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Deathlands Genesis Echo
"Go through into the operating room," Ryan said, "and we'll talk a little
more."
One of the sec men spoke for the first time. "What happened to the two guards
by the" be hesitated for a long moment, "by the quarters for the unsuccessful
experiments? You bastards chill them also?"
Trader smiled at him. "You can bet mother's tits to a crock of shit that we
did."
Buford turned to babble desperately to Ryan. "I don't know what you heard or
saw, but it's all a total lie.
We never did anyone no harm."
"Any harm," Ryan corrected.
"Right. Not never any harm. And we wouldn't have hurt you or your companions.
Never hurt a fly."
"Liar, liar, pants on fire." Once again, in perfect unison, the words floated
from both Edna and
Evangelina.
Buford sagged at the unexpected sight of the two-headed mutated woman, dropped
his stick and would have slumped straight to the floor if one of the sec men
hadn't grabbed him by an arm and held him upright.
The guard looked at Trader. "You in charge?" He didn't wait for the answer.
"This isn't anything to do with the ville's security forces. The scientists do
all the experiments." He made the last word sound like something you found at
the bottom of your boot. "Don't blame us."
Edna-Evangelina stood by the wall, hands behind her. Both heads had hectic
spots of angry color at the cheekbones, staring intently at the semiconscious
Buford.
"Lay him on that operating table and fix the straps to his ankles and wrists,"
Ryan ordered, ignoring the sec man's plea. "Good and tight. Then buckle that
inflatable gag in place. Don't want him making a load of noise."
When they'd finished, Trader checking their work, the second of the guards,
who'd been totally silent, suddenly spoke to Ryan. "Listen, One-eye."
"What?"
"Beyond that outer door there's all the whole powerful world of the institute
going on. Must be at least twenty or thirty of our friends within calling
distance. You don't dare squeeze the trigger on either of your blasters. Be
signing your own death warrants if you do."
"So?" Ryan moved a little closer to the speaker. "We might die tomorrow, but
you'll die right here and now. Is that a good deal?"
The man laughed contemptuously. "I know you dumb fucks from the outlands. You
value your own skins
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Deathlands Genesis Echo too much. I'm walking out right now."
He turned to his comrade. "Come on, Jerry."
Ryan had already bolstered the SIG-Sauer, and now drew the eighteen-inch
panga. Trader was in the act of dropping the Armalite to the tiles, reaching
for his own slim-bladed knife. But both of them were way, way too slow.
There was the lightning flash of the bright overhead lights on tempered steel
as the perfectly honed scalpel swung toward the throat of the leading sec man,
held in the strong right hand of Edna-Evangelina.
"Give it him, sister!" cried the weaker head, pale eyes open wide with
delighted excitement.
"We will, sister."
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The man staggered away, blood pulsing from the opened artery, spraying
ceiling-high, the fountain weakening as the crimson flood slowed. He dropped
to his knees, then slid onto his face, the gash leaking the last drops of
blood.
"Bitchin' freakin' bitch!"
The surviving guard had drawn his own knife, which looked like an old military
bayonet. Turning, be stabbed upward at the neck of the exultant woman,
catching the dominant head squarely under the chin, driving the blade home
before Ryan or Trader could do anything to stop him.
Trader was a half step nearer and he stabbed the sec man through the heart
from behind, cutting off what might have been a desperate cry for assistance.
The guard moaned once, his own blade clattering to the blood-sodden floor,
then fell alongside his dead colleague.
"Too slow to save, in time to avenge," Trader said, kneeling to check his
victim was truly dead. He wiped his knife clean on the man's pants.
Ryan, seeing that the chilling was over, had stepped immediately to the side
of the wounded woman, aware at a first glance that all was done for her.
For them.
The knife had done its work too well, and there was no possibility of checking
the flow of blood. Ryan helped her to lie down, away from the lake of crimson
at the center of the floor that was already seeping into a network of
strategically placed drains.
The eyes were closing on the dominant head, the mouth open, a tiny thread of
blood inching between the parted lips. The other head was turning frantically
from side to side, trying to see its sister.
"You all right? We did it. Did it!"
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Deathlands Genesis Echo
"I'm real sorry," Ryan said quietly, "but I don't think she's goin' to make
it."
The tongue came out to moisten the dry lips on the wounded head. "Don't cry
for me, sister," it said feebly.
"I'm not, truly." Tears were bubbling from the weak eyes, down the cheeks.
"I'll wait for you."
"Around the next turning, sister?"
"Yes."
Trader stood by Ryan's shoulder, silently watching. Buford had recovered
consciousness and was making muffled grunting noises through the gag.
The eyes on the dominant head became still, fixed on the bright lights above.
But the other head didn't seem to have noticed what had happened.
"Sister? We paid them back some. For what they did to us. Didn't we?"
"She's gone," Trader said.
Ryan nodded. "I know."
Now they could see that the wound was mortal for both Edna and Evangelina. The
blood still seeped out, more slowly, but the life was fast draining away from
the surviving head. The cheeks had grown even more pale, the eyes losing
focus.
"Can't feel you anymore, sister."
The fingers were opening and closing, the legs, in their borrowed uniform, not
moving.
"Sorry fought so sister loved you loved"
The room was quiet.
Even the helpless Ladrow Buford had stopped his futile struggling, aware of
the moment of death for the poor, bedeviled creature that he and his
colleagues had given such a tormented and distorted life.
Ryan lowered both heads to the tiles very gently, then straightened. "Know
what I hope, partner?" he said to Trader. "I hope that little fuck on the
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operating table refuses to tell us what's happening so we can work on him
awhile. I swear that I would like that."
But Ryan was disappointed.
Trader held his knife to the throbbing artery beneath the little scientist's
ear, while Ryan carefully
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