by S. E. Weir
“Do you know what’s the worst thing about that question?” Masha continued as if she hadn’t heard him. “It’s that asking me is the nicest thing you’ve said to me in years. Years! And it took a bullet to do it!”
“Hey, I’ve said plenty of nice things to you!” Link protested but winced as he felt a streak of pain.
“Oh?” Masha retorted ungraciously. “Name one.”
“Well...” Link hesitated before he found something to grab onto. Like just a minute ago when he’d compared seeing her to heaven, although he shouldn’t have said that. “I told you last week that your sword work has improved.”
Masha pressed her lips together and glowered at him with disapproval. The tear tracks on her face had already begun to dry, thankfully. It had taken five years off his life to see her so scared. Mad was much better, even if it was directed at him. Mad he knew what to do with. Mad didn’t scare him to death.
“Ooh, you make me so mad sometimes,” Masha seethed. Link wondered if he had gone too far this time in pushing her buttons.
“Yes, I’m getting that distinct impression,” he mumbled as he turned his head, wincing at the sharp pain running through him. Phina had her hands on Jack’s head while Shaw stood guarding her back. Good on them.
After another stab of pain, Link began to wonder why they hadn’t made a run to a Pod-doc yet. He weakly called, “Medic.”
Masha remained oblivious as she continued on a tirade of his characteristics. “Oblivious, arrogant, rude... Obnoxious! Abrasive! Childish!”
Link blinked in disbelief and mentally sounded a retreat. “Can we get back to part with the tears and concern for my welfare? That was nice...”
Masha froze before exploding. “Ugh! If you weren’t wounded already, I would slap you so hard!”
“What?” Link frowned. “What did I say?”
She fumed as she rose on her knees. Link thought she had never been more beautiful. “I’m explaining that I’ve been waiting for years for you to finally wake up and see me for me and not just as your beta agent! I can’t wait any longer for you to realize I love you and maybe decide you love me, too.”
Link had felt like a steam roller had flattened him already from the bullet, but now it seemed to have another go at it. He almost missed Masha’s next words.
She glared at him, broken-hearted but resolved. “So, I’m leaving! I won’t leave you in the lurch and I will help clean all this mess up, but I can’t stay any longer than that. It’s all clear now.”
“No!” he protested, reaching for her and grunting when he used the wrong side. “You can’t go.”
“I have to.” She shook her head sadly. “I can’t go on like this.”
Masha pushed herself to her feet and was about to call another agent to help him when he couldn’t take it anymore. The words burst out of him in a pained gasp.
“Bloody hell, woman! Can’t you see I’m trying to tell you I love you too?”
Masha froze a second time, then turned her expressionless face toward him. “What did you say?”
All the agents in hearing distance stopped fighting and stared at them. He sighed and mentally assigned his dignity to the recycle bin. He’d come this far.
Link cleared his throat. “I said I love you too, Masha. I have loved you for years.”
She stared at him for long enough that he began to wonder if he’d made a terrible hash of the business. He’d never told a woman he loved her before, so how the hell would he have gotten any experience in doing so?
Masha sank back down on her knees and whispered, “You aren’t just saying that because I want to hear it so you can keep me here at Spy Corps?”
He huffed, attempting to save a scrap of pride. “Does that sound like something I would do?”
“Yes.”
“Hmm.” Link reflected on the idea of karma. When Masha made to move away again, he reached out and grabbed her hand. He spoke with all sincerity in his heart. “Masha. I meant it. I’ve loved you for years. It’s always been you.”
“Then why didn’t you say anything before now?” Masha vacillated between elation and irritation.
Link thought she was beautifully perfect that way and resolved to keep her in that state as much as possible. He splayed his free hand out regretfully. “I’m the boss, love. You had to make the first move, or it could be considered sexual harassment or coercion.”
“Of all the things!” Masha gaped in astonishment. “Really? You were just waiting for me to say something?”
He nodded. “Every day.”
Masha choked up again with tears. “I love you, Greyson.”
“I love you, Masha.”
Cheers sounded from the agents surrounding them.
“Kiss her!” an agent called.
A chant began. “Kiss! Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!”
They glanced around in surprise before their gazes caught. They smiled, finally allowing themselves to see the love in each other’s eyes. Masha leaned over and obliged them amidst more cheers, though Link was able to hold on with a surprising grip considering he’d been shot.
Masha leaned back and shook her head in bemusement. “Phina completely called that. She told me to tell you how I felt.”
He grinned. “She’s good that way. Helping without revealing other people’s secrets.”
“You love her, don’t you?” Masha asked.
Link didn’t see any reason to deny it. “She’s family. Like a niece or an adopted daughter, but yes. I do love her.”
Masha gave him a wide smile and leaned down to give him another kiss that was far too short. She turned toward Phina as she leaned back but quickly stopped.
Her expression of alarm caused him to whip his head around much faster than his wound allowed.
The pain alone caused him to feel faint, but the sight in front of him almost stopped his heart.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Gaitune-67, Spy Corps Headquarters and Base, Dining Room
Phina opened her eyes after she’d finished releasing all of Jack’s suppressed memories when she registered gasps of shock. Jack opened his eyes a beat later, intense relief on his face.
