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Axler, James - Outlanders 02 - Destiny Run
The other twin looked over his shoulder unhappily and said something in a tone
more of disapproval than disappointment. Before he turned his head, Grant hit
him hard and with such concentrated purpose that the corridor echoed with the
cracking of the jawbone. Then he followed up with blows to the stomach, one,
two, three times in a flurry of left-right combinations.
Even as he doubled over, the Mongol tried to bring his pistol to bear, but
Grant secured a grip on the long barrel, twisting it toward the ceiling. He
jacked his right knee into the Mongol's face. Releasing his grip on the butt
of the Webley, the man went over backward, face a mask of blood, falling
beside his brother.
Kane drew back his foot another kick, the barely controlled Mag instincts in
him blazing. But he stopped in midmotion, trembling with the effort.
Neither of the twins was unconscious, but they were too dazed, too foggy with
pain to do more than twitch and moan. Boro pushed into the corridor between
the panting Grant and Kane. Lips quivering, he cried out, "Seng!" and dropped
to his knees beside the man Kane had kicked, Brigid squeezed in, her eyes
shining with shock.
"What the fuck was all that about?" Kane snarled, still shaking with
adrenaline.
"I asked Boro to tell his sons to take off their hats," she stammered.
Grant glared at her in disbelief. "What? Why?"
"I wanted to see if they had scars like Bautu, in the regions of their
temporal lobes. And they do."
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Axler, James - Outlanders 02 - Destiny Run
Boro grabbed a handful of Seng's coat, shrieking in their dialect.
Seng looked past his outraged father, staring at Baptiste. In Russian he
replied, "You foreigners will not defile our destiny, you will not use us to
gain your own ends. The Tushe Gun will not allow it."
Seng's eyes flicked toward Boro. "You are a pawn, Father, of the foreigners.
You know the code of the clan you stand with an outsider, you die with an
outsider."
Boro shrieked again, spittle flying from his lips. He slapped his son open-
handed. Suddenly Seng's eyelids drooped, as if the cuff put him to sleep. He
sagged in his father's hands. Then his eyes snapped open wide. The pupils
enlarged, engulfing the irises. There was no emotion in them. His body
shuddered, a terrible tremor racking him from the top of his head to the toes
of his boots.
At the same moment, Oborgon convulsed, his own eyes wide and staring at
nothing. Boro scrabbled back from them, stuttering in fear. The twins rolled
on the floor, limbs flailing wildly, tendons and veins standing out on their
necks and foreheads. Their mouths fell open as if to voice howls, but no
sounds came forth.
Their hands twitched, fingers curling and uncurling in spasms.
"Ah, shit
," rumbled Grant. "Here we go again."
Abruptly, as if power cords had been pulled, Seng's and Oborgon's seizures
ceased. Their bodies froze in contorted positions, muscles locked. Then, very
slowly, they relaxed, settling on the floor. Boro grabbed their wrists,
fingered the bases of their throats. A dry, raspy sob worked its way from his
mouth.
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Axler, James - Outlanders 02 - Destiny Run
"They're dead," murmured Brigid. "Cardiac arrest induced by the implants."
"Suicide switches planted inside of his own brothers," Kane said grimly. "The
Tushe Gun is quite the holy man."
Boro took Seng's hand, pressing it between his own, rocking back and forth on
his knees, keening wordlessly in grief. Brigid, Kane and Grant shuffled back
into the shambles of the wardroom. Stepping around overturned chairs and
broken pottery, they clustered silently around Sverdlovosk.
He sat cross-legged on the floor, cradling Lenya Ivornich in his arms. Her
violet eyes were already glazed over, and blood and brain matter dripped from
the back of her bullet-blasted skull to the floor. Carefully, using the thumb
and forefinger of one hand, Sverdlovosk drew the lids down over her beautiful
blind eyes. He laid her down, arranging her arms and limbs in dignified
positions. When he stood up, he was dry-eyed, remote of expression.
"We're sorry," said Kane softly, knowing full well how inadequate and foolish
he sounded. "I liked her."
In a faint, papery whisper Sverdlovosk said, "And I loved her. Success and
survival, that's the way to get ahead."
"What was she to you?" Grant asked. "Your lover, your wife?"
Sverdlovosk uttered a short, bitter laugh. "Would that she would have been.
Her death might be a bit easier to bear. No, Lenya was my daughter."
Brigid whirled away, squeezing her eyes shut on the tears suddenly springing
to
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Axler, James - Outlanders 02 - Destiny Run her eyes. She had nothing to say.
She could think of nothing to say when a man's child had been brutally
murdered in front of her very eyes and there wasn't one thing she had been
able to do to prevent it.
Not only had she been unable to prevent it, but she knew very well she may
have caused it.
Chapter 21
Boro's broad dark face glistened with tears. "Why? Why did they betray me?"
Sverdlovosk did not answer. Clumsily he patted the Mongol's shoulder. The two
men stood in the windswept compound, united in grief, watching as troopers
placed the corpses of their children in canvas body bags. Kane, Grant and
Brigid stood slightly behind them, shivering as the sun and the thermometer
dropped.
"All my sons are lost to me," said Boro.
"As is my only child," Sverdlovosk replied.
"Do you blame me, Piotr?"
"No, my friend. Nor do I blame Seng and Oborgon." The troopers lifted the body
of Seng into a bag. "So much has the Black City done for your clan."
When the body bags were zippered, Boro called to a pair of his men. They came
forward, leading his sons' horses. They heaved the canvas-shrouded corpses of
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Axler, James - Outlanders 02 - Destiny Run the twins over the saddles, mounted
their own steeds and the entire band slowly rode away, toward the hills.
"They will wait for me at the camp," Boro said tiredly, the straightness
leaving his spine. "I will join them when we have decided what to do."
Sverdlovosk turned away as soldiers carried the bag containing the body of
Lenya toward a small outbuilding. Everyone followed him back inside the
blockhouse, down the steps to the wardroom.
Troopers had conscientiously repaired and cleaned up the damage as best they
could. One of them had considerately spread a throw rug over the bloodstain on
the floor. Still, Sverdlovosk took a place at the table as far as possible
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