The Huntress (24 page)

That seemed to help her. She nodded, breathing deeply and straightening her thin shoulders. He gave her more time before moving back, and she immediately lifted a hand to reach for him.

“Good! That was very good.” Mea sounded as if she was smiling. “Do you want to try that a few more times or are you ready to move on to phase two?”

Regan danced in place for a second, teeth flashing in a wide grin, but she answered with caution, “Maybe a couple more times.”

They did it several more times, and each time she was more confident. The last time she didn’t reach out to confirm his absence—she just told them he was gone in a firm tone. Mea acted as proud as if Regan had just saved a planet. Stone deliberately turned so he wouldn’t have to see the tender smile on the hunter’s face.

Then they moved on to “phase two,” with Stone circling the kid, closing in on her in different places. She wasn’t as intuitive at this part, and after several false tries, she started to act depressed despite Mea’s encouragement. So on one try when she didn’t register his presence, he poked her in the ribs.

She shrieked and laughed helplessly, hugging her elbows to her sides and looking around the dark for him. “Cut it out, Dad!”

The unselfconscious title almost made him stumble. But if he couldn’t make her stop using it, he’d just have to ignore it. “Just a little incentive.”

She whipped around toward his voice, but he’d already moved on. “I’m terrible ticklish.”

“Maybe it’ll help you concentrate.”

“I don’t think so!”

Smothering her giggles, she started breathing again, and he waited until she relaxed. She still had a shadowy smile on her face when he approached her. Almost immediately, she lifted a hand and slapped it on his chest.

“Whoa! I did it! I did it, I did it, I did it!” She flung her arms around him and squeezed without mercy.

“You’re gonna to crack a rib, kid,” he protested mildly but didn’t push her away.

“Okay, okay, let’s do it again!” She let him go and danced in a little circle.

Stone could barely keep from laughing. “Hell no, I gotta go visit Ema. Fix my ribs.”

“Come on, Dad, I didn’t hurt you.”

“You’re little but you’re wiry.”

Snickering, she pushed at him, and he moved away. They practiced for a while, and Regan improved with every approach until Mea called a halt to it.

“Okay, it’s time for phase three. Let’s see if you can tell the difference between us.”

Then she joined the action, and they circled Regan like predators intent on their next meal. It occurred to Stone as they moved around her that anyone else would have been nervous. Regan was in deep darkness with two very dangerous people stalking her, but she was relaxed, excited—having fun. That kind of trust was how she’d gotten under his skin in the first place.

By the time they stopped for a meal, she had reached the point where she could identify Stone every time he neared, but she missed Mea half of the time. Warren joined them in the mess hall and she chattered to him nonstop about it.

When Regan finally paused to eat a few bites, Warren commented with a grin, “She sounds like a huntress in the making.”

Mea’s frown was like a thundercloud, mirroring Stone’s own visceral reaction. “Who said she was going to be a hunter? These lessons are for her protection.”

“I want to be a hunter.”

Mea turned her frown on the kid. “That’s not a choice you have to make now. There are a million other things you could do with your life.”

“My god, history really does repeat itself,” Warren muttered, staring from one to the other.

They ignored him.

“Sure, there’s probably lots of other things, but I want to be a hunter. I said I’d grow up to be just like you.”

“And you are, short stuff,” the android interrupted, holding up a hand to Mea to forestall further arguments. “So much it’s scary. She was just as quick to learn new things. Right, Mea?”

Stone watched her struggle with her objections until she finally sighed with a wry twist to her mouth.

“I don’t remember learning awareness nearly as fast as you have, squirt. You’re just plain gifted. That’s all there is to it.”

Then she bent her head to her plate as though she didn’t want to see the sun come out on Regan’s face.

The girl blushed and hugged herself. “Thanks Mom,” she whispered, and Stone put his head down, too. Seeing the emotion in the kid’s eyes made his skin feel too tight over his bones. “Can we practice some more after lunch?”

Warren answered, “I hate saying no to you munchkin, but you’ve got lessons this afternoon.”

“Aw, man.”

“And I wouldn’t be able to practice with you anyway, babe,” Mea said with a gentle smile. “I have some studying to do myself on this mission of ours.”

