Shadow of the Coalition

by Jamie A. Waters

  She inclined her head. “I’ll pull my weight while I’m here.”

  “You’re on tomorrow then. You can run with these two since Veridian’s not here. They’ve been off today and wasting my time. Mack, take her bag and throw it on a bunk. Tharin, go check on your woman and see if you can manage to keep your dick in your pants. I need a word with Kayla.”

  Mack picked up her bag from the floor with a wink. “Come find me when you’re done, girl.”

  She nodded at him and the two men headed out of the narrow hallway. When they were gone, Leo crossed his arms and eyed her up and down. “I’m not going to ask why you came back. It’s none of my business unless you want to tell me. But I need to know if your presence is going to jeopardize our trading relationships.”

  Kayla paused, momentarily surprised at the realization Leo didn’t know about Carl, Alec, or anything else having to do with OmniLab. Had she really been that disconnected from her former camp? It was a relief in a weird way. For the first time in a long time, she could forget about energy channeling and just be herself again.

  She shook her head. “It won’t be an issue, Leo. If it becomes a problem, you have my word I’ll leave.”

  “Fair enough.”

  He hesitated for a moment and then clapped her shoulder. For Leo, the small display of affection was the equivalent of Mack’s welcoming hug. “Go get settled in.”

  She nodded, not trusting herself to speak, and turned away to hang up her jacket. Once the sound of his retreating footsteps had faded, she turned back around. The movement jostled Alec’s necklace. Her hand flew up to touch the pendant. Thankfully, it had been hidden by her jacket when she arrived. She glanced around to make sure no was looking and then slipped off the necklace, stuffing it in her pocket.

  Kayla headed toward the common room to find Mack, who was lounging on the decrepit couch. He gave her a chin lift when she entered. A few other people stopped what they were doing and called out greetings before turning back to their conversations. Mack chuckled and patted the spot next to him before draping his arm across the back of the couch.

  “I heard you took out Ramiro’s boy, Vex?”

  “Yeah,” she said with a sigh and settled in next to him. It still irked her that Ramiro was running around somewhere though. OmniLab blacklisted him, but he disappeared before they could take him into custody.

  Mack nodded in approval. “Good girl. You know anything about this new trader they’ve got?”

  “His name’s Rand. He’s solid. A lot like Carl.”

  “He any good at tracking?”

  Kayla shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine. He’s smart, but he’s still green. Carl’s been showing him the ropes though.”

  “Too bad.” Mack drummed his fingers on the edge of the couch. “We were thinking about heading back to his district when we relocate. Maybe we’ll stick to the perimeter instead or head to Henkel’s district.”

  “Not a bad idea.” It was strange to think of them moving without her and Veridian. “Where have you guys been scavenging? I haven’t heard about you in Carl’s district lately. It’s been pretty quiet.”

  Mack chuckled. “We’ve managed to snag a new temporary gig. Leo’s been brokering with these new guys. They’ve been kicking some sweet equipment our way. Some of this shit is better than anything I’ve seen from OmniLab.”

  Kayla’s entire body tensed, and she shifted to face him. “What the hell are you talking about? Who’s he dealing with?”

  Mack stretched and propped his feet up on a nearby crate. “Some guys named Sergei and Lars. They’ve been coming here for the past couple of weeks. They paid Leo with food and some equipment to have us map the districts. They don’t seem to be interested in the stuff in the ruins, just the topography and camp locations.”

  Kayla frowned. “You sure they aren’t from OmniLab?”

  “Hell no. The one guy, Sergei, has some sort of weird accent. I don’t know where they’re from, but they’re definitely not Omnis. Last time they were here, they wanted us to finish mapping out Ramir— er, Rand’s district for them. I’m guessing they’ll want us to hit one of the other districts next. We’ll probably do that tomorrow.”

  “Wait,” Kayla interrupted. “So you guys aren’t going into the ruins tomorrow? You’re running mapping lines for these guys?”

