He smiled.“Me, too.You had a helluva handshake.”
She chuckled and turned toward the medical team as they came in.The woman said, “Hamburger?”
Ival remained aside as they worked on the invaders.
The medic said, “Do you know what got them?”
“Neurotoxin.It will wear off in five hours.Maybe.”She shrugged.“An active will wake up in two to four, a human five to seven.Probably.”
The medics started to drag the unconscious folks, one at a time.Torun didn’t help.They only had one gurney.Ival said softly to them, “Use the password every time you come in or you join the pile.”
The woman nodded.“Yes, miss.”
They hauled the first one away and came back through the locks ten minutes later.Ival was chatting with Torun and catching up on the last twenty-something years that she missed.She listened to stories of the founding of the BDC, how there was a line around the world for the escorts.Ival laughed.“Zera wants me to enrol.”
Torun paused.“What?”
“Yup.”
“But you are a widow of a stellar class hero.”
“So?There are virgins, the adventurous, the abused, the recovering, why not the toxic?”
He opened and closed his mouth.“Have you had any others since Zukker?”
“Nope.Straight to Uradda and into the pit.I told myself stories to keep myself calm.”
“You got out when the wall fell?”
“A little earlier.Recovered in Renovik and then moved to Aksalla during the wave of refugees.No one knew I hadn’t been there the whole time.”
“Why didn’t you get your scars fixed?”
“Healers have to touch you.”
“Oh, shit.”
“Yup.”
She looked at the display, and Hemma was nearly done.Two more hours, and the nanites would have done their jobs.
She looked to Hemma.“Two more hours, and you should be clear.”
Hemma smiled, and her thumb went up.
Torun got a chair and sat with Ival while the invaders were slowly removed with the call of Hamburger preceding their entry.
They sat and spoke quietly about the past and Zukker and how much she missed him.
Torun smiled wryly.“His mother hated you.”
“Oh, I know.She was a young mother; she probably still does.He was only twenty-eight when he died.”
“I was twenty-two.”Torun smiled.“Oh, the twentieth anniversary of his death is coming up.That’s big for them.Are you going to go?”
“I don’t think so.I will send them a video for the festivities.”
“If you want to go, the rest of the stellar team will stand with you.”
