What he’d just croaked out had been involuntary. He hadn’t realized he was
speaking aloud. He hadn’t even realized the girl was awake.
He said tentatively, “I, uh… thought they cracked you over the skull when we got
outside.”
That had been when she’d suddenly, outside the bank building and in the harsh
glare of the floods, managed to back-heel the groin of one of the sec men
holding her. She was pretty good with her heels, he thought wryly. The guy had
yowled, let her go and she’d twisted away from the second man and started
sprinting across the open space toward the three black vans parked near the
barbed wire. Strasser had yelled a warning, and three guys had emerged from
behind the trucks and clobbered her. Ryan and Krysty had been left on the ground
for maybe a half hour, Ryan getting more and more chilled by the minute, not to
mention more and more panicky about the time factor that only he knew about.
Then they’d been flung into the rear of one of the trucks and the doors had
banged. No need for guards, Strasser had said. Waste of manpower. They weren’t
going to be able to free themselves to go anywhere.
“They did hit me over the head,” Krysty Wroth said. “But I have great powers of
recuperation.”
Though it hurt him, Ryan laughed. It was kind of a choked grunt, sounding to his
ears like the noise a guy made when someone poked him in the ribs. It felt like
it, too.
She said, “Anyhow, thanks.”
“Thanks?”
“For getting my…” She paused. “I was going to say, for getting my head off the
block, but maybe for getting my ass off the block is more to the point.”
Her tone was dry and sardonic. Ryan knew it was the humor of gritted teeth. You
made a joke of the intolerable or else you went under.
He didn’t know what to say. “Look, I should have stopped those bastards before
things got too rough,” he tried. “I could have. There were…other considerations…
I’m sorry.”
She said, “I know. It doesn’t matter. Forget it. Life’s too short.”
He thought back to when she had actually been tied down to that foul block. She
had not struggled, had not screamed or even whimpered. He was surprised,
contemplating this, to realize that there had been a degree of serenity about
her at that terrible time, as now. It was a strange yet oddly comforting aura of
calm that seemed to surround her like a cloak. He hadn’t analyzed it then—too
many other things to worry about!—but he recognized it now as he reran the scene
in his mind.
Such serenity at such a time seemed to him almost supernatural.
“You, uh… didn’t seem too worried back there.”
She said simply, “I knew Earth Mother was watching over me.”
“I guess you realize your Earth Mother isn’t going to save you every time.”
“No, you don’t understand. It’s not a question of ‘saving.’ Earth Mother is not
a physical presence. She doesn’t appear in a flash of light—” she chuckled, and
there was irony in her voice “—brandishing an M-16. She just is. At times that’s
comforting. There had been occasions when I’ve been stark crazy with fear and
panic. Other times when it feels okay, feels right, feels like it’s not going to
work out too bad. That’s how I felt then.”
“How’s it feel now?” said Ryan dryly. “I could do with some reassurance.”
“Oh, I’d think we’ll make out, don’t you?”
He had to laugh again, and the minor convulsions trembled across his rib cage
where Strasser’s goons had put more than one boot in.
“Don’t make me laugh. Please.”
The truck lurched over something in the road—a rock or a pothole or maybe a
small animal—and Ryan cursed vitriolically as he went up in the air and down
again, landing on his wrists. Shafts of agony lanced up his arms. His shoulder
blade felt seriously out of kilter for a second.
He muttered through clenched teeth, “Maybe it wouldn’t be a bad idea if your
Earth Mother did appear waving a piece, because unless they untie me I think