This got a reaction out of her. Now instead of one eyebrow raising, both did. We stood there staring at one another as she decided what to do with me.
“I didn’t kill Amber,” Sam said. “I want you to know I didn’t kill her, but neither did I try and stop it. That is something I will regret until the day I die. I should have tried to stop it.”
I swallowed hard. I wasn’t exactly the emotional type, but everything inside the core of my being told me Sam was someone I could trust. She was a sister. Even though I didn’t have memories of us coming up together, it was like my spirit knew and understood who she was.
“I lost my memory five years ago,” I said, trying to figure out where to even begin telling Sam what had happened to me. “I’m still not sure how it happened. All I know is I spent five years not knowing who or what I was. Over the last few days, I’ve been finding out and—well, all roads have led me to you for more answers.”
Sam chewed on her bottom lip.
“I’m not here because I was sent by Immortal Corp or my own revenge,” I continued. Sam was on a teetering point between whether she was going to believe me or not. I needed something to push her over. “I just want answers. I want to make whoever is responsible for killing Amber pay, but most of all, I want her death to mean something. She may be gone, but her spirit will live on. I swear that much.”
“Can’t kill our spirit,” Sam said, nodding slowly.
“Can’t kill our spirit.” I repeated the Pack Protocol mantra. “Help me find a way to honor her death. Please.”
That was enough to send Sam over the edge. She nodded, slowly removing the blade from her sheath.
“I want you to know that if everything you said is the truth and you did forget who you were that when we trained I was always better than you at hand-to-hand combat,” Sam said, eyeing me seriously. “If you try anything, I won’t hesitate to sever your head from your body. Do you understand me, Danny?”
“No tricks,” I told her. “I’m not here for a fight. I’m here to talk.”
Sam nodded again. She took a step forward as if she were going to release me from my chains then hesitated.
“Before I get you down, I want to know as much as you do what happened to you?” Sam asked. “Where have you been for the last five years?”
“I’ll tell you everything I know,” I said.
The next half hour, I told her all that I remembered. She would ask a question here or there, but for the most part remained content to let me explain.
I started back at waking up in the alley on the moon with nothing more than my name. I told her about Wesley Cage and Echo, about the Reapers and Phoenix and finally about delving into Echo’s memory.
Sam let out a low whistle when I was finished.
“Sounds like you’ve been through the meat grinder, Danny,” Sam said, walking over to me. She sheathed her knife then took a key from her pocket. One, then the other, she let me go from my chains.
“Thanks,” I said, massaging my wrists. “Sorry I had to find you like this.”
“It’s my fault for thinking that members of the Pack were beyond absolution,” Sam said. “I should have known better. Amber changed and I followed in her footsteps. I’m glad you’ve found a different path as well.”
I nodded.
“I told you everything I know,” I said, rubbing the sleep from my eyes. I had no idea what time it was, but it had to be sometime early in the morning. “I could use some answers myself.”
“Let’s get you out of this cell and maybe some food in that black hole you call a stomach,” Sam said with the first smile I’d seen yet. “Some things never change. I can hear it rumbling from here.”
Sam pounded a very precise code on the closed door. “You can let us out. He’s safe now.”
The door swung outward.
Sam motioned to me. “Come on, Daniel, you’ve waited long enough for answers. It’s time you had them.”
Chapter Fourteen
Sam led me with a quartet of guards to her home. We walked down the well-kept clean streets. The sun was just beginning to rise over the horizon. I received glares from a few of the guards while others looked at me with a mix of awe and suspicion.
I guess I couldn’t expect much else. I had just cut through a number of their own like a buzz saw. Even if I had no other choice and I hadn’t directly been the executioner, the dead were dead and there was no going back now.
We left Cecile’s main street and made a hard left. At the end of the path, a large house stood with four white pillars in front. It wasn’t quite a mansion but larger than most of the houses I had yet to see.
