Oh, that explained that. In the instant where he looked at her, coming around the table, she understood exactly what his problem was and why he was here. If he had wanted her dead, however, he would have just shot her. So he had some other plan in mind, and that opened up a cold pit in the very bottom of her stomach.
He began to approach again, and she cocked back her leg.
That made him stop and reconsider. Turning, he went back around the table and for one instant, she thought maybe he was giving up.
But that wasn't it at all. He leaned over the table, and now there was no way she could reach him. She tried to wiggle her upper body in any way that would make it hard for him, but it was over. With a swift strike, he plunged the needle into her arm.
And the world went dark.
10
0740 Hours
The trip away from the interrogation room existed in bits and pieces in her mind.
Andy knew she had been put into some sort of moving container, like a cart or a box, which was entirely dark with just a few slits that let in light and air. Breathing was still difficult in the box, though, and even her lungs felt sluggish. She drifted in and out, and the light seemed different every time she was conscious enough to recognize it. The pattern of the vibrations under her changed too, like she was passing over floors with different textures.
She wasn't aware of how much time had passed, but she knew that it had to be passing. It was just a feeling, however, because the world seemed surreal every time she was awake enough to know there was a world.
Every time she did wake, she had to remind herself of what had happened. It was harder and harder to remember. Home... She had been on her ship, and then on the base ...with her friends. No, her squad. Right. They had been at a bar and she had been arrested, and then she had been kidnapped ...
Someone had abducted her from the custody of ESS Intelligence?
As she drifted off again, she thought that had to be a first.
When she came to, she was aware of being out of the box. There was more light now, although it didn't feel like much. Everything was still dark or was that just her? Her stomach rolled as she tried to seek out the light and she closed her eyes, breathing slowly through her nose while she waited for the feeling to pass. She did not need to vomit here.
Once the overwhelming nausea had passed, she slowly opened her eyes again. It was still dim. There was less light here than there had been in the interrogation room.
Andy tried to take in everything around her and with her. She carefully tilted her head down so she could look herself over. All of her clothing was in place and intact, and she didn't see any new injuries to herself. She was sore where the needle had gone in, and her hands were still bound, although no longer in the ESS cuffs. Now she could see she was tied with old-fashioned rope.
Seeing that, she looked around to where she was.
This room was definitely not another interrogation room. In fact, it didn't look like any room the ESS would put in a space station. Had this man taken her off base? She couldn't imagine that was possible—to smuggle a person off the starbase so easily—but she really couldn't be sure, could she?
There was metal sheeting stacked up and leaning against a wall. She saw industrial ESS-stamped crates stacked in corners and along the walls. The floor was dusty, except for the clear sight of wheel tracks and then drag marks, where she guessed he had taken her from the cart and slid her against this wall.
She saw that there was rope around her ankles as well, and she realized she couldn't really be that surprised. Although things were still hazy, she knew she had done a lot of kicking to protect herself and this guy wasn't going to risk a repeat.
She'd still find a way to kick the hell out of him.
Things started getting hazy again. Andy fought against it, wanting to stay awake now. She shifted her legs and upper body as much as she could, but her muscles fought back against her with whatever sedative he'd given her still in her system. She banged her head slightly against the wall behind her, but nothing helped.
Darkness swept her under again.
When she awoke again, she noticed that a crate had been moved. It had been next to the wall, and now it was in front of her. She had no recollection of anyone having been there to move it; it hadn't woken her. She knew she shouldn't be surprised and she wasn't, but it was still unnerving to know that it had happened and she'd been so entirely unaware.
"Don't lose it now," she mumbled to herself, the words slurred even to her own ears.
She was not, nor had ever been, a woman prone to extravagant shows of emotion. At that moment, however, she felt tears choking her throat. The major hated it immediately, but she knew the drugs were likely lowering her resistance. And no matter what half of her genetics said, she was also still human. Maybe she might try to be more, but sometimes, one just has to acknowledge these things.
Focus. Andy knew she had to focus, both against the drug in her system and on everything around her. She couldn't allow herself to wallow.
Why had she been taken? Because she was half-Arkana. She somehow represented the enemy to this man, and he was intent to do something about it. But what? If he had wanted her dead, he could have done that in the interrogation room. Maybe he intended to torture her, or maybe he wanted to ask her questions as well, just with less governmental oversight.
Where was he now? That was the next question. Although it made her slightly dizzy to turn her head, she forced herself to do so and look in both directions. Whatever this place was, it was long but narrow. She could easily see the opposite wall as being not that far away, and she could see almost to the ends in both directions length-wise. There was no one here, as far as she could tell, and she didn’t see any spaces where someone could be hidden from her view.
He had gone to a lot of trouble to secure his prisoner, only to just dump her in this room and leave? His confidence in the sedative must have been strong, and so far, she didn't have any reason to debate it. Although awake, for the moment, she was still mostly incapacitated by the effects. How long would it be before it wore off? Would he be back by then, maybe drug her again to keep her from trying to escape? He had to know she would try to escape at every opportunity.
