The Caverns of Mare Cetus (39 page)

   After a short distance, Renata tried to take advantage of Richelle's limp caused by her hurt foot. She began dragging her feet, trying to make it difficult for Richelle to push her along.

   Richelle stopped, grabbing Renata by the hair on the top of her head. She pulled Renata's head back and stuck the gun barrel up against Renata's throat. "You are either the clumsiest woman alive, or you're trying to test my patience. Which is it? This is your chance to speak."

   "Richelle. Please…"

   Richelle pulled back hard on Renata's hair. "Just answer the question."

   "Clumsy," choked Renata.

   "Then let's try this again." Richelle let go of Renata's hair and began pushing her along, the gun now pressed firmly in her back.

   Just moments before, Renata thought she might be able to make a run for it. Now she wasn't sure. This wasn't the Richelle she knew— timid, easily frightened, uncertain of herself. This Richelle was calculating, intimidating, ruthless. Even her stuttering had stopped. Renata could only hope for one salvation now—the way Edison had tied her hands.

   They came to the main passage, and Richelle pushed Renata to the right, away from Trent and Arielle. Renata wanted to scream, hoping they might hear her, but she couldn't take the chance, not with the way Richelle was holding the Iravano right behind her heart—one shot and her heart would be splattered on the walls.

   After they had moved a distance down the passage, Richelle grabbed Renata's hair, causing her to stop. They were in front of another offsetting passage. "In here." She pushed Renata into the side passage. "I have something to show you."

   They walked for about fifty paces, then Richelle pushed Renata to her knees, right in front of a wall that contained a collage of yellowishwhite mineral coatings and veins, like the ones Arielle couldn't identify earlier.

   "I want you to feel something—first hand." She pressed the barrel of the gun against the back of Renata's head. She put her other hand on Renata's head, grabbing her hair again, and pushed her right cheek into the wall.

   Renata's hands were shaking, her breathing rapid, her face covered in sweat. She was certain Richelle was going to kill her at any moment.

   Richelle pushed on Renata's head again, pressing the right side of her face into the rocks, causing pain where the rocks met the bones of her face. Then she put the gun barrel on Renata's cheek. "I can see why Hunter had eyes for you. He did, didn't he?"

   Renata continued to breathe like she was hyperventilating.

   "Answer me."

   "Yes," she answered through her gasps.

   "You're an attractive woman," said Richelle. "So am I. Men are so easily sold on looks, aren't they?"

   "Yes."

   "But you're a brainy one." She tapped the gun barrel twice on the side of Renata's head. "There's always a lot going on inside there, isn't there? But that's all going to change."

   Now that Richelle was focused on Renata's head and not her hands, Renata thought of Edison and the rope. She knew he would have left her some way to free herself, and she could only hope Richelle hadn't messed it up when she tightened the rope. She began working with the rope, searching for something in the way Edison had tied her, something that would give.

   Richelle pushed Renata's head even harder into the wall, causing severe pain in her face.

   Renata cried out weakly.

   "Do you feel it yet?" asked Richelle. "You should by now. It's eating your brain. Infecting you—just like me. Soon we'll be exactly the same—owned by the caves."

   As Renata continued to frantically search for a way to free her hands, she thought she touched a loose end of the rope, but it seemed to slip away from her fingers as she tried to grasp it. She tried to nab it again. Then again. At once she got a hold on it, between her middle and index fingers—a loose end of the rope that might just set her free.

   Richelle held the gun barrel to the side of Renata's head as she put the Vimap in front of Renata's face. She had the GEAN program running, and the screen was going haywire, similar to what Arielle had encountered before. "What it's doing to this, it's doing to you. Can you feel it?"

   Renata pulled on the loose end of the rope with two fingers. It moved easily. She pulled some more.

   "Do you know you can be infected through your eyes? You have such pretty eyes too. It's a shame, but look at the rocks, will you?"

   Renata looked toward the rocks, her vision blurred because of her proximity to the wall, but she could still see the patterns of the yellowish-white minerals against the dark gray limestone. She continued to pull on the rope, praying Richelle wouldn't see her. After a moment and several more taunts by Richelle, she had pulled the loose end all the way through. Seconds more and her hands were free. She dropped the rope to the ground as slowly as she could.

