Groaning, Xander ran his fingers through his hair and leaned forward against the table. “I hate when you talk sensibly. Go diddle one of your online playmates and leave me be.”
“I’ll enjoy some downtime once you and the Lockharts are settled. How is he?”
“I successfully removed the device from his heart, and intel has their hands on it. He burns through sedatives like nothing I’ve ever seen, though. Lil had to keep a constant stream going to hold him under for the surgery.”
“Damn.”
“C’mon. I’ll take you to him since you’re here.”
Xander led the way to the patient’s room. Kaiden lay upon a hospital bed in a simple gown. His blank, emotionless stare focused on the wall opposite the bed while Gareth sat beside him.
“Gareth?”
The conscious twin scrubbed at his face with the heel of his palm to dry away the moisture on his cheeks. “Oshiro let me in a minute ago after they finished the cleanup. I had to see him in case he wakes up. You know?”
Xander waved him off. “No need to explain, believe me. But would you come into the office with us for a minute? I’d like to review the results of the examination and surgery with you both. I promise, if he shows any sign of waking, we’ll come right back.”
Once Oshiro joined them, Xander began a video replaying the exploratory surgery and his findings, transforming his office into a macabre picture show.
“Using the intel retrieved from Campbell’s system, I managed to locate and disable a kill switch sutured into Kaiden’s heart. It can’t threaten him now, but it was the least of his troubles. He also has extensive brain modifications. I’ve never operated on anything this complex in all of my studies. I don’t even know how he survived brain wiring to this extent. Hell, I’m still trying to piece together how some of these parts work. All right, look there.”
“The amygdala?”
Xander nodded to Oshiro. “Yes. I believe that could be to blame for his bland affect. They installed a chip—”
“Speak English, Doc. Please,” Gareth pleaded, cutting in.
“The amygdala is the… you could call it the control center for human emotions,” Oshiro explained.
“And many other things,” Xander confirmed. “Memory, aggression, our sexual orientation. Everything that makes us a feeling human being resides there.”
“So they’ve done something to Kaiden’s… amygdala.”
“Yes. Until we can rule out any remote control and compulsion, we’ll have to maintain strict IV sedation, Gareth. I don’t like doing it, but it’s the only way.”
“Will he be… himself again?”
Glancing at the video again, Xander rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “I think so. I can’t access the interior braincore software without the override code to the chip. If I try, I run the risk of frying his brain.”
Gareth’s expression fell and all signs of hope evaporated from his face. “So… you’re saying that my brother’s going to be a vegetable for the rest of his life because we’re missing a bit of code?”
“Far from it. We have the best intelligence agents in the United Empire tracking down information,” Ethan assured him.
“Thank you, sir. I just… How are we going to find anything?”
“Tech like this came from somewhere, Gareth. Nisrine has the fail-safe device I removed from Kaiden’s heart. She’s tracking down all leads on the logo etched into it.”
“Thank you, Xander. All of you. I… I couldn’t even bear to write home to Mum. I can’t tell her about this until I have good news.”
“Now you do. Tell her we’ve found her boy and that the doctors have sworn to do everything in their power to help him recover.”
Jem awakened Xander when it seemed he had just laid down to sleep.
“Lieutenant Shahid requests a conference at your earliest convenience to discuss recent findings regarding Kaiden Lockhart.”
“How long has it been?”
“Her request came an hour ago, but I determined six hours was insufficient rest and allowed you to remain asleep.”
Xander groaned and rolled to his back.
A quick shower and a fresh change of uniform later, he made his way up to the restricted halls where the intelligence and operation departments were housed. Jem provided a dim trail of blinking lights to Xander’s destination.
“Please come in.” Nisrine smiled when he entered. “Did you get enough rest?”
“A few hours, yeah. Thanks.” Xander crossed to the desk and practically collapsed into a chair. “What have you found?”
“The first logo actually led me to Hephaestus Tek. You’ll recall them from Athena. The base of the device was their design.”
“But this has been modified.” He plucked up the small piece of tech from a glass dish.
“Yes. And from that, I picked up images and impressions of its makers.”
She swept her hands over the desk to send the other screens away, then manipulated one to a larger size. A gold and black icon dominated the upper left corner, depicting a double helix within an upraised robotic arm. She swiped down and zoomed in on a small picture of a researcher in pristine white scrubs. “This is what I saw. Only they wore tight hoods too, to cover their hair and necks.”
“DNAturals.” Xander read. “Wait, I recognize the name. They pioneered the nanobot technology for vein restructuring. Like what Sergeant Kruger has equipped in her arm.”
“Yes, and they have developed other technology for the UNE, as well.”
“Do you think it’s an inside job? We know about DuPrie and Campbell, but are there many others above their rank who were working with them? How far could this possibly go?”
“I will not know until I sift through their financial records. If you and Doctor Oshiro are willing, I would appreciate a list of equipment and tools required to maintain such cybernetics. As well as any other unique requirements pertinent to these operations.”
“Absolutely. What will you do with it, though?”
“I will attempt to narrow down which facility we should be looking at.” She called up another screen. “DNAturals works exclusively from two planets in this system. Their main facility is on Saphiris 5, while they have a secondary research laboratory on Azura.”
