The Ballad of Decker Crane Ch. 13 - END

Harp here. So, this is the last chapter. I miscounted and I can't go back and change it because the mediators will put a hold on everything, so there you go. It's always something. Sorry about that. I hoped you've enjoyed the story so far. Thanks for reading, everyone.

Chapter Thirteen

Decker sent out a message, things he'd planned for in motion now. But plans were one thing and carrying them out another in this crazy, random existence. You never knew how things were going to play out, and Persya being taken had not been in his original figuring.

Nor had what Decker saw when he rode up to his house, Cote lathered. Adya was in front of Kay. Dawine had gone to stand next to Bai, who was using a stick to prop himself and was sweating. He looked at her, his mouth tight. Chione stood with Cab. Yenna and Lily stood with Grace. There was no sign of Persya.

There were three Prime transports, all right, all official, white with the blue lines. In front of those transports were three layers of armored Prime pricks. In their hands, they each held one of those fancy pressure rifles that could do catastrophic damage even if they weren't full of bullets tipped with safron. They were precise and lethal.

Decker began to get a bad feeling. His plans depended on a peacable discussion and this didn't look peacable at all. The Cromwells had to know the women wouldn't be of any use as consorts anymore, but for some reason, they had come for them anyway. And they'd gotten Prime Central to back them up. That was a shitload of guns.

Decker threw himself off the horse, his eyes darting, joining them as Bryn came to him, tears on her face. She leaned on him.

He spoke to the officers. "I'm Decker. This is my land. You're trespassing."

A man came from the back, weaving his way through. He was a Prime prick if there ever was one, gray hair and a fancy suit.

"I am Dr. Kine, the chief medical officer for the Center of Genetic Research on Pedige," the fuckwad said. "In the criminal seizure of the consorts, there was an explosion and then a fire and the center was destroyed, as well as all the material and research notes. We are here to recover the last remaining sources of genetic material that represent decades of research."

This wasn't good. Decker had hoped the Cromwells wouldn't find the women, and after that had assumed they wouldn't want them anymore, and that even if they did, that they'd try persuasion first. The rifles were pointed down at the moment, but these were an awful lot of Prime soldiers, even if they'd come to arrest them. It looked more like a fucking firing squad.

"They don't belong to you," Kay breathed, seeing how things were going as well, his arm coming over Adya's shoulder from behind. The girl leaned on him.

The doctor's top lip cleared his teeth. "No Pedigean child consort would be left to be abused by a frontier criminal--"

Kay sounded furious. "Shut your mouth. I don't want her to even know something that vile exists in this world and you just brought it up. She's a child. That's in your head, not mine."

That was when Dr. Kine gestured at the Prime officers, and that was also when Decker's gut went sideways. The officers leveled their rifles, taking careful aim. Fuck.

"Fuck," Cab said, stepping in front of Chione, Kay pushing Adya away from himself.

Decker's bad feeling had been right. Prime hadn't come to talk. This was an assassination, and they were going to shoot in among the women to pick the men off. All his plans and it had come to shooting instead of talking, and if that wasn't irony, he didn't know what was. He yanked Bryn behind himself, his hand going to his gun, although there would be no point.

Well, shit.

#

(Persya)

Persya waited. She'd been walking to the garden to find Bryn and a transport had suddenly been in front of her, three Prime officers coming out of it. She'd turned to see Kay running toward her with his gun drawn and Adya running toward the house where he'd sent her.

"No, Kay," she'd cried. "They'll shoot you."

He had ignored her and then taken cover as the officers had fired. It had been so fast. She hadn't even seen if he'd gotten hit, one of the officers grabbing her and yanking her in even as the transport rose.

Decker was at the Briken enclosure checking the idium panels. She'd said goodbye to him this morning and now she'd probably never see him again. The Cromwells had come. She didn't know why they would want her back, or why she'd been taken and not the others. Somehow she didn't think they were going to be left alone either.

Inside the transport, the officers had stared at her, one on each side, holding her arms.

"That's a Pedigean consort?" one of them had said, his eyes all over her. "Now I know what they mean."

"Shut up," the officer in the front had said.

She hadn't moved, not looking at any of them. This was how it was going to end, after everything they'd been through, after all Decker and the other men had done to protect them. She'd maybe never know the fate of those she'd just left behind.

