Robotech 12 - Symphony of Light by Jack McKinney

Author:Jack McKinney [McKinney, Jack]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Robotech; Next Generation
Publisher: Del Rey
Published: 2010-12-26T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TEN

If the Ayres incident proved one thing, it was that Humans and Protoculture were basically immiscible. Invid and Protoculture? That was something else, as we shall see.

Mingtao, Protoculture: Journey Beyond Mecha

Rook edged away from the bar and left the saloon. The sight of Dusty's photo in the hands of all those soldiers who were eager to see him killed, all those soldiers who had allegedly lost friends at his hands, had brought into question her earlier efforts on his behalf. Her flirtations. She sat in the dark on the saloon steps, while inside the soldiers drank and swore vengeance, and wondered why she always seemed to fall for the bad boys, the loners and rogues. It went back to Cavern City, she supposed, to Romy and the Angels and the days when she had been something of an outlaw herself. She couldn't deny, however, that she had seen something noble in Dusty's character. She thought back to that brief glimpse she had had of his chest plates and prosthetic arm. "My friends did nothing to stop them," she recalled him telling her. "They made no attempt to rescue me, or at least put me out of my misery... " Not that that justified his going on a murder spree.

Rook heard Rand's voice and glanced over her shoulder in the direction of the saloon. He was telling the men that he knew where Dusty could be found. But he made no mention of the time he and Rook had spent with him. He was being his usual protective self, and yet Rook found that she was angry instead of grateful; she didn't want to thank him as much as throttle him. Because Rand, underneath all the arrogance and sarcasm, was actually a pretty sensitive man-in a hick sort of way.

Rook shut her eyes and pressed her hands to her forehead, as though in an attitude of prayer. I knew he was the one they were searching for, but it just doesn't seem possible that he could be so cold-blooded. And maybe Rand is right-maybe he is an Invid agent. When she looked up, she found Marlene standing in front of her.

"Are you all right?" Marlene asked her. "I saw how upset you got in the saloon."

"I'm touched," Rook said nastily as Marlene sat down beside her.

Marlene made a puzzled expression. "I guess I must deserve that for some reason...You see, I don't mean to pry, but you just looked like you could use a friend."

Rook sighed and took Marlene's hand. "I'm sorry, Marlene. In fact I was just thinking about friendship."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

Rook made Marlene promise that what she was about to say would remain between them; then she told her about the brief skirmish with the Invid ships and the wounded rider she had helped. "It was Dusty Ayres," Rook confessed. "I think I knew right from the beginning, but I just didn't want to believe it. And after he told me what he had been through, I started to feel sorry for him.

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