The Huntsman and the Nix Ch. 02-03

"Take the jacket off, killer."

Isobet looked him down and up and turned around on the rock, giving him her back. Besides dragging the jacket off of her, he couldn't make her.

"Do I need to use the tag?"

She turned to him in profile. Unbelievable. "You would, wouldn't you?"

"Ask me again and you'll find out."

She turned and stared at him, wishing he'd fall on a rock and get knocked unconscious, wishing he'd become lotti food, wishing she could get to the shackle key. But the tag was still in her thigh, aching, and he probably would trigger it. He already had. Twice.

Partly unzipping the jacket, she turned toward him, exposing the shoulder and looking away. What else did she expect from a huntsman, a thug from system authority?

He unwrapped it, his hands gentle, at least. But then they stopped being gentle. Grasping her arm, he put his thumb near the brand, pressing. It flared with pain. She breathed, feeling her face tightening. He did it more, getting closer to the brand, the pain getting worse. She didn't look at him as he tormented her, Isobet keeping her arm relaxed. He pressed closer and it hurt so much. A small sound of pain escaped her.

He dropped his hands and exhaled at her, going to his pack. Returning, he took her hand, turned it over and dropped a tiny pill into it. "It's an analgesic. I was trying to figure if you were in pain. The next time something hurts like that, don't hide it, killer."

An analgesic for pain. It was laughable. There weren't enough analgesics in the world for the kind of pain she was going to be in when he brought her back, for what the guards at the institute would do to her before they killed her. She let the pill drop on the ground, his eyes watching it fall and then flashing to hers. He picked it up. She ignored him, pulling the jacket up.

He didn't comment, giving her a portion of food. She wasn't really hungry, but she ate it. When they were done, he turned and studied her. She stared back at him, hating him.

"How can you be Forsyte's daughter and also a Nix?" he said.

She didn't answer, wishing he would fall in the river and be swept away, imagining it, seeing his stupid face when he fell in. At least when he took her back to Bruja, Isobet wouldn't die alone. His body would be tossed somewhere in this jungle and gnawed on.

"And there's the stare. Look, killer," he said. "I get it that you're pissed at me. I'd planned on taking you back to the institute today, but there's a difference between what I was told and what I've found since I came out here."

Isobet blinked. Huntsmen were supposed to be completely impartial. They wouldn't listen about your guilt or innocence. For a huntsman, if you were innocent, system authorities would determine that at the tribunal. "Like what?" she said, eyeing him, not trusting his sudden interest. "What's different?"

"System authority doesn't know you're Isobet Forsyte. They don't even know you're a woman. System authority thinks you're a badass Nix soldier gone crazy. Something's not right here. It doesn't make sense, and I need to know the truth, and I won't be able to figure that out if you won't talk to me "

Was he serious? She looked away, glancing back at him. "What do you me to say?"

"Answer my question. How can you be both Forsyte's daughter and a Nix?"

She studied him. All right. "Before he was married to Bruja, my father was married to my mother, Anite Forsyte. My mother had a congenital defect, incurable, that affected her heart. It was heritable. She was afraid to have children because she would pass on the defect. She persuaded my father to make an enhanced Nix child from their combined genetic material that she could carry to term, correcting the defect."

"What happened to your mother?"

"Her heart failed when I was born."

"What do you know about Adelaid Forsyte's death?"

"I know I wasn't there," she said sharply.

His own impatience showed. "Give me something here, killer. When was the last time you spoke with him?"

"My father came to my rooms and said something had happened, to get ready, that I was to get the data ring and we would go to Corsa in the morning. But he said that if I got a message from him, I was to leave on the shuttle immediately, even without the ring. I didn't have time to get the ring because the guards came to my rooms and arrested me--"

"Your rooms," he echoed, interrupting her. "Where did you live at the institute?"

She eyed him. It was like he thought they had kept her in a lab cage or something. "In the Big House. My rooms are on the second floor."

"Go on."

"They came and got me and told me Father was dead and put me in a cell in shackles."

"And then?"

Isobet flashed on Speculo touching her, talking to her. The huntsman could trigger the tag all he wanted. There wasn't anything that would make her give the details of that to this handsome, cold, self-assured man. "I stabbed Speculo and got away."

