Marauder Fenrir: Scifi Alien Invasion Romance (Mating Wars) (10 page)

“No,” he says. “He’s hidden himself too well. More than I can say for Cygnus.”

“Come,” I offer. “Let’s get something to eat, and we’ll discuss our plans.”

I start to walk away, but he grabs hold of me and stops me. “You’re going to abandon the human female?”

“I–.”

He smirks. “I’ve been tempted, too, but I’ve resisted. I can’t say I blame you, but we still have jobs to do.”

Shit. He’s seen me with her...and he knows. I can’t tell if he suspects me of betrayal, but he most certainly does. I’ll have to work hard to gain his trust, and it will be harder still to keep Fiona safe with Minos’s sights set on her.

“You guys shopping for a buggy?” he says.

I nod.

“Well,” he says, “there’s no need for us to get two, so let’s share.”

“Don’t you need to find Aegus?” I ask.

He leans closer into me and smiles. “You’ll have to hold off on killing Cygnus...we need him to give up his brother before you pull the trigger.”

Before we can go in, Fiona comes outside.

“Fenrir, good news, I–.”

She stops dead in her tracks when she sees Minos. Her eyes widen at the sight of him, and the color drains from her face.

“Yes,” Minos says. “You can tell what I am, yes?”

She nods.

“Turret Woman,” I bark at her. “Did you get the buggy? It had better hold three.”

She narrows her eyes at me, but I see a flash of understanding–and fear. She realizes the danger Minos represents.

“It does,” she says. “Whatever you wish, Fenrir.”

She lowers her head to me, and Minos cackles.

He slaps his arm onto my back and whispers to me, so low that Fiona can’t hear, “You broke her in well. Good work.”

* * *

T
he buggy is sealed
against the elements, and it’s spacious enough for one of us to sleep in the back compartment while two of us sit in front.

We exit through the sealed gates of Nuevo Quito, and we take the road south. After only a few hours the road ends, and we begin trekking across the untamed Martian surface. There are a few algae blooms and wispy trees–the result of two centuries of human terraforming–but the surface is still mostly a rusty red desert.

Minos and I have both removed our disguises to conserve biosuit fuel, and when his disguise falls away, his human-like movement is gone as well. He’s in full Marauder form again–full predator–and I can tell he does not trust me.

“Turret Woman,” he commands. “Get in the back.”

She looks at me, and Minos snaps, “Don’t look at him, obey me!”

“In back, female,” I grunt.

She bites her lip and climbs into the back compartment. Minos flips a switch and seals the back compartment. The seal is designed so that whoever is sleeping can have peace and quiet, but it now serves to cut us off from her.

“I was plugging into the signals from all the habs,” Minos says in Marauder language. “I pieced together what happened since you arrived. I understand why you needed her, but we need to get rid of her after she gets us in with her sister and we take out Cygnus. We should probably kill all of Cygnus’ followers while we’re at it.”

Her sister? Shit. The Great Mother is Fiona’s sister? Minos has too big an advantage–he’s been here longer than me and has gained a lot more information than I have. He has the upper hand in almost every way. I doubt I’ve fooled him at all, and likely the only reason he hasn’t tried to kill me yet is because he needs Fiona to make contact with her sister–to get us both in with Cygnus.

I nod, not letting my surprise show. I wish I had the hat on to hide my ear movement.

“So you knew, right?” he says.

“Of course,” I say. “Why else would I keep her around?”

“For her miracle pussy?” Minos says, laughing.

“So how did you find out?” he asks me. “You didn’t tell her, right?”

“One of the habbers mentioned the name Aura in passing,” I lie. “I overheard it...they didn’t know I could hear so well.”

Minos nods. He knows I’m lying, but he doesn’t let it show.

“Well,” he says, “I’m going to tell her then. It’s best if she still trusts you. You can act like you didn’t know all along. We just need to get you two inside. You can work him slow, figure out where Aegus is. Once you’ve got the information, you can kill Cygnus and clear your shame debt. I’ll help you eradicate the whole town, and then we can go take out Aegus together. Sound good?”

