But at least it left the way clear for Jak to move on unobserved…or so he hoped.
As the albino approached the curve of the corridor, a figure stepped from around the curve and into the poor light.
“Hey, Whitey—what y’all doing here, then? Get a little lost or something?”
Jak stopped, his pitted and scarred white face set like marble, giving nothing away.
Harvey stepped forward. His gait was casual, but there was a faint tenseness to his body language, a tightness to his movement that told Jak the sec chief was anxious beneath his seemingly calm demeanor. “Y’all not talking to me? I didn’t know you white muties got mute, as well as mutie.”
Jak’s anger rose like a thick bile from his stomach to his throat. His fingers twitched toward the concealed knives. With an effort of will, he stayed his hand.
Harvey walked slowly around Jak. The tall sec chief towered over the albino, but Jak knew that he was quick and strong enough to take the sec man if he pounced.
If… It would be stupe of Harvey to do this now, not with Jak so close to the metal door.
“Look for Dean. Young, not drunk before.”
Harvey laughed. It was forced. “Well, I guess there always has to be a first time. And the kid has gone missing, eh? You won’t find him here. I’ve just been patrolling this sector, and I haven’t found him.”
“That so?”
Harvey’s tone gained a hard, threatening edge. “That’s so, Whitey. So if I was you, I’d get back to the old man and tell him his whelp is still lost. Or you could look somewhere else.”
“Mebbe do that,” Jak said slowly. His eyes blazed as they fixed on the sec chief. Harvey looked away. He knew Jak had seen through him. But Jak didn’t have the full story, and the albino knew he would have to be contented with that for now.
He turned, every muscle on triple red in case Harvey should try to attack. With every step he took from the corridor, even as he passed the first of the dwellings, he could feel the sec chiefs eyes burning into his back.
Burning like the slugs Harvey would want to put there from his Magnum Carry blaster.
As Jak passed the first of the dwellings, he knew that their stay in Raw could become very bloody indeed.
DOC LAY SEDATED, whimpering softly while Mildred tended to him. The nurse whose son had been injured the day before left the unit, accepting with a sad grace Ryan’s best wishes for her son. The one-eyed warrior could see her sorrow, and after hearing Doc’s story had the uneasy feeling that it would only be added to in the short time to come.
While Ryan and Mildred were gone, Doc had gasped out enough garbled detail, in with his ramblings and memories, for Krysty and J.B. to grasp what he had seen in Samtvogel.
When Ryan and Mildred returned, while the nurse and Mildred sedated Doc with an opiate taken from a mutated strain of poppy that was grown above ground, J.B. and Krysty had filled in the few details they had gleaned.
Mildred left Doc and turned to her companions. “You know, it’s a shame they couldn’t harness some old tech from the redoubt down here. If they had some kind of hydroponics plant, they could grow those damned poppies instead of having to risk going aboveground to collect them. It’s the strongest— What’s wrong?” she added, changing the subject rapidly when she caught sight of their grim faces.
Ryan explained as briefly as possible. Mildred whistled to herself. “Shit, that really does upset the cart. If there’s even the slightest chance that Sunchild knows how to activate that nuke, he may just be pissed enough to do it after yesterday.”
“Right,” Ryan agreed. “And there’s too many good people down here to expose to that danger. And ourselves. Even if we left now, then there’s no way we could get out of range quickly if he decides to act soon.”
“Only one thing for it, lover. You’ve got to tell Alien this, and we’ve got to go in and get it,” Krysty said grimly.