Summoning her own concentration, Susannah cried into the well of her own mind. Hey! Hey Positronics lady! You still there?
"The link... is down," said the pleasant female voice.
As before, it spoke in the middle of Susannah's head, but unlike before, it seemed dim, no more dangerous than a voice on the radio that comes from far away due to some atmospheric flaw. "Repeat: the link... is down. We hope you'll remember North Central Positronics for all your mental enhancement needs. And Sombra Corporation! A leader in mind-to-mind communication since the ten thousands!"
There was a tooth-rattling BEE-EEEEP far down in Susannah's mind, and then the link was gone. It wasn't just the absence of the horridly pleasant female voice; it was everything.
She felt as if she'd been let out of some painful bodycompressing trap.
Mia screamed again, and Susannah let out a cry of her own. Part of this was not wanting Sayre and his mates to know the link between her and Mia had been broken; part was genuine sorrow. She had lost a woman who had become, in a way, her true sister.
Susannah! Suze, are you there?
She started up on her elbows at this new voice, for a moment almost forgetting the woman beside her. That had been-
Jake? Is it you, honey? It is, isn't it? Can you hear me?
YES! he cried. Finally! God, who've you been talking to? Keep yelling so I can home in on y-
The voice broke off, but not before she heard a ghostly rattle of distant gunfire. Jake shooting at someone? She thought not. She thought someone was shooting at him.
TWO
"Now!" Scowther shouted. "'Now, Mia! Push! For your life! Give it all you have! PUSH!"
Susannah tried to roll closer to the other woman-Oh, I'm concerned and wanting comfort, see how concerned I am, concern and wanting comfort is all it is-but the one called Straw pulled her back. The segmented steel cable swung and stretched out between them. "Keep your distance, bitch," Straw said, and for the first time Susannah faced the possibility that they weren't going to let her get hold of Scowther's gun. Or any gun.
Mia screamed again, crying out to a strange god in a strange language. When she tried to raise her midsection from the table, the nurse-Alia, Susannah thought the nurse's name was Alia-forced her down again, and Scowther gave a short, curt cry of what sounded like satisfaction. He tossed aside the forceps he'd been holding.
"Why d'ye do that?" Sayre demanded. The sheets beneath Mia's spread legs were now damp with blood, and the boss sounded flustered.
"Won't need them!" Scowther returned breezily. "She was built for babies, could have a dozen in the rice-patch and never miss a row's worth of picking. Here it comes, neat as you please!"
Scowther made as if to grab the largish basin sitting on the next bed, decided he didn't have quite enough time, and slipped his pink, gloveless hands up the inside of Mia's thighs, instead. This time when Susannah made an effort to move closer to Mia, Straw didn't stop her. All of them, low men and vampires alike, were watching the last stage of the birth with complete fascination, most of them clustered at the end of the two beds which had been pushed together to make one. Only Straw was still close to Susannah. The vampire with the firesword had just been demoted; she decided that Straw would be the first to go.
"Once more!" Scowther cried. "Foryour baby!"
Like the low men and the vampires, Mia had forgotten Susannah. Her wounded, pain-filled eyes fixed on Sayre. "May I have him, sir? Please say I may have him, if only for a little while!"
Sayre took her hand. The mask which covered his real face smiled. "Yes, my darling," he said. "The chap is yours for years and years. Only push this one last time."
Mia, don't believe his lies! Susannah cried, but the cry went nowhere. Likely that was just as well. Best she be entirely forgotten for the time being.
Susannah turned her thoughts in a new direction. Jake!
Jake, where are you?
No answer. Not good. Please God he was still alive.
Maybe he's only busy. Running... hiding...fighting. Silence doesn't necessarily mean he's-
Mia howled what sounded like a string of obscenities, pushing as she did so. The lips of her already distended vagina spread further. A freshet of blood poured out, widening the muddy delta-shape on the sheet beneath her. And then, through the welter of crimson, Susannah saw a crown of white and black. The white was skin. The black was hair.
The mottle of white and black began to retreat into the crimson and Susannah thought the baby would settle back, still not quite ready to come into the world, but Mia was done waiting.
She pushed with all her considerable might, her hands held up before her eyes in clenched and trembling fists, her eyes slitted, her teeth bared. A vein pulsed alarmingly in the center of her forehead; another stood out on the column of her throat.
"HEEEYAHHHH!" she cried. "COMMALA, YOU PRETTY BASTARD! COMMALA-COME-COME!"