Zero-G by Rob Boffard

Author:Rob Boffard
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Orbit
Published: 2016-01-18T16:00:00+00:00

55

Riley

“Riley, what are you doing?” Carver says.

I don’t know. I’m making it up as I go along. Anna is looking at me like I’ve gone insane, her eyes darting between me and the approaching Earthers.

I can feel Ivy’s throat pulsing in the crook of my arm. She’s dead still.

Anton comes to a juddering halt, the men and women behind him nearly knocking into him.

“Stay back,” he says over his shoulder. His eyes are locked on me and the girl, shot through with fear and fury.

“Gods, she’s got—”

“Let her go.”

I raise my chin, staring them down. “Listen up,” I say, raising my voice so that it fills the room. “Everybody back off. We’re walking out of here, and I don’t want to see anybody in our way.”

Ivy is still frozen. I can’t tell if she’s scared solid, or just playing along.

Mikhail arrives, pushing his way through the crowd, thunder on his face. He ignores the girl, focusing on me. “Put her down,” he says slowly.

“You think I’m joking?” I say, hefting her higher, using the surface of my arm to lift her chin. “I’ll do it.” Somehow, I manage to keep the trembling out of my voice.

A man falls out of the crowd. It’s Jamal. There’s anger on his face – anger, and a terror so raw it takes my breath away

“Please,” he says. It’s the kind of whisper that stops everyone speaking. “Please don’t hurt her.”

“She won’t.”

Okwembu steps out behind Jamal – the latest arrival to our little game, calm and composed. Mikhail tries to speak, but she places a hand on his arm. Carver and Anna have drawn closer to me, almost touching on either side, their bodies tense.

“Neither of them will,” Okwembu says. “They don’t have it in them.”

She turns Jamal’s face towards her, and smiles gently. “Your little one is going to be fine.”

Her words snap Carver out of his trance. He steps in front of me. “Only if everybody locks their feet to the floor,” he says. “We’re going to walk out of here. If anybody gets in our way, we’ll kill her.”

A small part of me burns with revulsion at his words, but I ignore it. There’s no other way out of this.

Okwembu’s smile gets even wider. “Two of the young people in front of you have never killed before,” she says to the crowd. “The other one, the one holding the girl, is Riley Hale. You probably know her. She has killed before – she murdered her tracer crew leader, and then own father. But she did it to save Outer Earth, and she feels so guilty that she’d rather die before taking another life.”

She turns to face me. Her expression is completely neutral. “Did I miss anything, Ms Hale?”

Right then, Ivy decides she’s had enough.

Maybe she realises that it isn’t a game, or that it’s not fun to play-act any more. She screams. And it’s the kind of high-pitched scream that makes you want to put your hands over your ears and scream back, just to shut out the noise.

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