Vin's Rules (Outer Settlement Agency) (9 page)

Well, that was one question answered.

But the problem still remained. At least on Graham’s end and that meant problems on their end too. Right?

Unless...

If they died out there, Graham could potentially call in their demise and lie to OSA investigators. He had enough people controlled to back up whatever he claimed.

“That’s it?” Vin asked. “No veiled threats about monsters in the dark?”

“If you don’t believe me—”

“Oh, I do. C’mon, Allie. We’d better get going.”

The room had stilled in the last few moments. Her ears didn’t pick up a single fork scraping across a plate. Yet no one turned around. Vin pulled her to leave, but she dug in her feet. “This is your kingdom.”

Graham nearly smiled. She watched as he reeled it back in like a cheap puppeteer. “I’m just a citizen. One called to help right the wrongs of society.”

“Idiot.”

“What did you call me?”

Vin swore but didn’t pull her away. Rather, he got right up behind her, backing her up. “You heard her.”

Graham had.

So had everyone else.

They, presumably, also heard her very loudly spitting in Graham’s shocked face.

G
etting out of this hellhole had never been assured, but Allie’s fightin’ hand just worsened the odds. He stood shoulder to shoulder with her, showing in a way that even these losers could understand that he stood with her, for better or for worse.

Or very, very worse.

Graham massaged the imprint of Allie’s hand, his face morphing into the purple scowl of a caged animal.

And bless her, his little pugilist wasn’t done. Allie turned to face the room, teeth bared and fingers clawed.

“It’s the lotion,” she screamed. Allie whirled again, hitting every corner of the room.  “They put pheromones in the lotions and soap to attract the creatures. That’s how they do it.”

“She lies!”

“I don’t, and they know it. Deep down you must! Ask the men. Ask them! Why do they guard the doctor’s office? There’s no point if not to hide something. That’s where they do their tests—right here in the middle of town.”

“She’s a lying bitch. I would never put my beloveds in danger.”

Absolutely impossible not to roll his eyes at that. Vin shrugged and stretched his shoulders, priming for a fight. “She’s not.”

“Prove it.”

“Easy. One of those
make-believe-who-me
monsters got loose. If we’re so full of shit, you can happily walk into the doctor’s laboratory and come out just fine. I’ll even bow down upon your glorious return.”

Something sailed between his and Graham’s foot.

“Have some lotion,” Allie spit out. Her arms were crossed with muscles visibly twitching beneath her skin.

The room surged with expectation. Some Tans leveled their weapons on them... but not
just
them. Greens and Blues stood up too, fists clenched at their sides.

Vin leaned in and winked. “I guess the revolution’s starting early.”

Slight misstep. Better worded: Wrong fucking thing to say.

Graham lunged, but Vin crunched the man’s nose with a very willing fist. Weapons whirred as they powered up for a fatal charge. Vin pushed Allie in the direction of the door shielding her with his body.

One teeny, tiny thing stopped them, but it was kinda a doozy.

Poppy.

Sweet, kickass, Poppy.

The young wife barred their exit with a knife in one hand and a half-dazed Mama held by the throat with the other. “I’m going with you. Mama is our insurance.”

“What have you done to her?” Graham stumbled toward the group but froze when Poppy flicked the blade.

Her head twisted mechanically, like an overused doll. “Nothing more than you did to me when I was a Green. Or my sister.”

Mike pushed his way through the growing crowd, screaming his wife’s name and begging her to stop before she’d gone too far. Too late for that.

Tears poured down her face, but none of them lessened the determination Vin saw there. He doubted the girl ever had a day of training, but this young woman in front of him was ready for war. Come hell or high water, Vin would get her out of here too.

Vin’s arm wrapped about Mike’s neck in a chokehold. “You’re not stopping her.”

“She’s my wife!”

“She’s more than that. She’s a damned human being, and she’s made her choice. Look at her.”

Poppy’s lips trembled, but the knife sure didn’t.

The man... the boy... sagged in his arms, and his two narrow shoulders drooped. “I love her.”

