Warpath by Randolph Lalonde Read Free Book Online

me was coming here to work in the
jungle, he said he already contacted Haven Shore and they had a place
for him, he was a botanical technician named John. Kind of a nervous
guy, but nice, really smart. We’re talking about our families
before the virus, I think everyone does these days unless it’s too
fresh, but my husband has been dead since day one, my dad didn’t
make it through the first week, so I just do it to keep their memory
alive, but anyway,” Dom turned his head to take a sip from a water
tube near his cheek, and Oz helped move it into position. “Thank
you,” he said after a large gulp.
    “No problem,” Oz
replied.
    “All right, so we’re
talking up a storm, finally,” Dom said. “and this guy walks to
the front of the cabin and starts talking, saying that his name is
Lucius Wheeler, and he won’t be going all the way to Rega Gain with
us. I could feel the ship slowing down, not like gravity, but the
rumble of the retro thrusters. The safety restraints on our seats
turn on, and we’re all stuck there. He says he’s sorry that only
two people would be making it, and then singles me and Antonia out.
Four guys, big, cyborgs from what I could tell, pluck us out of our
seats, and drag us to the forward compartment where there were four
dead attendants. Someone had shot them, as best as I could tell.
    This guy, Wheeler,
looks us over and says we’ll do, then looks at the bag he’s
holding and says; ‘some alterations are necessary.’ One of his
guys gets out this blade that’s glowing white hot and starts coming
towards me, then Wheeler grins and says, ‘no, cut her legs off, if
you cut his legs off, the two of them still won’t fit.’”
    I’m no hero, but I
see the cyborg turn towards Antonia and I go for the side of him that
isn’t metal plated. No one caught me in time, so I try to tackle
him, and he doesn’t budge. He may as well be a support beam for all
the difference I make, and that metal arm of his backhands me across
the compartment. Wheeler leans down and tells me; ‘give the people
who find you a message for me. Tell them that they should have let me
leave in peace, but they didn’t, so now I’m going to take or
destroy everything they have.’ Then he knocks me out.”
    Dom turned for another
sip of water, and Oz helped him once again. Oz was piecing the story
together, what Wheeler was thinking when he chose Dom. From the
report he’d already received, Antonia was roughly the same shape,
and had the same hair colour as Ayan. Dom’s complexion, height and
hair matched Jake’s. Wheeler probably thought he was being clever
when he chose them to deliver his message.
    “Thanks,” Dom said
as he finished sipping. “I woke up in the dark. The life support
bag only had enough light for me to make out the top of Antonia’s
face. She told me they took her legs, and I could feel the cold
coming. I didn’t know what was going on, not really, but I wrapped
myself around her as best I could. I couldn’t check to see if she
was bleeding, but I could feel something wet, all I could do was try
to keep her warm. She was in so much pain, but she passed out a
little while later. I did too when the air got thin.”
    “Whatever they used
to cut her cauterized her wounds. They haven’t woken her up yet.
You kept her face and head warm enough so she didn’t need the work
you did though, her cheeks and nose are fine.”
    “That’s something
then,” Dom said. “I wish I could tell you more, Oz. The next
thing I remember is waking up here.”
    “That’s plenty,”
Oz said. “I’m sorry this happened to you.”
    “Please, don’t
worry about it. It doesn’t matter who this madman was after, or
what his reasons were, he’s the one who had it done. If I were the
kind of man who could track down and punish people, I would make him
pay, but I’ll leave that to people like you. You look like that
kind of man.”
    “He won’t get away
with this,” Oz said, putting a hand on Dom’s