by Elin Wyn
With a final keystroke a grainy video, probably from an old public booth, slowly resolved on the screen.
Limp, greasy hair framed a man’s thin face, and a jolt of recognition hit me. “Seriously, him?”
Xander’s eyes narrowed. “He looks familiar.”
“You nearly killed him yesterday.” I glanced up at him. “Tell me that narrows it down. In the game room of the bar?”
“Oh, him.”
Not entirely convinced, I started the vid. The same voice that had interrupted my evening piped tinnily through the speakers.
“This isn’t a rumor, this is good stuff. There’s these guys out here, they’re crazy, and taking over the station. Nobody knows what’s what anymore.”
“Because the previous regime was so orderly,” I muttered.
“An informant,” Xander commented. “We knew there had to be some. Nice for him to identify himself.”
“One attacked me, I coulda died. I paid the bartender to pull a shot from the security cams. This is worth twice the regular. No, three times.”
The screen flickered, and the image resolved.
Badly lit, and at an awkward angle, it took me a moment to realize what I saw.
Xander, his broad chest filling over half the shot, towering over me at Veno’s, my game forgotten behind us.
Even in the dim light his golden eyes were clear, focused on nothing but me. The picture must have been taken after he dropped the jerk who’d interrupted my game. The spy, I mentally corrected myself.
But for all of Xander’s size and strength, nothing in the image made me feel afraid, threatened. Just protected. Safe.
And that wasn’t getting us anywhere, I chided myself, shaking away the extraneous thoughts.
“Let’s see what SysSec had to say about it.” I pulled up the following message.
No video this time, just an older man’s voice, terse, dry. I didn’t recognize it, but from the sudden tension in Xander’s voice, he did.
“You’re the closest ones to that edge of territory. Go pick them up. Be careful. You know what happened before. If you get the girl, the beast will follow.”
“Beast!” I spat out. “What the hell is he talking about beast and…” I whirled in my chair, fury subsiding at Xander’s thoughtful face.
“He’s seen us, not me, not in person, but he watched Valrea and Geir get together.” His eyes narrowed. “He tried to get Mack to kill his mate. He watched what happened on the Star.”
I knew the names from Nadira. I hadn’t met any of the others or their mates yet, but knowing how protective Ronan was, I couldn’t imagine his brothers being any different. “That’s nonsense.”
“Yes, but, it’s a clever way to try to trap us. I’d follow you-” he caught himself. “We’d follow our friends anywhere, if they were in danger.”
“But who is he?”
“Stanton. I’m sure of it. I’ve listened to hours of audio from the Compound, trying to get a lead on his next steps.”
The name didn’t mean anything to me, but a shout echoed through the bridge before I could ask for a further explanation.
“Get away from him, girl. He’s dangerous!”
Xander
The old man had wiggled himself until he half-sat against the bulkhead, still straining futilely against his bonds. I couldn’t remember if his complexion had been quite so gray when he’d arrested Loree, but the stench of fear rolled off him.
The change in breathing should have told me one of our prisoners had regained conscious. I’d let myself get too distracted, careless. A quick glance confirmed at least the woman was still down.
Loree leaned back at the console chair, shoulder pressing lightly against my forearm. “He’s not the one that dragged me off the station,” she commented mildly.
My gut did a little flip at her words, then I focused back on the situation at hand. “You don’t know us, you don’t know anything about us.”
“I know what you’re capable of,” he spat. “A monster like you killed one of our agents.”
“Well if he was hunting us, it kind of seems like a fair trade. Survival and all that.”
“Not he. She. Zayda had nothing to do with you. A young woman, on a totally different assignment, and-”
“Wait a minute, Zayda? Zayda Caiden? She’s fine.”
At my words the old man stuttered to a halt. “I don’t believe you. If she was alive she would’ve come in. The Agency was her family.”
I wanted to snark at him, make a crack about dysfunctional families… but to be honest, maybe I wasn’t the best judge of normal. And maybe he’d be useful after all.
“Babe, can you use this thing to call home?”
“Babe? Really?” But she’d already started summoning code.
“I did get you a shiny new ship to hack open.”
She laughed. “And who do you want to reach?” Her fingers flew over the keyboard.
“Doc’s office would be fine. She can patch us through to Davien.”
“Or, I could just pull him up for you.” She started muttering. “And a little bounce here, masking the signal there, and in we go.”
“Miss? What you doing on this channel?”
I took a moment to relish the rare sound of Davien being surprised before leaning into the view of the camera.
“Wait a minute.” His eyes widened slightly with recognition. “You’re...” I saw the instant he noticed me in the background and revised what he was saying, “Doc’s patient. Loree, right? Where are you? Nadira has half the Pack running a search for you.”
He glared at me. “Xander, if you’re responsible for this-”
“While I’m glad to see you too, we need a quick chat. Without getting into too many details, we have a friend of Zayda’s here.” I flicked my eyes to the side of the screen to make sure Davien understood we weren’t alone. “Can Nixie get a channel to the Compound?”
Davien’s eyebrows rose. “I’m sure she’d be happy to.” He turned back to Loree. “Should I tell Nadira you’re safe?”