“When I liberated the city of Cecile from a gang that had taken over called the Skull Bearers, it wasn’t much more than a dirt road and a few shacks,” Sam said, looking at the well-maintained street and homes on either side. “I didn’t come here thinking I was going to improve the life of the community, but I guess life has a funny way of taking you down roads you didn’t intend.”
I nodded silently, sensing she wasn’t done talking.
“We worked hard over the years to make the city something better,” Sam said with a sigh of weary pride. “The rival gangs in the Badlands have left us alone for the most part. What I did to them when I first came hasn’t been easily forgotten. Anyone who comes here now looking for trouble is dealt with quickly and brutally. Pretty much everyone who lives here is a trained warrior.”
We reached the end of the road and Sam’s home.
“Peso,” Sam said, looking at the guard on my right. He was a hard-nosed man with grizzle over his jaw. “Can you return Daniel’s gear and weapon to him? Let the others know he’s a friend and can be trusted.”
“Yes-yes, ma’am,” Peso said with a sharp nod. He eyed me one more time then left with the other guards down the street.
“I don’t think he likes me much,” I said.
“He will, give him time,” Sam answered. “I’ll address the rest of them tomorrow. Giving them standing orders to kill any stranger with a wolf tattoo on their left shoulder was a mistake. I’ll deal with the fallout. That’s on me.”
Sam led me through the front door. Wood floors covered the inside of the house with brown furniture that matched and tall white walls. A staircase on the right opened up, leading to the upper floor, while a hall led deeper into the house.
Sam motioned me forward, taking the lead down the hall to a wide open room that was half kitchen, half living room.
“We’ll get you food and answers and then you can sleep until your heart’s content,” Sam said, going over to the pantry and taking out an assortment of ingredients. She made me a meal while she told me the story I so desperately wanted to hear.
I pulled up a stool to the counter island and listened to a tale that felt so familiar.
“We were just kids when they recruited us,” Sam said as she worked on the sandwich in front of her. “Well, most of us were. Preacher was the only exception. They promised us purpose, stability, and family. And for a time, they gave us just that. You don’t remember any of those years? The tests, the training?”
“Nothing,” I said, my mouth watering for the food she was preparing as my mind watered for more of my past.
“We tested and trained year after year until they turned our bodies into super weapons and honed our fighting ability to needle-sharp points. There were seven of us all together: you, me, Amber, Preacher, Echo, Spartan, and Angel. You still like spread and spice in your sandwich?”
“Yeah, I like it all,” I said, finding it strange and somehow wonderful that someone, anyone knew what I enjoyed to eat. “Keep going. What was I like?”
“No offense,” Sam said, passing me a monster sandwich on a plate with a side of chips and a pickle. “You were kind of a scrawny kid. You were depressed, struggled with anxiety, the works. You had the right spirit, though. There was no denying that. We all did. That’s what saw us through the training. Through those rough years of practice an
d drills and more practice and more drills.”
I bit into the sandwich, forcing myself to eat and swallow before biting again and again. The food was great. Sam knew what she was doing around a sandwich.
“We went on missions for Immortal Corp,” Sam said with a heavy sigh. “We thought we were working for the good guys, but the honest truth is, we’ll never know how many of those people we killed were innocent and how many were guilty. To be honest with you, I don’t want to know.”
Sam paused, taking time to make her own sandwich.
“Maybe it’s not such a bad thing you don’t remember all of it,” Sam said, slicing the meat with her knife. “Maybe it’s a blessing in disguise. I can still see their faces. I can hear them plead and scream as we cut them down. Every night, every night.”
“You didn’t—we didn’t know,” I said, pausing between mouthfuls of food. “How could we have known? I have bits and pieces of when Wesley recruited me. He seemed like a good guy who actually cared. When he came to me on the moon, I got that same feeling.”
