Sooner Dead (Gamma World) - Mel Odom [124]
At the doorway, looking massive against the enclosed space of the room, Stampede nodded. “I see them. They’ll be on us in minutes.”
“We have an exit strategy.”
“Not if we get caught in this room.”
Ocastya stopped in front of Colleen and raised her weapon. “Tell me what I need to do to save my mate. Otherwise, I will kill you and risk finding an answer on my own.”
“No.” Colleen slapped Hella’s face and almost succeeded in getting away. “I have almost saved Alice. I can transfer her mind to that body. She doesn’t have to die. I can overwrite all the programming that’s there.”
Despite the stinging pain from the woman’s slap, a cold chill crept through Hella. Was it so simple? Could Scatter just be erased? Overwritten?
“Mommy?” The child’s plaintive cry barely reached them even so short a distance away. The gunfire and explosions from the confrontations on the floors above carried into the lab with ease. “Mommy?”
Colleen tried to go to her daughter. Hella didn’t release her. Colleen closed her hands over Hella’s and looked at her desperately. She smiled and the effort looked sick and twisted.
“Please, Hella. Let me got to her. Alice is scared. She needs me.”
Hella stood frozen, uncertain about what to do, thinking that if she released Colleen, Ocastya would kill her. Images of the dead rat in the dream kept haunting her, changing from rat to child.
“Mommy!” A coughing fit racked the child on the bed. She convulsed and got sick, throwing up a bit.
“Please. My daughter needs me.” Colleen pushed back from Hella. “She’s dying. I don’t want her to die alone.”
Numbly Hella released the woman and stepped in front of Ocastya, wondering if the fractoid would simply try to kill her first to get her out of the way.
On the walls, the computers continued flashing.
Ocastya regarded the hardware then Scatter’s body seated in the chair. “She’s stealing him away from me.” She focused on Hella. “You know I cannot permit this. Even if she succeeds in overwriting my mate’s self with her daughter’s, her daughter will not survive. My mate and I are twinned to one another. Both of us must survive. We cannot survive on our own.”
At the child’s bed, Colleen took Alice’s hands and held them tightly. “Everything’s going to be all right. Mommy’s here. Just close your eyes, and you’ll wake up feeling much better. Listen to Mommy.” She leaned over her daughter and kissed her. “You’re going to get better.”
Hella crossed to her. “Colleen.”
The woman ignored her.
“Colleen, you can’t do this. It’s not going to work.”
“It will work.”
“No. It won’t. The fractoids are joined. They’re two parts of a whole. If one of them dies, the other will too.”
Still holding her daughter’s hands, Colleen glared at Hella. “You’re lying.”
“I’m not. You’ve been inside my mind. Take a look for yourself.”
“I won’t trust you. You’ll lie.”
“Look.” Slowly Hella gripped the woman’s elbow. “See if I’m lying to you. I would help you if I could, but this way you’re only going to watch your daughter die and kill Scatter in the process. Both of them don’t have to die.”
Ocastya stood beside Colleen for a moment, and Hella thought the fractoid was going to stab the woman. Instead Ocastya’s gaze rested on the feverish girl. “My mate and I wanted to have children. We never had the opportunity.” She shifted her attention to Colleen. “I am sorry for your loss, but I will not lose my mate. If you do not free him, you will soon join your daughter in death.”
CHAPTER 33
Colleen.” Hella pulled on the woman, turning her attention from her child and Ocastya. “Trust me. I’m sorry but we’re telling you the truth. This isn’t going to work. You can’t save your daughter by using Scatter that way.”
Colleen wrapped her hand around one of Hella’s. Immediately a bright, hot pain slashed through Hella’s mind. At first she thought Colleen was mentally attacking her; then she realized that the woman had just blown through her defenses in an effort to get to the truth. The pain subsided slightly, and Hella felt Colleen rifling