Becky Black Shoot the Humans First

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would sting or bite. Maiga stood beside her, checking the readouts too. In a moment Tanashi
shrugged.
"They're harmless."
One landed on the barrel of my rifle and crawled along it towards my hand. I watched
it, marvelling at the delicate beauty of the thing. Despite the Doc's assurance, I still felt wary
of letting it touch me. I didn't swat it, but when it crawled too close I shook my rifle until it
flew off again. As quickly as it rose the cloud turned, as if blown by the wind and sank to the
ground again, into the grass. A few of the 'butterflies' remained in sight, lost perhaps,
hovering over the stream.
We'd all come to a halt, when the insects rose up, so Ilyan turned to the group, smiling
and said, "Come on everyone, I'm not paying you to stand around."
"You're not paying us at all!" Vimal called back, brushing a stray butterfly out of Jia's
hair and laughing.
"Nah, Vim, he's just not paying you." I grinned, teasing the lad. "The rest of us are all
on big salaries."
"Then I wish to lodge a formal complaint," Vim said adjusting the shoulder straps of
his pack and grinning back at me.
"Are we moving then, or what?" Tesla asked, looking as if he'd prefer the 'or what.' I
think I would too. I was hungry and ready for a nice snooze in the sunshine.
"Er, no." Maiga looked up from her Snapper. "Sorry, we are lost." She glared at me,
as if it was my fault. She really hated it when I was right.
****
Sometimes I hated it when I was right. Like about Maiga and Tesla. The next day, or
rather, nineteen and a half hours later, since "days" doesn't exactly apply around here, I
finally decided to do something about it.
We'd got ourselves back on track and were now heading to a hospital unit. Ilyan liked
field hospitals. Some of the patients would go back into combat; some would be on their way
home for convalescence. All of them could spread his message, even from their beds.
Ilyan actually brought up the subject himself. The subject of Maiga anyway. He'd
been brooding again, which he did a lot lately. That weight of destiny maybe. After a while
sitting staring ahead he said he wanted to take a walk. I went with him. I went everywhere
with him and Rish went everywhere with Tesla. I'd tried questioning Rish to see if he had
suspicions about Maiga and Tesla too, but he said he'd noticed nothing.
Ilyan and me walked in silence for a while, moved well away from the others before
he spoke.
"Jadeth, I'm glad you and Maiga have been making an effort to get along better."
"Mostly we've been making an effort to keep out of each other's way."
"Yes." He sighed. "Yes. Well I don't suppose I can force you to be friends. It's just,
well things might come to a head soon. I don't want to have to worry about you two fighting."
I felt bad then, ashamed that I might have given him extra stress and worry.
"Ilyan." I hesitated, apologies not coming easy to me. "I don't want to do anything to
make your work harder. If that's what you think I've been doing with Maiga, then I'm sorry. I
will try to get along better with her."
"It would help me." He smiled. "I hate to think that two people I care so much about
can't be friends with each other. You are both so important to me."
"Ilyan, about Maiga." Here goes. Stupid maybe, but here goes. He deserves to know
the truth. Better now, so he can deal with it before things, as he says, come to a head. "Do
you... do you really trust her?"
Ilyan looked at me puzzled. "I trust her with my life."
"Right." What about with your heart? I wanted to say. Didn't say. "And Tesla. Do you
trust him?"
His face flushed dark and he stopped walking, swung around to face me. He's not a
fool; he got the hint right off.
"What are you implying, Sergeant?"
"Look, Ilyan," I said, stopping too. "I hate to have to say this, I hope it's not true, but
you deserve to -"
"Spit it out, man!" The officer snap came through in his voice and my spine
straightened involuntarily.
"I think Maiga and Tesla are..." I hesitated, not wanting to be vulgar. "I think they're
sleeping together."
For a second I thought he would hit me. He took two quick steps towards me and I
flinched back a little. Not afraid of him physically, I just didn't want Ilyan to hit me, because
of what would change between us if he did. But he regained control and spoke instead. His
blue eyes blazed and his face had turned pale.
"Do you have any evidence?" His haughty voice chilled me.
"No," I admitted. "Not what you'd call hard evidence. I just, well, things I've seen, a
feeling I have."
"So because you have a feeling you are accusing my lover and my closest friend of
deceiving me?" He almost spat the words, anger replacing the haughtiness in his voice. I'd
never heard him speak in such a harsh tone.
"I shouldn't have mentioned it." I looked away, ashamed. He was right. I had no
evidence. A feeling? A feeling of what exactly? Paranoia? Jealousy? I'll admit it felt like he'd
punched me in the gut when he called Tesla his 'closest friend'. And that was so fucking
stupid. He'd known Tes for years; he'd only known me a few months. And him and Tesla
were the same type of man. Intelligent, sophisticated. Me? Just a grunt who thought with his
gut and his cock first and only last with his brain.
I glanced back at him as he moved. He turned away from me, stood with arms folded,
his shoulders high and tense. For a few moments he fumed silently.
"I'll thank you not to raise this subject again," he said at last, his voice still cold, but
also trembling a tiny bit.
"I won't. I'm sorry." That last's no lie. I'd made a stupid mistake, stupid. You don't
interfere between a man and his woman. That's a basic rule. And I'd broken it and, as I should
have known would happen, he'd turned around and taken lumps out of me. Had I really
believed he'd thank me for telling him?
"Your job, Sergeant, is to protect me physically." He still had his back turned to me.
"Please remember that your remit does not extend to any part of my personal life."
Speaking of having lumps taken out of me, that's bigger than the one that left the scar
on my side. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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