  “It keeps us in business, girl,” Mack said with a chuckle and flicked her hair off her shoulder. “You know how this shit works. If they don’t show up today, though, we’ll hit the ruins.”

  Kayla wondered if there was a connection between these individuals and the surveillance aircrafts they’d seen on the radar. If that were the case, why were they using ruin rats to map the districts when they had such sophisticated equipment? She bit her lip and considered the possibilities. Unfortunately, she wasn’t sure if voicing her concerns to Leo would do any good.

  Kayla sighed and studied Mack. He was a few years older than her and had joined their camp when she’d been a teenager. He’d given her a hard time about scavenging when she was younger, but after he realized she wasn’t a pushover, he’d taken her under his wing and shown her the ropes. Mack was a big guy who had a reputation for intimidating most people when he had the inclination. Although the majority of people in the camp gave him a wide berth, he had a soft spot for her. It was probably the reason Leo had paired her with his team tomorrow.

  “What time are we going?”

  “They should be stopping by later today to pick up the images. Depending on where they want us, we may need to head out early.”

  She nodded, and they lapsed into silence, each lost in their own thoughts. After several minutes, Mack leaned back and laced his fingers behind his head.

  “So you gonna tell me why you’re back?”

  No. Not a chance. Instead, she opted for misdirection and batted her eyes at him. “Well, after pining for you for the past month, I gave into my urges and came running back. I just couldn’t bear the thought of being separated from you for a moment longer.”

  “Damn, babe,” Mack snorted. “You’re getting to be scary-good at that. You could have just told me to mind my own damn business instead of breaking my heart.”

  Kayla smirked. “Fine. Mind your own damn business.”

  Mack eyed her up and down. She stiffened at the scrutiny and then forced herself to relax. His sharp eyes always saw too much. “If I had to guess, I’d say the trader put the moves on you. I’m just not sure if you moved back or broke his nose.”

  She stood. This was not a conversation she was going to have with Mack. Not now. Probably not ever. “Nice try, playboy. You gonna show me this new equipment of yours or just brag about it? I understand if you don’t have the goods to back up your story.”

  He raised an eyebrow and drawled, “Oh, I’ve definitely got the goods, darlin’. You just haven’t had the privilege of enjoying them. But if you’re talking about the new gear we picked up, sure. I can show that to you instead.”

  Kayla scowled and flicked him off. He laughed as he stood. “Glad you’ve still got your edge.”

  He gestured for her to follow him back into the tech room. The camp was relatively clean, but most of the equipment was run-down or falling apart. More than a few pieces were only operating by utilizing a combination of creative engineering and sheer luck. She found herself wondering once again if building another tower was a real possibility. Even if it was, she wasn’t sure if the ruin rats would give up their nomadic lives for a chance to live somewhere permanent. Their distrust of OmniLab was so deeply ingrained they might reject it outright and claim it was an attempt to control them. It would have been her initial reaction too.

  As they entered the tech room, Kayla noticed one of the computer terminals was offline. It had been having problems before she left. “It crashed again?”

  “Yeah,” Mack replied as he headed over to one of the boxes in the corner. “Kristin has been trying to get it back up and running without any luck. She got pulled off
that to work on the photovoltaic system though. Seems like the whole place is going to shit.”

  “I’ll take a look later,” she offered and went over to the box. Mack pulled out an elongated instrument that looked similar to the image mappers she used at Carl’s camp and handed it to her.

  “It attaches directly to our bikes and records the topography on the surface. It also scans about a hundred yards underground. It’s got some sort of echo system in place to pick up readings.”

  “Echo system?” She turned it over to assess the design. It would be interesting to take it apart to see how it worked.

  Mack nodded. “So they said. They’ve given us some other upgrades for scavenging too. We’ve gotten a couple of stability monitors and communication devices. We had to make some adjustments on the comm devices since they were designed for another language, but they’re slick.”

  Kayla jerked her head up. “What language?”

  Before he could answer, Leo strolled into the tech room, swearing and cursing up a storm. “Dammit, Kayla! You’ve been here for less than an hour and I’m already getting calls from Carl. Check your damn commlink. I’m not a fucking messenger.”

