Sooner Dead (Gamma World) - Mel Odom [86]
“You’re not really wounded, are you?” Colleen studied her. “I would have noticed it, and I don’t think you would have waited all day to come see me.”
Hella didn’t speak.
Colleen pointed at the device. “That’s a white-noise generator. It keeps anyone outside the tent from listening in. Even those men standing guard can’t hear us speaking in here.”
That also meant Stampede probably couldn’t hear her over the comm link. “I’m out of touch with Stampede. He’s going to come looking.”
“Tell him you’re with me.” Colleen flicked a switch on the white noise device.
“Stampede?”
“Yeah. I lost you for a minute.”
“I’m with Dr. Trammell. She’s going to look at my wound. While I’m talking to her, you’re not going to be able to hear me.”
Stampede hesitated for a minute and Hella knew he was uneasy about the situation. The comm links were important in their line of work. “Okay, Red. If you get into trouble, you can always shoot your way out of the tent.”
Hella smothered a smile since Colleen couldn’t hear the exchange. She nodded and Colleen switched the white-noise generator back on.
The tent was small and neatly organized. A tiny desk and a computer occupied one corner, and an airbed took up about a third of the space. An energy-charged pad lay on the ground and kept the dust and allergens at bay. The air inside the tent smelled too clean, almost as if it were canned.
Colleen sat on the airbed and gestured at the desk. “Please. Sit.”
“Thanks, but I’m all right.” Hella sat cross-legged on the floor.
“What did you want to talk to me about?”
“You came out here to find Scatter.”
“Or something—someone—like him, yes.”
“Why?”
Colleen composed her thoughts before speaking. She still looked worn out from the hard traveling they’d done that day. “Dr. Pardot believes he can reverse-engineer some of the technology that created Scatter.”
Hella took a breath and considered how best to proceed in her questioning. She thought about simply asking the woman how they knew about Scatter or his people, but she decided that might spook Colleen. Hella didn’t want to do that. “You told me this has something to do with your daughter, Alice.”
“Yes.”
“Is she dying?”
Colleen opened her mouth and looked shocked, as though she’d just been slapped. “I never told you that.”
“Not in words but when you touched my mind, it opened up something that hasn’t completely stopped.”
Embarrassed, Colleen shook her head. “I never intended for that to happen.”
“I didn’t think so but it did.” Hella hesitated. “When you were in Blossom Heat, still suffering from the drugs Pardot kept you on, you dreamed of Alice. I saw her. I saw you. In the lab where you were trying to find a cure for her.”
Tears filled Colleen’s eyes, and Hella almost panicked. She hadn’t meant to make the woman cry. Hella had seen people cry before, but she’d never been the cause of it. She and Stampede lived apart from other people and didn’t get involved on an emotional level or even get close to them. She didn’t know whether to apologize or run.
“Alice has a disease.” Colleen’s words came hard and sounded hoarse. “A horrible, deadly disease. And if I don’t save her, she’s going to die.”
Images of the dying rodents overlapped with those of the child in Hella’s mind.
“There is nothing—nothing—as horrible as the death of a child.”
Despite the gravity of Colleen’s words, Hella almost objected. Any death was horrible. When they’d burned the Wroths back at the Coyle River, Hella would have been hard pressed to figure out whom she felt more sorry for. Age wasn’t a distinction in her world. Death, when people weren’t looking, took everyone.
“I will not allow my daughter to die.” Colleen’s voice shook with emotion.
“How did you know to look for Scatter out here?”
“I’ve dreamed about Alice for almost two years. I was desperate to find a way to save her. So I took drugs to amplify my precog