TOO QUICK TO DIE

PART FOUR:

She rose earlier than Cort the next morning, having slept better

than she thought she would, but her eyes springing open in the

gray light of five A.M.   She hurried  through  a shower  and

dressed, wanting to at least lay out something for their guests to

nibble on, and Cort was not too far behind her in getting up and

getting ready to take their first trip back into Emerald City for

some months.

Rachel felt very strange  stepping  into the wide  atrium of the

front foyer of the expansive office building.  Even though the

smells and sounds of the building came rushing home for her,

she felt as  if  she were  a completely  different  creature.  The

receptionist at the welcome desk was brand new, so she had no

idea of who she or Cort were, and grudgingly allowed them to

continue on into the building without contacting anyone. Rachel

felt a bit silly, because she knew she was expected anyway; but

she was beginning to take on Maximus’ caution: the fewer that

knew she was here, the better.

The attempt at quiet  re-entry  did  not last  very long, as old acquaintances who knew her in her laboratory tech days and

even  as a  secretary for  Terry found her in  the hallway and

greeted her with enthusiasm, and both she and Cort found

themselves in a gauntlet of people wishing them well on their

wedding and their expectant bundle of joy.   Quick thinking

on Cort’s part got them through awkward questions about

where Rachel had been and why she had not been more forth-

coming in her announcements, why they were bandaged up. 

As a result, it took much longer to  get up to  Terry’s office

than anticipated; and their appointment with the clinic was

getting nearer in time.

“Knock knock?”  Rachel called, finding the door to Terry’s

office already open.  Almost instantly, Deidre stuck her head

out of the side apartment and practically bounced out and

across the open space to give them warm hugs.

“You’re here, you’re here!!!  Oh, lady, you are a sight for sore

eyes!!”  Deidre crowed, standing back to view Rachel in her

ever-burgeoning pregnancy.  The russet-haired woman opened

her mouth to say something else and then  changed  her mind. 

“I’m so glad to see  you all right,”  she decided to say,  tears

flashing in her eyes, taking in the both of them.  “With all that

you’ve been through, I’m so glad to see you here!”

“Mate!”  Terry called out as he stepped into the room from the

back, a  lot more  subdued  in his  greeting  than  Deidre, but

radiating just as much happiness.  He hugged the both of them,

pulled them further into the office and closed the door.  “Did

you find everything to your liking at the house?”  He asked.

“Did you like the basket?  Was it enough?”  Deidre asked.

“Plenty, and very much appreciated!”  Rachel laughed.  “It was

all so very lovely and welcoming.”

Cort settled in the chair Terry motioned him to, absently cupping

his right  hand  around his left  arm where  it had  begun to ache

from a bit too much hugging.  "It's good to be back at the house,"

he said, his eyes actually more on Rachel than the couple facing

them. "It's just what I, what we need right now."

Then his eyes moved to Terry, studying him in a new way, finding similarities with Maximus that had eluded him before, especially around the eyes.   Terry was only very  slightly older  than the

General and suddenly Cort thought about Russell Crowe, about

how perhaps he had taken much of Maximus with him into the

making of the K&R agent.  He thought of how carefully Terry

had watched  over the three of them  while they were  literally

trapped in the Empire. He remembered his last sight of him as

he went into the tunnel in their desperate attempt to latch onto

Sid's warp. And he thought of him standing there beneath the

lime in  Hromada  as he married  Rachel. Suddenly he realized

everyone was staring at him and he shook his head.

"Sorry, I guess I was just runnin' a little past history. You're

lookin' much better these days, Terry. How's the arm doing?"