  Kayla blanched. “You told him I was here?”

  “Who the hell do you think I am?” Leo demanded, clearly affronted by her question. “Of course I didn’t tell that trader bastard anything. I told him what goes on in my camp is my business. He said if you turned up here to let you know he’s looking for you. Some urgent bullshit or some such thing. Like I give a rat’s ass what’s got his panties in a knot.”

  “Thanks, Leo,” she muttered and turned back to the equipment.

  There was a heavy pause. Kayla lifted her head to find Leo and Mack exchanging looks. Leo turned back, pinning her with his gaze. “What? No smartass comment? No ranting and raving about a trader being up in your business? And you thank me? What the hell happened over there, girl?”

  Mack raised an eyebrow and leaned against the wall, waiting for her response. Kayla frowned and turned back to the box to replace the image mapper. She needed to be more careful. Mack was wrong. She was losing her edge. Living in-between Carl’s camp and the towers had changed her. It just hadn’t been obvious how much until now.

  She turned around to face Leo and crossed her arms over her chest. “Back off, Leo. My reasons are none of your damn business. If you have a problem with me being here and want to lose out on the credits I can bring in, fine. Say the word and I’ll take off. I don’t need your shit.”

  Leo was quiet for a moment, studying and considering her. Then, he nodded. “You’re staying. I’ll handle the trader.”

  Kayla bit back a sigh of relief. One hurdle overcome. She put her hands on her hips. “If you’re done interrogating me, I want to know about these guys you’re dealing with now.”

  Leo glanced at Mack, and the scavenger shrugged. “Yeah, I told her. If she’s running with us tomorrow, she needs to know.”

  The older man harrumphed. “Fine. They showed up a couple of weeks ago and hired us to do some surveillance of the districts. The pay is fair and the work isn’t dangerous, so we came to an agreement. I was planning on picking up and taking off last week for a new camp location, but I decided to wait until our business with them is done.”

  Now she was getting somewhere. “Do you know where these guys are from?”

  Leo scowled. “I don’t give a rat’s ass if these guys are from the moon. They aren’t paying us to ask questions. Just run the districts and turn over the results.”

  Of course he’d be narrow-minded enough not to ask questions. Idiot. She needed to warn him though. “Leo, before I left, Carl and Rand’s districts were picking up air surveillance that wasn’t from OmniLab. Are these guys connected?”

  Leo waved off her words. “Not my problem. That’s Omni shit to deal with. As long as we keep getting paid, I don’t care.”

  Kayla clenched her fists in frustration, trying to resist the urge to smack some sense into him. She should have known he’d turn a blind eye to everything. “Fine. Stick your head in the sand and let your ass get a sunburn.”

  Leo’s mouth twitched in a smile. “That’s my girl. Now, check your damn commlink so I don’t have to listen to more trader crap. Mack, go set Kayla’s bike up for our tracking frequencies. Those damn Omnis have probably screwed up all her settings.”

  Mack nodded and picked up a toolkit sitting in the corner. They left the room, and Kayla grudgingly pulled out her commlink. She had several new messages from Carl, Alec, and Veridian. With a sigh, she opened Veridian’s message. She wasn’t ready to deal with either of the other two men in her life.

  Carl had apparently contacted Veridian looking for her. They were all worried and wanted to make sure she was safe. Kayla frowned and typed in a short message letting Veridian know she was fine. She made it clear she had no intention of coming back anytime soon and wished him the best with Jinx. Figuring Veridian would let Carl know her reply, she closed the commlink without reading any of the other messages.

  Needing to keep busy, Kayla walked over to the broken computer terminal and started taking it apart. The familiar sounds of the camp drifted into the room and had a calming effect on her. She missed Veridian’s comforting presence, but either way, it was nice to be back in Leo’s camp.

  An hour later, Kayla had finished working on the computer and managed to get it back up and running. It was going to need to have a few components replaced soon, but there wasn’t much she could do about it at the moment. She adjusted the terminal back into position before heading out to the common room.

