Page 28 of Redstone
“Not unless they’ve found an antidote for cluthe that works faster than the time it will take that bot to get him to the tank.”
“However did you smuggle something like cluthe in here?”
Isidore smiled. “That would be telling.”
“Clever and quiet.” Rory shook his head. “I should have taken you for one of mine when you first got here. You’re a political, though, and I tend to avoid the politicals. Radicals of any kind aren’t the sort of people I care to deal with. Too many ideals getting in the way of the practicalities of life and death.”
“I’m sorry to disappoint you.”
“You can make it up to me by explaining your interest in Kyle Alexander.” Rory shifted slightly, his massive bulk moving with inexplicable sinuousness. “He’s a high-value commodity. Why should I let you keep him?”
“Apart from the fact that you’re not sure I can’t kill you, me, and everyone within a twenty-foot radius before you could stop me?” It was a minor bluff, but after what he’d just done to Nathaniel, Isidore was willing to bet that Rory would give him the benefit of the doubt. He wasn’t wrong, and the rapidbackpedaling of dozens of feet brought smiles to both of their faces.
“Apart from that,” Rory agreed.
“Kyle Alexander is as political as it gets.” Isidore would have to play it close to the line here; he wasn’t a good enough liar to do otherwise. “The highest political powers in the universe want him dead or under their control. If he’s under my control first, I get a stake in that.”
“Interesting.” Rory moved on to cleaning his other hand. “And you think you can hold onto him for the time it will take to make your play?”
“I don’t know, but I’m willing to use every trick I’ve got to try and ensure that.”
Sun-bright eyes looked him over. “And you’ve got quite a lot of them, don’t you?”
“More than you know.”
Rory grinned, then put his little shiv away. There was a collective exhalation in the room. “I like you, Isidore. Being near you is like walking side by side with death. I’ve done that, you know, in the Beyond. I challenged death there, and I won.” He leaned over slightly. “I like my chances with you too, but I’ll put my personal desires aside for now. Curiosity is the only cure for boredom I’ve found, but sometimes even curiosity serves you better if you delay it.”
“I agree.” The door to the Pit started to open again.
“Go get your boy and remember to expect the unexpected. After all”—Rory bared his teeth in a grin, and they were all as black as space— “turnabout is fair play.”
Chapter fourteen
No fewer than three women approached Robbie as he led his robot posse and their prisoners back toward the entrance. The first one tried acting coy, the second called his name—and who knew how she’d figured that out already—and the third skipped all the middlemen and just stripped her top off. She was blonde, beautiful, curvy, perky, and terribly scarred across the tops of both her breasts, which she thrust toward him with a smile and a wink. It was both blatant and subtle, a way of coming onto him while letting him know that nothing he could do would be worse than what she’d already lived through. Robbie was impressed.
Not impressed enough, though. “No thanks,” he said as he stepped around her.
“We have boys too if that’s more your style,” she called after him, rushing to catch up. “Boys who know how to take a man like you, nothing like that scared little bunny your robot’s got hisclaw around. Or maybe you’d prefer to sample from a broader menu?”
“I’m not hungry,” Robbie said. He swiped his card at the door, then his palm, then let it read his iris as well.
“Everybody’s got hungers, baby,” the woman said knowingly as he left the Pit behind. “If you can’t feed them here, where can you?”
How about at the bottom of a black fucking hole, which is where I’d like to put most of the people in here?Robbie gritted his teeth silently but kept moving until they reached the door that led to the intake room on the left-hand side. “Get the others to the infirmary,” he directed the bots.
“This one’s physical functionality has ceased,” said the bot holding the inmate that Isidore had bitten.
“Thenrunhim to the infirmary,” Robbie snapped. “Go!” Holy shit, he hoped Wyl was installing some sort of improved AI in ZeeBee because these things were too stupid to live. It wasn’t surprising that the inmates ripped them up for parts; they were no threat unless backed up by less reliable, more dangerous human guards. Robbie moved into the room, and the last bot followed with Kyle.
He looked over the focus of their entire mission surreptitiously as he put his weapons away in the stasis case. The case was a precaution against thievery, the assumption being that Robbie wouldn’t need an extra weapon to help him deal with an un-modded prisoner, and that there was no sense in giving them a chance to swipe something useful to take back into the Pit. Robbie was damn sure that rule was broken all the time, but he wasn’t going to get things off to a bad start. Besides …
“You smart, kid, or are you stupid?” he asked in the same bored tones he’d been using all day.
“Smart, sir.”
At least he was prompt. “You wanna prove that, then you’re not gonna make any fast movements. Got it? Because I’m not in the mood for any shit while we process your intake.”
“Got it, sir.”
