“Damn it,” Teal said from her perch on the counter. “This is an intervention, not an ambush.” With a loud sigh, the crypty returned to the kitchen. Ash wanted to join her. Better to beat pots around than to have this discussion with her teammate.
“Tell us about Jevan Valt,” Hauch said. “Why is he missing, and why are you shouting his name in your sleep.”
“I don’t talk in my sleep,” she snapped. At least she hadn’t. With the secrets she kept, she would have been dead long ago on Glory. Hell, she would have most likely been dead on Caruth too. Either that or expelled from the Fighting Corps.
“You’ve said his name the last two nights,” Hauch said. “Right before you jerked awake.”
Heart pounding, Ash glanced at Liles. He watched their exchange with a passive expression. He could have told the others everything he knew, but Hauch and Mandell had a level of interest that told her they didn’t know anything more than Valt’s name. Liles was leaving it to Ash to explain.
She stuffed her hands into her pockets to show she was relaxed. It was a dangerous move if Hauch decided to attack. “Liles can fill you in on the details.”
“We asked,” Hauch said. “He won’t.”
“Then go ask Rykus. I’m not permitted to release classified info—”
Liles pushed away from the table. “No. You’re going to explain. You’re going to trust us, or you’re gone. I don’t give a damn what the prime wants.”
She’d never heard an outburst from Liles before. Even when she’d invaded the meeting on Meryk, he’d been calm. Her actions and attitude must have been whittling away at his patience these past four weeks. He’d finally had enough.
“Why don’t we head down to rec deck and work this out?”
“We’re working this out right here, right now,” Hauch said.
Mandell took that as his cue to act. He left his perch on the table and turned to face the spacers who were scattered around the mess hall.
“Clear out,” he ordered.
Everyone in the room had stopped their conversations. They were watching how things unfolded, but now that Mandell was staring them down, most pretended to be interested in their empty plates.
“We have ten minutes of chow time left,” one undaunted spacer said.
“Nah.” Mandell walked toward him. “You’re done.”
Mandell was the most wiry of the three-man team. He was the youngest too, matching Ash’s twenty-five standard years, and that invincible light in his gray eyes made her not want to engage in one moment of conversation with him. He reminded her of Kris, a soldier who was part of her old team for only a handful of months before Valt murdered him. When she looked at Mandell, she saw her failure. If she talked to him and the others, they’d see her failure too.
“They can stay,” Ash said. When she tried to take a step toward the exit, Hauch moved and blocked her path.
Her hands fisted at her side. She would be disciplined if she fought outside of the sparring ring. She’d especially be disciplined if she threw the first punch, but maybe she didn’t care.
“You have ten seconds to vacate.” Mandell’s voice filled the mess hall. Most of the spacers chose to stand and leave. They recognized Mandell could take them down without so much as a blip in his heart rate. But the spacer who’d spoken up a second ago remained seated. He looked up, unimpressed, when Mandell stood over him.
“Five seconds,” Mandell warned.
“Fuck you—”
“Sussman.” Teal’s voice rang out from the kitchen. “The captain will keep the bots in maintenance mode for a month just for you if you pick a fight with a soldier from Trident Team.”
“I’m not picking a fight—”
Mandell’s foot hooked Sussman’s chair, spilling the spacer to the floor. Sussman jumped up—
And slammed back to the floor with one effortless shove from Mandell.
He tried to get up again. Then again.
“Only direction you can go is out,” Mandell said.
Sussman cursed in his native language, but after one last failed attempt to rise, he gave up. He flipped to his stomach and crawled toward the exit.
Ash crossed her arms. “And people wonder why Special Forces teams get reputations for being assholes.”
Mandell had a half grin on his face when he shrugged and returned to his perch on the table.
“Kaylee,” Hauch said. “You’re out too.”
“No thanks,” the crypty said. “I’ll stay.”
Hauch pinned Teal with a glare.