“Not bad, not bad,” Terry replied, settling back against the edge

of his desk.  He hoped he’d not shown how shocked he was by

the dark shadows that hovered about both Rachel’s and Cort’s

faces, drawn and  pale from  their  time in Montana, by the

tightness around  Rachel’s mouth, when she  used to smile so

freely, by a  certain  level of weariness  hovering  in  Cort’s

demeanor.  Henri was right in that their time in Montana was

taking its toll.  His friends looked like dimmed versions of their

earlier selves.  “Still a bit sore.  Gives me a twinge if I move it the

wrong way, but good,” he continued, referring to his own arm,

which had been broken in a calamitous fall from the fourth

story of Emerald City.  “But I see yours is in need of healing. 

You up for a trip down to the clinic?”

"Well," Cort said, "the first time the bittybugs were used, I’d

just woken up in a hospital bed hooked up to one of those tube contraptions. Guess this time I have a say in it and, yeah," he

flexed his left hand painfully, "let's go do it." He stood, helping

Rachel to her feet with his right hand. "Good thing Herod's dead

and I'm outta Redemption for good. Sure couldn't face him down

with my left hand any more."  He frowned slightly.  "Couldn't

face anybody down." He flexed his hand again, the movement

causing pain to ripple up the entire length of his left arm. 

"Damn!" he muttered under his breath, then looked at Terry

hopefully. "The bugs, you really think they'll help this?"

“They will indeed, if you want the treatment,” Terry replied,

and turned to Rachel, noticed that she had not chimed in for

the same.  In fact, she looked a bit grim.  “Rache, it would benefit

your leg as  well.  Would  be a good thing to see you  recover

quickly.” 

“What…what about what you told us about the Feds finding

something suspicious,” Rachel stammered.  She still had not

made up her mind.  Wait.  Yes, she had.  “And there were no

trials on pregnant women.  No.  I don’t want to be the first to

find out what nanobots do to fetuses.”

“The nanobots that the Feds were looking for weren’t found in

our blood supply after all,” Deidre said. “The blood banks were

cleared anyway, just to be certain, and the patent reviewed to

make sure nothing got corrupted; but Rachel, honey, if you feel

that the nanobots will hurt the baby, then you should play it the

way you think.”

“I agree,” Terry said.

“Then it's settled,” Rachel said, taking Cort’s hand.  It would

have   been  uncharacteristic for  Terry   or Dee to  insist  on

something like that, but she still felt relieved that they supported

her.  “I wait until the baby’s born.  Besides,” she added with a

smile, “physical therapy is already helping a lot.”

“What about your  fencing,  Jedi?”  Deidre  asked softly.  She

knew how that cut Rachel to the core.  

“I’ll see when I get there,” Rachel replied.  “After finding out

about Tom, not so sure I’ll have the same associations with it

anyway.”

Cort lay on his back as a nurse began the process of inserting

the IV into his arm.  He closed his eyes. He hated modern medical procedures, really hated them. This was only a minor deal but

it brought back a flood of memories, waking in pain in this very medical unit, waking in pain in the small room under the Czech

castle, the horrid CT scan in Bozeman.  He had no memory of

lying  on the  floor of  the  Silver  Forest Inn,  surrounded by

paramedics and cops, but he'd had it described to him. He hated

it, hated all of it. Where he was from you poured whiskey in a

wound and if you lived, you lived. Simple. Uncomplicated. Now

little bug-things were going to be sent into his bloodstream. He

flexed his right hand, encouraging himself by the mere fact that

the bugs had enabled him to do that.

"You ready, Mr. Wells?" the nurse asked.

"For the bugs?  I guess so," he sighed.

"Bots, Mr. Wells. Nanobots, not bugs."

“Bugs, bots, same difference," he grumped, turning his head to

locate Rachel, using his eyes to ask her to come closer. He'd been

hurt bad so often of late that he was finding just lying there in

the med lab disturbing.  "Wish I had some whiskey," he mumbled

as she approached.

Much to Cort’s annoyance, Rachel began chuckling, whereas

Deidre  laughed  outright.  Rachel  sat in a chair next to the

gurney Cort stretched out upon, and the other woman sat on the

guest couch next to the window of the clinic room.  Terry sat

beside her in a relaxed sprawl.  They had asked if they could

stay in the room for moral support. 

