Grimspace by Ann Aguirre Page B

Now. Every last one.”
    â€œThe gas is nontoxic!” The Gunnar defends himself, sounding desperate. “He must’ve experienced an allergic reaction. Swear it’s nonlethal, the rest of you are fine.”
    The doc hovers nearby, not quite wringing his hands in dismay, but it’s close. I wonder if March surrounds himself with pacifists and untried boys for a reason. Make himself look better by comparison, maybe? I smirk as he narrows his eyes on me. God help me, but I love the fact that I can taunt him silently, even with this shit going on.
    â€œThank you,” I say softly to Dina, while the rest wait to hear what March is going to say. I know he’s thinking things over, weighing factors of which I, in my almighty ignorance, am unaware.
    She shrugs. “You got balls, bitch, even if you’re dumber than a bag of hammers. We’ll be lucky if we don’t die today.”
    Have to laugh at that, and damn me if I’m not starting to like her, even if she hates my guts. I’m glad she’s on my side. Sort of.
    â€œNo.” Saul speaks into the silence. He’s been circling among the bodies or soon-to-be-bodies, administering treatment. “Carl Zelaco betrayed an honorable contract with clan Dahlgren for the hope of financial gain. While clan Gunnar pursued this investment”—he glances at me as if I’m a walking, talking stock certificate—“with regrettable vehemence, they intended no harm to clan Dahlgren, save financial embarrassment. A life for a life; it is fair frontier justice.”
    March surprises me by nodding—I guess Saul functions as his conscience. God knows I didn’t sense anything like one while we were jacked in together. Mair hisses, and I half expect her to fly at Saul. I even step in front of him, although honestly I don’t want to take this old woman on. She is fragging scary . But then Keri surprises me with a firmness I hadn’t expected of her:
    â€œHe’s right,” she states. “Let’s go. We still have business to discuss.” Right now, there’s a resemblance to Jor in the set of her mouth, and her red-rimmed eyes shine with a hard light, although that may be the way the setting sun reflects in her pupils.
    â€œI will not forget you,” the Gunnar clansman says. And yeah, he’s looking at me.
    I give him my best grin. “Nobody ever does.”
    All this time, Loras has been staring up at the sky, as if he lives in a world the rest of us simply cannot perceive. He’s dreamy-vague, golden curls and sapphire eyes, a fey, graven look that gives his features an inexplicable purity. Now that I study him closer, I realize he’s not young so much as ageless, his face untouched by time or worry. There’s a certain kind of madness in his face, as if he cannot care for anything enough to be moved by it, and I have to look away. But he draws my eyes back as he speaks.
    â€œWe should go,” he says quietly, expressionlessly. Studying the angle of the sun. “If we hope to reach the compound by nightfall. They’re coming.”
    â€œShit.” For once, March seems to speak for all of us.

CHAPTER 9
    â€œThey who ?”
    It’s like the tenth time I’ve asked, but no one’s answering me. Instead they’re rushing to and fro trying to get all the wounded loaded into the Gunnar Landcruiser. The dead have already been dumped unceremoniously into the cargo space in back, and it shakes me down to my bones, the way Keri accepts that.
    If she knows she can’t afford to indulge in grief, moan and whimper and sob on March’s shoulder, it can only be because she knows something really bad is coming, something that will require all of us, functioning at our peak, to survive it. My breath puffs out smoky like a devil’s sigh, and I’m shivering all over. Their silence is frightening me more than anything I’ve ever known.
    â€œWe’ve