Tool

Chapter Thirteen

She could see nothing. Only the dull hiss of the filters in her breathing suit told her she was still alive and somewhere outside of the dome. Her head ached, a pounding sensation that pumped through her skull like a pulse. After several minutes of lying still, breathing, and concentrating only on the fact that her head hurt, Aurelia thought she might chance some sort of movement. She licked her lips, which were dry in the air of the suit, and took a deep breath. Okay, that was good; there was no pain in her chest. Experimentally she wiggled her toes. All good. Fingers. Okay. When she tried to flex her legs, she found them restricted. Hmmm. Arms? Pinned to her sides. If she concentrated, she could feel pressure just below the elbows.

She took in all of this information, analyzing it, compiling it, building a picture of the state of her body. But what the hell had happened? She remembered walking on the lunar surface, the hard-packed ground beneath her feet. She remembered swapping words with someone. A man, she thought. Then nothing. From the information she had, she deduced that she had been attacked in some way. Hit on the head and restrained.

She was still pondering all of this, the soft hum of her breathing suit calming her, when a white flash cut through her head. She heard herself scream and tightly closed her eyes. A heartbeat went by, then she chanced opening one eye a slit.

A bright beam of light cut through the darkness.

"Awake, are we?" a voice asked.

She started to nod, but the movement made her head hurt. "Yes," she whispered in a hoarse voice.

The beam shifted, and there was the sound of metal clanking against metal before the light became a softer yellow shade from above. Whoever was there had lit a lantern. Aurelia opened her eyes carefully, but she saw only someone else wearing the same kind of breathing suit she had on. The figure pulled a stool from somewhere and sat beside her.

"Who are you?" she asked.

"Who are you?" the voice replied. It was a man's voice. Rasping.

Aurelia didn't answer, taking the chance instead to look around. She was inside something. Not a room, she thought. The walls don't look solid enough for that. A tent, maybe. She was lying on something that was probably a bed, though she couldn't see it, and there were packs littered around the walls, like a squad of people had dumped them and gone off unburdened.

"Where am I?" she asked.

The figure next to her shook his head. "I don't think you get it, girl. You don't get to ask questions anymore. Tell me your name."

There could be no harm in that, surely. "Aurelia."

"Good start, Aurelia. What are you doing out?"

She thought back. What was she doing here? Then it came to her. Gods. Nicholas. "I'm looking for a friend," she said.

The man laughed. It was a dark laugh, deep and throaty. "Well, you might have found more friends than you were banking on."

Without warning, he stood and carelessly ran a hand over her body, feeling the shape of her under the breathing suit. Aurelia squirmed as much as she could, but being restrained meant that she couldn't get away from his touch.

"Shame I can't get your breathing suit off," the man said. "But you're more use alive than dead, I suppose." He paused. "At least right now."

"What do you want from me?"

He ignored the question, but Aurelia was coming up with answers of her own. She realized she'd been taken. Out was known to be the territory of criminals and brigands, those who had somehow escaped punishment inside the dome and had the wits or the money to arrange an escape. She had no doubt this man was one of those, and if the packs on the wall could be believed, there was obviously more than one here. Her heart was pounding in her chest, and she schooled herself to keep calm. Panicking wasn't going to get her anywhere.