“Oh, that would be swell,” Rachel replied, tweaking her husband’s sleeve. “Having a bunch of drunken bittybots floating around your body.  Would be our luck that they’ll start singing ‘show me the way

to go home’.”

“Imagine  all  the  Mrs.  Bittybots  demanding  some  sort  of

explanation,” Deidre offered. “We were just gonna stop - hic! -

by the liver on the way – hic! - home, we swear!”

“Oh, no, mate, you don’t want those kind of hoons in your system,” Terry added, joining in. “Nothing pretty about staggering nanobots doing the Technicolor yawn.”

Just then the double doors burst open and Henri practically flew

in.  "Damn guards had to double check my ID.  Guess I was in

Montana too long."  His eyes scanned the room, seeing the merry

faces of Rachel, Dee, Terry, the much redder one of Cort's, lying

on the table looking quite chagrined.  "And what, may I ask is

going on here?"

"Torture," Cort answered.  "Torture, plain and simple."

There was an odd mixture of humor and something akin to pain

in his voice that took the doctor a bit aback.  Walking up beside

Cort, he put his palm gently on Cort's right shoulder.  "You all

right, Son?"

Cort blew out a long breath. "Glad you're here, Dad." He looked

up at Henri with eyes that showed he meant it.  "They were just

trying to lighten me up a bit, but you know how I hate all this...

stuff."  He nodded toward the IV. "I've been poked and prodded

and sewed up and cut open and glued till I'm sick to death of it."

"I know, Son," Henri soothed.   Actually, he knew Cort had no

real concept of just how much and how often that had happened

to him.  "But this, this is different.  This will make your arm work

like new again, will take away those long scars that are forming,

too.  You want that, don't you?"

Cort nodded, then sought Rachel again with his eyes. "Rachel has decided against it, doc. For the baby's sake."

Henri turned, looking at the young woman who'd seated herself in

a chair near Cort's left side. 

“There haven’t been enough tests done,” Rachel explained.  “And

the baby comes first now.”

"I understand," Henri said with a bit of a sigh. "I was hoping your

leg and back could be quickly healed, but I think you're right.  No

one really knows what effect nanobots might have on a developing fetus."

"It...it would be like letting Sid mess with my child, Henri," Cort

added. "I hadn't really thought of it in those terms until Rachel

said she didn't want the treatment.  But I can't have anything... nothing...from that creature connected to the baby."  He clamped

his left hand over Rachel's as it lay on the side of the bed.

His eyes snapped suddenly shut, almost abruptly.

"Cort? What is it?" Henri asked in concern.

"I just...feel...them suddenly. The bugs. I can feel them inside me...moving...kinda warm. It's strange, different from what I

remember the first time."  His eyes opened and he stared at

the IV line, almost overwhelmed with its connection to Sid's

technology.  “Oh...God," he moaned.  "Sid."  He had a rising,

desperate urge to get the line out, not to let Sid's bugs creep

inside him even if that meant his arm would be healed.  "I...

I...can't," he cried, turning on his side, his right hand clawing

at the line.

"No, Cort!" Henri shouted, leaning on him, trying to press him

back. "Leave it alone! You'll hurt yourself!"  Henri looked across

at Rachel with eyes that said I'm sorry I didn't plan better for this. 

Why, he berated himself, after Rachel had told him about Cort's reaction to the CT scanner, why had he not taken more time to

talk with him about this procedure?

“Cort, listen to Henri, it's okay!”  Rachel cried, trying to stay calm herself.  She looked over to Terry, who had gotten to his feet to try

and step in with his own help, but  looked  uncertain about the

efficacy of that.

“Don’t be afraid of it, Cort.  It was  the same  way  with  me,”

Terry’s low voice filled the room, except Cort didn’t seem to hear. 

The IV needed to remain for at least two more hours, but Cort

was still struggling to reach it.  “Cort, it's just part of the action. 

