by Susan Hayes
“I won’t be gone long.” If she kept talking like that, he’d break every speed record known to his kind to get back to her. Suddenly the idea of being stuck inside the colony for a few days didn’t seem like a hardship. That’s time he could spend with Maggie, either naked, training, or drinking free beers while making sure the patrons of the Bar None remembered their manners.
“You better not be.” She dropped his shirt onto the floor and opened her arms to him. “Since I’ll be here, waiting for you to come home.”
He crossed the room in a heartbeat, sweeping her into his arms and onto the bed. Home. The word resonated inside him. Until Maggie, this place had been where he slept and ate while he worked on his cabin. But now she was here, it had become something else. Maybe it wasn’t home yet, but it was more than it had been… and so was he.
By the time Striker set out to see to his traps, Maggie was ready to curl up in their bed and nap. Keeping up with her cyborg lover wasn’t easy, but holy fraxx, it was worth it. He was as demanding and growly in bed as he was out of it, but he could also be surprisingly tender and sweet.
Her gaze fell on the weapon he’d given her. Or maybe I have a skewed idea of what sweet is…
As tempting as a nap was, she had too much to do to stay in bed. She programmed up a small cup of ja’kreesh with a hearty breakfast and then grabbed a quick shower while the food dispenser prepared her order.
She was halfway through her meal when her comm unit chirped a triple chime that indicated she had an urgent message. She dropped her fork and rushed back to the bedroom to see who it was from. Jade.
“Yes! Finally.” She opened the message, her heart racing. Where was she? What the hell happened back on Earth?
To her bitter disappointment, it wasn’t a video but a text message, and a short one at that.
“Magpie. Hunters coming for you. Time for little bird to fly. J.”
Another coded message, all of it bad news. The codewords meant the message was truly from Jade, and Maggie needed to disappear. Now.
At least Jade was still alive. That was something. Maggie held onto that slim thread of hope as she raced around the room. She’d gotten sloppy in the last few days. Her things were scattered, the bag she normally kept packed and ready to go empty and pushed under the bed.
“Stupid,” she muttered as she gathered up what she could. She knew better than to get comfortable somewhere. The universe saw it as an irresistible challenge to start throwing trouble her way. It was almost five minutes before she was ready to go.
She set down her comm and her tablet in the middle of the kitchen table and recorded a quick message. “Striker, I’m in trouble. Need to hide. Can’t stay at the colony in case trouble follows me. If you want to help, I’ll be with the cookies.” She should have stopped the recording there, but her mouth kept moving. “And in case I don’t see you again. I’m sorry. I…”
She cut herself off before the words “I love you” slipped out. She didn’t. Did she? It was too soon… and likely too late. Not to mention the fact she didn’t have time for a major emotional epiphany at the moment. She ended the recording and sent it to his comm unit. She’d leave her devices behind. It wasn’t likely they could track her that way, but she couldn’t risk it. She’d brought enough trouble to Haven already. Even if she didn’t have a fraxxing clue who or what was coming for her.
As vague as she’d been, she was certain he’d understand the message. She was going to his cabin. If someone figured out where she was staying right now, they wouldn’t know how to find his place in the woods. Only a handful of beings knew where it was. It was the safest place she could think of.
The cabin was on the far side of the river from her current location, which meant a long walk through the middle of the colony or a longer walk to skirt the edges and try to avoid being seen.
“Long walk it is.” She shouldered her pack and headed out into the cold morning air. At least the weather suited her mood—dark, dismal, and with a threat of a storm on the horizon.
She was only halfway there when Striker caught up to her. One second she was alone in the woods and the next he was in front of her, his kes’tarv in his hand and his entire body singing with tension. He was panting slightly, something she’d never seen before.
“I swear I’m putting a bell on you the next time we’re out here,” she quipped.
He didn’t even crack a smile. “Why are we out here? You’re supposed to be in town where it’s safe.”
A ball of icy dread formed in her gut. This was it. It was time to confess. She thought they’d have more time. She bought herself a few more seconds by moving in and hugging him. Just in case it was the last time, she wanted to remember what it was like to feel warm, safe, and protected.
He held her close, curving his bigger body around hers. “Tell me what’s going on so I know how to help.” His voice softened. “Maggie. Who’s trying to hurt you?”
“I don’t know.”
“Explain.”
She stayed snug in his arms as she talked. “I got a message from Jade. No details. Just telling me hunters were coming and that I needed to run.”
“Where is she? Why? Who would be hunting you?”
Any other time, she’d be happy to hear him speaking so much. Today, though… today every question he asked just meant the truth had to come out. This all had to be related to what she and Jade had done.
“There’s something I haven’t told you. Or anyone.” She leaned back so she could look into his face. “I’m not supposed to be here. I cheated.”
He let go of her and stepped back, his expression cold and wary. “Explain.”
She told him everything. By the time she was done, he’d let go of her and moved away. It was only a few meters, but it might as well have been light years.
“You lied!” he snarled and lashed out with his bare fist. The blow snapped a nearby sapling, sending it toppling to the ground.
