James Axler – Rat King

connecting the rat king slithered across the floor.

“Let’s see if I can get you detached, you damn crazy old fool,” she whispered to

Doc, smoothing back his hair.

“I wouldn’t be too sure about that,” said a level female voice from across the

chamber.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Mildred froze. She recognized the voice, but couldn’t see the owner as she was

bent over Doc. Where the hell was that idiot ville dweller when she needed her?

The outsider was standing in the anteroom, her blaster raised. A

cobbled-together mix of a Smith & Wesson stock with a homemade barrel welded to

it, it hadn’t been tested in combat as of yet. A rifle of indeterminate origin,

lost in a welter of remakes and remodels, was on her shoulder, now out of ammo.

“What happened to my cover?” Mildred grated.

“Missy, I can’t see her!” exclaimed the outsider, her speech snuffled and

punctuated by heavy breathing through her deformed nose.

“Of course she can’t see me,” whispered the velvet voice. “You don’t think I’m

just going to walk in the most obvious door and be chilled, do you?”

Mildred allowed herself the risk of raising her head— slowly, so as not to

rattle her captor.

“Shit, I should have figured you’d be protecting this monstrosity,” Mildred said

as she caught sight of Dr. Tricks, standing in a shadowed corner of the computer

room, a 5-shot, two-inch Smith & Wesson .38 snubbie in her grip. It was trained

steadily on Mildred.

Tricks shrugged. “This is my territory. If Sarj takes over, then I get to devote

all my time to this while he streamlines things. That suits me. I hate wasting

my time on those other projects that are going nowhere. Let’s be honest. Most of

the people I have under me now are stupes. That’s not their fault. I’m just a

freak in a different way. But if I could can all the other junk and just work on

this—” her liquid brown eyes lit up with a fanaticism Mildred recognized all too

well. “—then we might just have the power to take this pesthole of a country and

put it back where it belongs. That would be wonderful. Did you realize that the

mechanism operates at less than a thousandth of its potential?”

“I didn’t,” Mildred said calmly. “You know what I think?”

Tricks shook her head.

“I think you’re mistaking me for someone who gives a fuck,” Mildred said calmly.

“Now, you can have your damn fool mechanism, and you and Murphy can do what the

hell you want. But I’m going to disconnect Doc and get the hell out.” She

stopped speaking and leaned over the old man.

“Don’t touch him,” Tricks yelled, an edge of hysteria creeping into her voice.

“You just don’t get it. The Moebius cannot operate unless it has six linked

minds. He’s the only match we could find, and it was only divine interventions

that brought him to us at the right time. You can’t disconnect him. I won’t let

you.”

Mildred moved to cover Doc with her body and hoped that the scientist was

ignorant of firearms. “Lady, that isn’t a military-issue blaster you’ve got

there. I’d guess it’s been in your line since before skydark, and I’d also guess

that you’ve never used it. You do know that if you fire at me now, the bullet

will go right through and into Doc?”

“You’re lying,” Tricks snapped, her voice betraying her real indecision.

“Your choice,” Mildred told her, feigning distraction as she examined the wires

and electrodes attached to Doc. Her mind was racing, and she found it hard to

focus on her task, knowing that Tricks might just fire from panic.

It was that panic that saved Mildred. Unsure of what to do, Tricks stepped

forward with the wiggle that had driven the males in the redoubt mad with

desire. Her intention was to bring the blaster down on Mildred’s head as a club.

But in order to do that, she had to step into the line of fire from the woman

who was covering Mildred.

In her confusion Tricks had forgotten about her. The ville dweller raised her

blaster and fired.