Fade Away and Radiate Read Online Free PDF Page A

all?
    She checked for a heartbeat and found
it, faint but steady. She let her hand rest against his chest. She
listened to his breathing, so tentative that it seemed he might
stop again at any moment.
    Come back to
me , she whispered inside his mind, not
realizing she’d done it until he stirred under her, responding to
her words with movement.
    She stretched out next to him, warmed
his cold body with her own, restraining her panic like a ravening
dog on a leash.
    “ Back,” Billy said aloud a
minute later, words slurring. “It was poison. Little
viper.”
    He opened his eyes, and Annie looked
into him, disappeared into him. If he lived, she had to get him out
of here.
    She blinked hard to break their
connection, and looked around the ruined hut. She could see beyond
the circle of light shed by the bare bulb overhead.
    Daylight. They’d survived the
night.
    “ Do you…do you need an
antidote?” Annie stuttered, though she didn’t have one, nor any
knowledge of how to concoct one.
    “ Nah. The genmod. Comes
in…handy.” With a groan, Billy sat up, his sides heaving. “That
poison though…it woulda worked on you. Easy.”
    Poison. Annie shuddered.
“Violet.”
    “ Hells yeah, Violet. She
didn’t have bullets or lasers inside her. I knew to check for that,
before. But they stored poison in her. I’m not a drone specialist
or I woulda known.”
    With growing amazement, Annie realized
he was apologizing to her. “You saved my life. You realize that, I
hope.”
    He shrugged. “She never woulda come
after you if I hadn't showed up. Violet’s here to make sure you
stay here, working. But now she realizes I'm taking you away from
here, away from FortuneCorp. And her real job is to kill you rather
than allow you to get offworld with that Bowman drive. If they
can’t have your genius, nobody can.”
    Annie's stomach did a slow flip. She'd
always thought Violet worked for her.
    Annie was wrong. Annie worked for
Violet, and if she messed up, she'd be terminated.
    For good.
    “ She used up her first
strike on your pillow because your face wasn’t there,” Billy said.
“She had to strike fast to get past me, she knew that. Didn’t have
the time to register you weren’t sleeping in your usual place. But
man, her reserve dose was enough to do the job, too.
Ow.”
    Annie stared and stared at her pillow.
The cover was shredded apart, and a thick, brown liquid puddled on
the synth-foam padding.
    She tore her gaze away and turned her
attention to Billy’s wounds. Annie could see the vicious punctures
slashed into Billy’s palm.
    “ She got away,” Annie said
and pointed to the door.
    “ She probably got an
emergency beacon signal programmed in ‘er,” Billy said. “Time for
us to get out of here, wicked fast. I hear FortuneCorp is working
on a wormhole drive. If they’ve perfected it, then they can get
here in two hours, not two days. Gotta go.”
    A sick dismay settled over Annie like a
thundercloud, a terrible certainty of doom.
    The room did a slow spin, and she felt
like she was going to puke. “But go where? FortuneCorp owns this
whole sector. I can’t hide from them, Billy. You came all the way
out here to find me, but it’s too late, no matter what Roberto told
you. I think you can save yourself if you get out of here fast
enough.”
    Billy’s laugh shattered her. He drew to
his full height, magnificent, alive, and unbroken, and she looked
up from the floor at him in wonder.
    “ I don’t work for
FortuneCorp. I don’t belong to them. Never did. The US Army broke
me down and built me over as a genmod freakazoid. But FortuneCorp
can go suck it.”
    He reached down for her with his
bitten, bloody hand. Annie held on and pulled herself to her
feet.
    “ Remember those brothers I
told you about? The ones that helped me find you? They got free of
FortuneCorp, just like you’re gonna. They set up their own planet,
with their own ways and their own freedom. And I’m taking you
there.”
    “ But…”