Eighty-eight: Pointing guns

Heavy boots pounded the ground, coming toward us and both agents drew their guns. Mr Cooper put his suitcase down and stood on my left.

The door burst open and Kiran's voice shouted.

"Guns!"

The soldiers took cover, but kept their guns pointing toward us.

A gun on my left bumped my temple and I sat rock still, while I glanced up and saw Mr Raring's gun pointed at his partner.

"Alistair," Kiran nodded, stepping into the room. I could smell Mr Cooper's sweat take on a distinctive sourish smell. "Mr Cooper. Jean."

"Hi," I gave a weak smile and tiny wave of my hand.

"Kiran," Mr Raring nodded back.

"Alistair," said Mr Cooper out the corner of his mouth. "What are you doing? Why are you pointing your gun at me?"

"You're forgetting, Bevan, that they have us outnumbered and that Jean can't walk very well. All it would take is one stumble from her and we'd be caught anyway. I'd like to spare her the pain of any further suffering if possible. She's undergone enough during the course of this war as it is. I'm glad to see that the Boskies have been working on fattening her up. Please, put your gun down."

"You did join the Boskies after all, didn't you?" Mr Cooper's voice took on a shrill quality. "I've always suspected that they had really turned you."

"Have you now?" Mr Raring said in an even, steady tone. "You know me better than anyone else here and you watched me like a hawk when I got back from my brief stay with them. You know where my loyalties lie."

"You're Bosky in your genes."

"The genes or a man's blood does not make up all a man is," Mr Raring said. "It is a good man's decisions and basic decency that best inform good actions. Please use your brain and come to your senses. Whichever way we try, we have no escape here. Look how many soldiers are at the door. If they're here, it means that our men outside have either surrendered or are dead. Which means that they have either overwhelming firepower and/or have the Compound completely surrounded. Think Bevan. You shoot the girl, you die. What do you gain from that?"

"We should have killed her while we had the chance," Mr Cooper grumbled.

"I told you and I tell you again. Despite the trouble, she is assuredly worth a lot more alive than dead."

"Fine," Mr Cooper spat and dropped his gun on the floor, kicking it toward Kiran. Alistair followed suit. "It doesn't mean I'm forgiving you."

There was a chorus of breaths being let out in relief. Mine not the least among them. Then the soldiers grabbed the agents and their suitcase and manhandled them.

Kiran and I exchanged smiles.

"I'm not hurt. Go," I told him. "Go and finish this. Stay alive. Stay safe."

"Right you are, My Lady," he kissed my forehead, scooping up his gun. "Have a good rest."

"My Lady?" Alistair paused and looked at the two of us. "Did I just hear that right?"

Kiran laughed and slapped him on the back, telling the soldiers who had Alistair, "Let them finish talking. Take the other one away first."

"You've decided," Alistair said and the soldiers brought him back into the room, holding him at the doorway. Alistair looked at me very closely. "You've decided to take a side."

"You could say that," I looked down at my hands in my lap and made a face. "I didn't want to, but I didn't have many choices left. Alfred Barrel kind of forced my hand when he let the cat out of the bag. What did they say when our people got the news?"

"Capture alive or dead. To be held for trial for treason. Sentence to life imprisonment rather than being shot. They think you know a lot of secrets. They didn't believe you weren't a spy anymore after the secret got out."

"See. Not much of a choice there. Mr Barrel then told them how I nearly made Ibis collapse and turned the Bosky chiefs against me. Dr Eisor had already made some adjustments to me long ago, when we were together in the Bosky hideout in my old workplace. He just kept it secret and didn't tell anyone. This time, he was ordered to make me a slave, but Kiran begged him not to give me the silver stripe that all other slaves have. Now I have bits in me I don't want, including a bomb and something that could cripple me. I don't know what exactly. He turned me into a sex toy that you can turn on and off if you know the buttons to press and apparently the surgery can't be reversed. It was awful when they even stripped me of my feminine pronoun and instead of calling me 'she', referred to me as 'it' for a while. If I leave or try to turn against the Boskies, I'm dead. They took my parents and brother to Boskyland as hostages. His fiancee even tortured me for a while when she visited. Tell me," I wiped my eyes and rubbed them with the heels of my hands, "whether I have a choice anymore."

"You poor thing," Mr Raring said, looking upset on my behalf.

"I don't know if Kiran knows all that or not," I continued to cry, feeling as if I was laying my soul bare. "I don't want to have to tell him that I'm doing most of this out of survival. He's a nice guy, but I'd like to be given a choice about all this. He's saved my life so many times. I had to find a way to repay him and well, if I give myself to him, that should just about do it, right? Except then I'd forever be worried he's going to be killed and so I had to find a way to help end the war. The Boskies have made so much progress the past few days. You might have noticed."

"I heard that was your influence," Mr Raring gave a sad smile.

"It was accidental. I went to all the graves I'd dug and remembered the dead. All the Boskies, everyone in the Compound, they got up out of bed and joined me. Apparently, that was what changed the chiefs' minds about me. They call me 'My Lady' to my face and whisper 'Queen-to-be' behind my back, which means that Kiran is going to be a king, although his proper title is Chief-in-Waiting. They told me my parents aren't hostages anymore, but calling them 'honoured guests' still makes me wonder. My slave status was revoked, but it doesn't change anything and the doctor is pretty much gleeful that he still has a method with which to control me."

"Go on," Mr Raring encouraged me.

"So, in thinking of some way to repay Kiran, this morning I happened across an unmanned and unlocked computer. I'm guessing that Bosky soldier is in big trouble, because I'm not supposed to be let near the computers, you know. Just in case." The soldiers holding Alistair were engrossed in the story now. They nodded along with Alistair. "Anyway, I hacked into the computer and found a way that I could help. When I saw the government's plans to attack the Compound while everyone was at the front lines, I saw an opportunity and I took it. So in a way, this whole plan is sort of my idea. I made myself bait for you and you did exactly what was expected in taking back the Compound and bringing in extra people, particularly when I was found."