“What is this mission of ours?”

“Well,” Mea began slowly, eyes growing cautious, “there’s a group of people on an isolated colony that are trying to start an uprising against the Coalition. My job is to go in and extract the leader.”

Stone wasn’t sure if she was hiding the facts from him or the girl, but it was clear she hadn’t told them everything. He leaned forward with a frown. “What good would that do? They’ll just get a new leader.”

She looked down again, stirring the food on her plate with a fork. “Hmm, that’s what I said. But the Coalition thinks it’ll confuse the colony for a while and give them more time. Plus Uncle Mike wants to interrogate him. So I have to bring him in alive.”

He studied her, curious about the note of disappointment in her voice. “Somebody you don’t like?”

“Don’t know the man,” she said without looking at him, standing and picking up her plate.

An obvious evasion. Before he could call her on it, Warren barked, “Freeze! Sit your ass back down and eat. I know you didn’t eat breakfast and you’ve barely touched that.”

To Stone’s surprise, she sat back down, shooting the android a frown.

He didn’t seem to notice. “You’ve got to keep an eye on this one,” he said to Regan in a confidential tone. “It’s always some excuse with her—
I’m too busy, I’ve got bad guys to catch, I’m in love—”

Mea cuffed Warren on the back of the head with what looked like real irritation, and Stone shifted on his seat uncomfortably.

“What? You didn’t make me promise either,” Warren protested, humor dancing in his brown eyes.

“What works for Regan will not work for you. I’ll eat if you’ll shut up.”

“All right, all right. Come on, short stuff. Mom’s cranky and we’ve got lessons to do.”

“Okay.”

They left and Stone watched Mea pick at her food with a frown. He could not believe that she wasn’t eating because she was pining away in love with him. Just the idea made the ground feel unstable beneath his feet and darkness whisper at the edges of his sight. It just wasn’t possible, he told himself, gritting his teeth. There was no such thing as love. “Are you going to eat that or just play with it?” His voice sounded hoarse and loud even to his own ears.

She raised her eyebrows at him but said nothing, studying his face. Whatever she saw there made her eyes soften and her mouth curve in a hint of a smile. “There are other things I’d rather be doing,” she murmured, eyes coming to rest on his mouth.

His breath hissed sharply in through clenched teeth and her words
wherever whenever however
lanced through his skull. Before images of her naked on the table could take hold, he pushed to his feet and stalked out.

Chapter 19

In his quarters, Stone paced with furious energy. He’d already had her, damn it. But at the slightest lift of her mouth or twist of her body he burned like he hadn’t touched her in years. All that time in the slam he couldn’t remember ever feeling this crazy for a woman. The last time he’d had sex was with the doctor who’d done the physical for his transfer to Malthat—a bound and gagged convict apparently made for a convenient, easy romp. Before that it had been endless years, but still the episode with the doctor had been a quick release, nothing more. Nothing like the detonations that had torn him apart last night. And why couldn’t he forget the look in her eyes?

Pacing was not working off his energy fast enough, so he dove out into the corridor and trotted down to the gym. He bypassed the equipment—that wasn’t going to be enough to get rid of his frustration, but the holographic system repeatedly rejected his efforts to call up fighters. He was still trying and cursing loudly when Warren appeared.

“Mea said you’d need to work off some energy.”

Damned woman. How did she read him so well? “You volunteering?” he growled, hands clenching at his sides.

“Hell, no. What do you think I am, stupid? Come on over here.” Warren moved to the corner of the gym with wires dangling from the ceiling and gestured impatiently when Stone didn’t follow. “Come on. You’re bloodthirsty enough to like this.”

Curious, Stone stalked over to stand next to the android. Looking him up and
down, Warren muttered something under his breath before he reached into a receptacle and pulled out a strange looking body suit. It shone as though it had some weird metal worked into the cloth.

“This one ought to fit you. It’s VR technology that lets you feel everything that’s happening in the program. Mea’s got the system programmed with different hunting simulations. You’re going to need to strip. It works best skin on skin.”

When Stone did nothing but stare at him, Warren sighed and dropped the suit at his feet. “Who would’ve thought you’d be shy.” He turned toward a control panel. “What’s your pleasure? Animal, vegetable, or mineral?”