For the first time, Maggie saw the man Skye had warned her about. Dangerous. Feral. Furious. “I was trying to survive. You said you understood that.”
“I thought I did.” He was pacing now, prowling back and forth in front of her. “But this? You’ve endangered everything we’re building here. You brought human bullshit to Haven. I trusted you. I thought you were different, but you’re not. You used us.”
“I didn’t know anyone would come after me.”
He glowered. “Why would I believe that? You lied to all of us. You lied to me!”
“I didn’t know this would happen. I don’t know what they want. Me? Whatever Jade stuck in my arm?”
She couldn’t ask him to retrieve the data right now. He was too angry at her, and he had reason to be. “Jade’s the only one who can retrieve it. We have to find her.”
“No.” His voice was as cold as the winter wind rattling through the trees.
“No?”
“There’s no we. There’s just you. This is a human problem. Humans will have to fix it.” Striker pointed behind her. “Go back.”
“I can’t. If they come for me there, innocent beings could get hurt.” Which is why she’d come out here, away from everyone else.
“Now you’re worried about that?” Striker snorted in angry disbelieve. “It’s a little late.”
“I know. And I’m sorry.”
“Too late for that, too.” He pointed again, back the way she’d come. “Go. It’s not safe for you out here.”
She wasn’t sure if he meant from the hunters or him. Maybe it was both. “It won’t be safe for the others if I go back.”
He snarled in frustration and twisted the kes’tarv he still held. It snapped to full extension. “Go back! Tell Skye and Shadow what you’ve done. Ask for their help. I’m done.” He reinforced his words with a blow that shattered another tree trunk, sending bark and wood chips flying.
“I know you’re angry. I deserve that. But I wanted…” she swallowed hard to try and push down the lump in her throat. �
�I’m sorry. What we had was… fraxx. I’m sorry I screwed up the best thing to ever happen to me. You deserved better.”
She turned and bolted into the woods, hardly able to see past the tears that blurred her vision.
She ran until her lungs burned, not caring where she was going or what was in her way. Instinct must have kicked in because when she finally stopped, it only took a few seconds to recognize where she’d wound up. She was near the clearing where she’d first met Striker.
“Might as well grab my stuff while I’m here.” She hadn’t added to her cache of supplies in a while, but if she gathered it all up, she’d have enough. Striker had taught her how to make a simple emergency shelter in case she got lost. She could find a spot to hole up for a few days. She had food, water, a heat source, and a change of clothes. All she needed was shelter from the elements.
She checked the tree for bark spiders and then pulled out her pack and set off to her next hiding place. Striker was right. She’d brought enough trouble to Haven already. He’d been wrong about one thing, though. She needed to stay away from Haven. If she went back, she’d make everyone there a target. She’d stay away as long as she could and hope that by the time she ran out of supplies, the defense grid was back up.
Fraxx. The grid. More pieces of the puzzle fell into place. Taking down the defense grid had to be connected to everything.
She froze as the full weight of that realization sank in. Someone had taken down the grid to reach her. It was her fault the entire colony was vulnerable.
Striker’s words came back to haunt her. “You’ve endangered everything we’re building here.”
Guilt tore at her, shredding her plans to hide away until the danger was past. Striker was right after all. She’d caused this. She needed to stay and fix it.
All her instincts screamed in protest. When things went bad, she cut and run. That’s what she’d always done. Vanished. Regrouped. Started again.
Only this time, there was nowhere else to go. If she left, she was walking away from her home and every friend she had left. She’d be giving it all up and becoming Magpie again.
She didn’t want that.
Resolution stiffened her spine and made her turn back toward the colony. She wasn’t running again. Her hand fell to the kes’tarv at her hip. This time, she’d stand and fight for what she wanted.
12
Striker’s anger swirled around him, as familiar as his favorite boots. He hadn’t felt this way in a long time—not since Reamus Station. Back then he’d used his rage as fuel, letting it burn hot and bright even on his darkest days.
Time and Maggie had helped him leave some of that fury behind, but now he’d been cast into shadow again, and Maggie had sent him there. He’d trusted her…
Another sapling toppled as he lashed out with his kes’tarv. As it hit the ground, he had a flash of insight. Destroying trees wasn’t going to solve anything. It wasn’t making him feel better. He looked down at the weapon in his hand and then at the surrounding woods.
All the platitudes he’d heard since living here came rushing back, only this time, they made more sense. He was more than his programming. Anger and violence weren’t his only choices. Feeling slightly foolish, he took several slow, deep breaths and tried to shake off the dark mood that gripped him.
To his surprise, it worked. The bright edges of his anger dimmed a little. His thoughts cleared. He twisted the grip of his kes’tarv and the weapon retracted into itself. Maggie had fled out of earshot, but he replayed the last few moments of sound. She was headed in the right general direction to make it back to the colony. A little off-course, but she knew these woods well enough to find her way.
Still… things weren’t safe right now. He should let someone know Maggie was headed back. He activated an internal link to Skye. “I hear you were at my place this morning because you were worried about Maggie.”
“I’m sorry I misjudged you,” Skye replied.