“Saphiris 5 is on the edge of the system, isn’t it? Those are days apart, so if we hit the wrong one, the other will be tipped off.”
“Exactly so.”
Xander rose from his seat. “Then I’ll get you that information within the hour.”
“Commander—”
“Xander, remember?”
Nisrine bowed her head. “Xander, there was something else I picked up while handling that. Something that disturbs me.”
“What is it?”
“I felt pain. Kaiden was awake, I think, for many of their procedures. Aware,” she clarified with particular emphasis.
“That’s common for a craniotomy. In order to safely navigate the brain, you need your patient to be able to respond to you.”
“Yes, I know, but they did much more. I received the impression they kept Kaiden awake for more than what was necessary.”
Xander stiffened. “You mean he felt it. They didn’t sedate him?”
“I believe so.” She looked away and folded her hands together. “They wanted him awake during the limb replacements. Someone missed a nerve connection during the first surgical procedure, which cost them time and money to correct.”
“We never conduct nerve grafts while a patient is awake. It’s too painful a procedure.”
Disgust twisted his belly into a cold, hard knot, and then an overactive imagination pieced together a detailed portrait of Kaiden’s five years in captivity. Pain. Torture. Madness. If some part of him did remain alive beneath their programming, they faced a large chance of discovering he was no longer the man Gareth and Ethan remembered. He would be lucky to have a shred of sanity left.
Chapter Twenty-Three
With the final hour
s approaching before their arrival at Azura, Thandie spent a hectic shift in the armory conditioning gear for the team. She was the last to gear up and head out into the hangar.
Most members of the Alpha team had already loaded onto the shuttle. They’d only received orders an hour ago from Commodore Bishop, the man deciding to launch a ground mission investigating a laboratory belonging to DNAturals without authorization from United Command.
Saskia had proven moles could be anywhere, and their mission objective was too important to risk. According to Lieutenant Shahid and the commodore, they only had one chance to get it right. She’d done her part, and now they had to do theirs.
Viljoen cleared his throat from behind her. “Sergeant Kruger, a word.”
“Yes, Commander?” She looked up from her pack, tense and ready to accept the next twist life threw at her.
“I heard you’re considering a transfer to the boarding team. Is there anything I can do to convince you to remain with us? It’d suck to see you go.”
Word must have traveled fast. All she’d done was ask her direct supervisor about his experiences on the boarding team. “I don’t have much of a choice in the matter.”
The easygoing smile dropped from his face. “What’s going on?”
“Kruger!” Xander barked out from the hangar’s entrance.
Thandie’s spine stiffened. Viljoen glanced past her shoulder then back down to her apprehensive face. A supportive pat on her arm accompanied a quietly muttered, “Shrug it off.” He moved past her toward the shuttle.
“Kruger,” Xander called again. “A moment, please.”
She turned around to address him. “Commander Vargas, how may I help you, sir?”
Xander wore his scrubs. During the mission briefing, Viljoen told them Doctor Matthews planned to fill in the medic position during the mission, since Xander would be staying behind to care for Kaiden.
“Don’t ‘sir’ me right now, all right? I know you’re upset at me for being an ass, and I deserve it.”
“This isn’t the best time—”
“I know, but I couldn’t let you go down there without apologizing.”
The tightness in her chest eased. “I’m sorry, too.”
Pinched worry lines across Xander’s brow smoothed out. “Good. Now then, let me do a quick final check on your arm.”
“Of course.”
Thandie shrugged off her tactical coat and offered her right arm. He palpated tenderly along the nerves beneath her synthetic skin.
“How’s that feel? Any discomfort?” he asked.
Xander’s touch was no different than the very first day they’d met in his examination room, covering her skin with goosebumps.
“No. Everything’s been tip-top since you fixed my wrist the last time.”
Satisfied, he released her cybernetic limb. Her overactive and hopeful imagination felt him caress the back of her hand ever so gently before ending contact. “Give them hell.” The conflict showed on his features. Maybe he wouldn’t say it, but what she wanted more than anything at that moment was to hear her first name from his lips. Not a title. Not her surname. Thandie. “Take care down there, Thandie.”
With her wish granted, Thandie darted in and stole one last kiss, slow, intoxicating, and absolutely unprofessional, while their fellow marines prepared for battle. She took pleasure in the dazed look on Xander’s face when she leaned back to gaze up at him.
“Kruger, time to buckle up!” Viljoen called over.
Thandie darted her gaze toward the shuttle and licked her lips, unwilling to part from his company without one kiss. She dared it, standing on tiptoe and slinging her arm around Xander’s shoulders without caring who witnessed it. That moment was theirs, a kiss before the mission to remind her of what she had to come back to. His arms circled her waist, and he surrendered to the moment, too, dragging her in tightly against him.
She had to break away first. “I have to report in. Good luck with Kaiden.”
Xander grinned and fell back a step. “I’ll be waiting for you.”
Holding that moment in her heart, Thandie jogged to the shuttle.
“Are you nervous?” Viljoen asked.
“No.” Thandie used the shuttle ride to clear her thoughts, knowing the slightest distraction could cause a disaster.
