Page 87 of Tyton: The Spider and the Dragonfly
“We just miss her so much.I’m truly sorry.”Elena patted her knee.“If there were any other way, we would have done it.”
Callie lifted her head.“Explain it to me then.This misunderstanding.Why did she run away?”
Elena blanched.Callie could tell she hadn’t had to justify her beliefs to an outsider in a long time.Elena took a deep breath.
“Why do you think we were put on this Earth?”
“I don’t.”Callie pulled at the second loop, but it felt like something might be cinching tighter.
Elena skipped ahead to the next part of her well-practiced catechism.“We were placed here to be fruitful and multiply.”
Were we now?Callie held her tongue.“It seems like we’re failing at that,” she offered instead.
Elena’s eyes sparkled with religious fervour.“Exactly!Wemustreproduce.It is our purpose!”
“You don’t seem to be doing any better than the rest of us.Are you sure you’re doing it right?”Callie found a second loop and tested it.
Elena’s head sunk “It is because of our wickedness.We cannot lead men.When we do, we cause more suffering.They are our natural leaders.Our rebellion is the cause.”
The loop started to slack.“Where does Talia fit into this?”
“Talia,” Elena sighed.“She refused to take the man she was promised.”
“You know Talia’s a lesbian, right?”
Elena’s face turned stony.She swallowed thickly.“Who she prefers is irrelevant.It doesn’t change her purpose.”
“What purpose?”Callie thought she felt the knot slip a little more.“She’s older than twenty-four now.She can’tmultiply.”
Elena sighed.“That isn’t her purpose to us now.”Her hands folded in her lap.“I agree, there are...new complications.”She paused.“But we have the equipment that was promised and so we must repay our debt.”
“What equipment?”Callie narrowed her eyes.
“It doesn’t matter.”Elena shook her head.“Talia must be made an example for the others.So that this never happens again.”she nodded her head once, as though affirming a decision.“However,” she added, “she has been paid for and we will deliver her.Unharmed.”
Callie pupils dilated.There was no way she was going to believethat.She tugged faster at the loop and felt the bonds slack, but they weren’t undone yet.Elena stood and retrieved what she had put down by the door.
The machete hung loosely in her hands.“Wemustdeliver Talia undamaged.So you will pay her price instead.”She gripped the handle tightly.“I’m sorry.If we’d had more time, I’m sure you would have seen your purpose more clearly.”
Callie steeled her muscles to dodge the incoming blow, but it didn’t fall.She caught the shock on Elena’s face, along with the flash from her Opti receiving a message.
“We would have gotten here sooner if you hadn’t insisted that we stop at the base!”Sparx hissed.
Faster than he could blink, Talia’s knifepoint was under his chin.It still had some of Trevor’s blood on it.“Are you suggesting…?”
“No!”he whispered quickly.Talia scowled and re-sheathed her knife.
“I needed tools and Tornit to disable the biosig sensors,” Talia grunted, grabbing a coil of rope.“Or no-one would be getting rescued.”Talia grit her teeth.Sparx’s words had stung.
Sparx tried to look over her shoulder, but Talia was just too damn tall.“What was so important at the base?”
Talia threw him an angry glance and then continued to uncoil the rope.“You’ll see,” she muttered.
Sparx turned his attention to his absurdly large boyfriend silently unlocking the access panel on the roof.“How does he do that so quietly?”
“He keeps his fucking mouth shut while he’s working.”Talia handed Sparx the rest of the rope.She placed the end in her mouth and climbed the ladder to the roof.
“You’re kind of a dick.”Sparx muttered to himself.His Opti pinged.
