The Cyber Chronicles Book III - The Core by T C Southwell Page A

near her only caused him
pain, yet he longed for her company.
     
     
    On the tenth
night, they came to the Death Zone barrier. The eerie white wall
stretched away over the horizon, rising into the moonlit sky. Dena
bombarded them with questions, and, when she ran to poke at the
edge of the mist, Tassin turned to Sabre.
    "Are you going
to destroy it?"
    "Not with you
and Dena in tow."
    "Then what
will you do? Are you going to leave it?"
    The barrier's
eerie glow made his eyes gleam like quicksilver. "No. When you're
safely in your castle, I'll return and complete my mission.
    "No! If you're
going in there to destroy that thing, I'm coming with you."
    "No, you're
not." He shook his head. "It will be dangerous, and you'll only
hinder me."
    "No I won’t.
This time I’ll be able to help you."
    "How? All you
succeeded in doing last time was to almost get yourself killed. You
got stuck in a Flux-reality tree and bitten by something poisonous,
remember?"
    She glared at
him. "You got stuck in a tree too. You were just lucky it was not
as solid as mine. I'm coming with you. This is my land, and I saved
your life back there. I'm not stupid and helpless like I was when
we set out."
    His voice
softened. "Tassin, I have to do this alone. No ordinary person can
do it. Maybe even I can't, but I have a far better chance of
surviving, alone. If you come with me, you'll only endanger
us."
    She folded her
arms. "I'm coming with you, whether you like it or not."
    "Not if I
don't let you. I'm taking you back to Arlin, and that's that."
    "No it's not.
If you take me back to Arlin, I'll follow you into the Zone."
    "Why?" he
asked, incredulous. "Do you want to be killed?"
    "I want to
come with you."
    "You're being
a silly, childish, mule-headed, pea-brained idiot."
    She shrugged.
"Maybe so, but you can't stop me."
    "Then maybe
I'll leave it here to swallow your land."
    "Fine. We can
fight the monsters. We're not savages like the Oroka, or fanatics
like that last bunch. We can deal with it."
    "You'd really
do that? You'd condemn your people to a hopeless war with savage
unnatural beasts, in which ultimately they’ll all die, just to
satisfy a silly selfish whim?"
    "It's you who
would condemn us to that if you don't destroy it. All I want is to
share the adventure."
    "Adventure?”
He snorted. “It will be horrific. You had a taste of it already.
Did you enjoy it?"
    "In a way. It
was certainly different.”
    "You almost
died."
    "But I
didn't,” she said. “It's not that bad. Hell, Purr lives in there;
it's his home."
    "Purr's
adapted to living in there."
    "You can argue
until you're blue in the face. I'm going with you."
    "You want me
to take you to the Core, with a donkey cart and a crippled child.
What about Dena?"
    "I think Dena
is quite capable of surviving it," she said.
    "She's a
child!"
    "She’s fended
for herself since she was six, and she had an arsenal for a
playground."
    "You’re nuts,
you know that?" He stared at the barrier with despairing eyes.
    "Remember what
Purr said. Flux-reality tends to avoid Real-reality, up to a
point."
    "So?"
    "The cart will
be an island of Real-reality and make travelling through the Zone
easier, if we stay on it."
    He grunted.
"You assume. What if you're wrong?"
    "Then Purr's
wrong, which I doubt. After all, he should know."
    "And how do
you hide a bloody great cart and two belly-aching donkeys?" he
demanded. "The monsters will be on us in droves."
    "But we have
the magical weapons you got from the dead city."
    Sabre faced
her again. "You've got it all figured out, haven't you? All right,
Your Majesty, have it your way. If you follow me into the Zone
alone, you won't last five minutes, so I guess I'll have to take
you with me and try to protect you as well as destroy the Core,
which means we'll probably all be killed. It'll be your epitaph,
although no one will erect a stone over your mouldering remains
once the monsters have finished chewing them. She had to have her
own way!" He marched back to the