He shook his head. "I'm going to need more than that."

"More of what?"

"Tell me what happened in that cell."

"I just did tell you."

"Tell it like a story, killer," he said, his mouth tight.

Swallowing what she wanted to say, she looked away. It helped not to look at him, he made her so angry. She spoke, telling him the truth. Just not all of it. "They brought me to a cell and put me in shackles. Jot and Speculo were in the cell with me. More guards were down the hall in another room, waiting for me to be brought there so they could make me tell them where the data ring was. Speculo and Jot hurt me. Speculo called me an animal and he branded me. Then Speculo told Jot to go and he would bring me. When we were alone, I got out of the shackles and I stabbed Speculo with his knife and ran."

"See, you're still skipping over things, and that makes me not want to trust you. How did you get out of the shackles?"

Isobet flashed on Speculo's body over hers, her legs open, unable to move, his fingers in her. His sex nudging hers. Stabbing him repeatedly, the warmth of his blood on her hands, her face. Her stomach rolled. When she spoke, her voice was wrong. "The key was on a lanyard around his neck." Her hands were shaking, seeing him glance at them. Isobet clenched them on her lap. She didn't have to tell him anything else.

Evidently he agreed, because his voice was more gentle. "Do you know what's on the data ring?"

Her teeth clenched. The huntsmen knew now that the guards hadn't just marked her like property, but also touched her, the disgusting bastards. He felt sorry for her and she hated him. Isobet looked away, shrugging.

"Do you know why Forsyte was killed?"

She shrugged again.

"Do you want to go back to the institute now?" he said, his voice not gentle anymore.

"I don'tknow anything," she said, her voice sharp, looking at him. "Father gave me the ring and told me to put it somewhere nobody would find it."

"Where did you put it?"

"I'm not going to tell you that," Isobet said, giving a small, humorless laugh.

The huntsman's face tightened, his eyes doing that thing that said this was the way of things and she just had to accept it. "I'm a licensed huntsman, a representative of system authority wherever I choose to visit in this whole system, second only to a justica, and I can't be obstructed in the performance of my duties or there's hell to pay. I need to know what's going on here, because I have a kill order for you."

Isobet felt the shock of that all through her body. She went still. "System authority sent a huntsman here tokill me?"

"Someone in SCA did."

She was staring at him, her heart pounding, her eyes going to his pistol. He'd been sent to shoot her down. "Why didn't you?"

"We're not assassins. If I judge I can bring someone in safely, I do. The only reason a huntsman is ever given a kill order is when someone is so badass that an attempt to apprehend the target is an unacceptable risk for the huntsman. As soon as I saw you close up, I knew Bruja had lied to system authority and you weren't dangerous."

Not dangerous. Because she was small. He was so dismissive. "I didn't kill my father, but I did kill Speculo," she argued, her chin coming up.

"It astonishes me a little that you just said that," he replied. "Do you often stop licensed huntsmen to confess? Yes, you did, in a big ugly way. But it's possible you didn't murder anyone. That brand on your shoulder tells me someone did that to you while you were in custody and those in authority didn't stop it. Did you kill the two guards who were tracking you?"

"What are you talking about?" she said sharply.

"Evidently not," he said under his breath.

Forsyte guards, she realized. They must have come after her. "I thought you were someone Bruja had hired to bring me back until you said you were a huntsman. They're dead?"

He nodded. "Rock slide."

Was he stupid? "How was I supposed to kill them with a rock slide, Huntsman?" she said, her voice sharp again.

"It's not that difficult to start one, killer."

Her brows went up and then she was quiet, looking away. She supposed it was possible.

She glanced at him. The huntsman had been told by system authority that she'd killed her father and Speculo, and the two other guards. Even with that, he'd gone against his orders to kill her and had captured her instead. Now he was asking questions. He was interested in the truth, whatever else. Isobet released her breath, looking down. "No, I didn't kill them," she said, answering his question.

"You headed for that edge like it was the better option," he said. "What do you think is going to happen when I bring you back to the institute?"

Isobet looked up, the answer obvious to her. "My stepmother will have the guards shoot you from the towers as soon as they see us both in the field in front of the gate. They'll capture me because you put proximity shackles on me, not to mention whatever you put in my thigh. The guards will torture and take turns raping me to get me to tell them where the data ring is, after which they'll murder me. When Bruja has the ring, they'll dump your body in the jungle and produce my body in order to blame me for your death and everyone else's."