Taking deep breaths against another wave of nausea, she closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the wall.
Andy tried to look back and think about the man and what he looked like. She tried to make any guesses as to whether she had seen him before, now that she had a little more time to think through it all and wasn't facing him stalking toward her. Yet the more she thought, the less she could think. As far as she could recall, she had never met him before or even seen him before, which wasn't that unusual since the ESS was large and her experience tended to just be with the Marines. And she was pretty sure he wasn't one of those.
She was aware he might not even be real ESS at all. However, she thought it was unlikely anyone outside of the ESS would be aware of her heritage and the ship she was on. And then there was the fact that he knew she'd been arrested and where. He'd known for long enough to make a plan—get the syringe with the drug, alter the uniform—before coming to get her.
All that suggested ESS. In fact, it suggested ESS Intelligence.
11
0740 Hours
"They lost her," Dan hissed as the remaining four members of alpha squad stalked through the corridors of Starbase Eclipse alongside their ship's captain. Everyone else was tensely silent, lost in their own thoughts on their focused task ahead.
It hadn't taken the captain much effort to get the location of the room she had been in, and that was where they were headed.
They were going to get Major Dolan back.
When they reached the room, they found the door open. Captain Wallace moved in first with Roxanna at his shoulder, stepping through and seeing four people already there. She looked at the uniforms and positioning: there was a lieutenant sitting on the floor with an officer marked as me
dical treating him for a head wound. Two others marked as security were examining the room.
"Get out," Wallace ordered.
"Excuse me?" one of the security officers asked without looking up.
"Captain in the room!" Roxanna barked in her Marine voice, which no one ever expected her to have.
The two security officers stood up fast and came around. They didn't have the same rigid "at attention" the Marines did, but they at least came to a respectful position. The medical officer nodded at the captain, but medical had a pass on these things when they were tending to patients.
Wallace didn't really care about them anyway. Security was first on his mind. He pointed at them, his expression angry. "Station security had their shot and they lost my officer and my trust. My people will handle this from here. So get out. That's an order!"
They looked at each other like they considered arguing, but thought better of it and left.
The medical officer stood. "He needs to come to the infirmary soon, but he's well enough to answer your questions for a few minutes. This is Lieutenant Fitzwallace, ESS Intelligence." She nodded at the captain, then looked at the lieutenant. "Come straight to the infirmary afterward."
Roxanna wondered at the exchange, noting less compassion in this medical officer than she was used to sensing from doctors and nurses in that department. Maybe she just didn't like when people were abducted while in ESS custody. It made them all look bad.
The lieutenant didn't seem to think too much of the exchange either, watching the medical officer leave with a slight glower. Once everyone else had left, he pushed himself weakly to his feet.
"I can't tell you much, Captain," he began. An angry but silent look from Wallace made him continue quickly. "Because I don't know, sir. We were seated at the table. I was asking questions. Someone pressed the door chime. I went to answer it and barely had a chance to see someone was there before I was hit on the head and lost consciousness. When I came to, this was how everything was and the major was gone." He paused. "I think it was a man, pretty sure human, wearing some sort of uniform. That's all I could tell."
Anger and frustration radiated off Wallace so much that the empath had to take a step away so she could keep her head clear.
"Get out," Wallace ordered him. The lieutenant left.
Once they were alone in the room and the door had slid shut, Wallace closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. "We're on a countdown here people, and we have no idea who did this or why the major was taken. Scour this room for clues. Pull it apart if you have to. I'll get any base surveillance information from their security."
Roxanna asked, “The ones you just kicked out, sir?”
He looked at her dryly. "They'll give me what I want."
"Of that, I have no doubt," the Selerid said simply. "We'll find her, sir."
"Yes, you will," Wallace said with a nod, then turned and left.
Once he was gone, Roxanna had a better chance to take a look around. It was dim and sparse. The only furniture that had been in the window-less space was the table and two chairs, two of which—the table and one chair—were knocked onto their sides.
Dan was already kneeling beside the table. He had a background in criminal investigations since he had been in school before joining the Marines. He wasn't a proper investigator, but knew what he was doing.
"The ESS cuffs are still here," he commented, "and attached to the table. Judging from the fact it and the chair near the cuffs are overturned, I'm willing to bet she was still cuffed when the guy came in." His grinding his teeth was almost audible. "We know her. She fought like hell, but it wasn't enough. Either she got hit like the lieutenant did, or maybe she was sedated ..."
Anallin had the handheld scanner out and was scanning everything.
"There is blood on the floor from the lieutenant," it said, standing nearer to the door. "If she was hit, there is likely to be blood on that side of the room as well." It moved closer to the table and scanned there too. "I do not see the major's blood."
