I couldn't breathe. Couldn't think. Couldn't do anything but feel the fire spreading through my chest, consuming everything.
Through the haze of pain, I heard Merrilee scream my name.
Heard Hewes laugh—high and manic and triumphant.
"Now," he said, his voice distant and distorted, "where were we?"
I tried to push myself up, but my arms wouldn't support my weight. Blood filled my mouth, copper and thick. The shot had missed my heart, but still done damage.
Hewes thought he'd killed me.
No.
I'd survived ten years of penance. Survived the fighting pits. Survived Fange City and Persico and every monster this planet had thrown at me.
I wasn't going to die now. Not when I finally had something—someone—worth living for.
I forced my hand to move, forced my fingers to close around the blade that had fallen beside me. The movement sent fresh agony lancing through my chest, but I held on.
Just had to get up. Just had to—
"Ahrick, stay down!" Merrilee's voice cut through the fog. "Please, just stay down!"
I looked up, vision blurring, and saw her hands raised in surrender.
Hewes advanced on her, the blaster trained on her chest, his expression twisted with rage and vindication.
"You think I'm stupid?" he snarled. "You think I don't know you're playing me? There are no codes. No insurance. You're just trying to save your pet alien."
"You're right," Merrilee said, and her voice was steady. Calm. The voice of someone who'd already made their choice. "But I had to try."
"Had to try," Hewes repeated mockingly. He was close now, close enough to touch her. "You always were too clever for your own good, Merrilee. Too willing to sacrifice yourself for people who don't deserve it."
He reached for her.
"But that's over now. You're coming with me, and we're going to have a very long conversation about loyalty and consequences and—"
Merrilee moved.
Her hand shot up, catching his already broken wrist, twisting it away with a sharp jerk that made him bellow in pain. Her other hand drove forward, fingers extended, striking at his eyes.
He jerked back, the blaster swinging wildly, but she was already moving—dropping low, sweeping his legs out from under him with a kick that had all her weight behind it.
Gods she was magnificent!
Hewes went down hard, the blaster skittering across the concrete.
Merrilee dove for it.
So did Hewes.
They hit the ground together, grappling, fighting for control of the weapon. Hewes was bigger, stronger, but Merrilee was desperate and absolutely unwilling to lose.
I tried to move, tried to help her, but my body wouldn't respond, the blaster shots shorting out my nervous system. I could only watch as they struggled, as Hewes's hand closed around the blaster, as he started to bring it up toward her head—
A shadow moved in the warehouse's upper levels.
I saw it from the corner of my eye—a flicker of movement among the catwalks and support beams, too deliberate to be coincidence.
