“Get me a heal-all,” Percy said to no one in particular. He was busy oozing venom at me.
Barnes’s goon partner responded, going to a stack of luggage piled up near Madison’s father and sister. Those two huddled together, watching the spectacle unfolding. She hadn’t stopped weeping since I’d first seen her on camera. Her father held her tightly, looping his manacled arms over her head and shoulders, hunching so that his back was between her and potential gunshots.
After rifling in one of the packs for a moment, the goon returned and handed Percy a cuff bracelet. He bent and touched the chain on the floor that had been kicked askew while wrestling with Taylor. As power flared and died, I realized it was a null. I hadn’t paid any attention to it before, but now realized they’d used it to suppress any sudden magical talents Taylor might have developed when they gave her the SD.
Percy tossed aside the ice-filled shirt and clasped the silver cuff over his left wrist. I couldn’t help grinning. I had smashed his nose, but good. It was pulpy and skewed to the right. The heal-all wouldn’t be able to straighten it out. Percy would have to do that himself or have a tinker break and heal it again later.
He surprised me when he put his fingers on either side of his nose and pushed it back forward. He didn’t bat an eyelash at the pain he must have felt. I watched in disgust as the damage I caused vanished. Within a minute, he was essentially back to normal. I’d been hoping to run more time than that off the clock.
“That was very rude of you, Riley,” he said, sniffing and dabbing blood away with his handkerchief. “Unfortunately, I don’t have time enough to teach you another lesson in manners at the moment. However, since you’ll be joining us on our journey, I’ll look forward to spending some quality time with you. Now, let’s see about your sister, shall we? Can’t have our pilot mewling about on the floor.”
He slid the silver cuff off his wrist and put it on Taylor. I watched as the bruises and swelling faded. Soon her breathing calmed. When she appeared mostly back to normal, he took the cuff and pocketed it. Then he grabbed Taylor by the hair, wrapping it around his fist. He dragged her over to the ice-water tub. He pulled her up onto her knees and then shoved her head under water again. This time, she instantly started to struggle, thrashing and kicking. I could hear her muffled screams. She shoved her hands against the floor, trying to get purchase. Percy was impervious. Once again, I held myself still, reminding myself that a sharper Taylor could only help get us out of this mess.
After a good half minute, he wrenched her up. She swore and shoved at his legs. “Let go! What the fuck is going on?”
“Oh good. You’re back among us. Are you ready to fly?”
“Who the hell are you? Get your goddamn hands off me!” That’s when she noticed me lying on the floor. “Riley? What are you doing here?”
“Wanted to see if you’d started talking to me again,” I said.
We’re in serious fucking trouble
seemed a little obvious. “I guess you have.”
She scowled, her expression tightening. “This is no time for jokes. What’s going on?”
“Yes, Riley. Explain to your lovely sister just what’s happened to her and why,” Percy said. His smile at me was oily and made me want to wash in acid to be certain every bit of his filth was gone.
“This asshole wants you to fly him and his friends out of Diamond City,” I said. “He was your last flight appointment of the day.”
There was silence, until Percy figured out I wasn’t saying any more. He shook his head. “Riley, how very terse of you. My dear Taylor, I’ve just given you a dose of Sparkle Dust. If you want more, and you will, you’ll need to obey my orders to the letter. That starts with flying us out of here. Do not think to refuse me. I’m generous with my loyal employees, but you will not like what happens should you cross me. Try to recall how good it felt when the Dust flooded your system, and how your body went incandescent with heavenly bliss. I will make sure that you feel that way every day, if you cooperate. If not . . . the cravings for and withdrawal from Sparkle Dust are dreadful. I have seen addicts peel the skin from their own bodies.” He gave an exaggerated shudder. “I should hate to see such a beautiful woman suffer like that.”
“Yeah, right,” I said. “You get off on other people’s pain. Don’t fall for it, Taylor. Don’t fly him anywhere. He’s just trying to scare you.”
“Am I? Well then, let me demonstrate to you both how very sincere I am. Alan, go fetch me a pair of cutters from one of the mechanic bays. Something that will slice through a finger.”
