Jenny nodded. “Another drop of. of water. Ryan. Can’t you turn.up the light and turn up. the light?”
He gave her another sip of water, but most of it dribbled from the corner of the woman’s mouth, dripping into the sheet.
“Thank. lad.” Her breathing was faster and more shallow, and Ryan knew that the ending was very close. “Hold me and. and kiss. lad.”
He leaned forward and lifted her, taking the utmost care not to crush her fragile body against his. It was like holding a handful of dry, brittle bones.
She turned her face up to him and he slowly lowered his mouth, trying to hold his breath against the enamel odor that swelled and filled the room.
Jenny’s lips touched his, and Ryan felt her trying to push harder against him, the hot, dry tip of her tongue pressing between his teeth.
He fought the temptation to pull away too quickly, finally easing himself back on the bed, gently laying her head onto the pillow.
“That brought.” he began, when he realized that there was no longer any need for the kindly lie.
Her eyes were still open, but they stared sightlessly up into the bright light.
Ryan stood slowly and looked down at the empty husk of the woman that he’d held and loved so many times. So many years ago. He reached up and turned off the lamp.
“So long, Jenny,” he said, his voice alone in the darkness. “And thanks. For everything.”
As Ryan left the infirmary and started back toward the main house, his eyes were brimming with the lost and lonely tears of memory.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Krysty was still awake, lying in bed with the lamp turned off, the window open. Cool night air filled the room, the ragged clouds filtering the moonlight.
“All right, lover?” she asked as soon as she’d opened the bolted door for him, moving quickly back to bed, allowing him only a silvered flash of her breasts, back and thighs.
“I knew her. From the war wags. She died in my arms of rad cancer.”
“Oh. Did.” But no question followed.
“Two things she said. Both we partly knew or partly guessed. Emma’s act is all around Washington Hole. I’ll only be a matter of time before it gets back to Sharpe. And Jenny confirmed that he has human muties in the back part of that building. Collects all non-norm oddities.”
“Gaia! Bad news. We go now or wait until the morning?”
Ryan was quickly getting undressed, his face turned away, surreptitiously wiping his tears on his sleeve. “Have to talk to the others before first food tomorrow.”
“Sure. You all right, lover?”
“Fine.” He climbed into bed alongside her, putting out a hand and finding Krysty’s, holding it tight.
She felt the tension riding him. “Lover? Do you want to?”
“Yes,” he whispered. “I’d like that very much.”
WHEN RYAN WENT to all the other rooms, just as the first glow of dawn was lightening the eastern sky, he wasn’t all that surprised to find that Emma was sharing her bed with Jak. It was the young albino who came to the door in response to the gentle knock.
The teenager wore only a shirt, his pale legs sticking out under it like white fence posts.
“Yeah?”
“Leaving.”
“Why?”
“Sharpe definitely collects human muties. It’s common knowledge that Emma’s a triple-good doomie.”
“Baron know it?”
Ryan shook his head. “No. But he could find out at any moment. Sooner we get away the better.”
“I’ll tell her.”
“Sure.”
By five-thirty, everyone was dressed, packed and armed, and assembled in Ryan and Krysty’s room.
THEY PASSED a few sleepy sec men, none of whom took any notice of them, knowing that they were the legitimate guests of Baron Sean Sharpe.
The ville was only just coming awake, with maids appearing at the corners of corridors, carrying wood for fires and fresh linen for beds.
Ryan thought they were actually going to be able to get away free and unchallenged. They were moving quietly and fast on condition red, without taking the final precaution of drawing blasters, though they were all ready to draw at a word from Ryan. To walk through a baron’s ville with blasters in hand would only trigger a full-out firefight.