Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Witches Shoe ❯ Chapter 12
[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]
By: deathangel125 
Anime/Manga: Gundam Wing Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Action / Romance / Suspense | Type: Yaoi | Uploaded On: 02.12.2016 | Pages: 7 | Words: 4.2K | Visits: 232 | Status: Work In Progress
Anime/Manga: Gundam Wing Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Action / Romance / Suspense | Type: Yaoi | Uploaded On: 02.12.2016 | Pages: 7 | Words: 4.2K | Visits: 232 | Status: Work In Progress
Warnings and disclaimers in first part.
Okay, after he said something I was able to hear it. Guess I had been too preoccupied to pay attention before. Ignoring it wouldn’t do any good; someone was determined to see us. Going back through the apartment I used every curse word I could think of, but I did remember not to yank the damn thing open and demand what in the hell they wanted. “Who is it?”
“Dr. Francis Talbot,” a male voice came through the door. “The Senora asked me to check on a friend that has some injuries to his hands?”
One rule of being a smuggler that’s a damn good one: don’t ever trust someone you don’t know. “Give me a second.” I was dialing Estebans’s number as Trowa caught up to me, leaning on the wall beside the door, arms crossed over his chest and a frown on his face. He seemed as happy about the interruption as I was.
“What do you need, Maxwell?”
Esteban didn’t sound happy to hear from me; tough shit. “There’s someone here saying Jezz sent him. You know anything about that?”
“Dr. Talbot is her personal physician. She asked him to take a look at your hands.”
“Description?”
“Five-eigh t and thin, with grey hair and rimless glasses. He’ll be wearing a tie, Maxwell. Is that sufficient?”
“That’ll do. If I call back, you need to come and get the body of an imposter.”
“Dr. Talbot left here less than five minutes ago. I doubt someone has done away with him in that amount of time.”
Since I knew it would make Esteban happy, I hung up on him and nodded to Trowa. “I guess we have to talk to the doctor.”
“We’ll resume our conversation once he leaves.” That was a threat and promise rolled into one. Damn, he was hot.
Trowa opened the door and I sized up the man standing in the hallway, tugging nervously at his tie as we studied him. “Dr. Talbot, please come in,” I suggested when it didn’t look like he was gonna move. If I hadn’t known better, I would have assumed he was scared of us, but I doubted that Jezz would have told him who we were, so he shouldn’t have had reason to be scared.
Then again, Trowa was looking at the poor man like he would enjoy roasting him on a spit. “Ah, yes, thank you. The Senora was concerned your wounds hadn’t been properly treated…I assume you are my patient?” he squinted at me, eyes focusing on my bandaged hands.
“That would be me,” I confirmed as I led him to the small kitchen, where the lighting was better. We both sat on stools while Trowa remained on his feet, likely paying close attention to every movement the doctor made. Knowing he was there helped me relax enough to sit still as thin, pale hands brushed my bangs aside, where the cut I had gotten from Allbright was nothing more than a small scar. “How long ago did this occur?”
“Two weeks ago?”
“Sixteen days,” Trowa corrected me quietly, his eyes dark. “More than two weeks.”
“You heal quickly,” Dr. Talbot nodded professionally, but he was sweating like a whore in church. “How about your other injuries?”
When I moved my hands, he jumped, giving me a startled look before blushing and removing the bandages. He winced when he took a look at my knuckles, not the prettiest sight in the world, but I doubt it was the worse he’d ever seen. “However did you get these?”
“I picked a fight with a wall. It won.”
His hands went into his bag and I didn’t get a chance to see what he was holding before Trowa was grabbing his wrist, twisting it painfully until he dropped the item. Bending over to take a closer look, I understood his actions; the damn doctor had been brandishing a hyper-syringe. “What’s this, doc?”
“It’ll inject a synthetic skin onto your wounds that will cover and protect your hands while your real skin reforms.”
“That’s handy. Why haven’t I heard of something like this before?”
The doctor hesitated until Trowa put a little more pressure on his wrist. “It hasn’t been approved by the government yet.”
“How did you get it?” Trowa snarled at the man, actually snarled. Hot damn, that was sexy.
I knew the answer, thank the heavens, because Talbot was close to pissing on himself. “Black market. The Senora has her hands in a lot of pies; black market goods are one of those pies. It’s a good way to get needed supplies without having to petition the Earth Sphere.”