Barnes’s partner strode away without a word. Taylor flashed me a scared look.
“Is this guy for real?”
I nodded, my mouth dry. “He’s as evil as they come, and yes, I’m guessing he’s going to cut off my fingers to get you on board. He’s killed all your employees and a family you had waiting. You don’t want to mess with him.”
Taylor’s mouth fell open, and a storm of grief and then fury spun across her countenance. She covered her eyes with both fists.
My sister and I had our problems. She hadn’t talked to me in weeks, and we frequently butted heads over just about anything, from where to find the best pizza, to whether or not it’s raining outside, or even if grass is green. But I love her more than I love my own life, and I’d do anything for her—for my whole family. I had every intention of getting her out of Percy’s clutches alive. After that, I’d get Cass and Maya to work on the addiction. They’d helped Josh—Taylor’s former fiancé, and he’d been force-fed a steady diet of Sparkle Dust. Taylor had only one exposure. That had to be easier to fix. As far as I knew, Josh had managed to stay off it. Then again, I hadn’t seen him since Cass and Maya worked on him. For all I knew, he’d wraithed away in a gutter somewhere.
Wasn’t going to happen to Taylor. I’d let him dice me into tiny bits before I let that happen. I had no way to tell her help was coming without clueing in Percy and giving up the advantage of surprise. On the other hand, I didn’t want her to give in. I had to find another delay.
I wondered if Percy had a big enough ego that he’d fall for the evil villain mistake of every B movie and have to brag his plans out to his victims, wasting enough time for the hero to swoop in and save the day. It was worth encouraging him.
“Must smart like a bitch to have to run away with your tail between your legs.”
Percy’s mouth tightened, and he sat down on the chair, crossing his legs. “My departure from Diamond City is quite planned, and I am not running away.”
“So that’s a yes.”
He shrugged. “My business is no concern of yours.”
So far the triumphant bragging wasn’t working out. “What happened to your Dr. Frankenstein?”
His brows rose. “Doctor Inawa? Now how did you know about her?”
“Did you kill her or did she escape?”
“You are certainly full of questions.”
“I’m surprised you aren’t. I thought you’d at least want to know how I could shake off the SD like a dog coming in from the rain.”
“Actually, I am, though I’ve no doubt you will simply lie to me.” He smiled. “Never fear. I have the means to get to the truth. Barnes? If you will?”
The surly pile of muscles stepped up behind me and planted his hand on the top of my head. Magic flared from his talent cloak, spiraling around me in sticky loops. My body turned heavy. I tried to lift my arm. I couldn’t move.
“That’s better,” Percy declared. “Now, tell me how you managed to avoid the SD addiction?”
I opened my mouth to say something like diet, exercise, and clean living. Instead, the truth popped out. “I nulled it.”
Once again his brows rose. He leaned forward, his pale blue eyes glittering. “However did you manage to do that?”
I wanted to tell him to fuck off and die. I wanted to keep my mouth shut. I wanted to do anything but sit there and spill my guts. “I have a null tattooed on my stomach. I activated it and it nulled out the drug.”
“Ah. That
is
interesting. Why haven’t you used it to counter the spell holding you and making you talk?”
“I couldn’t recharge it.”
“Ah. That is good news.”
I heard boots on the cement floor behind me. Percy’s other goon, Alan, was returning with whatever finger choppers he’d found among the mechanics’ tools.
I was running out of time. I had no doubt in my mind that Percy was going to do as promised and demonstrate to Taylor that he would, in fact, cut off my fingers.
He reached down and picked up my limp left hand. I struggled to pull it away, but I might as well have been Gumby. He turned it over, palm-side up.
“Which finger to start with is always the fundamental question,” he mused. “A person can easily lose the pinky without losing any hand function at all. Truthfully, even losing the forefinger could be fairly easily compensated for with the other fingers. Losing the thumb, however, means that you no longer have an opposable thumb, arguably the only significant difference between animals and humans.
