Free The Omega Cage by Steve Perry

you."
    "Copy that."
    "And Maro—good luck. I wouldn't want to be you right now."
    Stark tried to keep the smile fixed in place, but it was hard. His guts churned when he thought about Juete with Karnaaj. The man was a powerful enemy, and he did not doubt that he would try to take Juete from him. Stark did not think he had the clout to stop him in a showdown. But there were other ways.
    Juete stood watching him. "You are going to have an accident," he said to her.
    "A fatal one. When Kamaaj gets back, he won't find you."
    Her face lit with fear.
    "No, no, not really," he said quickly to reassure her. "I'll hide you until he is gone. We'll fake an accident, cremate a body, and show him the ashes. After he's gone you can come out, and things will go back to normal."
    She relaxed somewhat. "I'll have to keep you out of sight," Stark continued.
    "There are some cells in solitary… I'll have some nice things installed for you—"
    "Alone? You'll make me stay alone ?" The fear had returned to her face, and her voice now held a deep measure of horror.
    "Just for a little while. A few weeks—"
    "No! I can't! You don't understand! I can't be alone, I need to be with people!"
    "It's only a temporary measure," he said, trying to calm her.
    "I'll die !"
    He felt himself beginning to lose patience. "Don't be absurd. You don't understand; I'm trying to protect you—"
    " You don't understand! I'm an Exotic; I have to have people to talk to, to touch, to be with!"
    His jaw muscles danced as he clamped down on his anger. He was doing this for her, was she so stupid she couldn't see that? He realized it would be hard on her, but it was the lesser evil. "There is no other choice," he said.
    "There are always other choices! You could kill him!"
    "Calm down, Juete—"
    He put his hands on her shoulders, and at his touch she became abruptly still; the tension seemed to discharge from her, to be replaced with a lassitudinious resignation that was even more upsetting to him. "All right," she said dully.
    "You are my keeper; I must obey you."
    That was her most painful barb, one that always sank the deepest into his heart.
    Not "I love you and do this because you wish it," but "I obey because you order it." He would do almost anything to avoid hearing that slavelike tone in her voice. Almost anything, but not this. Giving her up for any reason was too much.
    Especially to an animal like Kamaaj. He had to hide her.
    "I will make it up to you after he is gone, I promise. And I'll visit you every day.
    You'll have a transceiver, so we can talk, and a holoproj and recordings to watch.
    Books and games and music, too. It won't be as if you are stranded on some barren asteroid or something."
    "Anything you say," she said listlessly.

Chapter Nine
    The warden himself escorted Maro to the Zonn Chamber, along with Lepto and another guard. The latter were both armed with spetsdods. Maro had once been hit by one of the chemical flechettes that the little dart guns molded to the back of the hand fired, and the headache that had followed his awakening had been memorable. He had no intention of trying to fight. He found it interesting, though, that the warden was concerned enough that he brought along two armed guards.
    They came to a wall of Zonn material, gunmetal blue and cold. A narrow wooden stair had been built next to it, and Lepto gestured with the hand that wore the weapon that Maro should climb the steps.
    At the top was a platform of ferrofoam, into which a trap door had been cut. The second guard followed Maro and swung the door open. A synlon rope ladder lay piled on the roof next to the trap door. The guard shoved the ladder into the dark opening.
    "Any final words?" the warden asked.
    Maro shook his head.
    "Inside, then. Somebody will be back in eight hours to check on you. If you're ready to tell the SIU what they want to know, you can come out. Otherwise…"
    Stark nodded toward the opening.
    Maro said nothing. He grabbed the smoothly braided