Page 71 of Warrior's Captive
But as they waited, the wrongness increased. Vivian’s marks crawled, then suddenly slowed, settling back into stillness. A pit formed in the bottom of her stomach.
“Banujani, something is really really wrong,” Vivian said. She ached with the need to do something, but she wasn’t quite surewhat.It snapped into place. “I need to go to him.”
Her guard shook her head. “Out of the question.”
“Tell me he’s fine, then. Ask your people.”
“I’m getting updates.” Banujani came and crouched in front of Vivian. “I know waiting is hard. But they sent a backup team with a medic and as soon as we know—”
“It will be too late!” She grabbed Banujani’s hands. “I don’t know how this works, but I’m telling you that if I don’t get to Tai’ri, he’s—” she faltered.
The woman sighed, stood, and walked away, the cadence of her voice harsher, faster as she spoke. Vivian watched her closely, spotting the moment Banujani stilled. Went utterly quiet, then turned and pinned Vivian with a look.
“I’m going to ask you something,” Banujani said. “And it will probably piss everyone else off, but you deserve to make the choice.”
Vivian’s fingers clenched the chair. “Banujani.”
“Tai’ri is injured, bad. They’re stabilizing him, but the op went sideways. There’s tech built into the marks that can help speed healing. But it’ll leach energy from you, and no one knows how it would affect your pregnancy. No one else will tell you this, but I will. You can help him, but there might be a cost.”
She didn’t even think. It wasn’t a matter of choosing Tai’ri over their baby, it was a matter of faith. “Let’s go.”
* * *
“You fly like a madwoman!” Vivian yelled, and she never raised her voice. “Take this thing off manual!”
“I can fly better than a machine any day,” Banujani snapped. “Do you want to get there in time or not?”
Vivian ground her teeth and checked her safety harness for the fifth time, then gave up and closed her eyes. When they landed on a rooftop skyscraper, she released the harness with shaking fingers and exited the flier.
“I called ahead for a scooter for you,” Banujani said. “You can’t walk fast.”
The scooter was a flat round disk with a tall stick for her to hold on to. Banujani gave her a thirty second crash course on the voice commands and then they were off, Banujani at a dead run with Vivian flying through the air beside her.
“Why don’t I have one of these?” Vivian muttered, thankful for the momentary mental distraction.
“Abeyya wants you to walk,” Banujani said, not even out of breath.
People dived out of their way, though the hallway was wide enough once they left the rooftop and entered the skywalk leading into the facility. Inside the facility they slowed enough to get through security, Banujani impatient at every retinal checkpoint as they were scanned into secure levels.
The scent hit Vivian, and the bright, clean light. The sense of controlled urgency and low tones of staff who went from room to room.
“So . . . this part is going to be tricky,” Banujani said.
They entered a small room and two people immediately looked up. One of them was the petite woman Vivian had seen shadowing her. But now the cheerful prettiness of her face had hardened into something cold, focused.
“Banujani.” Her voice was flat. “She shouldn’t be here.”
“You don’t even know why we’re here, Eb,” Banujani countered.
The man next to Eb shook his head. “We can guess, lovey. There’s only one reason why you’d bring her here against explicit orders to keep her on lockdown.”
“Tai’ri is dying,” Vivian said, certainly settling into her chest as she spoke. “I can help him.”
“Tell us the truth,” Banujani said. “How is he?”
The pair exchanged grim looks. “We took fire, but we cleared the building,” Eb said. “He went in for a final sweep while we were getting everyone to safety. The explosives must have been on a delayed timer, or someone from a remote location set them off, but there was an explosion, and half the building fell on him. They also flooded the place.”
Banujani grimaced. “So broken bones, burns, poison gas, the works. A tube can’t handle all of that at once. The nanos in his marks would have burned out already keeping him alive.”