   Richelle put her mouth right up to Renata's ear as she pressed the Iravano against the back of Renata's head again. "That hole we saw in your brain," she whispered. "Remember? The one we found on the Mediprogs? The Turo error. Well, it's real. I know that now. And it's these caves, Rene. They're fucking with us—turning our brains into mush." She caressed Renata's neck with the gun barrel. "Little by little. Piece by piece. They're picking us apart. I don't know why such a bright girl like you couldn't have found that out before. You could have helped me. You could have helped everyone. My girlfriend didn't have to die. No one had to die. But it's too late now. Too late for you. Too late for all of us…"

   Renata suddenly punched the side of her forehead into Richelle's face. As Richelle cried out, Renata sprang from her knees, driving her shoulder into Richelle's chest. Richelle flew back, dropping the Vimap, Renata falling on top of her amid groans from both of them. She grabbed both of Richelle's wrists and began slamming her gun hand into the rocky floor, but Richelle didn't let go of the gun.

   "Help! Help me!" cried Renata, her voice reverberating through the passage as Richelle sprang to life and began to bitterly fight for control of the gun, trying to get it pointed at Renata's head.

   Richelle pulled her left leg up and tried to knee Renata in the groin. After several ineffective attempts, she began squirming to get her legs out from beneath Renata while she contorted her left arm, trying to work her left hand free. When she had twisted her arm just enough to loosen Renata's hold on it, she wrenched her arm away, then grabbed a clump of Renata's hair, yanking hard, pulling Renata's head to the side, causing her to cry out.

   Renata grabbed Richelle's wrist and dug her nails into it just as hard as she could. Richelle muffled a scream and pulled even harder on Renata's hair, but within a few seconds, she let go of her hair, giving into the pain. Renata pushed Richelle's hand away from her head, then looked directly in her eyes. She reared her head back, then threw her forehead into Richelle's nose, a sickening
snap
permeating the passage.

   As blood from Richelle's nose splattered on both of them, Richelle screamed in pain. Renata raised her head, briefly looking at the damage she had done. Blood was streaming out of Richelle's already swelling nose and was running across her cheeks, mouth, and chin. She was gasping deeply, her face contorted in pain, but surprisingly, her determination hadn't left her eyes. That worried Renata. She pressed herself on top of Richelle and began hammering Richelle's gun hand into the floor again as she tried to get her in a scissors hold with her legs.

   Richelle continued to hold onto the gun like it was glued to her hand. She threw her left leg out to the side, thwarting Renata's effort to get a lock on her legs, then struggled furiously to free her left hand from Renata's hold. Once her hand was free, she began punching Renata's side with the side of her fist.

   At first Renata tried to grab Richelle's arm, but after Richelle snuck in several painful blows, she just stuck her forearm in the way to block the barrage of punches. As Richelle continued to land punches on Renata's arm in a steady rhythm, Renata at once realized what Richelle was doing. She looked toward the gun, seeing Richelle had gotten the barrel aimed her way while she had been sidetracked by the punches to her side and arm.

   Renata scrambled forward, falling on top of Richelle again as she grabbed the gun with her right hand. At that same instant, Renata wrapped her left hand around the stock, slipping two fingers into the trigger mechanism. As she made sure the gun was aimed at the ceiling, she pulled down hard on Richelle's finger that was already held on the trigger.

   The gun went off like a cannon, the shot ricocheting off the ceiling, rock fragments flying in all directions above their heads, the gun's recoil driving their hands into the ground. As the blast echoed through the passage like gigantic waves slamming into a shoreline in a powerful storm, both women stared at the ceiling briefly. Then Renata immediately pushed her fingers into the trigger mechanism as far as she could get them.

   Richelle screamed in frustration, realizing what Renata had done. Not only had Renata certainly alerted Trent and Arielle with the shot, but with her fingers jammed in the trigger mechanism along with Richelle's, she was preventing the trigger from popping out, keeping the Iravano from loading another round into the chamber.

