The Exodus Towers Read Free Page B

it.”
    “That’s our Russell. Way of the gun.”
    “He’s got no other choice.”
    “Give them what they want?”
    Vaughn tightened his lips. “No,” he said. “No, that he can’t do.”
    “They must be asking a lot,” she said.
    “I’m not supposed to talk about it.”
    There it was. A line, and Vaughn was tightroping it. Another week, she thought, and he’d be telling her all about it in the afterglow of a good romp.
    “What else, then? How are the Orbitals handling their new generalissimo?”
    He paused and let go of her. For a split second she thought she’d gone too far, but he made a twirling motion with his index finger. Sam turned her back to him and clasped her hands behind her back. She held them low, against her buttocks, so that he couldn’t avoid incidental contact in order to replace the handcuffs. Some small part of her didn’t mind the brush of fingers there.
    For the first time since she’d attempted this tactic, he didn’t jerk her hands to the small of her back. In fact, he took longer than usual getting the cuffs on.
    Shackled again, he led her back into the brig. A pair of guards on patrol wandered by them and grunted their hellos to Vaughn. The cuffs were a show for them, she realized. Vaughn didn’t want them to know he’d broken protocol. She knew, though, which meant they shared a secret now. Not long now , she thought, and you’ll be snared in the web .
    The low jailhouse building butted against Nightcliff’s north wall. She heard waves crashing on the rocks beyond, as reliable as a beating heart. Unfortunately that calming sound didn’t reach her windowless cell. Nothing reached there except cold meals and her mirthless guards. Vaughn at night, an ass named Saul during the day. She called him Paul, just to piss him off, which was easy enough to do.
    Vaughn guided her back into her makeshift cell in the makeshift prison. The bars had been welded together from rebar and old pipes. It worked well enough. The bed, a flimsy foam mattress that left her feet hanging, lay upright against the back wall. Someone had swept the place while they were gone. Probably searched for contraband, too, not that she had any.
    “See you tomorrow,” Vaughn said after the cuffs came off. He closed and locked the gate behind him.
    “You were telling me the news,” she said to his back.
    “Tomorrow,” he repeated.
    Samantha folded her arms and leaned against the wall by the door. “Vaughn …”
    He paused.
    “C’mon, man,” she said. “You don’t know what it’s like, trapped in here, no way to know—”
    “We’re both trapped in here, Sam.”
    The words tripped her. His voice held more than a hint of wrath. Not for her, she thought. “So talk to me, then. What’s the harm?”
    “I have orders.”
    She snorted a laugh. “Hell … Orders. I’m not going to squawk.”
    The guard stood in the outer doorway, half-in, half-out. Without looking back, he said, “Food’s scarce. The traitors took the farms, I heard, and Nightcliff’s reserves are either used or spoiled. So Russell needs the roofers to share theirs, but no one is playing along and he doesn’t have enough manpower to force the issue.”
    Sam swallowed and kept quiet. “The traitors took the farms.” The words almost brought tears to her eyes. If Skyler were sitting here, she’d crush him with a hug. Stealing the farm platforms, what a damn brilliant move.
    The guard sighed. “Water plants are on strike. The bloody scavengers are on strike.”
    “Hey! I was a scavenger, you know.”
    “Everyone wants a part of Russell’s pie,” he said, ignoring her, “before they’ll throw in with him. That’s what I hear, anyway.…”
    “And Russell’s not the sharing sort.”
    Vaughn laughed at that. “No, no he is not. Besides, all he cares about anymore is finding the runaways. He hardly ever comes down here now. See you tomorrow, Sam.”
    “Night.”
    Half an hour later a kid came in and handed her breakfast