Starbreaker

by Amanda Bouchet

  Her eyes brimmed with tears. She slammed her lids shut. “Shit. What’s wrong with me?”

  I stared at her in shock. Fiona. Did. Not. Cry.

  She turned, hiding her face, and I jumped forward to intercept the others. I said something inane to Shade, which I didn’t remember two seconds later, and then dove into Jax’s cooler to slow him down. I rummaged for a food I recognized. “Oh! Melon! Excellent!” Triumphant, I held up the green and yellow ball as though it contained the keys to the universe.

  Everyone looked at me as if I’d lost my marbles. Fiona cracked up behind me, which was all I needed. My mission accomplished, I slipped the hard-coated fruit back into Jax’s container, careful not to bruise it.

  Once they got over my fruitastic outburst, the group’s attention inevitably turned to the stranger among us. Whisking out a hand, I introduced the tall, sure-footed woman carrying the final stash of complimentary goodies from the bungalow. “This is Sanaa Mwende. She’s General Bridgebane’s personal bodyguard.”

  Jax whirled on Sanaa with a scowl. “What the hell is she doing here?”

  “How did this happen?” Fiona’s question was more reasonable, although her eyes shot daggers that would rival the lieutenant’s hidden arsenal.

  Merrick set down his food cargo, instantly fighting ready.

  “We ended up on Reaginine and ran into my uncle.” We’d already warned Sanaa that the crew didn’t know about the blood exchange. They only knew that Bridgebane hadn’t harmed me on Starway 8 and that he seemed to want to protect me from the Overseer. “It went surprisingly well, all things considered.”

  Protests erupted, almost deafening as they echoed around the hangar only we occupied. I held up a hand for quiet. “Not only did he agree to drop the bounty on Shade, but he’s trying to get us information about Shiori.”

  Jax whirled on me now, his eyes widening. “Where is she?”

  “Starbase 12.” The significance wouldn’t be lost on any of them. Reena Ahern. Shiori. We had two prisoners in one location.

  “Is she okay?” Fiona asked.

  “He didn’t indicate that anyone had harmed her.” She’d harmed herself. I just couldn’t bring myself to say it.

  Fiona’s eyes zeroed in on Shade’s bruises. “If it went so well with Bridgebane, what happened to your face?” The med wipe had cleared up a lot of the damage, but it was no miracle sick-bay laser.

  “It ran into a bounty hunter’s fist.” Shade lightly touched the still darkened skin beneath his left eye. The swelling was a quarter of what it had been. “The other guy looks worse.”

  Jax looked more freaked out by the second. He eyed Sanaa suspiciously. “But you just said he dropped the bounty. What happened?”

  “Ambush,” Shade answered. “And then Tess found a way for two shitheads to leave us alone forever.”

  “Did you kill them?” Fiona asked me.

  “What? No.” I frowned, taken aback. “Not necessary.” She and I had different viewpoints when it came to fighting off enemies. My conscience wouldn’t stop me from killing if it was the only way to defend myself or the people I cared about, but I couldn’t do it with unapologetic flair like Fiona did. “We gave them something they needed in exchange for them forgetting all about us.”

  “Something they needed?” Merrick questioned, scrutinizing Sanaa as though she were a ticking bomb he might need to defuse in a hurry.

  Sanaa lifted her brows, meeting his mistrustful inspection head-on. Merrick’s eyes narrowed.

  “A special newfangled ‘cure-all’ for their dying daughter,” I answered.

  Everyone knew that was code language for my blood, although there wasn’t a single person here who didn’t already know about my A1 anomalies.

  “Since my uncle is suddenly all about helping me—he covered our butts on Korabon, by the way, and passed that whole battle off as a surprise training exercise—he decided to get over Shade betraying him to protect me and dropped the ridiculously huge bounty. Now, his hunters can go after some other prize, and we can concentrate on what we need to do.” In other words: breaking into the most secure location in the galaxy.

  Fiona swung a probing look at me before her focus shifted to Sanaa, whose ability to remain expressionless when she chose to almost rivaled my uncle’s. “Did he erase footage? That Red Beam caught all our faces.”