“Cage wasn’t like any of the other handlers,” Sam said around a mouthful of food. “He was the best of them. I think he did actually care about doing some good. Maybe he was used by Immortal Corp just as much as we were. So yeah, there are more details we can go over, whatever you want to know, but those are the key points.”
“Can you tell me about Amber?” I asked hesitantly. It was a conversation I mostly wanted to know, although there was a strong voice in my head telling me not to do it.
“Amber was a firework,” Sam said, finishing her sandwich and taking the plates to clean. “She had this smile that made you feel like you were the most important person in the world. Her capacity to love is what made her the first to open her eyes and see what was really going on. You two were great together.”
“The Order.” I furrowed my brow, trying to remember what I knew from Echo’s memory. “The heads of Immortal Corp, those three shadow figures on the screens. They’re the ones who ordered you to kill Amber because she was trying to bring peace with the Order?”
“We mostly took our orders from handlers like Wesley Cage,” Sam said, pouring us both a glass of water. She handed me mine then drained her own. “As far as I know, no one has ever seen the identity of the three on the screens. They only came by to give us orders of the utmost importance. In my years with Immortal Corp, I have only seen them twice. The second time was when they ordered me to kill Amber. I don’t know who they are.”
“You don’t, but a handler like Wesley Cage might,” I mused out loud.
“Maybe,” Sam said, looking out the window at the rising sun. “You know, I look out this window every day telling myself that I’m not that same animal they tried to turn us into. I tell myself that I’m making up for my past sins by helping this city. But I know it’s only a matter of time before my past comes to catch up with me. If you were able to find me, they will too. Or maybe they already know where I am.”
“I’m not telling anyone where you are, if that’s what you’re worried about,” I said. “But I agree, if Wesley Cage was able to find me, then they’ll find you sooner or later.”
“I’ve got more to lose now,” Sam said, biting her lip. “I have a city that will fight with me, but a city might not be enough to fend off Immortal Corp.”
“What about Phoenix?” I asked. “They have an army. Not only an army, they’re trying to bring about a real lasting peace and a new chance for Earth.”
“Phoenix, huh?” Sam looked over at me with that raised eyebrow of hers. “You a rebel for the good guys now?”
“Maybe I’m just tired of being a tool for the bad guys,” I said. “I made a promise to help someone from Phoenix get her father back. After that, I’m on my own. I’m going to keep getting answers to my past and take down Immortal Corp while I’m at it.”
Sam let out a low whistle. “Taking down Immortal Corp is going to be easier said than done. They’re massive, well-funded, and have a heritage that goes back centuries.”
“I’ve got to,” I said. “The more I find out about them, the more I understand what I have to do. For me, for Amber, for what they did to us.”
“I’d help you, but—”
Slapping bare feet on the wood caught my ear. Not just walking but running. Someone was sprinting toward us down the hall.
Chapter Fifteen
Sam moved faster than I did, going to the entrance to the hall and crouching down with her arms open. A ball of dark red hair and energy slammed into her with a hug.
“Momma, Momma.” The little girl hugged Sam tightly around her neck. “I’m hungry, I’m hungry.”
“Well, of course you are,” Sam said, smiling as she lifted the girl off the floor. “You’re always hungry. Hey, I have someone I want you to meet.”
The little girl pulled back from her mom and looked at me for the first time. She smiled shyly then nuzzled her head against her mother’s chest.
“Daniel, I’d like you to meet my daughter, Amber,” Sam said, looking at me. She then turned to the little girl. “Amber, this is Daniel, he’s—he’s your uncle.”
My eyes were wide. I was unsure how to process any of this. Not only did Sam have a daughter, but she named her after Amber and she introduced me as family.
“Uh—hi, hey there,” I said, offering a handshake.
Do kids even shake hands? I asked myself. How am I supposed to say hello? Do I call her my niece if I was introduced as her uncle?
“I’m shy,” Amber said, burying her face in Sam again.
“Oh please, that’s a first.” Sam laughed out loud. “Come on, be polite. Say hello.”