“Joking, joking,” she said, holding her hands up in surrender. “But I’m blaming you if Furyk jumps down my throat.” She tossed a towel on the counter. “Vortex Six tonight?”
Hauch’s expression softened. He nodded. “An hour before night shift.”
“You two know each other?” Ash asked after Teal left.
“Everyone knows Kaylee,” he said. “Take a seat.”
She didn’t move.
He grabbed a chair and slammed it on the floor in front of her. “Sit.”
“I’ll get coffee,” Liles said quietly.
She closed her eyes, drew in a deep breath. She’d agreed to integrate with her team. She could do this, and didn’t they deserve to know the truth? The truth might keep them safe.
Slowly she sank into the chair.
She rubbed the back of her neck.
Her throat tightened. It felt like she’d swallowed shrapnel, but somehow she forced the words out.
8
Speaking about what had happened on the mission to Chalos II was difficult, not only because it still hurt to mention her teammates and her failure, but also because she’d been silenced by Valt for so long. On board the Obsidian, she’d tried to prove her innocence, but she’d been mentally prohibited from giving any clue that would clear her name or lead to the truth that telepaths were real and had infiltrated the Coalition. She expected the same blackouts, the same debilitating headaches, when she told Hauch and the others about her escape to Ephron’s surface, the assassination of War Chancellor Hagan, and all the details that came in between. But the more she spoke, the more the fear went away. Her throat loosened. Her muscles relaxed. By the time she’d finished her story with the confrontation in the cargo hold, she was breathing steadily again.
“How did you break Valt’s influence?” Mandell asked.
“Rykus broke it.” She stared at her full cup of coffee, which was now cold between her palms. “He loyalty trained me again.”
Anytime someone learned Ash was a loyalty-trained anomaly, a stiff silence fell. It was falling now as Hauch and Mandell really thought about who and what she was. They were realizing they were talking to a brainwashed individual, and while that was supposed to make everyone safer, it made them uncomfortable. Some people even pitied the anomalies.
“Do you have to do everything Rykus says?”
Ash gave Mandell a tight-lipped smile. “I’m supposed to do what he says, especially when he triggers the compulsion. But I have my own mind. I make my own choices. The instructors are fail-safes. They’re imprinted on our minds in case the loyalty training isn’t one hundred percent reliable.” That was the story at least, and the reason why the program continued after the side effect was discovered.
“In case you snap,” Mandell said.
“The loyalty training was created to prevent that. It seems like it has, but there’s always the chance. And then there’s the chance we could go rogue. We could use the training and the boosters the Coalition gives us and either turn our backs on it or fight against it. People have allegiances to their home worlds, and planets have threatened to withdraw. The brainwashing makes us more loyal to the Coalition than to our home worlds.”
“That doesn’t bother you?” Mandell asked.
“I’m from Glory. I don’t give a damn about my home world.” She just cared about a few people on it.
“You have no regrets?” Hauch asked the question with what seemed like a
held breath. Those were the only words he’d spoken since they’d taken seats. Mandell had led the interrogation.
“I joined the Coalition before I knew what I was,” she said. “I joined the Fighting Corps because I believed in the mission to protect those who can’t protect themselves. So, no. I don’t regret it. I’ve been given food, shelter, credits, training, and an edge I couldn’t get anywhere else.”
She watched Hauch’s eyes. He was doing a damn good job of keeping his thoughts hidden, but his question had revealed more than he likely wanted her to know. Her guess? His sister was showing signs that she might snap, and he was searching for a way to save her.
Mandell leaned forward. “But if the loyalty training was broken once, it can be broken again. The prime thinks we’ll encounter a telepath at the meeting. What will stop him or her from taking control of you again?”
Ash gripped her mug. “I can feel when someone’s trying to pressure their way into my mind.”
“You couldn’t before?” he asked.
“I didn’t know telepathy existed before.” And Valt had pried into her mind when she was mentally vulnerable, like when she was sleeping or when she’d been having sex with the bastard.