"How did this guy get her out of here?" Jade asked, stepping through the doorframe to look in the hallway. "This isn't an abandoned corridor." She nodded at someone walking past, just like they had appeared to illustrate her point. "There's no other exit except the ceiling vent, but I think it would have taken too long to pull an unconscious body up through that narrow opening. Given the timing, Fitzwallace would have regained consciousness in the middle of it."
Roxanna joined her at the door, looking along the corridor as well before looking at the floor. She noticed a mark near the joint where the floor and frame met. She knelt, and Jade did as well. They peered at it together.
"Wheel mark?" Jade asked thoughtfully.
"Not many pieces of equipment on base would have wheels that could leave a mark like this," Roxanna mused. "Mostly stuff engineering uses for their more industrial matters. We should talk to base engineering and ask what sort of equipment they have that might make this kind of mark, then ask if anything is missing."
Jade nodded. "There can't be many places to truly hide a whole person," she said. "We should get schematics of the base and go over them with the engineers to figure out where there may be a likely place to search."
Roxanna smiled slightly. "Good," she said. She glanced back over her shoulder at Dan and Anallin still investigating every inch of the room. "Looks like you and I are going to engineering."
12
0755 Hours
This time when she awoke, she instantly realized she wasn't alone.
Her eyes opened fast, but then the room swam. She did her best to stifle a groan, but didn't entirely manage it.
"Good morning, Arkana," the voice greeted.
"You mispronounced Andrea," she replied before she could stop herself. Damn those drugs.
Some sort of sound came from the man. It might have been a laugh by way of a snort, but it was hard to tell. "And here I thought Marines didn't have a sense of humor."
She actually bit her tongue to stop herself from saying anything else. Focusing on the pain for a moment, she slowly opened her eyes and let the dim light in. As they adapted, she settled in and lifted her head so she could see him and what else was around her. She needed to assess the situation.
Remember your training.
He was sitting directly across from her. From what she could see, there wasn't anyone else around them. The crate she noticed earlier that had been moved away from the wall was now being sat on. He was still wearing the ESS uniform. He still looked painfully average in every way she could conceive, except for the fact that he—for the moment—had the upper hand over her.
"Do you know why you're here?" he asked.
She inhaled sharply, but didn't reply. Given the stupid question, she decided he was ESS Intelligence. Very much a contradiction in terms.
"Ah, so we're going to be silent then," he went on. "I imagine you must know. Our intel thinks you're a traitor and I think they're right, but they were going to play it too slow. You're probably too smart to leave a trail and you'd get away before they found enough to hold you, but this is wartime. We can't afford yesterday's ethics."
"What is it they say?" she said, looking at him. "Those who trade liberty for a temporary safety deserve neither safety nor liberty?" Her early teachers would probably be amazed she'd been paying attention, but she had. Of course, she hadn't expected to have to use it.
The man scowled. "Franklin could not possibly have conceived of intergalactic war."
Andy realized her mind was feeling clearer than it had the past few they had spoke, and she had hope it meant she was moving the drugs out of her system; at least enough that she might be able to find a way out of here. "The details only change the nature of the excuse," she said. "It is otherwise no different whether it's in one country, one planet, or one universe. We cannot lose who we are while fighting for who we are."
"You read that in a book somewhere?" he sneered.
She arched one dark
brow. "You're awfully snarky for an intel officer." Andy didn't know that for sure, but she took a chance. The way his expression changed told her she had scored a direct hit.
He didn't say anything for a moment, looking away from her like he was trying to regain his control. He must have flunked most of his training, she thought.
"You're here because we are going to learn the depth of your treachery."
"Then we won't be here for very long because I have been neither treacherous nor traitorous. Nor done anything illegal, which is more than I can say for you," she retorted.
The sedative effect began to return then, and once more, she fought it. She didn't want to lose consciousness again, and she certainly didn't want to do it while he was sitting right here in front of her. She took breaths as deeply as she could, focusing on expanding her chest with the air and letting it out slowly.
She tugged a little at the rope around her wrist, feeling it pinch against her skin but also judging if there was any slack she could exploit.
"I'm doing what needs to be done," he said defensively. "I'm doing what they weren't willing to do."
"I think you protest too much," she said.
The man stared at her blankly. "What?"
And here he had accused her of being an idiot or at least uneducated. She was pretty sure she'd paid more attention in school than he had. Maybe the drugs were letting bits and pieces float closer to the surface of her memory than earlier.
She also thought he must be pretty unhinged. Caught up in the zeal of the war but not seeming to know what to do with it. He had orchestrated her abduction from custody, and yet once he'd gotten her here, nothing. Now he was talking to her without asking any questions, stupid or otherwise. He seemed to be spending more time trying to convince his victim his actions were justified than anything else.
Her illegal interrogation was going to put her to sleep.
Earth Space Service Space Marines Boxed Set Page 34
