Interzone 251 by edited by Andy Cox

Author:edited by Andy Cox [Cox, edited by Andy]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Jonathan McCalmont, Greg Kurzawa, Ansible Link, David Langford, Nick Lowe, Tony Lee, Jim Burns, Richard Wagner, Martin Hanford, Fiction, John Grant, Karl Bunker, Reviews, Gareth L. Powell, Tracie Welser, Suzanne Palmer
Publisher: TTA Press
Published: 2014-05-28T16:00:00+00:00

***

“Leor, where are you?” she asked over the link as soon as she’d reactivated it.

“Found your little tunnels,” came the immediate response, over silence. “How long do you think you can hide in there before your air runs out? Didn’t think I could figure out you’re in a suit?”

“You’re right, I am,” she said. “I’ve got a couple of hours left on my tank, though.”

“I can wait a couple of hours. Why don’t you just come out now, and I’ll take it easy on you, make it nice. I won’t offer again.”

“I’m sure you won’t,” she said. “But I wonder – how much damage can I do to this fancy bike of yours in a couple of hours? I imagine the Rep made it clear what he’d take out of you if you let anything happen to it.”

“You’re bluffing.”

“Let’s see…it’s a Basellan model, of course. A G-449, older model, and you left an empty can of skunk on the seat. You aren’t high, are you, Leor? There’s fines for that.”

“Don’t touch the bike.”

“Come stop me. Oh, and Leor? Hurry.”

She waited for him in the cable terminus, her suit still on but her faceplate open. Her boots were clamped down to the deck and she had one arm looped around one of the ubiquitous wall-bars, beside the airlock out to the surface and his bike. She could hear him as he careened off walls, any grace of movement lost in haste, and she could remember him breathing heavy on top of her, and this time, for once, it didn’t make her cry.

He came sailing around the corner, still wearing his work overalls from the day before, his face red from exertion and anger. When he saw her he smiled, and she smiled back at him, and both smiles were predatory.

Leor grabbed a bar, pulled himself around, got his boots down on the floor. “Fari,” he said, almost snarling her name.

“Leor,” she said. “Are you sorry for what you did to me?”

“Sorry?” He tripped over the word, staring at her. “I’m not the one who’s going to be sorry,” he said. “I’m not the one who’s going to be begging—”

“This is your last chance,” she said, and put one hand on the control panel for the airlock. “Ask for forgiveness.”

“Stupid bitch, there’s a whole safety system that won’t let you open that,” he said.

“I rewired it,” she said.

“You expect me to believe a woman—”

“I expect you to die, Leor,” she said. “Believe that.”

He rushed her. She pulled the lever.

The entire air volume of Rock 17 tried to crowd past her, and she clung to the bar as long as she could, long enough to see Leor go flying past her, eyes wide with fear, out into the vacuum of space.

“I lied,” she said over the comms, though he was beyond hearing the moment she’d opened the door. She was torn from the bar and out after him, the safety tether she’d coiled up behind her snapping taut and leaving her flailing at the end of it.

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