expected, and why he assigned you to investigate Blue Rim.
“They use the prisoners as lab rats. For a small fee, those prisoners just ‘disappear’. The prisons don’t worry about overcrowding, and Blue Rim doesn’t have to answer to System law about illegal scientific experimentation.”
Gar remained silent.
“What?” Rafe kept an eye on his surroundings, fully expecting another group of peacemakers to show when the three idiots he’d encountered didn’t report in. He felt both furious and embarrassed to see lawmen he should have been proud to call his peers acting like corrupt barbarians.
“I’m not buying it, Rafe. She’s one of Blue Rim’s experiments? She took out Drekk in two seconds, not to mention she knocked me flat on my ass. And what about you? You’re saying a female ‘experiment’ took out two Xema warriors in their prime?” Gar had a point.
But still…
“If not an experiment, then what?”
“I’ve been hearing rumours about a resurgence in the System’s push to regulate Eyran practices much more closely.” Gar paused, and Rafe had a bad feeling sinking into his bones.
“I think she might be a Creation.”
Rafe let the cursed word sink in. A Creation, an entity not born, but developed and formed by mortal men and women, not the planetary gods and goddesses as nature intended. An abomination by law and morality, and clearly justified as lethal anomalies during the Eyran War of 2845.
A long time ago, the scientists on Eyra had free reign to do whatever they wanted in the name of science. In doing so, they’d inadvertently manufactured a race of crazy, deviant psychotics with incredible strength and cunning, who had banded together and killed thousands before the peacemakers had stopped them.
As a result, the Vrail Council outlawed Creation as a rule, allowing the occasional android or clone only for specific scientific purposes and only under Council’s unanimously voted decision.
Hell, Rafe could name all the clones on Mardu, as well as the androids on Nebe6. There were maybe twenty of them in all, and the peacemakers watched them with careful eyes at all times.
“She’s not a Creation.” He couldn’t—wouldn’t—believe it, even as something inside him whispered to listen to what his brother told him. “She could have killed me twice now, yet she didn’t. She wants my help.”
“To kill everyone at Blue Rim,” Gar added caustically.
“Hell, yeah. But can you blame her? If what she says is true, then the labs are doing things to people they shouldn’t be. And brother, you saw her eyes. How much do you think it hurt to turn them purple? Her pupils are yellow .” Gold actually, a colour that flared with heat whenever she stared at him.
“… Rafe? Are you hearing me?”
Dammit. “Say that again. I think we’re losing the connection.” Rafe could only be glad this comm unit didn’t have a vidphone. He’d catch hell if Gar caught him flushing with embarrassment. Letting my dick do my thinking when I should be planning a way out of this mess.
“I said you need to play this out. I’ll take care of the peacemakers you knocked out down there. But with the amount of currency Blue Rim is offering as a reward, we can’t trust a lot of our guys with this mission. Sad but true. And Sernal can kiss my ass if he doesn’t like me mistrusting his people.
“You take care of her. Get her to confide in you what’s really going on at Blue Rim.
Details. And Drekk’s coming with you. I don’t trust her, Rafe. And you aren’t thinking straight because you’re letting your—”
“I’ll contact you in two days. Out.” Rafe disconnected and pocketed the communicator.
Gar wouldn’t like it, but Rafe didn’t need Drekk covering his ass. Rafe would take care of Erin, and he sure as hell didn’t want Drekk around when he did so.
Recalling the feel of Erin’s mouth over him as if she’d just taken him to wainu , Rafe swore at his overactive glands and took
“They use the prisoners as lab rats. For a small fee, those prisoners just ‘disappear’. The prisons don’t worry about overcrowding, and Blue Rim doesn’t have to answer to System law about illegal scientific experimentation.”
Gar remained silent.
“What?” Rafe kept an eye on his surroundings, fully expecting another group of peacemakers to show when the three idiots he’d encountered didn’t report in. He felt both furious and embarrassed to see lawmen he should have been proud to call his peers acting like corrupt barbarians.
“I’m not buying it, Rafe. She’s one of Blue Rim’s experiments? She took out Drekk in two seconds, not to mention she knocked me flat on my ass. And what about you? You’re saying a female ‘experiment’ took out two Xema warriors in their prime?” Gar had a point.
But still…
“If not an experiment, then what?”
“I’ve been hearing rumours about a resurgence in the System’s push to regulate Eyran practices much more closely.” Gar paused, and Rafe had a bad feeling sinking into his bones.
“I think she might be a Creation.”
Rafe let the cursed word sink in. A Creation, an entity not born, but developed and formed by mortal men and women, not the planetary gods and goddesses as nature intended. An abomination by law and morality, and clearly justified as lethal anomalies during the Eyran War of 2845.
A long time ago, the scientists on Eyra had free reign to do whatever they wanted in the name of science. In doing so, they’d inadvertently manufactured a race of crazy, deviant psychotics with incredible strength and cunning, who had banded together and killed thousands before the peacemakers had stopped them.
As a result, the Vrail Council outlawed Creation as a rule, allowing the occasional android or clone only for specific scientific purposes and only under Council’s unanimously voted decision.
Hell, Rafe could name all the clones on Mardu, as well as the androids on Nebe6. There were maybe twenty of them in all, and the peacemakers watched them with careful eyes at all times.
“She’s not a Creation.” He couldn’t—wouldn’t—believe it, even as something inside him whispered to listen to what his brother told him. “She could have killed me twice now, yet she didn’t. She wants my help.”
“To kill everyone at Blue Rim,” Gar added caustically.
“Hell, yeah. But can you blame her? If what she says is true, then the labs are doing things to people they shouldn’t be. And brother, you saw her eyes. How much do you think it hurt to turn them purple? Her pupils are yellow .” Gold actually, a colour that flared with heat whenever she stared at him.
“… Rafe? Are you hearing me?”
Dammit. “Say that again. I think we’re losing the connection.” Rafe could only be glad this comm unit didn’t have a vidphone. He’d catch hell if Gar caught him flushing with embarrassment. Letting my dick do my thinking when I should be planning a way out of this mess.
“I said you need to play this out. I’ll take care of the peacemakers you knocked out down there. But with the amount of currency Blue Rim is offering as a reward, we can’t trust a lot of our guys with this mission. Sad but true. And Sernal can kiss my ass if he doesn’t like me mistrusting his people.
“You take care of her. Get her to confide in you what’s really going on at Blue Rim.
Details. And Drekk’s coming with you. I don’t trust her, Rafe. And you aren’t thinking straight because you’re letting your—”
“I’ll contact you in two days. Out.” Rafe disconnected and pocketed the communicator.
Gar wouldn’t like it, but Rafe didn’t need Drekk covering his ass. Rafe would take care of Erin, and he sure as hell didn’t want Drekk around when he did so.
Recalling the feel of Erin’s mouth over him as if she’d just taken him to wainu , Rafe swore at his overactive glands and took
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