Page 72 of Rarely Pure and Never Simple
"Old people." Dryad rolled her eyes in an exaggerated way but gave him a shy grin. "You can if it's not a fancy, expensive one with all the lockouts. I'll show you later. Anyway…" Her smile slipped as she returned her attention to Damien's stick drawing. "The yard takes up the most space. The air transports land there. Lab-subject housing…"
Damien leaned closer as she drew rectangle after rectangle.
"Labs. Staff housing. Maintenance shed, I guess. At least that's where they keep tools and things. Administrative offices. Kitchen. I've never been in there, but the cooking smells kinda give it away." She tapped one of thex'swith her stick. "The mines do go all the way 'round. The guards loved telling us about themin case we got ideas."
"Come to me if you ever want a job, kid. That's a lot of good intel." Blaze had found his own stick at some point and tapped the prisoner block. "How hard is it to get in there?"
Dryad grimaced. "Very. Unless you just want to smash through the wall, but someone might get hurt. Three sets of doors to go through. Hand and retinal recognition for the guards. Plus a code. Each subject in their own cell."
"And there's no mess hall? You couldn't even come out for mealtimes?" Someone else might have found the horror in Shudder's voice laughable, but Damien thought he understood. The denial of such a basic communal activity would most likely seem cruel to Shudder.
Dryad heaved a shaky sigh. "No. The only time we came out were for exercise periods. Except when someone got dragged to the lab. But that was one at a time."
"You don't have to tell us about that," Shudder offered gently.
"Thanks." Dryad swallowed hard. "I think I won't."
"Exercise period it is, then." Blaze rose, still staring at the dirt diagram. "Meet me on the valley floor when you're ready to go."
Shudder stared after him and asked in a hushed tone, "Did I say something wrong?"
He's worried about you. He's worried in general, but he won't say it. Damien kept those to himself. "I'm going to pack. Dryad, maybe you could show Blaze the microdrone coding?"
When she'd trotted down the slope after Blaze, Damien tapped Shudder's knee. "You're sure about being all right? It's not about saving face?"
"Unlike some people,"—Shudder tipped his head toward the hillside—"I'mnot someone who has to keep up a macho façade. I'm doing fine, beautiful. Really."
A wildly unreasonable part of Damien wanted to sneak off and continue alone. Leave Blaze and Shudder in comfort and safety. Two things made this ridiculous, of course. The first was that he had no hope of getting the children out of harm's way on his own. The second was the certainty that they would come after him and ruin his hopes of keeping them safe.
Blaze was… Blaze... Hecaredabout Blaze far too much. Prickly, angry, gorgeous—he'd stomped into Damien's life and carved out a spot there. He'd remain there, always, that wasn't the issue, even after the inevitable had happened and what they had ended. But setting aside the fact that being in a relationship with Damien was a terrible idea, the thought of putting Blaze in more danger made him queasy.
And Shudder? Shudder—another thing Damien never considered—was a friend. Putting a friend in peril didn't feel any better.
My contract. My job. I wish it could've stayed that way.I wish I didn't care so deeply right now or want so badly.I wish I could be whole, be free, be someone else.
Wishing had never changed a single thing in his life, though. It wasn't going to start now. He hurried back to their borrowed cabin, straightened the line of stones beside the door, and went inside to pack.
When they met againon the valley floor, Blaze had his coat back, washed and repaired. None of the buttons matched, and while that made Damien's fingers itch, he didn't think Blaze would be bothered. In fact, he was grinning fiercely as Dryad showed him something on the microdrone's interface.
"There you are." The grin softened when Blaze turned it on Damien. "Good. We can go now before Disaster McKenzie gets here."
"Like hell you can," Shudder called as he jogged down the slope, followed belatedly by, "I heard that."
"Yeah, yeah. Still wish you'd stay, Shuds." Blaze held out a hand to Dryad. "Thanks for your help, kiddo. Tell Shade thanks, too, and at least one of us'll be back for the kids who want to go home."
Shade strode toward them as well from behind Dryad while she stared at Blaze's outstretched hand. Dryad shook her head. "No. I think we got our signals crossed. I'm coming with you."
Blaze withdrew his hands and heaved a growling sigh. "I'm gonna say this as nice as I can. No. There'll probably be shooting, and the last thing I want is to have to watch out foranotherkid who could be safe at home instead."
Dryad opened her mouth to answer, but Shade's brittle laugh cut her off. "Big man with his guns. Did you think in all the retrieval trips Dryad has made that she's never been in danger? Never had people shooting at her?"
"Ma'am." Blaze's face darkened to a red that clashed badly with his hair. "Just because she's been in danger before, doesn't meanIhave to put her there."
Shade held his gaze and tapped his chest with one finger. "No one needs a white knight, Blaze Emerson. Help? Yes. But don't put people on glass mountains. Besides, she'll just follow you."
Blaze snorted and looked away.
"Help me finish what I started," Dryad broke in, her voice soft but insistent. "I've been in there. Those kids are my classmates."
