Mirror Space - Marianne de Pierres [121]
They let go of him and he fell onto the surface, shivering and mostly naked.
Rast’s eyes were wild now, pumped with survival adrenalin.
Jo-Jo figured his looked about the same.
‘Josef.’ She pointed to the mark left by the biozoon’s abrupt departure.
‘You game?’ he said.
She nodded and gave a mad, almost unhinged grin. ‘You’re a persuasive man. Now, how do we get the fuckin’ thing open?’
MIRA
Mira’s heart contracted. She glanced back and forth between Thales and Samuelle. ‘Thales,’ she said. ‘What confession?’
The young man flushed with emotion. ‘I-I—’
But his answer was cut short by a noise at the door. Before any of them could react, it was thrust open and the room filled with armed Station Sec.
One of the guards opened his combat hood. ‘Here,’ he commanded.
A figure crept up to stand next to him; a small woman, older than Samuelle and gaunt with it. Her face crinkled with pleasure. ‘Thet’s him orright. Damn terrorist. Wanted to git up here without bein’ seen.’
Thales’s mouth opened helplessly. He shut it again. Mira saw the hopeless defeat in his eyes from being betrayed again.
‘What’s yer beef, sergeant?’ demanded Samuelle. She seemed composed, but her eyes were narrow with concentration.
‘That’s the Stationmaster’s concern, ma’am.’
Landhurst. Mira felt the blood rushing away from her head.
‘But I’m due at the summit meeting,’ argued Samuelle.
The Sec sergeant didn’t blink as he raised his weapon.
Mira walked next to Thales and behind Samuelle. Guards both led and flanked them. Curious glances followed them as they were taken down-station.
‘What did you tell Samuelle?’ whispered Mira.
‘She refused to see you. Said it was too dangerous. I told her I would confess and set Fariss free, if she changed her mind,’ he replied in a low voice.
‘Do you know what that means?’
He nodded. ‘I would have done it anyway. I couldn’t let Fariss... I just needed time to think it through. I panicked on the ship, but now I know what to do.’ He was silent for a moment. ‘At least this way something was gained from it... or would have been if the old woman hadn’t betrayed me.’
Mira did something she’d never done before. She reached across and squeezed his hand. She didn’t let go. ‘We’ll be in detention together.’
‘That will,’ he said, with a shaking intake of breath, ‘make it infinitely more bearable.’
Mira kept looking ahead, her heart heavier than it had ever been.
The guards took them through a contortion of corridors that seemed to get narrower. The last one they entered was wider, and long, and the lining was worn, the floor scuffed. Most detainment modules were adjoined to the larger station, not part of it, in case the Stationmaster chose to disconnect it — in times of emergency.
The thought made Mira sick. Landhurst could vac them if he wanted to. She tried to stay in the present, concentrating on the light whispering noise of Samuelle’s suit and the sticky moisture of Thales’s palm.
The Station Sec guards stopped at the detention module junction, waiting for it to cycle open. Then they instructed Mira, Samuelle and Thales to move through.
Mira stepped over the junction lip after Samuelle, and felt the blast of cooler air.
The detention processing chamber was bulb-shaped, and crowded with different kinds of soldiers. These ones were clothed in matt black uniforms that bore the OLOSS insignia. They stood, alert, as Station Sec filed in behind Thales.
‘What’s this?’ said the Sec sergeant, pushing his way to the middle of the room.
An OLOSS captain matched his position. ‘OLOSS sanctions the release of the prisoner Fariss O’Dea and the three you’re about to process: Mira Fedor, Thales Berniere and Samuelle Sansarin.’
‘What do you mean, OLOSS?’
The captain handed him an audio-plant.
The Sec sergeant fitted it in his ear, authenticated the voice and listened. His face tightened into disapproval, but he ordered his guards to stand away.
Mira’s heart quickened. What had happened? Where were they to be taken now?
The two groups of guards waited in a tense silence as the detention administrator arranged