The feeling’ll die away.”

"Not Sid," he moaned.  "Not Sid's bugs!"

"Nurse!"  Henri bellowed, then indicated to her what he wanted. 

As he still leaned his full weight across Cort, the nurse quickly gave

him a shot.  In moments, he quit struggling and lay still on his back,

his eyes halfway closed.

"It was just a sedative," Henri explained to Rachel, who had risen

to her feet. "Won't put him to sleep completely, but will sort of put

him in a twilight zone so he'll   leave the  IV alone."   He brushed

Cort's hair off his forehead, tears in his eyes. "I'm sorry, Son.  I'm

so sorry."

Rachel patted Henri’s shoulder.  “It’s not your fault,” she told the doctor, privately kicking herself for insisting that Cort be the one

to go through this.  She looked over at Terry and Deidre watching

with silent worry.  “It was the same when I took him in for the

CAT scan,” she explained.  “Anything medical is associated with Mikol’s warp.”

Terry nodded, looking truly distressed.

“He’s in good hands,” he said, indicating Henri.

The door opened and Bud came in.  "Everything OK in here?"

“Bud!”  Rachel cried out, and  walked swiftly  to her friend to

embrace him. 

“Well, now, isn’t this a familiar scene?”  Bud said, hugging her

back.  He smiled over at Terry and Deidre, who grinned back and

his eyes fell on Henri leaning over an unconscious Cort.

“I’m so sorry you’re going to have to wait to say hello to Cort.  I

know he’s missed you, too,” Rachel said, smiling at his reference

to the last time he saw Cort in a hospital bed.  “Henri just gave

him a sedative.  Cort’s having a bit of a reaction to the IV.” 

“Don’t blame him for wanting to get away from that stuff,” Bud

said, affably, holding out his hand to shake Henri’s.  It had been

some time since they had seen each other as well.  “Makes my skin

crawl just thinking about it.”

On the bed, Cort moaned softly and whispered, "Maximus."

“What’d he say?”  Bud  asked.  Rachel had  heard it,  stiffened

somewhat while Bud still held her.  Pulling him over to Terry

and Deidre, Rachel made the wheels in her head spin furiously

for some way  to segue  into what  she and Cort  knew without

breaching the  rules they had  imposed on each other before

walking into Emerald City.

“Not sure,” she replied, hastily.  “So, are you guys going to come

over and throw us your welcome bash this afternoon or not? The

gift bag was wonderful, as were the sandwiches and stuff, but it’d

be real nice to share it with the rest of you.  Either that, or Cort’s

gonna stuff himself silly with the cookies.”

“That was the plan,” Deidre said.  “About the coming over, that

is,” she added, as she and Rachel giggled over the malaprop.  “We thought about coming last night, but figured you two would have

liked some time to get adjusted.”

How could she answer that, Rachel mused?  She hadn’t had time

to get adjusted, but there was a fine reason for that.  “Well, there’s

so much unpacking to be done, I don’t think I’ll relax until I know

it's all cleared.  Why don’t y’all come over about three or four?”

Sid, at one of his ubiquitous monitors, watched the scene.  Did

they think just because he  was in his interior  bunker for the

present that he was unaware of absolutely everything that went

on in the rest of NanoCorp, right down to the smallest broom

closet?  So...they were feeding  nanobots into the veins of the

priest again, were they?  And then they were all going to gather

for a merry little reunion in the guest house.  He smiled grimly.  

His lab rats were so...cute...as they ran about in his little mazes,

thinking they knew where they were going, presuming they knew

where the cheese lay. He liked that. He liked that they were so blissfully...ignorant.

And they'd sealed off the outer warp chamber. How precious of

them.  They knew.  He knew they knew, he had another, deep

within his lair. They just didn't know what...else...he had.  Really,

he should get more of them out of their movies.  It was so much

fun watching the inferior versions of himself scramble around.

