10
rn you into a vegetable right now unless you boot your neural network up and give us Vince."
I need little convincing. She can have him. I hold up my cuffed hands. Suzie grabs it them. A data link opens, using the very conductivity of our skin to transmit all the necessary information, and I reboot my entire neural net. All those chips in my spine warm up.
Vince appears, looks around, and swears as I allow the data transmit. He dissolves, fading away in the air in front of my eyes. Suzie's body network has him now.
He's gone, and Suzie has a big grin on her face as she lets go of my hands. She headbutts the wall, giving herself a bad bruise on the cheek. "I'm going to tell them you resisted my attempt to save you," she says, walking over to the airship controls. She kills all the communications, then takes out her stun gun and fires it into the control panel. Sparks fly. I check. I'm unable to piggyback a signal out of the gondola. "That you were crazy right there at the end. They'll believe me too. You're suicidal, and dangerous, and there is no reason for anyone to attempt to come back in here."
A trickle of blood runs down the side of her nose as she walks over to the airlock door.
"You should have told me you were going to leave, sixty years ago, Vincent. Or at least invited me aboard your damn ship."
"Uhmfff mfffmfff," I say, and meaning it.
"It's too late for sorry," Suzie says. "I've let some of your gas out on the airbag. You won't be able to rise, but you might be able to float around on the level you're until you starve or die of dehydration. Good bye, Vincent, it was so nice to see you again." She gets in the airlock. The tube pulls away and she's gone. The Air Guard is gone. They're not coming back.
#
It takes the better part of an hour to free myself and stand up. Again I ripped off the gag.
I have my advanced senses though. I can see thermals outside. I can find out how to fly this airship. Each instrument has a tiny ins