by LM. Preston
At a lost for words, she smiled. “Thanks,” her voice cracked and a hopeful smile bloomed on her face.
Special Andrews came up behind one of the guards. “Let her in. It’s her father, and she may not…just let her in.”
Numbness enveloped her. It was as though she was walking in a fog. Her father’s bed lay flat, his brown thick muscle-corded body lax as a breathing apparatus protruded from his mouth. Her voice cracked. “Has my mother…is she okay?”
Special Andrews stood next to her. “We had to sedate her. She crawled out of her bed and down the hall to see him when she heard the alarm. We didn’t want her recovery to be in jeopardy. Whatever device they used to disable the technosuits is also weakening the underlying muscle tissue, even organs.”
Confusion marred her face. “Why didn’t I…suffer like them?”
“They had a house fall on them. But the innate power you hold within protected you. I was there when they administered the enhancement drugs into your deceased body when you were just a baby. It was more than any grown man had ever taken. When you came back to life—I could have sworn you glowed with energy. Before I could blink, it was gone. When your technosuit was inactive, that power rose up in you again and protected you. We never took the time to study the effects of your recovery. Your father kept your powers a secret from us.”
She nodded. “I know. He didn’t trust the Earth scientists to leave me alone.” Her hand caressed his cool jaw. “Will he be okay?” Will I be okay?
“I’m going to stay here all night until he is. Trust me, if there is anything I can do to save him, it will be done.”
“Thank you.” Her eyes were glued to her father’s form, watching for any sign of recovery. “What happened? How’d they find him?”
“He was on the floor. Like he’d been fighting with someone. But no one was here. By that time,” Special Andrews, shook his head as if deciding not to share his thoughts, but put a hand on her arm, “I’m sorry though, you and Valens must go.”
Valens came up beside her and reached out for her hand. Without a fight, she placed hers in his. They walked out of the hospital room and down the hall to the elevator in silence, hand in hand.
His hand slackened and she held his firm. She couldn’t do it, wouldn’t let him slip away without telling him how she felt. “Valens, I’m still in love with you. I’m sorry, but there is something going on that I can’t tell you about. I want to…but I can’t.”
“Shamira, I…”
“I know I can trust you, but I have to do this by myself. J-just promise you will take me back when this is all over? That you forgive me for pushing you away? I promise to tell you everything tonight…at your house.”
He observed her, warring emotions on his face. “Does that mean you are giving me everything? That after tonight, you won’t leave me? You’ll let me in your heart and stop pushing me away? Because I can’t keep doing this, loving you and…fighting you, to love you.”
She nodded, her hand reached tentatively to caress his cheek. Relief flooded over her when he didn’t flinch away, but accepted her touch. “Yes, yes, I love you so much…I was just afraid. After that, I’ll give you everything. All of me like you want. I won’t be afraid to love you back the way you love me. And so much is going wrong for me right now that…everything hurts. The power in me is fighting to get out and when it comes I’m so different. But we can figure it out...”
Valens smiled. “Yeah, tonight.”
Pulling her into his arms, he kissed her. Shamira whimpered as she felt bliss, peace and love. Valens deepened the kiss, tightening his hold on her before she reluctantly pulled away.
Shamira buried her face in his neck. “It seems like forever since I’ve kissed you. I wanted to s-so bad.”
The door to the elevator opened and they walked inside. “Me too.”
The elevator let them off on the main level. They walked through the enclosed connector ramp to the headquarters main building in silence, hand in hand.
Shamira’s mind replayed and now she knew, just saving her life wasn’t so important. Saving those kids that were coerced into getting into that van was just as pressing. “Tonight, Kurt and I saw Freaksheap send some kids into a van. Once they got inside—they didn’t want to go. I saw one being dragged in when the door slammed.”
His expression turned grave. “Not again. Why?” He sighed.
