Page 89 of Homebound
Simon gave one of his weighty pauses as if calibrating the wisdom of telling her more.
“When humans got to me, I was gravely injured and not fit for prison. Delano took me into his lab to treat, or so he said. He managed to keep me there for years, claiming I was still sick.”
“But something happened to bring you here?” Gemma prompted, indicating the prison.
“I had recovered from my injuries but years of Dr. Delano’s ‘treatments’ sent me into decline. My memories of my last year at the lab are hazy. I was losing awareness fast. I think I assaulted another doctor and he died. Delano couldn't keep his death quiet as he’d done with the others.”
Gemma swallowed. “There were… others?”
“His orderlies are expendable.” His voice was even.
Gemma swallowed again, not certain she was glad he elaborated.
Yet Simon didn’t sound angry or bitter over his ordeal. Not once had he bemoaned his fate. He was taking his circumstances in stride, without fear and regrets.
His outlook on danger didn’t make his situation any less risky.
“Simon, what happened with the Perali made Dr. Delano suspicious. Even if he thinks you’re dead, he’s wondering if another Rix is around. He wants a Rix, right?”
“A male Rix. From the defender class. He’s after power.”
Gemma couldn't help but look him over from head to toe. Yes, definitely power. Still too thin, easily tired, a prisoner with no rights sitting in a wheelchair, he exuded the physical competency of a crouching tiger. She knew exactly what Dr. Delano saw when he looked at Simon - a living god.
“You have to leave,” she told him bluntly.
Her statement surprised him. “Where would I go?”
“Anywhere. Away. When Dr. Delano presumed you dead, the prison protected you. Now you’re a sitting duck. All he has to do is check, and there you are.”
“Are you telling me to escape?”
Was she? Maybe. She didn’t know herself anymore. “I’m scared, Simon.”
Her eyes latched to the tracker securely hugging his arm.
“I can escape any time I want to,” he murmured, his accent rolling and smooth. Deadly.
“But the tracker… ” Gemma pointed to his arm. She never felt so powerless in her entire life.
“The tracker is not what’s holding me here.”
Her heart thumped hard against her breastbone. She waited to hear if he’d say anything else, but he didn’t.
Out in the distance, the launch countdown had begun. Tears pricked Gemma’s eyes from an irrational fear that the countdown was somehow winding down her and Simon’s togetherness.
Another roar came from the shuttle, this one louder, and thin blue flames licked its underside.
“The main engine is on, full thrust,” Simon commented. “Watch. In three seconds, two, one… there it goes.”
The shuttle, looking like a toy from the distance, detached itself from the surface and rose out of the clouds of smoke and dust it had generated and gracefully lifted higher, and higher, curving north-east, getting smaller, becoming a dot, and winking out of view. Here, and gone. The smoke slowly dissipated.
She wasn’t sure how long they remained there. The cold started seeping from the ground through the thick soles of her boots. She shifted from one foot to the other and shivered.
Her movements roused Simon from his introspection. “Cold?”
“Just a little.”
He surprised her by grabbing the wheel and turning the chair to face her.
