Cat's Cradle

Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I lay claim to not even the punctuation marks. Not mine.

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Mal’s soaking coat slicked Serenity’s ramp. Kaylee bore the brunt of the limp man between them as the captain took most of his strength to keep himself standing. His knee was already aching to the point it affected his hearing. His head hurt like hell, and he’d just damn-near killed his first unarmed man in years. But he kept the man’s left arm on his shoulder. He wouldn’t have Kaylee carry this bun tien-shung duh ee dway-ro by herself, shaken up as she was. Inara, through sheer force of will, hadn’t questioned Mal any further. His face was pale, jaw set stiff. He had lost a lot of blood already. He rarely showed this much weakness. And she’d never seen that look he’d first worn as she came around the corner, his arms tense as they tried to squish the man’s face into the rocky ground. Trying to drown him. Inara was scared of Mal for the first time, perhaps ever. She looked over at Kaylee. She’d almost been taken. Inara knew the things that happened to girls taken in the night by men. She could picture herself grinding the man’s bloody face through the water. It scared her as well. She shook the image from her head. She knew restraint. And yet… how could she leave Kaylee? She rushed to the intercom. “Simon! We need you in the hold.” Wash stepped down the stairs curiously. “Didn’t you guys leave here like, two minutes ago without all the blood or the dead guy?” “He’s not dead…” Mal began. “Hardly,” Inara finished. “You know—“ Mal turned to face her, twisting his right knee a little, gasping, faint. Blood and mud plastered his pants to his leg. The laceration flushed the mud from it with a steady stream of blood. “If he hadn’t just tried to kidnap Kaylee to sell her into prostitution, stabbed me, and pulled a gun on me, maybe I would’ve been a little more easy on the fella.” “That wasn’t being hard on him. That was murdering him.” Inara stepped over and took the man’s arm from Kaylee. Inara rested a hand on her shoulder. Kaylee’s jaw was slack, eyes blank. Inara had seen the face of a woman in shock before. “Kaylee?” Kaylee slowly rotated her chin to level at Inara. She slowly opened her mouth. “I played baseball in his backyard.” Kaylee looked beyond Inara at the limp, soaked man, her eyes still slightly unfocused, looking both out and inward. “He… he kissed me once.” “Well,” Mal hefted the man higher onto his shoulder, wincing. “He kidnapped you once too. And he’s a party to the ambush that…” Simon rushed down the stairs holding his black kit. “You were in an ambush?” “Of sorts.” Mal leaned to his left so Simon could take his place helping the man, but Simon knelt before Mal. “No, doc.” Mal grabbed Simon’s shoulder and pulled him back to a standing position. “This boy needs to be speaking his piece within the hour. I can wait.” “I can see your bone, captain. That, I believe, usurps unconscious.” Mal halved a smile, and finished it with a wince. “He’s a bit drowned too.” Inara hmphed. “How long was he without air?” Simon lifted the man’s eyelids. Withdrew a small flashlight from his vest pocket. “Which time?” Mal jeered, eyes solidly on Inara. Kaylee stood a few feet back, supported by a large cargo box behind her. Staring at the gaunt man hanging like a sad side of beef between Mal and Inara. “Too long,” Inara replied. “At least a couple minutes.” “His heart stop?” “No.” Inara hefted the man a little higher, now holding him alone, and just barely managing. If he hadn’t been so thin she’d have crumpled minutes ago. “Good. That’s something at least.” “Thank you.” Mal sat gingerly on a box. Wash stepped next to the captain. “Is Zoe in danger?” Before he could answer, a shot reverberated off the walls. Rattled their ears. The man’s body crumbled onto Inara with the force of the shot, and they fell in a heap on the steel ground. Mal reached down for his pistol. Looked toward the break in boxes directly across from where the shot had been fired. “You are all in danger,” a low voice rumbled, as if amplified. A man dressed in navy blue coveralls stepped forward, a large handgun in each fist. Simon immediately dropped to roll the man off Inara. Though