the cameras shot out, Tony couldn’t see anything outside to tell him if the cloud had hit or not, which was only an approximate date. Even if there was an airlock, and there probably was, Tony would not risk spore contamination of Haven. He needed Graa^lok’s sisters and cousins to stay healthy and have babies who would inherit Terran immunity. He needed to keep his “protectees” safe from the riots and food shortages and roving bands of the collapse of civilization.

Austin would not be allowed back into Haven.

He could scream like Kayla. He could hang on to a table and refuse to go. He could act like a little kid, but Tony would get him out by sheer force if he had to, or if Tony didn’t, then Lamont would bomb Haven if he didn’t get the device. If that happened, Austin’s mother and Claire and everybody would die, anyway. Including Austin.

He wasn’t a little kid anymore. He was a man. His mother was his lahk, and maybe even Claire was, too. Bu^ka^tel.

He straightened his back and looked Tony in the eyes. “Do you think Lamont will shoot me?”

“I don’t see why he would. He’s getting what he wants, isn’t he? You heard Dr. Patel. He wants to go back to Terra.”

“Okay.” And then—without a quaver, sounding strong, and he was proud of that—he said, “Give me the device.”

“Well, there it is.”

Of course it was. But Austin refused to feel stupid about what he’d said. He picked up the call-back and headed for the tunnel to outside.

Owen waited for someone to emerge from the mountain, and Leo waited for Owen.

He could wait in the same position, barely breathing, for as long as he had to. The rising sun was behind him; the wind was too light to interfere with anything; the brush and rocks on the upland meadow below him were only waist-high. Leo sweated inside his armor and helmet; he ignored it. The orange light, though nothing like a sunny day on Terra, was enough to see by. Only his own memories hampered him.

Delirious and cursing, his body a mass of sores, his head about to explode from fever. Owen carrying him down the mountain on his back, murmuring over his shoulder: “Easy, buddy, we’ll get you to the medics, not your fault it’s just fucking poison ivy….” Owen visiting him in the infirmary, trying to convince him to recycle through Ranger training. Owen and Leo in a bar somewhere with two girls, Owen laughing but even then, even with a rhinestone blonde on his lap, Owen had been reserved somehow, holding back, in control… Owen getting Leo here to Kindred, counting on him to stick no matter what, using him…

The last thought wouldn’t stay. It was still Owen carrying him down the mountain, saving Leo’s life. Always Owen carrying him down the mountain.

In the meadow, Owen shifted position.

A figure crawled from the bushes at the base of the mountain, stooped, picked up something pyramidal and started across the meadow. Austin.

Leo was too far away to hear any conversation. But he already knew what Owen would say: Leave it there . “There” would be halfway between Owen and the mountain, where Owen could retrieve it without letting an enemy, even a thirteen-year-old enemy, get too close. Almost Leo could hear the words in his mind.

Except there was another sound, behind him. “Throw away the rifle, Leo. Without turning around.”

Zoe.

Time slowed down. He had days, years, eons to assess the situation. Even if her feet were free, her hands were still cuffed behind her back. She had her sidearm, but did she have a way to use it or was she bluffing? Or had she worked her body through the cuffs to get her hands in front? It was possible but only if you were very thin, unusually flexible, and willing to dislocate your shoulder. Zoe was thin; he had no idea if she was unusually flexible; she would dislocate anything on herself if she thought it was her duty.

Would she shoot him? In a pulse beat.

Leo didn’t turn around. He had one chance: to convince her.

Austin started trudging across the plain.

“Zoe, listen. Austin is bringing Lamont the call-back device. But he doesn’t want it to call back the ship. Dr. Jenner thinks there’s something on the ship, another damn microbe”—he couldn’t remember the fucking term—“that saved the leelees on the ship and might save Kindred, too, if they can get it here. But Lamont doesn’t want to save Kindred, he wants it destroyed. Everybody on it, all the Kindred. You’ve seen how he despises them, he fucking hates them, maybe because of the spore cloud hitting Terra, and he won’t call back the ship. Not right away, anyway, he’ll hide the device until the spore cloud devastates Kindred and nearly everyone here is dead, and then he’ll go home. But all the Terrans and Kindred in the cave—they know he’s got it now, so he’s going to have to kill them all. Even Claire Patel. He’ll kill them, Zoe. He’ll have to.”

She hadn’t shot Leo yet. She’d heard him out. Hope flashed through Leo like a jolt of electricity.

Then she said, “Bullshit. Lamont don’t like Kinnies, but he isn’t going to destroy them! Where do you get this fucking garbage?”

“It’s not garbage.” Austin was a third of the way to Owen, his arms wrapped awkwardly around the device. “Owen stole those vaccines. Not the kid—Owen. I saw them, in his lockbox, early this morning. He didn’t want Kindred vaccinated with the good stuff from Terra.”

“You’re fucking crazy, Leo.”

“ No. He’s going to shoot that kid. He can’t have witnesses.”

Austin plodded closer, shoulders slumped over his burden. Owen raised his weapon.

Zoe said, “He’s just being cautious, warning the kid not to come too close, he could be a suicide bomber…”

“ Austin? ”

No more time. Owen’s gun was coming up. His mouth worked. Austin, obedient, put the device on the ground, and there was no more time at all.

Owen carrying Leo down the mountain…

Leo fired. The distance was no more than eight hundred yards; his best kill ever was nearly 2,200 yards. Simultaneously, two more shots shattered the meadow. Owen’s rifle and Zoe’s Beretta.