“I know. I felt the same way. Kurt and I couldn’t stop it though, they pulled off, then Freaksheep ran. Now I realized he wanted us to chase him.” Shamira shook her head. “I made a big mistake. I should’ve followed the kids. Saved them…”
“It’ll be all right. You handle what you have to handle, and I’ll get Kurt and the others. Trust me, we’ll find out where those kids were taken, and get them safe by tonight.” He tugged her hand. Turning her toward him, he leaned down for a kiss. “I love you. God, I love you so much it hurts to look at you and know you aren’t mine.”
“I feel the same, and I promise, I won’t push you away again. I…can’t lose you.” Her expression got foggy as the terror-filled look of the little boy that was being pulled in the van appeared in her thoughts. “I know you will do it…save those kids. Can you meet up with me if you have a location?” Reluctantly she pulled away, then licked her lips, before stealing another quick kiss.
He dug in his pocket. “Oh, here, this is something I created last week. It’s a flesh-colored telecom device that’s activated by brain waves. I gave everyone theirs already. You don’t even have to speak out loud for it to turn on and call anyone on the team.” He put the clear colored, sticky device in the curve of her ear. Then he leaned in and kissed her ear. “It can’t be detected and works on a hidden frequency. If I find the kids, and you are busy, meet us here. We’ve got to move fast.”
They arrived at the adjoining hall to the offices at Security Force Headquarters.
She squeezed his hand. “Tonight.”
Valens leaned down, kissed her cheek and whispered, “Tonight.”
Chapter 34
Shamira rushed to her father’s office. Something told her she could find a clue somewhere that would lead her to the assailant who attempted to murder her parents. Thankfully, the hall was empty. She wanted answers and she wanted them now. Reconciling with Valens wasn’t her intention, but with all that was going on in her life right now, she needed his steady calmness to keep her centered. He just…completed her, and understood her without judgment.
If she had to tell him that one of their friends—teammates attempted to kill her father, and was most likely the mole that led the assassins to them at every turn, she had to be absolutely sure. Whoever it was, she didn’t know how she could restrain herself from killing them because of their betrayal. She’d never trusted anyone before the take down of Monev, and to give that trust only to have it used against her…was more than she could take.
Her father’s office door was closed. She eyed it suspiciously, noticing several deep scratches around the decorative door handle.
“Oh, uh…Shamira?” Anthony asked as he appeared out of nowhere.
Shamira jumped a bit, surprised by his sudden appearance, then looked behind him at the cube wall just outside her father’s office.
“An-thony? What are you doing here?” Her jaw clenched. And oddly, she got a feeling he was just as uncomfortable running into her.
“I…um, just came to get something from Willa’s desk. She, um, had some of my stats here from our testing a couple of weeks ago.” He nodded at her father’s office door. “What’s up?”
“Valens is looking for you. We have a lead on some kids that were kidnapped. He’s trying to find them.”
Anthony’s face relaxed. “Cool, I’m on my way to his desk anyway. Knowing him, he probably went to the lab.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Yeah, he gave me one of those new telecom devices he created. You got yours on?”
Anthony scratched his wrist. He shrugged. “No, it itches just as bad as thi
s rash on my wrist.”
“Well, put it on before you go out with them. I may need to reach you.” Her eyes did a quick scan of the folder he held in his hand. Names and codes that looked strangely like a passcode list were on several pages within.
He nodded, squeezing the folder in his free hand. “Yeah…sure, see you around.” Anthony rushed past her.
She watched him depart, unable to shake the feeling that something was off—really off. But she couldn’t ponder too much on that now. Absently keying in the sequence to open her father’s office, she pressed in and waited to hear the click. With a hasty glance around, she entered.
Something nagged her. They didn’t talk about an investigation, no one seemed to be concerned that her father had been poisoned. It was as if they didn’t even know. Maybe they think it was a relapse from the first attack, but she knew it wasn’t. Another thought snaked into her mind as she rummaged through his desk drawer. About the mole. The accusation that the mole who did this to her father was someone they greatly trusted or someone so far up the food chain, they could easily cover up a murder attempt. She had a sneaking feeling that it could be both.