Slowly, Trowa released the doctor’s wrist, “Is it safe?”
“One hundred percent; I’ve conducted experiments in my lab. None of the subjects experienced any side effect unless they had an allergic reaction to the anesthetic.”
“Anesthetic?”
“Syn-s kin has an anesthetic that will keep the healing injury from hurting. It’s perfectly safe, I promise.”
Promise or not, I was not getting injected with an anesthetic. “Do you have…syn-skin that won’t numb me while I’m healing?”
“There is, but you should use the type that has numbing properties.”
Maybe I was being paranoid, but the doctor seemed a little too insistent that I use whatever was in that syringe. He was also sweating more than before. That seemed odd for someone that worked closely with the Senora. Surely he should have been used to taking care of people from dubious origins. Glancing at Trowa, I saw he was thinking the same thing. “Doc, I’m a pilot. I can’t fly if I can’t feel.”
“I can understand your reservations, but the pain you’re feeling has to be great. Why would you want to feel the pain if it can be avoided?”
“I can deal with the pain; I’ve had worse. Do you have what I’ve asked for or not?”
“Yes, but I must insist that we use this,” his hand closed around the syringe, squeaking in fear, and likely pain, when Trowa grabbed him.
“I must insist you use what my partner has asked you for. You should check his bag.”
Agreeing with Trowa, I upended the bag on the counter and stared at the contents. “I might be wrong, but I doubt a doctor would need a handgun for house calls, even in a place like this. Doctors around here are hard to come by and no one would dare harm the Senora’s personal physician.”
“It does seem a bit strange. What’s in the other syringes?”
There were three other hypo-syringes in addition to the one Dr. Talbot was still clenching. Unfortunately, I wasn’t really surprised when I started to read the labels. “This is syn-skin containing a topical anesthetic. This is syn-skin by itself.” The third syringe had me whistling, “This happens to be a horse tranq; interesting thing for a doctor to be carrying around, considering horses are scarce in this part of space. You might want to see what he’s holding, darling.”
Trowa spared an instant to glare at me before prying the syringe from the doctor’s hand, keeping the sharp needle far away from his skin. “Don’t call me that,” he told me before shaking his head and holding the syringe out to me. “I don’t know what this is,” he frowned. It was a shock; with his background, he should know most drugs or poisons. The Preventers are pretty damn thorough about that kind of thing.
“Would you prefer for me to call you lover?” It was a stupid question, but my insides were shaking as I read the small print on the syringe. I needed something to help calm my racing heart.
“It would be better.”
Was there any way I could have resisted that sarcastic charm? “Narcogenesis. This is a drug created for and used exclusively by the PSP, lover.”
“Used for what?”
“Triple threat.” What in the hell would Talbot be doing with that shit? “It’s used to make difficult prisoners more compliant and talkative. Think of it as a sed merged with a truth serum. The added bonus is that it eventually kills the prisoner, leaving no witnesses behind. The ones it doesn’t kill are left as vegetables. I took down a transpo that had a cargo hold full of this shit.”
“You think this is from that shipment?”
“Not possible. There wasn’t anything left of that ship or its cargo.” Damn it, did something have to happen every time I managed to get my hands on Trowa? I needed to call Jezz, but that meant I had to get through Esteban first. “You got him under control?”
Trowa actually rolled his eyes at me. Smartass. “I think I can handle him, but can you move the syringes, just in case he overpowers me?”
“Jerk.” I shoved everything back into the doctor’s bag with one hand while calling Esteban with the other. I didn’t wait to hear his comment, forging ahead as soon as the call connected and I heard him breathing on the other end. “I need Jezz to come down here, now.”
“She’s busy at the moment. I’ll let her know - ”
“Get her down here before my partner kills the doctor, you prick.” I didn’t have to hang up on him, but it made me feel better.
Less than three minutes passed before Jezz was opening the door, holding up her key. Seeing Trowa holding a knife to Talbot’s throat, she hissed at me like a pissed off feline, “Can’t you control your lover?”
“I was trying to when the doctor knocked on the damn door.”
“Oh, for mercy’s sake, let him go.”
Trowa snorted, shaking his head slightly. Guess that left it up to me to explain. “He would, but considering the doc here was trying to inject me with Narcogenesis, I don’t think it’s a real good idea.”
“That can’t be right. Narco is one of the drugs not permitted on Kol. Anyone caught with it is punished. The punishment is death.”