  “I think so.” I glanced at the person who would know for sure. “Sanaa?”

  She nodded in confirmation.

  “Why would he give you information on Shiori?” Merrick asked, seeming more skeptical of my uncle’s motives than of the actual intel he’d provided.

  It was a reasonable question, and perfectly reasonable to doubt. “Because I asked him to.”

  Merrick shook his head, his dark eyes hardening. “That’s too simple. It makes no sense. Even if he helped you a few times, why would you believe anything he says?” He glared at Sanaa, clearly lumping her into the untrustworthy category.

  I didn’t take his hesitation lightly. I understood it all too well, in fact. But when I reached deep down, examining both my heart and my mind as well as my gut instinct, everything in me clamored that there was a lot more to my uncle than I’d wanted to believe in a very long time. That growing conviction made me speak freely in front of Sanaa.

  “I don’t think Uncle Nate is loyal to the Overseer. I think he’s been walking a tightrope for years, making choices that no one should ever have to face.” Emotion and a good bit of hesitation roughened my voice. Was I really ready to shift my thinking this drastically? “I’m starting to think he might be the only thing standing between a madman and the entire galaxy.”

  “Finally, Daraja sees.” Sanaa Mwende looked at me in satisfaction, dropping the impassive mask to look smugly pleased.

  “Yes, well, unfortunately for you, you won’t have the pleasure of pinning my eyelids back,” I said dryly.

  She grinned, displaying a row of even white teeth except for one eyetooth that twisted a little.

  “None of this explains her presence.” Jax looked at Sanaa, still wary but less hostile.

  I’d been dreading this moment and now felt slightly headachy after a fitful night’s sleep and the accumulation of enough confusion, anxiety, and heartache to almost rival Jax’s emotional baggage. “If Bridgebane gets any info that might help us retrieve Shiori, he’s going to leave it in a secure location four days from now. He wouldn’t tell me where. Sanaa’s supposed to take me there.”

  “Over my dead body,” Jax growled, clearly thunderstruck by the sheer what-the-fuckery. “Just let the Dark Watch soldier lead you to some unknown location? We’ll never see you again!”

  “No.” I shook my head. “I honestly don’t believe that.”

  Jax snorted, turning to Shade. “Do you?”

  “My opinion’s not good enough for you anymore, Jax?” I jumped in before Shade could answer.

  “Your judgment is clouded,” Jax shot back, rounding on me again. “You want your family back so badly, you’ll believe anything.”

  “I don’t want my old family back, Jax. You’re the one who wants his family back so badly that you can’t see you’ve already got one!”

  Brick by brick, his expression walled up and stoned over. Shit. I rubbed my forehead.

  “We’ll do it together, okay? All of us,” I offered.

  Sanaa looked dubious. “I’m not sure you’ll want that.” She gave me a significant look I had no idea how to interpret.

  “You’re not helping,” I ground out.

  She shrugged. “Your choice, Daraja.”

  “What does that even mean?” I asked through clenched teeth.

  “Bridge,” she answered, not expanding on it.

  Well, that clears things right up. I shoved my hair back in frustration.

  Movement out of the corner of my eye caught my atte
ntion. Bonk emerged from inside the Endeavor, sashaying right through the tension by delicately picking his way across the grated metal flooring of the starboard air lock. I let out a noise that might have been a squeal and leaped over to the entrance, a huge smile on my face and my heartbeat notching up a level. His small black-and-gray-striped body rippled with each step he took toward the open doorway. Joy twisted in my chest, and I felt all wrung out with happiness. “Hey, kitty.”

  He stopped and sat halfway between the two open doors. His tail curled around him.

  I called to him, grinning, my arms outstretched. I couldn’t quite reach him. “Come on, Bonk. Come closer.”

  His chin lifted, showing off the white fluff on the underside of his neck. Greenish-yellow eyes stared at me, unblinking.

  “What’s wrong with him?” I felt dangerously close to bursting into tears, which was insane. I’d been elated two seconds ago. “Has he forgotten me?”

  “In three days?” Shade shook his head. “Unlikely. But hell hath no fury like a feline abandoned.”

