Gamma Blade by Tim Stevens Read Free Book Online Page B

paralyze her, Beth felt Venn tense, the muscles of his chest and abdomen harden.
    His head turned a fraction to the side.
    Quickly, she said: “Venn. It’s me. Beth. I’m here.”
    He twisted, pulling free from her grasp, turning on his knees to face her. For an instant, in his eyes, she saw something she’d seen before, long ago, during that terrible period when they’d first met. It was a frightening look, a stare of implacable, ruthless calculation.
    It was the look of a cornered animal, coiled and ready to do anything, anything , to preserve its own existence.
    The look winked out like a candle flame being extinguished.
    And the Venn she knew, she loved, was back.
    His gaze was unsteady, his eyes blinking and peering and seeming to have trouble focussing. But he recognized her, all right.
    He scooted closer and grabbed her face, one hand on either side.
    “Beth. You okay? What have they done?”
    She didn’t pull away. But she said, confused: “ They? Who do you mean? Are you all right?”
    Venn leaned in, pulled her close, tightening his grip across her back almost painfully, crushing her against him. She felt his face against her neck and her hair. They squatted awkwardly like that for a few seconds, on the floor of the alley.
    At last, Venn drew back, his hands on her shoulders. She watched his face. He stared into her eyes, then looked away, his lids hooded. As if he was recalling.
    “Son of a bitch,” he said through his teeth.
    “What happened?”
    Venn stood. He swayed a little, but kept his feet. His hands slid down along Beth’s arms and he drew her up with him.
    “The son of a bitch,” he said again. “He didn’t shoot me.”
    “What -?”
    Venn looked down one end of the alley, then the other, as if orienting himself.
    He took Beth’s hand.
    “Come on.”
    *
    By the time they rejoined the ambulance and the police patrol car on the street overlooking the marina, Venn had filled her in.
    About the man who’d gotten the drop on him in the alleyway, and the words they’d exchanged, and the sudden loss of consciousness which in the final instant Venn had assumed to be the work of a bullet blasting away his life, but which turned out to be a blow to the back of his head. Enough to knock him out, but not to kill him.
    “It takes a special talent,” Venn said.
    “What does?” Beth looked at the ambulance, wondering why it hadn’t pulled away yet. Then she saw the uniformed cop talking to the first paramedic, who was standing by the open door of the vehicle, ready to jump up, and realized the cop was taking a brief statement.
    “To hit somebody hard enough to knock them unconscious, without killing them or turning their brains to mush.” Venn was talking in his normal bass-baritone growl, Beth noted. His speech wasn’t slurred. Which suggested he was okay, that the blow to his head hadn’t caused any significant neurological damage.
    Beth squeezed his hand. “Venn, what were you thinking?”
    He looked down at her, blinking, as if registering the tightness of her grip. Or maybe it was the tremor in her voice.
    “Running after that guy?” The words came pouring out of her, unstoppably. “You could have been shot. Or stabbed. Why’d you do it?”
    Emotions wrestled for dominance on his face. She saw truculence there, but also compassion for her. And guilt, too.
    “The same reason you stopped to help that guy on the gurney over there.” He nodded toward the ambulance. “It’s what you do. Your instincts kicked in.”
    “Except my job doesn’t put me at risk. Not in the same way.” Her eyes were welling up. She didn’t mean to rebuke him, to accuse him. She realized that what she felt wasn’t anger, as she’d thought at first. Rather it was a desperate, wrenching relief .
    Venn didn’t say anything. Just put an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close.
    They walked together over to the cops at the ambulance. One of the patrolmen started toward them, as if to tell them to