Taking the syringe, I handed it over after making certain it was capped. “He told me it was syn-skin, Jezz. I know what this shit does to people. How did your doctor have it to use on me? I’m guessing the horse tranq was for Trowa.”
“Are you certain he had this?” She didn’t want to believe me and I couldn’t blame her. She had trusted this man and she trusts as easily as I do; being betrayed by someone that close to you really is a bitch.
“It’s what he had. He explained that syn-skin had anesthetic in it and I asked if he had some without it, for obvious reasons. I’m clean and plan to stay that way. That numb feeling…” I doubt I had to explain how that numbness would have made me crave something stronger; she’d had problems with addiction in the past. “If he hadn’t argued about changing syringes, we wouldn’t have suspected anything.”
She studied my face for a long time before nodding and moving back to the door, opening it to allow Esteban inside. “Dr. Talbot needs to be put in a cell, Esteban.”
“What for? Because this man says he did something wrong?” Esteban gave me a condescending look.
“Because he attempted to use Narco on a guest.”
Esteban gave me a look that was beyond surprise. He moved toward the doctor, stopping to look the older man in the eyes. “You have been here, taking care of our people since I was a child. Why would you do this? Why would you want to harm a man that’s done nothing to you or your family?”
I had to give the doctor some credit. He didn’t look away or refuse to answer, meeting Esteban’s eyes, “In exchange for finding out what they know and killing him, I was finally going to be able to get away from here. I was told I’d have a new identification so I could start a new life anywhere I wanted.”
Like I told Trowa, it doesn’t take much for people to turn on you. “The PSP offered you this deal in exchange for us?”
“For whatever you knew,” the doctor nodded. “They were very clear in stating they wanted you dead, Mr. Maxwell, and your partner incapacitated, though they didn’t care how.”
“What were you planning to do to my partner?” I wanted to kill this man with my bare hands. My life has never been that important to me, but Trowa was a different story. Nothing was going to happen to him as long as I was around to prevent it.
“My intention was to heavily sedate him long enough to get him off this hell-hole. There are businesses that would pay handsomely for such a fine specimen.”
Whether he meant the human experiments sometimes performed on helpless prisoners or the sex trade didn’t matter. The outcome would have been the same. I really, really, wanted to kill this son of a bitch. “Why does the PSP want me dead?”
“You cause too many problems for them.” This was said with the air of a man that has accepted his fate. He knew he was going to die, but the way he was going to be punished wasn’t written in stone just yet. “You can find out too much and make things even more difficult than you have in the past, so they want you out of the way.”
“Why did they want my partner silenced?”
“I don’t know. They didn’t say and I didn’t ask. It wasn’t important. All I wanted was to get away from here.”
“When did you speak to your contact at the PSP and receive these orders?” It was a damn good question and one I hadn’t thought of. I sent my approval silently to Trowa, but the answer shocked the shit out of me.
“A month ago.”
Wait a fucking minute. “I wasn’t taken into custody until a little over two weeks ago. Why would there be a death note on my head before I’d even done anything?”
“Duo, our original problem started less than three weeks ago,” Trowa’s eyes told me he didn’t like what this was adding up to. Neither did I. Damnit, can’t things ever be easy for me?
“Who is your contact at the PSP?”
Talbot gave me a wary look before shaking his head, “I can’t tell you that.”
“You’re already dead,” I told him coldly, ignoring Jezz’s sharp gasp. “Now you need to decide if you want to take your punishment as one deserves to after breaking the rules or if you want me to do the breaking.”
“Maxwell, you can’t -”
The glare I gave Esteban had him snapping his lips shut. “He threatened my partner’s life, someone I care a great deal about.” Ouch, that hurt to admit out loud. Trowa looked like I just hit him between the eyes with a frying pan. “I decide what to do with him, not you.”
“Duo, it’s Koleniko’s law that has been broken.”
Jezz was trying to reason with me, I get that. Problem was that I didn’t give a fuck about the law. I’m a smuggler, remember? I shun laws at every available opportunity. I shouldn’t have let myself get attached to Trowa, but I did and there was a price to pay for that kind of attachment, especially when it involves someone attempting to take my partner and throw him into the life trades. “I decide, Jezz, not you. It’s my damn right.”