At one time, she hadn't really understood why Decker and the other men had been so reluctant to have them stay at Briken Ranch. But first, there had been Cochrain's men. That idiot, Emmet, could have just shot Decker instead of arguing with him until Bai could get the fence moved to free the brikens. Then the men had managed to fight off a mob and Bai and Decker had gotten shot, and Tag. Decker had never even mentioned the risk he'd taken for them, but she knew him now. It was just how he was. He gave nothing or he gave everything. Her nose was burning and she took a deep breath, blinking. She wanted to get back to him so bad.

But not even Decker could get ahead of this. This wasn't some minor criminal or a bunch of lustful frontier men. This was Prime doing the bidding of the Cromwells. Kill these officers and more would come. They'd lock him up forever in a hole like he hated or just kill him. Decker had been right not to want to keep her. Her fists clenched and her chest ached. She loved him, but that wouldn't matter to the Cromwells. She and the other women didn't have any rights. The girls didn't. They were property, nothing more than things to these people.

Decker would still try to get her back. She knew that. He wouldn't let it go. He'd been fighting his whole life, and he hated losing. He'd try until they killed him. She hated them, hated the Cromwells. It wasn't right.

The transport landed and opened, the men leading her off. She recognized the place she'd run from long ago, escaping Mr. Cochrain. The Red Door. The whorehouse. They brought her to a luxurious room with sofas everywhere, releasing her. She had a feeling she knew the man she was about to meet. But she wasn't the same woman he'd met before. And she knew something he didn't.

He'd want to take her back to Pedige, probably. When they got into the transport, she'd sing him and any Prime officers he'd brought to their doom and then she'd get home where she belonged. Maybe they could run, or hide, but she didn't see how, not from Prime. She felt sick, walking to look out of a simulated window. She was seeing green rolling hills and a lake, but that wasn't what was there, not for real. That way was home, brikens and a forest in the middle of a barren wasteland and a notorious outlaw who loved her.

"Persya," a voice said.

She turned around. He looked stiff, in Prime clothing, a white shirt with a crisp collar and a waistcoat and tall black boots. He was shorter than she remembered. A defined jaw, almost delicate, and a sensual mouth. He had wavy brown hair that was a little too uniform, probably dyed, a strand artfully falling across his cheek. She supposed she'd been caught up in the romance of him and hadn't wanted to see him for what he was, just another jaded Prime man trying to look younger and lusting after a woman who could be his daughter in age.

"Beren Cromwell," she said, composed. Yes, she was going to kill him for what he'd done. Not yet, though. She had to ensure her escape, and there were too many Prime officers loose here. Which meant she had to endure what he would do to her in this room and wait until they got to the transport.

"Persya. I don't know how it's possible, but you're even more lovely than I remember," Beren said, coming in and closing the door, which locked. "Being in the frontier has not dimmed your beauty. I was afraid I would find you so altered that I wouldn't want you, but that's not the case. It took me far too long to find you. The nightmare is over and you can come home to Pedige."

"To be your consort," she confirmed.

He smiled. "I suppose it was too much to hope you'd remain innocent of what you are. Or anything else, for that matter, abandoned out here in these barbaric lands. Yes, that is your role. You were designed for me to fuck. When there is a male heir in the Cromwell line, we reserve a consort for ourselves by making an eighth. It's a little family secret. Doctor Kine engineered an alternate genotype, Bryn, although I insisted on significant variation in genetic expression."

"I see," she said. Persya didn't care what he said. Bryn was her sister, and the girl would never know any different. "And Adya?"

"A replacement for one Dr. Kine decided had expressed her genotype poorly. You remember Noreen?"

Noreen, awkward and who could draw people, an artist. For all her quarrelsome nature, Noreen had been Persya's friend, a part of her house. "She got fevered when she was sixteen and was transported to be treated. She decided to stay at Fort With, where the hospital was. We got a letter from her."

"Miss Anne wrote the letter."

Persya went still, feeling her heart pounding. "Noreen's dead?"

He shrugged. "She was put down in a way that was humane."

"You murdered her."

"Only a person can be murdered. As my property, engineered from the genetic material to which we had exclusive rights, she was destroyed because she was imperfect." He was standing in front of her now. "You, on the other hand, are without any flaw."