Shaw’s voice rose in a warning. “Phina.”
They both turned to the left and saw a tall female alien with purplish skin and flat black eyes standing beside them. Her humanoid body resembled an insect in appearance. She wore a simple robe as clothing.
The alien viewed them with all the emotionless curiosity of a scientist examining an interesting experiment. Her head tilted to meet Phina’s gaze.
Jack reached out and grasped Phina’s hand in a strong grip. “Phina,” he said urgently. “That’s her.”
Phina gently broke his hold and patted him reassuringly. “I know, Jack.”
The alien smoothly pulled Phina’s last knife out of her sheath and thrust it into Jack’s chest before anyone could react.
Phina had seen it coming, but the alien’s speed caused her to be just a hair too late.
“No!” Phina cried, staring at the wound in the middle of Jack’s chest as he jerked in response, pulling in air with choking gasps.
She felt a dry hand with segmented fingers grasp her arm. Before Phina could respond, the view of her surroundings changed from the base’s dining room to a gray-white space with lightning storms spreading in the distance.
For the third time in her life, Phina found herself in the Etheric involuntarily.
Shaw was angry when he couldn’t move in time to save Jack from the alien. When Phina disappeared right in front of him, that feeling changed to helplessness.
Jack’s choking gasps brought him out of his frozen stupor in time to hear Greyson Wells calling in a struggling voice, “Don’t just stand there, Shaw! It’s the Pod-doc for both of us. I can use the one on my ship. Take Jack to Medical. Now! There’s a chance we can save him, and Phina’s not here to do whatever she did to save me.”
Shaw shook off the emotions freezing him up and did his job. The top three ag
ents in Spy Corps were essentially out of commission, considering Masha wasn’t going to take even a step away from Greyson Wells. He had to pick up the slack, no matter how he felt.
He pointed at Felan, Savas, Ian, and Kabaka, assigning two each to quickly carry Jack and Greyson to the appropriate locations and get them into the Pod-docs. He told two of the team leaders to show them where to go and use their authorization.
“As for the rest of you,” he spoke firmly as he scanned the room, “we need to have a little talk.”
The Etheric
Phina rose from her knees and stepped away from the alien, keeping her in her sight as a memory crashed into her.
“Phina, there will come a day when you will be up against someone without being able to do all your background checks on them.” Link waved his beer in the air as they lounged at the bar. “It’s just the nature of the work. So, when you meet them, they will be a blank slate to you. Remember the rules I taught you. Notice everything, keep your mask on, and be prepared for anything. Draw information out of them. The more you know, the more choice you have as to how to handle them. While you do all that, remember to lie through your teeth if you sense that truth will be a danger to you. Don’t let them catch you off guard.”
She kept his words in mind and held herself back, waiting for this isopod-like alien to let her know what the agenda was. However, she began to rethink that strategy.
If this was who Phina believed her to be, this alien was dangerous without speaking a word.
“Why did you come yourself?” she finally asked.
The alien continued her slow movements from one foot to the next. Phina had the sense that she had been surprised.
“An intelligent question.” The alien’s voice was as dry as bark. “Depending, of course, on the reasoning by which you came to it.”
“An intelligent question usually seeks to achieve an answer.” Phina spoke mildly. “However, I can see you do not have much respect at all for the asker, and you have no intention of answering.”
“A reasonable assumption based on my given response.” The female tilted her wide head to the side as she continued pacing around Phina. “In this case, it is the correct one. What respect does one give to chattel? For that is what all lesser species are to us.”
“Ah.” Phina spoke with satisfaction. “You are Kurtherian. I had thought as much.”
The alien stopped, her flat black eyes blinking so quickly Phina almost missed it. “You expected a Kurtherian?”
“It was the only logical answer.” Phina spoke modestly but with a slight tone of surprise that she hoped would draw the female to elaborate. She suppressed her grin of triumph when the female asked the question Phina hoped she would.
“The answer to what question? There was no reason to expect me. I left no tracks anywhere.” She spoke with impatience.
Phina shook her head. “I’m afraid it was obvious.”
“Ah. You recognized something in the methods by which I utilized my failed acolyte just now.”
“No, it wasn’t Jack.”
“Nonsense,” the Kurtherian said crisply. “You could not possibly have connected me to the Baldere experiment. Only their leader and the leader of the Gleek faction were influenced to cause subversion.” She paused, then continued impatiently, “I suppose the so-called ambassador of the Empire counted, though he was barely touched.”
Phina barely remembered to keep her face impassive. That experiment had killed dozens of people and could have killed thousands if it had reached its conclusion without interference. “That situation was of note, but no, I was not referring to that incident.”
The female frowned. “Then that overeager Aurian remembered who gave him the device. I noticed the remnants had let him live even though he had used it as designed. They must have accepted his testimony about its origins.”
“It was a very clever design. Your plan had been working flawlessly.” Phina had to draw on every ounce of control not to yell at the female for her callousness. Tens of thousands of Aurians had died. Speaking of which... “What were you going to use the energy for?”
She kept her tone level with a note of admiration. Even though those emotions were not what Phina felt. Not even close.