Her expression was startled; she knew I had just confessed to being hopelessly in love with Trowa. It’s the only time someone like me would claim a right to anything. Seconds passed in silence before she nodded slowly, “We’ll wait outside.”
When the door whispered shut with Jezz and Esteban on the other side, I let me eyes fall on Trowa. He was still holding the doctor in a way so that the man couldn’t escape, but he was watching me. He knew something had just happened that he didn’t understand, something concerning him. His eyes promised he was going to be asking questions once this was over. Good. It’d give me time to think of a way to explain what had just happened.
At that moment, however, there were more immediate concerns. Was it always going to be that way with me and Trowa? “Let him go.”
“Are you sure that’s wise?”
“We’re on the eighth floor with Jezz and Esteban standing outside the only escape route. Unless he feels like jumping, he’s not going anywhere, are you, doctor?”
“No. I’ll…answer your questions.” Talbot licked his lips nervously, but it was clear he realized he wasn’t going to be escaping death today, and that going with Jezz was going to be more pleasant than anything I could come up with. “What do you want to know?”
Trowa released Talbot, but stayed close. The doctor sank onto a stool, all fight gone from him. “Who gave you the order to kill me?” I refused to talk about the doctor’s decision about Trowa. Talking about it would have made me think about it and thinking about it was going to have me splitting this asshole at the seams.
“One of the captains based on Strident.”
That narrowed it down to a couple dozen. “Not enough. I want the man’s name.”
“Allbright. Captain Allbright of the White Rain.”
“I want to know exactly what he told you to do and why. I don’t give a shit about your reasons.” Now I had another reason to hunt down Allbright, Preventers sanction or no. That bastard was going to die by my hands before this was done.
“There wasn’t much direction. If you made it here, I was to make certain you never left Kol. The PSP knows you consider this a safe haven, somewhere you would stop to rest before making your way to Witches Shoe. You are well-known here, Maxwell. I knew who you were and what you are; it didn’t seem a terrible loss to rid the world of a smuggler when there are so many. Allbright told me he would ensure you would be in need of my services, should you escape him.”
“So he beat Duo up, knowing Jezz would insist you care for him if he stopped here.” Trowa was not a happy camper. I had been able to see him surprised and stunned, angry and horny during our trip, but this was the first time I had actually seen him pissed.
His face was set in stone, hands fisted at his sides. His voice was cold as the outer rings of Saturn, but his eyes are what shocked me the most. They weren’t cold at all, burning with fire and rage the likes of which I hadn’t seen in a very long time. Realizing his intentions, I didn’t know of a damn way to stop him, save one. “No.”
That single word brought his gaze to me, calming only a little bit, not enough to guarantee he wasn’t going to gut the doctor with the slightest provocation. “Allbright,” the name was a sneer through twisted lips of disgust, “beat you just so this waste of space could kill you. Don’t tell me no.”
“I can’t let you kill him. I won’t let you do that.”
“He doesn’t deserve any mercy, Duo.”
“You’re right, he doesn’t, but you do.” He was watching me, green eyes clear of the hatred and loathing that had been boiling seconds before. He was still mad enough to kill, but he was willing to listen to the reasons I had for stopping him. “You can’t kill him and be unaffected by it. You aren’t built that way, either.”
“I can kill to protect something that’s…extremely important to me.”
Christ, the word ‘mine’ had been on his lips before he altered it. Guess I’m not the only one that had gotten attached even while knowing it was the king of stupid ideas. “There are more important things. Allbright would have beaten me no matter what had happened afterward. He and his men enjoyed it, lover. They were laughing and taunting while seeing which of them could do the most damage with the least amount of time.” Letting that sink in, I looked at the doctor again. Talbot looked like he had aged two decades in the span of fifteen minutes. “Do you know anything else?”
“I swear I don’t. You were my job, Maxwell. Your partner, if you had one, wasn’t as important as long as he wasn’t able to make a fuss.”
“Did Allbright tell you why he wanted us kept off the Shoe?”
“He said only that a prisoner of great importance was being held there. Your presence would make things difficult and ruin his plans.”
I made sure Trowa was keeping a close eye on Talbot before moving to the door and letting Jezz and Esteban in. “He’s all yours. I suggest you make sure he doesn’t leave the cells alive, Jezz.”
“He won’t.” She was visibly saddened as Esteban retrieved Talbot and escorts him out of the apartment. “Thank you for letting me handle this problem, Duo. It means a lot to me. If there’s anything I can do…?”