She released the mug and forced her hands to relax in her lap. The desire to abandon this mission, to hitch a ride on a capsule that would take her to Caruth and to Valt fired through her. She wanted to kill him. Slowly. Slow enough to pry every last secret from his lips just before she gutted him.
“That’s why Rykus is here, isn’t it?” Mandell asked. “If you’re compromised, he’s the only one who can regain control of you.”
“That’s the theory.” Her words didn’t come out as strongly as she would have liked. Tersa might be confident he could control her if a telepath got inside her head again, but Ash wasn’t. She’d almost killed him before. If he’d made the wrong move, if Ash hadn’t been hurt and bleeding, if any number of unknown factors had been even a tiny bit different, her fail-safe would be dead.
She met Mandell’s gaze. She felt sick and vulnerable. “If I’m compromised, there’s no guarantee he can stop me. I need—” She cleared her throat. “I need you guys to promise me you’ll take me down if there’s even a hint that I’m not in control of my actions.”
Mandell’s eyebrows rose, making him look even more like Kris. “You want us to kill you?”
She met his gaze. “Yes.”
Beside him, Liles shifted. It was the first time she’d noticed her team lead move since she’d started her story. He’d listened with a grave, nonjudgmental expression, but now the skin around his eyes tightened.
“That’s a lot to ask of people you’ve barely spoken to over a month’s time,” Liles said.
“Yes.”
Hauch rested his forearms on the table. “I have no problem with killing you.”
Liles glanced at the bigger man before looking back at Ash. He studied her a moment longer, then said, “You’re a pain in the ass to keep in line. Maybe you’d be more humble if we put a few holes in you.”
“If they’re in, I’m in,” Mandell said a little too enthusiastically.
Ash snorted. “Glad you guys are excited about this.”
“Just doing you a favor.” Mandell grinned. He pulled his chair closer to the table and sat on its edge. “So this mission to Ysbar Station. It’s guaranteed to go straight to hell?”
“Pretty much,” Ash said.
His mouth tightened thoughtfully, revealing a dimple in the middle of his chin. “I could use some action after a month of babysitting duty.”
Liles rested his arms on the table. “The prime believes you can sense telepaths and their drones. How reliable are you?”
“That’s the problem. The telepaths can turn on and off their… abilities.” She didn’t know what else to call it. “They can hide from me. I don’t know about their drones. Hagan was the only one I came across, and that was by accident. He annoyed me. That could have just been his charming personality, but I don’t know if I can recognize another drone. I haven’t been able to test the feeling.”
“So theoretically, Tersa could be a telepath or drone?” Liles asked.
“She could be. You could be. Anyone could be. I’ve told her I’m not a reliable detector.”
“And she wants to go forward with the mission anyway.” Liles scowled.
“She thinks I’ll sense something at the meeting,” Ash said.
“What’s her plan if you do?” Liles asked.
“I have no idea.”
Mandell muttered something under his breath.
“It gets better.” Ash twisted the comm-cuff on her wrist. “Tersa’s information comes from Valt.”
“So this could be an ambush,” Mandell said.
“It’s the Sariceans.” Hauch crossed his arms over his massive chest. “It’s guaranteed to be an ambush.”
“We’ll go in prepared,” Liles said. “The prime is allowing eight Sariceans to be on station. With Tersa and Rykus, there will be six of us. I have no doubt we’ll blow them all to hell, but they’ll target Tersa. We need additional plans to extract her unharmed.”
“Rykus is working on that,” Ash said.
Liles grabbed her cold mug of coffee and his empty one. “It’s almost day shift. I’ll talk to him. You two”—he looked at Ash and Hauch—“get your asses to rec deck. You’re settling your disagreements in the sparring ring, then you’re both moving on. Understood?”
Hauch stared at Ash, then nodded once. He wouldn’t hold back or fight her as if she was a normal soldier. He’d fight her like she was an anomaly doped up on boosters. Hauch was strong; he had Special Forces training and a good decade of experience on her. He could get lucky and take her down.