ruffled, she was unhurt. The man’s gun trained on Mal swirled the air. “Gun down please, Captain.” Mal’s hand had hardly reached his holster before the barrel had stared it down. Frozen it in mid-air. “When you ask that politely.” Mal slid his pistol out of the holster, his eyes locked with the man in the coveralls, the corner of his eyes looking for any looseness in the grip on the pistol. Slipping of aim. The weight of Mal’s pistol in his hand and still this new adversary hadn’t flinched. Mal could almost see all the way down the barrel. This man had held a gun to another’s head on more than one occasion, that much was apparent. Mal tossed his pistol onto the ground. “I have no cause to be impolite at the moment. However, doctor,” The man moved his left pistol from Wash to Simon, “I do believe the boy could make use of your services. Otherwise,” he laughed, “the dead son of an elected official might make it slightly more difficult to leave port.” Simon rolled the unconscious man over. Blood oozed out of his stomach. “A stomach wound won’t help the cause.” “You to your job, and I to mine.” The man in the coveralls moved his left gun back to Wash. Motioned him to join Simon, Inara and the Mayor’s son. He walked slowly, glancing over at Mal who looked steadily ahead. “We’re leaving port, are we?” Mal spoke clearly. Still watching the man’s every move for a tick, a weakness to exploit. “Well, that depends on how well you cooperate.” “With a murderer and a thief?" Mal snorted. But the man remained completely calm. “ Is there anyone you’d fit in with better?” “I’m not sure what you’ve heard of me and my crew, good sir,” Mal sneered a little at the word sir. “But we’re honest, hard-working folk.” “Which is why I have no trouble letting you live.” The man’s coveralls bulged in at least three places Mal could see as he shifted his weight. Two definitely knives. “There are others coming,” the man continued. “Others who care less about the rightness of the world and only about the money in their pockets. Others who will pull your intestines out inch by painful inch to get the information from you.” Mal’s thoughts flew to Persephone. Harrow’s back lot. The stone cottage half covered by ivy. The don’t-ask-don’t-tell cottage. “Don’t know whatcha mean there, boss.” His voice belied nothing. “There are those who have found a price for the priceless, Mr. Reynolds. They have your name, and your description. Your crew are being held for these people. These, barbarians. One way or another, they will get the information from you. And they will kill you.” Kaylee stared blankly ahead. She was afraid River would show up. Try to be a hero again, like she’d done with Early. This man had the same calm, deliberate manner. A pure killer. Kaylee hoped River’s cabin was locked. Safe. Kaylee’d never heard of lightning striking twice. “I need to move this man,” Simon stood, prepared to argue. “Then on your way to the infirmary, Dr. Tam. The captain and I have further matters to discuss.” The man spoke almost kindly. Simon looked a little stunned. Free reign to move about the ship? Tam. He knew who he was. River. “Where is my sister?” “She’s safe. No one of worth has need for her.” Simon nodded to Inara for her assistance. Inara rose, hesitantly watching the gun pointed at them. No motion. She grabbed the man’s arm, and the two lifted his arms over their shoulders. Wash stood. “Not you.” The man moved his gun almost imperceptibly. The tiniest angle brought the barrel to a direct angle with Wash’s nose. “You stay here with us while we discus coordinates.” Inara and Simon walked the unconscious man toward the sick bay, beads of garnet falling from his stomach. A blood-crumb trail out of the woods. This man they could likely die for, for merely allowing to die. Who’d tried to kidnap Kaylee. Behind them, an armed man held the crew hostage, Zoe and Jayne elsewhere, hostage. And all they could do was continue to walk. Mal’s focus remained split between his gun on the grate floor and the man in the blue coveralls. Two other guns were stashed. One taped to a box to the right of the stairs, and one in the toolbox by the Mule behind him. “Now.” The man stepped forward two paces, putting Mal at an equal angle with Wash and Kaylee. “Where could one find this Lassiter?”