“If you have some of that syn-skin to spare, it’d be useful,” I held up my hands. “I don’t trust the stuff the doctor brought with him.”
“I’ll have Esteban bring you some as soon as he’s…finished. I am sorry about this, both of you.”
Okay, after he said something I was able to hear it. Guess I had been too preoccupied to pay attention before. Ignoring it wouldn’t do any good; someone was determined to see us. Going back through the apartment I used every curse word I could think of, but I did remember not to yank the damn thing open and demand what in the hell they wanted. “Who is it?”
“Dr. Francis Talbot,” a male voice came through the door. “The Senora asked me to check on a friend that has some injuries to his hands?”
One rule of being a smuggler that’s a damn good one: don’t ever trust someone you don’t know. “Give me a second.” I was dialing Estebans’s number as Trowa caught up to me, leaning on the wall beside the door, arms crossed over his chest and a frown on his face. He seemed as happy about the interruption as I was.
“What do you need, Maxwell?”
Esteban didn’t sound happy to hear from me; tough shit. “There’s someone here saying Jezz sent him. You know anything about that?”
“Dr. Talbot is her personal physician. She asked him to take a look at your hands.”
“Description?”
“Five-eigh t and thin, with grey hair and rimless glasses. He’ll be wearing a tie, Maxwell. Is that sufficient?”
“That’ll do. If I call back, you need to come and get the body of an imposter.”
“Dr. Talbot left here less than five minutes ago. I doubt someone has done away with him in that amount of time.”
Since I knew it would make Esteban happy, I hung up on him and nodded to Trowa. “I guess we have to talk to the doctor.”
“We’ll resume our conversation once he leaves.” That was a threat and promise rolled into one. Damn, he was hot.
Trowa opened the door and I sized up the man standing in the hallway, tugging nervously at his tie as we studied him. “Dr. Talbot, please come in,” I suggested when it didn’t look like he was gonna move. If I hadn’t known better, I would have assumed he was scared of us, but I doubted that Jezz would have told him who we were, so he shouldn’t have had reason to be scared.
Then again, Trowa was looking at the poor man like he would enjoy roasting him on a spit. “Ah, yes, thank you. The Senora was concerned your wounds hadn’t been properly treated…I assume you are my patient?” he squinted at me, eyes focusing on my bandaged hands.
“That would be me,” I confirmed as I led him to the small kitchen, where the lighting was better. We both sat on stools while Trowa remained on his feet, likely paying close attention to every movement the doctor made. Knowing he was there helped me relax enough to sit still as thin, pale hands brushed my bangs aside, where the cut I had gotten from Allbright was nothing more than a small scar. “How long ago did this occur?”
“Two weeks ago?”
“Sixteen days,” Trowa corrected me quietly, his eyes dark. “More than two weeks.”
“You heal quickly,” Dr. Talbot nodded professionally, but he was sweating like a whore in church. “How about your other injuries?”
When I moved my hands, he jumped, giving me a startled look before blushing and removing the bandages. He winced when he took a look at my knuckles, not the prettiest sight in the world, but I doubt it was the worse he’d ever seen. “However did you get these?”
“I picked a fight with a wall. It won.”
His hands went into his bag and I didn’t get a chance to see what he was holding before Trowa was grabbing his wrist, twisting it painfully until he dropped the item. Bending over to take a closer look, I understood his actions; the damn doctor had been brandishing a hyper-syringe. “What’s this, doc?”
“It’ll inject a synthetic skin onto your wounds that will cover and protect your hands while your real skin reforms.”
“That’s handy. Why haven’t I heard of something like this before?”
The doctor hesitated until Trowa put a little more pressure on his wrist. “It hasn’t been approved by the government yet.”
“How did you get it?” Trowa snarled at the man, actually snarled. Hot damn, that was sexy.
I knew the answer, thank the heavens, because Talbot was close to pissing on himself. “Black market. The Senora has her hands in a lot of pies; black market goods are one of those pies. It’s a good way to get needed supplies without having to petition the Earth Sphere.”
Slowly, Trowa released the doctor’s wrist, “Is it safe?”
“One hundred percent; I’ve conducted experiments in my lab. None of the subjects experienced any side effect unless they had an allergic reaction to the anesthetic.”
“Anesthetic?”