  Bonk looked down his whiskers at me. “I didn’t abandon you,” I told him.

  “He’ll realize that soon.” Shade came over but didn’t try to pat Bonk like I had. “He’s expressing his ire. By tonight, he’ll be sprawled across your pillow, purring his little heart out.”

  “His ire?” How did Shade know so much about cats?

  “He’s pissed off because he didn’t know where you were. He’ll get over it. Cat grudges don’t last long.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “My family had a pair of cats. Halley and Comet. I grew up with them.”

  “Halley and Comet?” I couldn’t help smiling. I lowered my hands from the open doorway. As much as I wanted to cuddle Bonk and feel his little engine rev up with purring, my temperamental tabby could get over his kitty tantrum while I dealt with Sanaa Mwende.

  I turned back to the lieutenant, sighing. “You do realize that I’m going to have to confine you for the next four days, right? Don’t take it personally. It’s just a precaution.”

  Sanaa cocked her head to one side. It was her only reaction.

  “We have a room for you,” I said. “You’ll have everything you need. Food, clothing, etcetera. Then you’ll be free to go after you bring us to wherever that key card my uncle gave you opens.”

  “I decline captivity. Thank you.” Sanaa smiled curtly, as if a little forced politeness ended the discussion.

  I grimaced. She wasn’t getting it. “I’m not giving you the choice. We have plans to make, and prying eyes and ears can’t be around for those conversations.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “I’m not a spy.”

  “Whether you are or aren’t is irrelevant. I’m not risking it.”

  “Then make me.” Her sliding-note accent resonated with challenge and even a hint of humor, which seemed odd, considering the situation. She set down the resort food she was still carrying and moved away from the group until there was more free space around her. She shifted into a fighter’s stance, her fingers curling to coax me toward her. Her lips curled also. Definitely a smile. “If you can lock me up, I’ll stay there. If not, we work together to plan whatever is in your future, Daraja.”

  My brows flew up like rockets. “Me? No thanks. You must think I downed a stupid pill this morning. Merrick can do the honors.”

  Merrick grinned and cracked his knuckles. “How rough are we getting?”

  Sanaa laughed as if Merrick had just told a great joke and she loved it. “Rough doesn’t bother me.” She blew a kiss at Merrick.

  His eyes flared. A flush wasn’t visible on his dark skin, but I could have sworn his color heightened. He stalked forward, not smiling any longer.

  We gathered the food and coolers and backed up against the Endeavor, clearing the space around them. As they faced off, I started to have second thoughts about this. It was only for four days. Couldn’t we just avoid her?

  “Seriously, Sanaa, we don’t want to hurt you.” I tried again to reason with her. She was clearly capable—a total badass, to be honest—but Merrick was a super soldier. “Just go to a room on the ship. In a few days, we’ll take care of business, and you can go back to my uncle. End of story.”

  Sanaa Mwende’s mirthless chuckle skimmed toward me on a chilly air current, raising goose bumps. She and Merrick started to circle. “Your uncle wants me to protect you. Until he calls me back to him, I’m your bodyguard. Deal with it.”

  “I don’t need a bodyguard. Also, you don’t have to do what he tells you.”

  “No, I don’t have to.” Her night-sky eyes briefly scraped over me before jumping back to Merrick. “And that’s exactly why I listen to him.”

  I let that sink in. Absorbed it. She listened because Nathaniel Bridgebane wasn’t a tyrant like the Overseer, no matter what I’d believed for the last eighteen years. The relationship between Sanaa and Uncle Nate wasn’t at all what I would have expected from the hardened general or this woman, who clearly didn’t take shit from anyone.

  Merrick lunged first and Sanaa dodged with incredible speed. My eyes sharpened, and I stood up straighter. So did Shade. We glanced at each other.

  “You need all the help you can get, Daraja. Accept it gracefully.” Sanaa danced out of Merrick’s reach with an ease that left him frowning.

  I took a step forward, my senses prickling.

