Page 25 of Escape from Nova Nine
“Two-for-one takedown!” Dajoya’s fist pumped triumphantly. She rocked from side to side with a maniacal grin on her face.
Lhap Cho swore a vile oath in Mandarin. “You’re warped! This is not a reflex game!”
Lantham stepped in and rolled Sutrio’s twitching form off Julke. One of Sutrio’s stilts grazed the toe of Dajoya’s boot.
She jerked and stunned Lantham in the middle of the big blue circle on the back of his suit. “Three points!”
Lantham collapsed and landed in a boneless heap on top of Sutrio and Julke.
Lhap Cho yanked Dajoya backward and separated her from the stunner with a deft bump and slip. She twisted fast to get away, but Lhap Cho used her momentum to spiral her onto the ground with a hard thump and kneel on her chest.
When she tried to buck him off, he slammed the stunner’s business end on her faceplate with a loud crack. “Control yourselfnowor I’ll open your helmet and scramble what’s left of your maggoty brains.”
Long seconds dragged by. Zade held his breath and made a mental note to never, ever to get into a fair fight with the man.
Little by little, the tension drained out of Dajoya’s limbs.
Lhap Cho, apparently satisfied with what he saw on the woman’s face, stood up and moved back several steps. His eyes and the stunner in his hand tracked her like prey as she climbed to her feet.
When she pointed to her stunner and held out her hand for it, Lhap Cho shook his head. “No.” He put the weapon in his suit’s big thigh pocket. “You just guaranteed we won’t make any quota for the next three days. Didn’t you see the mark on Lantham’s back?”
“He assaulted me.” Dajoya’s chin jutted in challenge, as if daring Lhap Cho to say otherwise.
Lhap Cho shook his head, then pointed toward the airlock. “The map bots are here.”
With a defiant toss of her head, she spun on her heel and stomped away. She kicked a new dent in the hopper as she passed it on her way out.
Lhap Cho turned to Zade. “Go help the others.”
Zade’s adrenalin spiked as he dropped the shovel and ran to comply. “Julke?”
“I’m okay.” Her voice sounded strong.
Grateful relief flooded him as he wrestled with Lantham’s heavy, inert body and rolled him to the side and onto his back. He looked dead, except his exosuit’s lifesign indicators were all green.
Sutrio looked more alive, but insensible, as he hastily removed her stilts and rolled her to the other side.
He reached out with a support arm as Julke sat up. A jagged slash across the front of her exosuit alarmed him. He watched her face closely for any sign she was in pain.
As she rolled up to her feet, her empath talent surged to briefly share a chocolatey taste of reassurance.
She waved to get Lhap Cho’s attention, then pointed to her chest.
Lhap Cho’s lips thinned as he saw the damage. “Dajoya, bring the exosuit repair kit when you come back.” He turned away, lips moving in speech that Zade couldn’t hear.
Zade had noticed that none of the guards or staff subvocalized, or even wore earwires. Maybe they all had comms controller implants? As it was, he couldn’t fathom how the guards tracked all the various conversations and kept them separated. Prisoners had it easier — they knew the wrong people werealwayslistening.
Julke’s voice pulled him back from the distraction. “Help me with Lantham.”
Together, they dragged the man by his shoulders to the far wall, as much out of the way as possible.
“Will he be okay?” asked Zade.
“Yeah, after a couple of days in an autodoc. He’s a sensitive. That’s why the medics put the big blue circles on his suit.”
Zade cynically suspected the mine only bothered because lost work hours meant lost productivity.
Sutrio was light enough for Zade to carry across his shoulders. Julke helped guide her head as he dropped to one knee and set her down next to Lantham. Sutrio’s eyelids fluttered, but she didn’t wake.