“As a weapon, naturally,” the Kurtherian answered as if it was of no consequence. “The Aurians were a failed project, so scrapping them was necessary. Utilizing the device would have collected enough energy to be used as a weapon useful as a countermeasure.”
Phina gritted her teeth at the dismissive tone as she put the pieces of the puzzle together to find the Kurtherian’s agenda. A countermeasure weapon. An energy weapon. She froze with incredulity. Holy fudging crumbs.
“You wanted it to counter the ESD Beam on the Meredith Reynolds.”
The Kurtherian was crazy. Had to be. At the end of the war with the Yollins a quarter-century ago, the rebel Yollin faction had sent superdreadnoughts against the budding Etheric Empire. Bethany Anne and General Reynolds had sent out their fleets to take down the first two massive ships. There was a third, however, that had tried to sneak up on the Meredith Reynolds. There were no ships large enough left to defend the space station and its hundreds of thousands of civilians, many of them women and children.
Thanks to clever foresight and engineering by the R&D dream team BMW, the station hadn’t been defenseless. The Arti-sun, the energy core that powered everything on the station, had been utilized as a weapon of last resort.
The ESD beam had destroyed the superdreadnought and reduced the accompanying armada to debris.
The Kurtherian clasped her violet hands behind her back and examined Phina. “That is correct. It is too much power in the hands of Death.”
Phina desperately clung to her need to conceal her horror and strove to match the unemotional tone. “You realize that the two cores of energy emitted together would most likely cause a massive explosion that would decimate not just the station but also the entire Yoll system?”
“Of course. The Yollins were useful at one time, but they are now contaminated by their prolonged exposure to humanity. Their species needs to be eliminated. The system would be a loss, but not an insurmountable one.”
“Contaminated by humanity?” Phina repeated slowly.
Those flat black eyes remained expressionless. “Yes. Humans are dangerous, commonly lacking intelligence and perspicacity. Your planet should have been recycled long ago.”
“Sorry to disappoint.” Not sorry at all, you batshit-crazy Kurtherian.
The Kurtherian began pacing again. “There is no disappointment. Disappointment implies expectation. We have none for you humans.”
“Except to die.”
The Kurtherian inclined her head. “Precisely.”
Gaitune-67, Spy Corps Headquarters and Base, QBS Stark
Masha walked with Greyson as he was transported on a hovergurney up the ramp into the cargo bay. The trainees had been dismissed as soon as the gurney had been found in the mission’s ready room.
“You’ll stay with me?” He spoke softly, his intense brown eyes on hers.
She thought of the shambles they had left in the cafeteria, the myriad tasks now on their slate with the upheaval, betrayal, and uncertainty. Masha set it aside and nodded with a warm smile. “Of course.”
He tightened his hand on hers, the only outward indication he gave that he was pleased and wanted her there. Masha suspected she would need to make studying his body language a priority since it was unlikely he would suddenly become effusive about his emotions.
They arrived in the medbay on the ship as a medical technician ran into the room, puffing.
“Sorry, Alpha. Beta. Just got Jack into the base’s Pod-doc. Here, let me help.”
He rushed forward and began rapidly pressing buttons on the panel on the side of the machine. The wide door opened with a tiny hiss.
The two of them helped Greyson into the Pod-doc and the technician returned to his preoccupation with the buttons.
Greyson laid back and stared at her intently, something clearly weighing on his mind.
“I apologize for the interruption.”
They both looked up as ADAM’s voice came from the speaker overhead. The medical technician stepped back when the Pod-doc began to configure itself.
“Hey!” The technician scowled in irritation.
ADAM spoke calmly. “Please step outside, Hugo Haines. I will take it from here.”
The man exited the room, muttering, “Couldn’t have told me this before I ran a mile from one side of the base to the other, of course.”
“ADAM, what’s going on?” Masha asked when the door had closed behind the man.
“Stark and Shade notified me as soon as the confrontation with Jack began. I have been reviewing the footage and have an urgent question.”
“What is it, ADAM?” Greyson asked impatiently.
“It appeared that Phina gave you her blood. Is that what happened?”
“Yes.” Masha smiled. “It kept Greyson alive by at least partially healing the wound. It gave us time to get him here.”
“I was concerned that would be the case.”
“What’s wrong with Phina’s blood, ADAM?” Greyson asked wearily. “I thought you fixed that.”
Masha nervously scanned the bandage-covered wound through the hole of his blood-stained shirt. His body must be exhausted with all his energy focused on healing him.
“Phina’s nanocytes are not like Bethany Anne’s nanocytes. Bethany Anne’s nanocytes could remain in your body without issue while they healed you, as you know from Anna Elizabeth. Phina’s nanocytes will need to be cleansed from your system.”
Masha stiffened but asked anxiously, “But he will be all right?”
“Yes,” ADAM assured her. “They have not had time to bond to his DNA yet. It will take some time in the Pod-doc to cleanse his system of the nanocytes and finish healing him. My best estimate is twenty-six hours.”
She sagged in relief and turned to Greyson. “You’ll be all right.”
“Thank you, ADAM.” Greyson spoke without taking his gaze off her.