“Yes,” I say, nodding.

He hits the button, and the divider falls down.

“I’ve got some good news for you, woman,” Minos says. “Your sister is with Cygnus. You’re an aunt.”

Fiona bolts upright, and her eyes widen. “Why are you telling me…?”

She glances at me for a brief moment. I can tell she doesn’t believe or trust Minos, but I nod to her, letting her know it’s true.

“Here’s the deal,” Minos says. “We let you go to your sister, and you pretend you’re all lovey-dovey with Fenrir. Get them to trust you, and that’s it.”

“What do you mean, that’s it?” she asks. “Why would–?”

Minos slams his fist on the dashboard and says in a cool whisper, “You don’t ask us ‘why,’ we tell you what to do, and you do it. You’re on borrowed time. Enjoy the last years of humanity with your sister before we eradicate you. Why do you need to know the reason behind any of it?”

I widen my eyes at Fiona, and she looks down, sadly.

“Yes,” she says. “I understand. Thank you, Minos.”

“Dumb bitch,” he sneers, and looks back toward the road.

I resolve then that I will kill him. My biosuit is designed for close-range killing, while his is better suited for long-range targets. I should be able to do it quickly when he is distracted, but it’s best if I can contrive a reason to keep Fiona out of his sight while I risk the kill.

I feel my lip trembling with rage, and my ears pull all the way back. I consider jamming my fingers through his eye sockets, I could–

“Fenrir,” Minos says in Marauder, so that Fiona cannot understand. “One thing I forgot to mention. I’ve put a kill switch on myself. The moment my heart stops beating, I convert all my biofuel to pure energy. Boom. And if you try to get me away from her, I can manually detonate.”

I clench my teeth to suppress my rage. I need to get to Cygnus. He’ll let us both go into their settlement, and Cygnus will have to help us find a way out of this.

And then I start to consider all the hundreds of different ways that Minos could go back on his word at the last minute, and I mentally prepare for each and every one.

T
he days pass slowly
, and when we’re only about two days from the pole, we notice we’re going to run out of water before we reach Cygnus’s settlement.

The buggy has a condenser on the roof, and it slowly grabs the minimal moisture from the Martian atmosphere, condensing it into water. But it’s not enough, as the Marauders chug water like animals.

“Way station up ahead,” Minos says. “Time to get some extra supplies for the last leg of the trip.”

I’m lying in the back compartment, pretending to sleep. Since Minos is speaking English, however, I know he wants me to hear.

He’s never gone into the back compartment to sleep, never let me and Fenrir have a few moments to talk. Even if he had, I doubt I’d feel safe saying a word for fear he’d somehow overhear it.

I can tell that Fenrir is preoccupied–hopefully he’s planning a way to get free of Minos–and I don’t buy for a second his sudden change of attitude toward me.

Unfortunately, I don’t think Minos buys it either.

“Let’s show Turret Woman here what Marauder bartering looks like.”

Fenrir looks back at me, giving me a worried expression.

“Fenrir,” he says. “You guard the buggy, the female and I will barter together.”

I see Fenrir’s jaw clench at that, but he doesn’t object. He must be biding his time until we are out of the buggy. I don’t know what the full plan is, but I figure our best chance to take action is when it’s time for us to go to Cygnus’s settlement. To my sister. I still can’t believe it’s really her, and I try not to get my hopes up too high, as Minos might be dangling that in front of me to keep me compliant...though Fenrir seems to believe it’s true as well.

“Mask up,” Minos says.

His biosuit begins to cover him and change into a tanned white skin. He slides on his own oxygen mask and tank, though he doesn’t really need it.

I affix my mask and open the tank. I need the tank, as I can’t survive with so little oxygen. Human bodies aren’t as adaptable as Marauders’ bodies, and despite centuries of terraforming, the Martian surface is frigid and barely has any oxygen. It’s a miracle that humans have managed to get the atmospheric pressure high enough that we can forego full pressure suits.