“Generally, given the choice, offenders prefer to lose the pinky. I sympathize with that, but obviously, the impact is consequently much less, and therefore, the offender risks not learning his lesson. I find it much more practical and educational to begin right with the thumb. We’ll start below the first joint. Then we’ll move down to between the middle and upper joint, and finish with a close cut at the base of the hand. I find that taking an appendage in pieces also carries far more impact. Wouldn’t you agree?”
He looked at Taylor, who’d gone pale. She twisted and vomited on the floor, her body jerking with the violence of her reaction. My throat burned with the bile that rose on my tongue. I swallowed and forced myself not to show fear. I wasn’t going to give Percy the satisfaction.
Alan handed Percy a small bucket full of various pliers and snips. He pulled each out and considered them. “I think this is the best choice, don’t you?” He held up a pair of metal shears with heavy jaws. “I should think they’d do quite nicely.”
He stood, resting my hand on the arm of the chair and drawing the silver heal-all cuff out of his pocket. He put it on me. “You may not be aware, but there’s an artery in your thumb. You’re not likely to bleed to death, but certainly this will help. Alan, did you happen to see anything back there that might work to cauterize the final wound? Some rags might not go amiss. Move quickly, though. Taylor has recovered enough to fly and we should be on our way as soon as possible.”
“I’ll do it,” Taylor rasped. “I’ll fly you anywhere you want to go. Don’t hurt Riley.”
Percy patted Taylor on the head. “I wish I could, but it’s important for both you and Riley to fully understand what it means to disobey me. I can’t have you rebelling at the last minute. Unfortunately, your sister did not take her first lesson to heart. That was my failure. I underestimated her ability to learn. Some people are quite slow in that regard. I hope you are faster.”
“Please,” she begged.
I tried to tell her not to bother, but with Barnes’s hand still on my shoulder, I couldn’t speak, except, apparently, to answer questions. As I heard Alan’s returning footsteps echoing through the hangar, my simmering panic exploded into a full boil. My hand remained perched on top of the recliner’s arm like an offering.
“All right then,” Percy said as Alan set a pile of red mechanics’ rags on the seat, followed by what looked like an aerosol can topped with a blow-torch apparatus. “Looks like we can get started. Now Riley, this will hurt quite a bit, but I think this time the process will be more effective in teaching you that obeying me is the wisest choice.”
“Please! Don’t do it!” Taylor begged.
She lunged forward on her knees and shoved my hand off the chair. Alan grabbed her by the arms and dragged her backward. She kicked at him, twisting and elbowing as she fought his iron grip. He grunted and swore when she smashed her head into his mouth. He staggered back, and she pulled an arm loose . Swinging around, she kicked him in the side of the knee. It went out from under him.
Before she could do more damage, Luke was there. He put his arms around her, clamping her arms to her sides, and picked her up. He carried her back to where Madison’s father and sister sat and set her down. Clamping her wrists in one hand and locking one of her legs between his, he efficiently fastened her wrists together with riot cuffs. He pushed her down to the ground and grabbed a roll of duct tape I hadn’t noticed. He wrapped her ankles, then slapped a piece over her mouth. Her enraged yells cut off abruptly.
“Thank you, Luke. I see your lessons have been well learned. Alan, do stop whining. You ought to have been more than a match for Taylor. I’m very disappointed.”
Alan paled and went silent as he pushed himself to his feet, his left foot barely touching the ground.
“Now, let us begin, shall we?” Percy said and gave me a smile of pure malice. “I’ll try not to hurt you too much.”
I translated that into he’d hurt me as much as possible and enjoy the fact that I could do nothing but sit there and take it.
Except—I didn’t have to.
I had one weapon. All my enemies were within range. All I had to do was activate my skull null, and everyone would be incapacitated with pain. My null should free me from the spell holding me prisoner, and I’d be able to duct-tape all of them and deactivate the null.
Easy.
You’d think by now I’d have learned that
easy
is never a word that describes anything in my life.
I activated the null as Percy reached for my hand.
Then screamed as he chopped off the end of my thumb anyway.