“Syn-s kin has an anesthetic that will keep the healing injury from hurting. It’s perfectly safe, I promise.”
Promise or not, I was not getting injected with an anesthetic. “Do you have…syn-skin that won’t numb me while I’m healing?”
“There is, but you should use the type that has numbing properties.”
Maybe I was being paranoid, but the doctor seemed a little too insistent that I use whatever was in that syringe. He was also sweating more than before. That seemed odd for someone that worked closely with the Senora. Surely he should have been used to taking care of people from dubious origins. Glancing at Trowa, I saw he was thinking the same thing. “Doc, I’m a pilot. I can’t fly if I can’t feel.”
“I can understand your reservations, but the pain you’re feeling has to be great. Why would you want to feel the pain if it can be avoided?”
“I can deal with the pain; I’ve had worse. Do you have what I’ve asked for or not?”
“Yes, but I must insist that we use this,” his hand closed around the syringe, squeaking in fear, and likely pain, when Trowa grabbed him.
“I must insist you use what my partner has asked you for. You should check his bag.”
Agreeing with Trowa, I upended the bag on the counter and stared at the contents. “I might be wrong, but I doubt a doctor would need a handgun for house calls, even in a place like this. Doctors around here are hard to come by and no one would dare harm the Senora’s personal physician.”
“It does seem a bit strange. What’s in the other syringes?”
There were three other hypo-syringes in addition to the one Dr. Talbot was still clenching. Unfortunately, I wasn’t really surprised when I started to read the labels. “This is syn-skin containing a topical anesthetic. This is syn-skin by itself.” The third syringe had me whistling, “This happens to be a horse tranq; interesting thing for a doctor to be carrying around, considering horses are scarce in this part of space. You might want to see what he’s holding, darling.”
Trowa spared an instant to glare at me before prying the syringe from the doctor’s hand, keeping the sharp needle far away from his skin. “Don’t call me that,” he told me before shaking his head and holding the syringe out to me. “I don’t know what this is,” he frowned. It was a shock; with his background, he should know most drugs or poisons. The Preventers are pretty damn thorough about that kind of thing.
“Would you prefer for me to call you lover?” It was a stupid question, but my insides were shaking as I read the small print on the syringe. I needed something to help calm my racing heart.
“It would be better.”
Was there any way I could have resisted that sarcastic charm? “Narcogenesis. This is a drug created for and used exclusively by the PSP, lover.”
“Used for what?”
“Triple threat.” What in the hell would Talbot be doing with that shit? “It’s used to make difficult prisoners more compliant and talkative. Think of it as a sed merged with a truth serum. The added bonus is that it eventually kills the prisoner, leaving no witnesses behind. The ones it doesn’t kill are left as vegetables. I took down a transpo that had a cargo hold full of this shit.”
“You think this is from that shipment?”
“Not possible. There wasn’t anything left of that ship or its cargo.” Damn it, did something have to happen every time I managed to get my hands on Trowa? I needed to call Jezz, but that meant I had to get through Esteban first. “You got him under control?”
Trowa actually rolled his eyes at me. Smartass. “I think I can handle him, but can you move the syringes, just in case he overpowers me?”
“Jerk.” I shoved everything back into the doctor’s bag with one hand while calling Esteban with the other. I didn’t wait to hear his comment, forging ahead as soon as the call connected and I heard him breathing on the other end. “I need Jezz to come down here, now.”
“She’s busy at the moment. I’ll let her know - ”
“Get her down here before my partner kills the doctor, you prick.” I didn’t have to hang up on him, but it made me feel better.
Less than three minutes passed before Jezz was opening the door, holding up her key. Seeing Trowa holding a knife to Talbot’s throat, she hissed at me like a pissed off feline, “Can’t you control your lover?”
“I was trying to when the doctor knocked on the damn door.”
“Oh, for mercy’s sake, let him go.”
Trowa snorted, shaking his head slightly. Guess that left it up to me to explain. “He would, but considering the doc here was trying to inject me with Narcogenesis, I don’t think it’s a real good idea.”
“That can’t be right. Narco is one of the drugs not permitted on Kol. Anyone caught with it is punished. The punishment is death.”
Taking the syringe, I handed it over after making certain it was capped. “He told me it was syn-skin, Jezz. I know what this shit does to people. How did your doctor have it to use on me? I’m guessing the horse tranq was for Trowa.”
