Sooner or later Del would have his opportunity, of that he was sure.Patience brought a man everything he needed, especially when there was nothing left but endurance and the dream of revenge.
Andrews shrugged under supple, oiled leatherstraps.Del had copied the Sigma rig pattern for the Society.He could remember that clearly.He’d altered them to make them easier and lighter, a few material adjustments.He could even remember buckling a rig on someone, testing it.She’d been a little shorter than the usual woman, and her nearness had made his hands shake imperceptibly.
Who?His fuzz was cut short now, none of the longhair crap the Society let its members indulge in.Del had never gone for that, but his hairhadbeen longer when he’d come in.
He remembered that, remembered the click and buzz of the electric razor against his scalp.So he’d been growing it out, he guessed.Something to do with the hole in his memory.
His arm itched, the creeping fire of Zed wearing off.They’d drugged him hard, always asking the same question.
Where is Rowan Price?Whoever she was, they wanted her badly.
Which was enough to make Del hope they didn’t find her.
“We’ve got jumpoff in forty; get your ass up, you’re coming topside with me.We’ve got a snatch and grab to do.”
“Fine.”Delgado uncoiled and noticed Andrews tense, his muscled shoulders rolling under a black T-shirt.“Who we grabbing?”
Andrews stepped back.He might look lazy, but he was ready.Del wondered if the man’s shoulder was hurting from the old knife wound.
The blond man’s lip curled as he inspected the inside of the concrete cube once more.Del didn’t rate even a mattress pad yet; he might never.They were confusing his inability to remember with stubbornness.
If he’d had a choice, itwouldhave been stubbornness.
“Some psion the freaks have been courting.We’ve got a shot to bring in a whole busload of them.Including the golden girl who’s been running me around the goddamn country.”
Del let one corner of his mouth tilt into a smile.He seemed to remember a time when the expression had started to feel natural.
But he was back in Sigma now.Every twitch, the most minute of facial tics, was a weapon or a betrayal.You never knew who was watching, who would report what, or when the fist would come down hard.
I never really thought I’d escape,he realized, as he did every day.I was just waiting for them to scoop me back up.Deep down, I knew this would happen.
“She’s been putting you through your paces, huh?”The more I hear about this woman, the more I like her.
“Oh, yeah.It’s almost like hunting you, sarcastic fucker.Come on, we’ve got to kit you out.”Andrews didn’t sound happy.
Of course not.For months this Price had been eluding him, slipping through his fingers like water.Sigma couldn’t exterminate the last few vestiges of the Society no matter how hard they tried—and Delgado’s knowledge of the ragtag assortment of psions and their usual procedures hadn’t helped as much as Colonel Anton had hoped.No, despite picking his brain for every scrap of information that could be gotten out while a cocktail of Zed and sodium pentothal was forcibly pumped into Del’s veins, the Colonel was no closer to eradicating the persistent thorn in Sigma’s side.
The Society had even started, incredibly, to fight back.A whole Sigma snatch team had disappeared off the map a month after Del’s recapture.Civilian psions Sigma had targeted for acquisition suddenly vanished, reappearing fitted out like Society members, recruiting new psions and damaging Sigma with a persistent guerrilla war.Slowly, incredibly, the Society had managed to stay together and fight the massive tentacles of a well-funded black-ops government agency.
Del kept his face a mask and silently cheered.He gave all the information he could—he had no choice, not if he wanted to end up anything other than a brainwiped Zed-shattered hulk.The beatings hadn’t helped.Andrews was sadistic, and his trained bullyboys not much better.Del didn’t want to give them any more reason to bark at him.He’d just barely gotten over the last goddamn thrashing they’d given him.
So Anton was letting Delgado out to play, was he?
I can use this.Maybe escape.
If he did, though, how would he break the Zed habit again?He wasn’t sure he could.Once was enough forthatparticular hell, thank you very much.The drug was meant to give you withdrawal so bad you’d do anything for another hit.Without a full detox unit to help him through the worst of the physiological effects he might find himself in an even worse place than he already was now.
Strange asthatsounded.
And if he escaped, where would he go?How the hell couldhefind the Society?
More importantly, would they trust him once he found them?Probably not.
He slid off the bed, his rig coming with him.He buckled it on, rolling shoulders to make sure it fit right.Slid the knife back into its sheath.Giving him a few weapons didn’t matter.One man, no matter how gifted or well-trained, couldn’t extricate himself from a full-size Sig installation.
It would be insanity even to try.“Well, we’d better go, right?”
“You think you can bring this girl in, Del?”
