Page 66 of Meat

“This is absolutely outrageous. These so-called terms are far in excess of our previous arrangements with the nith.” He rose abruptly, knocking over his chair in anger. “We came here to negotiate, not to be insulted by a bunch of goddamn…” his eyes darted around the primitively garbed ukkur retinue. “A bunch of goddamn animals!”

“Sit down.”

The old woman’s voice was cold and serene as a frozen river, but beneath the surface, there was a current of deadly menace.

“Sit down.”

The chancellor hesitated, sensing perhaps that he had overstepped, had let his emotions get the better of him. One of his entourage whispered something in his ear. Another righted his fallen chair, which the chancellor carefully sat in, straightening his tie.

“Fine,” he said, struggling to get his voice back under control. “Fine. But the terms you have laid out simply won’t be possible to meet. If we are going to make a deal—“

The old woman cut him off.

“The deal has already been made.”

The chancellor blinked at her. He had probably never been interrupted before in his life. He looked around at his cabinet members and advisors, then back to the old woman. He scoffed.

“What do you mean?”

“Exactly what I said, Mr. Chancellor. The deal has been made. It has already happened. We went over your heads—or under your legs, as it were.”

The chancellor’s face blanked in confusion, as did the members of his group.

“Back channels, Mr. Chancellor,” the old woman explained. “We dealt directly with your underlings back on Earth, as well as the opposition party leaders—basically everyone who will take over when you are gone. They saw an opportunity to be part of our new arrangement. It was a wise decision on their parts.”

The chancellor began to shake. He was getting flustered. The nith delegates were becoming agitated as well, chittering in their own language. It was unclear how much they understood.

“T-that’s impossible,” the chancellor stammered. “They would never betray me like this…”

Now it was the old woman’s turn to rise from her seat. Her ukkur mates rose with her. A trio of primitive, silvered giants.

“If there is one thing I have learned about humanity, Mr. chancellor, it is that you are treacherous beyond all reckoning. I should know. The human race betrayed me long ago, sold me to the nith as a piece of meat. Now it’s your turn.”

Suddenly there were sounds from the outer hall. Heavy thumps against the doors. Voices screaming.

“What the hell is going on out there?” one of the human leaders stammered.

“That,” said the old woman, “is the sound of my ukkur murdering your guards.”

“You’re insane,” the chancellor blurted. “Insane…”

Chaos was now breaking out inside the room. The nith were yowling and heading for the exits on their side of the room, and the humans were doing the same on their own side. They hammered against the heavy steel doors, but they were locked. Locked from the outside. There was no escape.

“You don’t want to go out there,” the old woman said. “Trust me, things aren’t any better on the other side of those doors.”

She turned now and nodded toward the most brutal of her three mates, the one with the clean-shaven skull. Ravnar. With a cruel grin, the heavily scarred ukkur rose and walked to the side of the room. He moved with a slight limp, an old wound from decades before.

On the curtained wall, a rope hung down. It led upward to an intricate knot which was linked by more curving rope to another knot and another, forming a perimeter along the top of the curtains.

Ravnar had tied each knot himself with delicate care.

When he pulled the rope, the curtains started to drop one by one, going around the room like falling dominoes until all four walls were naked and exposed. The rest of the lights snapped on overhead, bathing the room in painfully bright light.

White tile walls, streaked with old brownish stains. The color of rust, but not rust.

They were in one of the old slaughterhouses. The very same facility from which the old woman had escaped so very long ago. This was the killing room, in the very heart of the facility. It had seemed like the most appropriate place to spring the trap.

The nith leaders shrilled with terror, finally comprehending the nature of what was happening to them.