Graham sprung into action at the scent of weakness. “She doesn’t love you. She’s throwing away all of your work for her own selfish reasons. You’re better without her. Don’t love someone who—”

“I’m pregnant.”

Vin locked eyes with Allie over Mike’s head. “That’s a game changer.”

“I’d say so.”

So did a few others. The woman in blue, the one who’d helped Allie into her dress that first day, rushed forward with her arms wide open. The closer she got, the more he saw the family resemblance between her and Poppy.

“I’m going with my daughter and grandchild.” The older woman crossed her arms and took her place on the other side of Mama. “I wasn’t strong enough to protect my girls the first time. I am now.”

The situation rapidly disintegrated. Or improved. He wasn’t quite sure.

Chair legs screeched across the wooden floor as people rushed to their side of the room and the oncoming fight. Vin loosened his grip and Mike wrenched himself free, struggling between delighted laughter and tears.

In the intervening melee, three of the Tans who’d had their weapons trained on him and Allie now pointed their muzzles toward Graham.

Veins popped at the toppled king’s darkening temples, and he called out for reinforcements.

Allie scrambled to a table and stood on the nearest chair with cupped hands around her mouth. “We’re leaving. Grab forks, knives whatever you can find.”

“But we’ll die out there,” someone screamed, to a chorus of dejected agreement.

At least she didn’t lie to them. “Some will, and they’ll still be better off than staying here. Choose your future. Take a chance at a real life or stay here with this monster. He knows he’s dead already. Whether we live or die, OSA is coming.”

He was proud of her.

Here she was, wounded but stoking a fire of hope in a dark place. He wanted her in his arms, but damned if he asked after this. She’d come to him on her own time and terms and he’d wait for as long as it took.

Well, at least until they got the fuck outta here.

T
hey weren’t the first to run out, but she and Vin weren’t for doggone sure the last either.

“Don’t let go of me, Allie.”

No chance of that. The fear tingling up her spine was
almost
enough to block out the pain throbbing up her leg.

They couldn’t slow down though. Not in this stampede. People around them ran like wild creatures, beasts hunted with no single thought left save that of surviving one more second.

She tripped on a piece of upturned wood, but Vin was right there, lifting her into his arms and shoving them both to the head of the pack.

They caught up with Poppy, now apparently fueled with a mother’s instinct to protect. The pregnant woman, Mike and Poppy’s mother, Sarah, dragged the passed-out woman between them. Thank goodness they’d had the sense to keep her. Whatever Graham’s faults—and they were legion—he genuinely appeared to care for Mama.

As they cleared the door and headed for the stockade, Mike looked over his shoulder. “You swear you’ll get us out of here?”

Vin, unflappable as always, ludicrously winked at this absurdly dangerous time. “Count on it.”

“We are.”

“Then I’m your man. We’ll keep north until—”

Mike shook his head and looked towards the abandoned city center as the massive gate opened inch by excruciating inch. “We’ll never make it.”

“Have a little faith, kid. You don’t even know how far away the shuttle is.”

“Respectfully, it doesn’t matter, Sir. You haven’t seen ‘em like I have.”

Sir.

In just that small bit of time, Mike seamlessly accepted Vin as his superior officer. It unclouded things. A lot. Mike needed the structure that this place once provided. Leaders were worthless hollow words without fine soldiers behind them. If they made it out, she’d fully recommend him for OSA training. They needed men like him—good and solid.

If Vin caught the shift, he didn’t speak of it. He did, however, do what all good leaders did.

He commanded.

He delegated.

But most importantly, he listened.

“Alternatives. Now.”

Mike’s gradually steady arm directed them to a safe point inside the town. “All of us who have patrols outside the walls know about it. Weapons are there. Calorietabs too.”

“In case everything broke down?” But Vin didn’t leave any time for Mike to answer. Instead he yelled out to the crowd in a voice strong and clear. “Rub dirt on your skin. Anything to dull the smell. May not help, but it sure as hell won’t hurt. Armed Tans take the rear, the rest follow me.”

Screams erupted from the compound behind them. Though they were too far to hear the whirling of powering up weapons, everyone seemed to know that shots were being exchanged.

Some mumbling at the back of the group grew larger, until a few people splintered off. Vin made no move to stop them.

