The woman was swaying a little on her feet, too dazed to respond. With a quick glance back at Hector, and the array of flechette launchers still aimed at Shari, Jaime sprinted across the open ground, catching her just before she collapsed where she stood. Gently, he helped her cross the last fifty meters to the Bolo's side and sat her down, her back against the hard duralloy of one of the titanic road wheels.
"I thought... I was dead."
BOLO RISING
39
"You damned near were. What the hell were you trying to do here?"
"What do you think?" she shot back. "I've taken all I'm going to take. Hector here was going to be my ticket out." Her eyes widened. "My God! How did we, how did you get in thisў"
"Easy. Hector is a friend of mine. You just have to know how to talk to him."
"Some fnend. You've, you've ruined everything."
"I thought I just saved your life."
"You don't understand," she said, opening her eyes. "I want to die. . . ."
"I'm sorry. I know how you feel, Miss Barstowe. Believe me, I know! But I couldn't just stand by and watch Hector blow you away."
"I just... I just don't know if I can steel myself to try again. It took days to work up ... the courage."
"Not a problem. Killing yourself doesn't take nearly as much courage as deciding to keep on living."
"Who . . . who are you? Are you free? No, wait. I've seen you in the camp."
"Jaime Graham," he said. "Block Seven, Group Thirty-one."
She nodded. "I'm Block Four, Group Twenty-five."
"Over on the other side of the barracks." Jaime wasn't sure how many slaves there were now, in all. New ones were brought in occasionally as they were rounded up outside the devastation that was Celeste, and those in the camp tended to die at an appalling rate. The best estimates, though, held that there were between five and seven thousand people crowded into the slave camp ... far too many for any one person to have gotten to know individually, or even to have seen them all. Still, Shari's face was familiar, and he was sure he'd crossed paths with her before, possibly at the chow line, possibly in the dig.
40
William H.Keith, Jr.
"So what are you doing out here?"
"Like I said, talking to my friend, here."
Her eyes widened. "You were with the Bolo Corps! Before The Killing!"
He shook his head. "No. I wish I had been. It would make understanding this big guy a lot easier." '
"Oh. You didn't know Captain Fowler, then."
"Captain Fowler?"