He leaned forward, resting a fingertip on the screen above where

Cort lay. "Sleep, my pretty," he purred. "While you can."

Maximus and Caroline had spent the morning inside the blue

house, waiting for  Cort and  Rachel's return.  It was hard for

Maximus, the waiting,  when all he wanted  was to get inside

NanoCorp, find Sid, and then...what? Well, he'd take that as it

came.

Caroline had found the DVD of Hammers Over the Anvil and the

two of them had watched it to pass the time. Caroline had to admit

that watching East bathe the horses in the river, his fully-displayed body that of a young Maximus, was not a bad way to spend the morning.

To  Maximus, for  whom the  concept of marital  fidelity was foundational, the fact that East wanted another man's wife was

not admirable. In the end, his hubris had caught up with him and

the price he paid was terrible, indeed.

"You didn't like it?"  Caroline  asked, seeing him  frown at the

screen as he watched East's blank eyes.

"It is not enjoyable to observe a man engineer his own destruction,"

he said softly.

"But he was sure nice to look at," Caroline laughed gently.

"Oh? I was not aware of that."

"You wouldn't be," she smiled, patting his thigh.

He rose, walking to the bay  window,  parting the lace curtains

slightly, looking out at the pines. "I wish," he sighed, "that we

might walk."

"Not yet," she replied. "You know as well as I that you can't be

seen."

Just then a NanoCorp  company car  drove up and he stepped

quickly back, letting the curtains fall into place.  The driver got

out, opened a rear door, handed Rachel out, then reached in

again helping Cort. Maximus' eyes narrowed. Why did Cort seem

a bit unsteady on his feet? His body tensed and he stepped swiftly

into the kitchen, completely out of sight, motioning Caroline to

join him as Rachel unlocked the main door and the driver entered,

his hand on Cort's elbow.

"I'm all right," Cort protested. "You don't need to bother with

me any more."  His eyes quickly scanned the room, looking for

any telltale signs of  Maximus' presence,  anxious because he

hadn't wanted the driver to enter the house.

"Orders, Sir.  I'm to see you safely inside."

"Well, I'm here now. Thank you. And I'm fine."

The man touched the brim of his hat briefly and left, Cort shutting

and locking the door behind him, then moving to the window to

watch the car drive away.  When it had cleared the last pine, Cort turned back the room.  "You here?" he called softly.

Maximus stepped out of the kitchen, followed closely by Caroline, concern in his eyes which Cort immediately saw. He sat down on

the little tabletop again, moving his hand back and forth slightly.

"Just a bit of after-effects from the sedative.  Nothing to worry

about."

"They...sedated...him for the transfusion?" Caroline asked, her

brows going up as she looked toward Rachel.

"It was just me being me," Cort added, a bit abashed. "It just

suddenly hit me that the little buggers they were pumping into

me existed because of Sid's technology and I could practically feel

them crawling inside my veins. I guess I sorta lost it there for a

minute. Made a damn fool of myself." He wiped a palm across

his eyes then realized he'd used his left hand to do it. Holding his

arm out, he flexed his fingers. "But, damn, if the arm's not feeling better already."

“No, he didn’t,” Rachel argued, fondly.  “He’s just not had very

positive experience with medical procedures in the past and when

one reaches a certain critical mass…” she shrugged as if to finish

the sentence.  “Plus nanobots are usually administered when the

patient is unconscious.  Not that it can’t be done while they’re

awake, but sometimes the experience can be unnerving.”

Cort held the arm out, then, toward Rachel and circled it around

her waist.  "Oh, Rachel," he said, looking up in her face. "I feel

terrible that my arm's gettin' all better fast...and your leg....it...it

just doesn't seem right. You should be the one getting better."

Rachel smiled down at him, wishing he didn’t beat himself up so. 