A growl fought to rip free. Of course she was safe. I’d make certain of that.
Loree ignored me. “I didn’t mean to miss our session this afternoon. Things got a little complicated. Please tell Nadira I’m fine.”
“Complicated, but couldn’t be avoided.” I hadn’t thought about Nadira’s worry. Or Doc’s. Void. “But if this works out, we have a lead on Stanton.”
Davien shook his head. “Let me guess. You were following a hunch?”
Only moments passed until the screen flickered, displacing Davien with a sleepy-eyed Zayda.
“Heya,” I waved. “Zayda, meet Loree. Loree, Zayda.”
“Hi,” she yawned. “I’d been hoping to meet you, you know. Those of us dragged into their craziness need to stick together.” She looked from Loree to me and back again. “Speaking of their craziness, why are we meeting now?”
“We ran into someone who says he knows you.” Loree moved from the chair. “Just a sec, Xander can get him.”
A guarded expression immediately replaced Zayda’s easy smile. “Let’s see him then.”
I grabbed the agent by the shoulders, lifting him so Zayda would have a clear view. I’d heard what Stanton had done to her. If this joker was part of the Agency, he was just as likely as bad, for all his talk.
“Xander, put him down!”
“If he’s one of Stanton’s, we can make sure he doesn’t bother you,” I growled.
I flexed my hands in the loose shoulders of the uniform jacket, wondering if I could toss him without bothering Loree, when Zayda clarified.
“Gently! In the chair!”
Oh.
“Zay?” The man slumped in the chair, no attention for me, eyes riveted to the screen. “It can’t be. Stanton said you were dead, torn apart by,” he finally remembered I loomed above him, “monsters.”
Her lips twisted. “Not for lack of trying.”
He shook his head. “So one of them did a
ttack you? And Stanton stopped it? Why didn’t he tell us?”
Zayda sighed. “Not for lack of Stanton’s trying. If you’re looking for monsters, start with him. He tried to have me killed. Tobias, let me introduce you to the man who saved me.”
“Honey?” she called off-screen. “Get decent?”
Well, this was going to go well.
If Zayda’s old friend Tobias thought I was dangerous, what was he going to think of Mack, the most feral of us? At least, he was now, after Stanton had run his experiments.
But when Mack stepped into the frame, Tobias’s attention wasn’t on him at all. His eyes never left Zayda’s face.
Grudgingly, I had to give him points for smarts. Every line of her body, the softness of her smile as she looked at her mate, the warmth in her eyes, gave her former coworker the information he needed.
She hadn’t been kidnapped.
She wasn’t hurt.
She was happy.
“Who the hell is this?” Mack snarled. “SysSec uniform. Stanton’s.”
“An old friend, just checking in.” Zayda leaned into his side, and his arms enfolded her even as Mack’s eyes narrowed.
“Really.”
“Really. He just wanted to make sure I’m alright.” She patted his arm, then turned her attention back to Tobias. “And I am. But I’m not going back to the Agency.”
“Course you’re not,” Mack joined in.
Tobias nodded. “Probably for the best.”
“Yeah, coming back from the dead might be awkward.”
Tobias shook his head. “Not just that. Something’s gone wrong, Zay.” He slipped sideways in the chair, unable to right himself with his hands bound.
“Buddy, you think you could untie me now?”
“Depends on if she vouches for you. I haven’t forgotten why we’re here.”
Loree poked my side. “He’s her friend, Xander. Don’t make her choose.”
Mack tilted his head. “Why are you two on a SysSec ship, anyway?”
“They were trying to arrest Loree.” My voice was almost calm. Almost. “I wanted to see why.”
Zayda shook her head. “You’re starting from a bad place, Tobias. Don’t try anything cute. You have no idea how fast the Pack is. And they don’t tolerate betrayal.”
I hovered above Tobias before tearing the strips that bound his arms behind his back. “Just keep being useful. What do you mean, something’s gone wrong? Where? With SysSec?”
He rotated the stiffness out of his shoulders while I freed his legs. “I don’t know. I’d been gone from the agency, following a series of useless leads for a few months. I came back three weeks ago and everything was different. Everyone was different.”
“Different how?” Zayda leaned towards the camera, sleep long forgotten from her face, erased by curiosity.
“Everything was about the mission. No joking. No bitching. Not about forms, not about assignments.”
“Now I don’t believe you,” Zayda cracked. “Everyone bitches about the forms.”
“Not anymore.” Tobias looked at her, then us, long face baffled. “It all started when-”
“Incoming Priority Transmission,” blared the speakers, and the monitor went black.
I stepped away from the screen, pulling Loree behind me. Anyone with Priority access from System Security didn’t need to know we were on board.
With a snap, the image resolved into an image made of nightmares.
At least, my nightmares.
From the gasp Loree let out, hers as well.
A Hunter, dark helmet reflecting pinpoints of light, filled the screen.
“ISS vessel 370A. By order of Director General Stanton, you will relinquish the prisoner to me.” Flat voice, almost like a recording, no stress, no question its command would be obeyed.
I held my breath. All Tobias had to do was correct the Hunter, say “prisoners,” say we were free, give some indication there wasn’t only a lone, scared woman waiting for retrieval.