“Let’s go,” Minos gestures.

I zip my coat all the way up and tighten my scarf.

He opens the door and freezing Martian air rushes in. We both get out of the buggy. The doors shut behind us, leaving Fenrir alone inside.

The way station is just a small building. It looks like it could hold a maximum of three or four people , and most of the structure seems designed to pump polar ice. There are long tubes and pipes jutting out of the building and plunging deep into the Martian soil.

“I couldn’t find any weapons in Nuevo Quito,” Minos rasps through his mask. “Laws are too strict there, or I didn’t know where to look.”

I ignore him and trudge toward the way station. I’m getting used to walking in Martian gravity by now, but the heavy coat, tank, and mask all weigh me down and make it difficult to walk with full mobility.

Minos doesn’t seem slowed down, as he quickly overtakes me with long strides.

“Try to keep up, woman,” he grunts.

It makes me want to walk slower. Even when Fenrir was ordering me around after we first met, I could at least feel a modicum of respect in his voice. With Minos, there’s only hate.

“Water, food, and weapons,” he says. “If all goes well, I’ll be able to raid Cygnus’s and your sister’s stores after we kill everyone, but–.”

“I thought you said you’d let Aura and me go.”

“Everyone except you two, I mean.”

“So you’ll let us go with no supplies, to wander around the poles to freeze, starve, or die of dehydration?”

“Would you rather I kill you now?” he asks.

“You would if you didn’t need me. But you need me.”

He shrugs his shoulders and keeps walking.

“Why do you want weapons, by the way? Don’t you have your biosuit?”

“It’s best to conserve as much biofuel as I can, for the massacre.”

A chill goes through me, and it’s not from the Martian cold.

When we’re a few hundred meters from the way station, three armed figures step outside. They are holding large rifles, all pointed right at us.

“Hands up as you approach, and drop any arms,” one of them shouts across to us as soon as we are within earshot.

Minos raises his arms, and I do the same.

“We’re unarmed,” Minos shouts. “And how about you? You got any more weapons or men in there?”

“Plenty more where that came from inside,” the man in the center shouts across to us. “But all it takes is one bullet, so don’t get any ideas.”

Minos speaks in a low voice, barely audible to me a few meters behind him.

“On three,” he says. “Drop tits first to the ground.”

“Why–?”

“One, two, three–.”

I fall to the ground, and I hear gunshots roar out.

As soon as I hit the ground, I look up.

Minos’ biosuit has hardened like armor in front of him, though it’s still thin in back. The bullets are bouncing and plinking off his thick armor, and there’s something flying through the air toward the shooters.

It looks like it may be disc-shaped, but it’s moving so fast that it looks more like a blurred streak.

When it reaches just to the right of the shooters, it cuts suddenly left at a sharp 90-degree angle. I see the heads of two shooters fall off their bodies, and their guns keep firing as they fall limply to the ground.

The third shooter’s gun falls from his hand–no, just part of it falls, the front half–and he’s left holding just the grip and stock of the rifle, which he tosses to the ground.

Minos is rushing toward him now, and just when I think he couldn’t run any faster, he...turns into a bear.

A massive, purple bear. He moves even faster toward the man, who dives in desperation toward his fallen comrade’s rifle.

Just as he reaches for the gun, the disc flies back around and cuts off his hand.

“Fiona!” Fenrir’s voice calls out from behind me. I turn around to see Fenrir behind me. “Run back to the buggy, get in, and drive as far away as you can!”

I look at him with wide eyes, though he can’t see my fear through the tinted face mask.

“Go! Minos is rigged with a kill switch! My biosuit can shield me from the blast, but I need you to get
far away
. Go! Now!”

I take a deep breath and then run back towards the buggy as Fenrir told me to do. When I look back, Fenrir has transformed into a bear as well, and he’s rushing toward Minos.