“How the hell are you going to do that?”
“Parlor tricks. My brother Jamerin taught me.”
“You’re freaking minder!” Mikki exclaimed with a touch of disdain.
“Psion is the proper term,” Ajha told her primly. “And I am one, too. Calan is my mate. We’re psion mates.”
“The voices. That’s why you heard the voices!” Mikki realized. “But they were people’s thoughts, not voices.”
“Yes. Calan showed me how to keep them out. He was the one in my dreams,” Ajha told her. “We can take you to the Refuge with us. Most of our friends are there.”
“I’m so glad you aren’t going mad like I feared,” Mikki smiled faintly, wiping away her tears. “Yes, I want out. My body can’t take this anymore. If I lose this fight tonight, they probably will kill me.”
“Because you’re a long shot and they stand to win big if you beat the guy,” Calan surmised.
“They will also lose big if I lose.”
“What if you die first?” Calan asked.
“Bets are off I guess,” Mikki shrugged. “But if you kill me, I will escape the hard way.”
“Oh, Mikki, we’re not going to kill you. Calan’s just going to make them think you’re dead.”
“Parlor tricks. I don’t sense any other psions here tonight. It should be easy,” he said. “When someone comes, you fall onto the floor, and I will convince them you’re dead when they check.”
“Just so long as they don’t put me in the disintegrator in the basement.”
“That’s how they get rid of the bodies?” Ajha wondered.
“Yep.”
“We will take you out of here and let them think we took you there,” Calan told her.
The waiting was worse than the actual event. Over two hours passed before Mikki’s fight was set to start. Just as her handler came to open the door, Mikki threw herself onto the floor and knocked over the chair as she did.
“Ajay!” the handler cried, calling her by her fighter name and hunkered down to quickly check her throat for a pulse. “Damn!” He found none. Jumping to his feet, he ran down the hall as Calan and Ajha stood behind the door.
Calan felt just a twinge of regret for the handler who actually cared about Mikki a little---but not enough to get her out of the fight circuit. They waited some more while the handler reported to his superiors and came back with one of them.
“I walked in to get her, and she fell off her chair---dead. No warning, just dead.”
“Better she died here than in the cage,” said the club owner. “All bets are off. Would have been interesting to see what she could do against the Monster.”
“Probably would have killed her---outweighed her by thirty kilos,” said the handler.
“She died just in time to save us a massive loss of credits,” the owner said. “The Exterminator hasn’t fought tonight. He can have a go at the Monster. Get the bots to take her to the disintegrator.”
The two men left with the handler lamenting Mikki’s passing.
“They’re gone, Mikki. Let’s get out of here.” Ajha said as she and Calan helped her up from the floor.
“You really think we’re just going to walk out of here and they’re going to let us?” Mikki asked incredulously.
“That’s exactly what we are going to do,” Calan assured her. He and Ajha each took an arm and led her out the dressing room door. “Don’t say anything,” Calan said. He needed to concentrate, counting on Ajha and Mikki to get him out of there while he scrambled the perception of everyone they passed.
The two women led Calan into an auto tram waiting at the stop outside the fight club. As the tram took them to a hover lot Calan released his telepathic hold on the people at the Brass Cage. They got out of the vehicle and walked across the lot to Calan’s hover tram.
Calan gave the command for the doors to open and a shot rang out. He grunted and slumped to the pavement, and Ajha screamed his name.