“Understood,” Ash said. She met Hauch’s eyes and let a smile spread across her face. “I’m looking forward to kicking your ass again.”
Hauch’s fist rammed into her gut.
Ash doubled over, coughed, choked, and coughed again. Her vision blurred, but she kept moving and kept her gaze on Hauch’s blurry silhouette as he dove for a takedown.
She slipped sideways, spun, and caught her breath enough to land a hard kick to his left thigh. She’d kicked that spot several dozen times in the last ten minutes. Tough as he was, Hauch winced. He had to be bruised as hell beneath his pants.
Ash was bruised as hell everywhere. Hauch was kicking her ass, and she had the feeling that the only reason he hadn’t taken her down was because the crowd of onlookers scowled at his aggressiveness. Several times Ash had to stop them from interfering when Hauch landed particularly brutal hits.
She dragged the back of her hand across her mouth, wiping away blood. Her left cheekbone was swollen enough to impair her vision, and her entire body hurt. Keeping her hands up to defend herself was becoming difficult. If this continued, she would lose. It was too bad he’d had his knee in a rejuvenation brace the past two days. The injury she’d caused back on Meryk wasn’t slowing him down at all.
“You fight with your sister?” The words came out breathless. Hell. She should have taken a booster before she faced off with someone twice her size.
Hauch’s face twitched.
“Did she beat you up when you were kids?”
His fist flew at her chin, so close air gusted across her face. If that one had connected, it would have been lights out.
The soldiers and spacers rimming the sparring ring yelled and shouted. Ash grinned despite her injuries. Their protests had turned into sounds of appreciation about two minutes into the fight. She’d proved she could take care of herself.
Hauch’s leg struck her hip. She stumbled sideways, fell to the ground, then scrambled up again.
Okay, she could mostly take care of herself.
Retreating, she tried to steady her breathing, but her lungs didn’t want to reinflate. She sucked in a minuscule amount of air, wheezed it out, then sucked in a tiny bit more.
It all left again when Hauch slammed her into the
floor.
She hadn’t seen him move, could barely feel him slip around to her back. He had her arm in a firm lock.
“Tap out,” he growled into her ear.
She slammed the back of her head into his nose.
He increased the pressure on her arm. “Tap. Out.”
“Fuck. You.” She slammed her head back again, but no matter how hard Ash pounded him, he wouldn’t break.
Protests rose around the ring.
“You won,” someone said. “Just let her go.”
Even more pressure on her arm. “She needs to admit it.”
She twisted, flailed, tried to hook his leg with hers. Shadows clawed at her vision. Numbness started from her limbs and swept over the rest of her body. Her ears rang, muting the protests of the onlookers. The ringing was the last sound she heard before…
Before air rushed into her lungs. The pain in her arm and shoulder vanished, and she lay prone on the ground. It took a few more seconds for the oxygen to return to her head. When it did, she realized the ringing wasn’t just in her mind. An actual alarm was going off.
“We’re reverting to real-space?” someone asked outside the sparring ring.
“We’re supposed to be in the time-bend for another two days.” That was Mandell.
Ash spit blood and smiled. Saved by Tersa’s covert side trip to Javery. She’d have to thank the prime next time she saw her.
Rolling to her back, Ash stared up at Hauch, who was watching Mandell and the others check their comm-cuffs for status updates.
“I win,” Ash said, drawing his attention down to her. For several seconds, he stood there scowling. Then he exhaled, and the menace he’d been carrying around these past few days exited with the breath.
He shook his head—not denying her claim, but not agreeing with it either—and held out his hand. She took the peace offering, let him help her to her feet, then held on to him while she waited for her off-kilter equilibrium to flatten out.
Putting her hands on her hips, she drew in a deep, steadying breath and worked to calm her rapid heart rate.
“Catch.”
She turned, and Liles chucked a cryo-pack at her head.
Shades of Honor (An Anomaly Novel Book 2) Page 9