  Merrick studied his opponent more carefully, looking her over with dark-eyed concentration. After a lull that brought total silence to the hangar, he feinted so quickly I barely saw the movement, and then slid the other way just as fast, trying to catch Sanaa off guard and subdue her without violence. Sanaa avoided him neatly and delivered a spinning kick that knocked Merrick away from her.

  My jaw slowly dropped open. Merrick recovered, moved in fast, and got down to business.

  He jabbed. She blocked. He punched forward like a boxer and she slid, ducked, and countered like a ninja, finishing with an open-handed smack to the sternum that left Merrick gasping.

  “Don’t leave yourself open like that,” Sanaa barked with a scowl, treating Merrick as though he were in training at some Dark Watch boot camp she was running. “Your throat was wide open. The same hit there, and you’d be dead.” She tapped the front of her neck, her eyes flashing.

  Merrick drew a tight breath through pinched nostrils. “What batch did they give you? I couldn’t tell until you started moving. An upgrade? Something different?”

  It was obvious: Sanaa Mwende was a super soldier. Shade, Jax, Fiona, and I exchanged worried glances.

  Merrick charged in a blur, not waiting for her answer. In a blink, Sanaa got behind him. She kicked him in the small of the back, and he stumbled forward. Merrick turned with a growl, his jaw clenching.

  She smiled, her ebony skin gleaming under the long tracks of industrial overhead lighting. Strength and vitality infused her. Sanaa had just powered herself up like a weapon and vibrated with enough energy to annihilate things. Her grin widened. “I’ve missed sparring. I don’t get to play with the super soldiers, and everyone else just breaks too easily.”

  “We’re not sparring,” Merrick grated.

  “Oh yes, we are, darling.” She winked at him and looked Merrick up and down, both appraisal and appreciation in her sparkling-eyed perusal. “You’re fast. You’re big.”

  “Don’t forget strong.” He shot out a hand and gripped her forearm. One hard yank sent her airborne and fifteen feet across the hangar.

  Sanaa spun in the air and landed in a low crouch, her smile only growing. “You must have Batch 4—the finished product. Trial 3 made people angry. Trial 2 created deformities. Trial 1 simply killed you.”

  “Then what are you?” Merrick asked, jerking his chin at her.

  “I’m the one and only.” Rising, she swept a hand down her bowstring-tight body. “No great heigh
t or bulging muscles, but I’m the weapon of our century.”

  “And this is supposed to make us trust you?” Merrick began circling again, closing in slowly. “You’re a spy, the enemy, and a menace.”

  “I’m none of those things—unless you try to cage me.” She pounced and Merrick barely got out of the way. She clipped his jaw with her elbow. His teeth clacked together.

  They both started to get a look in their eyes that I recognized from situations I’d been lucky to get out of. Blood running high. Adrenaline pumping. It was a recipe for real injury.

  “All right, that’s enough,” I said sharply. “We don’t need this. We’ll find another solution.”

  Suddenly, arms blurred, bodies spun, grunts came from everywhere, and the thud of hard hits echoed around the concrete and metal hangar. Merrick’s head snapped to the side, blood spraying. It took a second for his eyes to focus, but it was still faster than Sanaa expected. The two of them collided like meteors, and Sanaa went flying. She landed hard on her back and slid across the floor, her hands squeaking on the gray painted surface. She dragged herself to a stop, flat on her back, her head raised. Merrick stalked toward her.

  “Had enough?” he asked, looming over her.

  She grinned. “Darling, this is just the foreplay.” Rocket fast, she rolled onto her side, kicked him, and popped back up in one smooth motion.

  Merrick folded in on the hip she’d just hammered. Sanaa swept his legs out from under him, and he hit the floor with a smack of skin that sounded painful. His arm lashed out, and he somehow dragged her down with him. They grappled. Sanaa came out on top, straddling him. Her powerful legs hugged his torso in a vise grip, and she jammed her forearm under his jaw, forcing his head back. “Just so you know, this is my favorite position.”

  Merrick’s eyes blazed, and his lips pulled back in a snarl. He grabbed her hips and heaved her off him, tossing her headfirst over his shoulders. Sanaa tucked and rolled, coming up on her feet again. He leaped up. She spun, ready.