Ryan stood in the pouring rain, looking down at the black-hole surface of the lake three hundred meters below. Burnout planned this escape, he thought. He left himself a way out.
Ryan knew that spoke volumes about the cyber-zombie's psyche. It meant Burnout valued his own life, and that was unusual.
Cyberzombies held a fragile and tenuous grip on life. Sometimes the cybermantic blood magic that tricked the spirit into staying with the body simply failed. Many early attempts had died spontaneously. For Burnout to have developed a sense of self-preservation meant he was thinking as an individual. It must be the influence of the Dragon Heart, Ryan thought. Or perhaps Lethe.
Ryan spoke into the tacticom mike attached to his throat. "Dhin, you airborne yet?"
"Firing up now."
"Wait ten seconds. Grind and I are coming with you."
Grind was standing three meters away, and he looked over. "You don't want to search for him?"
"I want to see this thing through," Ryan said. "But everything in due time. Right now, we need to take care of Miranda and Axler." He turned and ran back to the clearing and climbed into the Phoenix II.
Grind was just behind him. "I'm in," the dwarf said. "Go! Go!"
The jets screamed, and the LAV lifted into the boiling black sky. "I've contacted DocWagon in Poison," came Jane's voice. "They'll rendezvous with you in five minutes."
"Excellent," said Ryan, kneeling beside Miranda. He held the scarred flesh of her burned arm.
She woke then, her eyes defocused from the drug-induced sleep. Her voice was a whisper. "I was… dreaming."
Ryan's voice dried in the back of his throat.
"I dreamed that you… that you got to me in time, Travis. I mean Quicksilver."
Ryan squeezed her hand gently.
Miranda smiled. "You get him?"
Again, Ryan wanted to lie, wanted to tell her that Burnout was a twisted mass of charred chrome. He looked into her eyes, saw the agony and couldn't deceive her. He shook his head. "We lost him. He used the shale rock slide to escape."
Miranda laid her head back into the folded tarp that Dhin had given her for a pillow.
"But we'll get him," Ryan said. "You and me. We'll get him together, and we'll make him pay for this."
Miranda smiled, making her cracked lips bleed. "No lies, Quicksilver, not… for you and me. I'm not gonna make it." A wracking cough got hold of her then, and blood came out of her mouth in a fine mist.
Ryan stroked her head gently, feeling the blistered skin under his hand. "You rest now. Save your strength. You've come this far, and we're going to patch you up better than new."
"Even if I… stay alive. I'm not gonna be… in any condition to…"-Miranda's breath came in hacking gasps-"fight Burnout," she finished.
"Shh," Ryan said. "Burnout and I are tied together by the Dragon Heart; we'll meet again."
Her eyes clouded. "Travis," she said. She was becoming delirious. "Travis, thanks for… helping me get out."
"Ssh, Miranda."
"It was because of you that I… left Fuchi. I have you to… thank."
Miranda smiled again, and the blood from her mouth ran down her cheeks. "It's been quite a ride period." She laughed, a choking rattling sound that started another coughing fit.
"Try not to talk." Ryan felt cold anger swelling inside him.
She sighed, the sound bubbling in her chest. "Promise me… one… thing."
Ryan's vision blurred from his anger. "Anything."
She motioned him closer, and as he leaned in, she whispered, "Promise that it won't… have been for nothing." Miranda collapsed into unconsciousness.
Ryan clenched his fists, gritted his teeth. "I promise," he said, his voice flat, cold. "Burnout will pay, and the Dragon Heart will reach its resting place. I promise you that, Miranda."
Ryan wiped his eyes as Dhin landed the Phoenix II. As the DocWagon parameds swarmed in to take her. It was going to be close, they said. She was in a coma now; brain-death imminent.
Ryan concentrated with his astral sight, looking for her aura as the parameds worked on her, but it was faint and growing weaker.
The anger clawed inside him like a trapped beast, and his whisper was a harsh, barren sound in his throat. "If she dies, Burnout will pay."