She placed both hands on each side of his head.  “Baby first,” she enunciated, to emphasize that carrying his child was beyond any concern she had for herself.  She looked back at Caroline and

Maximus, who were quietly exchanging looks and watching.  “I

think we’re going to need to warn you, though,” she said, and felt

Cort tense.  He’d been unconscious when she requested that the

others come to the house.  “Terry and the others were planning

to wait until today anyway, but since y’all are here…well, I still

invited them and you should know.  It's only noontime now, but

they should be coming around three or four o’clock…Oh God!

I’ve got to call my father…” Rachel slipped out of Cort’s arms

and rushed to their bedroom.

Cort eyed Maximus seriously. "What do you think? Is it all right

for Terry and Bud to find out you've arrived? If not, you can stay upstairs while they're here.  I'll leave it up to you."

"Here is probably better than somewhere...anywhere...within the

walls  of  NanoCorp   itself."  He looked toward  the window a

moment, then back at Cort.  "Both in the palace and on the island

I saw that Sid had  much, what  do you call it,  technology?   He

appears to have great ability with such things. I do not think I

would trust that there is any place within those walls that he has

not secured for his own purposes. Your house should serve much

better as a meeting place. You think Terry and Bud will have no problem with my arrival?"

"I think they will be amazed, amazed and delighted,  Maximus. 

Just look at you!" He shook his head. "I can't get over seeing you

as you are. It...it's so different from when I saw you in Rome.

Yet," he added, "you are still the General in every way.  And

there is so...much...I would like to speak with you about when

we can." He rubbed his left arm absently. It tingled somewhat

from the rapid healing that was continuing.

"Gladiator," Maximus said. "I first saw you in Zucchabar. Was

that when you...came?"

"We were actually trying to arrive when you started through the tunnel, Maximus. We were just supposed to go in and right back

out. But things went very wrong. I'm still not sure just what. But

when we arrived, the battle at Vindobona had just begun.  We

came down in the midst of the fireballs, in fact."

Maximus' eyes widened.  "There?  Then?  You were in Gladiator

from the very beginning?"

Cort nodded, remembering. "I stole horses." He shrugged. "Used

to be good at that, I'm afraid.  And we followed you through the

forest to where the  Praetorians  intended to execute you.  Oh,

before that, when you walked through the surgery after the battle.

I was there. Very close. You even spoke briefly to me."

Caroline was amazed at the concept. "Terry and Cort IN Gladiator

with you, Maximus. My goodness!"

"And Sid. Only we didn't know he was there. Not till we spotted

him in Zucchabar."

A dark look passed across Maximus' face. "He was at the beginning

as well?"

"Evidently," Cort nodded. "But he didn't want us to be aware of

that for a long time."

"There is something I have wished to understand but have had no

one I could ask."

"Anything, Maximus, anything."

"Brianna,  why  did she  jump  as she  did  into the  arena in

Zucchabar?"

"The man I was chained to worked for Mikol. Brianna did, too.

Then, at least. I don't know if you were aware of it or not but

Dimetri, my so-called partner in that fight, kept steering us closer

and closer to you. The purpose was so that Brianna could then

trigger her  warp  device and  all four of us would end up at

Mikol's headquarters. Only Terry saw her and immobilized her

with a weapon that didn't harm her. That's why she collapsed

like that."

"And after?"

"Sid took her away. Gave her to a slave trader to sell.  That's how

she ended up in Rome."

"I had wondered," Maximus said, "what the truth of it was. Thank you."

He thought silently for a moment about what Cort had said, then

asked, "If she worked for this Mikol, how did she end up with Sid?"

"Mikol warped Dimetri out of the movie and left her there alone,

with no way of getting  herself  out.  So she turned to Sid rather

than be forced to remain. I got the impression they had encountered

one another before that, though, on some other mission.  I think she shot him once, but I don't know the full story.  We didn't have much chance to get to know her well there in Rome.  But I think she made some deal with Sid."

Maximus just smiled grimly.

Caroline looked at Cort.  "Sounds like she had a talent for survival

...to borrow a line from a movie I once saw. Well, more than once."

ON TO PART 5

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