Spine straight, Tobias nodded crisply. “Yes, Sir. Please provide coordinates and we will meet you immediately.”
“Unnecessary. I am here.”
The faint tremor of the decking beneath my feet, told me another craft had docked with ours just as the screen went black.
Tobias turned to me, his illusion of confidence wiped away. “What in all the Void was that?”
“Never mind, just get out of the chair.”
Loree’s face was pale, her eyes huge.
“I need you to get a message back to Davien.” She didn’t blink, finally moving her gaze from the screen as I rubbed her arms. “Honey, come on.”
Legs stumbling, she collapsed back at the comms, fingers dancing again. “It’s too close for me to hide the signal,” she said, voice cracking.
“It doesn’t matter. Straight audio will do.”
While she worked, I plotted our exit from warp, the fastest we could drop out without stressing the hull.
She nodded, and I started talking. “Davien, take these coordinates. We’re dropping there in five minutes. At least one Hunter is on board.”
“They can’t get there that fast,” Tobias argued. “No one can.”
“You heard Zayda,” I snapped. “We’re faster than you think.” Or at least, we would be if the Queen was available.
Loree slapped the button to send the message and kept working. “I’m pulling up cameras now.” The steel in her voice was forced. I rested my hands on her shoulders, felt her shake beneath my grasp.
“I remember them. I remember.” Panic wound through her words.
I remembered finding her, terrified and alone, curled under a desk in a ruined state room, horrors in her eyes.
“I didn’t let them get you then. I’m not going to give you up now,” I promised her.
She took one shuddering breath. Another.
“Cameras are up. I can start closing compartment sections, but…”
“Do it. Buy me all the time you’ve got and find somewhere to hide.”
She reached her hand up, fingers interlacing with mine at her shoulder. “What are you going to be doing?”
“Keeping you safe.” I pressed a quick kiss to the top of her head, inhaled the clean, bright scent of her.
And then I ran.
Loree
The click of the door closing behind Xander echoed across the bridge, the sharp sound echoing the stab in my chest.
He left. I shook, fear knotting my gut.
The hell with that. He left to fight that thing, buy us time. Xander trusted I’d be able to fight too. And I wasn’t going to let him down.
I pushed the chair back, sliding between stations, so that in seconds both comms flared to life. An array of camera views made a checkerboard across the screen of one, schematics of the ship flipping as fast as I could read across the other.
“What do you think you can do?” Tobias asked.
“Don’t know yet. What are you going to do to help?” I snapped.
Nothing, nothing, maybe, nothing, there.
The ship wasn’t large enough to need an audio system wired through the decks for its crew to keep in communication. But there was still an emergency system, just waiting for me to pry the code open and bend it to my will.
I narrowed the screen down to two sets of cams, set them to auto-follow movement, and finished modding the emergency announcement system.
“Xander,” I called and watched his step falter as he raced through the corridors. “Sorry, I don’t know how else to reach you. The Hunter is one deck down, three corridors to port.” I swallowed, throat tight. “I think it’s heading to the cells.”
Where, if SysSec’s arrest had gone to plan, I’d have been trapped.
Xander’s mouth moved, but I couldn’t hear.
“Sorry. Communication is only one way.”
The irritation on his face was clear enough he didn’t need to speak out loud.
“I’ll keep you posted as he moves.”
I rolled back to the other commstation searching for anything that would be useful. “Besides that pitiful electromagnet lock on the cells, what else do you have on this boat?”
Tobias shook his head. “Light arms, not much else. This craft isn’t usually used for arrests or combat support missions. Long range reconnaissance and infiltration is more my speed.”
I kept my eyes on the screens. No, if it had been just me you wouldn’t have thought you needed much else. “Where are they?”
“Auxiliary storage three.”
I pulled up the armory on the map and called Xander again. “There’re weapons on board, but it’ll take you away from the Hunter.” I calculated the path again. “Maybe a five-minute delay.”
Xander kept running but glared at the cameras as he passed.
“I’m not an idiot,” I muttered. “I’m only broadcasting into the corridor where I can see you.”
Huh. Maybe that expression was apology.
I’d take it.
“At the next junction, the Hunter is to your left. To get to the armory, turn right.”
I waited, calling all my focus to anticipate what he needed. I might not be able to fight with him, but there was no way I was leaving him alone.
“Traitors!”
What? Oh Void take it, not now.
“Tobias shut her up!”
The woman was awake now, Tobias hunching over her until she swung out with her bound ankles, kicking at him.
“Mel, Mel, calm down. A lot’s happened, and-”
“I don’t need to know what happened,” she spat. “You’ve let the prisoner take control of our ship. You’re a traitor to the Director General.”
I glanced away from the screens. “Aren’t you guys supposed to be loyal to the Emperor?”
“Left again, sorry!” I directed Xander then flicked my attention back to the Hunter who slowly, implacably paced through the corridor.
Like all ships of sound design, this one had been built with a thick blast door at every intersection and every length of corridor. In case of decompression, the doors could be deployed to seal off the damaged section of hull.
I kept dropping them in front of the Hunter.
It kept ripping them back open.