Persya looked up at him. "I want you to know that you're more evil than anything I met here on the frontier."

"And you are still so beautiful," he said, bending down to kiss her.

Persya jerked away and slapped him hard, the sound loud in the room, backing up and putting a plush sofa between them, breathing fast. This fucker, as Decker would say.

Beren Cromwell sighed, his hand going to his cheek and then falling, red on that side. "I was careful. You were so wonderfully innocent. I would have had a servant give you a laced fruit drink. When you woke, you would have been in your consort chambers, naked and tied and on my play table. While you begged and cried and asked me why, I would have taken your virtue. I would have made you come repeatedly while I punished you, and that would only have been the beginning of your trials."

He came around and she put the sofa between them again. "You're sick."

"I can't imagine you're so unfamiliar with what I'm talking about, since you've become some kind of frontier whore. You met my new wife, Elena, when she came to the orphanage. She hated you. She was pleased when you were stolen from me. But after spending some time in your chambers in your place, she's so very eager for you to return."

He moved, Persya crying out. She dodged him and went around the sofa to the door, but it was locked. There were no weapons, nothing heavy. He had her trapped against the wall. It wasn't the time for her to sing. She had to wait until they were in the transport so she could get away.

She dodged, but he was getting closer.

He smiled at her. "You know, I used to sit and watch the records they provided to me of you on your chair, stimulating yourself to orgasm, your fingers on your own nipples. You've been bad. I'm going to train you to pleasure me in so many ways."

Darting, he got hold of her. She struggled as his hand rose. It cracked across her face. Persya cried out, staggering as he held her up.

"Now we're even, hmm? You must be used to that by now, pretty little whore. How many filthy frontier men have you satisfied? I want you to know that for touching what was mine, I sent three squads of Prime officers in full armor and pressure rifles with orders to retrieve all the consorts and kill the men who have been holding you."

Persya went still in his grasp and stared at him, feeling like she'd been struck again. Three squads of armored officers. Decker couldn't possibly have anticipated this, and there was no fighting that kind of firepower. She could taste that her mouth was bleeding, but it was nothing to what she felt in her chest. Adya would see Kay die. Dawine would watch them kill Bai, Cab taken from Chione. At least Grace would be spared Tag's death. And Decker. Prime officers would gun him down on the orders of Beren Cromwell.

She cried out, fighting him again, wishing she was big like Decker so she could kill him with her bare hands. Beren Cromwell laughed, bending down to kiss her.

(Decker)

Even as he drew his gun, knowing it was useless, the sound came from around them all at once, like it had been switched on.

He'd been getting himself ready to die, but now he looked around to see where it was coming from. All the women had their mouths open. Adya and Bryn were doing it, too. He realized they were singing, but it wasn't the light humming they usually did. It had been one note, but now it was many, harmonizing, almost hurting his mind, piercing and sweet. Decker winced, shaking his head, his gun still in his grip and a part of him still waiting to be shot.

Like everything was in slow motion, he looked at the Prime officers. From bringing their rifles up, their hands were lowering, the rifles sagging, watching the women like they were fascinated.

Son of a bitch.

Nothing happened, although Decker couldn't hardly think through it. Squinting, he looked at Dr. Kine and the line of Prime officers. Now they were motionless and staring. It was like they'd been turned to stone.

Realizing, Decker walked forward to one of the soldiers and pushed him, the man falling over, stiff and staring. Decker grabbed his rifle and pointed it at him, his mouth tight. These fuckers. He should just kill him.

"Fuck," Bai said. "They sung them still. Keep doing it, Dawine." He limped over and began grabbing guns.

That was smart. That was what to do. Decker joined him.

"Son of a bitch," Cab said, glancing at Chione.

Her eyes shifted to him, Decker glancing.

Cab slowed and stopped, watching her, a smile coming to his mouth. "Hey, gorgeous."

"Wake the fuck up, Cab," Decker snapped.

Cab shook his head and made a face, backing up and turning to start grabbing guns. Decker was pulling rifles out of hands. He didn't know how long the women could hold them, Kay working from the back. The four of them walked down the line, Bai sweating and grunting, limping hard. They tossed them into a pile by the women, moving as fast as they could. They didn't want even one of these pricks still armed with one of those things.

