Deathstalker 04 - Deathstalker Honor

feet.
    “So,” said Owen. “Still feel invulnerable?”
    “Oh, shut up, Deathstalker. Don’t you get tired of being right all the time?” She raised her arm gingerly and studied the burn with a curled lip. “Nasty. But it’ll heal. Thanks for the save, stud.”
    “Any time,” said Owen.
    Hazel looked at his golden hand. “I have to say I’m impressed. Your average disrupter beam can vaporize steel plating in under a second, but it just bounced off that golden fashion accessory of yours.”
    “The Hadenmen do good work.” Owen flexed the golden metal fingers just a little self-consciously.
    “One of these days I really ought to sit down with some human scientists and have them analyze the hell out of this thing, but I never seem to have the time. It’s all rush, rush, rush when you’re a rebel hero.”
    “And a bounty hunter.”
    “That too. Speaking of which, I have another idea on how to get to dear Valentine.”
    “Hold everything. Your last idea didn’t turn out so damned hot.” “And you’re not going to like this new one much either. But we can’t hang around here; those disrupters must have set off all kinds of alarms once they were triggered. There’ll be guards here soon. Lots of them, armed to the teeth.” “Let them come,” said Hazel. “Let them all come. I could use something to work off my frustrations on.”
    “Not for the first time, you’re missing the point. The guards could pin us down here while Valentine and his cronies make their escape. And I’ll see this place reduced to rubble before I let that happen. This time Valentine is going to pay for his crimes. In blood.”
    “Every now and again you remind me of why I like you,” said Hazel. “All right, Deathstalker. I’m going to regret asking, but what is this marvelous new plan of yours?”
    “There’s another secret passage. One I never told David about. A Deathstalker always keeps some secrets to himself.”
    “There’s a catch,” said Hazel. “I just know there’s a catch.” “Oh, yes. The entrance to this tunnel is on the other side of the first cave on the left. The only way to get to it is past the piled-up bodies of the dead.” “Oh, nice one, Owen. How the hell are we supposed to do that? Drag the bodies out one at a time?”
    “Too long. The guards would be upon us before we’d barely started. No, there’s only one way. We’re going to have to crawl through.” “No,” said Hazel flatly.
    “Hazel…”
    “No! Are you crazy? Dig our way through corpses, hand over hand? I won’t do it, Owen. I’d rather stand and fight here.”
    “And die?”
    “I’m not doing it!”
    “You used to be a clonelegger!”
    “I was already planning to leave the cloneleggers even before I met you. We can’t do this, Owen. It’s freezing in there. Near zero.” “We’ve withstood worse,” said Owen. “The guards will never think to look for us among the dead.”
    “That’s because no sane person would even think of doing it. I can’t, Owen. I just can’t. It would be like crawling through the contents of the freezer units on the clonelegger ship. Just like my nightmares.”
    “No, it won’t. This time I’ll be there with you. You have to do this. Hazel.
    It’s the only way. And I can’t do it without you.” “You bastard, Deathstalker. You always did know how to fight dirty.” Hazel drew in a long, ragged breath and let it out slowly. “All right. Let’s do it. Before I get a rush of brains to the head and tell you to go to hell.” “Just follow me. I’ll lead the way.”
    “Damn right you will.”
    Owen led the way to the cave. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Hazel staring straight ahead, her face a cold mask, but her eyes were those of a frightened child. Owen had never seen her scared before, really scared. “So,” he said, searching for the right words to say, “you were already thinking of leaving the cloneleggers before we met?”
    “Yeah,” said Hazel. “They were too gross even for me. And the pay was lousy.”
    “Silly me. I thought it might have something to do with morality.”
    “Don’t you use the m-word in my presence, Deathstalker.” They stopped before the entrance to the cave. Beyond the shimmering transparent force field, dead faces looked out at them. Hazel’s hands fell to her guns, but they didn’t comfort her. “Damn you, Deathstalker. Somebody’s going to pay for this.”
    “Hang on to that attitude. It’ll come in very handy