"Where is the ring? Where did you put it?"

"Show me your badge, Huntsman," she said. She wanted confirmation before she told him anything more.

The huntsman made a quick movement to the breast of his coat, tugging the flap open. The holo twisted up, his face duplicated there, his hair a little shorter, that same cold expression, her eyes shifting from the image to him. "It's possible to fake the verifications, but it's difficult. The technology is proprietary and the penalty for attempting to do so is heavy," he told her.

If he were impersonating a huntsman, there was no reason for her to believe what he'd just told her. He could still be someone Bruja had hired to get Isobet to tell him where the ring was.

But she did believe him, her shoulders falling. "I was afraid to keep the ring on me," Isobet said, "and I didn't want to put it in my rooms where someone could find it if they searched. I couldn't get it out of the compound without alerting the guards, so I had to hide it somewhere at the institute. I put it somewhere they wouldn't look because they didn't think I could get in there."

"Where was that?"

She hesitated and then released her breath. "Block Eight. I found a way through the ducting. The first room it leads to that you can access is a medical lab by the cells. I put the data ring there."

Her belly was tense. Now she would learn if she'd been right to trust him. At least if he'd been sent by Bruja, he'd probably just kill her here, having gotten what he wanted. Provided he didn't do something awful to her first.

"Go lie down on my bedroll," he said.

Her heart began to pound. "I will not," she said.

"You will if you want me to take the tag out, killer."

She stared at him. Take it out? Yes, she wanted him to take it out. Getting up, she walked to his bedroll and lay down on it, on her back, turning her head and looking at him. He went into his pack, his back to her. He tried to hide it when he came around, but she saw it. She began to breathe fast. It looked awful, a kind of intricate gun, heavy, all metal components and shiny.

He came and dropped to his knees beside her. "Turn on your side away from me. It'll help if I get close to it, but I'm not going lie to you, killer. It's going to hurt."

She did what he said. The huntsman put his hand up her shirt, Isobet startling, then reversed, dragging her pants down in one motion. He pressed the small gun against her outer thigh below her hip and her protest died as she tensed, beginning to breathe fast again. He found it.

"Count of three," he said, Isobet nodding, starting to shake. "One--"

He triggered it, a strike that felt like it hit bone, and she cried out and then startled, tears coming to her eyes as he pulled the tag gun back, setting it down.

She pulled her pants up and straightened to sitting, facing him, her shoulders tense, unable to stop the hitches in her breathing. Isobet felt her eyes welling up, so angry, a last humiliation, to be crying in front of him. She looked down. The tears weren't stopping.

* * *

[Sutter]

He looked at her downturned face. He wasn't surprised it had made her cry. Sutter had seen big badass guys break down when he removed a tag. "You're going to be okay, killer."

Isobet looked up at him, those beautiful eyes swimming, and then she looked down again, swiping her cheeks, her hands shaking again. His own hand came up and stroking her hair, silky under his hand, more hitches.

The little Nix was badass, definitely, but she was young-- Isobet Forsyte was twenty-one--and her father had been murdered, herself blamed. She'd been branded in a cell and probably sexually assaulted and had killed the man who did it and escaped to starve in the wilderness and run from predators with a huntsman in her tracks. Having her pants pulled down and getting a painful thump that left a big aching place was a last insult.

It took her a small time, but she got hold of it. His hand dropped. She looked at him, that intense stare, although her eyes were still wet and her nose was red. Sutter didn't smile, keeping his face serious.

He reached for her wrist and she drew it away, her eyes flashing. He pulled out the shackle key, her eyes going to it, her nostrils flaring. When she saw what it was, she held both her wrists out, watching his face, and he touched her wrists, once each.

"The proximity shackles are off," he said.

Her eyes were darting. Looking for exit points just in case. People tended to trust a huntsman, but she didn't, not much, and she certainly didn't trust system authority. After what had happened, he wasn't sure he blamed her. He'd certainly never questioned an order from SCA before. Something was very wrong, and not just with Bruja laReine and not just on this moon.

Those remarkable eyes returned to him. "Why?" she said, her voice nasal.

