[Wildcards 10] - Double Solitaire Read Online Free PDF Page B

from you. The Ideal granted you great and potent powers. But you never understood that with great power comes great responsibility. You've abandoned anyone who's ever had a claim upon you. Your mother, your women, your child... It is not the action of a grand seigneur."
    "Yeah, because I'm not one. I'm a half-black, half-Jap bastard who fought for everything I ever had, and I didn't ask for any fucking favors."
    Looking into those angry black eyes, Tachyon considered rather belatedly that when one comes seeking favors, one ought not get on one's high horse. She plaited a fold of her loose blouse. Pride was an unpalatable morsel to swallow. "I'm sorry" said Tach stiffly. "I should not have lectured you."
    "That's one you've gotten right."
    They stared at each other for a long moment. The hormonal shifts within Tachyon's borrowed body were causing a fire storm of emotions. Fury wrestled with despair, but even the traumas of pregnancy could not pierce the ice dam that held her tears. Something in Tach's arid stare rattled Fortunato. Uncomfortably he asked, "Aren't you going to bawl now? Every time I saw you, you were sniveling. Now at least you're the right gender to get away with it." Tach just stared at him. After a lengthy silence the ace asked, "Why the hell did you come here? You're a reminder of all the shit I left behind."
    "How nice for you. Some of us cannot run away." Illyana kicked, and Tach's hand went instinctively to her belly. Closing her eyes, she twined her thoughts about the baby's. The emotions were like colored ribbons. She was softly smiling when she again opened her eyes. "It is a rare place where the only sensation is love."
    "I can think of one other," said Fortunato, very dry.
    "No, sex is far more complicated. It is warfare, and obligations, and games, and tests." Tach straightened resolutely and met Fortunato's frowning gaze. "I have come to you for help."
    "I don't give abortions."
    It was deliberately cruel. Tach was unmoved. "My body has been stolen from me. And I believe the thief has taken it to my home world. I must go after them. And for that I need you."
    The receding hairline gave the ace a lot of forehead to furrow and knot as a frown of Jovian proportions crossed his brow. "I don't get it. As far as I know, you're the only person who owns a spaceship instead of a dog."
    "How do you think they got off the world?"
    Something flickered deep in Fortunato's eyes. It was gone before Tach could identify the emotion that drove it. "You really are fucked."
    Tach dropped her gaze. "Will you help me?"
    "I still don't see what I can do."
    "It has been forty-four years since Jetboy failed over Manhattan. I have seen you all, treated most of you. You are the most powerful ace ever to live. I think your powers are sufficient to cross even light-years. Send a message to my family on Takis." It was more impassioned than she wanted, but desperation was beginning to chew at the edges of her fragile control.
    "I don't have any powers. I had to give them up when I entered here."
    "Your powers are intact. It's written in your DNA. You can play self-deluding games, but you are a wild card. You will die a wild card."
    "You know how my power worked." Fortunato threw out his long arms, indicating the peaceful garden. "You see any way for me to awaken the Kundalini?"
    The words had to crawl from a mouth gone desert dry. "Yes... use me."
    "Jesus fucking Christ, you are desperate."
    "You will never know how much," said Tach, so quietly that the ace had to lean in to hear her. His body odor was fresh, citrusy. Tach fought back vomit.
    She had prayed it would not (but feared that it would) come to this. Like most aces Fortunato relied upon a psychological crutch to use his wildcard powers. Peregrine believed she could not fly without her wings. In fact they were useless -- she flew using an elaborate telekinetic power. Turtle's teke power would not work unless he was safely armored in his shell. And Fortunato could not use