Tripp sighed, “If it shuts you up, then fine. Show me.”
Sure enough, the Manning/Synapse imprint was visible behind his earlobe now that Tripp held it up.
“Huh?”
“I knew it! I’m a damn Androgyne,” Tor burst into tears and slumped against the bed on the adjacent wall, “You call me a conspirator? I just knew something was up. Baldron was a series three unit, and now… now…” he started to hyperventilate, “Now you’re keeping this from me?”
“Hey, calm down. No one knew,” Tripp spat. “How did you know?”
Tor wiped his nose and stammered as he spoke, “Jelly, Pink Symphony. Whatever it’s c-called. It’s a virus. Some evolutionary virus thing.”
“Yes.”
“And it only killed humans?”
“Yeah, I heard her,” Tripp tried to scramble for the answer before Tor had to spell it out, “Why?”
“Who died after we left Alpha?” Tor cried.
“Daryl, Androgyne—”
“—No! Not during the explosion. Anyone would have been killed in that. I mean, who died because they had the virus?”
“Haloo.”
“Right.”
“Right.”
Bonnie and Jaycee knew what Tripp had failed to grasp. Wool knew it, too, and clocked on instantly.
“Oh, no… no…” Wool’s hand shook intensely as she reached up to her left ear, “No, I c-can’t be…”
Tripp dashed over to her and grabbed her shoulders, “Quick, show me.”
“If… if I am, then I d-don’t want to know,” Wool treated the proposed diagnosis as terminal, “Tripp, p-please. Promise me you’ll lie if I am, or tell me the truth if I’m not.”
“Turn around.”
Her eyes peeled away from his face as she turned around. Face with her shoulders, Tripp carefully lifted her earlobe up with his knuckle.
Jaycee scrunched his face and felt a lump form in his throat. He knew what it felt like it. Everyone else fell silent in anticipation.
“Tripp?” Wool whispered. “Is it there?”
He opened his eyes but couldn’t squeeze the words out.
“Tripp? Say something!” Wool squealed as he turned her around to face him.
“I’m so sorry, Wool.”
Jelly let out a cat-like whine in reverence for Wool’s torment. “Not sad, mommy.”
A stream of pink tears ran down Wool’s face. “I c-can’t…”
“I, uh, don’t know what to say.”
“Kill me, please,” Wool grabbed his wrists like a woman possessed and threatened to lash out at everyone, “I can’t be an Androgyne! It’s not true, some sort of sick trick. Someone must have put it there—”
THWOCK.
Tripp punched her across the face, knocking her out. She crashed shoulders-first to the floor. Pink saliva shot across the tiles from her lips.
Tripp wiggled his fingers around and ironed out the kinks in his neck, showing little remorse for his actions.
Bonnie, Jaycee and Tor watched Tripp turn to face them and crack his knuckles.
“I’m not proud of what I just did but it was necessary. No one say a damn word.”
No one dared say a damn word until Tripp gave his permission. He calmed his breathing and opened his eyes on Wool’s snoring face, “When she wakes up, she’ll be back to normal. She’ll have forgotten this.”
“Not stop Shanta… they come,” Jelly jumped from the bed and landed on all fours. “I go.” One by one, the pads and wires pinged away from her body.
“Who come, honey?” Bonnie squeezed the Rez-9 in her hand.
“Shanta,” she swiped the panel on the wall and pressed the end of one of her infinity claws to her chest, “Jelly. Help humans fight. War comes.”
The door whizzed open, letting Jelly disappear into the corridor.
“For heaven’s sake,” Bonnie bolted after her, “Come back, girl!”
Jaycee nodded at Tor to follow Bonnie, “Protect the young lady, trooper.”
“What with?” Tor held up his bare, decidedly weapon-free hands.
“Your sense of humor?” Jaycee punched him on the back with his broken wrist, “Get out of my sight.”
“Oww! Okay, okay,” Tor darted out of the room, “Bonnie, I’m coming!”
“Are you staying here with Wool? I think we should—” Jaycee turned to Tripp in shock, “What the hell are you doing?”
Tripp inserted the business end of his Rez-9 into his mouth. He hooked his finger around the trigger.
“No!”
Jaycee jumped forward and punched the gun out of Tripp’s hand.
BLAM!
Jaycee got there in the nick of time. The barrel slid away from Tripp’s mouth as the bullet tore through the inside of his cheek and splattered the contents of his face against the wall.
“Are you crazy?” Jaycee kicked the Rez-9 across the tiles and held Tripp’s left cheek. “What’s gotten into you?”
The right side of Tripp’s face convulsed, spitting electrical sparks over his busted titanium cheekbone. The top and bottom row of his teeth chattered together through the singed synthetic skin.
“I c-c-c-c-cannot-t…” the rotors in his eyelids whirred as they windscreen-wiped over his pupils. “J… Jay-Jay-Jay…”
“—Hey!” Jaycee screamed into his face. “Knock it off.”
THWUNK!
Jaycee thumped Tripp’s neck connector into place. “Don’t ever do that again.”
The two rods in Tripp’s throat whirred and lifted his head back into position. Tripp’s retinas spun around and focused on Jaycee’s face.
“Who’s ugly now?” Jaycee said.
Tripp felt the cavity on the right side of his face with his fingers, “You bastard.”
“Me? I saved you.”
“Saved me? Saved me from what?” Tripp’s voice flew out of his half-singed lips and the hole in his cheek, “Saved me from an eternity of rest and peace? Screw you.”
Tripp planted his palms on Jaycee’s chest plates and pushed him back with all his might.
Enough time for him to dive for the discarded Rez-9 and finish himself off for good.
“Oh, no. No, you don’t get to take the easy way out you selfish—” Jaycee kicked himself away from the wall and slid onto his ass, feet-first, priming himself to boot Tripp up the backside before he reached the gun.
“No, no, no—” Jaycee bent his knees as he barreled toward his friend, “Tripp, don’t—”
Tripp grabbed the grip of the Rez-9 in his hand and rolled onto his back. He jammed the barrel under his jaw and buried it deep into his chin.
THWOCK-BLAM!
Jaycee’s boot smashed into Tripp’s hand, crunching his mechanical fourth and fifth fingers up and out. They splintering and fizzing away at the knuckle as Rex-9 sprung from his hand.
“Ngggggg!” Tripp hopped to his feet and grabbed the K-SPARK strap secured around his chest, “Leave me alone, leave me alone—”
“—Hey!” Jaycee bent his elbow, ready to punch Tripp through the window, “You move one damn motor and I’ll kill you myself.”
“You wanna do me a favor?” Tripp lifted the strap, hoping Jaycee would kill him, “I consider it externally assisted suicide. Come and kill me.”
Jaycee clenched his fist, “Don’t do this, Tripp.”
Tripp lifted the K-SPARK strap over his fizzing, brutalized face. Jaycee jumped forward and pushed him against the wall by his shoulders, ‘Stop doing that!”
Tile dust coughed down around them as Jaycee slammed Tripp against the wall.
“Damn it, listen to me,” Jaycee whispered. “You’re an Androgyne, right?”