“You’ll be fine.” Viljoen clapped her shoulder with his heavy hand. “Go in hard on your last mission with us.”
“With all due respect, sir, I figured you’d be glad to be rid of me.”
Viljoen’s mouth curved up in a half-smile. “It wasn’t anything personal against you, Kruger.”
“It sure seemed personal.”
The man sighed and tilted his head back. “I guess in a way, it was. A few years back, when I was still new to being an officer, I had a young kid under me with a brand-new set of arms. Put every quid he’d received with his recruitment bonus toward them. Hell, I still remember the model. The P-69 LeadBuster. Supposedly impervious to every modern-day round.”
Thandie winced, envisioning the worst outcome.
“Ran into a hot zone and that was the last we saw of him alive. We were up against a cell of terrorists with armor-shredding rounds.” He paused. “Like the one that almost took out Vargas. Stupid, but brave, thing to do.”
“The doctor can handle himself,” Thandie said while keeping her gaze directed to the rifle sitting across her lap. “So, the kid with the arms. You think he did it because of the upgrades?”
“I think so. Yeah. I’ve seen a lot of recruits dive into battle thinking their upgrades will win them the fight.”
“Well, if it makes you feel better, I didn’t ask for mine.”
“I know, and for what it’s worth, I’m sorry for misjudging you, Kruger.”
“I’m not sorry for hitting you in the balls.”
“Good. I deserved it and needed to be taken down a peg. Vargas made sure I knew it, too.”
Thandie shifted on the cold metal bench. Davis, Abernathy, and Chang occupied the seats in the rear of the shuttle. Their newest addition, Creswell, sat between O’Malley and Jefferson.
“We’re entering the planet’s atmosphere,” their pilot shouted over one shoulder. He flicked a few buttons on the dash above his head and glanced back. His fresh-faced enthusiasm didn’t lighten Thandie’s spirits, but she made a valiant attempt to put on her brave face. “Requesting permission to land on the shuttleport at DNAturals.”
It wasn’t the same without Rogers or Lopez. Thandie mourned their respective losses. The former would return to the Jemison within a year, after his recovery, physical therapy, and adjustment to his cybernetic leg were complete. Lopez was gone forever.
“Landing rights have been denied, Commander. They’re threatening to defend themselves from intrusion.”
Viljoen cracked his knuckles. “Good. We can take that as a threat. It’s always more fun going in the hard way. Bring us in as close to the building as you can, and we’ll jump down. Kruger, you know the drill. Get a gun on that door and cover our drop.”
Thandie leaned out the shuttle door with her rifle on her shoulder. One by one, the rest of her team leapt the five-foot drop to the ground. Doctor Matthews landed like a cat, without a sound. The others followed her with less grace. Thandie unclipped her safety line and made the drop last. Her feet hit the pavement with a thud.
They made it within ten yards of the front door when two automated laser rifles rose from stanchions on the property. Abernathy shouldered his heavy gun and fired, reducing one to smoldering bits with a well-placed explosive shell. A bright blue light on the remaining gun indicated it had been armed, and then Viljoen stumbled back from a sniper shot to the chest.
It didn’t penetrate his armor.
“Davis, forward shields!”
“Aye, sir.” The medic activated her kinetic shield, and all other shots deflected off it like pebbles against glass.
Thandie took aim, released her held breath, and fired. The sniper on the roof
jerked once, then fell out of sight. Viljoen gave her a thumbs-up. He darted out from their cover and rushed the final distance to the door. Thandie brought up the rear.
“Masks on, everyone.”
Their commander pulled a sphere from his belt and activated the small device. After a silent count to three, he opened the facility’s front door and rolled it inside. Trailing wisps of smoke immediately began to leak out. Viljoen waited five more seconds before bursting through the door.
“Get down! Anyone who remains standing after this warning will be put down,” Viljoen roared into the smoking office. “Keep your hands where we can see them, arms out in front of you, palms up. Chang and Williams, secure them all.”
“On it, sir!”
The squad stormed the room and spread out, while the two marines bound and secured the harmless civilians. They proceeded forward with caution.
“Located a map detailing the fire escape route. Data uploaded to our links,” Creswell said. “Building is three floors with two sublevels.
“Which way to the server?”
Creswell tapped a button on his forearm, and a readout appeared in computer language—beeps, lines, 1’s and 0’s. “There is a signal inbound to the Jemison originating below us, sir.”
Davis grunted. “You know, for once, I’d like to find all the bad crap on the top floor. Or in the pretty courtyard.”
“Agreed.” Viljoen tapped his communicator. “Assault team to Jemison. We’ve breached the building and are requesting backup. We’ve encountered hostiles in the facility and automated laser turrets on the perimeter.”
“Bravo team en route, Commander.”
The floor immediately beneath them contained empty equipment labs. Shiny new prosthetic parts lined shelves and racks in neat rows. They cleared each space then took the stairs down to the bottom level.
A lone guard stood watch in front of a door at the end of a long hallway. Viljoen offered him the chance to surrender. He wasted it by raising his firearm and catching a single bullet between his brows.
Xander Page 23