There were cries and yells, people unable to move forward with their loved ones in immediate danger at the compound they’d just escaped.

Vin opened his mouth, but at Allie’s hand on his arm, he closed it. “I’ve gotta let them go. Right?”

“Yeah.”

“But to what? Sounds like...”

“Would anyone stop you from coming back for me?”

The impudent smirk was back. “Easily.”

She swatted him and scrunched her face, eliciting a brittle laugh. “This blows.”

“Bit of an understatement. I’m glad you still know how to play, Allie. When we get home, I’m going to enjoy playing with you very much. It is with great sadness that I need to put you down, but you started this war. They need to see you on your own two feet. You’re the face of it now.”

Worst timing ever, but her heart warmed beneath his gaze. Then he blinked, and all the heat was gone. The wall separating Easy Vin from Chief Security Officer Vincent Dhoma slammed down again.

With one final look back, Vin whistled, corralling the crowd. “If you’re coming, it’s time to roll.”

They followed Mike’s directions to a store at the end of the curve where they’d last seen their cycle rover. Yet it was Vin who played the part of shepherd. He patted or nodded to everyone who entered as he stood by the door.  People looked to him with hope in their gazes, and she’d wondered just how long it’d been since they looked at anyone else with such desperate eyes.

*****

T
he old store didn’t stink as much as the other shops. Everyone carried the scent of the lotions and soaps, but the pheromones hadn’t been soaked into the walls and floors of the building.

He put people to work barricading doors and windows. Had they been OSA, he’d have separated them based on skill level. But that wouldn’t get him anywhere with a crew made up of families and friends. If a loved one screamed upstairs, he didn’t want any worries of abandoned posts as people ran to help.

“Allie, you were born to tell people what do—that’s a compliment. Put two family groups in each place. If things get rough where they are, it’ll give them motivation to keep fighting.”

“Rough meaning flying mutant spiders, or ruthlessly malicious crazy men?”

He crossed his arms and poked out his lower lip. “I’d say there’s a good argument for both. Not that we’re worried.”

“Just so we’re clear, this is going to cost you. I’m already salivating at all the credits you’ll have to spend to make up for this. Dinners at the space station. Top-shelf wines from Venus. I’m going to bleed you dry.”

“God, I hope so.” One of the Tans shouted near the weapons cache, and Vin threw a hand up in acknowledgement. “They need me. You got this?”

“I’ve been told that I’m built for it.”

He genuinely tried not looking back.

He genuinely failed.

But if he had any shot of making good on his promises, he needed to deal with the here and now first.

Because the here and now was up Shit Creek.

They had enough firepower to level the place, but that wasn’t on anyone’s mind for a whole host of reasons. Chief among them—the people left behind. The close and very real second was the threat of those juiced-up spiders.

Actually, he might need to move those to the first position.  Just about every soldier shared the same sentiment—that any attacks from Graham would come in the morning. Even if Graham wanted a nighttime assault, they doubted he could convince enough Tans to do it in the face of eight-legged and winged danger.

As plans were whispered, discarded, and added to, Mike’s communicator flickered to life. A woman’s voice, young and strong, cried out his name. “I...I forgot I had it on.”

Poppy pushed her way over, abandoning her snarling hostage. “It’s my sister!”

Welp, here was his proof of the family/danger theory. Polly swiped the two-way device away, crying along with the girl on the other side of the connection.

With all the yelling and screaming from all corners of the room that Mike ought to stay the fuck where he was, the young man looked squarely at him in silent... what, question?

Nope.

Something in his eyes was final. Set. And there would be no changing of trajectory.

Mike wasn’t asking for permission to save Poppy’s sister. That was as good as done.

Vin handed him another charged weapon. “I’ll look after your wife.”

“It’s just... well... I owe Poppy. I won’t be able to look at her if I don’t try.”

“You don’t have to explain yourself to me, soldier.” Then he turned to the rest of the crowd. “Anyone else have inside communication? We need to keep in contact with Mike.”

“People on or getting ready for patrol duty get them. I’d just collected my device when your wife spit on Graham.”