   Richelle suddenly bent her knees and placed her feet firmly on the ground. She let out with a strong shove with her body, throwing Renata off her and onto the cavern floor. She immediately grabbed the barrel of the gun with her left hand. With both women's hands now wrapped firmly around the Iravano, they were lying on their sides, facing each other, the gun still held above their heads.

   "Let go of the goddamn gun already," said Renata, her eyes focused on the blood streaming out of Richelle's nose.

   "Bitch," said Richelle. "You broke my nose." She spit blood in Renata's face, then wrapped her legs around one of Renata's legs and began trying to roll on top of her. Renata tied her legs up with Richelle's and began pushing back. They rolled to the right, then left, then right, then left again, neither woman able to gain an advantage. After several more minutes of tussling for position, they were back where they started—hands held over their heads, eyes looking right at each other.

   "Get your fingers out of the trigger!" cried Richelle. She spit more blood at Renata, this time catching her in the eyes.

   Wincing, Renata closed her eyes, at once realizing one of her fingertips was on top of the Iravano's safety lock. She pressed down on it expecting to feel it
click,
but it didn't. She opened her eyes to look at the safety mechanism, but Richelle abruptly wrenched her arms downward, toward their faces. Renata tried to push back but was taken by Richelle's burst of strength. After a moment, the gun was between their faces, their hands still tightly locked around it.

   Richelle pushed the gun toward Renata's face, knocking the butt of the gun into Renata's cheekbone, drawing blood. She pushed it at her again, striking it hard on her bone, causing a sharp pain that surged into Renata's face and seemed to spread to her eyes. Using all the strength she had, Renata struggled with Richelle to keep from getting hit again, but the gun was knocked into her cheekbone once more, tremendous pain radiating through her face. As Richelle shoved the gun toward her for a fourth time, Renata pulled her head away while pulling hard with her hands, causing Richelle to miss.

   Immediately Richelle brought her right knee forward, hitting Renata just below her broken ribs.

   Renata cried out.

   Richelle brought her knee up again, hitting harder.

   She cried out again, tears forming in her eyes. "Help!" she screamed. "Arielle! Trent! Goddamnit! Help me already!" Her teeth clenched in pain, she tried to pull her legs up to block Richelle's knee, but Richelle was too quick for her. As Richelle punched her knee into Renata again, striking her directly in the spot of her broken ribs, Renata screamed, then pulled her fingers out of the trigger mechanism and let go of the gun. She fell on her side and curled herself up, holding both arms over her injured ribs. She began to sob in agony.

   "Rene!" echoed Arielle's voice from a distance down the passage. "We're coming!"

   Richelle sat up and wiped some of the blood off her face with her hand, then looked at her blood-covered fingers. "Bitch. Sit up and look at me."

   Renata continued to sob, her thoughts obliterated by her pain.

   "Rene!" cried Arielle again, sounding closer.

   Richelle got up and grabbed Renata by the shoulders, pulling her up to a sitting position. Renata immediately leaned forward, still holding her ribs in pain.

   Richelle sat down in front of her and aimed the gun at her head. "Look at me! Look what you've done to me."

   Renata looked up. Richelle was a mess. Her nose was swollen and purple and there were dark reddish-purple bruises on either side of it, beneath her eyes. Blood was still streaming out of both nostrils and down her face—drops of blood spilling onto her neck, jacket, and shirt. There was so much blood around Richelle's mouth, it looked as if she had been bobbing for apples in a bucket of blood. Renata lowered her head again, the sight of Richelle's face—the victor— more than she could bear.

   At once Arielle and Trent rushed into the passage, stopping a short distance away from them. "Oh, my God!" exclaimed Arielle.

   "Drop the weapon!" cried Richelle, glancing at them and pressing her finger against the trigger.

   Arielle spread her legs and aimed her electra at Richelle, holding it with both hands.

   "Put the gun down," said Trent as he took a step forward.

   "You'll never get a shot off," said Arielle.

   "Couldn't find the other Iravano, could you?" chuckled Richelle. "Fry us both then. See if I care." She scooted up to Renata and grabbed her by the hair with her blood-coated hand. She put the gun to Renata's forehead, then fixed her eyes on Trent and Arielle. "I'm counting to three. One…"