"I think you might be telling the truth. I don't think laReine knew that the guards had branded you."

"I thought huntsmen didn't judge."

"We don't, usually."

She eyed him, her eyes darting again. "You're going to let me go?"

"I don't think you're going to make it out here alone, killer. I don't think you can survive."

"Both of us will die if you take me back to the institute."

Sutter's eyes flickered. Whatever the little Nix thought, and she had good reason to be paranoid, he still didn't think Bruja would try something like that. "There's a heavy penalty for killing a huntsman."

"Not if you have a dead Nix to blame for it."

"What's so important that she'd kill for it? What's on the data ring?" he said.

"I don't know," she said, giving him the same answer.

"Then tell me what youthink is on the ring."

Her mouth was tight, but she answered. "Among other things, the identity of the person who input the order to gas the Nix."

Sutter's brows went up. "You think Bruja had something to do with gassing the Nix?"

"She's very good with computers, Huntsman. But I don't know it."

"Then tell me why you suspect it. Give me the information you have that makes you think that."

"Bruja was ambitious. She built Forsyte Institute from an obscure research institute and persuaded my father to take big government contracts, encouraging him to apply his theories to human genetics. Bruja is only interested in money, and the Nix made her very wealthy. Rehabilitation would have required the institute to turn its resources to caring for the Nix, with no profit at the end. "

"How is that evidence that she put in the order?"

"It's not evidence, Huntsman. I said I didn't know."

"And your father's murder? Do you think she had something to do with that, as well?"

She looked away. "My father almost never left his lab. I don't know that he ever even went to Block Eight. I'm not saying he was innocent. He had to know what the guards were doing to the Nix, how they were treated. He didn't stop it. But I think he found out Bruja was the one who had gassed the Nix and he made the data ring with the evidence to give to the authorities and she learned about it."

Sutter unfocused, thinking. It was possible. If there really was evidence on this ring, Bruja might have arranged Forsyte's death with the intention of blaming Isobet. If Forsyte told her that Isobet had the ring, Bruja would then want Isobet to tell her where the ring was.

But Isobet had escaped into the forest of Tilles, putting Bruja in a bad spot. Bruja couldn't hide that Forsyte had been murdered, and she didn't have anyone else to blame. She didn't know where the ring was. She couldn't produce Isobet's body.

And Bruja wouldn't have wanted a huntsman to talk to Isobet. She just couldn't stop SCA from sending one. Hence the incentive she'd given him. That would also be why she'd sent the two guards after Isobet ahead of the huntsman already on his way, and not with a trank gun. "The guards would be willing to kill for her?"

Isobet was looking at him like she was trying to figure if she could say something to him. "I know it's not evidence. I'm sure they disabled the cameras. But when Speculo came to the cell where they were holding me, he told me that he'd killed my father slowly, that he'd hurt him and made my father scream and beg."

"Speculo Tab. The guard you killed," he confirmed.

"Yes," she said, her voice husky, and she hesitated. "Was it so bad, Huntsman, what was done to my father?"

She saw the answer in his eyes. Sutter wouldn't lie to her.

She looked down. "Wasn't it enough that she killed him? Why would she do that?"

"To make it look like whoever killed him was a brutal, badass Nix, I imagine," he said. Sutter had certainly bought it, remembering the images.

The little Nix was looking away. After a few moments, she wiped her eyes again, her hand still shaking. She breathed out and then turned to him. "The guards are loyal to her," she said, answering his question. "She is the administrator of Forsyte Institute. After the Nix were killed, the visual records of Block Eight were missing. I think that my father used his codes to access them and make a copy and put them on the data ring."

"You think Bruja covered for the guards?" he said.

"I think she encouraged them to do those things, Huntsman, and then she protected them, yes."

"If you're right, that might be worth killing a huntsman. That means I can't bring you in yet."

"You could go on the shuttle and leave, tell the system authorities. You could bring them back here."

"I could, killer, and I could get an order for clear-to-search and I could find the data ring with what you've told me and charge her, if the evidence was there. Eventually. But without that evidence, Bruja can claim rights-of-privacy. It would require a three-person system council to hear the reasoning for the search and issue an order, and that means waiting for two more justicas to be brought in. It could be weeks. Could I get to the ring?"