“I’m not the only one you misjudged. Maggie fooled us all.” He summarized things for Skye.
“So that’s what she was hiding.”
“You knew?” he demanded.
“About the cheating? No. And I didn’t know about her past until today. Shadow told me after we left your place. Shadow had every human colonist carefully vetted before they were allowed to make the journey. The lottery wasn’t nearly as random as I thought it was.”
“Shadow deliberately brought a thief to Haven? Why the fraxx would she do that?”
“I asked the same thing. She said Maggie and her friend Jade were both excellent candidates. They’re resourceful, determined, and smart.”
“And they cheated to get here.”
“That’s new information and we’ll have to address that. But she’s not the first to manipulate the system to get here.”
“Who else?”
“Every cyborg here,” Skye reminded him.
“River did that. I was locked in a cryo-pod because you and the others told the humans we were too dangerous to be woken up.” He’d been forced into a pod by his captors with no idea if or when he’d ever regain consciousness. When he woke again, he was here, bound by rules he hadn’t agreed to. Haven was their sanctuary, but it was also their prison. None of the cyborgs here were allowed to leave. They had fewer rights than even the rest of their kind.
“And because River and her allies forced Torex Mining Corporation’s hand, we’re free.”
“Not entirely.”
“Would you rather be back on Reamus?”
He growled. “Never.”
“Me either.” Skye was silent for a moment. “You said Maggie was on her way here. I should set out and meet her on the bridge and make sure she’s okay.”
“She wasn’t at my place. I found her in the woods. She thought she could hide at my cabin. I sent her back to the colony.”
“So, you and she are both out in the woods right now despite the danger?”
“For the moment.”
“You two are a lot alike.”
The comment made him smile and then scowl. “I’m nothing like her.”
“If you really believe that, you need to book some time with our new counselor… once she gets here.”
“Not happening. I’m fine. Happy. Sane.” He looked around at the trees he’d broken in his anger. So, maybe not happy. The only time he’d ever truly felt that was when he was with Maggie. Maggie, who had lied to him.
Maggie… who should have made it back to the colony by now.
He was on the move before he even thought about what he was doing. He followed her trail easily. Her boot prints were still fresh and clear on the path. If she’d followed it, she would have wound up near one of the outer bridges, an easy walk away from the human area of Haven.
Now she was headed for… He took a moment to get his bearings. Veth. She wasn’t on her way to the colony. If she kept going in this direction, she’d end up at one of her caches.
“You went quiet. What is it?” Skye asked a few seconds later.
“I don’t think she’s going back. I’ll find her and bring her to you myself. No way can she survive out here without proper shelter. She’s only human.” An unenhanced, soft, stubborn female who was determined to risk her own life if it meant keeping danger away from the rest of the colony. Dammit. She’d said as much, but he’d been too angry to listen.
“Find her. Please?” Skye asked, her voice barely more than a whisper in his head.
“On my way. I know where she’s going. I’ll contact you again when we’re on our way back.” He set off at a ground-eating lope, keeping an eye out for signs of her passage in case he’d been wrong about her destination.
“You’re not going to hurt her. Are you?”
Skye’s question made him flinch. “Never.”
“It’s just… you’re angry. I’ve seen what you can do when you’re like this.”
Something broke deep inside him and a torrent of truth poured out. “I’m sorr
y about your batch-siblings, Skye. But you need to understand something. What I did to them wasn’t out of rage. It was the only way I could end their suffering. Back then, I was angry almost all the time.”
“I remember. You were terrifying.”
“I’m sorry about that, too.” His rage had kept him alive, but it also isolated him, keeping everyone else away. At the time, he’d wanted it that way.
“The only time I wasn’t angry was when they made me fight.”
“But you…” Skye didn’t finish.
“I killed them. Yes. But never in anger. All I felt inside that cage was grief.”
Skye was quiet so long he thought she might have disconnected. “I didn’t know. I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t be. We all had a role to play in that hellish place. We did what we had to do.”
Maggie’s words echoed inside his head. “I was trying to survive. You said you understood that.”
Guilt, regret, and remorse sank their claws into his heart. “I’m an asshole,” he said aloud and then switched to his internal channel. “I’ll message you when I find her.”
“Stay safe. I have a bad feeling about all this.”
He didn’t disagree. He needed to find Maggie and get her back to the colony… just as soon as he apologized. That needed to be done first because no way was he going to let anyone else overhear that conversation. He’d already done enough damage to his reputation today.
When he reached the little clearing, it was empty. The bloodvine had been cleared from her usual path, which meant she’d already been and gone. Which way, though?
He started walking the edge of the space and found her outgoing tracks. It looked like she was heading back to Haven. Why was she heading for the colony if she was planning on hiding in the woods? It didn’t make sense.
Still, her tracks were clear enough. He followed, relieved she’d come to her senses.
His relief was short lived.
Less than two minutes later the bottom fell out of his world. The scent of scorched wood hung on the air, the trees around him marked with blaster impacts. The underbrush had been trampled almost flat in some spots, and he counted at least three pairs of boot prints too large to be Maggie’s.