“Are you certain he had this?” She didn’t want to believe me and I couldn’t blame her. She had trusted this man and she trusts as easily as I do; being betrayed by someone that close to you really is a bitch.
“It’s what he had. He explained that syn-skin had anesthetic in it and I asked if he had some without it, for obvious reasons. I’m clean and plan to stay that way. That numb feeling…” I doubt I had to explain how that numbness would have made me crave something stronger; she’d had problems with addiction in the past. “If he hadn’t argued about changing syringes, we wouldn’t have suspected anything.”
She studied my face for a long time before nodding and moving back to the door, opening it to allow Esteban inside. “Dr. Talbot needs to be put in a cell, Esteban.”
“What for? Because this man says he did something wrong?” Esteban gave me a condescending look.
“Because he attempted to use Narco on a guest.”
Esteban gave me a look that was beyond surprise. He moved toward the doctor, stopping to look the older man in the eyes. “You have been here, taking care of our people since I was a child. Why would you do this? Why would you want to harm a man that’s done nothing to you or your family?”
I had to give the doctor some credit. He didn’t look away or refuse to answer, meeting Esteban’s eyes, “In exchange for finding out what they know and killing him, I was finally going to be able to get away from here. I was told I’d have a new identification so I could start a new life anywhere I wanted.”
Like I told Trowa, it doesn’t take much for people to turn on you. “The PSP offered you this deal in exchange for us?”
“For whatever you knew,” the doctor nodded. “They were very clear in stating they wanted you dead, Mr. Maxwell, and your partner incapacitated, though they didn’t care how.”
“What were you planning to do to my partner?” I wanted to kill this man with my bare hands. My life has never been that important to me, but Trowa was a different story. Nothing was going to happen to him as long as I was around to prevent it.
“My intention was to heavily sedate him long enough to get him off this hell-hole. There are businesses that would pay handsomely for such a fine specimen.”
Whether he meant the human experiments sometimes performed on helpless prisoners or the sex trade didn’t matter. The outcome would have been the same. I really, really, wanted to kill this son of a bitch. “Why does the PSP want me dead?”
“You cause too many problems for them.” This was said with the air of a man that has accepted his fate. He knew he was going to die, but the way he was going to be punished wasn’t written in stone just yet. “You can find out too much and make things even more difficult than you have in the past, so they want you out of the way.”
“Why did they want my partner silenced?”
“I don’t know. They didn’t say and I didn’t ask. It wasn’t important. All I wanted was to get away from here.”
“When did you speak to your contact at the PSP and receive these orders?” It was a damn good question and one I hadn’t thought of. I sent my approval silently to Trowa, but the answer shocked the shit out of me.
“A month ago.”
Wait a fucking minute. “I wasn’t taken into custody until a little over two weeks ago. Why would there be a death note on my head before I’d even done anything?”
“Duo, our original problem started less than three weeks ago,” Trowa’s eyes told me he didn’t like what this was adding up to. Neither did I. Damnit, can’t things ever be easy for me?
“Who is your contact at the PSP?”
Talbot gave me a wary look before shaking his head, “I can’t tell you that.”
“You’re already dead,” I told him coldly, ignoring Jezz’s sharp gasp. “Now you need to decide if you want to take your punishment as one deserves to after breaking the rules or if you want me to do the breaking.”
“Maxwell, you can’t -”
The glare I gave Esteban had him snapping his lips shut. “He threatened my partner’s life, someone I care a great deal about.” Ouch, that hurt to admit out loud. Trowa looked like I just hit him between the eyes with a frying pan. “I decide what to do with him, not you.”
“Duo, it’s Koleniko’s law that has been broken.”
Jezz was trying to reason with me, I get that. Problem was that I didn’t give a fuck about the law. I’m a smuggler, remember? I shun laws at every available opportunity. I shouldn’t have let myself get attached to Trowa, but I did and there was a price to pay for that kind of attachment, especially when it involves someone attempting to take my partner and throw him into the life trades. “I decide, Jezz, not you. It’s my damn right.”
Her expression was startled; she knew I had just confessed to being hopelessly in love with Trowa. It’s the only time someone like me would claim a right to anything. Seconds passed in silence before she nodded slowly, “We’ll wait outside.”