  Mack was sitting on the couch while Tharin and Kristin sat nearby. Kristin’s two-year-old daughter, Marie, was playing on the floor. Her daughter was almost a tiny replica of her mother with curly chestnut hair and light-brown eyes. She chattered to herself while she played with some blocks someone had carved for her.

  Kristin’s face lit up at the sight of Kayla. “Welcome back. I would have found you earlier, but Leo had me working on the solar system out back.”

  “No problem, Kris. It’s good to see you again.”

  Kayla knelt on the floor and offered a little finger wave to Marie. The little girl’s eyes lit up with recognition and she waddled over to Kayla. Tiny arms wrapped around her neck and Kayla gave Marie a hug. “Hey, sweetie. Did you get a new toy?”

  Marie nodded and stuck her fingers in her mouth. Kayla kissed the top of her head and put her back on the ground. The little girl immediately went back to playing.

  “I’ve missed her,” Kayla admitted with a sigh and gestured to Kristin’s slightly rounded belly. “Tharin mentioned you’ve got another one cooking?”

  Kristin rolled her eyes and half-heartedly punched Tharin’s arm. “Yeah. One wasn’t enough apparently.”

  Kayla smiled, but she could tell Kristin was worried. Not only was her continued status in the camp a concern, it was no secret her pregnancy with Marie had been difficult. Hopefully, this one would be easier. Kayla sat on the couch next to Mack, and Kristin said, “We have about an hour before today’s crew comes rolling in. We were going to watch one of those old pre-war vids Veridian sent over from OmniLab. You wanna join us?”

  Kayla nodded and leaned back against the couch while Tharin programmed the computer terminal to run the program. As the movie started, she noticed Kristin snuggling up against Tharin. She felt a pang of sadness at Carl’s absence but forced herself to put it out of her mind and focus on the screen.

  The events of the day finally caught up with her, and she succumbed to her exhaustion. It was some time later before a hand gently brushed her hair away from her face. A husky voice murmured something in her ear, but she ignored it and snuggled deeper into the warmth wrapped around her.

  The voice chuckled. “The crew just got back, darlin’. You gonna sleep all day?”

  She murmured Carl’s name and hooked her leg over his. One of her hands slipped under his shirt to touch warm skin. He always talked too much. />
  “Well, that answers that question. Guess you didn’t break his nose.”

  Kayla opened her eyes and looked up into Mack’s amused face. She was sprawled on top of him in a rather compromising position. At least Tharin and Kristin had disappeared so they weren’t witnessing her blunder. She cursed and quickly sat up, pulling her hand away. Mack watched as she disentangled herself and then leaned back against the couch, putting his hands behind his head.

  “I think you need to tell me what happened with that trader.”

  Kayla grumbled. “Have you always been this nosy?”

  “No doubt,” he replied, clearly enjoying himself. “You just had Veridian as a buffer before, so spill it. Why are you saying the trader’s name in your sleep and climbing all over me? Not that I particularly minded that last part.”

  Kayla sighed and rubbed her face. There was no point in lying, not after what just happened. “We got into an argument and I left. There’s no big mystery.”

  “What did you argue about?”

  She hesitated. Although she’d been close to Mack, Veridian was the one she usually confided in. “He told me we didn’t belong together,” she said quietly and looked away. “And there was this other girl from the towers… It just got complicated…” Her voice trailed off. She couldn’t bring herself to tell him about the whole situation with Alec and the reporter.

  Mack nodded as though that cleared up his suspicions. “Uh huh. Those traders are all alike. I’m not sure why you’d get involved with one of them in the first place. You’re smarter than that, babe. A real man wouldn’t play those kinds of games with you.”

  Kayla shook her head. “It wasn’t like that, Mack.”

  He was quiet for a long moment and then said, “Pretz was from a trader camp.” She flinched at his words, but he ignored it and continued, “Now you’ve gone and gotten tangled up with a trader.”