“What the hell, ‘droid?”

“I told you, it’s virtual reality hunting simulations. You put the gear on, hook yourself to the wires, pick your program, and you’re there. It’ll look, feel, even smell real. So what’ll it be? Do you want to chase down people, animals, or things? Hurry up, the kidlet’s waiting on me.”

Curiosity got the better of him. “Dealer’s choice,” he muttered, slowly crouching to pick up the suit.

“Roger that. The hood’s attached to the back of the suit. The wires are self-explanatory. To get in, press this button. To get out, there’ll be a menu that drops down—ah, screw it, you’ll figure it out.” He started walking away. “Just remember, it’s not really real. Don’t stay in there too long or it’ll mess with your head.”

Stone watched the android’s back for a moment before something occurred to him. “Hey!”

At his exclamation Warren turned, expression impatient.

“What did Mea leave out about that colony’s leader?”

The android’s face lost all expression. He stared at Stone for a blank moment before answering, “He’s a slaver. She has a thing about slavers—they killed her parents.”

Then he left, and Stone scowled down at the suit in his hand. That explained a few things, like why she’d started a fight with that group on Belata. But it also meant she was taking the kid into slaver territory. His first instinct was to track her down and argue with her about it—that it was too damned dangerous for the kid. On the other hand, his earlier frustration hadn’t gone anywhere, and he knew what would happen if he got within arm’s reach of her.

Besides, the kid wasn’t his problem anymore.

Growling low in his throat, he stripped and yanked on the suit. It was more like a body glove, covering every inch of him including his hands and feet. He twitched at the curious rasping feel of it against his skin. Pressing the button on the control panel that Warren had indicated, he attached the wires to their places on the suit and pulled the hood over his head. It was smothering at first, since it only left small airholes for his nose and hugged his face like a second skin.

Then the wires lifted him into the air, and a whole new world opened up around him. He was in a jungle, something he’d only ever seen on vid-screens. The air was thick with moisture and sound. And smell. The sweet smell of a hundred different kinds of flowers and green growing things amazed his senses, but under that was the rich smell of decaying plant matter.

And under that—blood.

It stung his senses sharply and he crouched, caution slowing his movements. Looking around, he saw nothing but green jungle, birds, and bugs. Lifting his head, he sampled the air carefully then moved with as much stealth as he could toward the scent of blood. Even so, he almost stumbled over the body.

It was human—the body was too mangled to tell if it had been a man or woman. There was something around its neck. Eyeing the surrounding jungle carefully to be sure this wasn’t a trap, he crouched by the body and reached for the object. His palm began to vibrate and he jerked his hand back in surprise, realizing only then that some kind of metallic device wreathed his fingers. Maybe a scanner? He turned it toward the body and waited while it vibrated against his palm again.

“Analysis complete,” a toneless, sexless voice chimed in his ear. “Probable cause of death: severe hemorrhaging from multiple locations. Probable manifestation of death:
Nacrid mesotania,
man-eater, 92.8 percent certainty.”

An image formed on his palm, and he stared at the creature in amazement. Apparently a
Nacrid
was a large cat, striped gray and black with a set of fangs damned near the length of his forearm. Definitely a man-eater. And apparently, he was supposed to hunt it.

“God,” he muttered.

“Query,” the voice promptly responded.

He ignored it, reaching out again for the metal thing around the victim’s neck. It was an ident band, announcing the dead body to be Jones, Carter A., with a long title ending in “ologist”. A scientist. And a little far away from his laboratory.

The details of this program were incredible. It was hard not to believe that he was really in a jungle, feet sinking into soft, sandy soil, fingers slick with blood from the dead man.

A sound penetrated his fascination. A distant roar of an animal, probably his
Nacrid.
It was almost as though the beast was challenging him to hunt it.

So he did.

*******

An eternity later, long after Stone had stopped thinking of his surroundings as a program and started living it, the jungle suddenly blinked out of existence. Disoriented, he floated in darkness until solid ground touched the soles of his feet. He stumbled, confused by the lack of light and a suffocated feeling until the hood was yanked off his head. Staring at the gym and the android’s frowning features, he remembered who he was.