When the door whispered shut with Jezz and Esteban on the other side, I let me eyes fall on Trowa. He was still holding the doctor in a way so that the man couldn’t escape, but he was watching me. He knew something had just happened that he didn’t understand, something concerning him. His eyes promised he was going to be asking questions once this was over. Good. It’d give me time to think of a way to explain what had just happened.
At that moment, however, there were more immediate concerns. Was it always going to be that way with me and Trowa? “Let him go.”
“Are you sure that’s wise?”
“We’re on the eighth floor with Jezz and Esteban standing outside the only escape route. Unless he feels like jumping, he’s not going anywhere, are you, doctor?”
“No. I’ll…answer your questions.” Talbot licked his lips nervously, but it was clear he realized he wasn’t going to be escaping death today, and that going with Jezz was going to be more pleasant than anything I could come up with. “What do you want to know?”
Trowa released Talbot, but stayed close. The doctor sank onto a stool, all fight gone from him. “Who gave you the order to kill me?” I refused to talk about the doctor’s decision about Trowa. Talking about it would have made me think about it and thinking about it was going to have me splitting this asshole at the seams.
“One of the captains based on Strident.”
That narrowed it down to a couple dozen. “Not enough. I want the man’s name.”
“Allbright. Captain Allbright of the White Rain.”
“I want to know exactly what he told you to do and why. I don’t give a shit about your reasons.” Now I had another reason to hunt down Allbright, Preventers sanction or no. That bastard was going to die by my hands before this was done.
“There wasn’t much direction. If you made it here, I was to make certain you never left Kol. The PSP knows you consider this a safe haven, somewhere you would stop to rest before making your way to Witches Shoe. You are well-known here, Maxwell. I knew who you were and what you are; it didn’t seem a terrible loss to rid the world of a smuggler when there are so many. Allbright told me he would ensure you would be in need of my services, should you escape him.”
“So he beat Duo up, knowing Jezz would insist you care for him if he stopped here.” Trowa was not a happy camper. I had been able to see him surprised and stunned, angry and horny during our trip, but this was the first time I had actually seen him pissed.
His face was set in stone, hands fisted at his sides. His voice was cold as the outer rings of Saturn, but his eyes are what shocked me the most. They weren’t cold at all, burning with fire and rage the likes of which I hadn’t seen in a very long time. Realizing his intentions, I didn’t know of a damn way to stop him, save one. “No.”
That single word brought his gaze to me, calming only a little bit, not enough to guarantee he wasn’t going to gut the doctor with the slightest provocation. “Allbright,” the name was a sneer through twisted lips of disgust, “beat you just so this waste of space could kill you. Don’t tell me no.”
“I can’t let you kill him. I won’t let you do that.”
“He doesn’t deserve any mercy, Duo.”
“You’re right, he doesn’t, but you do.” He was watching me, green eyes clear of the hatred and loathing that had been boiling seconds before. He was still mad enough to kill, but he was willing to listen to the reasons I had for stopping him. “You can’t kill him and be unaffected by it. You aren’t built that way, either.”
“I can kill to protect something that’s…extremely important to me.”
Christ, the word ‘mine’ had been on his lips before he altered it. Guess I’m not the only one that had gotten attached even while knowing it was the king of stupid ideas. “There are more important things. Allbright would have beaten me no matter what had happened afterward. He and his men enjoyed it, lover. They were laughing and taunting while seeing which of them could do the most damage with the least amount of time.” Letting that sink in, I looked at the doctor again. Talbot looked like he had aged two decades in the span of fifteen minutes. “Do you know anything else?”
“I swear I don’t. You were my job, Maxwell. Your partner, if you had one, wasn’t as important as long as he wasn’t able to make a fuss.”
“Did Allbright tell you why he wanted us kept off the Shoe?”
“He said only that a prisoner of great importance was being held there. Your presence would make things difficult and ruin his plans.”
I made sure Trowa was keeping a close eye on Talbot before moving to the door and letting Jezz and Esteban in. “He’s all yours. I suggest you make sure he doesn’t leave the cells alive, Jezz.”
“He won’t.” She was visibly saddened as Esteban retrieved Talbot and escorts him out of the apartment. “Thank you for letting me handle this problem, Duo. It means a lot to me. If there’s anything I can do…?”
“If you have some of that syn-skin to spare, it’d be useful,” I held up my hands. “I don’t trust the stuff the doctor brought with him.”
“I’ll have Esteban bring you some as soon as he’s…finished. I am sorry about this, both of you.”