Decker heard the women's voices wavering as he backed away and pulled his pistol and then thought better of it, getting one of the rifles with safron bullets, since these fuckers were armored and his pistol wouldn't do anything. Bai and Kay and Cab all did the same. They pointed them at the Prime officers. The women went quiet, their voices trailing away.

These pricks had intended to murder them. Decker felt himself starting to get pissed.

Released, the men in front of them pulled their triggers on air and cried out, stumbling forward. The man Decker had pushed over startled, holding onto the ground like he was afraid it was going to move from under him. One guy lost his balance and went down on his knee, Bai's rifle tracking him.

The Prime officers looked at their hands, around themselves, and then at what faced them, going still.

"What the fuck?" one of them said.

"What is happening?" Dr. Kine said, Kay's rifle swiveling to him.

"You didn't give me a chance to speak is what happened," Decker said, pissed now, yes. "For once I was going to be peaceable with Prime, but you ruined it."

Grace stepped forward, and there wasn't any shyness in her for this. "Think about it, Dr. Kine. What else have you been engineering the Pedigean consorts for all these generations?"

Everyone looked at Dr. Kine. Decker hadn't thought of that. Of course that was why. Those sons of bitches had been experimenting on the consorts.

"Psychic ability," Doctor Kine answered a little blankly, his eyes darting. "But we tested you. None of you showed any aptitude for reading minds."

"No, but they can sing people to do things," Cab accused, pointing at Chione. "You made her this way."

"Stop it, Cab," Chione said.

"But this is remarkable," Dr. Kine said breathlessly, his eyes darting. "I must take them back to Pedige for study."

"You shut up," Kay said, grabbing Adya and pulling her close. "She doesn't need to hear more of your bullshit."

Decker sighed, reaching for Bryn and putting her in front of himself, putting his hand over her eyes, anticipating what was next. "Don't look, girl."

As he'd predicted, the doctor continued to talk, falling straight into his own grave.

"This is an unprecedented opportunity--" the doctor said.

Kay's free hand went to shield Adya's eyes in a similar manner even as Kay fired, a loud thwup that was the pressure rifle discharging, and a safron-tipped-bullet-sized hole appeared, centered between the doctor's eyes. All the Prime officers leaned back and put up their hands.

Doctor Kine flew back, his hand still raised, one finger pointing toward the sky at an angle, landing and staring at the sky. His arm slowly flopped to the ground.

Kay looked down at him. "I told you not to talk."

Well, that was done. Decker let go of Bryn and walked to stand in front of Kay. "Where's my girl?" he breathed.

Kay shook his head. "Stealth transport. Snatch and go. I couldn't get to her in time."

"Lock these pricks in the other two transports, Kay," Decker said. He looked at Bai, no good with the leg, and then at Cab. "Cab, we'll take that one. Come on."

"Let's go," Cab agreed.

(Persya)

She bit him, feeling her teeth catch Beren Cromwell's lip and giving it everything she had.

Beren Cromwell cried out and shoved her and stumbled back, crying out again, his hand going to his mouth and coming away shaking, with blood. "You fucking bitch," he said, staring at her.

"Do it again and I'll give you more, you pathetic piece of shit," she told him, wiping her mouth with her fingers and tasting more blood, glaring at him.

He glared back. "You are going to regret that so much. I'm going to whip you raw."

"You'll never touch me," she spat at him, putting the couch between them again.

He walked to the door and pounded on it. It opened.

"My transport," he snapped. "Bring her."

She didn't fight when the two Prime officers came in, although they were rough with her, grabbing her arms and marching her past Cromwell. She glared at him and then she was through. They went down an empty hall and turned, a doorway ahead.

Even if there was nothing for her to go home to, she'd still kill him, she decided. Her throat kept wanting to close up. Decker. He couldn't be dead.

They went out a door to the transport bay, the grip on her arms tight.

"By tonight, you'll be in your chambers where you belong, screaming while I rape you," Cromwell said as they came into the bay, his hand dabbing his lip, which was still bleeding.

"I'll kill you before I let you have sex with me," she retorted, seeing the transport and an open door. "You'll all be dead before we hit atmosphere."

"I'm going to break you," Beren seethed. "We made you what you are, you slut."