“Hello,” Amber managed from behind two chunky hands she put over her face.
I dropped my offered hand, feeling like an idiot. My expression must have said it all because Sam went on to take control of the situation.
“I never thought a life like this could be mine,” Sam said, slowly swaying as she held her daughter. “I know I don’t deserve this, but I’m prepared to protect it now with everything I’ve got.”
I nodded, understanding everything Sam wasn’t saying. She was prepared to sacrifice herself for her daughter. She wouldn’t be coming with me after Immortal Corp. Maybe she would have walked that path before, but not now.
Seeing the joy in her face as she held her daughter to her chest, I didn’t blame her. I couldn’t blame her. Despite everything, I was actually happy for her.
“All right, munchkin.” Sam kissed her daughter on her soft bed of dark red hair. “I’m going to sit you down so you can get some breakfast.”
“No, hold me, hold me,” Amber said, clinging to her mother.
“Come on, let me put you down just for a second.” Sam laughed. “You said you’re hungry. Let me get you some food.”
The little girl seemed content with that trade-off.
Sam placed her on one of the stools around the kitchen island.
“I came here looking for a city to call my own,” Sam explained. “What I found was something I wasn’t ready for. I found a community and a family of my own. Her father’s asleep upstairs. He’s a good man, Daniel, not like us.”
I ran my right hand through my short dark hair. There were words for a moment like this, but I couldn’t find them.
“I’m happy for you, Sam,” I said, meaning what I was saying. “I really am. I’m glad you were able to find this. I take it you named her Amber after—”
“That’s right,” Sam said, returning to her daughter with some kind of protein pack in her hand and a glass of milk. “She’s named Amber after her aunt. After the woman who was brave enough to be the first one to change.”
Sam’s daughter took the food with wide eyes and went to town on both the milk and the protein pack. She was small, but she could chow down in a hurry.
I rubbed my tired eyes, trying to remember when was the last time I slept. I had a few hours on the dropship and that had been it since the previous m
orning.
“You look like you’re about to keel over,” Sam said with a grin. “Come on, we have a spare downstairs bedroom where you can sleep. You can take a shower now or when you wake up. We’ll talk more later.”
I nodded dumbly, my eyes straying over to where Sam’s daughter was bobbing up and down on her seat humming some tune I didn’t know but sounded oddly familiar.
The little girl looked happy, lost in her own small world where there were no Cyber Hunters, Immortal Corp, or memories of death. I saw that innocence and something inside of me wanted to protect it as if I was actually her real uncle.
“Momma’s going to be right back,” Sam said to her daughter. “Uncle Daniel needs to take a nap. I’m going to show him where to sleep.”
“You’re tired?” Amber said, looking up at me with wide eyes. “You take naps too?”
“I love naps,” I told her with a smile. “I take them whenever I can get them.”
“I don’t like naps.” Amber shook her head violently from side to side. “Uh, uh.”
“I bet,” I said with a grin. “You’ll feel different when you’re older. I guarantee it.”
I followed Sam back down the hall toward the front door. We made a left past the stairs where another door greeted us. This room was like a hybrid guest room with a bathroom in the back.
“Get some rest, get cleaned up, and then we can talk some more,” Sam told me. “I’ll grab some of my husband’s clothes and set them outside the door for you.”
“Okay,” I said, looking over the sparsely decorated yet inviting room. “Thank you.”
“I’m glad you came,” Sam said as she paused at the door. “I’m glad someone else made it out of Immortal Corp alive.”
With that, she closed the door behind her, leaving me to my own thoughts.
I was dead tired, but the thought of going to sleep in the clothes I wore was less than compelling. The white sheets on the guest bed led me straight to the shower.
The hot water felt like a gift. A bar of white soap stood ready on a recess in the shower like an alert guard ready for battle.
Absolution: A Near Future Thriller (Forsaken Mercenary Book 2) Page 9
