Fear touched her, if the boy couldn't. She was far enough back from the bars to be safe'the dead weren't particularly strong, though they could push their bodies far harder than the living could bear. The boy couldn't get through the bars. She was safe, as long as she could hold herself up against the far side of her cage. As long as her arms didn't get tired. As long as she didn't collapse. If those fingers ever touched her, she knew, the nails would sink into her flesh. The teeth would get her, somehow, through the cage. If he so much as scratched her, broke her skin, infection was almost inevitable. Infection and death. She was safe, until she wasn't anymore.
She managed, somehow, to hold on until the truck stopped and burning light washed over them and they were pulled out of their cages. Their captors took the dead boy away and slammed his empty cage back into the grid of bodies. Finally Ayaan could relax, let herself fall against the hard bars. Her arms ached and complained. Her body felt wasted, wrung out. Her mind raced faster than ever.
By the time they reached their destination Ayaan had at least one thing figured out. There was no way to meet her obligation to Sarah if she was dead. If she died in captivity the Tsarevich would use her, would make her one of his soldiers. If she wanted to help Sarah she was going to have to stay alive. No matter what it took.
Monster Planet
Chapter Seven
Of course, Jack said, Sarah would want to rescue Ayaan. Along the way Sarah could liberate Ptolemy's captive mummies. Simple.
Hardly,she thought as she clambered over the razor wire and back into the camp. There was nothing simple in the proposition.
For one thing Ayaan herself would hate it. Her policy had always been that those who fell behind were left behind. There were no exceptions, could be no exceptions, because exceptions endangered other people. Ayaan would expect no special treatment.
Then there was Fathia's wrath to consider.
Ayaan had saved Sarah's life a thousand times, though, often putting herself in risk to do it. And the thought of one of the greatest warriors ever to fight the dead ending up as food for ghouls--or worse, becoming a ghoul herself--was untenable.
Sarah knew she would have to at least make the effort to save Ayaan, but she also knew she couldn't do it alone.
Dawn was dragging blood-stained fingers across the eastern hills as she slipped into the helicopter pool and found Osman sleeping in his hammock. She only had a few minutes to pull off one of the stupidest plans she'd ever imagined. Trying to be gentle she put a hand over the old man's mouth and pinched his nose. He awoke in a panic, his eyes rolling wildly as he tried to figure out what was happening. When he saw Sarah the look on his face downgraded to one of wary confusion.
'Ayaan is alive,' she said. 'If we go right now we can still rescue her.' She told Osman everything'even the secret she'd kept for so many years.
'Jack? The American soldier? He's a ghost now and he talks to you? That doesn't make any sense.'
Sarah shrugged. 'He killed my father. He's been trying to make up for that. Listen, we don't have time to argue. The camp is going to wake up soon. If they find out what we're up to''
Osman barked a small laugh. 'You're assuming I'll go along with this lunacy. In the old time I would accuse you of doing drugs. Now I just wish you would share. Listen, girl, Ayaan has done well by me. She has saved my skin many, many times. But she knew a bad proposition when she heard it. The second we leave, Fathia will brand us traitors. She would never let us come back.'
'If we have Ayaan with us when we return it won't matter what Fathia says.'
Osman accepted that with a gesture of both hands. He wasn't fully convinced, though. 'Jack?'
'You need to get past that. It's Jack. He's given me enough information to make a plan, and I trust him. He's also arranged some help for us.' In the end she had to fall back on the near terror most people felt when they knew about her power. 'Come on, Osman. You say Ayaan has done well by you. Haven't I? You've seen my power. It has gotten you out of scrapes, you know it's real. Why are you doubting me now?'