Shamira sat at her father’s desk and used his password to log in. Her fingers slid quickly on the 3D keyboard as she hacked into the security system. She wanted to see who’d been in her father’s room that day. Tediously, she sped through pieces of time before her arrival.
“What the…” She panned back on the video entry and realized that the camera within the room was riddled with static. Someone had purposefully killed the signal to her father’s room about two hours before she arrived.
An angry growl escaped her lips. “Can’t see who’s in there. Hmm, let me get the vids from the hall.” She backtracked the video and realized that one of the guards appeared to answer a call on his telecom. He’d touched his ear to activate it and spoke rapidly before running off—leaving her father’s room unprotected.
“Who came down the hall after the guard left?” Her fingers scrolled forward through the videos, but nothing actually showed anyone go into the room. Two more clicks, and Dion’s face appeared. He’d slowed, stopped at the door, and the film ended. “Dion? Wait.” Shamira scrolled just a bit forward. The video fuzzed up and another figure appeared in the hall. “Anthony? No.” She put her hand up to her mouth. In disbelief, she watched him walk down the hall. Anthony, looked around like he was expecting the guards to be in front of her father’s room door, and upon assurance that no one was there, he took a step inside the room.
Air trapped in her throat, her eyes watered at his deceit, and she felt like a knife was plunged into her heart. Anthony was her friend, a good friend. Like her giant protector, she’d thought. Now though, she knew him as a traitor and a killer.
“I’ve…got to make sure.”
She tapped on the video clip for the room, saw him walk across the threshold, and the screen went dead. Frantically, she clicked through the remaining minutes of video, only to realize they had been tampered with. They showed black, as though the image was rolling but it had been darkened out.
Shamira let out a breath, and searched the videos until she located the one that recorded just in front of her father’s office. She clicked the cameras that followed Anthony’s departure. She pushed her finger rapidly. Her leg jumped to an anxious rhythm, while Anthony left in haste and got on his motorcycle.
“You never went to see Valens…but you left? To go where? Who are you working with? And what’s in that folder that’s important to someone?” Her hand came down on the desk, anger and hurt crawled up like a ball in her gut.
With shaking hands, she stood, went to her father’s weapons closet and grabbed a few handheld pieces and his gun. Thankfully, she hadn’t changed, but had enough time to track Anthony with full gear. If she found that he was the mole on the team she’ll have to find out if there were others. The best place to start was with him.
It took just a few strokes on the keypad on her computerized wristband to find his coordinates. He didn’t have Hedi’s skill to cloak his whereabouts. “Anthony, you better have some good answers for me, or you…will die.”
Chapter 35
Shamira jumped on her motorcycle, revved the engine and hit the road. The heavy winds aided in cooling her angry, heated skin. I’ll kill him. I swear, if he did this to my father…my friends, Anthony’s my enemy. I don’t—can’t believe it is him.
“Something…something, still doesn’t seem right. I have to look him in the eye to be sure, but I will get my answers—from his lips!” she hissed.
Her wrist vibrated and she spoke into her helmet. “Connect to locator for Cadet Anthony.”
The computer within her helmet responded in Cal’s voice, a reminder to push her harder for answers. “Locked on Cadet Anthony.”
“Predict possible routes and landmarks.” Her eyes blinked to activate a visual on the side of her helmet visor. The streets blurred by her while she swallowed her greatest fear—they were heading toward the Mons.
The computer alerted, “Routes mapped. Sector boundary coming up. Air filtration main station and Olympus Mons, largest volcano on planet Mars.”
Beads of energy crisscrossed on her back. Her beast, energy, anger was scratching at the surface, warring with the barriers of her technosuit. She inhaled slowly in calming breaths. “Why are you going there? What do you know?”
She couldn’t believe he would go back there. Anthony had to have a reason. That place meant nothing but death to them. It was where they thought the war with Monev ended. Unfortunately, it was where the war began. It marked the first attack on them—on her and those that she loved. There, at that place where kids were used to mine drugs for Monev, she’d known nothing but destruction and sadness.
