His hand shook, but he pressed on, pulling the sheet back to Mai’s shoulders.
She was lying on her side, her face away from him.
Mike fell to his knees and slumped against the low bed, his hand on her shoulder. “I’m so sorry,” he said, his voice finally cracking as the tears started to well up. “I didn’t want to leave you. I wanted to be with you until… I’m sorry, Mai. I love you so much, I hope you knew that before…”
He closed his eyes and bowed his head, resting his forehead against her shoulder, unable to continue on. A wave of grief welled up inside him and he fought to keep it down, afraid it would come out in an unending torrent of anguish.
“You silly old fool,” a voice said, making him open his eyes and lean back. He looked around, thinking one of the nurses or assistants were speaking to him, but the voice came again.
“I’m not dead yet. You can’t get rid of me that easily.”
“Mai?” Mike asked, bringing his attention back to her body.
Mai shuffled her body over until she was facing him, a pained grin on her face.
“It was only a minor heart attack. I’m tougher than that.”
“Oh god, I thought you were… oh Mai, I’m so relieved… no one would tell me what happened. I thought I had left you to die.”
“Nope, still around and still kicking. You’ll get my foot up your ass soon too if you don’t stop blubbing. Get a grip, my love, I’m fine. I just need to take things easy for a while. I’ll be up and about in no time.”
Mike laughed, letting out the built-up tension in great guffaws. He leaned down and hugged her, her weak arms clasping around his neck.
“We did it,” she whispered in his ear. “We beat that bastard.”
“It was all you,” Mike said. “Those last modifications were genius. You saved us, Mai.”
They just continued to hug, not wanting to let each other go until Mike sensed a hush come over the hospital. He heard the footsteps of a few people approaching. He let Mai go and they both turned toward the door.
The flaps opened and four men entered, carrying a stretcher between them. Aimee’s body, burned and bloodied, lay on top. Everyone watched in silence as her body was taken through to the rear and placed on the floor, next to a long line of sixty linen body bags filled with Unity corpses that hadn’t been buried yet. A group of men and croatoans, who were tagging the bags, nodded at those who left Aimee with them.
“That poor woman,” Mai finally said. “She led with such bravery.”
“Aye, it’s a real shame. Didn’t have an easy life by all accounts,” Mike said.
The four stretcher-bearers nodded with respect to Mai and Mike as they left, but the flaps didn’t close behind them. The nurse who showed Mike through held them open so the others could see through.
Those who could stand did so, and those who couldn’t sat up in their beds.
Together, they all gave Mike and Mai applause, many shouting their thanks and giving their respects for the help.
The nurse then said a few words about Aimee. The tent hushed again out of respect. Mike and Mai stayed silent as two women dressed in Unity council tunics addressed the hospital.
Mike zoned out after a while as they talked about Aimee’s goals for Unity and how she saw the society. They explained that they would lead the council until they could arrange for elections, but for now, they would continue to run things as Aimee had done in the past.
After they had finished and left, there was one more visitor who stepped through to join Mai and Mike.
“Maria, my girl!” Mai said. “So you’re quite the hero, I hear.”
Maria shrugged her shoulders and looked down at her hands clasped in front of her. “I don’t know about that, I just tried to survive. Look, I wanted to speak with you two, to say sorry… Augustus, he made me tell…”
Mike stood, his old knees cracking, and held her by the arm. “You don’t have anything to apologize for, you hear me? We all knew what he was like. He would have got what he wanted out of you one way or another. I’m just happy you’re safe now.”
“I concur,” Mai said. “He was a madman. God knows what he would have done to you. It all worked out in the end, and you got to kill the bastard, so your name will be long held in regard here, I’m sure. Don’t diminish your actions, girl.”
Maria’s face blushed and she stammered, not sure what to say when she seemed to suddenly remember something. She opened her palms and showed an object to Mike and Mai.
“I don’t know why I took this,” she said. “But in the heat of the moment I saw it on him and thought it might be something useful. I’ve never seen anything like it before, and it… well, it seems to have some kind of internal energy.”
She handed the prism to Mike.
He rolled it over in his hand, feeling the light vibrations coming from its warm, metal surface.
“How interesting,” he said.
He lowered it for Mai to have a look.
She sat up in her bed and took it from Mike’s hand. “Hmm, I think a trip to the workshop is in order.”
Chapter 33
CHARLIE WATCHED Vingo limp toward some steps cut into the ground. Dim lights lined green-tinged transparent glass on the walls leading down to a set of double red doors at the bottom. He paused at the top of them and encouraged everyone forward with a wave.
“Where the hell does this lead?” Charlie said. “You’re not taking us to meet more clusps?”
“We need to go through the house to reach its transport deck.”
“Won’t the owner be a little angry?” Layla said.
“Their shuttle is missing. The house will be empty.”
Denver turned, peering through his sights at their surroundings. Charlie spotted a few tredeyans moving around vehicles on brightly lit external transport decks. The decks lined the edge of a cliff that dropped away to the sea. Metal walkways sloped into the cliff, connecting the thirty-meter-wide platforms to dry land. He wondered why the owners kept the lights on with the scion air assault still in full flow, although the large prism had floated to a distant part of the star-filled sky to continue its bombardment.
“Do you know who lives here?” Denver said.
“A high-ranking tredeyan. Their houses are cut into the cliff and have the best views. The rest of us live in villages or the barracks in the cavern systems.”
Vingo climbed down the stairs and pushed the door open. A shaft of artificial light brightened the stairwell.
Charlie immediately followed him inside, pleased that they got themselves out of view, but he remained cautious. A scared tredeyan might be waiting around any corner with a loaded rifle, or one of those damned prisms might have floated in.
The space opened up into a large corridor with smooth cream walls. Five small glass cases were screwed at eye level on either side, with dried flowers and plants inside. The décor took Charlie by surprise. So far, all he’d seen was functionality around the defense, a slaver cavern and pulse cannons on strategic hilltop positions. He guessed Layla would be in her element if they had time to poke around. A vehicle was priority number one, to reach the vaults, so he had no intention of giving her the opportunity.
Denver closed the entrance door and made straight for a rack containing a tredeyan rifle. He grabbed it and checked the magazine. Charlie kept his rifle shouldered and stayed close to Vingo. The corridor opened up into a softly lit circular space, which he guessed was a living area. High-resolution screens were fixed against a wall in a sunken square area in the middle of the room, in front of an L-shaped bench. Two small helmets sat on the end of it.