12.
 He recognized the leather overcoat, the frilly underskirt as he lifted her off the hook. The unmen female had wrapped Rin's body in that same natal membrane in which she had brought brains, kidneys, and liver parts. Rin's parts?
She felt cold. Kanon tore at the unmen membrane, ripped it with his teeth, until it came apart. It peeled off Rin's cold, stiff body with a popping, a wet sucking sound. Quickly, Kanon took the needle from his wrist and plugged it into her carotid artery. He hoped there was enough nanomed left in the sloshing pouch liquid. He laid the pouch beside her and stroked her cold forehead. She looked ethereal, like an angel, with her eyes peacefully closed and a faint look on her face, in her mouth, if not of pleasure, then relaxation.
Kanon massaged her wrists, her forearms, her wiry legs with their meaty little calves and thighs.
Nothing.
She's dead. Gone. He let out a desperate yell and gave the pouch a squeeze with both hands. He could see the I.V. line make a jumping motion under the pressure of his squeeze.
A minute later, a change came over her face. Her mouth opened, and she choked. She wheezed and fought for air.
Kanon understood: her lungs were full of the unmen preservative fluid of the membrane. He rolled her over onto one side, lay behind her, put his arms around her with his fists in her abdomen, and yanked sharply until she struggled suddenly in his arms. She coughed. He rolled her toward him and put breath into her lungs. Squeezing the pouch gently over and over again, he lay beside her and felt her warmth returning as the nanomachines did their work inside her, and the stem cells replaced damaged tissue.
He understood what must have happened. She'd gone out to get food for them, and was hunted down by this ambitious unmen alpha female whose agenda was to recover something from her people's past. Not something of her people, but something they had stolen from far less predatory creatures.
He felt the real Rin's arms come around him. She pulled him to her, and pressed her cheek against his chest. "Kanon. Never leave me again."
He rose and lifted her up. He carried her in both arms back toward the bishop's tomb, where the sphere awaited, along with a whole unknown future that could only be more promising than whatever else this cruel city with its Hammerkill Prison had to offer.
She actually looked up at him and grinned. "Trust you now." She squeezed his neck. Her eyes darted about, making his gaze follow. He was startled to see that they were surrounded by slight, ghostly looking figures. He nearly dropped her.
"Not afraid," she whispered. "My people. We make you one of us, and together we fight the Authority."
And the unmen, he added in his thoughts. He waited until the dozen or so of Rin's followers crowded into the long-ago bishop's tomb. Helping Rin down, he locked the door. Rin sat weakly on a ledge, leaning against the wall while cradling the I.V. to herself. Her people—men and women, all young, all lean and scarred, looking warrior-like—sat in a circle. Kanon walked to the sphere and put his hands on it. The rag still covered it. He waited until he felt the message it sent. Then he pulled the rag away and turned. He said to his people: "We have a very powerful ally now." As the sphere gleamed in the hazy light, they all looked to Rin, and she nodded her approval, then smiled toward Kanon, her new companion. Kanon, in turn, read the affectionate message in her eyes, and accepted his new place in life. The sphere pulsed warmly behind him. This was turning into a war they might just win.
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Copyright © 2018 by Jean-Thomas Cullen, Clocktower Books. All Rights Reserved.
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