A beep from the helmet sounded deep within her ear. It was a call from Valens’ device. In a blink of an eye, she answered, “Valens? Is that you?”
“Yeah, it’s me. We found out where the kids may be. I’m heading out with the others now.”
“Okay. I’m following a lead now. I may have answers about our mole.”
“Good. Hey, you seen Anthony? He’s not answering his com.”
“Yeah, I saw him earlier. He said he doesn’t wear it—that it itches.” Shamira forced herself not to think of Anthony’s deception so it wouldn’t transmit to Valens in any way.
He made a sound that seemed like he smacked his teeth. “Figured he’d say that. He’s got a thing about things on his ears. Heck, anywhere on his body. I can’t get him to wear any of my inventions long.”
“Humph, I can see that.”
“Just so you know, to use the device it only catches loud thoughts so keep thinking loudly. I’ll check in after we get them. I love you.”
Even while angry at Anthony, Valens voice had a way of tickling her heart. “Thanks. I love you too.” She tightened her hands on the handlebars. She couldn’t bring herself to tell him just yet. Her proof had to be iron tight.
The helmet showed a close up visual of the back of Anthony’s motorcycle as it weaved down the last mile of paved road, before the barrier of the jagged rock wall. He was about a mile in front of her, maybe more, but it was a good distance to keep her out of view. She’d deduced that he was either going to meet someone, or look for something. He was speeding like he was being chased. But she knew Anthony wasn’t aware of her following him. It made her wonder if he was afraid someone else was.
Now outside of the Sector’s limits, more sand flew up with the wind. But she accelerated her bike into the desert leading to The Mons, willing herself to put her fear and sadness of this place aside to get the answers to save her parents. She’d pass the Air Filtration towers and one of the Field Air Filtration Operation Centers on the way. It was the only way humans could live on the planet. It recycled the air, making it breathable and also helped manage temperatures along with the underground heating pipes.
The Mons stood angrily, higher and higher the closer she drove. A simmering
burn started in the pit of her stomach and she blinked, squeezing her eyes to fight against it. Bile forced its way up her throat at the memories of all the atrocities withstood at the towering reminder that the war on crime was still on. She swallowed it down as her eyes flicked to the side of the screen within her helmet to watch Anthony.
Anthony stopped about two miles ahead at a small cluster of abandoned buildings that she figured were the original buildings for the Air Filtration Management System. A few years ago they’d moved the management of this site to Sector 7.
Shamira slowed her pursuit. She had to figure out a way to proceed without the bike.
“Computer, do you have a hovercraft attached?” Most rides didn’t, but the souped up models sometimes did. She hoped Cal’s would.
“Yes. It’s detachable under the frame.”
Relief flooded her. She couldn’t—wouldn’t mess up on this one, like with the kids earlier. Either she had to nail Anthony on his betrayal, or find out what was driving him to come here. There would be no slipping up on this, she had to get to him and fast. Slowing the motorcycle, she searched out a boulder, rock or formation where she could park it undetected.
“Find a place to hide,” she commanded the computer controlling the bike.
“Will do, release handlebars please.” Within seconds the computer took over and parked the bike behind a large boulder that just covered up its top.
Shamira got off the back and it collapsed down on the wheels. She searched for the hovercraft and realized it looked like piece of the motorcycle. Her finger pressed the lever by the front wheel and she detached the hovercraft from beneath the frame under the seat. Briefly, she looked at her wrist computer. With a waving of her finger over the surface, the screen changed to a miniature map of the surroundings. Anthony was a red dot. She bent and pressed the button on the side of the hovercraft, which connected it to the navigation program on her watch.
She kicked the back of the hovercraft’s curved back and balanced her stance on its flat surface. Sand spiraled up as the board lifted her several feet into the air. Her front foot tapped the hovercraft and it lowered an inch, keeping her above ground but low. With a tilt of her back foot, she rose into the air. Anthony’s dot had stopped moving. She figured he was checking out the abandoned air filtration station just off from the straight path Mons. It was within the perimeter and would be good option for him before attempting the dead landmine trail to the Mons.
