Down And Dirty

"Where's Tachyon?"

"In there."

"Why in there?"

"He was delivering a baby."

"God, it was gross."

"Embarrassing," amplified the third. "He promised to-"

"Surrender to you. Yes, gentlemen, I did, and you behold me. Now, however, could you help me? I assume you have-" His eyes met Bre

You! My gods what are you doing here? Seizing your clinic.

But why? WHY?

"So if you would be kind enough to assist with a gurney." The outer conversation flowed on over the internal telepathic exchange.

The three men looked to Bre

"Cafeteria! Surely you're not moving the dangerously ill or the infants?"

"Don't be an idiot. They're no threat to us," said Bre

"The man in isolation… you didn't release him?" asked Tachyon.

"No, lie's our cover."

"Cover?"

"Why am I wasting time beating gums with you? Move it," shouted Bre

Bre

The nursery staff had all been removed, so Tachyon prepared a bottle and fed the child. Bre

"Now, what is this all about?" asked Tachyon with a mildness he didn't feel.

"Two things. You've upset a certain major player with your goon squad. You've also got an item that this player wants."

"Please stop talking like a third-rate goon in a B gangster movie. 'Item' indeed!" snorted the alien.

"Jane Lillian Dow."

"°I don't know where she is."

"My boss thinks different."

"Your boss is wrong." Tachyon wiped away a trail of milk from the baby's chin. "I presume you have put about some story or another to explain the closure of the clinic?"

"Yes, we're telling people that the carrier's loose in the hospital."

"Clever." Tachyon shifted Joh

"I know. I appreciated that."

"I could have discovered, but I did not. I respected your privacy."

"Yeah, I know."

"And this is how you repay me?"

"I had to get into this… organization. I've risked everything for this."

Tachyon flung out a hand. "This? This? Invading my clinic, endangering my patients?"

"No, no, not this. Other… things…" Bre

"I wouldn't give you Jane even if I knew where she was."

"My orders are to start killing patients until you do." Tachyon blanched and took a harder grip on the bottle. He flipped John over his shoulder and patted until the baby let out a loud belch, dribbling milk over the peach-colored material.

"Your orders are to kill me no matter what."

"STAY OUT OF MY HEAD!" Bre

"No, you will have someone else do it for you. What a very flexible mind you have, Captain. You would have made a good Takisian. Perhaps that is why I like you." He rose and laid Joh

"GODDAMN YOU!"

"'Why?"

"You're all closing in on me, wrapping me in these bonds, holding me, smothering me."

"I wonder what your Je

"DAMN IT! STAY OUT! JUST STAY THE FUCK OUT! I didn't want to care," he concluded quietly.

"It is the price you pay for being human, Bre

"I do," he said, agonized.

"For death. Someday it might make an interesting change to choose the living."

"That's not fair," he cried after Tachyon's back. "What about Mai?"

"Mai is gone. This is here and now, and you are going to have to make a choice."

The hours crawled by. Tachyon's admiration for Bradly Latour Fi

"We're all going to die, and how can you be so fucking calm?"

"Too dumb to know different."

He trotted to Tachyon, gun muzzles following his progress through the crowded cafeteria. He paused briefly by a table where Deadhead was maintaining a constant babble. Nodded seriously for several seconds.

"I couldn't agree more."

"Sit down!" yelled one of their guards.

Fi

"Your tail!"

"It will adorn some Werewolf's jacket."

Idiotically, this upset Tachyon almost more than anything that had thus far happened. "Your tail," he mourned again. "It'll grow. Besides, I was too proud of it anyway." He leaned in. "Doc, some of these people need medication."

"I know."

Tachyon slid off the table, and with his hand resting lightly on Fi

"A number of these people are on medication. May I take some of my staff and obtain the drugs?"

"Drugs. Sounds good," laughed a Werewolf. "Give us what we want," said Bre

"SHIT!" Da

"As long as it takes," replied Bre

"Cowboy, let's kill a few of these ugly fuckers." Da

Bre

"No."

Why are you doing this! Why are you?

Twenty more minutes crawled agonizingly past. Tachyon, eyes half-closed, fingered a violin sonata on his knee, head beating time to the silent music.

"Cowboy, he's got a mind power. What's to say he's not calling the joker hit squad right now?"

Lee ranged himself with the only other Oriental in the group. "Da

"He won't call for help. He knows the risks of an assault from outside. How many of them,"-Bre

"'Treachery."' Tachyon savored the word. Lilac eyes met gray. The gray fell first.

"Okay, so you don't want to start offing sick old ladies," said Da

Bre

Da